The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-09-26
INTERESTED IN OREGON.
The Mississippi Valley Revisited.
Progress of One of the InnOeents Abroad.
CHICAGO, Sept. 18th, 1889.

The Cannon Ball. makes but two
stops between st. Paul and Chicago,
but when the ICON" examined my
pasteboard, his features relaxed lit
| tie, and he said: "What! are you
from Oregon? that makes difference.
Wen let you off anywhere you want
to stop, and hold the train until you
come back if you will tell us all you
know about that great country"
And thus 1 find it all through the
middle west, the magical word "Ore-
gon" seems to arouse feeling of in-
terest and curiosity in the minds of
all.
Following the course pursued by
me as an Astoria reporter. never
draw the long bow, but stick stead
fastly to the truth and, yet the result
is far from satisfactory. When l see
a raft of young telegraph poles, about
like what Oregon fishtrap men use for
trap poles, and the owner asks me if
we have as fine saYlogs as that on the
Columbia, I tell him that we have
none that are quite so ''fne", but we
have millions of 'em three and four
feet through 100 feet from the ground.
He says, l always "uster" be a great
hand to joke, but he would really like
to have me tell the truth about the
timber out there. When l speak of
the Willamette farmers that raise 60
bushels of wheat to the acre, and of
the 60-pound salmon that are caught
in the river, my old friends sheer off
to one side and whisper, "He was all
right when he left here eight or ten
years ago. It's too bad, too bad, es-
pecially In one so young"
The Mississippi river which was
once the great highway to the north
west, is almost abandoned, except by
the raft boats. From st. Paul to Du-
buque, Iowa, the river is paralleled
on the east side by the Burlington
road and on the west side by the Mil
waukee & st. Paul, and so infrequent
are the trips of the passenger steam
ers that their arrival and departure
is looked upon az an uncommon event.
The withdrawal of these packets
| from the river has made a big surplus
of pilots, masters and mates, and the
''stargazers" who formerly guided the
boats up and down the river for
monthly stipend Of $3.50, are, many of
them, twisting the wheel on a raft
boat at $75 per month. The constant
influx of rubbish from sewers, saw
mills and other agencies at the
scores of cities along the river
have caused the channels to be-
come filled up and twisted
in a manner that renders navigation
extremely difficult, the raft boats are
all equipped with powerful electric
lights which enable pilots to see
stake light or a beacon as well at
night as in daytime. This might give
Capt Whitcomb, of the Cascades an
idea. He once told me that the great
est delay he experienced in towing
barges at night, was in sending
man out with a bulls eye lantern to
ascertain if the various light keepers
were doing their duty. Chief engineer
Weeks and myself once located
conhagration in Chinatown with the
aid of lantern, and / can realize
what help the electric light would
be in discovering the glimmer of a
stake light or beacon.
One feature which strikes the west
erner most forcibly here is the appar-
ent "shrinkage" that has been taking
place, the hills are smaller, the streets
are narrower, the rivers ar'n't so wide,
everything in fact has dwindled away
in the mind Of one accustomed to the
magnificent distances of the west.
spent few days in Dubuque, Iowa,
last week.
Dubuque a decade ago appropri-
ately bore the name, Key City of the
West, situated at the head of low
water navigation ON the Mississippi
with half a dozen big railroads cen
tering there, and with scores of cap
italists among her citizens it seemed
as though a great future was before
her, but like grandfather's clock, she
stopped never to grow again, solely on
account OF lack OF enterprise on the
part of her citizens. The motor which
formerly carried thousands of people
up Hill street, and made the bluffs
such a fine locality for residences, was
removed and the track torn up and
sold for old iron, simply because it
scared the horses and was about
twenty years ahead of the old fogy
ideas of Dubuque. The same street
cars drawn by the same mules that
made block every four minutes about
twenty years ago, still meander up
Main street at pace. that would
make the First street cars in Port
land seem reckless in speed in COM
parison.
Leaving East Dubuque by the
Burlington road, the traveller is
whisked through the greatest corn
country on the face of the earth, for
hours the train runs through almost
endless fields of this great staple.
The crop will be large one this sea-
son and the horny handed agricultur-
ist Is already beginning to grumble
about the prospective low price.
Chicago has been hurriedly walk
ing out into the country in the past
few years, and her suburbs and addi-
tions extend for miles in every di-
rection. One thing notice that does
not change though and that is the
man who sold the whole of the site
where Chicago now stands for six
bits and plug Of tobacco. There is
a train arrives or departs from the
Union depot every two minutes and
yet this same man, telling the same
sad story can be found on each one of
these trains, confdentially imposing
on some traveller A Chicago drum
mer told me that he began killing
this man off, but after he had killed
/ l,nl - IL, IL