The Republican journal., 1901-09-19
LETTER FROM SEATTLE.

lions apply to most cities and towns OF
the newer portions of our country.
The frontier" has steadily advanced
westward until lost in the broad ex-
panse of the wide Pacific, and, to
some, all west of the Mississippi is sub
ject to. the 'wild-and- woolly' appella-
ton. The wild-and-woolly cowboy
kind may still be found in sparcely set
tied sections of the great plains, but in
the towns and cities of the Pacific
coast states they are as rare as in the
cities and towns of the Mississippi and
the further East. The cities of the
Pacific slope are made up of the pro-
gressive and energetic young business
men Of the oyercrowded East, and of
Europe, may be, who. have brought
with them the intelligence and fore
sight of business, education and ex-
perience, here to develop and exploit
the wonderful resources of this new
country, unhampered by adverse condi-
lions prevailing in the older States and
communities.
First, the climate: No climate could
be more congenial and conducive to
active business enterprise, with none
of the extreme conditions prevailing in
other sections of the country, against
which one-half of mans energies seem
necessarily expended for mere exis-
tence's sake. With no fear of a season
OF biting cold and chilling winds even
though so poor as to be but lily Clad no
fear of suffering from cold need occupy
ones thoughts-no fear by the better
housed that poor families will be in dis
tress because of the rigors of winter.
The heat of summer, tempered by
westerly winds sweeping in from the
broad Pacific ocean and other cooling
breezes waited down from snow clad
mountain tops; the summers sun
smiles brightly down and causes no ap-
prehension of suffering-the warmth
of a benignant smile, whose radiance is
never here lent to suffering of human
kind nor to destruction of crops and
foliage.
Genial, healthful, hopeful climate!
with no terrors lurking in the storm
cloud, and where all nature seems but
just and kind.
And the people? Cosmopolitan to a
large extent, in fact and in ideas. True,
many puritanic blue-laws of the older
East are either ignored or at least bit
faded and frazeled from exposure, and
thus secret vice is apparently thereby
lessened. There are no prohibitoryStates
on the Pacific coast, and none very
near it. OF course the average prohibit
ZIONIST will hold up his hands and pro-
claim, ga fearful condition must there
prevail, where men get liquors unre-
strainedn' Well, the writer was once a
rank prohibitionist and is still a tee
totaler; but he now differs with the
average prohibitionist' in some of his
radical views
While saloons throughout the far
west may be as plentiful as grocery
stores and where it is no disgrace to
enter and 'liquidate," if so disposed, an
eastern prohibitionist, if fair, would be
astonished to see the degree of sobriety
prevailing under high license in great
crowds and on general public occasions.
A neighbor city-the second in size in
our State-held great street fair in
| 4 n1ncinu ri;
Saturday night, subject to all the fol
lies and foibles which an unrestrained
and frolicsome people may possess.
With the public streets filled with merry
rolsterers, hundreds in masque, accom-
panied by every noise imaginable,
drunkenness was wholly absent I do
not mean that no one had been drink
ing; no, but liquors and light drinks be-
ing easily obtainable. there was no ten
dency to get ''gloriously drunk simply
because there was a hot time in the old
town that night! There is certain
sense of self-respect which pervades a
people not angered by hampering and
restrictive laws, which makes even the
moderate drinking man a natural
guardian of the peace. The drunk is
tabooed; an intoxicated man is not
tolerated in an even semi-respectable
gathering.
Given a town ten thousand people,
on the street, crowding, jostling, josh
ing, serenading each other with tin
horns, rubbernecks, confetti-throw-
ing; hat-tossing, strangers one to the
other, with entire good nature prevail
ing, and no rowdyism, nor anger, nor
strife, only for sport, and no cause for
arrest! well, what does the average
| prohibitions" Of the East think of
| such things being possible in the re-
| hottest cities of our land?
! / think it must be all due to our su-
| perior climate! Here man need not
feel compelled to fill up on gin to keep
out the extreme heat of summer, nor
to stuff his hide with fire-water to coun-
teract the biting frosts of winter. He
simply ''irrigates" when thirsty, or
when water taps are scarce-and posi-
| bly at times when a certain dark brown