The west shore., May 01, 1885, Page 160, Image 30

160
THE WEST SHORE.
"WHAT AHE MY CHANCES?"
rpiIE uhuhI spring crop of letters is daily received at
1 thin office, and no doubt at other newspaper oflices,
from men ent nf the Uockicn, who wrilo italiug uluul
the country. They apjiear to think that the Oregon
newspapers keep a sort of inforiniition agency and fur
nihil all kinds' of reliable statistics free of cost to all
inquirers. Koine of the letters are funny. The writers
did not 'menu to make them humorous, but that fact
make them all the more ludicrous. A baker writing
from Fon-du-Lac, Win., want us to tteud him our paper
" for a week or ho, to get an idea of the place." A young
gentleman writes from Crestline, Ohio, asking what the
probable show is for "a lawyer." This family journal is
firm in the belief that there are lawyers enough here now.
A little more oouictitiou might overdo the thing. Every
facility is already alTordiHl present litignnts, and although
an additional term of court hath been ordered for this
bailiwick, yet the increased stress Ukii the Astoria bar
can Im borne without undue effort on the part of it
mcinliera.
Without the slightest desire to subdue 'the ardent
enthusiasm of those who wish to make their homes in the
sotting sun, it may he in order to suggest that if they
severally and individually come hero to work and stand
in on all occasions they will find plenty to do and due
encouragement If our correatondent from Milwaukee,
for instance, who " has had charge of a saw mill," will
ooine here and get a bit of land on the other side of the
hill, which will Ih gladly leased him by the owner, and
put it into cultivable hIiiim and raise vegetables and
garden truck, he will find a ready side for every morsel of
it at good price right here, and if he sticks to it he will
le independent iu three or four or five or six years; but
if he comes looking for a "job," and exxyU to got
enough to buy opera tickets with, he would do hotter to
look for a summer's "sit" in a Milwaukee brickyard.
There is any amount of room here. This is one of the
roomiest auction in Uncle Ham's dominions, and opjxr
tunitio are not wanting, but they must be embraced with
a warm, fervent omhraoe, and to grow tired is to fail.
A good many pursuits lime are overdoiie; a good
many more are decidedly underdone, and those are ready
for the right men to develop In general, however, it
may be said that there are in all commuuitioa of the
Northwest busy, active, wide-awake men who are well
acquainted "back East," who have a brother or a cousin
or aonie one who only needs the word to start right out
hero. These men keep a bright lookout, and as soon as
they see anything that they think a living csu le made at
they are not slow in telling their folks east of the Rockies
about it, and it is in this way that the greater part of our
immigration is made up. Id the main this is tlio lietter
way. A man who drift here iu a sort of sMculative un
certainty as to what he will do after he is here has the
chance against him from the start It would be better
for him to have some sort of programme arranged and
live up U that a dowdy a possible, A very ettHculial
part of that programme i tj lure sufficient coin about
him to carry him somewhere else if he doesn't conclude
to stay at the place he first reaches, or enough to keep
him for a while if he does.
Another suggestion to the ardent young man who
contemplate giving us the benefit of his great abilities.
There are men here just as well up in experience, in
ability and in the attributes that win success as, prob
ably, he is himself. There are men who have knocked
around from one end of the continent to the other; who
have had their eye teeth cut many moons ago; who are
able to see and turn their sight to advantage. Ability is
not at such an astonishing premium as some of our
would-!e immigrants would, by their correspondence,
we to imply. To the worker, the man with honest pur
lose, the man who is not in too big a hurry to get rich,
the man who is willing to " live and let live," there is
plenty of room and no lack of opportunity in any part of
this section, and every one will pay him the value lie sets
upon hiiusolf if he can show that he hasn't marked him
self up too higlL lsormn.
In connection with the account given on another page
of the wonderful growth of North Yakima, the following
engineer's " yarn," related in the Providence Prww, will
be appreciated:
One dny I was driving my engine over the prairie at
the rate of forty miles an hour, without a house in sight,
and supposing Jhe nearest town to be thirty miles distant
But as I glanced ahead I was astonished to see that I was
approaching a large city. I rubbed my eyes, thinking it
was a mirage.
"Jim," says I to the fireman, " wlmt's this place?"
"Blamed if I know!" says Jim, staring out of the cab.
" I declare, if there ain't a new town growed up here
since we wont over the line yesterday I"
"I believe you are right, Jim. Ring the bell or we
shall run over somebody 1"
So I slowed up, and we pulled into a depot, where
more'n five hundred oople were waiting to see the first
train come into the place. The conductor learned the
name nf the town, put it down on the schedule, and we
went on.
"Jim," says I, as we pulled out, "keep your eyes
oen for new towns. First thing you know we'll be run
ning by some strange place."
"That's sol" says Jim. "An' hadn't we better git
one of the brake men to watch out on the rear platform
for towns that Bpring up after the engine gets by?"
m
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