Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-09-08

tendent of construction is employed
by the government, and when asked
about the possibility of Doodle, he
said: "That is one thing, at least. in
which we excel you Americans, we
permit no such thing as Doodle in
the public service"
These public buildings face on
James Bay, and will present mag
niticent appearance when the spacious
grounds are finished off with lawns,
flowers and shrubbery.
10 Fones ought to come up here and
take lesson in cutting grass and
keeping lawns, and at the same time
he could show the bloomin' Brltishers
how to trim their shrubs. We saw
no shrubbery here that could compare
with that in Oregon, and conclude
that the climate is not so favorable
for it. Private lawns here are fine,
but little taste is shown in the ar
rangement or selection OF flowers.
Most people have high board fences
around their places, ,whichto an extent
hide their bad taste in Horticulture
and landscape gardening.
Dunsmuir castle is the only home
here that presents the appearances Of
royalty 1t Is a beautiful stone resi-
dence in the center of about 20 acres
of land in the west side Of the city.
but it is not occupied by any of the
nobility. The owner was old man
Duns muir, who is no more, and while
he lacked the royal blood, he was a
coal baron and worth millions. This
is regarded with as much favor
however, as blue blood.
Victoria has scores of miles of good
macadamized streets and roads. She
is now on the eve of an election to au-
authorize loan of 100000 for more
good roads. The sidewalks here are
very poor, being Of flag stones and
wood, with little regularity in their
construction. The streets are mostly |
of broken rock. All over the city can |
be seen painted and placarded, las well |
as pasted on bill boards: "Vote for
good roads," This is interspersed with
the legends: "Drink Oirish whisky"
and "Single tax" What these propo-
sitions have to do with each other is
unknown to the tourist, but the fact
that they are all given due considera-
tion is constantly in evidence.
There is still great complaint of
hard times here as we'll as in Oregon,
although the Kiondicitis is relieving
the stress to some extent. Strange to
say, the people here don't attribute
this to the Cleveland administration,
lack of tariff or the silver craze. They
account for it, to some extent, by poor
crops, low prices, unfavorable sealing
arbitration and other causes, among
the rest the lack of liberal govern
ment. British Columbia is the
one colony at present that
has the only conservatives
in the national parliament all the
other colonies being Liberal and hav-
lug Liberal local government. 1t is
thought by many here that Mr.. Tur-
ner, the present conservative premier,
will be succeeded by Liberal. AS
everywhere else, the Sins" are apol-
oqizing for their administration and
the "outs" are sure that change is
needed for relief from all manner OF
draw backs.
Wages nave been very low here aid
work scarce, but the gold excitement
is relieving both conditions TO some
extent. Laboring men now get Sl.hO
per day when they work, and me-
chanics about $3.50. They only work
nine hours day The Chinese are
numerous here, and take the lead in
fishing, packing and otheri