Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1892-03-10
A HowLING DIVINE.

The Albert Lea (Minn.) Enterprise of
February 25 prints scurrilous communi-
cation under date of February II, from
J. R. Colley, erstwhile Methodist, now a
Congregational minister, giving his opin-
ion OF Grays harbor and its thriving cities.
The communication is full of misrepre-
sensations and is intended to give black
eye to the country and people who cared
for the writer almost as an object of
charity. The reverend gentleman says
in part:
"We went direct to Grays harbor in
Washington, and from the advertise
ments that had read of this place, or /
should have said places, (for there are
more towns along the harbor than there
ought to be, and for thirty miles OF there)
| supposed we would find bonanza
You take Aberdeen. the leading town on
Grays harbor, it is built on stills. Ho-
quiam, another leading town, for bear in
mind, all the towns are leading towns,
and destined to become metropolis) is
one of the dullest, deadest affairs you
could ever dream of. Then
you behold in all its glory, "Ocosta-by-
the-sea." 1t is we'll that should say
that its glory is tide-flat location, an
abundance Of clans, plenty of wind from
real estate sources, few saloons, and
when was there no churches. There
was not one natural road where q horse
and buggy could be driven for half mile.
Yet Eastern people are being drawn out
here from their comfortable environments
TO realize what it means to suffer. in a
practical way from home sickness. X y
So far as am concerned I wouldn't have
taken one or two Of those towns as gift.
For eight weeks we lived where we could
not travel with any de rec of comfort for
over one mile unless we went by boat; l
went by boat to preach, to fetch my mail,
to fetch the milk, and to go catching
salmon trout or digging CLANS. -
| newer saw lana for two months. I
lived for that season up puddle avenue
off stump street, neither didI see an
engine or cars for that time, and out in
an isolated parish found one young
man nearly p years old that had not yet
seen a train of cars. M \ n 4 could
u tale unfold Suffice it to say that
suddenly folded my tent and silently stole
away" Y tn
Any one who has travelled in Western
Washington, knows there are few towns
located near salt water which is not more
or less built over tide flats; almost the
entire business section OF Seattle, for in
stance. was formerly tide land. The gem
tleman should know tnat such land is
the most valuable in the state. Did the
reverend correspondent come here ex-
pecting to find in three-year-old coun-
try all the comforts and luxuries to
which he was accustomed (?) in his far
away English home? 1t is singular this
aesthetic individual could see no good in
country which thousands OF people of
education and refinement find a pleasant
abiding place.
If, as he says, he read advertisements
about Grays harbpr, he must. have known
this was timber countrya and that it was
cheaper to use the many waterways with
which this region is favored than to build
roads through the thickest standing tim
Der in the United States. But as the
country becomes settled roads are being
laid out, and if the croaker will return in
few years he will be able to travel
wither he will by railroad or his much be-
loved "horse and buggy" A man Of his
cloth and financial standing should not
long for the ''ffesh pots OF Egypt" The
railroad having now reached A Aberdeen it
may be matter OF comfort to his rever-
ence to know that the ''young man nearly
Il years old" has gazed upon train of
cars.
Rev. Colley says he could tale I'M