Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-02-19
HILL STILL FOOLS THE PEOPLE

The president of the Great Northern
railroad has long been an expert in the
use Of the English language and an
adept i'm the art of fooling the people.
He has worked up" the solid citizens
of Spokane to the highest pitch of ell
thusiasm and liberality and they are
fairly tumbling over each other i'm their
haste to grant to the great Northern
privileges for which both the Northern
Pacific and Union Pacific worked long
and patiently but in vain. With few
glittering generalities he excites their
hopes and actually enlists them as
earnest and enthusiastic allies in work
ing the people for free right-of-wsy
through the very heart of the city. He
comes out to Puget Sound and promises
terminals all the way from Bellingham
Bay to Seattle, and whenever he has
any axes to grind he manages to spare
time to attend banquets at which
prominent citizens" endeavor to
sound his intentions through his
stomach and loosen his tongue with Sc
ductive champagne. Mr.. Hill doesn't
attend these elaborate free lunches be-
cause he Graves a square meal, nor does
he go to please the gentlemen who pay
the bills, but to please himself, because
they afford him an excellent oppor-
tunity to Judge and influence public
sentiment so far as it concerns his en-
terprises, and to size up the indi-
viduals whose lands or money or in
fluence he is after. While he feasts he
plans He listens intently, talks slowly
and weighs carefully all his words be-
fore he utters them. He entertains
rather than instructs his hearers and
almost invariably is himself the only
man who is wiser when he leaves the
banquet room than when he entered
it. He is COOL calm and calculating
81 shrewd, adroit and cunning. L
he thinks it likely that news
paper can assist him in tn,
furtherance of his plans he receives
its representative courteously and talk
readily, pleasantly and plainly. If i
suits his purpose better to avoid pub
Lefty his answers to questions are curt
monysyllabic and evasive, and the in
terviewer is given to understand tina
the railway magnate who was IA rive
roustabout a quarter of century ag
does not consider it necessary to trea
reporters as gentlemen. He may "foC
some of the people all Of the time am
all of the people some of the time, bu
he can't fool all of the people all of tn
time"
Just now he is particularly intel
ested in Seattle and Spokane, becaus
his big axes i'm those places are not yt
ground. He talks a great deal abou
terminals and very little about a tern
mus That he established in his min
long ago and all the idle rumors, su
misses and conjectures started an
circulated by the warning PEE
pie of rival towns will not chang
il. Back east, where he has n
leTuulnus couleullOliS 10 CoIiDali
tells the people that ''your harbors thu
are great beyond measure are your te
minals, " and it is well known that |
regards Bellingham bay as the gran,
est harbor on Puget sound and that Il
terminal facilities and property int
ests of the Great Northern here are fl
more extensive and valuable than an
it now has or is likely to have mt an
other point on the Pacific coast. The
is no occasion for worry about u
future here II is to the problem
the present that our attention shou
be devoted now.