The Saint Paul globe., 1897-09-25
j. M. HAWTHORNE ACCUMULATES
A FUND DETERIORATION ON
PUGET SOUND COUNTRY,
WHICH is BOOMING JUST NOW.
FACTS ABOUTDGOLD FROM KLON-
Dixie SUPPRESSED TO DIS
COURAGE MIGRATION.
NEW METHoDgoF FEELING TEEEs.
Probably the Hottest Way to Take
Fall Out of the Forest
Kings Yet Employed.

j. M. Hawthorne returned last even
ing over the Great Northern from a
pleasure and business trip in the Puget
sound country. His first question on
reaching St. Paul was about the health
of Aid. Kenny To reporter for the
G l O b e he said that he found the state
of Washington, especially around Pu-
get sound, exhibiting evidences of great
prosperity, owing to the great wheat
crop and the influx of money from
the Klondike region.
puget sound" said Mr.. Hawthorne,
'fs to the superficial observer one mag
nif1cent harbor without rocks or shoals
and no wind storms, but unfortunately
the water drops off suddenly from near
the shore, almost everywhere, to
depth of from 200 to 700 feet. In the
harbors of Tacoma and Seattle it is
said to average, except on the tide fats
and close to the shore, depth of from
800 to 500 feet. Capt. BeeCher, son
of the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher,
who is in command of tug on the
sound, gave me an instance of the deep
water difficulty. He towed British
sailing vessel into the harbor of Ia
coma, close up to the shore. The Eng
lish captain ordered Beecher to take
the vessel out into the hafhor. The
latter warned him of it's depth, but he
insisted, and Beecher took him where
he wanted to go, and then dropped the
anchor, and it Immediately went down
ninety fathoms,, that is $40 feet, before
touching bottom. When the vessel was
ready to sail it was impossible to raise
the anchor with the ordinary appn-
ances, owing to the enormous weight
of the chain, the .roa out of which it's
links are formed being an inch in (li-
ameter. A pile driver had to be
brought alongside, and with it's assist
ance the anchorewas finally raised. This
and other instances pressed the matter
nome to the attention of the enterpriS-
ing citizens of Tacoma and Seattle,
and immense buoys were constructed
and 1oated out and anchored in the
harbof, and to these buoys the sailing
vessels tie up, paying a nominal charge
for that privilege
Speaking about the immense trees,
Judge Hawthorne has a new one. He
says:
In driving anywhere in the forests
a fir tree ten feet in diameter and 300
feet high is an ordinary sight. 1T seems
almost sin to fell and burn these
giants of the forest so as to clear up
a farm. 1t is impossible to either saw
or chop down the larger ones, SO the
farmer bores hole with a two or
three-inch auger into the tree to 2
depth of three feet. He then starts q
new hole about three feet further uD
and bores it in a slanting direction
until he meets the horizontal hole H.
then inserts some shavings saturated
with kerosene into the lower hole. sets
them on fire, and the draft fans the
fame. The wood of the fir tree being
saturated with pitch, except a greer
rim of about three inches in width
around the outside, burns easily. Such
a lire once started in a tree, like d
cancer in a man, goes on until its fatal
work is finished, and it falls.
Very much more gold is coming into
Seattle and Victoria than is reported
at present in the newspapers The
facts are suppressed so as to keep
back the rush during the winter, and
the starvation which would inevitably
follow in that bleak and except for
gold, repulsive land. A gentleman
came with me from Seattle to ST. Paul
who, with number of other men,
quietly came into Victoria and then to
OGdllle. he ldu SoV,UUU worth OIL SOlG
with him, the result of two years
work in the Klondike. He said the
winter was the only time they could
work successfully. because the ground
to depth of fourteen feet, except
about eight inches, was frozen
both winter and summer, and in the
summer they could not work because
the water ran in from the top, and, as
they had to build fires to thaw the
frOzon do
that in the winter as well as the sum-
mer. He went down but fourteen
feet to bedrock and shoveled out the
gold but the privations he endured
were very great. Last winter he had
nothing to eat for six weeks but moose
meat. No flour, potatoes or anything
else.
"As to Washington politics." Mr. Haw-
thorne said, "the same argument was
used last fall against the election Of
Gov. Rogers that was used in this
state against John Lind. The false
yarns, which were worked with such
success against Mr.. Lind in this state
were not swallowed by the people of
Washington, for Rogers was elected
by large majority. And now for the
result in that state. No banks have
failed since he was elected, capital IS
rushing, in, business men are making
money, labor is in demand, and the
state is very prosperous. In fact, such
striking impression has the present
conditions produced in Washington
that one old fellow said to me, with a
twinkle in his eye: For eight years we
have had gold Republican governors,
and the price of wheat has been low,
so low, in fact, that we could not af-
ford to raise 1t, but the moment We
elected Populist governor, the price
doubled Then correcting himself he
said he knew that the India famine
had caused the raise in the price Of
wheat, and it was that sad fact, and
not the election of either Mckinley
or Rogers, that made the state pros
perous."