Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-20
version. And for this reason farming is

version. And for this reason farming is
becoming more and more popular.
The electric roads are taking away a
good deal Of the local passenger business
from the steam railway, but they de-
velop the territory and create traffic. and
steam railway managers tell me that they
invariably recover the second year all
the business lost the first and get an in
The majority of farmers will nowadays
refuse to buy land unless it is on or near
a trolley line.
The Hartman interests, the Canadian
Pacific, the Hill people, the Milwaukee
and st. Paul and other trunk lines have
surveying parties in the field locating
feeders to their main tracks. While their
operations are conducted with more or
less secrecy, everybody knows that GER
tain routes have been selected and that
tracks will be laid in the immediate flu
ture. The word has been passed around
that the death Of Mr.. Hartman will
make no difference with Improvements
and extensions Of the Southern Pacific,
the RreRon Railroad and Navigation, the
Oregon Short Line, the Oregon and Wash
ington and other roads that were con-
trolled by him. These plans were laid
out and the policy was formulated long
ago, and the expansion movement was
not abandoned, but was only temporarily
arrested by the panic Of 1907
A Railroad Mystery.
There is a railroad mystery up here.
The North Coast Railroad Company is
building a line Of tracks directly across
Washington and Oregon from Spokane to
Portland without following the valley of
the Columbia and other rivers like the
Hill and Hartman roads, and is running
branches north and south into the inte-
rior of both states, which will open up q
large and important agricultural coun-
try. 1t also has surveyed q route from
Spokane to Seattle, and is surveying and
But who Is behind the enterprise nobody
knows The sole visible representative
is r. E. Strahorn of Spokane, man OF
considerable wealth personally and con-
siderable experience as a promoter and
contractor in railway enterprises, but his
private means are not sufficient to justify
his comprehensive plans, and nobody has
been able to discover who Is backing him.
He makes drafts on banks in New York,
Chicago, Seattle Portland, San Francis
CO and other cities, and they are al
ways promptly paid. and people think
that he has scattered his sources Of sup
plies so as to multiply the mysteries.
Various means have been adopted to un-
amined on the witness stand in con-
demnation proceedings as to the source
of his financial strength, but he invaria-
bly, refuses to crafty public curiosity,
and explains that he is using his own
money He has been charged up to Har-
tor Clark, Gould interests the milwaukee
and st. Paul, the Chicago and North
western, and almost every other railway
company and individual that is suspected
Of western aspirations. but they all plead
not guilty and Mr.. Strahorn continues
to smile.
Leveling the City.
1t is asserted that 20 per cent of thu
city of Seattle has already been washed
out of It's natural position ant
hauled away by leveling hills upon which
it is built and that 20 per cent more viii
20 before the leveling process is com
pleted. Nature never intended that q
city should stand on the site of Seattle
but human energy and ingenuity is re
ducing the heights and filling the hol
lows and already half as much dirt hal
changed positions as in the Canal Zon,
of Panama.
It is interesting to watch them do it
Seattle covers an area OF eighty-twt
square miles. which should make New
York feel very insignificant. If this ares
the four boundaries would each be min,
miles long. but the limits are very irreg
ular and they embrace successive ridge.
and hills, valleys, ravines and occasional.
ly level spot Of ground. Several year.
ago. when every body had to climb one
steep hills to go home, the city father.
decided that leveling process would i'm
prove appearances and save time and
trouble, hence they undertook to reduce
the elevation and fill up the gaps. This
has been done by a process similar tt
Streams of water with an immense pres.
sure have been thrown AGAINST the hill,