East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-04-07

reaching here at midnight March 2S,
in the midst of a snOwstorm.
Not knowing the town I stopped in
lodging house that was very bum"
Next morning, on asking for a res
taurant. was told they were half a
mile up town. A young man sent me
into one which he said was all right.
but it was about like a China noodle
joint in Pendleton.
The town Is short on good hotels
and l have not seen first-class res
taurant in town; and right here let
me say I have not been offered NUT
| ton in Southern Oregon, and have
seen but one sheep in a butcher shop
in the whole country.
Ashland is surrounded on the north,
east and south. and partly on the
west by mountains. 1t is too narrow
at the bottom to be called a valley
and not abrupt enough to be called
canyon.
The people claim to have the best
water in the United States and of all
the big fish stories which they have
told me, I am disposed to give the
most credence to this. 1t is certainly
great" and the pressure sufficient
to raise the water about 800 feet
| higher than the Pendeton reservoir.
The rate, I hear. is 81 per month
during the winter and $1.25 per
month during the summer, and irri-
gate all you want to.
1 have made no effort to learn any
: thing Of In hue
| tistics of incomes. etc. I shall con-
fine myself to my Individual impress
sions for the benefit of my friends
who are thinking of coming here. In
a business way am not very favora-
/ bly, impressed. This seems to be a
town of small stores, but fots of
/ them.
/ Competition must be pretty sharp.
/ yet, strange to say, prices are held
up well. The necessities of life are
as high as in Pendleton, or higher
even in the fruit line. A box of real
/ ly good apples will cost as much or
more here as there. and dried fruit
nearly so.
| do not see any country around
| to support the stores, yet they all
claim to be doing very well. and as
none of them have offered to sell
out to me I must believe them.
/ There is a good opening here for
a good woodward man, as they depend
on the precarious supply from the
] ranches, and wood ranges from about
| Sc now, to IS in the winter.
There is also a chance here now for
a practical laundry man with some
/ means.
/ For a home. where sober man
wants to live and really enjoy life
and a family, the town is head and
shoulders above any place ever
saw.
The climate is superb and the moral
atmosphere clean and healthy The
saloon and the saloon element with
all of its attendant evils, are absent.
The people on the streets are quiet.
orderly and friendly. I do not know
whether they have any policemen or
/ not I have seen none. nor any occa-
sion for one in the five days 1 have
been here.
Nearly every denomination under
the sun has a church here and they
! are remarkably fraternal
There are many comfortable resi-
dences here, but they will not COM
pare with the north side of Pendleton
nor with many of the new houses in
| the bottom. They speak of a building
boom here, but it is a very mild
boom as compared with Pendleton.
This is a fruit country. first, last and
all the time. More peaches are
raised than anything else but a good
many cherries pears small fruit,
some prunes and apples.
The peach crop is badly hurt, rang
ing from total failure in some sec
tions to fair crop in others
Close in, with some improvements.
land is worth from $400 to $1,000 per
acre. Further out, less; but still
very high still with three or four
acres or even less, of the right kind
of land, I believe man can make a
comfortable living.
I find that there is a feeling here.
that Weston and Eastern Oregon are
not friendly to the Normal school
here; that they are disposed to unite
with its enemies to the extent of de-
manding line along the Cascades
making an eastern and western dis
trict with but two schools, one at
Weston and the other at Monmouth
or Portland.
1 hope there is no foundation for
this belief. AS many of your readers
know, l spent many years in Eastern
Oregon and my home is there yet. l
had some small share in building up
her schools, having taught many
terms of school in various parts Of
that country.
The people of Umatilla county once
honored me with the position of
school superintendent, and no one
can consistently charge me with being
unfriendly to that section, but hope
my mind is not so narrow as to be
bounded by mountain ranges, or
bound down by political cliques or
parties.
l see no reason for changing the
opinion expressed in a former com
munication in regard to the Drain
normal It appears to be nothing but
a local high school, and even the con-
ditions which made 1t that, have to
some extent ceased TO exist, and its
situation and surroundings are not
such as to warrant hope of 1t ever