The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-03-09
WAYSlDE NOTES.
Letter from MAJOR ROBERT DoLLARD.

Los ANGELES, CAL, Feb 81, 1908.
After a short visit to friends in Occur
d Alene, Idaho, a town of such kind
ly, hospitable leanings that bears have
come down from the mountains in
times past and bid for the welcome of
its people, we left Spokane for this city
on the l1th of the present. month by
way of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Sac
ramento and San Francisco and arriv-
ed here on the 18th. AS we left Spo-
kane late in the evening we saw noth-
ing of the fertile fields between that
city and the Cascade range over the
| productlv eness of which our friends in
that city are so enthusiastic, but we
We're compensated by the grandeur
and beauty of the sights in the noun
tains on which our eyes feasted during
the forenoon of the following day until
about ten o'clock when we made our
way out OF them to the agricultural
district lying to the west, between their
base and Seattle, a distance of perhaps
twenty or thirty miles, where green
pastures in which fine milch COWS We're
feeding; thrifty winter gardens, and
boys skating on little ice ponds which
promised to be mud puddles before
night, challenged our curiosity.
Our train backed into Seattle from
town fifteen or twenty miles out and
entered the city on a way built for a
long distance on stills over an extern
sive back bay similar to that Of forty
years ago in Boston, which has since
been filled in and become the most
wealthy and aristocratic quarter Of that
Modern Athens. If Seattle continues
her rate Of progress it requires no pro-
phetic eye to see her following the ex-
ample of Boston before the century
closes.
We reached Tacoma shortly after
noon and on our way there first caught
sight Of Mount Renier, standing solita-
ry and alone in its robe of snow which
seemed to extend from base to summit,
while all the country round was slnil-
ing with spring time promise and the
birds singing their praises as if from
hearts swelling with JOY. The noun
tain seemed to be about three miles
away when we were at Tacoma but we
We're told it was more than sixty.
AS the sun went down, on our jour
ney of the second day we reached the
Columbia river, which had always
imagined was much like the st. Law
renee, with its majestic sweep and
broad and swelling bosom. I say swell
ing bosom for it seemed to me that the
st. Lawrence was higher in the mid
die than on either side as it swept
along in its course to the sea; but the
Columbia suggested no such illusion at
the point where we crossed it although
it compares favorably with other rivers
which have seen from the Hudson to
the Rio Grande. We crossed it on a
ferry boat which took our entire train
over at a single trip, as they used to do
in the civil war days-and may yet
at Havre De Grace, Maryland, on the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti-
more railroad.
We arrived in Portland about an
hour after crossing the river, where we
parted with the Northern Pacific rail
road and shortly after left by the South
ern Pacific for Frisco" as they call
San Francisco out here, a matter of
economy, I suppose, and our journey
during most Of the night and all of the
following day was through the hills of
Oregon and California, mostly timber
ed, with clearings here and there oc-
cupied by towns and little fruit and
larger stock and grain farms, but few
of which impressed us as prosperous,
although an air Of contentment, such
as is usual in mild climates, seemed to
pervade the towns through which we
passed and we guessed the same was
true of the country at large, judging
chiefly from the Indifferent improve
ments which characterized the farming
country and little clearings with cab
in and garden patch. We passed
through some good towns in the hills,
however, such as Gold Fields, Medford
and others, which we supposed We're
built up by prosperous saw mill aud
mining interests.
Crossing the northern border of Cali
fornia we came IN view of Mount Shas-
ia little after midday and reached
its base, as it seemed, about dark al
though we were told we were no near
er than ten miles to the mountain,
which like Mount Renter was buried
in snow from the top well down to.
| wards the hills Of which lit was the
crowning glory. At Shasta Springs. a
| health resort, we drank Of the waters
of the mountain and by shutting of
the memory we could easily imagine
ourselves drinking of the mineral wa.
| terS at some drug store fountain