THE WEST SHORE.
38
PRESS COMMENT.
" TKo Uni iUf! Cl'y r Astorin."
Ymm lh Ai"rin, Dwiiilwr W.
Kokk time ago youth, to fortune and to fame un
known, came canvassing fr tho Xorlhirent, a magazine
U by a limn who has im'vit lost a chance to slur or
ignore Astoria, iiinl who Ii'im always been useful to his
employers. It whh nniiou 1 tlmt the December nuin-
lcr of tlio magay.ino was to Ihi resplendent with the
choicest productions of pen ami pencil, illustrating and
describing Astoria. Tlio skill of tlio artist was to vie
with tlio ability of tlio writer, ami tho number in ques
tion was to Ihi to Antoria tlio tiling we long had sought,
hihI mourned because wo found it not Incidentally the
youth aforesaid bored every individual member of the
Council in an attempt to have an appropriation made to
"illustrate" the public buildings, and later on tlio Cham
ber of Commerce listened to tho song of the sirou con
cerning the advantages to be derived from "a map of the
county." lint the City Council and tho Chamber of
Commerce Initli felt that if any money was to be spent
" ilbiHtrating" or advertising the city, that it could and
would Im- done through Home other medium than the pub
lication of the gentleman who two yearn ago characterized
the city hh "a hamlrt" and sneered at its pretensions.
"The article on Attain is to occupy tho greaUir part
of the lctceinler uumlier," ho we were told, but took no
stock in the statement Oh, lamo and imioteut conclu
sion! The reading niutUr occupien lettn than three pages,
and in rehash of old statistics ami weathor-lieateu state
ment The "illustration" are an alleged "view of As
toria, looking toward Tongue Point," a picture of the
(l.-mrnl Mil, , the Astor House, the ClaUop Mill, John
lloliMiii (the In-Bt engraving and the bout thing in tho
Ixxikl, 1). K. Warren's house, U W Opera House," and a
"distant view." The last is the worst There may be
worwi picture than that "distant view," but we have
imver een tliem. The article wivn that the Astor House
in sitimUsI u.-i.r the O. II ,t N. ,U-k, and is tho largest
Slid lHht hotel in the city. Theodore Urcuiusor must
have given fnni board ami lodging to tlio writ'r during
the two hour he Heut getting up tho article on Astoria!
though it is hard to nee how he put in his time. Every
thing in it has a .v..r of having l,eeu Umght and paid
Tor, au, the only H.parent reason that tho article is no
longer I that the patronage was not forthcoming. Like
Jl.Nlg,., ra.rs that were made only to sell, tho whole
thing acin gotten up "f(,r what there is in it" Men
anil mutilation that I
city ara not menHon-sl t i. The "article," ''illustra-
....... n..;, ,,,,, , . , Ul1K ft, t , ,
business u worth what it cwt 'wuoio
In Plying .y.ntrast to the journalistic aWtion cm-
"1" ? T' "! '-" "f Thk Wkst Smoke or
June, 11, winch, without any Hourish of tru U o
U.t,ug o drums. g,vo v.,.,,ll ,l(Wri, f 0"
v.de city ami fillrt iMrilti((llHi - f'J "
.r ui sank Mo LT J T r ,,rtx ueti
Hchool house in the State outside of Portland (the best
advertisement the town has), Captain Flavel's massive
residence, Colonel Taylor's fine new house, and fifty
others that might be naumd, all ignored probably be
cause the owners declined to "put up."
The Eastern Craze.
From the Portland Sunday Welcome, Deoember 19.
Almost daily out child-like faith in the superiority
of everything "Eastern" receives a shock. We are
gradually learning that we can and do produce at home
as good, or better, things of many kinds than can be pro.
cured abroad. ; Yet there are many of us who must eat
"Eastern" butter and wear "Eastern" pants, and who
continue to send East for manufactured work which can
be produced as well and cheaply at home. Our disap
pointments are frequent; but though experience is a hard
taskmaster, we seem determined to learn in no other way.
This " Eastern " worship is the baldest kind of nonsense,
but we still continue to wear patches on our knees for
worshipping with our faces to the rising sun. . A marked
instauce of this folly is that of the St Paul Northwest
Mminzini: With much pomp and circumstance it was
somo time since announced that Portland and her sister
cities were to be illustrated in that publication in the
highest Btyle of the engraver s art. As the Northwest
was an " Enstern " magazine we naturally plaoed implicit
reliance upon- tho highly colored announcement and
looked for somothine " too utterly far bevoni" It came
and we collapsed. Instead of handsome engravings of
Portland, we were treated to a collection of cheap photo
engravings of sketches by amateur artists, the subjects
mung a nuiuoor oi uusiuoss uuiiuings, mseriea ana paiu
for, simply for advertising purposes, several of them ap
pearing twice in order to permit different firms to cover
them with their signs. Accompanying these were the
residences and portraits of some of our wealthy men, all
put in " for a consideration," and a " View of Portland"
which was but an indistinct reproduction of a photograph
of about one-third of the city, taken several years ago, all
done by the cheapest possiole method photo-engraving.
The next number paid its respects to Vancouver and As
toria in the same manner, and met with very acrid criti
cism at the hands of the press at those cities. Says the
IiukH-nth-nt: "Such an apology for a view of Vancouver
is a libel on tho scenery of the Columbia River. If an
enemy had employed that magazine to damage Vancouver
it could not have been more adroitly done nor proved
more effectual than this miserably managed advertising
scheme." The Alitor inn, in paying nearly a column of
compliments of a similar kind, thinks it drew a very large
blank in the illustrating lottery. The fact is this " East
ru " craze is ridiculous, and never more so than in thia
iiwtnce. In our own illustrated magazine, The West
Siioiie, we have an establishment that has a larger corp
of high-priced artista than any magazine in the United
States but Harper's and Century, and no other Eastern
magaziue, no matter what it may promise, can possibly
pve us anything comparable with it The West Shoue
has promised a Portland number for January, and we
have every coufideuce that it will give us something that
will romove from our mouths the bad taste of this b orth
osis fiasco.
A Profitable Investment
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