Passing up the river, the next important place we meet is Salem, the

capital of the State. The State Capitol stands on elevated ground about

a mile back from the river, with a large, green space in front, planted

with ornamental trees and shrubs. The scene from the great windows at

the back is really grand, Mount Jefferson being in full view, and the

line of the Cascades in ridge after ridge displayed in all their

beauty. Fronting the Capitol buildings at the other side of the Park

are the Court-House and offices of Marion County, also a substantial

and handsome pile. On the southern side of the Capitol stand the

buildings of the Willamette University.

The town of Salem is now growing. It has the advantage of a splendid

water-power, called Mill Creek, which is turned to good account before

it reaches the Willamette just below the city. On it are placed the

Pioneer Oil-Mills, where linseed-oil and linseed-cake are produced, of

excellent quality and moderate price; also a large building now used

both as an implement-factory and as a flour-mill; this has lately

changed hands, and it is too soon yet to speak of its success. Below

this are placed the "Salem Flour-Mills" of Kinney Brothers & Co. Their

brand is recognized and approved in all the markets of the world--as it

ought to be, if the best of wheat turned into the best of flour, and

its sale honestly and intelligently carried out, can command success.

The mills are fine buildings, fitted with the most modern and powerful

machinery, and stand just on the edge of the Willamette, with a dock

where the river-steamers can deliver wheat and receive flour. I believe

that this last fall of 1881 they converted 600,000 bushels of wheat

into flour. A switch from the Oregon and California Railroad runs from

the main line to the mills on the other side, and is proving an immense

convenience to the city generally as well as to the mills.

The steamboat pauses on its upward journey at Buena Vista, to take in

and deliver freight for the pottery there, already extensive, and which

by the excellence of its productions demonstrates that it only needs

further capital and enlarged business relations to do an important

share of the trade of the coast. The glaze on the ware is very good,

made from a mineral earth found in the bank of the Willamette at

Corvallis.

After passing the mouth of the Santiam, the most considerable tributary

of the Willamette, we stop at Albany. This is one of the best situated

and most progressive towns in the State. Although with a little less

than two thousand inhabitants at present, it has all the enterprise and

"go" of a town in Europe of five times that number. There are here also

three large flour-mills, the brands of some of which are known and

prized in Liverpool, to which port cargoes are frequently sent.

Albany has a lumber-mill, foundry, twine-mill, and scutching-mill,

fruit-drying works, sash and door factory, and soon will have

woolen-mills also. The making of the place is the water-power of the

Santiam River, brought in a canal for thirteen miles through the level

prairie-land, but rushing through the town and supplying the mills and

factories with a flow and force of water sufficient for double as many

works as at present use it. The town is supplied with water for

domestic purposes from the same source, of clearness and purity that it

is hard to equal.

Albany has three newspapers, six churches, a very good collegiate

school, and excellent common schools. It is a principal station on the

Oregon and California Railroad, and also an important station on the

Oregon Pacific, now so rapidly building, and its point of crossing the

Oregon and California, and a junction for the branch line to Lebanon,

away there under the slopes of the Cascades. Land in the neighborhood

of the town, and indeed throughout the level portions of Linn County,

ranging over an area of nearly twenty miles each way, is worth from

twenty-five to sixty dollars an acre--the last sale I heard of, of one

hundred and thirty-two acres, about five miles from the town, being at

thirty-nine dollars an acre.

[Sidenote: _CORVALLIS AND EUGENE CITY._]

The next town we come to is our own Corvallis, appropriately named as

the heart of the valley. It is indeed fitly placed as the valley

starting-point seaward of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, being on the

direct line east and west between Yaquina Bay, the Mount Jefferson Pass

through the Cascades, Prineville, in Eastern Oregon, Harney Lake and

Valley, the Malheur River and Valley, and Boise City--the meeting-place

in the near future of divers transcontinental lines.

Corvallis has been too fully described in these pages to need further

reference here. The commencement of energetic construction of the

Oregon Pacific and the assurance of its early completion have given an

increased business-life to the place which impresses the visitor

strongly with the idea of rapid future growth.

Continuing in our steamboat to the head of the Willamette navigation,

we pass the little towns of Peoria and Harrisburg, and at last reach

Eugene City. This, which is the chief town of Lane County, is blessed

with a university, presided over by excellent professors, one of whom,

Professor Condon, has a name and fame as a geologist far beyond the

limits of his county and also of the State. I trust the time will soon

come when the liberality of the Legislature of Oregon will provide the

funds necessary to enable Professor Condon to complete and publish the

systematic geology and mineralogy of Oregon, the materials for which

are already to a large extent in his possession, the result of years of

careful study and journeyings over the State.

Eugene City is a lively, pleasant little town, but has not yet attained

any manufacturing or industrial development like some of the other

towns in Oregon. This is to come.

Leaving the river for the railroad, we journey up to Roseburg, the

capital of Douglas County, and the southern terminus of the Oregon and

California line. No town can be more prettily placed, really at the

head of the great valley country, with the vast mountain-forms behind

frowning on the traveler who dares attempt to thread their passes. As I

have said, the Douglas County people trust to get a railroad outlet

from Roseburg down to Coos. I hope they will succeed, and so open to

ocean-transit the productions of a vast and fertile country.

Turning north again as far as Corvallis, we may there take the

West-side Railroad and journey along the western side of the Willamette

Valley and River.

The towns of Independence, Dallas, Sheridan, Amity, Lafayette,

McMinnville, Forest Grove, and Hillsboro' lie in the district between

Corvallis and Portland. Each and all are thriving, but I can do no more

than mention them, though I fear so short a reference will be

considered scant courtesy to the active, pushing people who are

laboring with such success at the development of Polk, Yam Hill, and

Washington Counties. The land is almost uniformly good; large

quantities are being yearly grubbed and put under the plow, and several

of my recently arrived English friends prefer the undulating land and

gentle slopes of this side of the valley to any other part of Oregon,

and have proved their preference by their actions. Land in these

counties varies from ten to twenty-five dollars an acre in price.

[Sidenote: _COUNTIES: POPULATION, ETC._]

I think I will close this somewhat tedious chapter by setting out the

counties of Oregon, their population, and the statement of their

taxable property, furnished by the Secretary of State:

COUNTIES. Population. Taxable property

of 1880.

Baker 4,615 $931,139

Benton 6,403 1,766,282

Clackamas 9,260 1,886,916

Clatsop 7,222 1,136,099

Columbia 2,042 305,283

Coos 4,834 832,335

Curry 1,208 219,333

Douglas 9,596 2,248,985

Grant 4,303 1,088,097

Jackson 8,154 1,449,623

Josephine 2,485 253,594

Lake 2,804 708,517

Lane 9,411 3,078,756

Linn 12,675 4,334,479

Marion 14,576 3,983,170

Multnomah 25,204 11,511,058

Polk 6,601 1,751,211

Tillamook 970 92,912

Umatilla 9,607 2,094,723

Union 6,650 1,265,603

Wasco 11,120 2,870,645

Washington 7,082 2,137,630

Yam Hill 7,945 2,547,833

------ ---------

Total of the State 174,767 $48,494,223

Increase over 1879 2,071,406

The proportion of taxable property held by each man, woman, and child

in Oregon is therefore $277.47.

The population of the valley counties, properly so called, is

83,549--this leaves Portland and Multnomah County entirely out. The

taxable property of these valley counties is $23,735,262.

The population of the whole of Eastern Oregon east of the Cascades is

but 39,099. The value of its taxable property is only $8,958,724.

The population of that part of Eastern and Northeastern Oregon which is

in any sense tributary to the Columbia or Snake Rivers is 28,180. The

value of their taxable property is $6,256,547.

The average taxable property of the population of the valley counties

is $282.68; that of the population of Eastern Oregon, $228.96.

[Illustration: The Columbia Cascades Landing (Looking up stream).]

These figures will be seen to have an important hearing on the subject

of the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The transportation question--Its importance--Present legal position--

Oregon Railway and Navigation Committee's general report--That company

--Its ocean-going steamers--Their traffic and earnings--Its river-boats

--Their traffic and earnings--Its railroads in existence--Their traffic

and earnings--Its new railroads in construction and in prospect--Their

probable influence--The Northern Pacific--Terminus on Puget Sound--Its

prospects--The East and West Side Railroads--"Bearing" traffic and

earnings--How to get "control"--Lands owned by the Oregon Railway and

Navigation Company--Monopoly--How threatened--The narrow-gauge railroads

--Their terminus and working--Efforts to consolidate monopoly--The

"blind pool"--Resistance--The Oregon Pacific--Its causes, possessions,

and prospects--Land grant and its enemies--The traffic of the valley--

Yaquina Bay--Its improvement--The farmers take it in hand--Contrast

and comparisons--The two presidents--Probable effects of competition

--Tactics in opposition--The Yaquina improvements--Description of

works--The prospects for competition and the farmers' gains.

From all that has gone before, the deduction is plain that on the

solution of the transportation question in the interests of the fixed

and industrious population of the State depends absolutely the growth

and prosperity of Oregon. Nature has done her part.

The words of Messrs. George M. Pullman, of Chicago, and William

Endicott, Jr., of Boston, in their report of August 1, 1880, to the

stockholders of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, will be

echoed by every man who is now or has been in Oregon with eyes to see.

They wrote as follows:

"Our observations afforded, in the first place, ample confirmation of

all we had previously heard and read of the propitious climate, great

attractions of scenery, and wonderful agricultural resources of Western

and Eastern Oregon, and Eastern Washington Territory. We believe that

in these respects those regions are not surpassed, if equaled, by any

other portion of the United States. It can, indeed, be safely said that

nowhere else in this country do rich soil and mild climate combine to

the same degree in insuring such extraordinary results of almost every

agricultural pursuit as regards quantity, quality, and regularity of

yield.... The striking evidence of past and present growth which we

found everywhere, forced at the same time the irresistible conclusion

upon us that we were beholding but the beginning of the sure and rapid

progress in population, productiveness, and prosperity which will be

witnessed in the immediate future within the vast stretch of country

watered by the great river Columbia and its numerous tributaries."

The reader of this book will, I think, admit that the facts herein

detailed go far to justify the conclusions summed up in these few but

carefully chosen words.

How does this transportation question now stand, and what (if any)

matters are in progress or contemplation to affect it?

In the first place, the companies are all free to manage their own

business in their own way; they charge what they like, favor what

persons and places they choose, and load on others burdens heavy to be

borne.

I have before indicated what was the purpose of the bill introduced in

the Legislature of 1880, to prevent discrimination by common carriers.

"The Oregonian" commented on the loss of the measure in these terms:

"We present to-day the report of the (hostile) Senate committee on this

bill. The report shows why the proposed measure was both an unjust and

an impracticable one. It should be apparent to every one that railways

never can be operated in this way. The confusion and disorder would be

endless; besides, every railroad which is undertaken and constructed as

an actual business enterprise is entitled to make fair earnings.

Instead of being annoyed by straw railroads got up for speculative

purposes, it ought to have protection from such annoyance."

[Sidenote: _OREGON RAILWAY AND NAVIGATION CO._]

In further illustration of the working of the present system, I would

instance the fact that from Corvallis to Portland for about a year the

freight on wheat by the river steamboats of the Oregon Railway and

Navigation Company has been one dollar a ton, and of this fifty cents

had to be paid for passing the locks at Oregon City; the rate

immediately previous to this was three dollars and a half. This

ridiculously low rate was put on in order to destroy the traffic of the

East and West Side Railroads, and is in strong contrast with the rate

from Corvallis to Junction City, some twenty miles up the river, where

no such reasons existed, and which stood through this period at about

tenfold the one-dollar rate.

No sooner did the President of the Oregon Railway and Navigation

Company think he had secured "control" of the two railroads, than steps

were prepared to quadruple the previous rate. The question of "control"

stood adjourned, and the one-dollar rate was confirmed. But, having

seen reason to think his acquisition secure, the rates from Portland to

Corvallis (ninety-seven miles by railroad), both by railroads and

steamboats, have just now (April, 1881) been raised to six dollars per

ton--a rate equal to that charged in the infancy of the business,

twenty years ago.

The lion's share of the carrying business of the State is in the hands

of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and with them are closely

identified the hopes of the city of Portland. This company owns two of

the steamers plying between Portland and San Francisco--the Oregon and

the Columbia. With these two steamers, or with the George W. Elder as

the predecessor of the Columbia, they carried from the 1st of July,

1879, to the 30th of June, 1880, 17,333 passengers, and 101,661 tons of

freight. The gross receipts were $636,888; the net profits, $286,459.

As we know from the published circular of Mr. Villard, the president,

that the cost of the Columbia was $400,000, and the Oregon is a smaller

and decidedly less expensive ship, the proportion of net earnings of

the vessels in question to their total cost will be seen to be about

enough to pay ten per cent. per annum on their cost, and to buy the

vessels out and out in three years and a half. The fare from Portland

to San Francisco, even while these earnings were being made, stood at

twenty dollars the first-class passenger. News has just arrived that

these fares are to be raised to thirty dollars a head. If the same rate

of expense is maintained as during last year, the earnings at the

higher figure now put on will be increased by about $100,000, and

enough will be realized to pay for the fleet in about two years and a

half.

With twenty-five steamboats (stern-wheelers) navigating the Columbia

and Willamette Rivers, and twelve barges and two scows (several of the

boats being old, and laid up in ordinary much of the time, reducing

thus materially the fleet in real service), the company earned

$1,992,836 gross, and $1,101,766 net profit. If $50,000 is deducted for

the earnings of the barges, it will be seen that the average net

earnings of the twenty-five river-steamers are positively $44,070 each.

The fleet could be replaced for less than the sum of the net profit of

one year. Like Oliver, "asking for more," they are positively raising

these freights also!

[Sidenote: _RAILROAD ALONG THE COLUMBIA._]

The railroad possessions of the company for the year in question

consisted of but forty-eight miles, and of these the line from Walla

Walla to Wallula on the upper Columbia, a distance of about thirty

miles, was the longest; the other two being short strips of portage

railroad round the Cascades or rapids on the Columbia. The passengers

carried were 12,588; the tons of freight, 72,149; and the net profits,

$269,004, or $5,604 a mile.

The company is engaged in constructing a line of railroad along the

south bank of the Columbia; the portion from Celilo (the upper end of

the rapids, at the lower end of which the town of the Dalles is

situated) to Wallula, just over the Washington Territory border, a

distance of one hundred and fifteen miles, is just completed. The line

is being extended to the city of Portland, the works between the Dalles

and the western end of the pass through the Cascade Mountains being of

the most severe and expensive character. At least two tunnels and mile

after mile of blasting and cutting through solid rock, where the

mountains tower perpendicular above, would inspire dismay in the soul

of any ordinary railroad-man.

But the word has gone forth that the road has to follow what is

facetiously called the pass of the Columbia through the Cascades, and

doubtless it will be done. Several thousand Chinamen are at work;

steam-drills are busy perforating the rocks; scows have to be moored

alongside in the river (there not being even room for the track between

mountain and water), while the perpendicular faces of the cliffs are

being tormented and torn. And thus about seventy miles of construction

of this nature have to be got through. When completed, of course, the

result will be at once to transfer nearly all of as many of the 117,000

passengers as traveled in the company's boats on the Columbia, to the

cars; and a vast quantity of the freight must follow the same route.

[Illustration: Columbia, above the Lower Cascade.]

But another factor is intended shortly to come into play. The Northern

Pacific Railroad is vigorously at work, and in a year or two will

compete with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company for the

Washington Territory and extreme Eastern Oregon trade. The passengers

and freight intrusted to the Northern Pacific line will be carried from

Wallula, the Columbia River point above referred to, to Tacoma, on

Puget Sound. By this route a saving of one hundred and fifty-one miles

in actual distance will be effected, and the traffic will reach the

deep and still waters of Puget Sound, far away from the troubles and

stickings of the Willamette and Columbia mouths, and the delays,

dangers, and expenses of the Columbia bar. It is true that before this

result is gained the line must cross the Cascade Mountains, but it is

well known that a pass at less than thirty-four hundred feet exists,

and the engineers have no doubt whatever that this piece of road will

keep pace with the rest to the port.

[Sidenote: _HOW TO GET "CONTROL."_]

Mark now another feature in the case. The East and West Side Railroads

on either side of the Willamette River compete with the boats of the

Oregon Railway and Navigation Company for the trade of the Willamette

Valley. The railroads naturally divert the passenger traffic almost

entirely, and carry a large quantity of freight. They would carry more

and earn a fair profit for their owners, the German and English

bondholders, but, instead of a fair competition, the Oregon Railway and

Navigation Company, as I have said, put down the freights from

Corvallis downward to Portland on grain to one dollar per ton--of

course, an impossible rate for either river or railroad to profit by.

Why is this? Because what Mr. Villard calls the "control" of these

railroads is vitally necessary to the future continuance of the Oregon

Railway and Navigation Company's stocks in their exalted dividends and

consequent enormous market value. Therefore, it is sought now to

destroy the earning powers of these railroads, to force the owners into

succumbing to the "policy of control."

One more step. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company owns

practically no land--that is to say, it is interested speculatively in

the rise of value in property in Portland by having invested a large

sum (I believe $199,000) in the purchase of 484 acres of land in and

near the city. But, outside this and its railroad-track, the company

owns altogether about 3,055 acres of land in scattered pieces, only

about 850 acres of which lie in Oregon; the rest in Washington

Territory, and a bit or two in Idaho. We will not omit to mention its

wharves at the various stopping-places of the boats, as they represent

the expenditure of a considerable sum. Once again: if anything at all

is clear, it is that the inflated value of this company's securities

depends solely on the continuance of their monopoly. I have shown that

on the Columbia River this is threatened by the Northern Pacific, and

also by themselves in effect, by the substitution of the costly

railroad line for the inexpensive boats, and the consequent devotion of

both investments, namely, that in the boats and that in the railroad,

to the same traffic, which the competition of the Northern Pacific is

certain to reduce in gross volume.

Now turn to the Willamette Valley traffic, and scrutinize the position

there. Not only is there the existing competition of the railroads,

which is fatal, so long as it is genuine, to the earning of large

profits from the north and south traffic of the valley, both in

passengers and goods, but here come in two competitors more.

The Scotch narrow-gauge system also centers everything in Portland, and

has succeeded, after a hard fight with the city authorities, in

securing a large tract of land for depot or terminal purposes. It had

the audacity to claim a right of way right through the tract purchased

by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and, under the law of

eminent domain as it exists in Oregon, it would have got it, ay, and

used it, too, with but scant regard for the feelings of the high and

mighty corporation which had marked it for their own. But a working

arrangement was with much difficulty made, by which the Scotch line

runs, free of charge, alongside the other, right through its land, to

the terminus of the narrow-gauge.

This Scotch line has put boats on the Willamette also. They ply between

Ray's Landing, about seventeen miles up the Willamette, and Portland.

The narrow-gauge also has an East-side and a West-side line through the

Willamette Valley. The East-side line runs north and south a short

distance from the foothills of the Cascades, and has now got as far as

Brownsville, about one hundred and twenty miles from Portland. Their

West-side line runs through the rich farming country in Polk County by

Dallas to Sheridan, and a junction with the Western Oregon broad-gauge

near by. This is also an ambitious company, who are pushing surveys

across the Cascade Range.

The narrow-gauge system is yet by no means complete, but, when it is,

it will become at once a very dangerous rival both to the East and West

Side roads, and also to the boats of the Oregon Railway and Navigation

Company on the Willamette.

So seriously did Mr. Villard feel the impending danger that it is no

secret in Oregon that a confidential agent was dispatched by him to

Scotland, to endeavor to put the Scotch investors out of conceit with

their property, and, failing that, he attempted to secure some of their

stock, so as to gain a footing inside their camp. But there also he

failed.

[Sidenote: _THE "BLIND POOL."_]

Shortly before these pages were written, occurred the episode of what

is known in financial circles in America as "the blind pool." Mr.

Villard caused it to be known among his circle of followers that he

desired the use of eight million dollars. According to statements made

on his authority, he not only secured it, but in all fifteen millions

were offered him. Quietly and secretly he used the eight millions in

buying up stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the New York

market, nor did he show his hand until he had thus secured twenty-seven

millions par value of the stock of that road. When his great gun was

thus loaded, he discharged it full at the head of Mr. Billings, the

president of the Northern Pacific, and those directors who had loyally

cooperated with him in the reorganization of the company and the

redemption of its securities from the chaos into which they had fallen

following the Jay Cooke failure. And the invader boldly claimed that he

had secured the "control" of that company too, and proposed to oust the

president, to install a representative of the "blind pool."

But an unexpected check was met. It seems that part of the

reconstituted stock of the company, amounting to eighteen million

dollars, was as yet in the treasury of the company, but was the

property of divers persons who had cooperated in or assented to the

reconstruction. This being issued, as Mr. Billings and his friends

claim, in fulfillment of engagements long since entered into, displaced

the center of gravity, and caused it to incline heavily toward the

Billings section. A vociferous outcry was of course heard; the courts

were appealed to; and the result of what promises to be a long and

costly litigation remains to be seen.

Even without the entrance on the field of the new forces I am about to

describe, the position of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company

appears to be a very perilous one.

Under the chieftainship of Mr. Villard, who was no novice at the art of

playing with railroad companies as counters in the game of

"beggar-my-neighbor," a vast amount of Eastern capital was taken up by

the aid of the enormous profits earned by the previously existing

Oregon Steamship and Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Then followed

naturally an era of really delusive prosperity, while the expenditure

of this capital in substituting the new lamps of costly railroads for

the magical old lamps of stern-wheel steamboats was going on.

But, in order to secure this capital, it was necessary to publish to

the world the enormous profits the earlier companies were making. The

effects were twofold and immediate. One was to open the eyes of the

farmers of Oregon to the fact that they were paying for the transport

to market of their crops sums utterly disproportionate to the cost and

risk of the services rendered. And thus it was certain that ere long

measures would be taken in the Legislature of Oregon, similar in

purport to those adopted in other States, to check and curb the power

of discrimination, which was the engine used to force the traffic on to

the boats and trains of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The

measure to that end introduced in the session of the Legislature of

1880 was, it is true, defeated by the strenuous efforts of the company,

aided by their Portland friends. But that success was dearly bought,

and the process was so patent as to awaken the farmers, with whom the

real power dwells, in a fashion that will soon be felt.

[Sidenote: _YAQUINA BAY._]

The other result, equally inevitable, was to call into active life

plans, long in preparation, for constructing an east and west line

across the State, relying on Yaquina Bay as the outport, and on the

trade of the Willamette Valley as the mainstay of the road.

But the enterprise had other features to recommend it. The Willamette

Valley and Coast Railroad Company had been originated four or five

years back by the farmers of the valley to construct a railroad between

Corvallis and Yaquina Bay. It had obtained a charter from the

Legislature giving it authority to extend its line across the State to

the eastern boundary, at a point directly _en route_ to Boise City,

Idaho.

This had been long ago marked out as the probable limit where

connection either with a branch from the Union Pacific Railroad, or

with some other road pushing westward to the ocean, might be made.

The Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad received in its charter from

the State immunity from taxation for twenty years, and also a grant of

all the rich tide and overflowed lands in Benton County, amounting to

probably upward of one hundred thousand acres.

Not content with this, the framer of this scheme had obtained the right

of purchase, on the basis of value of land in Eastern Oregon ten years

ago, of the grant of lands in aid of the construction of the Willamette

Valley and Cascade Mountains Military Wagon-road, amounting to eight

hundred and fifty thousand acres. A sketch of the history of this road

has been given before in these pages, and of the character of the

country through which it runs.

The vital force of the Oregon Pacific Company, which was formed and

brought before the world in the autumn of 1880 to complete and operate

the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad, lay in the advantage of

position in its central line, cutting Oregon in half, and thereby

attracting traffic to it from both sides, and also in the solid backing

of about nine hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, stretching

across the State from east to west, and which was certain to rise

four-fold at least in value by the construction of the railroad through

it.

The first hundred and thirty miles of the road pass through Benton and

Linn Counties, which together produce about one half, and, with the

adjoining counties of Polk and Marion on the north and the county of

Lane on the south, fully three quarters of the wheat-crop of Oregon.

It was estimated by a committee formed in these counties, who

investigated the subject thoroughly, that not less than one hundred and

eighty thousand tons of grain, and other freight to the amount of fifty

thousand tons or more, would seek an outlet over this road, from these

valley counties, on the basis of the crop of 1878. The subsequent

increase in acreage under crops would give not less than three hundred

thousand acres instead of two hundred and fifty thousand, at a very

moderate estimate. The inward freight may be taken at one half of the

outward bound, thus giving four hundred and fourteen thousand tons

which the new road would be called on to transport.

These figures raised the ire of the Oregon Railway and Navigation

Company and of some of its Portland friends, and their abuse called

forth a reinvestigation of the whole subject, which resulted in

thorough confirmation of the estimates.

[Sidenote: _OREGON PACIFIC RAILROAD._]

The Oregon Pacific proposed, as soon as open for business, to lower the

seven dollars a ton, the previous average charge of the other company

on valley freight to San Francisco, to three dollars and a half, and

the twenty-four dollars for first-class passengers and fourteen dollars

for emigrant passengers to one half of those figures. And it showed a

very large probable dividend on its capital, on those reduced figures.

The reasonableness of this will be seen by reference to the enormous

earnings of the other company.

The whole question turned, of course, on the practicability of so

improving the entrance to Yaquina Bay that heavy-laden ships of deep

draught could enter to deliver and receive cargo.

The valley farmers and traders, to the number of thirty-four hundred,

petitioned Congress to appropriate $240,000 for these works. Strenuous

efforts in support of this petition at Washington, in the session of

1880, sufficed to overcome the opposition of the Oregon Railway and

Navigation Company, and the prayer was granted in principle, but only

in extent to $40,000, after the fashion in such cases.

But the careful surveys and investigations of the United States

engineers, which were at once undertaken, justified the hopes of the

people and of those interested in the railroad, and very early in 1881

the works for the improvement were begun.

Application was made to Congress in the winter session of 1880-'81 to

appropriate $200,000 more for the works; but only $10,000 were granted,

although the Legislature of Oregon had, in their session of 1880, by

formal resolution, unanimously supported the application for $200,000.

But the farmers of the valley counties were at last roused to vigorous

action, and, under the presidency of the Linn County Grange and its

officers, are raising a large fund by subscription, to continue without

interruption the harbor-works until additional appropriations are made

by Congress. The subscription will not only serve to keep the

harbor-works in vigorous progress, but demonstrates the subscribers'

conviction of the success of the efforts made for the completion of the

Oregon Pacific Railroad, and their active and personal interest in such

success.

[Sidenote: _PROBABLE EFFECTS OF COMPETITION._]

And now the full force of the figures given in the last chapter is

seen. So far as the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company depends on

Oregon for its support, it must come from counties the population of

which is but 28,180, and the value of their taxable property, in 1880,

only $6,256,547; the proportion of property for each inhabitant being

$228.96, or nearly twenty per cent. below the average for the State.

The Oregon Pacific will draw its present support from the valley

counties, with a population of 83,549, and taxable property of

$23,735,262, each about four-fold greater. Their average property is

$282.68 per head, or about two per cent. above the rate for the whole

State.

If it be argued that the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company bases

its hopes for maintaining its high dividends on its enlarged capital;

on the development of Eastern Oregon in population and productions,

which is in rapid progress--I reply that the same considerations apply

with vastly increased force to the district served by the Oregon

Pacific. The latter relies not only on the fertile lands on the western

side of the Cascades, unequaled in the whole United States for

attractiveness to immigrants of the better class, but it also asserts

its undoubted claim to profit from the settlement of the broad stretch

of country, also in Eastern Oregon, through which its line runs in its

eastward course.

If stress is laid on the advantage of the established position of

Portland for the headquarters of the one road, the scale kicks the beam

when the one hundred and ten miles of towage and pilotage, the probable

delays in the rivers, the certain dangers and difficulties of the

Columbia bar, are weighed against the saving of two hundred and

twenty-one miles in actual distance, and the short course of but three

miles from the ocean to the wharves at Yaquina.

[Sidenote: _TACTICS IN OPPOSITION._]

If Mr. Villard has displayed his cleverness in laying hold of

established profits and turning them to the enormous gain of himself

and of those friends of his who have followed his lead, I can here do

but partial justice to the foresight and energy of Colonel T. Egenton

Hogg, whose clear judgment realized the necessity and the many

advantages of the Yaquina route ten years ago, who has fought through

unnumbered difficulties and a bitter and envenomed opposition toward

its attainment, and who has secured in so doing the hearty support of

the backbone and sinew of Oregon life, which trust to the Oregon

Pacific to set free the commerce of the State.

Let it not be supposed that the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company

is foredoomed to failure, or to immediately explode and go out like a

rocket. According to my ideas, it may have a moderately prosperous

future, bringing down to Portland a certain quantity of freight and

passengers from the upper country, and an increasing quantity as that

country develops. But to suppose that on its enlarged capital it will

be allowed to go on earning dividends at the same preposterous rate as

heretofore its boats have made for it, is to insult the common-sense

alike of the Oregon farmer and of the capitalist looking now more

eagerly than ever for profitable and safe investment.

One other point deserves attention. The Oregon Railway and Navigation

Company owns practically no land (except its building-land speculation

in Portland); therefore, when these competing lines come into play, and

traffic rates are consequently reduced over all the State, its

dividend-producing power is gone.

The other lines can follow it down and down in any war of rates so far

as the Oregon Railway and Navigation lines see fit to venture. Such

tactics would be absolute madness in California, as by its new

Constitution rates once lowered can not be raised again. But suppose

the war of rates is begun in Oregon. The Northern Pacific, when

completed according to law, will save one hundred and fifty-one miles

in distance, and deliver freight and passengers at deep water on Puget

Sound. The narrow-gauge roads and boats together can carry more cheaply

than the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The valley standard-gauge

railroads and the Oregon Pacific share with the Northern Pacific this

tremendous advantage, that every dollar they lose on transportation

is only invested at enormous profit in the rise and value of their

lands. It is the cost of transportation that keeps down value on

their lands; lower this, and land rises at once.

Nor is it to be supposed for an instant that the same tactics by which

it has been attempted to prevent, hamper, or delay the building of the

Oregon Pacific Railroad will long succeed.

Shortly after the prospectus of that railroad was issued, there

appeared in "The Oregonian," of Portland, three columns of abuse over

the signature of "Examiner." The writer described himself as a citizen

of Oregon, anxious to avoid delusion and disaster to the Eastern

public.

The whole was telegraphed or mailed long in advance back to New York,

and appeared in a garbled and still more contemptible form as a

circular, professing to be reprinted from "The Oregonian," as if from

the editor's chair of that paper. New York was flooded with the copies.

Fortunately, it was easy enough to repel the attack, since the chief

points were that the Eastern Oregon lands were worthless, and the

statements of the Willamette Valley trade exaggerated. And on both

points ample, even overwhelming, evidence was at hand.

[Sidenote: _THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS ROAD._]

Then, by what hidden influences it is of course impossible to say, the

Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Schurz, was set in motion on the

allegation that the Cascade Mountains road had never been made, and

that consequently the United States had been imposed upon fourteen

years ago when Congress granted the lands to the State of Oregon, and

that State defrauded in turn ten years ago when, on certificates of due

completion satisfactory to the then officials of the State, the lands

were duly confirmed to the wagon-road company.

Thereupon, without inquiry as to the facts from the State officials of

Oregon, or from the road company or their representatives, who had all

the evidence in their possession--without one word of notice to any of

the parties concerned--a man named Prosser, then residing at Seattle,

and occupied in repressing unwarranted timber-cutting on Government

lands in that neighborhood, was dispatched to professedly examine into

the condition of things. His journey; the narrative of his duplicity;

of his inducing the president of the road company, in the innocence of

his heart, to fit him out and to lend him all the money for his

expenses; of his return and interviews with the citizens of Albany; of

his subsequent report that no road existed where upward of five

thousand wagons and innumerable droves of cattle and of passengers on

foot and horseback had passed without accident for ten years; of his

allegations of the trivial cost of the works, met by the evidence of

the outlay of about $100,000 on the construction and repairs of the

road; of the storm of indignation which swept through Linn County, and

found expression wherever the facts were known--all these things form

an amusing chapter in the history of this transaction.

The Congressional committee, to whom the matter was referred, reported,

as might be expected, that Congress had no jurisdiction; that, so far

as they could see, the present owners, being innocent purchasers, had

good title to the lands; and that, if there were to be any attempt made

to disturb them, it must be a judicial and not a legislative matter.

Meanwhile an action of ejectment had been brought by the purchasers

from the road company of the land grant, in the United States District

Court at Portland, against a squatter on the land, whose letters of old

date to the Commissioner of the Land-Office had been made the pretext

for the course taken by the Secretary of the Interior. Every

opportunity was given for raising in court the question of no road; but

the defendant dared not accept the challenge, and Judge Deady rendered

judgment for the owners of the land grant, and so settled the question

for good and all, so far as I can see. His judgment was masterly and

exhaustive, and I should think would convince any candid mind.

Thus ends this act in the drama, with the position of the Oregon

Pacific confirmed at every point, and the Oregon Railway and Navigation

Company with a very pretty quarrel on their hands with the Northern

Pacific, and an impending competition, at which the farmers of the

State rejoice.

And so the transportation question in Oregon is in a fair way to be

settled in a manner consonant with justice and honesty, so that produce

will be charged only what is commensurate in fair measure with the cost

and risk of the service rendered, and not in the opposite direction of

what the producer can bear.

[Sidenote: _THE YAQUINA IMPROVEMENTS._]

Before I close this subject, let me describe very shortly the principle

and method of the harbor improvement at Yaquina.

The problem is this: In the harbor is a sheet of tidal water running up

more than twenty miles inland, and in the bay or harbor proper

expanding into a width of about three miles. To the tidal water has to

be added that brought down by the Yaquina River and its tributaries in

a course of fifty miles or thereabout. The deep-water channel to the

ocean through which this inflow and outflow are repeated twice every

twenty-four hours is deep and narrow, and the current very swift. Thus,

this channel of a quarter of a mile wide between the headlands on

either side of the mouth does not vary appreciably in width or depth,

and requires no attention.

Just where the mouth opens to the ocean is the reef, of soft sandstone

rock, rising in intervals of separate rocks to within ten or eleven

feet of low-water mark--that is to say, each of the three channels

through the reef, north, middle, and south, gives this depth of water.

But here the water, which has kept clear and deep the channel of a

quarter of a mile wide or thereabout, expands to a width of about two

miles. Consequently, the current is not sufficiently strong in any one

of the three channels to prevent the piling of the sand against the

rock outside and in, in a gentle rise from the forty-feet depth outside

to the height of the rocky reef, and similarly from the thirty feet

inside the reef.

The engineers propose, by a jetty from the south beach to a group of

rocks forming the south side of the middle channel, to extend the

narrow deep channel inside, and the consequent force of concentrated

tidal and river water, up to the rocky reef itself. They judge that the

tidal force is ample to scour away clean all the sand deposited both in

and outside the reef. They propose, then, to blast away the rock itself

from the middle channel, which, as the obstruction is both soft and

narrow, will be neither a difficult nor costly operation, and they

intend thus to open to the commerce of the world the calm and deep

waters of the harbor, which will suffice to receive all the fleet of

vessels trading to this coast.

The construction of the jetty is proceeding rapidly by means of large

mattresses of brushwood sunk in the destined position, loaded with rock

and attracting and retaining the sand, and covered in, when the needed

breadth and height are gained, with larger rocks brought down from a

quarry of hard stone about eight miles up the harbor.

No one who, like the present writer, has often tried to stem the tidal

current sweeping out to sea, can doubt the force and velocity it will

bring to bear; and no one familiar with Yaquina doubts the anticipated

success of the improvement. Once gained, it will be permanent, and then

half an hour will suffice to tug the arriving vessel from the deep

waters of the Pacific to her station alongside her wharf, and the same

time will dispatch her, fully loaded, on her voyage.

To sum up this matter: At present a very large portion of the profits

of farming and of other industries in Oregon goes into the pockets of

the transportation company. The rates of freight bear no proportion to

the benefits obtained, but are fixed simply on the principle of sitting

down to pencil out a list to see how much the farmers can possibly pay.

If this state of things were to be indefinitely perpetuated, the

outlook would be dreary. That a radical change is impending is to me

clear. The country is too rich in productive powers, the citizens are

too fully awake to the needs of their position, the knowledge of what

Oregon is and what she wants is too widely spread, and the president of

the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company has trumpeted forth the

enormous profits of his corporation too loudly, for the failure of the

efforts now in progress to introduce competition in the carrying-trade.

So that I, for one, am at rest as to the result. Oregon will take her

own part in the general movement, now current throughout the United

States, to regulate, if not to curtail, the powers of the corporations.

But I have confidence in the steady and peaceful character of her

population not to carry this matter here to extremes, which might

unduly burden associated capital, and check the flow of its full

current to our State.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Emigration to Oregon--Who should not come--Free advice and no fees--

English emigrants--Farmers--Haste to be rich--Quoted experiences--Cost

and ways of coming--Sea-routes--Railroads--Baggage--What not to bring

--What not to forget--Heavy property--The Custom-house--San Francisco

hotels--Conclusion.

The question most often asked and most difficult to answer is, "Do you

advise me to come out to Oregon?" It is easy to say who should not

come. We want no waifs and strays of civilization, enervated with

excesses, or depressed with failure; men who can find no niche for

themselves, who have neither the habit, the disposition, nor the

education for work. We want none of those youngsters who have tried

this, have failed in that, until their friends say in disgust, "Oh,

ship them to Oregon, and let them take their chances!" We desire no

younger sons of English or Eastern parents without energy or capital to

start them. High birth, aristocratic connections, we value not at all,

unless they carry with them the sense of responsibility to honored

forefathers--the determination that the stigma of failure shall not

stain a proud name. Nor do we desire those young men whose first

thought is, "How shall we amuse ourselves?" and whose first aim is the

cricket, or base-ball, or lawn-tennis ground, and whose chief luggage

is bat, fishing-rod, and shot-gun.

And, on the other hand, we do not want those who, having qualified

themselves, as they suppose, for life in Oregon by six months or a year

with some scientific farmer, consider that they know everything,

despise instruction, neglect advice, are wiser than their elders, and

then throw up in disgust as soon as they find that they have sunk their

money, that their theories will not work, and that they must here as

elsewhere begin at the beginning.

Nor do we propose (and we are certain it is in no way necessary) to

charge new-comers an initiation fee of two hundred and fifty dollars,

or any other sum, for the privilege of joining our society in Oregon,

and profiting by our experience.

And, as I began by saying, the English who have come here have

established no colony, in the usual sense, set up no separate society,

and claim no common corporate life.

[Sidenote: _WHO SHOULD COME._]

Society we have, association we have, common amusements and pursuits we

have, but in all these we invite our American neighbors to take their

part, and see no reason to regret our course.

True it is that the costume of knickerbockers and gaiters and

heather-suit and pot-hat is a very common object in our town, and that

we meet in considerable force at the Episcopal church on Sunday to join

in the familiar service. But we adhere to our original plan that the

newcomer shall settle where he pleases in these counties, shall have

the best advice we can bestow in the choice of land, the purchase of

stock and implements, and of the other necessaries for a farmer's start

in life; and shall have this free of charge. We offer the right hand of

friendship; we will do our part to keep up association and kindly

relations of all kinds.

But we are more anxious that Oregon should be built up by the gradual

incoming of men of serious purpose, possessed of moderate capital, who

shall disperse over the face of the country as they would at home, and

strengthen the State by the force of attraction each will exercise over

the friends and acquaintances he has left behind, than we are to create

here a bit of interjected foreign life.

Therefore let the farmer, above all, tried and worried at home by

fickle seasons, heavy rent, burdensome tithe and taxes, labor-troubles,

low prices, and gradually fading capital--let him bring his wife and

children and come. His few hundred pounds will make a good many

dollars, and he will be amazed to find himself _owning_ productive

land for about the sum he would have paid for two years' rent at home.

If his means do not permit him to pay down the whole purchase price, he

is one of the very few who can be safely advised to begin to some

extent in debt; for, remember, land in Oregon is expected to pay for

itself from its own productions in five years' time.

Even if the new-comer has had no previous practical experience, that

need not of itself deter him. One of our best farmers told me the other

day that when he began he did not know which end of a plow went first!

But in such case the wisest thing is either to hire himself out to work

for an Oregonian farmer for, at any rate, a few months, or, if he takes

an opportunity of buying land for himself, let him reverse the

operation and hire an Oregonian to work for him for a time.

I read a short article in the "Portland Evening Telegram," the other

day, which seemed to me very much in point; so I shall quote it:

"Seven years ago two men, dissatisfied with the sluggishness with which

their fortunes grew in Portland, determined to better their condition.

"The wonderful resources of the Willamette Valley as an agricultural

country attracted one of them to Washington County, where he purchased

a farm, and stocked it with teams and farming implements, and started

on his road to independence and wealth.

"He told his neighbors, who had been in the farming business for years,

that he proposed to show them how to succeed.

"He was industrious; he studied the books on farming, and pursued his

occupation on scientific principles, joined the Grangers, became an

active member of farmers' clubs, was bitter in his denunciation of

monopolies.

"Disliking the looks of the old-fashioned worm-fence, he divided his

fields by building nice plank partitions, and even asked permission of

an old fogy neighbor to build the whole of a partition fence of plank,

that the old one might not offend his fastidious taste. Here was

mistake number one. The rail-fence answered the purpose well enough,

and he ought to have avoided the expense of the costlier one at least

until a new one was necessary. He was from Indiana, and thought corn a

good crop to grow; so he prepared ten acres of his best land and

planted them to corn: the squirrels came and took it all up; he

replanted, and again the squirrels took the seed before it sprouted; he

planted it once more, and succeeded in getting a small crop of poor

corn which did not mature, and it profited him nothing.

[Sidenote: _QUOTED EXPERIENCES._]

"This was another blunder, as any man who had made any inquiry ought to

have known that the raising of corn in this valley was never a paying

business. A small patch for roasting-ears for family use is all any

wise farmer will ever attempt to raise.

"Again, our progressive farmer had been so impressed with the idea that

the climate of Oregon was an exceedingly mild one, that he thought his

apples and potatoes were in no danger of freezing; so he put his apples

upstairs, and left his potatoes uncovered. Consequently, they were all

frozen and lost.

"This was an inexcusable blunder, for any man who would look at a map

and see that he was located above the forty-fifth degree of latitude,

should have known that any winter was liable to be cold enough to

freeze unprotected fruits and vegetables.

"Our friend became discouraged, and gave more attention to wheat, but

found that he could not raise that commodity for less than seventy-five

cents a bushel, although other farmers have asserted that the cost did

not exceed fifty cents.

"With his experience of seven years' farming in Oregon, he is perfectly

satisfied that it will not pay, and hence he is back in Portland,

intending to stay. The corn, apple, and potato business fixed him as

far as farming is concerned, though he ought to have known that his

course in regard to them would have resulted just as it did.

"Our second young man did not like the slowness of farming as a means

of getting rich, so he put his money in sheep, and took up a ranch in

Wasco County.

"For a few years he was encouraged: as the grass grew, his stock

increased; the winters were mild, and wool brought a good price.

"He raised some feed, and for three years had no use for it, as the

sheep made their own living off the range.

"He thought when the cold snap set in last winter that he had enough

feed to last through any winter that could reasonably be expected. But

the cold winds continued to blow, the snow fell and froze, and

continued to fall and freeze.

"Two months passed; his feed was exhausted, and his sheep began to die.

Out of 4,300 head 3,000 died, and though a neighbor who started in with

about the same number had only six head left, our young friend thought

his own condition bad enough, and so concluded to quit the business and

come back to Portland. He says a man can take a thousand head of sheep,

build sheds, provide food, and have a sure thing to clear a few hundred

dollars every year, but he did not want that kind of a sure thing.

"He made the mistake of him who 'makes haste to be rich,' and hence he

retires from the contest on that line no better off than when he

started in.

"Both these men are now in Portland, and each is hopelessly disgusted

with the attempt he has made.

"One thinks that farming in Oregon will never pay, though there are

hundreds of farmers all over the State who started with less than he

did, and are now well situated and independent.

"The other thinks the whole of Eastern Oregon, so called, a failure,

though he virtually admits that his lack of providence, and his desire

to make a large sum of money in a short time, were the causes of his

losses."

Since we have been in Oregon we have seen several cases like these

examples. Let the intending emigrant weigh this well--that farming in

the Willamette Valley is not the road to large fortune, though it is to

comfort and prosperity.

[Sidenote: _COST AND WAYS OF COMING._]

Let no young man, brought up in a comfortable Eastern home, come to

Oregon to farm, unless he can be assured that at the end of a year or

two's probation and apprenticeship he can have provided for him some

small sum of money, enough for a start on his own land. The life of the

agricultural laborer in almost every farmer's family here is a very

hard and uncomfortable one; the lodging is rough, the living, though

plentiful, is often coarse, the hours of labor very long, and the

employments on the farm miscellaneous indeed.

The better thing is for two friends or relatives to come together; they

may separate for their apprenticeship, but their purchase may easily be

made together; and, indeed, out here two are better than one.

And now for some hints as to the ways of coming, and what should and

should not be brought.

For the English emigrant there is a large choice. He may come by any of

the New York lines, and thence across the continent to San Francisco,

and on by steamer to Portland. If he comes first class throughout, he

will find the expense nearly L60 sterling, or about $300. By choosing

the cheaper cabin on the steamer, and reconciling himself to doing

without the comforts of the Pullman car, and economizing in meals on

the journey across by providing himself with a provision-basket, to be

replenished at intervals, he may save about L15, or $75. The time is

short; three weeks will bring him from Liverpool to Oregon, unless he

delays needlessly in New York, Chicago, or San Francisco.

In New York let him beware of cabs or carriages. He is likely to be

charged five dollars for a ride he will get in London for one shilling.

The proper course is for him, after his baggage has passed the

custom-house, to intrust it to a transfer agent, who will have it

conveyed to the hotel, and the emigrant can take the elevated railway

or get a tram-car ride for a few cents. The same course should be

followed on leaving the hotel for the railway terminus to come West.

So far as I know, he can make no mistake in following his fancy in

choosing his route.

The Erie or the New York Central will carry him to Chicago, by way of

Buffalo and Niagara; and, if any pause on the journey at all is made,

let the opportunity be seized of seeing the most glorious of

waterfalls, the remembrance of which will never die.

The Baltimore and Ohio passes through Maryland and West Virginia, and

the Pennsylvania Railroad through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and each

shows him some of the finest scenery on the Atlantic slope.

From Chicago he will have a choice again. There is no difference in

cost, time, or comfort between the Chicago and Northwestern, the

Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, and the Chicago and Rock Island. I

have traveled by all three; perhaps the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy

runs through the most interesting scenery.

Up to Omaha the first-class traveler is allowed one hundred and fifty

pounds of baggage free, and so far it will be properly handled and

cared for by the baggage-men.

[Sidenote: _BAGGAGE-SMASHING._]

At Omaha things change for the worse. Only one hundred pounds of

baggage is allowed by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific roads; and

on all excess the rate to San Francisco is fifteen cents a pound. And,

if the traveler has any regard for his possessions, let him see to it

that they are closely packed in the very strongest and roughest trunks

that he can procure. Oh, those baggage-smashers at Omaha! When we

crossed last I stood by to see a baggage-car brought up alongside the

stone platform, piled with trunks and other baggage to the roof, the

doors thrown open, and the contents literally tumbled out pell-mell.

Trunks were smashed open, locks broken, straps burst, contents ruined.

And the baggage-men seemed to take a horrid pleasure in tilting heavy

trunks on to their corners, and so bundling them across at a rapid rate

to the other car; dislocation of the strongest joints was the result.

If the passenger be incautious enough to burden himself with needless

weight from Omaha, he should dispatch it to San Francisco by

freight-train addressed to his hotel; the rates are thus so moderated

that he will not have the chagrin of paying to the railroad companies

about as much as most of his baggage is worth.

Another route from England is by Southampton and Panama to San

Francisco. The charge for a first-class passage is L50, and the

traveler will not be bothered about his baggage save on the Isthmus

Railway. He _may_ lose no time in catching the Pacific mail-steamer on

the Pacific side, but he is more likely to have three or four days to

wait at Panama, in a town where there is nothing to see or do, and

where he will be charged not less than three dollars a day at the

hotel. The lovely scenery and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics will

be a pleasant picture in memory, whatever draw-backs the five weeks

occupied on this route may discover.

San Francisco is the city of comfortable and moderately charging

hotels. The most expensive are the Palace and the Baldwin. The Lick

House and the Russ House are comfortable and more moderate; and the

International is cheap but comfortable.

From San Francisco to Portland the steamers Oregon, Columbia, or State

of California, sail every five days, and are each safe, speedy, and

excellent boats. The cost of the journey is twenty dollars, and the

time usually three days or more, including a detention of some hours at

Astoria. As soon as the Yaquina route is opened, it is expected that

this time will be reduced by one half.

And now, what should the emigrant bring to Oregon? So far as household

furniture and fittings are concerned, the best and cheapest way is to

send them by Royal Mail from Southampton by way of Panama. The freight

was L4 10_s._ per ton of forty cubic feet. I do not know if any change

has been made.

It is wise for any family to bring bedding (but not beds), knives and

forks and electro-plate, books, pictures, and the little ornaments and

trifles which go so far to transfer the home feeling to whatever room

they may at once furnish and adorn. And do not forget the crockery. It

is foolish to bring furniture, pianos, or such heavy and cumbersome

property. All these used articles will come in duty free. If they are

sent to San Francisco direct from England, they will have to be

examined at the custom-house there.

The traveler will find it a great waste of time and temper to pass his

goods through the custom-house himself. There are many respectable

agents, whose trifling fee is well spent in getting their services for

this work.

As for clothes. New clothes will be charged with a duty of sixty per

cent. of their value, and cause trouble also. Worn clothes and boots

come in duty free. The strongest and most durable woolen garments are

those best adapted for the Oregon climate. English ankle-boots are

treasures not to be obtained for love or money in Oregon. The

field-boot, of porpoise-skin, will be infinitely valuable in our muddy

winters; but such are too hot for summer wear. English saddlery should

all be left at home.

If the emigrant is the happy owner of a good breech-loader, let him

bring it, with as many of Eley's green cases as he can pack. Ammunition

is expensive here. English rifles are a nuisance. The Winchester,

Sharp, or Ballard, I think superior to any sporting rifles we have--as

much so as the American shot-guns are inferior to the English makers'.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: _ATTRACTIONS WHICH OREGON OFFERS._]

Let us see, then, in a few words, why we expect that immigrants will

continue to arrive. What are the attractions which Oregon offers?

1. A healthy and temperate climate, whether residence in the Willamette

Valley or in Southern or Eastern Oregon is chosen.

2. A fertile and not exhausted soil, adapted to the continuous raising

of all cereals, to the growth of the best kinds of pasture, and to the

ripening of all temperate fruits in profusion and excellence.

3. A climate and range unusually suited to cattle, sheep, and horses of

the best breeds.

4. The ocean boundary on the west, giving free access to shipping for

the cheap transport of all productions.

5. Mineral wealth of almost every description, most of which is yet

unworked.

6. Industrial openings of many kinds, with special facilities by way of

abundant water-power.

7. Beautiful scenery, whatever portion of the State may be selected by

the new-comer.

8. Sport and pastime in moderation, with a notable absence of dangerous

animals, and reptiles, and noxious insects.

9. A modern and liberal Constitution, affording special advantages and

securities to foreigners and aliens.

10. A quiet and orderly population, ready to welcome strangers.

11. Good facilities for education, remarkable in so young a country.

12. A railroad and river system of transportation, only now in process

of development, and which is certain to effect a great rise in the

value of lands.

* * * * *

And now my work is done. I have endeavored to give, in as concise and

short a form as I could contrive, a faithful picture of life as it is

in Oregon to-day. I have extenuated nothing, nor set down aught in

malice.

If, in reviewing what I have written, I feel conscious of a special

weakness, it is that I have brought too strongly into view the

difficulties the immigrant will have to encounter; for I feel sure that

no one, on full knowledge, will accuse me of drawing in too fair and

flattering colors the attractions of our beautiful State.

May Oregon flourish by receiving constant additions to her vigorous and

industrious people, whose efforts, in scarcely any other place in the

wide world so certain of a due return, may make her waste places plain,

and cause her wildernesses to rejoice and blossom as the rose!

APPENDIX.

Since the foregoing pages were finished, a period of six months has

passed. Nothing has transpired which should affect the opinions formed

and expressed by the author in favor of the attractions which Oregon

offers to the energetic and industrious. The past half-year has been

one of successful development for the State as a whole. A bountiful

harvest, which has been vouchsafed to Oregon while many Eastern States

and many European countries have had to mourn because of drought or

excessive rain and consequent scarcity, has again proved how highly

favored by position and climate is this Western nook. And now, in the

early days of October, we have had a week's rain to soften the clods

and prepare the ground for tillage, but the sun of the Indian summer is

shining with soft brilliancy, and we look for crisp nights and

mornings, and lovely days, for from six to ten weeks to come.

During the six months, Eastern capital has been prodigally turned into

Oregon and Washington Territory by Mr. H. Villard and his associates.

New lines of railway designed as feeders to the Columbia River route

are being pushed to completion regardless of cost, while the

trunk-line, along the side of the Columbia River, is being still urged

forward by the united forces of over three thousand Chinamen and all

the white laborers that can be picked up. Time alone will show how far

a line, which winds and twists along the banks of the mighty Columbia

in devious curves, overhung by mountain-sides loaded with loose rocks

at the mercy of every winter's storms, can be trusted to carry the

enormous traffic predicated for it; and, granted that this slender reed

has the necessary strength, at what kind of port is the hoped-for mass

of grain for export to be delivered? The following article appeared in

the "Daily Oregonian," of Portland, on the 10th of this last September.

The newspaper in question claims to be the leading journal of the

State, and is in fact the only one publishing full daily telegraphic

dispatches. It is also the organ of the Villard interest, and it may be

taken that it is not likely to overstate the disadvantages attaching to

the city of its publication:

"THE COST OF NEGLECT."

"The water in the rivers between Portland and the ocean is at about

the usual September stage, but, owing to the absence of any means

whatever of dredging the bars, the depth at the three or four shoal

places is less than in former seasons. Steamers drawing seventeen

or even seventeen and a half feet come up by plowing through a few

inches of mud at certain points, but ships have not the force to go

through, nor, in many instances, the iron bottoms to stand the rub.

It is not safe to load a vessel which must pass down the river more

than sixteen feet. The result is, that grain-ships can only be

partly loaded here, and must take a large proportion of their

cargoes down the river. The American ship Palmyra went down

Thursday with 900 tons of a total wheat cargo of 2,200. The bulk of

her load--1,300 tons--must be carried down by barges and taken in

at Baker's Bay. The Zamora, now taking wheat here, can only be half

loaded at her Portland dock. Lighterage costs $1.25 per short ton,

or six cents per cental. Thus the Palmyra must pay $1,625 extra

because the river is not properly dredged. The average of

lighterage this season will be about three cents per cental on all

wheat that goes out of the Columbia River."

It is not far from the fact that, although from sixty to sixty-five

shillings is a well-paying freight for ships from Portland to the

United Kingdom, and although abundance of sailing-ships are available

from the substitution of steamers in so many parts of the world, yet

the actual freight charged has ranged from eighty to eighty-five

shillings, this resulting from a combination of causes, of which the

charges for pilotage, towage, and lighterage are among the chief.

Of course, all these charges come out of the pocket of the producer,

and, unless some radical change can be effected, there is no apparent

reason why these sums should not be cumulated to such a height as to

place the valley farmer on the level of his Eastern Oregon and Eastern

Washington Territory neighbor, who does not realize for his wheat much

over thirty-five cents a bushel on an average market price of

seventy-five cents.

Nor would there be much hope of a reduction in the inland

transportation charges, were matters to progress as they have been

doing during the past six months. Everything pointed toward the

centralization of the control of every railroad and steamboat line in

this State and the adjacent Territory in the hands of the Oregon

Railway and Navigation Company, presided over by Mr. Villard. The

narrow-gauge system of railroads in this valley, owned and operated by

the Scotch company, with headquarters at Dundee, was six months back

the sole hope of the valley farmers as an honest competitor with its

huge rival. But a few months ago announcement was made that Mr. Villard

had secured the Scotch company, by a series of astute operations in

Scotland; and now, under the ninety-nine years' lease which he

obtained, the narrow-gauge company has ceased its independent

existence, and its traffic is being assimilated as to rates with that

of its former competitor, while it is so conducted as to stifle its

growth as a separate organization, and throw all its vitality into the

other roads.

But the anticipations, expressed in the earlier pages of this book, of

an active rivalry to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, through

the Oregon Pacific Railroad and its outlet at Yaquina Bay, are being

realized as rapidly as men and money can do it.

Early in July last the news came through the wires that the financial

battle had been won by Colonel Hogg, and that construction was to be

pushed forward immediately. Short as the time is, much has been done,

and more is being done. Engineering parties were organized and fitted

out, and their work is nearly complete in all its parts. A good line of

easy grades is located through from Corvallis to Yaquina Bay,

presenting no extraordinary difficulties of construction. On this, as I

write, a large force of both white and Chinese labor is employed, with

the full expectation that the line will be surveyed, built, equipped,

and running within four or five months from the time the first spadeful

of earth was dug. Difficulties in starting a great enterprise like the

Oregon Pacific Railroad, of course, abound, but so far have been

successfully met. Meanwhile the goodwill of the valley farmers has been

maintained throughout, and the new road will open with abundance of

customers. Therefore, all interested in the undertaking are well

satisfied with the prospect of having to operate a line which shall

save the valley farmers two hundred and twenty-one miles in actual

distance, and save them half the present charges for transportation

between the valley and San Francisco, and which gives also an early

prospect of ocean-going ships loading direct from an Oregon port, with

wharves within three miles from the ocean, for the European or Eastern

market.

It does not seem, then, an unreasonable augury that the day of

exorbitant freights, excessive pilotage and towage charges, half-cargo

lighterage, and also of traffic discrimination, will have passed away

for ever, so far as Oregon is concerned, when the Oregon Pacific is

opened. And I think every reader of this book will admit that it is a

matter of just pride to see projects formed years back, and adhered to

through much evil speaking, slander, and belittling, come to their full

strength and fulfillment.

The last time I visited Yaquina Bay was during the closing days of

September. The afternoon sun shone on the little dancing waves as we

rowed across from Newport to the South Beach, where the harbor-works

are going on. A heavy equinoctial storm had raged for two days before,

and it would have been no surprise had the incomplete works suffered.

But we found the men busily employed in piling large blocks of rock on

the mattresses made of large, long bundles of brushwood, secured with

cords, and deposited carefully in the line of the breakwater. Many of

the hands were Indians, who were working very intelligently and quickly

under the direction of our old friend Kit Abbey. No damage whatever had

been done, but, on the contrary, the storm had piled the sand in even

layers, five or six feet deep, on each side of the breakwater,

solidifying and strengthening the work. Already the channel nearest to

the beach, which had robbed the main channel of some of the tidal

water, had been permanently closed. And the increase of the tidal

in-and-out flow thus caused had proved to the satisfaction of the

United States engineer officer in charge the correctness of the theory

on which the works were designed. So that all tends in the one

direction of opening this harbor, on which so many hopes are fixed, to

ocean-going ships of deep draught.

Fortunately, the facts are being daily ascertained, tabulated, and

certified by the independent authority of the United States engineers;

they have minute surveys of the channel, and the changes operated by

the new breakwater will be observed and recorded. Thus, as soon as the

time comes to invite the shipping sailing to the Northwest coast to

enter the port, there will be no further room for question as to depth

of water and ease of access; but the facts will be so patent and plain

to the world, that no one need be longer blinded by the persistent

misrepresentations of interested parties.

[Illustration: Entrance to Yaquina Bay (Looking seaward)]

The effect of the opening of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, which in two,

or at most three years from now, will meet at or near Boise City,

Idaho, the lines rapidly pushing westward to that point, will be

manifold:

First, it will open the new port at Yaquina to commerce, and so give

the Willamette Valley its independent outlet, unaffected by

terror-dealing bars, winter ice, and exorbitant charges. Second, it

will in its eastward progress open up to settlement a broad belt of

fertile and well-watered country, at present well-nigh untenanted.

Third, it will operate as a check to the pretensions of the Oregon

Railway and Navigation Company to entire monopoly of the transportation

of the State, and its boasted consequent ability to fix fares and

freights at its own sweet will.

THE END.

TWO YEARS IN OREGON.

By WALLIS NASH, author of "Oregon There and Back in 1877."

_Second edition._ With Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

The following are a few out of a very large number of press notices:

_From the New York Sun._

"Under the title of 'Two Years in Oregon,' by Wallis Nash, we have

an authentic and exhaustive guide-book, written for the benefit of

those persons who intend to settle there. There is nothing in this

volume to recall the superficial observations of the ordinary

tourist; yet, although the author has confined himself to

collecting information of real value to the emigrant, he has set it

forth in a distinct, unpretentious, and attractive way."

_From the Springfield Republican._

"For the best picture of Oregon as it is to-day, we are indebted to

an Englishman. 'Two Years in Oregon' is the title of the book,

written by Wallis Nash, and published by D. Appleton & Co., of New

York. Mr. Nash conducted a colony of his countrymen some time since

to the neighborhood of Corvallis, a thriving town a hundred or more

miles south of Portland. He did not attempt to set up a New

Jerusalem of his own after the example of unlucky Tom Hughes in the

Rugby venture, but mingled all his interests with the settlers

already on the ground, and good success has evidently attended his

efforts. Mr. Nash has made a thorough study of the State and its

resources. He has considerable literary skill, and while his book

contains the practical facts and statistics needful to the posting

of the would-be immigrant, it has besides enough racy descriptive

writing to make it attractive to the general reader. Oregon has two

distinct climates. The Cascade Range, cutting the State in halves,

is the dividing line. On the Pacific side of the mountains, where

most of the settlements are located, there are milder winters,

cooler summers, and a heavier rain-fall than upon the plains

stretching to the eastward of the range. There, too, are the heavy

forests for which the State is noted. Wheat is the staple crop of

the Oregon farmers, and last year there was a surplus of over one

hundred thousand tons sent to market. Sheep husbandry is

considerably followed, and the climate appears admirably adapted to

the profitable raising of all kinds of livestock, while all the

fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone yield remarkably. With

better transportation facilities, a mixed agriculture is likely to

be pursued in the future. The State has suffered much at the hands

of transportation monopolists. The Villard combination have so far

had almost complete control of the railways and waterways, and the

rates charged have been enormous. A Portland merchant's freight

bill on some goods shipped recently from New York, showed that one

third of the whole amount was charged for the water-carriage of

seven hundred miles from San Francisco. The company's railroad

charges are still heavier. According to a new schedule of reduced

rates from Portland to Walla Walla, two hundred and seventy miles,

twenty-four cents is the rate for a bushel of wheat, against two to

four cents a bushel for greater distances on Eastern roads. Mr.

Nash devotes a chapter to the iniquities of the Villard monopoly

which bears so heavily upon the farming community. There is

prospect, however, that the burden may be lightened when the

railway now building eastward from Yaquina Bay to a connection

through Southwestern Idaho with the Union Pacific is completed."

_From the Portland Standard_ (_Oregon_).

"Mr. Nash's experiences and observations as set forth in this book

are correct representations of Oregon life. His opinions are not

biased and warped by long residence, so as to give everything a

color beyond the truth in favor of the beauties and facilities of

the State for persons desiring homes, and which would be found to

be untrue by strangers seeking farms and residences, and

consequently bring disappointment to them after the trouble and

expense of going there. Mr. Nash represents the State as it is, and

his book is calculated to do far more good as an advertising medium

for bringing immigration within her boundaries than the many

pamphlets issued by immigration bureaus, painting in high colors

beyond the truth the many advantages which Oregon presents. This

book should be widely circulated and read. It will attract

immigration and capital to the State with an impetus not heretofore

felt."

_From the Corvallis Gazette_ (_Oregon_).

This journal gives a large number of commendatory extracts, and

concludes its notice as follows: "Many others are equally

complimentary, and we are glad that Oregon, and especially the

Willamette Valley, are being so well advertised. We understand the

book is having a large sale."

_From the Albany Register_ (_Oregon_).

"'Two Years in Oregon,' by Wallis Nash, is the title of a very neat

work just issued from the press of the Appletons, New York. It is

the impressions made and the experience gained by the writer after

a two years' residence in Oregon, written in a most entertaining

and attractive style. It will be read everywhere with pleasure, as

it is a most faithful description of things and scenes as the

writer beheld them. The picture, to our mind, is nowhere overdrawn.

Portland is faithfully pictured, and 'The Oregonian' so faithfully

portrayed that its poor editor will never forgive the writer."

_From the Philadelphia Press._

"Mr. Nash's book describes the State in the most practical manner.

It describes the scenery, the society, the legislative

peculiarities, the economical advantages and disadvantages, the

state of the industries, the transportation question, and all the

various points which a possible emigrant might wish to know before

he took the decisive step. It is written in a pleasant, vivacious

style, and can be read with much profit by any one who takes an

interest in our own great West."

_From the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent_ (_England_).

"Mr. Nash's 'Two Years in Oregon' is one of the most charming books

we have lately come across. He is a shrewd and careful observer,

and writes with grace and ease. The illustrations, also, of the

book are more than ordinarily clever. Mr. Nash evidently feels a

warm interest in Oregon, and his book will go a long way to attract

public interest in that direction. Few men can tell a story better,

or enable readers to realize more vividly the appearance of a

country and people they have never seen. The emigrant, the

politician, the student of men and manners, the naturalist and the

political economist, will all enjoy this book, which we hope will

soon be followed by a fresh work from its author's pen."

_From the University Press._

"This book has for its author an Englishman who visited Oregon in

1877, and who then traveled 'its length and breadth.' He moved his

family there in 1879. He now sends out this interesting and

instructive volume in answer to the many letters received by him

asking for information. He is an easy, simple, unostentatious

writer. We believe, as he says, that he has endeavored to give 'a

faithful picture of life as it is in Oregon to-day.' He has good

descriptive powers, and has enlivened his book with several amusing

incidents."

_From the Chicago Times._

"This book is the work of a man who has lived two years in the

State, with an observant eye, an apparently judicial and impartial

mind, and a ready and fluent pen. It embraces pretty much

everything in the way of information about the region which any

emigrant would like to know on pretty much all of its natural,

social, and political features. It is, indeed, almost a guide-book

to the region, but is one quite out of the usual sort, enlivened

with a great fund of personal and local anecdote and incident,

which serves to make it very interesting reading. It offers to the

public a more complete compendium of information about one of the

most interesting, at least, of American localities, than can

elsewhere be found in the same space; and as one of the chief final

centers around which American civilization promises to reach its

ultimate development, everything connected with it is of interest,

not only to Americans, but to people abroad also."

_From the New York Evening Mail and Express._

"It would be impossible in a brief notice to state even the

substance of this book, which is packed with information of all

sorts, information procured and conned by himself, which neglects

nothing that a would-be emigrant ought to inquire into, which is

close in observation, terse in deduction, good-tempered,

warm-hearted, hard-headed, and, what is more than all this,

thoroughly amusing."

_From the Utica Observer._

"A book like this is especially timely. The author, Wallis Nash, is

an English settler in the great Willamette Valley, and discourses

of his adopted home with the tone of an avowed advocate of its soil

and climate. He combats with his own observations and the official

weather reports the wide-spread belief that Oregon is a land of

perpetual rains, and presents altogether the most comprehensive

sketch of the existing industries and possible development of the

State which has yet been published."

_From the Chicago Inter-Ocean._

"Mr. Nash narrates his own experiences, and gives a detailed

account of the agricultural, business, and social resources of the

State in an obviously impartial manner."

_From the Chicago Journal._

"In the year 1877 the author of this volume visited Oregon,

traveled through its length and breadth, and, on returning to his

home in England, published a book giving a short account of his

journey, and recommending the country as a desirable one in which

to settle. A few months afterward he left England at the head of a

party of twenty-six persons, and, upon arriving in Oregon, settled

at Corvallis, a pleasant little village on the banks of the

Willamette River. After a continuous residence of two years in that

far Western State, Mr. Nash again gives the result of his

experience, as a guide to the emigrant who may intend to make

Oregon his future home. He presents in a favorable view the

agricultural and business prospects of the country; the social and

political life of the people, and while he does not claim that a

competence can be secured without persevering industry, he

maintains that the inducements offered to the enterprising and

energetic are such that in a few years the emigrant of moderate

means and some experience will be able to acquire a home and

pecuniary independence. The book contains a vast amount of

information useful to the emigrant, and it is written in a

pleasant, chatty style. The descriptions of the varied scenery, the

character sketches of the settlers, and the laughable incidents

recounted, give an additional pleasure to the volume, which is

enriched by several illustrations of Oregon scenery."

_From the St. Paul Pioneer Press_ (_Minnesota_).

"Any thorough description of Oregon, its resources, and the people

who settle in it, must win many eager and interested readers. But,

to do full justice to Mr. Nash, he has taken but little advantage

of this fact. His book, which he modestly styles 'a guide-book to

Oregon for the intending emigrant,' is far more than this. It is a

pains-taking description of the natural features of a great Pacific

State; of its soil, climate, and productive qualities; of its past

development and future promise; of its leading industries and its

adaptation to others; in short, of all that a man who has lived in

Oregon with his eyes open might be expected to find out, and all

about which one who has not lived there might be expected to wish

information. There are in existence very few works which tell in

such short compass as much about any State east of the Rocky

Mountains. There are very many points in this hand-book which it

would be interesting to present in detail, but nothing less than a

careful reading will suffice. The story told by the writer about

the outrageous swindling out of their land grant of the men who

constructed, at great sacrifice, the greatest wagon highway in

Oregon, deserves investigation. If Mr. Nash is correct, the farmers

of Oregon have no reason to love Mr. Villard or his transportation

company. The greatest drawback to the settling up of the State is

the iron grip and remorseless extortions of the railways. This book

is from beginning to end thoroughly readable. It furnishes more

information than whole folios of statistics, or any number of

glowing descriptions by hasty, prejudiced, and uninformed

correspondents."

_From the Chicago Evening Herald._

"Mr. Nash's data were gathered during a two years' residence, and

are so well digested and so thoroughly re-enforced by the practical

and personal experiences of the writer and his friends, that the

most captious critic can not reasonably pick many flaws therein.

Mr. Nash is evidently not only a close observer, but an eminently

practical man, and in describing the advantages and disadvantages

of Oregon, keeps constantly in view the information which other

practical men, seeking a location, would be likely to need and

appreciate. A great many chatty and amusing pages are devoted to

anecdotes of early and later life in Oregon, and to the fortunes

and misfortunes of those who sought first to subdue the virgin soil

of that State. Some of the concluding chapters of the book are

devoted to a very intelligent discussion of the existing

transportation problems in Oregon. All in all, the work is not only

readable, but has an intrinsic value which those who wish to know

all about the _terra incognita_ of which it treats will thoroughly

appreciate."

_From the Janesville Gazette._

"The book contains a vast amount of information useful to the

emigrant, and it is written in a pleasant, chatty style. The

descriptions of the varied scenery, the character sketches of the

settlers, and the laughable incidents recounted, give an additional

pleasure to the volume, which is enriched by several illustrations

of Oregon scenery."

_From the Detroit Evening News._

"Mr. Nash has just written for the benefit of his old friends and

neighbors in England a little book relating his observations and

experiences during his first two years of frontier life. It

contains much interesting information about Oregon and its people,

and coming from a disinterested source will be especially

acceptable to those contemplating removal to that State."

_From the Columbus Dispatch_ (_Wisconsin_).

"It is a compendium of information, and will be an addition to any

library."

_From the Boston Journal._

"Mr. Nash writes especially for the benefit of emigrants and

intending settlers, but the book will have an interest for all

readers who like to trace the developments of social and political

institutions in a swiftly growing State. The author writes with

enthusiasm, but frankly and sometimes critically; and he has

collected a good deal of valuable information, which, together with

the results of his own experience, he presents in an animated and

pleasant manner."

_From the Christian at Work._

"It is a capital book."

_From the Ann Arbor Chronicle._

"To read the book is like making a trip to Oregon without the

tediousness and expense of the journey."

_From the Milwaukee Sentinel._

"The reader instinctively feels that here is a careful, temperate

guide, who can be absolutely trusted."

_From the Springfield Union_ _(Massachusetts_).

"A valuable book."

_From the New York World._

"It is a description of the country and of life in Oregon that is

worth reading by anybody who may for any reason be interested in

the subject."

_From the Cincinnati Commercial._

"A fascinating book."

_From the San Jose Mercury_ (_California_).

"A highly interesting and instructive volume, marked by fairness of

statement and honesty of opinion."

_From the Omaha Republican_ (_Nebraska_).

"Mr. Nash has written a most interesting volume. His powers of

description are simply magnificent, and, with such an expansive

theme before him, he has wrought out a book that will no doubt have

ready sale, and do a great measure of good in placing the

advantages of Oregon most entertainingly before a large and choice

number of readers."

_From the Philadelphia North American_.

"It is a very good report which Mr. Nash has to make of the State,

and of the people by whom it is inhabited; and as he tells his tale

in the plain, straightforward way of a man who is relating facts,

and nothing but facts, and who simply desires to make known the

truth, it can not fail to make a favorable impression."

Cordial commendatory notices of the work have appeared also in the

following journals:

Albany (Oregon) Herald.

Benton (Oregon) Leader.

State Rights Democrat (Albany, Oregon).

San Francisco Argonaut.

San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Bulletin.

Montreal Daily Star.

New York Herald.

Kansas City Times.

Buffalo Courier.

Kansas City Journal.

Worcester Daily Spy.

Philadelphia Business Advocate.

Holyoke Paper World.

Albany (New York) Evening Journal.

Akron (Ohio) Gazette.

Syracuse Daily Journal.

Pittsburg Gazette.

Syracuse Herald.

Charleston (South Carolina) News and Courier.

Chicago Tribune.

Albany Argus.

Cincinnati Gazette.

Boston Post.

Montreal Gazette.

Boston Gazette.

Philadelphia Times.

New York Observer.

Philadelphia Inquirer.

Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot.

Boston Times.

Portland (Maine) Argus.

Petersburg (Virginia) Index and Appeal.

Davenport (Iowa) Gazette.

Albany Country Gentleman.

Cincinnati Times.

Boston Commonwealth.

Boston Courier.

Pittsburg Telegram.

Brooklyn Times.

Indianapolis Sentinel.

Boston Journal.

Providence Press.

_For sale by all booksellers; or sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of

price_.

_D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York._