Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-08-05
Letters from Home, Written
by Resident of Salem to
Annie Body Back East

long, and on one end of it will be the
name of the railroad company that
maintains the two streaks of rust which
connect the village you call home with
the outside world, and on the other end
of it will be the name Of the Southern
Pacific.
You'll get off the transcontinental
at Portland, and pretty soon you II ask
somebody what time the next train goes
down to Jalem, and by that token
they'll know you're a green easterner.
Because, my dear girl, trains don't go
down to Salem from Portland. They go
up. And when you leave Portland for
Salem you re going up in spite of any
belief you may nurture to the contrary.
There s no use in trying to argue the
question.
But here's what 1 was going to tell
you: When the gentlemanly announcer
on the train that brings you up to Sa-
lem tells you the end of your journey
is reached, and you step down and out,
don't faint. Brace yourself. Youll
take slant at the depot and think you
are in Hickville, honest you will. / IN
putting you hep to this because first
impressions are sometimes serious.
You remember when old Bill Nicker-
sen s horse won big piece of the mon
ey at the county fair few years ago
old Bill felt so good about it that he
built special stable for the animal.
! The Southern Pacific depot in Salem
looks q good deal like that stable. 1t 8
an Improvement on the ordinary stable,
and that's about the best you can say
| for it.
Don't ask me why the Southern Pa
cific doesn Y build a new passenger de-
pot here. / don't know. 1t isn't be-
cause they haven I had an invitation.
After you get past the depot you II
get along fine. Salem is q good old
burg that drowsed along for 40 or so
years without doing anything much.
Then it woke up suddenly and went
ahead fast. 1t went ahead so fast that
it almost busted its boiler. Land spec
ulators flooded the east with stories of
opportunity and told of the climate and
promised things right and left. The
stories about the climate were true.
| People came out from the east, slath-
ers of 'em. The town gained more than
three hundred per cent in population
in 10 years. 1t left the surrounding
country far behind. If there is anything
the matter with Salem this is it.
tell you this so you won't have to
waste time asking why SO many houses
are for rent.
But just the same il Is the best towI
to live in that ever was. There's lot
of nice folks here. Quite few of ZEN
admit il frankly. The only people that
hurry are the ones who have bills, eth
er payable or receivable, and as near al
can make out most of 'em are pay
able. This will change after a time
There are great many less people liv
ing on climate now than was the cas-
few months ago. Climate, even {
nice climate like this one, gets tiresom
as an article Of diet.
And speaking of climate, don't yol
believe all the stories you hear abou
the rain. For the most part the raj
here ism 4 wet. OF course it IS dampisf
and this year it's been sort of faithful
to its job, Dut--and this is honest in
J iun-I'ye been out in II for full da.
| and not got so wet as ] we been afte
] 10 minutes walk with old stutterinl
Tim Rawlings. Tim was the CORES
pondent at Tinkertown for the paper
was with in those days. He couldn
write, so he used 20 come in and delive
the news orally, and when the stuff