The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-20
PUGET SOUNDSHACKS
PICTURESQUE DWELLINGS THAT
FRINGE TACOMA BAY.
Homes Across Whose Threshold the Rent
Collector Never Passes-Where IL Is
Easy For Each Nan to Rear and Main
thin His Own Castle.

Is
moro distinctive and characteristic of the
surrounding conditions of life than tho
~sbock Of the laborer in the Puget sound
region This lucky unmarried laboring
man of the northwest has no implacable
harding master To satisfy weekly. He
NAYS no rent for furnished room. His mar
ried mate docs not anticipate with fear
and trembling tho monthly visit of the
landlord, who wants a large percentage of
his earnings down on the nail. No. He
lives i'm his own shack, and rent, that bug
hear TO the poor in eastern cities, Is I'M
known TO him.
Tho shack in itself, q temporary, in
complete or makeshift residence, Is simple
and comprehensive. The conditions that
cave il birth and make It's existence posi-
bic require elucidation To be seen clearly by
the turbid vision of those who live among
less favorable circumstances. Tomake it in
telligible one must contrast the conditions
of the commonwealth in the northwest
and those on tho Atlantic seaboard In
the latter case the broad difference in
classes and the ponury stricken condition
of the lower masses exhibit striking CON
trasts. painful in the highest degree 10 the
altruistic observer.
Perhaps thore Is no section of country
in the world moro free from these distress
ing dissimlariiies than the Puget sound
basin. in the western half of tho compare
lively new state of Washington. This
happy condition of affairs arises from vari-
Gus causes, the main ones being naturally
that the country is as yet undeveloped,
and that the lines between the rich and
the poor, the competent and the incompe-
tent, arc still underlined, and that the re-
ef,, turlxr nj oh In nd
of "a most si.iubrious and hoalthful eli
mate.
Secondly, Puget sound has a shore line
of /, $50 miles and is dcnsely wooded to
the very edge of tho water with the finest
timber remaining on the North American
continent AT intervals Of few miles all
along this vast boundary are sawmills,
gradually gnawing their way into tho
primeval forest, and tho broad waters of
the sound are constantly covered with i'm
mense booms, or RATS, of great sawlogs
being lowed from the logging camps to
the mills, or ships bearing away to all
parts of the globe the manufactured prod
uct.
Is it any wonder, tho above state %
things existing and the price of sawed
lumber being only 81 per thousand feet,
and sometimes less, with slabs TO DO had
for the taking, that the laborcr who finds
il desirable to build him one of those tenn
porary residences called shacks finds tho
lumber involved in the proposition no
great impediment TO the fullllment of his
wishes. If he cannot find it adrift or
strcwn along the shore ny the tide a days
work will supply the cash necessary for
its purchase. Them with II hammer and
pound or so of nails, the shack Coos mer-
ry up, and at nightiall the builder is no
longer homeless man.
Again, in all the northwestern cities,
moro land is plated than will DO built
upon for 80 or 100 years To como, Seattle,
FOR instance Incorporates slightly less arua
than Chicago, and tho bare places, which,
1t must DO ACKNOWLEDGED, arc usually the
least desirable from residential point of
Wow, are utilized by the shack builder
for such a thing as ground rent is un-
known except ON business streets Then,
again. there is tho water in the bays, full
OF building possibilities, with the best of
foundations eligible, with no more trou-
Die than the rolling together and fastening
OF few of tho great logs which lie un-
claimed in prodigal variety along the
beach. Enough unclaimed and rejected
timber lies cast up on the shores of Puget
sound TO build shacks for the whole army
of unemployed
The bustlng city of Tacoma on Com
mencement bay contains rather more than
the usual proportion of shack jewellers, and
they have become u common phase of the !
life of that city. Most of the shacks here
are occupied by mill laborers-- Tacoma
being large lumber shipping point |
while unmarried workingmen generally do |
not disdain to live in them, and thus save |
BOARD and Enthusiastically more is |
'the plty-to squander the amount in go no |
other way
oiten the shacks are unsightly to
eye' ana rude and primitive in the higheS' |
uegree' out more frequently they are pic |
,uresque and form an attractive feature in |
',ie landscape. Occasionally one is seen |
'hat Is an ideal residence. The writer has |
U ~ across several in Old Town, North |
iucoha, that are charming to look at and |
as convenient and comfortable tn inhabit |
aS much moro pretentious abodes. One in
particular las u latticed porch overgrown |
with honeysuckle, and a rose sprinklod
"ooryard that lisa very Jungle of sweetness.
On tho tide flats at the head of Com.
nhencement bay there Is mammoth saw.
mr. anu near IL the walk skirts a canal
vi rather lagoon--that is, a narrow arm of
o puy penetrating deep into the land
aoi'e one with poetic soul has aptly bap-
',@eu TINS place Little Venice" and here
snaok habitations begin Along this la
sui are some of the quecrest looking,
i,' bizarre and picturesque dwellings
h "ns They arc one story shacks,
,. on massive log RATS and moored to J
S no pahk with huge rusty iron cables
a ra1 are more pretentious, and instead of
soo ale they use great substantial square
ho' Ms 10 build on, and occasionally the
the. are painted with an eye To effect
sn enc. would paralyze Turner or make him
'u,set green with envy.
IT, one ol them is tinted with n combina-
tha, .. dazzling orange and brilliant pink
sca "e gives as tropical tone to the land
o,hpc as II 1t were in Ceylon. On tho
sn dI' nand, the majority Of the shaoks are
sof t', " OF pigment of any kind, and the
or h,a soinner grays of the faded and wealth
TO the eye. 0'e"''"i anu ros'i"i
roons vi these shacks have only ono
conta, out some are more commodious and
70 h several. In this case tho nronrie- |