Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1891-02-19
THE STATE OF WASHINGTON.

the feet of the Pilgrim Fathers upon the
smiling slopes Of Puget sound, there
would have been little difference today
between New England and Labrador.
The same energy that has made Massa-
chusetts rich and populous would in half
the time make the state OF Washington
Belgium in density Of population and an
England in wealth. What decade Of
sporadic and spasmodic enterprise has
done for Washington attests that this
reflection is not wide of the mark. What
there is of it's present greatness has come
to knowledge within little more than half
a score of years. The first white man
who made his home in Seattle now lives
in that city and is yet AL active business
man. He has seen forests transforma-
ton into great city. Fifteen years ago
there was no such place as Tacoma on
the maps, and the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
had never heard of it, Today Tacoma is
AS large as Richmond was when it be-
came the Confederate capital. Together
the two cities of Seattle and Tacoma,
nearer together than Baltimore and
Washington, have a population greater
by twenty thousand than New York had
at the beginning of the present century.
Until the fourth quarter of the first
century of our republic was well under
way, the 69,994 square miles known as
Washington formed part of the state of
Oregon, anu it was not until 1872 that by
the arbitration of William of Prussia it
was decided that the great province of
British Columbia was not ours ALSO In
1858 Washington became territory In
1889 it was made state. A parallelo-
gram in form, it is about three hundred
and sixty miles long and two hundred
and fifty miles wide. A mountain chain,
the Cascade range, divides the state by
north-and-south line into two grand
divisions differing as much in climate,
soil, and topography as Minnesota and
Virginia. Providence postponed the ar
rival of population in this part Of the coun-
the Mississippi and the Pacific had been
sampled by the overlooking people Of the
est. Had they known what was to be
found in the great northwest, the ease of
the conquest OF that soil and its pro-
ductiveness as compared with others
Thousand miles farther inland, the inter-
mediate territory would have remained
yet many years untitled. No transconti-
mental line Of railway found access to
Washington until 1885. In the first
seven years from 1880 the population
grew from $1,000 to 143,669,-over one
hundred per cent. In the following three
years there was another increase OF one
hundred per cent. At this writing news
comes from the census Office that it has
risen to $50, 900, and during the summer
following the decennial enumeration the
influx went on, chiefly from the older
western states, at the rate of two thous-
and month. According to forecast of
the census of 1890, Washington has
already out-stripped Oregon, her thrifty
neighbor next door, thirty years her
senior, and is in rank, as to population,
the thirty-fouth state in the Union.
The greatness of this young giant does
not depend on any one thing. 1t has
been compared to Pennsylvania, and
justly, in that wall could be constructed
around it without serious detriment to its
population, every. necessary of life being
available within its borders. Washing
ton has rich farming lands, great store
houses of iron, coal, silver, and gold,
timber of the finest quality in enormous
quantities, every facility for the manu-
facture of raw material, land-locked har-
bors deep in water and easy of access
and egress, and the best of climates.
The matter OF climate is prime consid-
Grafton. That of western Washington
presents a mlldness and equability OF
temperature most seductive to the intend
ing immigrant. 1t reminds one OF the
climate OF the south OF England. The
temperature at Tacoma and Seattle is
from seven to fourteen degrees cooler on
an average than that of New England in
the summer months, and from thirty to
forty degrees warmer in winter. To put
it in another way, the range of the Their
mometer between extremes averages
nearly fifty degrees more on Massachu-
sets bay than on Puget sound. This
mildness and equability are ascribed to
the winds and currents of the Pacific
ocean, and in particular the cold of win
ter is said to be modified by the Japan
current, which is to the Pacific coast
what the Gulf stream is to England.
The same causes operate to give the
climate Of western Washington its single
disagreeable feature, namely, an I'M
usual precipitation Ct water in winter.
This excess of moisture, however, is adj
vantageous for agriculture, as an offset to
the dryness of summer. Billiards. and
cyclones are unknown in this country,
and a thunderstorm is of rare occurrence.