Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-01-10
PUGET SOUNDSHACKS
PICTURESQUE DWELLINGS THAT
FRINGE TACOMA BAY.

Homes Across Whose Threshold the Rent
Collector Never Passes-Where 1t Is
Easy For Each Man to Rear and Main
tain His Own Castle.
The Arab has his tent, the Kafir his
kraal and the red man his wigwam. but
no one of these primitive habitations is
more distinctive and characteristic of the
surrounding conditions of life than the
shack" Of tho laborer in the Puget sound
region. This lucky unmarried laboring
maj of the northwest has no implacablo
boarding master to satisfy weekly. He
pays no rent for furnished room. His mar
ricd mate docs not anticipate with fear
and trembling the monthly visit of the
landlord, who wants "A large percentage of
his earnings down III the nail. No. He
lives in his own shack, and rent, that bug
bear to the poor in eastern cities, is I'M
known to him.
Tho shack in itself, n temporary, in
complete, or makeshift residence, is simple
and comprehensive. The conditions that
gave it birth and make it's existence posi-
bile require calculation to be seen clearly by
the turbid vision of those who live among
less favorable circumstances Tomake it in
t~elligiblo one must contrast the conditions
vi III tOilliilpilNt dlln III lHt IuIllMtSb
and those ON tho Atlantic seaboard. In
the latter case the broad difference in
classes and the pcnury stricken condition
of the lower masses exhibit striking CON
trasts, painful in tho highest degree to the
altruisiic observer.
Perhaps there is no section of country
in the world moro free from these distress
ing dissimilaritics than the Puget sound
basin, in the western half of the compare
lively new state of Washington. This
happy condition of affairs arises from vari-
Gus cal~cs, the main on rs being naturally
that the country Is Us yet undcVClOped,
and that the lines between the rich and
the poor. the COmpC,Cnt and tie incOmpe-
tent, arc still underlined, and that tho re-
gion is singularly rich in resources, and
of n most snlubrious and hcalthful eli
mate.
Secondly, Puget sound hGs a shore limo
of ! 100 miles and is denscly wooded to
the very edge of the water with the finest
timber remaining on the North American
continent. At intervals of Il few miles all
along this vast boundary are sawmiils,
gradually gnawing their way into the
primeval forest, and the broad waters of
the sound are constantly covered with inn
mensc boOms, or RATS, of great sawlogs
being lowed from the logging camps to
the mills, or ships bearing away to all
parts of tho globo the manufactured prod
uct.
Is it any wonder, the above state of
things existing, and the price of sawed
lumber being only 81 per thousand feet,
and sometimes less, with slabs to be had
for the taking, that the laborcr who finds
it desirable to build him one of those tenn
porary residences called shacks finds tho
lumber involved in the proposition no
great impcdiment to the fulfllmont of his
wishes. If he cannot find it adrift, or
strcwn along the shore by the tide, n days
work will supply the cash necessary for
its purchase. Then, with a hammer II
IA pound or so of nails, the shack goes mer-
rily up, and at nightfall tho builder is 10
longer IL homeless man.
Again, in all the northwestern cities,
more land is plated" than will be built
upon for 80 or 100 years to rome, Seattle,
for Instance, incorporates slightly less area
han Chicago, and the bare places, which,
il must he acknowledged, are usually the
least desirable from a residential point Of
view, are utilized by the shack builder, ;
for such II thing rs ground rent is un-
known except on business streets. Then,
again, there is the water in the bays, full
of building possibilities, with the best Of
foundations eligible, with no more trou-
BILE than the rolling together and fastening
of "A few of the great logs which lie un-
claimed in p~rodigal variety along the
beach. Enough unclaimed and rejected
timber lies cast up on the shores of Puget
sound to build shaoks for the whole army
of unemployed.
The bustling city of Tacoma on Com
hny oo,,taine rat Inr ,,,nro .ban
the usual proportion of shack jewellers, and
they have become q common phase of the
life of that city. Most of the shacks here
are occupied by mill laborers-Tacoma
being a large lumber shipping point
while unmarried workingmen generally do
not disdain to live in them, and thus save
board and lodging-frequently, more is
the pity-to squander the amount in some
other way.
Often the shacks are u~nsightly to the
eye, and rude and primitive in the highest
degree, but more frequently they are pic
turesQue and form an attractive feature in
the landscape. Occasionally one is seen
that is an ideal residence. The writer has
come across several in Old Town, North
Tacoma, that are charming to look at and
as convenient and comfortable to inhabit
as much more prctentious abodes. One in
particular has II latticed porch %overgrown
with honcysuckle, and a rose sprinkled
dooryard that is IA very jungle of sweetness.
On the tide flats at the head of Com
mencement bay there is "a mammoth saw
mill, and near it the walk skirts a canal,
or rather lagoon-that is, a narrow arm OF
the bay penetrating deep into the land.
Some one with a poetic soul has aptly bap-
tized this place Little Venice, " and here
shack habitalions begin. Along this la
COON are some of the quccrcst looking,
most bizarre and picturesque dwellings
imaginable. They are one story shacks,
built ON massive log RATS and moored to
the bank with huge rusty iron cables.
Some are more pretentious, and instead of
"a raft they use great substantial square
scows to build on, and occasionally the
houses are painted with an eye To effect