The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-12-11


per pound. Now before / leave the
subject of weather, etc. j must say We
are now having one Of tile most beau
tiful falls lever enjoyed anywhere.
We had good heavy continued rain
here, not in the Valiey-the first Of the
present month, whicl, started pastures
and made IT, possible to plow easy.
Since then :w4s have had some three
weeks of the most beautiful weather,
and II il now IKE the finest in May. so !
Lalmy and bracing, no need Of y coat.
The bses are out,and enjaytng the sun |
and we 5haveshad but one frost. To-t
day it Is clear. wxrm and heantiful
Usually the fog from the Ocean comes:
up in the evening End remains until
seven or eight O'Clock in the morning..
Since I began this letter Walter,
our little boy, caught Salmon fish in
the river, near the garden. which
measures 3 feet II inches long and
weighs over % pounds. There are a
great many salmon this year in this
river and the bears are numerous aud
very fat from eating them.
Immigration. which has been pour.
ing into Oregon ever since We came
mere, is on the increase. There are too
many booming papers misrepresenting
this section. Almost every day there
are some people passing down by here
going to tho Ocean to settle near Flor
ence. Many of them have nearly no
means and expect to work for the gov
ernment on the Jetties, the Light
House or the Life Saving station all of
which we expect will be built in the
near future. have just made u tour
of Florence and its vicinity again and
must say all around there except the
Tide land land it is scarce) is almost
worthless for any kind IT farming pur.
poses, being sand and gravel. and
much of it is exposed 10 the Ocean
winds. 1 asked some of the leading
men of Florence what they based their
hopes of the future on, rs there was
but very little agricultural land within
10 miles. They replied that it will
require one hundred years to get our
lumber out, and after our three pres
ent appropriations are used up on Jet
ties. etc, Congress will still continue
to improve the Sinslow Bar, for at
least fifty years, ard long before that
time great coal mines will be worked.' ,
While in Florence l stood and g,Z-d
out upon the great Pacific Ocran and
it is ever /" me u grand sight. The
Ocean seems to be higher, out n few
miles, than it is at the shore; then the
wonderful slashiug waves, and the un
ceasing noise is great in sublimity.
1t is nice scenery going down tide, and
il fact, all d,wn this river. There are
very high mountains on both sides all
the way, which are mostly covered
with ir timber, but some are bald, the
timber having been burned by forest
fires. The river is very crooked, eveh
in Tide, and all above Tide is very
rapid with very uneven rocky bottom.
When we arrive at Tide, sixteen miles
from Meadow, my place, there are two
hotels, and here we take Il steamer for
Acme, Glenada and Florence. The
steamers are screw propellers and are
built on the ship plan. The last two
times l was in Florence there were
| Ocean vessels in port.
Now it is pleasant living here, and
it is very healthy, but I don't see any
way to make money. only for favor
ed few, and have not got to bs one
Of the favored few, as yet. pay Sl.50
to have real estate mort & .ge record
ed and 50 cents to have a chattel re-
corded, and have to pay 2 per cent
tax on money 1 lend. SO l realize,
perhaps per cent, on my little money,
which is about all the income l have.
We entertain, but there is not much
in that. Oats to haul 80 miles, hay to
make by hand and supplies to haul
from Eugene, 43 miles. 1 see a large
number of people here who don't seem
to care whether they make a dollar a
year or not. You can see them going
dressed in their ragged ducking, car
rying their blanket rolled up and tied
on their backs, with gun aud dog,
and when they locate they want two
| or three more dogs. ALI they seem to
want and all they ever have is an easy
time, and yet we have a great many of
| them here.
A few days ago fifteen Chinamen,
who had been working in the canning
factories. and two white men, who
were hauling them to the rail road,
were here for dinner.
Between US and Florence live q rem
nant of the Umpuqua tribe of Indians,
who are almost a credit to our "Pike
Co. Missourians. They dress we'll
and are honest, and some of them
have coed houses and work we'll.
George and Emma are both teaching
in Tide. Emma has four Indians in
her school, three girls and q little boy,
ages from 8 to 16 years. They seem
to he good children and are pop
ular with the other scholars. We do
not expect to remain here long, as
there is no society, aud poor schools,
not enough scholars to make it inter-
esting.> No church and out of the way
80 much. But il we leave here it will
he with more reluctance than we ever
left place before. We made this
home out of a dense forest, and have
over two hundred fine fruit trees, just
beginning to bear, good buildings, and
there is charm about it / can't ex-