, 1892-10-01
FROM HOOD RIVER.
Beauties of the Valley Near the
Columbia.

A Garden SpONs t1ch In FRUIT and
TimBer--HIrs. c. l.. HendersOn's
Letter From Her summer Home
la Oregon.
HOOP RIVER, September 27.
Our Hood river valley, lying between the
Cascade range or the west and spurs of the
Cascades on the eastJis nearly equally di-
vided by Hood river running north and
south, with four school districts on either
side. 1t is in length about twenty miles
by six or eight broad and has population
of some fifteen hundred. The chief in
dustries are fruit raising and the timber
trade. The village of Hood River, a sta
tion on the Union Pacific, so miles from
Portland, with its 300 inhabitants, lies on
the Columbia at the mouth of Hood river,
which there enters the Columbia, facing
Mount Adams and the adjacent hills, be-
tween which the White Salmon also offer
its tribute to the mighty river flowing at
their base. An unparalleled view from
station and one scarcely to be exceeded
elsewhere unless on the Canadian Pacific.
The Union Pacific is the only transcont-
mental route that gives US two trains each
way daily. This fact, my friends, with
myself, may have seen announcedin the
daily papers.
This dear old staunch and roomy house
of ours, on the upland, three miles from
town, built by myself fourteen years since,
stands within its enclosure Of twenty acres
on a rising ground, surrounded by its
groves of pine and oak, which then small
saplings. have now risen to hight of forty
or fifty feet, 'affording delightful shade at
all hours of the day. The pines Topped of
all their lower decaying branches and with
little underground, invest the place with
the appearance of an English park with
the exception that the primitiveness of ma
ture remains undisturbed, for we attempt
no cultivation, and would not dispute her
perfect right to reign supreme, with two
such sentinels as Hood q Adams, on
North and south points of the compass, re-
buking any interference. The Vistas
through the trees give glimpses of the en-
circling fence, but far enough away to be
no blot upon the landscape. So great is
the dryness of the atmosphere and so alb
sOrbant the nature of the graYelly soil, that
we may leave our house closed, as we often
do, for nine months of the year and on our
return discover no scent of mustiness nor
suspicious of dampness hanging around
the walls, and not even the salt left in salt
cellars damp This may be in part owing
to the circumstance that in building / had
the inner and outer walls of the house
lilled in with dry sawdust up to the second
story, and they are apparently impervious
to either draughts or damps.
But why the remarkable salubTity and
curative properties of this climate, the
heat tempered by the strong prevailing
west wind that blows most of the summer,
and so strongly that one needs to tie their
vases to keep them on the mantel piece ?
Why, / say, does it not induce some of the
hordes of coast frequenters hither, is un-
sOlVable, l think, but from the fact that
few places of comfortable board are as yet
to be found here. Consumptives and those
suffering with rheumatic, catarrhal or asth-
matte troubles are always quickly benefited
here, and for myself | can say of all the
many climates l have tried, 1 can mention
none where l feel universally so well as
here. | give the preference to the fresh
beauty of spring and the golden glory of
autumn up here, for during July and Au-
gust the drought and dust are great, and
the view of the mountains obscured by
smoke.
September has, the greater portion of it,
been an unattractive month here this year,
on account of smoke, for as the little girl
said, the sky has IN consequence "been all
crammed down to the ground" Though
the dust has been ankle deep in the wagon
roads, within our secluded enclosure, re-
mote from highways as from tramps, we
have as complete an immunity from the
annoyance Of dust as one has at Venice.
But now, after the recent rains, the face of
nature shines "spick and span" clean, and
the "bOundless contiguity" of sun and
shade, as seen through these groves of
sOmbre pines, their lofty, plume-like tops
pointing eloquently heavenward, with
their slender needles shimmering in the
light and trembling in the breeze, is as en-
trancing to the sight as the sea is the
musical efubfnu nj tho wind fhrorrorb fhair
branches, like the lapsing Of the waves
upon the shore. The myriad trunks, like
the columns of a cathedral with the inter-
lacing boughs forming arch upon arch as
they recede in the distance, remind us that
'The groves were indeed Gods first tent
ples !" and
"Were l, o God in churchless lands re-
naming,
"Far from all dogma, creed, or rite di-
vine,
"My soul would find, in groves of thy
Ordaining,
"And IN thy glorious mountains, ser
mons, shrines."
trust may be forgiven for permitting
myself to paraphrase anything so exquisite
as Horace Smiths flynn to the Flowers, Z"
and tho the reign of
"Those bright mosaics, that in storied
beauty
| The floor of Natures temple tesselate ~
is well.nigh over, the eternal and immu-
table glory of tree, sky and mountain re-
main forever. / have always been a tree
WOrshipper, and believe that climate re-
acts on man-that there is something in
mountain air that feeds the spirit and in
spires, but / think l drink in more than
usual the tranquilizing inspiration around
me, from strong contrast with the restless
ness of the sea, so recently visited.
The waves always speak to me of eager
and tireless endeaVOr, and, as the Rev. M d.
Lives" and which / must be excused for
many of us can say: Chow they reach on
as the bafiied falling back in temporary
1 pathos of infinite tears; while PROSTATE on
of baffied endeaYor. / muse and listen till
seething, striving, failing, but always en-
deavoring sea Of human passions, hearts,
souls, hopes, fears, and 1 cry out: 80 sea
Of human life, whose days are souls, never
yet was any striving all in vain 1t is the
impulse Of the Infinite One that bears you
on" recall here, fortunately for my
readers, to whom have given perhaps toe
much description, that someone says
"For getting fine, fourishing growth o
stupidity there is nothing like pouring
+ out good amount of tiresome matter il
which that mind may feel no interest"
, Mrs. G. L. HENDERSON.
The First
Symptoms of heart disease are shor
]