Year: 1871

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mate almost exactly the same as that of
New York, except that, with less snow,
cattle, in the larger portion Of it, can
subsist on the open range in winter.
Here, if climate and fertility Of soil pro-
duce their natural result, when railroad
facilities open this now isolated region to
settlement, will soon be seen waving grain
fields, and happy homes, and growing
towns while ultimately Gordon ofpros-
porous States, teeming with population,
and rich in industry and consequent
wealth, will occupy that now undeveoped
and almost inaccessible portion of our con-
tinental area.


But this Road is fortunate also in its
pathway across the two ranges Of noun
tains which tested SO severely the Pacific
Railroads built on the central line, and
the overcoming Of which reflected such
well deserved honor on their energetic
builders. At the Deer Lodge Pass in
Montana, where it crosses the Rocky
Mountains, its altitude above the sea is
$500 feet less than the Union Pacific
Railroad at Sherman, which is said to be
the highest point at which locomotive
can be found in the world. And on the
Pacific side of the Continent it is even
more fortunate. From Arizona up to
the Arctic Circle the Columbia is the
only river which has torn its way through
that mighty range, the Andes Of North
America, which in California is known
as the Sierras, but which in Oregon chan
ges its name to the Cascades. Nature
has thus provided a pathway for the
Northern Pacific Road through these
mountains, the scaling of which, on the
other line, at an elevation of over seven
thousand feet "a most wonderful triumph
Of engineering), cost the Central Pacific
company millions of dollars, and COM
PEELED them. for seventy miles, to main
tain grade of over one hundred feet to
the mile twice the maximum of the
Northern Pacific at the most difficult
point on its entire route.


1t is fortunate, also, in its terminus on
the Pacific coast, No one who has not
been there can realize the beauty Of Pu-
get sound and its surroundings. One
hundred miles long, but so full of inlcts
and straits that its navigable shore-line
measures seventeen hundred and sixty
miles, dotted with lovely islets, with gi-
gantc trees almost to the waters edge,
with safe anchorage everywhere, and
stretching southwark, without shoals or
bars, from the Straits of Fuca to the cap
ital and centre Of Washington Territory,
it will be a magnificent entrepot for the
commerce of that grandest ocean of the
world, the Pacific. The Land
Grant of the United States, exceeds Fifty
Millions of acres in the winter-wheat
region of our nation (ten times as large
as the area of Massachusets) is doubtless
sufficient for the Road but, besides this,
millions of private means are already in
vested in it. The bonds based on the
Land Grant, and mortgage on the Road
itself in addition, are being sold as rapid
ly as the money is needed and, as an in
vestment, yielding about eight per cent.
per year in currency, rank already with
the best class Of railroad securities. And
thus the good work will go on with un-
checked step to its final consummation,
carrying the blessings of settlement, de
velopment, civilization, Christianity with
it in its progress, and literally causing
the wilderness to blossom as the rose.


A VoRAcIous MIsER Something like
a year ago an aged woman died in
Poughkecpsie, N. Y, leaving property
valued at about $4,000. She was known
by the name of Lochy Ostrom and was
eccentric in manner and miserly in habit.
A virago whom it was esteemed danger
GUS to arouse or cross, her neighbors were
careful not to offend her, and readily sup
piled her with food, when, as was her
wont, she made stated pilgrimages among
them. Whether this complaisant charity
was stimulated more by fear or love than
the possibilities Of future compensation
for Lochy was known to possess property
is, of course, a matter of mere conjecture.
1t is certain, however, that wherever she
went, whether to her lawyer for advice,
her doctor for medicine, or her neighbors
for the food she required, her wants were
attended to and her well-known aversion
to the proffering of a quid pro quo reli-
giously respected by all. She died intes-
tate, and it was thought, like Logan Of
Indian renown, without kin. But in due
time heirs came forward in fact they
turned up in droves they swarmed about
the trustees as first did the youth about
the Pied Piper of Hamelin ; the music Of
Lochy's dollars was quite seductive as
that Of the famous rat entrancer, and it
may be quite as unsubstantial. For now
steps forward the lawyer and the neigh
bors aforesaid with bills Of prodigious
length and Ito the heirs dire import. If
allowed, they swallow every dollar Of
Lochys savings. The lawyer, as becomes
his calling, "goes for" the lions share.
On his showing Lochy was the most
litigious old miser on record. She must
have been "ower fond" of "pure vexation
and sweet procrastination." But it is the
neighbors' bills for board that represent
Miss Ostrom in the most remarkable light.
They prove--if they prove anything
that she possessed dual existence, and a
voracity in each quite equal to any giant
whose gustatorial powers are revealed by
Sinbad the Sailor The referee has gone
nearly crazy over them, and the half have
not yet been touched. In lucid interval
he made a calculation of those already
examined, and they show that Lochy
must have consumed somewhere in the
neighborhood of one hundred meals
week, and each week, during the last six
years of her life, must have contained
from fifteen to twenty days. 1t is really
wonderful to to contemplate, and only less
so than the memories Of these excellent
neighbors !-Journal.


The LADY's FRIEND, FOR APRIL.-A
remarkable number. "The Morse