The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-10-24
TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS WORTH" !"
The Usual Taffy and the Usual Result.

IHE Historian has been favored
with a copy of the latest advertise
ment" OF Astoria, a page and a half,
sandwiched without illustration, in a
lOO page pamphlet issued by q rail
road company.
1t is the usual thing: this cost 5000;
1t might as well have been $1,000; it |
would have been paid just as readily; |
it has the charm of having been writ
ten by a man who only spent two |
hours here, and printed in Portland. |
What Is new is not good and what is
good Is not new.
But why criticise? if it wasn't this |
it would be something equally idiotic. |
Astorians delight in fooling money |
away In this fashion with the mis- |
taken idea that they are advertising"
the town, when all they do is to ad- |
vertise to travelling fakirs their gull |
bility.
Here is the 5000 worth. The AsTo-
RIAN will give it some circulation, and
| thereby give value to what is of no
value till it gets such circulation:
Anyone who will be at the pains to ex-
anime good map of the north Pacific
II
the mouth of the Columbia-a river dis
charging into the Pacific nearly, or quite
as much water, as the Mississippi into
the Gulf, and draining region greater
IN extent than the entire area of the
New England states together with New
York, New Jersey. Pennsylvania, West
Virginia and Ohio, or about 100000
square miles.
| ITS CLIMATE.
| The climate at Astoria is mild and very
healthful, cool in summer-the thermom-
eter rarely going above rs deg; pleasant
in winter. seldom going below the freez-
ing point. The average summer temper
ature is GIG deg, the average winter is
42.4 deg. Though in latitude 46 deg. N,
| the grass remains green all winter, and
flowers are in full bloom throughout the
month of December, and sometimes
through January. Christmas trees may
be adorned with flowers picked from the
door yards on Christmas day. Thunder
storms are unknown here.
| ITS COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES.
The commercial advantages of this
place will be understood and appreciated
from the following indisputable facts:
| 1t is situated on one of the largest fresh
water harbors in the world-unvexed by
storms, untroubled by that salt water
pest, the teredo. The entrance to this
deep and spacious harbor is as safe as
that of the well-known Puget sound.
This has been demonstrated by the fact
of less number of marine disasters in
proportion to tonnage as compared with
| the Sound, and shown by the records of
| shipping as kept for the last decide.
4 The depth of water on the bar is now "a
| feet in the Shallowest places, at extreme
| low tide, 2913 feet at mean tide and 30
| feet at high tide, having increased three
feet within year because of the govern
ment jetty now in process of construction
| and about half completed. The depth
of water on the bar is constantly in
creasing, and it is estimated by compe-
tent government engineers that within
two years there will be &c feet in the
shallowest place at low tide, which is
abundant for the largest steamships
now afloat. This city is as near to Japan
and north China, as the Puget sound
ports, and several hundred miles nearer
than San Francisco; it is 400 miles nearer
the islands of the South Pacific and Aus
tralia; four hundred miles nearer the
coast trade of California, Mexico, Cen
tral and South America than the much
doomed cities of Puget sound. 1t is the
natural distributing point for the entire
basin of the Columbia river and its
branches; region vast in extent and of
unparalleled resources in agricultural,
horticultural, forest, coal and mineral
wealth comprising nearly all of western
Oregon, part of western Washington and
all of eastern Oregon, eastern Washing
ton and Idaho. Again, referring to the
map it will be seen that the Cascade
mountains, forming an unbroken chain
with the Sierra Nevadas, divide Oregon
| and Washington into two physical re-
| gions. 1t may be necessary to say that
these regions differ widely in climate,
productions and topography. In the
great Cascade range, lover which the
Northern Pacific railroad passes by tire.
mendous grades to reach Tacoma), the
Columbia makes the only break. The
heavy grades and sinuous route of rail-
road passing over great mountain
range, makes transportation very ex-
pensive. From any point in the great
| Columbia basin to Astoria it is all down
grade. The significance of these facts of
nature will be understood by anyone who
knows anything of railroading.
Portland, the great interior railroad,
steamboat and manufacturing center of
the northwest, is situated on the William
cite river, twelve miles from its conflu-
ence with the Columbia, and 120 miles
from the Pacific. While the Columbia
is navigable for steamboats, and other
river crafts for many hundred miles, yet
between Astoria and Portland there are
several bars which render it necessary
to lighter ships both ways in order to tOtU
them to that place and return. Such
towage alone is very expensive-erpeH-
size IN time; expensive IN mOney-and
when lighterage is necessary it is doubly
and trebly 80. There being no railroad
connections with the sea, the Sound ports
have not been slow to take advantage of
Portland's unfortunate position for mar
| itime commerce.
Feeling the unnecessary burdens of
lighterage, towage and freight handling,
the great grain producing regions are de-
manding direct railroad connections with
this city, SO that agricultural products
NAV be transferred from the cars to the
ships lying at our wharves.
| ITS FUTURE PROSPECTS,.
A railroad, financially provided for,
partly constructed, and now being con-
structed, is prof ected along the coast
south of this city to the mouth of the
Nehalem river, and thence in q south
easterly direction into the Willamette
valley, making connections with the
Southern Pacific above Portland. This
road passes through a region south and
southeast of this city, in which there are
fertile valleys and millioua of acrao oox,