Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-07-16
From Seattle.
DEAR HERALD

..Whv don't you write letter bach
to the Grant County papers?' This
question has been put TO me so Otter
that it is becoming somewhat stale. ano
yainly have pleaded my most plausible
excuses of ignorance and Incidence.
did give a kind of tacit promise to write
when last in Lancaster, as 50 many
seemed anxious to know wherein Wash
ingtop and Wisconsin are similar and
dissimilar. Well, here the frogs hold
their concerts and give the same old
songs set to the same music. and cats
on the back yard fence tell their loves
in the same dulcet stra;rs as there; but
here the analogy ceases, as every plant,
shrub and tree seem different, as well
as do climate, soil, scenery &c. &c. We
miss the sudden changes and the ex-
tremes of heat ard cold so familiar
there. The coolest point reached last
winter was 20o above, and thus far
we have had no sweltering heat. Nor
has the rainy season proved such bug
bear as we were led to infer, as we had
no such hard or protracted rains as L
have seen there in the winter, but day
or so OF light rain followed by day or
two of fair weather. and so on. There
were not to exceed half dozen days
last winter that outside work was sus-
pended on account of rain. The rain
generally fell in the form of heavy mist,
such as you have in your so-called
january thaw,' which so often delays
its coming until March.
Thunder showers are said to be al
most unknown here. though we have
had one or two rather mild ones. This
is of course attributed to the delightful
climate, as climate is a theme of which
the average Washingtonian never tires,
and well it may be, as they have six
hundred and forty acres of the purest
atmosphere under heaven to every sec
ton of land. The country seems gen
orally healthy, though there has been
great deal of typhoid fever, doubtless
incident to tearing up old sewers &c. in
excavatiDg streets and street-car lines
This, too, reminds me that the street
railway service here is probably no
where surpassed, ss the city is interwo-
ven with net work of cable and cleo
trio lines, the billy surface of the country
rendering them a virtual necessity. II
Rome's greatness was owing to her be-
ing set on seven hills, the destiny of
Seattle is to become many times great
er.
The scenery is all that could be asked
even by the most fastidious. You who
have stood enraptured with the quiet
beauty of Devil slake, or lakes surround
ing your capital city, or with the grand
eur and sublimity of the Dells of the
Wisconsin would be delighted with the
scenery here from where | write. Be-
fore me lies Lake Washington, lovely
sheet of water beween twenty and thir
ty miles in length. its surface so unruf-
fled as to mirrow back forest and
mountain. Away to the eastward, like
an impossible wall, stretches the long
line of the Cascade Range; to the north
can be seen the snowy peak of Mt. Baker
glistening in the sunlight like silver;
to the west another wall formed by the
Olympics, while to the southeast, proud
" above all, looms tie giant form of
Mt. Rainier; all thrusting their heads
far above the line Of eternal snow.
Grand old Rainier, how noble it looks!
From sixty TO eighty miles away, yet in
the pure atmosphere seeming so close
that YOU imagine you could see man
on it were one there. Too bad that this
lovely mountain should be the seed Of
dscord. but SO it is, as rival city up
the Sound has sought to re-christen it
mt. Tpcoma The feeling IS said to
be so strong that when man comes
INTO Seattle and refers to mt. Tacoma"
he immediately climbs the golden stair;
but kind and willing hands make the
ascent easy for him. as they help him
up the first few steps with rope.
Seattle seems the more homelike to
me, DOUBTLESS, from the association Of
familiar names, as many of the old Lam
caster residents have their representa-
tiyes here, notable those of Barber, Co
yer, Dodge, Nathan, Schreiner, Meyer,
Pollock. Langridge, elise &c, Still how
many of these are melancholy remand
ers of a bygone generation; but.
Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race OF
yore
Who danced our infancy upon their knee,
| And told our marvelirg hoyhood legends store
! or their strange ventures happ'd by land or
I bo