Evening star., 1900-12-22
DISTANCES ARE DECEPTIVE
STRANGERS FIyD ct DIFFICULT TO
LOCATE HIGsH MOUNTAINS.
Interesting Talk 80 an Internal Rev
enue Agent - His District
in the RNr West.

Mr.. Robert E. Towne formerly. a Wash
in8ton newspaper correspondent, but now
a special internal revenue agent of the
Treasury Department. has been in the city
this week, renewing5old acquaintances. Mr..
Towne's district incfhdes the states and ter
ritories of the far west-California,, Oregon.
Washington, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and
New Mexico. He is loud in his praises Of
the country and climate of the Pacific coast
states, but when it comes to the others he
sings low"
"One of the most Objectionable features
of my district" he said, with the exception
of the Pacific SLOPE is the water. I am
taking great delight in the water in Wash
ington-after it is filtered. of course. You
get nothing In Nevada, Arizona and New
Mexico but strong alkah water, and 1t is
very repugnant to me. The best water In
the west Is to be found in Portland, and L
believe 1t is the finest in the world. 1t
comes from the eternal SHOWS of Mount
Hope, seventy miles east of Portland. The
snow is always melting. and furnishes an
ineXhaustibie supply. The melted snow
flows in great volume into a gigantic
canon. and is conducted from this canon by
an aqueduct to Portland. The city has COM
plete control of the country along the aque-
duct, and no contamination of any kind is
permitted, so that the citizen of Portland
gets his water as pure as when it fell from
heaven in the form of snow.
Distances Deceptive.
mt. Hope is beautiful sight, rising in a
perfectly symmetrical cone to the height of
$1,000 feet 1t is as visible from any house
top in Portland the Washington monu-
ment is visible in Washington. AT times
there is a haze encircling it's base, and then
the great white peak seems to be suspended
In midair, and affords sublime spectacle.
There are seven similar peaks surrounding
Portland. the highest, in addition to Mt.
Hope, being Mt Rainier, called Mt. Taco
ma by the Tacoma people, and lying south
Of Portland, and Mt Adams and Mt. Baker,
north of Portland.
ITO look at these peaks the stranger
never thinks they are more than few
miles distant, yet Mt. Hope is the nearest
of the group, and, as have said it is seven
ty miles away. Another thing that sur
prses the dwellers in the plains is the
extent of territory these peaks cover. Take
Mt Shasta, in California, for the most
striking instance, because a railroad en-
circles it, If you travelling north you
will see the mount directly north of you
early in the morning, apparently only few
miles away All day long you will have the
pleasure of beholdng that stupendous heap p
of rock, and it will not be until late in the
evening that it will begin to fade away to
the south of you. Oh, it's a great country
out there! Why, take Puget sound. 1t is a
regular inland sea. 1t takes a steamer
making eighteen knots an hour whole
day to cross it.
But DlgneSS is not the only attractive
feature of the far northwest. There is the
climate. Snow and storms are unknown
Flowers bloom the whole year round but
just cn this side of the Sierras you have
your ulizzards and your eight and ten-foot
SHOWS. Then there is the great Columbia
river, most noble stream of water. And
the country is full of wide awake energetic
people, and then there such cities as
Portland and Seattle. consider the Pacific
slope one of the choicest spots in the world
consider it from what standpoint you will"
Reduced Rates via PennsyIyania
0Railroad.-Aecount the holidays, excursion
tickets between Washtng ton and Baltimore
Pittsburg, Connellsville. Johnstown, etc,