The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-04-05

| of the Southern Pacific to come in
here via Drain and take a course
thence down the coast. Workmen this
winter have been constructing three
tunnels on the line and in the spring
, 1t 10 expected that active construction
work will begin Hartman appears to
be using his best endeavors to keep
this coast to his own use, but the trend
OF other systems west does not prom.
lse him a permanent monopoly, and
Coos bay will certainly be chosen by
one or more of them as a Pacific ter
minus. 1t Is the best harbor on the
coast between the Puget sound and
the Golden Gate and has advantages
over even them and 1t cannot always
remain isolated as 1t now u.s. Portland
is so far from the coast and IL costs
so much to keep the Columbia dredged
that 1t will be a wonder II Coos bay
does not rival 1t some Of these days.
Not only that-a glance at the map
will show that Coos bay and the Co
guile river are not far off of a line
running west from New York, taking
In Toledo, Chicago, Davenport and
Burlington, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt
Lakeland which might with propri-
ETY. be termed the zone of wonderful
achievement and development. This
is the natural port for vast stretch
of virgin country in Oregon and states
to the east that have scarcely been
touched, as yet. 1t is the outlet for
the klamath Falls country and will
surely be opened wide some day. With
its wealth of timber, coal, fruit and
garden possibilities its mild and equ-
able climate and other remarkable ad-
vantages the Coos bay country is cer-
tain to be heard from in the future
and many are getting In on the ground
floor. The development has not been
slow, considering the isolation of the
country. Without a railroad to con-
meet it with the outside world the
Coos bay country maintains five nice
towns ranging in population from l.
600 to above 1000 and all of them are
growing and have grown since first
established. We have two advantages
over San Francisco There have been
no earthquakes in this section and we
have great coal fields that the Califor-
mia city does not possess as requisite
for great seaport. Seattle is ahead
in development, but she is worse off
in the matter of storms and resultant
shipwrecks.
G. A. Smith, the great Minneapolis
lumberman, has just acquired valuable
numbering property in this section.
He is quoted as saying that there is
five times as much lumber within a
radius of seventy-five miles of Coos
bay, as has been cut in Minneapolis
in the past fifty years and Minneapolis
is known as 'the sawdust city That
is a strong statement, surely. Certain
it is that this section will some day
produce the lumber for the balance of
the country. That with it's coal fields,
its fisheries, it's agricultural and dairy
ing interests, it's fine climate and it's
commercial possibilities is bound to
develop manufactures and with them
cities.
The climate is simply great. There
is plenty of rain in the winter time,
but that is endurable-the people here
long for it to rain when there is much
weather without it and we are getting
acclimated enough to cordially acqui-
esce. 1t may be that rainy weather is
the natural thing in the winter time
anyway there is less sickness and bet
ter spirits among the people when it
is raining A day or two of snow and
frost is all we have had this winter
while in the summer there are but
very few days that are uncomfortably
warm and even then the shade and
the nights furnish GOODNESS verging on
the chilly. Roses are in bud, flowers
in bloom, early vegetables are we'll ad-
vanced toward maturity, grass Is a
foot high where 1t is not pastured;
fruit trees of the early variety are in
full bloom and others budding this ear
ly in the season. They do not think
of protecting water pipes here They
run on top of the ground or just under
the surface. The houses too are not
built to keep out the cold. doubt If
there is lathed and plastered build
ing in town unless 1t is the brick
blocks. The house we occupy is built
of upright boards on the inside with
rustic" or weather boarding nailed
horizontally on the outside. It Is inno-
cent of studding except for the cell
ing and roof. People in such house
in Nebraska would surely suffer from
the cold-and the heat-if it didn't
blow over into the next township in
the first windstorm-but we have not
been uncomfortable and most of the
time In the winter we have but kitch-
en- fire going Most of the houses are
built differently, however They have
zx4 uprights with flooring for inside
walls and rustic on the outside.
Cheese cloth is tackled on the inside
and wall paper Is pasted on that. The
outside is, of course, painted and most
of the houses are kept neatly painted.
Fuel to heat dozen Norfolks goes
to waste or is burned in This vallav