The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-16
A GEM OF THE OCEAN.
Sylvan and Pastoral Beauties of
the Isle of Lopez.
ITS INDEPENDENT, STURDY FOLK
waterfowls' ShrilI Hurtle In the Bays
and Wild Deer I'm the woods-The
Sportsman's Paradise.

PARADISE LODGE, LOPEZ, San Juan County
Oct. 1.-The insularity CT islands is inconteS ta-
bic, and in that respect Lopez island, of the san
Juan archipelago, in Puget sound, is as notable
as Nantucket or even England. The inhabi-
tants OF this favored spot do not to be sure, look
down on the outside world with the same
naughty intolerance as does the untrayeled
Britisher, nor does il cost as much on lovely Lo-
peg for summer board and lodging as the canny
Nantucketers tax their floating population.
Nevertheless, Lopezians have very proper feel
ing that they 'are not AS other men are" and
that their possessions and environments entitle
them to a somewhat higher standing than dwell
ers on commonplace continent. In fact,
more distinctive and individual population
would be difficult to find than the inhabitants
OF Lopez Withal they are simple and kindly
people. the incarnation OF hospitality and rare
lovers of freedom in its widest sense. A fierce
intolerance of certain things commonly sup
posed to be essential in more highly civilized
communities may be observed on occasions, but
this is not ordinarily observable to the stranger.
For instance, the writer knows and is warmlv
attached to a sweet old lady, whose life has
been for forty years-although she does not
know it-a continual sacrifice to duty, and who
has worked, as few slaves have ever worked,
during that period to keep a neat home and
make her husband, rough laboriag man, COM
Portable. The other day overwork laid her low
and shortly she was at the point of death. At
this iuncture the writer suggested sending to a
neighboring town to get medical advice. Her
answer was:
81 don't want no doctors nor preachers both
erin round here; an don't you send for en-"
She got WELL
"a prominent citizen was once overheard to
say, defiantly, in an argument brought up by
the location OF Presbyterian minister here,
that ga preacher was as good as ANYBODY else
SO long as he behaved hisself, an he was for let
tin him stay"
If this is not breadth OF view, what is?
These traits may be partially explained by the
statement that the majority of Lopezans are old
frontiersmen, who, having lived all their lives
on the border line of civilization and having
found in the Pacific ocean a barrier which pre-
vents them from moving further westward, are
obliged, somewhat unwillingly, to allow them
selves to be included in the community that has
grown up around them in the last ten or twenty
years. In truth, these islanders have right 10
be happy in their homes and proud of their
island. The writer has wandered far over this
globe, and he has never been in place that sup
pied the conditions of comfortable existence so
completely and cheaply as Lopez The climate
is simply unapproaehable, even IN Western
Washington. The rigors OF winter and the
heats of summer are tempered by the surround
ing waters to a mild equability that amounts to
perfection.
Just now is the most enchanting time of the
year. 1t seems as if during the whole season
past the weather clerk had been striving after
perfection and had now finally attained it.
There is just faint hint of frost in the air morn
ing and eyening-enough to make a wood fire
in an open fireplace genial. There is faint
film in the atmosphere and the peculiar duskv
brilliance towards sunset that constitutes such
a great charm in the Indian summer of the At
lantic seaboard. There is enough wind to make
boat sailing desirable and safe, ana every one
here owns water front and has boat of some
kind.
Then the topography of the island is
eharmingly irregular and it's coast line,
everywhere indented by bewitchiug little
bays, the silver sands of whose shores
are lined with the dark green Of the
tapering frs that cast their sombre shadows out
on the dimpling waters. These bays are now
filled with countless duck and other wild fowl,
and their shrin hurtle is constantly drumming
on the ear. Duck and waterfowl are by no
means the only game On Lopez. Deer, quail
and wild pigeon are as plenty as CLANS Deer,
indeed, are so numerous as to be destructive to
the growing crops, and were they allowed to
multiply, would become as much of q pest as is
the rabbit In some of the antipodean countries
Fenison 10 therefore not considered dainty
here. In fact at every third house where you
stop to take meal IN the free and easy style of
the island, without question and without pay,
they will serve up delicious venison 10 you with
an apology for having no "meae tpors) iT~ the
house. The deer are mostly killed By fre hunt
ing. Quail, too, are here no longer luxury.
and despite the game law-which, if enforced,
would be positive injury to Lopezians-some-
thing resembling that dainty bird is served on
toast with persistency that almost prompts
one to moan, with the psmpered Frenchman,
"toajoars perdrix"
About Leopez itself very little is known
beyond It's shores. 1t is safe TO say that not a
quarter OF the inhabitants Of Anacortes or Port
townsend know of its existence, and yet those
places are not two and half hours away by
daily steamer. This little out-of-the-wsy nook