The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-31

& 3 EN- years Of life IN Scatter
There's magnificent theme

for you. A decade taken
out OF the last century be.
fore the first cycle Of 400
years Of the Christian era II completed
Ten years that saw the republic grow from
an insular nation, 30 to speak, to one OF
the great powers Of the world: that be-
held the arc Of commerce and OF progress
between the old and the new world
SPAWNED by tho mighty agency Of Q free
race Of men: o,s ana ina. saw inc rac en-,
derness to an imperial position. and OF
first Importance to the new relations OF
the United States with the Orient's mill
lions
To write the history of America during
this decade, now ended, one must also
great virgin empire Of limitess possi-
bihties. To write the story Of Seattle DUR
ing that ten years, the most momentous
in the history Of the Northwest states. one
IL tempted to remember the day. forty
seven years ago. when the first pioneers
on Puget sound landed on the farther
shores Of Elliott bay and there planted the
seed OF what was to develop into tree Of
magnificent proportions.
But while pioneer life in King county
and Washington is to have no place In
this article. yet 1t IL impossible to forget
that the strong young life that was
crushed to earth a decade ago, that tri-
umphed over what seemed insurmountable
obstacles and. you might say, by the very
strength OF the opposing circumstances at
tanned wonderful destiny. was born when
Arthur Denny's frail craft plowed q
narrow crevice in the sand at Aiki point
half century ago.
NROBABLY nine out Of ten business
men and old settlers win tell you
that the fire made Seattle, state
mkt k>1S lob A<Sweo 40
one who does not know the grit Of the
people who pioneered Puget sound. And
the tenth business man or pioneer will adj
init. at least, that the burning Of the city
In 1888, when II was q struggling growth
Of frame and brick structures, without
form or symmetry, had great deal to do
with the building Of what ID today the
handsomest. most enterprising and most
progressive city OF the whole Northwest.
Ten years ago the people Of Seattle were
yet quivering from the blow that fate
dealt them when the city was laid low and
in the place OF hundreds Of what seemed
then handsome structures there was only
smoke and ruins. Out Of the ashes, to be
sure. had sprung Arm resolve and
boundless determination to make the city
over again and even grander than be-
FORE But money was needed to do this
and men who had before seen their as
sets constantly accommodating day by day,
and their liabilities diminishing in proper
ton. were confronted with the absolute
necessity OF going into debt to get the
money to build the new and greater city.
hish hopes and firm resolves, together
with resolutions passed by mass meetings
amid smOuldering ruins, do not pay inter-
est charges or make thin community q
prosperous one. The newcomer OF today
cannot well understand the long struggle
that followed the day when the handsome
new brick and stone structures Ranking
First and Second avenues were finished
and ready for tenants. Long the waiting
seemed. perhaps. to many and tedious the
process OF slow growth, for when the first
energy had spent itself there was nothing
to do but to bide the time until the city
came to the destiny that every old settler
believed was foreordained.
~ SPIRIT Of cooperation, of rnutual-
IN ity of interest; logged determiua-
ton to- stick together through good
times and bad and ever and always a long
and strong pull for Seattle were the
agencies that made this city great. This
was shown Immediately after the fire; 1t
was manifested at every critical period in
the city's history during the next succeed
Ing two years and when, In 1893. the finan-
cial fabric Of the nation trembled and
wrecks We're strewn everywhere from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, the people of Sc
attic got together and staid together
through the whole storm. And the black
summer of 1893 left less scars in Seattle
than in any city OF the West.
While the dullest OF dull times followed
the disasters Of 1893. Seattle was instinct
with life; not on the surface to be sure,
but that slow but ever certain process of
the survival OF the fittest was being worked
out in the Northwest. Townsites that had
been projected on a gigantic scale. as the
termini of various railroads, underwent the
shrinking process which their mushroom
origin made certain would come about IN
time. The country settled slowly, but when
ever a hamlet was established along the
wooded shores of the Sound, or when a
prospector's adventurous pick unearthed a
ledge of gold In the Cascades or on the
farther side Of the divide, and founded a
new camp, another link was forged in Sc
attle's chain Of commerce and Of business
enterprise.
Thus 1t came about easily that when the
sun of better day dawned in the East,
it shed its first rays through the passes in
the Cascades and they fell upon the city
of Seattle. BY that time, the merchants
Of this city had established for all time the
commercial supremacy of Seattle in the
Northwest, in British Columbia and lastly
in Alaska.
MO resume Of the last decade of Seat
IN ties life would be half finished with
out a reference to George Carmack's
golden find on the moss grown banks Of
Bonanza creek, in the Klondike district of
the Northwest Territory The tide had
turned in the summer Of 1897. but when
the steamer Portland, laden with a golden
million, steamed into the harbor Of Elliott
bay July II, 1897, 1t came at full flood.
From every state in the Union eager for
tune-hunters came to Seattle. The rush
to Australia and the .stamepede to Cal1for-
mia In 1s49 were outdone. But better than
all, perhaps, was the settlement of the va