The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-08-19
HIS HEART WAS WON.
Seattle and Her People Cap
ture q st. L0uisan.
ENERGY WHICH AMAZED HIM.
Seth W. Cobb Tells OF the Long Fight
With Gauid-Democratic Indorse-
ment Of Reciprocity.

OF all the enthusiastic visitors to Seattle
Seth w. Cobb, of st. Louis, Is the greatest.
Mr.. Cobb, who is ex-president of the Mer-
chants Exchange and president OF the
Merchants Bridge Company, launched out
into praises of the city Immediately on
meeting Posr-ISTELLaGExcER reporter,
saying:
We'll, thought we had good deal of
push and energy at St Louis. but this city
astonishes me. went through your city
and saw your splendid buildings, your
water front and harbor. your miles Of street
car lines and your people l went out on
the Madison street road to the lake and
expected to see the car stop after going
about half mile, but it went on for three
or four miles. right to the lake, and / was
astonished at the energy and enterprise
which could do such work. II any man
knew, for instance, MIR. Whittier, who
used to be my Office boy in St. Louis.
had come back there and told me
that you had such q city with
such perfect street railway system. 1
should have laughed at him and said,
Why. man. you've got the Western fever
badly You have such energy and pluck
that it almost makes me ashamed OF ST.
Louis. though we fiatter ourselves that we
have good deal Of enterprise there. Yet
If man were to come to me and propose
to build a street railway away out into the
woods three or four miles from any houses
should think he was crazy. Yet it is .
good enterprise. As soon as your road is
built, the houses grow mp right along it and
you soon have q good business.
took . walk along your water front
this afternoon and was struck with the rap
idity with which the piles are driven. I
timed one gang of men from the time they
moved the driv.r along to the place until
they had a pile driven and it was only four
minutes in several cases, and in no case
over five minutes. They have the crew per-
fectiy drilled; every man does exactly what
is required of him and every thing goes
like clock-work.
II was particularly delighted with the
character of the Seattle people. They are
active in business. but they always give .
stranger warm welcome. Their urbanity,
politeness and readiness to give informa-
ton are particularly pleasing to stranger.
II is the same whether you have any busi-
ness with them or not. In the Eastern
cities everybody is cold with stranger,
and does not want to be troubled with him
unless he has business with him. This
characteristic of your people is the more
noticeable for this reason.''
How are you getting along with the
Merchants bfidge?"
"We are just having our final fight with
Jay Gould, who has fought US all along
We have cars running over the bridge,
which has been more rapidly constructed
than any of Its size in the world, but We
have not got our terminals yet. We have
to take the trains down an elevated road
way to the Union depot, which belongs to
Gould. He also owns all the
ground along Mill creek valley. and
refused to allow us to enter the
ground, cross his tracks or enter the depot,
though we were willing to pay damages for
the ground we occupied and our share of
the cost of maintaining the depot Some
brought condemnation proceedings and
then he asked for change of venue,
claiming that our company was composed
of local men and that there was q preju-
dice in st. Louis against him. The change
OF venue was granted and the case goes to
st Charles county for trial. ! have no
doubt that we shall win. We have al
ready won our fight with the Wabash
road. whose tracks We had to cross twice
Our bridge is not quite as large as Gould's,
because We have no roadway. but we have
made an arrangement by which cars can
be run on to fiatcars and hauled over the
bridge. This has the advantage of giving
the teams q rest"
Being asked what he thought of the po-
litical outlook this fall. Mr.. Cobb, who is Q
leader among the Missouri Democracy,
said: 81 think the Republicans have in
jured their chances by the tariff bill and
the force bill. There is no necessity for
the force bill, it is an insult to the people of
the South and, in fact, of the whole coun-
try. and the masses of the people will be
opposed to it. I think the tariff should be
reduced so as to simply bring in enough
revenue to maintain the government I
don't believe in free trade, because we
must have tariff to raise revenue. but I
don't believe in protection and think the
war tariff should be cut down. / like
Blaine's reciprocity idea, he is coming very
near to the Democratic idea. What we
want is reciprocal free trade: we want to
buy goods from the countries which buy
ours. Then we shall buy cheaper and have
q larger market for our products"