The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-05-12
William Tell
The Pacific Coast Climate.
All is not Sunshine There Spring on the
Shores of Puget Sound. The Military
Posts An Fasteners Longing for Home.

All is not Sunshine There. Spring on the
Shores of Puget Sound. The Military
Posts. An Fasteners Longing for Home.
Correspondence of The Journal
FORT FLAGLER, WASHINGTON, April,
1910. The spring days are passing with
somewhat monotonous regularity at Fort
Flagler, and fail to find exciting themes
worth recording, but as ''the weather.
is a never failing topic of conversation to
barren minds bring it forth in time of
dearth, thinking some Of The Journal
readers might be interested to know
something of what it is like over here on
the opposite edge of the continent, in far
Washington. The natives never cease
extolling it; yes, and some Fasteners
who have settled here of late years are
quite as foolish, but l meet many others
who are homesck as little stray dogs,
longing only to get back to the delights
of old New England. q might say Incl
IDENTIFY that your correspondents name
should head the list of the latter Glass;
Now about climate Having lived here
on Puget Sound some seventeen months.
feel quite capable of speaking from ex-
perience. We had no cold weather or
frozen ground in this locality through
the winter. While the glistening tops of
the Olympic and Cascade ranges nearly
encircled our horizon, and we read of
terrible snow-slides in February with
most disastrous results, dashing whole
trains down mountain sides to tie buried
under hundreds of feet of snow and Ice,
, we knew nothing more serious along the
Sound than heavy frosts and couple of
inches of hail and sleet. which fell one
night but quickly melted and was gone.
Hardy plants in our garden kept green
with no covering and the lawns were
fresh as summer. The first of March
rose bushes leaved out, jonquils, daffo-
dis and all kinds of bulbs began bloom
ing; my primroses were like mound of
snow, and now, in the first part of April,
the garden beds are filled with many
bright flowers from perennials that re-
NAMED in the ground. Houseplants have
been set out and the lawns clipped three
times, while the air is filled with the
notesiofs,the meadow larks and robins.
Our old friends the crows remain with
US all winter, of course, and in myriads,
getting their living mostly along the
shores of the Sound with the gulls, wild
ducks and brant, feeding on shell fish
and the waste from the Forts, which is
dumped into the waters.
Now, loyal Maine-te that am, | must
admit that all this is something Of an
improvement on the Eastern winters
butt have not mentioned the Fly in
the ointment" and good-sized one it is,
too, in my estimation.
Incessant rain! Yes, rain, in torrents
deluges, ssdrizzles, mists; but rain, always
and.everlastingly, with dismal skies, and
even more dismal spirits, while l care
fully examine each night the condition
of my feet, knowing full well ] must of
surety become web footed" if | re-
main much longer in this country. We
also have a great deal of cold beating
wind at times, and | often wonder that
the little green things and bright bios
SONS. have the heart to hold up their
heads and keep on persevering. | am
reminded often of days l once spent in
Los'Angeles, (for it is not all sunshine
there, although l agree with your cor
respondent, Mr.. Brown, that that sec
ton of country is the nearest perfection
of any spot one can find for home)
when for days and days at time we
never saw the sun through the dense
fogs; so dense that one could not see
ten feet ahead of them, and it ran in
streams from the buildings and walks
like rain. The deadly chill of those cold
sea-fogs would pierce to the bone, and
everyone who could not hover over
warm kitchen fire was shivering in their
rooms, enveloped in all their available
wraps, with gas jets turned on full blast
in an attempt to make rooms habtable;
for although the city is thronged the
year round with tourists, and it is their
money which is building up the place,
no property owner or those conducting
lodgings and fats-and everyone having
a tenement of three or four rooms inva-
riably let's out one or more-makes any
allowance for the comfort of their guests,
and scarcely lodging can be found in
the city outside Of the hotels with the
convenience of heating stove, thing
fully as necessary there as in colder
climate. It is case with them of
"get all of your money possible, and
give asilittle as possible in return"
have known it to rain there twenty-one
days on a stretch, and cold shivering
days they were, too, as can attest, and