The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-21
Glimpses OF Paradise.


Glimpses OF Paradise.
It Is not wonderful that there is great
enthusiasm among the immigrants from
the East who have settled in this state.
To those who have lived long east Of
the mountains. who have been ground
between the extremes OF summer and
winter temperatures. who have been
housed in discomfort during long winter
months and released to watch for the
funnel-shaped cloud of the cyclone and
N pant for breath in the heat laden air
in summer, a few months in Washing
ton bring glimpses OF paradise.
1t is an old saying that one who
spends a year on this coast loses all de-
sire to return to the Eastern states.
And It In true. Reports from various
sections OF Washington tell OF delight
among all the people who have come
recently to make their homes with us.
They cannot accustom themselves to
this mild yet invisorating temperature,
to the freedom Of movement in the open
air all the year around, to kind skies
and genial earth and all the fulness Of
the perpetual beauty Of the seasons.
1t is only few weeks since we heard
OF furious snow storms everywhere east
Of the Rocky mountains. Fields were
piled high with drifts and city traffic
was blockaded with the feecy nuisance,
while accompanying low temperatures
added suffering TO discomfort. To the
country dweiler these last blows OF lin
serlng winter are most discouraging OF
all. Another term IL added to the long
imprisonment. Highways are impass-
able for weeks. Spring operations are
postponed. and the term of open-air re-
lease is shortened.
Scarcely has the last drift melted
when the torrd heats begin to pour ia
SO fercely that suffocating humanity
signs for winter again. Only last week
there was a hot wave of unprecedented
ferceness for the season lowering over
the entire middle West People were
hroiling and choking. and on the middle
OF May the record of heat prostrations
was opened in the cities. Necessarily
these sudden transitions are aocompa-
MED by violent atmospheric disturb
| ances. and few days ago three people
were killed in ST. Paul during a playful
windstorm. There is not an acre In all
the vast interior basin whose inhabit-
ants, IL there are any are not watching
the heavens daily in an agony OF APP
prehensive terror lest the prince of the
power OF the air swoop down to crush
them
IL is the people who have experienced
these sufrerings OF body and mind who
feel the spring OF relief from that ten
sion. Many of them have tourneyed far
! and long Perhaps they left New Eng.
| land FIRST. because its barren hills no
longer offered living. and they were
tempted to the fat valleys beyond the
Appalachian range. They found fertile
soil In Indiana or Illinois. but they
| found also an insupportable climate.
| Heat tortured them. malaria reduced
them 10 skeletons. To escape that they
| followed the immigration assent to the
| plains Of the Dakotss There they look
| I'd out upon maddening monotony.
| varied chiefly by the blizzard OF winter
ana the cyclone of summer And they
| lourneyed on.
These pilgrims greet the Joys Of Wash
! ington with unaffected wonder and sur
prise. All their first year they are wait.
ing expeetaut OF the discovery OF this
country and climates particular draw
back. something. they think, there must
be here to discourage and dismay. as
| there has been everywhere else When
they have watched the green OF woods
and fields through winter, when they
have exulted In the cool ana refreshing
hreeaes of summer when they have
seen the liberal earth yield her fuiness
| and learned To fear no evil from the
| placid sky, then at last they believe that
| this is no soothing dream They realize
what Washington 10. and like the old