The west shore., September 01, 1883, Page 202, Image 2

202
THE WEST SHORE.
September, 1883.
I ween litis city and San Francisco. China and
(lie Sandwich Island! contributed to swell the
increasing volume of her business. Newspapers
were established and brick business houses erected.
The great rush to the gold mines of Eastern Ore
gon and Idaho, in 1861, opened up another field
of enterprise. Portland was the gateway to the
new I'M Dorado, and soon absorbed nearly all the
trade and commerce of this whole region, which
she holds securely in her hand to-day, and which
is now increasing at a vastly greater rate than
ever before. She is now a city of 30,000 people,
possessing several miles of solid business blocks,
protected from fire by a large and efficient fire
department and supplied with the electric fire
alarm, having three street railway companies, whose
lino traverse the city in all directions, enjoying
the conveniences of the telephone and the advan.
t.iges of the electric light, and possessing systems
nl gas and water works. In regard to gas and
water, it must lie said that the companies con
trolling these necessaries are the only ones whose
enterprise has failed to keep pace with the ad
vancement of the city. There is a splendid open
ing here fur the investment of capital in supply
ing Portland with adequate gas facilities at rea
sonable rates, and giving us a sufficient quantity
of good water at prices people can afford to pay.
In (his respect only do we fall short of the luxu
ries and advantages possessed by the older cities
of the east.
As regards the number and character of hef
newspaicrs, Portland will compare favorably with
any city of her site in the world. The Oregonian
has been published for more than thirty years,
and has long been recognized as the leading re
publican journal of the northwest. The daily and
weekly Standard, the recognized exponent of
democracy, is a long established journal. The
daily and weekly Northwest Neivs is an enterprise
iug republican paper, recently founded. The
F.vening Telegram, an associate of the Oregonian,
occupies a position of favor in the city. Besides
these daily papers, there are a number issued
weekly and monthly the New Northwsl, Sun
iliiy ll'eteome, Sunday Mertury, Hesperian, Wtf.
latneiti Parmer, Farmer and Dairyman, Rural
Spirit, Commercial Reporter, Commercial Retard,
CaliM Sentinel, Christian Aihwate, Columbia
' Chunhman, Deutsche Zeitnng, Staats Zeitung,
Tmk Wkst Siiokr, and a numlier of publications
devoted to trades, secret societies, and special
objects,
Ult'( A1IOSAL AM) SlX-IA!..
I huke of our friends who hive been accustomed
to look upon Oiegon as a frontier, backwoods
rouuliy, and I'm t bind as a settlement where pos
sibly the hair was cut a little shorter and the
hinge omitted from the buck -skin pants, may
have alitady seen fit to change their opinion if
not, they certainly will when they consider our
educational advantages and the liberal support
given the common schools. The city is divided
Into school districts, and six large edifices, built
after the most approved plans for health, conven
ience and discipline, furnished with all the
modem conveniences and appliances for comfort
and effective work, and surrounded by commodl
out play grounds, have been erected fot the
accommodation of the 3,500 children of both the
rich and the poor who attend them. The expense
of maintaining these Institutions aggregate nearly
100,000 annually, and is cheerfully borne by the
tax-payers of the city. A large and well appointed
igh school is also maintained, where the youth
of the city receive a finish to the education given
them in the grammar schools, fitting them for the
active duties of life, or preparing them for the
higher educational walks of the university and
college. In addition to the public schools, there
are also a number of private institutions of high
merit. The Catholic denomination has St. Mi
chael's College and St. Mary's Academy, and the
Episcopalians possess the Bishop Scott Grammar
School for boys, and St. Helen' Hall for young
ladies. A German-American school has many
pupils, and there are two excellent business col
leges that are well attended by many young men
and ladies of the city and state, who are fitting
themselves for an active business life. There are
a numlier of higher institutions of learning in the
northwest, though, ns is generally the case in the
east, they are located at other points than the
metropolis.
Nearly all the religious denominations are rep
resented here, having comfortable and some of
them quite commodious edifices, though none of
them have as yet erected the elaborate and orna
mental structures seen in older cities. In that
respect the people of Portland are quite consent
alive, believing that more good is accomplished
by liberal contributions to worthy objects than in
creating large church debts for the erection oi
ornamental edifices. The ability displayed in the
pulpits of the city is of a high order, and in every
way the churches receive liberal support. The
Christian Chinese Jiave a small chapel, and their
heathen countrymen have a josh-house, where sit
enthroned the multitudinous gods of Asia. The
Young Men's Christian Association is an organ!
zation whose influence for good is strongly felt in
the city.
In the way of intellectual amusements are a
commodious theater, where the principal attrao
tions that visit the coast appear. The completion
of the all-rail route to San Francisco will place
Portland on the grand circuit that will be followed
by theatrical combinations, passing over the North'
ern Pacific and Oregon k California one way,
and returning by the Central and Union. San
Francisco will then have no advantage over this
city in the quality or number of attractions,
There is a spacious pavilion, where every year the
mechanical, agricultural and artistic products of
the state are exhibited, and which it thronged
with visitors from the whole northwest. The
Apollo Club and Orchestral Union are two excel
lent musical organizations that cater to the refined
musical' taste of a very large class of citizens.
Even the Chinese have their houses of amuse'
ment, and nightly the bang of cymbals, rattle
and thump of the kettle-drum, and despairing
wail of the one-string fiddle, delight the heathen
ear long after "midnight's holy hour" has
passed.
A regards education, morality, refinement and
social etiquette, Portland is the equal of any city
of the east. She it not, and never hat been, at
all like the typical western city of the popular
idea an idea emanating chiefly from the brains
of certain authors and quasi poets, who have been
liberally rewarded by the reading public for crest'
Ing it. There are no more revolvers and bowie
knives In proportion to the population, in Port'
lend, than In tht city of Biflalo, while the nuuv
ber who attend church and can read and write
the English language correctly, is fully as great.
As regard! good order, temperance and exemp
tion from crime, Portland will compare favorably
with any city in the Union.
Buildings.
The business blocks, semi-public buildings, and
many of the private residences are of a very supe
rior order. A glance at our numerous street views
will give a better idea than any mere description,
of the substantial character of the great majority
of our business houses. Block after block of two,
three and four story brick buildings lin; First and
Front streets, occupied by substantial business
firms, and crowded with immense wholesale and
retail stocks of goods, while the whole water
front is covered with immense docks and ware
houses. We give separate illustrations of two of
the finest business buildings, the Union Block,
occupied by large retail stores and offices, and
Starr Block, the headquarters of four of the
largest jobbing houses of the city. The postofhee
and custom house, and "The Portland," the
mammoth hotel now being erected by the North
ern Pacific Terminal Company, appear on our
title page, and speak for themselves. The Odd
Fellows' Temple, and Masonic Temple, are both
elegant and costly ornaments to the city, and the
building of the First National Bank, and the
Reid Block, are fine and substantial structures.
Many extremely elegant and costly private resi
dences, surrounded by beautifully ornamented
grounds, adorn the city, and speak volumes far
the liberality and refined taste of our wealthier
citizens. The laboring classes do not live in
crowded tenement houses, but occupy neat and
tasteful cottages, adorned with clinging vines and
beautified with flower plots. The evidences of
thrift, comfort and contentment are observ .hie on
every hand. The streets of the residence portion
of the city are lined with maple, locust, elm,
butternut and other shade tr.-es, while ornamental
trees and shrubs of many varieties abound in ihe
yards and grounds surrounding the more preten
tious residences. From a distance the city seems
buried in a forest, so dense is its umbrageous covering.
The growth of Portland is indicated better by
the record of her building operations than in any
other way. There were expended in 1883, $:,
974,600 in building improvements, two-thirds of
which were for the enlargement of our facilities
for transacting the enormously increasing trade
and commerce of the city. More than $1,000,0
were expended for the construction of business
houses and blocks alone, while a similar amount
was spent in the erection ol hotels, docks, ware
houses, factories, etc. During the present year
there has been no cessation in building operations,
on the contra7 they have been more extensive.
It is safe to estimate that more than $4,000,000
have been expended for improvements in and
about Portland since the first of last January.
The new buildings indicate broadly the portions
of the city to be devoted hereafter to special
branches of trade. Front street is being built up
solidly with extensive wholesale houses, and the
massive structures now being erected or recently
finished are to be devoted to that line of trade
exclusively. The tendency of the retail trade It
to move west and south, and that of the ware
houses, shipping merchants and heavy dealert 'o
move In the direction of the new depot. All the