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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1876)
8 THE WEST SHORE. February. Fob tub Wkmt Rhokb. CROSSING THE PLAINS. BY DAVID NEWSOME. This text brings to the minds of thou sands of persons in Oregon the scenes, dangers, toils, friendship or dislikes on that memorable journey across a broad expanse of the North American continent. One association or society of pioneers was organ ized in this State of those who came here prior to January 1st, 1851. Another was formed of those prior to December, 1853, The Pioneer and Historical Society aims lo accomplish a noble puriose to collect, collate and finally publish a concise history of Oregon. The writer was, four years ago, elected a corresonding member of this society; but, having arrived in Oregon in October, 1851, he could not be an active member. The Fionccr Association in cludes all up to 1853. This association aims mainly at the same results as the other, and the two should assuredly merge into one. One thing seems strange to many per sons, and that is the wonderful growth and development of Oregon and Washington Territories for these should yet be one for the last thirty-three years. Cut off from the outside world to a great extent, crowd ed to the extreme northwest corner of the United Sutcs possessions the broad Pa cific Ocean washing our Western border, the llritish possessions on the north, Cali fornia on the south, and the great North American mountain chain on the cast; hut, made up of such men and women as those were who crossed the great American des ert between the Missouri and llurnl rivers in ox wagons, living in tents like the sons of Israel, anil enduring what those immi grants did, it is no wonder that they should build up a country as we see it to-day. We may talk nhnut military campaigns, hard ship anil toils; hair-breadth escapes, bra ver) and endurance; but if a tithe of all that those immigrants saw and endured during their long six-months' journey were written out, it would exceed in interest any story of fiction. At Springfield, III., I procured a six quire blank liook, a leather valise, ens and ink ; anil kept an accurate journal of the trip. I have that book yet, and from its --ages I may draw data which may be of some interest lo my plomer friends and others. Twenty-live years ago our train left Coumil Hlntl's and entered the great Indian territory then almost undefined and un known to the w hites. The first while per sons we saw except a few renegades from prisons and matrimonial chains who had taken up their aliodcs with the Indians were at Fort Laramie, alknit 500 miles west. These were officers ami soldiers of the I'. S. lurracks there. At Soda Springs, on Pear river, seventy-live miles northeast from Salt Lake City, were a parcel of the saints and a lot of Indians their allies. At old Fort ILill were a score or more of Hudson Pay Coniptny's agents and em ployees (whites), and next was the Indian agent of the United Slates and his family at the Umatilla agency, ten miles east of llutlcr Creek. Next were the soldiers and some settlers at The I'alles. At the Cas cade Falls were some traders and sundry shar-ieri who had come there to buy stock, wagons and carriages of us at less than half their worth at Portland. At old Fort Van couver was a small start of a town and barracks for soldiers. At Portland were ihoul 800 inhabitants. The third street horn the river was full of big lit sliunis. My family were now tick, and 1 had hard work to tind a shelter for them. At last Skidmorc A Kuggles tixik us in. and we uid tit bits a meal each (or live of us, and the same for cots,uniil we could pass up the valley. We had tiivcled 1.575 miles in ox wagons, and been on our way full six montlis. The Indians were hostile that season, as the number of immigrants that year was not sufficiently large to deter them from their depredations upon us and our stock. Kvery murder, theft and raid upon us from Fort Laramie to Grande Ronde we could trace to Mormon inllu-1 ence and plans. I recorded very many ! instances in my journal of thefts, robberies and murder on the journey. For the first 1 500 miles west of the Missouri jiver the Mormons had no scapegoats ujoq which to place their outrages. Since 1851 what changes in that vast district through which we assed have occurred! All the way up the splendid bottoms of the Hi; Platte river solitude reigned, broken only by the howling of the wolves or the low, rumbling sounds of vast herds of affrighted buffaloes stampeding from the trains. What fine districts we passed on Powder river, Grande Ronde, Umatilla and the highlands east of The Dalles. There was no thought that much of the country from Fort Laramie to the Grande Kondewas underlaid with gold, silver, iron, coal, copper, lead and cinna bar. Could the pen of the ready writer have traced out the changes since that lime on that long route the new Stales and Territories formed in it, the population, public and private improvements, discover ies of mines, the building of the Union Pacific railroad, and the telegraph lines, by which thought flashes from New York, London or Petersburg to Portland in an instant "Wonderful!" would have been our ejaculations. In traversing the dreary, treeless, sandy wastes on the journey, we did not suppose for a moment that a railroad could ever be built across those wilds. When we arrived at the culminating ioint at the South Pass (July 16, 1851), and there turned our faces exstward and exclaimed, " My native land, adieu!" little did we think that by 1870 we could siart from Portland, Oregon, and dine in Chicago in less than ten days. When 1 bade farewell to kind friends and relatives al Springfield, III., 011 the morning of April 3, 1851, and saw the cars move off towards Meridocca, forty-lhree miles west, the only railroad then in that Slate, my 'carl sunk within me. I never expected 10 sec steam cars again. Ten years ago I conversed with an ex-Governor of Oregon as to the Missibility or probability of a rail road from Portland, south. He declared that that event was Pcrha- fifty years hence, if ever. Hut we have had a road, wth the steam horse pulling along, for four years pasi for joo miles south, and now a good assurance thai it will tap the Central Pacific at Winnemucca before three years more. I can hardly realise or accredit my own senses when 1 compare Portland, Oregon City, Salem, Albany, Fiigcne and Koseburg with what they were twenty-five years ago. Koseburg was not then in existence. A mighty empire is rising u-wn llie western slope of this great continent. ( )ur isola lation will soon lie ended. Heforc long we shall l-e in direct communication In land and sea with all the princiial marts in the world. Tliank God we are under the protection of the stars and stri'ics, and our hundredth anniv ersary as a nation witnesses us a united people. In conclusion, I give this toast for July 4, 1816 : " Oregon first, and then our great Ameri can Union, one and insciarablc, now and forever." Sai km, Oregon, t'rimart, 1876. Oki.min Coal. Speaking of the coal mines near Utter City, Coos county, the .VrtM says: "The vast amount of coal which lies inilieddcd in these hills is al most incredible. The foreman and the miners say the crop of eight-good workable veins are distinctly visible on the side of the mountain owned by Utter Ojcda. F.ach one of these veins is a mine of ii- -lf in.! run AyW tut ,..! , . I... , ..... .t. ,alv , juttiucc I 1 50 tons daily the product of the eight j vn '- aggregating atotal of i.rec tons per day." THE HOTEL CLERK. Mr. W. D. Howells photograplis the American hotel clerk, in "Their Wedding Journey," as follows: "It was with a sudden sinking of the heart that Basil be held, presiding over the register, the con ventional American hotel clerk. He was young; he had a neat mustache and well brushed hair; jewelled studs sparkled in his shirt-front, and ring-son his white hands; a gentle disdain of the travelling public breathed from his person in the mystical odors ol Ihhng-inlang He did not lift his haughty head to look at the wayfarer who meekly wrote his name in the regis ter; he did not answer him when he begged for a cool room; he turned to the board on which the keys hung, and, pluck ing one from it, slid it toward Basil on the marble counter, touched a bell for a call boy, whistled a bar of Offenbach, and, as he wrote the number of the room against Basil's name, said to a friend lounging near him, as if resuming a conversation, 'Well, she's a mighty pooty gul, any way, Chawleyl' "When I reflect that this was a type of the hotel clerk throughout the United States, that behind unnumbered registers at this moment he issnubbing travellers in to the dust, and that they are suffering and perpetuating him, I am lost in wonder at the national meekness. Not that I am one to refuse the humble pie his jewelled fingers offer me. Abjectly I take my key, and creep up-stairs after the call-boy, and try to give myself the genteel air of one who has been stepped upon. But I think homicidal things, all the same, and 1 re joice that, in the safety of print, I can cry out against the despot whom I have not the presence lo defy. 'You vulgar and cruel little soul,' I say, and I imagine my self breathing the words to his teeth, 'why- do you treat a weary stranger with this ignominy f I am to pay well for all I get, and I shall not complain of that. But look at me, and own my humanity; confess, by some civil action, by some decent phrase, that I have rights, and that they shall be respected. Answer my proper questions; respond to my fair demands. Do not slide my key at me; do not deny me the ioor io!itcncss of a nod as you give it in my hand. I am not your equal; few men are; but I shall not presume up on your clemency. Come, I also am human." Our writers seem to lie making a simul taneous assault on this insolent class, for Ralph Keeler, who is travelling in the South, cauterizes the clerk of a Mississippi steamer in this wise: "Then at the office we must confront that terrible autocrat, the chief clerk, who is, perhais, a little better than the average wretch of the great hotel clerk the world over, lie assigns us a room with a tone of outraged dignity in his voice, and we wither gradually out of his sight to deposit our valises on our beds and lock them in, lest that awful fellow should take it into his head 10 throw them overboard." "It is an exploded theory," savs one who sieaks with knowledge, "that women dress to please the men. They dress to please or spite each other. Any girl of sense and experience knows that it is just as easy to break a man's heart in a two dollar muslin, neatly made up, as it is in a (ive-hundred-dollar silk costume made by a man-dressmaker." It is, jn tact, a great deal easier. The natural charm of a young girl is often utterly destroyed In excessive dressing. Men like tasteful and not extravagant toilets; and the rivalry in dress among women is not to catch a beau, but to mortify an enemv. At Omaha, a few dayTa,, red flag was placed in front of a house used for the "l-tion of small-,, pauents. A large ""' ''' wh0 the Iront door and wondered when "the auction WAS In tinn " U-l.. . - h. -.I . r K" 'ntormca o Ml of case they scattered in The Old Oaken Bucket." This beautiful and popular song or ballad is said to have had its origin under the follow ing circumstances, which give it additional interest : Some years ago when Woodworth, the printer, and several other "Old New Yorkers," were brother-typos in a printing office which was situated at the corner of Chestnut and Chambers streets, there were few places in the city of New York where one could enjoy the luxury of a really "good drink." Among the few places most worthy of patronage was an establish ment kept by Mallory, in Franklin street, on about the same spot where St. John's Hall recently stood. Woodworth, in com pany with several particular friends, had dropped in at this place one afternoon, for the purpose of taking some "brandy-and-water," which Mallory was famous for keeping. The liquor was superexcellent, and Woodworth was inspired by it; for, after taking a draught, he laid his glass up on the table, and, smacking his lips, declar ed that Mallory's lau de vie was superior to any he had ever tasted. "No," said M., "you are quite mistaken; there was one thing which, in both our estimations, far surpasses this in the way of drinking." "What was that?" asked Woodworth, dubiously. "The draught of pure fresh water that we used to drink from the old oaken bucket that hung in the well, after our return from the labors of the field on a sultry day in summer." The tear drops glistened for a moment in Woodwork's eyes. "True, true I" he replied; and soon after quitted the place. He returned to the office, grasped the pen, and in half an hour "The Old Oaken Bucket,' one of the most delightful compositions in our language, was ready in manuscript, to be embalmed in the memory of succeeding generations. ' Let is the Sunlight. We wish the . importance of admitting the licht of the sun, freely, as well as building these early anu late nres, coma be properly impressed upon our housekeepers. No article of furniture should ever be brought to our ' homes too good or too delicate for the sun . to see all day long. His presence should never be excluded, except when so bright as to be uncomfortable to the eyes. And -walks should be in bright sunlight, so that the eyes are protected by veil or narasol. ' when inconveniently intense. A sun-bath ' is of far more imortance in preserving a healthful condition of the body than is generally unuerstood. A sun-bath costs nothing, and that is a misfortune, for peo ple arc deluded with the idea that those tilings only can be good or useful which costs money. But remember that pure water, fresh air, sunlight, and homes kept free from dampness, will secure you from many heavy bills of the doctors, and give you health and vigor, which no money can procure. It is a well-established fact that people who live much in the sun nrft usually stronger and more healthy than those whose occujiations deprive them of sunlight. But few persons have amr idea of the magnitude of the Texas cattle trad. It i stated that during the past year no less than 60,000 beeves have been driven from Texas into Arkansas. Nebraska, and the Western States. It requires about jo.000 neau 01 cattle to feed thtf Indians, which are not included in the above estimate, but which are purchased by the Government rom 1 exas traders. An economical Iowan -hn bait tivtth- ache, determined to remove it in the Indian fashion. AcrorHlniri,, K. hnt down a sapling in the woods, lay down himself, and attached a stout cord to his tooth and the sanlirar. Thi ), tn.-r-l,) the spring, and the next he knew he had jumped over a grove of about forty small trees, and was trying to get out of a. small pond that he happened to alight in.