New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-08
THE NEW STATES.
XXXv.
FORTUNATE TACOMA
rvr NORTHERN PACIFIC TERMINUS


opowrH-LuMBEB, COAL AND WHEAT
THE CHINOOK JARGoN'
..v CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBUNEl
49,, $3.50, Bv The Ysr-York Tribune
Tacoma, w T., September l.
told of the dark ways and
Msny 90 which resort was had by capitalists
vain ,i'NN .oun.ste owners and other lore
specu"V western development TO induce the
" po.Ac Railroad to run It's line TO TINS
,N. .h,onob that valley and over yonder bench
"a TInless ITS projecting engineers were very
-, oood they ought TO be very, very ricn, 1of
49,. nas nothing they could not have had II
- ,,ould only bring the railroad to suitable
,Ianss T. is quite astonishing how many towns
Cd individuals fancy themselves possessed OF
Grievance against the railroad because 1t did not
come their way. Tecoma is an interesting eX-
cept;on to this almost general proposition. The
railroad did come Tacoma IS way. The elevated
nromontory upon which Tacoma is built, slowly
but grandIy falling away into the pearly waters
NJ Puget Sound contained, when the railroad de-
oided 10 come Tacoma's wny, vast and mighty
forest Of pine trees, q sawrnill and few log
shsnties in which the employees of the mill lodged
That was Tacoma. Indians, hoarsely jabbering
their strange Chinook, a medley of every known
language spoken on two continents, hunted ana
fshed through and about this wilderness Twenty
four hours after the Board of Directors OF the
Northern Pacific Railroad passed their resolution
fixing Tacoma as the Western terminus OF their
road a thousand trees were being fel.ed, thelr
stnmps were being sashed and burned away
town-lots were being laid out five and ten miles
distant from the proposed site OF the railroad
depot and money could not buy an acre Of prop
erty at any point on the whole promontory
Events have fully justified the faith shown oy
the adventures who thought this a golden OPP
portunity, and the sagacity of the railroad co"l-
pany in deciding upon this point as their tcfinii"s
may not be questioned. This promoh'"y heS
between the main waters of the Sound ana
beautiful hay. The eminent John Randolph, of
Roanoke. who bore no love for the first OF the
Bavard family used TO speak of the honorable
Senator who represented three counties at low
tide and one at high" The action of the waters
Of Puget Sound with regard to Tacoma suggest
the tidal conditions imputed by Mr.. Randolph TO
Delaware At high tide Commencement lay is
almost a sound of itself, but a few hours later
whole acres of tide-land are laid bare, and the
bay has almost disappeared beyond two lutting
peaks in the distance This and other physical
arrangements have made Tacoma, for all practical
purposes, the head Of Puget Sound navigation.
Vessels cannot wisely so further up the SOUND
lest they TO trouble among its strong currents
and tortuous channels This fact alone gives an
assurance of future greatness TO Tacoma. The
other fact, that it is the terminus of a railroad
system that begins at Chicago, and may soon be-
Gin at New-York and stretch from ocean to ocean,
as even now il stretches from the Lakes to the
Pacific completes the pledge that within another
generation Tacoma must become one Of the 6 eatest
OF American cities. Already $4,000 people are
making Of il wonderfully busy mart. Already
forty miles of graded Streets and avenues are
woven up and down and across its rugged, hand
some site. Already magnificent blocks Of iron
and granite and brick have been reared, not here
and there but in unbroken continuity along entire
svenUcs. Street-cars bowl along in every dlrec-
ito. !-cctric lights glare and flare from every
cor..cr at night and almost from every window.
Already large manufactures have been estao-
lshed, and wholesale business houses supplying
large area Of growing country, have given an
important and permanent character to its trade.
Already il has become great shp-huilding centre.
Its people, indeed, own more shipping than the
people of any other city of the Western coast eX-
cepting San Francisco. Its vessels carry lumber
and the preserved fruits of Olympia and the
Columbian plateau, wheat and other grains, TO the
ports Of Asia and the South Sea. This great en-
port trade immense Of volume, but still III its
very infancy, grows with every hour
One of the most interesting facts in connection
with this country is the retention of the early
Indian names that were originally applied TO It's
rivers and valleys. The Indians Of Washington
are related by many ties of blood and association
10 all the tribes of the Canadian Northwest. Each
tribe has its own peculiar language and customs,
but they all speak Chinook. Tradition says that
Chinook was invented a century ago by
Canadian-Scotch half-brced, in whose veins ran 50
mar ctr Of
him such variety of red relations, that he
was, forsooth,, compelled TO get up language of
his own that they all might be able to understand.
So he took little Blackfoot, mixed it with
triie Of Crow seasoned ii with bad French, worked
in a Dundee accent, and called it Chinook
He provided that the male Indian should be
known as a Siwash and the female Indian as a
Klootchman, and as the Siwashes and Kootch-
men worked themselves westward and over the
country they carried this invented language with
them and established it throughout the Northwest.
There are hunters and trappers and lumbermen
who can make themselves we'll understood through
Chinook everywhere they 90. In the distant
backwoods there are squaw-mcn-that is, white
men who have taken Indian wives-who have
really forgotten their mother-tongue and can now
speak nothing but Chinook. The Indian proper
names scattered plcntifully over Washington
Territory are all Chinook names, and originally
possessed some peculiar significance Snowquamie
ior instance, meant crowned with snow" Sllagit
was the name Of the wildcat Stilaquamsh sig
nihed quiet water" NooIsack meant north
Of the mountain Nesqually meant south of
the mountain" These and many other names
some Of them picturesque in their significance
and beautiful in their sound, are now preserved
as the names Of particular geographical features
Okinagane " soft and Deep is the name of
lake. Yakima, white pebbles WepatcIie
swiftly running" are names Of mountain
streams.
Almost all the counties OF the State are called
by names derived from Indian stories. Tocoma
was the name of a tribe, Seattle that OF a great
chief, and when the white people determined n