The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-03-17
Random OBSERVATIONS

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Concluded from page oneJ
than bare shelter from the elements
md so bare as TO hardly be worthy of
the suggestion of shelter The occas-
ional station is rarely more than an
insignificant depot. a lonly dot Oh Il
desert OF lonliness. a desert psade up
of repulsive basaltic rock. sage brush
and here and there dash OF sand,
with an occasional pot hole contain
ing water and wholly without run
ming streams. The country does not
seem to have sufficient vitality to pro-
duce verdue enough to feed a jack
RABBIT, and the pity of it is that the
country must so remain in state of
unprOductivity utnil the crack of
doom.
Pasco is the only station on the
route to which can be applied the
name of town by the widest stretch of
the imagination or the most generous
desire to do the fair thing by the un-
inviting and unihteresting woe-begone
tumble of buildings that here and
there raggedly mark the location of
a station along the way. Some quarter
of century or more ago a hopeful,
optimistic, impetuous booster of
newspaper man formulated the slogan
Keep your eye on Pasco," and that
slogan was so persistently reiterated
that it became almost a household
word. No slogan was ever before Civ
en- such publicity in this state, and if
it did not accomplish it's aim in the
long run, at least it had the effect of
making Pasco known far and wide. II
persistency could accomplish the
making of city the constant repeti-
ton Of Keep Your Eye on Pasco,"
should have built up "a city at the
junction of the Snake and Columbia
rivers that would have -rivaIed Chi
cago. But having no tributary re-
sources necessary for the making Of
city. and especially at the time when
the boom was launched. the hope Of
the originator Of the slogan decayed
We are not saying anything against
Pasco. Pasco is very good sort Of
town as the average town goes. 1t is
quite flOurishing place, but is Who'll
ly, almost wholly, railroad town, and
if the railroads should ever elect to
change the scene of their activities,
which Is not probable, owing to the To-
cation of the place, it would be good
night and goodbye to any future the
population may now expect.
PascO is the backwash of the old
town Of Ainsworth, which lives only
in the memory of the oldest inhabi-
tant. With the permission of the gentle
reader. and it is permission that the
gentle reader cannot help himself or
herself from granting under the cir
cumstances, We shall turn the hands
Of the clock back some 80 years to
the time when we first glimpsed Aims
worth, a clapboard town provided to
accommodate employees of the rail-
road and workers on the bridge, con-
struction Of which had just started,
| was on the east side of Snake river,
and a very warm baby it was judging
from information accumulated from
casual acquaintance made on the
train. At that stage of proceedings in
the building OF great transconltin-
entail road, trains were transferred
across Snake river by huge fertS
boat. AS time went on it was discover
ed that Ainsworth was too "cabin'd,
cribb'd. confind" to permit of the rail-
road placing the necessary trackage.
shops. roundhouses and other build
ings that make up the ensemble of
division point, which 1t was felt neces-
sary to establish at this point on the
line. hence location was selected a
short distance further eastward, on
the banks Of the Columbia, or near
the bank, and as Ainsworth disappear
ed from the map, Pasco sprang into
existence to take its place.
With all due regard for the feelings
OF the good people Of Pasco, for whom
we have only the kindliest feelings.
and admire their pluck for building
up little city under adverse circum-
stances, 1t must be admitted that the
desert OF Sahara has nothing for bar
renness over the country wherein
Pasco is located The triangle formed
by the junction of the Snake and Co.
lumbia rivers is a sandy waste. In the
olden days when Keep your eyes on
Pasco" was in circulation envious
communities were prone to remark:
Yes, keep your eye on Pasco. If you
can keep the sand out of your eyes
long enough to keep your eyes on any
thing" There may have been a squirt
of ascidity in the remark, but condi-
lions justified some such observation.
For sand there was, and sand there is
TO spare. When the wind blows. one
section has the bad habit of shifting
itself over on an adjoining section.
and 1t Is said there have been some fine
questions of the law to settle when
one mans ranch has shifted over on
the ranch of his neighbor, but this re-
port may have eminated from some
local wit given to testing. Anyhow. in
former days it kept large section
crews busy shoveling sand from the
tracks after every stiff blow. and from
experience stiff blowing must be the
lob the clerk Of the weather is con-
stantly on down in that locality. II is
not out of place to state that IL all
other conditions were favorable there
are good reasons why city of consid-
nv 10 wit \