, 1889-09-12
l!.sqllopod my horse over tho plains Of

! lgallopod my horse over tho plains of
Yakima,
But there is lots of desert, or so-callcd'
After leaving the ashes of Ellensburg
my miles behind us we began 20 bow
through sage-brtish and sand, ny II ~
Arizona. Far away to the left and right
LITTLE hons OF HOUSES
on the trecloss plain broke tho monot,
ony OF dust and sage and sand. Ana
far away To- right and to LEFT, ten thirty,
MY miles away stretched up tho colos,
sal black basalt terraces that touched
tile clouds, They are grass-sct, those
great terraces, and tawny with old gold
ana only now and then do these mac
cessiblc terraces asser, entire dominion
over n mountain. You see ,Titalic
Roman theutcrs; ten thousand colos-
seums, ten thousand times mngnliiod, re-
veal themselves right and left ms you
como down 60 the mouth of the Yakima
whore 1t enters the Oregon river
Hero Is town, paper town; the cars
cross the great river of the great North.
west here on u bridge so massive and
lofty that steamers sail underneath. In
TACT, all thinPs here are cast on such
colossal scale that bridges, surprising
those of Niagara even would elicit not
u word or note of comment in tins lana
ofspace and room and magnitude.
Spokane Falls the town where | now
rest, is
MOUNTAIN vESfCE.
II Is built ON many islands. A hig river
tuinbles through the town and FLASHES
and edd les in deep gorges, below, above
and all about. You cross one, two,
three, four, five ten bridges. II Is Gu.
rious place, and too muci alive 10 suit
me. Miles of sawmills--niles OF saw
logs lodged against the "boom." a belt
of hills set With pretty pincsj snow
peaks in the distance; n dreamful ltal.
ian air. only | miss the Italians. And
the American is catching Il train all the
time.
In fact, the very walters at the hotel
whore | lodge urc in too much of q hurry
to wait Iheyare black, cOmely fellows,
and with half training would make YOU
comfortable; but they seem TO think
that |, too, am a train catcher They
I Kick lpCn the door from the kitchen TO
/ the dinlng-room, and they kick open the
door nom the dining-room 10 the kitch-
on; In fact, YOU can see that they have
kicked panel out of the door; and now
u stout piece of plank Is nailed across
the battered door for the big-iootcd sons
of Ham to Kick ut.
knew these falls here long, long ago
as famed fishing place for Indians.
have seen
SNliNlNN NiNANbi-b
here, lying as chips and suwdust lie now
all along the eddies, and by the water +
edge For be il known, that grown sal
mon which leave the sea to spawn, and
ascend Illus fur up the rivers-nnd they
come by millions and millions; or st
least, did In the old days--ncv'r return
alive. They die from striking against
rocks, and In the exhaustive work of try
ing to reach the source OF those rivers.
! know this place, also, later when 1t
was Il military center.
But now the fish, the Indians, the
suldicr', are ell gone away, and nobody
is here save this race of train-CutChCrl,
| reckon it must he written down that
this Spokane, away up here on the
mountain side, GOO miles from the ocean,
is tine one iiyClicst spot in the Union. 1t
has all the impetus of Tacoma; half u
dozen railroads, mills and timber too
numerous and abundant to name; wool,
wheat, vast farming region far about
on four sides of IL; but above and out
side Of all that IL has Il mining craze
that is the most remarkable in all our
mining history; remarkable because
well founded. These mines are old
mines Bat the notable thing about it
all Is they do not wear out like the Com
stock and other great mines. Instead of
wearing out,
THEY GET STEADILY BETTER.
And they have been getting steadily
better 80 long that they are now by odds
the best In the United States.
They lie outside of town an hour or so
by rail. and Url easy to reach even by
carriage. 4 mine there is simply u
mint. There are only about dozen Of
these altogether. The biggest of these
last month shipped out 1900 tons of re.
duced ores! The average daily output
OF smcltcd or reduced ore j. 25O tons.
This of course, includes tue whole
group,
Nd'w. bear 'in mind, this is not rock
This 30 tons which these mines outside
of this City put out from thc reducing
mills every day Is lead, copper, silver,
aud gold, 1rur, IN is lead TO II lHr';e cX.
tent. and Other laser stun; but even
were it all lead, Il would put any either
similar Wi'o7 quite in the shadc. And
yet this mining town Is not "a loud or
coarse city, IL you can put up with this
continual train catching, | sec the Gus.
tomary number OF church spires; and
he bcauliul and ubiquitous school.
house of tisc great Northwest i COnspic-
uOJls at Spokane, the mountain Venice.
JoAQUlS MILLER.
Spokane. w. Y.