The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-02-09
Across the American Cont
nent.

one hundred railroad laborers on the boat.
1t is my intention to see as much OF
human nature as do of the country on
this trip. l have with me bundle Of
literature given me COR distribution by
different societies for the elevation of
humanity. l look over this crowd of
laborers to see who could appreciate it.
Each has his bundle Of bedding; some
are asleep; some playing cards; some
making silly talk; some talking in for
eign language. Many are filling the air
with tobacco smoke. One man said he
was brought up among Congregational
lists, and that they were all right, but
since leaving home he had come in con-
tact with so many men who used religion
as cloak for misdeeds that he preferred
to cast his lot with the outside world.
Another man had good supply of litera-
ture teaching that none but the righteous
exist after death.
While in Portland | attended Friends
church. A holiness man, converted
cowboy evangelist, preached on the sub
iect of Pentecost, which he claimed was
the time when the disciples became sane
tilted.
After being absent from my native
State more than twentyfour years, l
started on the homeward journey from
Portland, Oregon, January Is, 1911, at 9
a. m. We had had drizzly rain for
couple of days and the little rivulets from
the hillsides We're full of water. 1t was
evidently showing in the mountains, as
train we met on the bridge across the
Columbia was loaded with snow.
We have had a fine winter with very
little snow Apples have kept in open
buildings at Husum within fifteen miles
of Mt. Adams. | have with me apples
raised on my own land, which was cover
ed with native forest ten years ago.
| have broken up several hundred acres
of Dakota prairie but left it on account
of the uncertainty of the climate. |
have three sons, either Of whom can do as
much work as ! can; daughter who can
cook their food, and wife who reads the
latest and most popular ladies papers.
We have an intelligent bachelor neighbor
who says that the ladies papers will be
the ruin of this country, for they place
before Us a standard of living adapted to
the more wealthy classes
Those in the lower walks of life who
attempt to live on scale adapted to
those III more highly favored circum-
stances make all progress impossible.
I have just been visiting friends in the
city, who like to spend one third of their
earnings for rent. Providing for fami
ly on this scale makes the accumulations
for old age far too small. While one
might lose some friends by renting a
more humble home it would be prefer
able to being compelled to occupy more
humble home in old age. This is doubt
less one of the reasons why the country
boy succeeds better in the city than the
boy who is raised there. He is enured
to hardships and privations.
While in Portland called at the First
National Bank, which with its eighty
employees reminds one of an immense
hive of bees gathering honey. The de- J
partment stores are fully as striking an
example of industry, but their transac-
tons are mostly in smaller values. While
in the U. S. Land Office on business the
man told me had better go to see my
mother while | could. thought he was
right.
As we assembled the Columbia on the
North Bank Railroad, constructed within
the last few years, thought of the poor
early settlers who padded down the
river to be entertained by Mclaughlin,
the Father of Oregon. Some of them
did not even take the time to land and
drag their frail boats around the rapids
at the Cascades. Even now, with the
locks there, it is sometimes hard for
boat to cross the rapids below the locks
when the water is high. On my trip
down on the boat l heard passengers
tell of attempting to go up during high
water. The boat went just so far every
time, and being carried back by the cur
rent they were obliged to return. The
day was so cloudy that we did not get
much scenery, but had fine view of Mt.
Hood on the way down last Saturday.
The wooded ridge along the river bank
obscured the lower half of the mountain,
but the evening sun shining on the ever
greens, partially covered with snow, and
On the snow clad mountain summit, made
picture long to be remembered.
F arm land remote from cities and
towns is about as high in price in the
vicinity of White Salmon and Hood River
as in any part of the United States, be-
cause here are being raised some of the
largest orchards in the world In most
localities but small share of the land is
Gle AIRED. Along the road from White
Salmon to Husum the land has mostly
been cleared within the last ten years
an in a few years more will be one con-
tinuous orchard, owned largely in five and
ten acre tracks. A good apple tree will