News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1895-07-25
FROM THE NORTHWEST.


NJ. A. Thompson, a former Lamoille
county girl, but now successfully en-
gagged in the book agency business in
the West. We are sure our readers
will be interested in this letter and
also be glad to learn that Miss
Thompson has promised US further
letters of this character =
Editor News and Citizen -
Had | the time to go into details
and write a full description of my
trip, since leaving Stockton. by river
steamer to San Francisco go miles,
and taking the Estate of California"
running between San Francisco and
Portland, a distance of 600 miles,
the letter would be so long it would
never be printed, so will confine my
self to a few facts. The sea was
smooth and We saw land all the way
from four to twelve miles distant,
and made the trip to Astoria in the
usual time, arriving at six O'Clock a.
m. The rain was falling in gentle
showers at intervals and the sky
dark with heavy clouds, but they
vanished and a charming day well
coined our arrived in the quaint old
town, first established as a trading
port by Astor in 1908. 1t is 10 miles
from the bar, reef of rocks at the
enterance to the Columbia river, to
Astoria. The sea is generally rough
but as we passed the bar in the night,
did not realize it, and no one got sea
sick. Astoria is now beautiful city
of 1000 inhabitants. The entire
business portion is built on planks,
covering spiles driven into the earth
from ten to forty feet. 1t is expected
to find the wharfs built out into the
water, but finding a city under which
the tide rises and falls from four to
eight feet, and children fishing
through the cracks iC the floors and
men out of their back doors, is an
interesting spectacle to strangers.
Lumber is cheap and not only the
business streets and side walks are
paved with it, but also the roads up
the hills to where the large portion
of the better residences are built.
The entire length of their electric
street car line, 3K miles is built on
the water,-part of the way it seems
like riding over bridge-but through
the business portion one gets a
glimpse of the water only by looking
down through a hole in the side walk
or on to a vacant lot. Many fine
frame buildings decorate the hillside
and though the streets are being laid
out and paved with plank in antici-
patton of a boom when the long
looked for railroad is built, yet there
are many beautiful homes hidden be-
hind the hills so the stranger when
told of the population looks with in
credulous eyes to see where the
people all live. The city is lighted
by gas and electricity and has few
good substantial business houses,
built on REAL EARTH for a founda-
ton. There are a few sawmiIls, but
the principal industry is fishing and
canning salmon. The salmon fishing
season begins April 10 and closes
August 10, during which time from
600 to 1000 men make enough to
support their families for the year.
Fishing is done by men who go out
in small boats and cart their seines,
and when they gather in the small
boats are relieved by the plungers
which carry from Ia to II tons, so
the fishermen lose no time rowing in
from the river where the fish are
caught, to the canneries, where they
are prepared for market as we buy
canned salmon of our grocers.
Every man in the canary has his
work to do. One receives and weighs,
another hauls them to a table where
the head is first cut off, and then the
next takes out the inWards and
another scrapes off the scales, after
which each fish passes along under a
stream of water and is thoroughly
washed. 1t is next slid into a rack
and cut into slices and slid along tC
the next table where each slice is put
into a can that holds just one pound
The cans are made ready by one
whose only work is to put in eact
about teaspoonful of salt. 1t i:
surprising to see how quickly a fish
can be prepared for cooking. Aftel
the cans are filled they are covered
and soldered and placed in racks
which are piled one above anothe
and placed in large tanks and boileC
an hour and fifteen minutes thel
removed and a hole punched in tn
cans to let off the steam, after whicl
it is soldered air tight and put int
large ovens, heated by steam, wher
the braking process, lasting anothe
hour and fifteen minutes, begins
Labels are put on by girls and tn
cans are packed As in a case read
for shipping.
There are many canneries in AS
toria and up the river towards Port
land. The largest in the world
Kinney's, known as the Astori
Packing Co., which has capacity {
turning out 1900 cases of 4S one
pound cans daily. Chinese are hire
almost exclusively, and when aske
the reason the manager replied :
"White men cannot be relied upon
when paid off Saturday night the
take their money to drink up, an
when Monday morning comes the
do not show up. We must have bel
we can depend upon" 1t is sham