The west shore., January 01, 1885, Page 2, Image 2

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THE WEST SHORE
Oregon has a commissioner at Now Orleans whoso
solo duty Booms to be to prevent his one little car-lond
from becoming lost among the scores sent by other
Htnten. Yet ho nnjjlit find time to distribute n few thou
sand pamphlets descriptive of Oregon. The publisher
presented him with a thousand copies of The West
Kiioiie for that purpose, and when theso are all gone he
can, no doubt, borrow a few pamphlets from tho Dakota,
Nebraska or Kansas commissioners, who are supplied
with enormous quantities of thorn. Tho Board of Trade
might send lain a written request to the representative of
Dakota to grant him such favors. Thin is only a sugges
tion, however, and perhaps somo one else can think of
something even bettor.
Take it nil in all, there was never a more characteris
tic exhibition of Oregon enterprise than that we have
witnessed during the snow blockade the past fow weeks,
rassongors, express and mail were snowed in some fifty
miles from tho city, and yet, though individuals walked
in to tho city from the beleaguered train, tho business
inon permitted the mail to lio there in the snow, and
more to accumulate at Wallula daily, for throe weeks, be
fore an order was procured by telegraph from Washing
ton, authorizing tho Postmaster to bring it in on sleds.
All this time business remained stagnant. What other
community in America would havo been so nerveless and
inert? Not long since tho Chicago pout ollico was de
stroyed by fire early in tho morning, and before night a
new ouo was opened and the regular delivery of the mail
of 600,01)0 jMMiplo rosumoil Tho Postmaster did not
bother his head with what was dono in '(12 or 'f'2, or even
'ill, but confined his attention to what ought to bo done
right then. Possibly tho Superintendent of tho Mails
will say that ho had no authority to spend tho depart
ment money for any such purpose; but thero is no doubt
our liberal Hoard of Trade would havo supplied the
means had an appeal Imoii made, even though its enter
prising iiiMiiliersdid not happen to think of such a thing
themselves. Then tho energy anil public spirit displayed
in clearing the snow from walks ami street car tracks are
worthy of comment It was in tho height of tho holiday
season, when it was hoped that trade would bo gixnl
enough to compensate for tho great dullness of the previ
ous few months, and yet tho street car lines wore permit
ttnl to become blockaded and remain so for days at a
time, tho old Oregonian reason, that it "cost too much,"
leing given for not keeping thorn clear. Thus Christmas
camo and went and tho holiday trade was lost, while only
ono merchant seemed to npprcciato tho situation enough
to ofTer to lsar part of tho exhume of owning tho lines.
A laKirtsl walk about tho city rovealod tho fact that it
was chielly tho pooror classes aud thoso whoso sojourn in
Webfoot had Ikmmi brief, who mado any effort to clear the
snow from off thoir walks. Our model capitalists, many
of them, can boast of still having on their front porches
tho buow that fell tho first day of tho storm; aud had the
elements permitted, these same men would Ie in posses
sum of the snow that foil in lStil It is possible they
look npon buow as an Eastern import which they should
not encourage by too much attention; for these men are
patriotio in the highest degree, and are opposed to the
importation of manufactured articles. They do not ex
press their sentiments by establishing here glove, lint and
other factories; it would be too much to ask of them when "
they can loan their money on an assured percentage; but
they discourage importation of snch things by refusing to
purchase gloves aud trusting to their pants' pockets to
keep their hands warm, and wearing their old hats till they
become, like ancient Babylon, "a crumbling ruin." To
be sure, this has also a tendency to reduce the volume of
trado, make times hard, and discourage home manufac
tures as well; but that cannot be helped; those patriotic
men cannot be expected to carry water on both shoulders.
Verily do we exclaim with the much afllicted Job, "There
is no relief but in the grave."
OREGON'S PARALYZER.
E. W. Allen is one of Oregon's representatives at Now
Orleans. Everybody knows Allon some frequently
and general satisfaction was expressed when he was
selected for the position. By dint of considerable scratch
ing around, he and the other gentlemen appointed by
the Governor succoeded in raking together enough of the
milk and honey of divers kinds with which Oregon is
overflowing to make a car-load. When this was done,
Mr. Allon tacked a big yellow placard on the door, and
waybilled it to Now Orleans, confident that he had some
thing there which would "juBt paralyze them fellers
down thoro," as a bystander expressed it, when it should
be displayed before tho admiring eyes of those to whom
Providence had denied tho boon of a residence in Wob
foot A few days later, having fortified himself with a
volume of The West Shoiie, the blonde Commissioner
chartered a limited portion of a Pullman and hiod him to
tho Creole capital. Somehow and just how will always
remain a mystery to strangers it became whispered on
tho train that ho was not as other men were, but a Com
missioner. His fellow-passengers gn.od upon that grace
ful form, in which reposed all the dignity of the great
State of Oregon, with feelings akin to awe. The portor,
usually so skilled in "sizing up" his passengers, felt
ashamed of himself, aud immediately raised his formor
estimate of a silver dollar to five ono for Allon and four
for tho sovereign State of Oregon. He was all right as
far as Alton was concerned, but most sadly deceived on
Oregon. Poor follow, ho had not lived here as long as
some of us. He knows better now. It was while under
tho hilarious enthusiasm for commissioners, caused by
this sudden unexpected raise in the possible amount of
his perquisites, that the sablo porter inserted Allen's
title iu the list of passengers telegraphed to St Paul.
Tho result was that thenceforth the Commissioner's jour
ney eclipsed the brilliant motoorio flight across the conti
nent executed by the famous Cronin in 187C. He was
bosiegod with questions, iuterviowed by item-hungry re
porters, solicited for the privilege of transferring his
baggage and august person fiom depot to depot, warmly
urged to write letters of introduction to the Governor and