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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1888)
THE WEST SHORE. 183 or more men are not employed in and around them one year hence.. The coal industry has long since taken its place in the front rank, even disputing the lead with lumber. The output last year, of the King county mines alone, was about four hundred thou sand tons, and there is every reason to believe it will exceed five hundred thousand tons in 1888. The Cas cade mountains have been scaled by railroads, the Northern Pacific being completed, and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern in process of construction. Both of these companies have their routes through King county, the two most available and desirable passes the Snoqualmie and Stampede cutting the mountain range almost due east of Seattle. The fish eries have been found to be illimitable, expanding from year to year, and having long since given proof of capability of indefinite future extension, equaling, in time, those of the most famed parts of the North Atlantic, either in Europe or America. Thus have the misrepresentations, before alluded to, been dispelled, one by one and little by little. That the country could not sustain a large popula tion is being proved more and more absurdly false every year. Every part of Western Washington is rapidly growing in population and wealth. The car lier growth was slow; the country was a long distance from the densely populated regions of the East; the journey here required months of time, and the expen diture of hundreds and thousands of dollars was nec essary to bring a family, while the dangers and dis comforts, either by land or sea, were great and never ending. Under the circumstances, it is only surpris ing that so many came as did. Of late years the troubles of the immigrant have been reduced to the minimum. Seven lines of transcontinental railroad now bring over one hundred thousand new people to the Pacific coast in a single year, the trip being one of comparative ease and pleasure, requiring only four or five days' time, and the expenditure of from twenty to sixty dollars a person. Farming lands in Western Washington have been eagerly seized upon by this great invading host, the towns have been filled and boomed, new industries have been created, and an advance made daring the first seven years of the preseLt decade far greater than all the growth of the previous thirty years. While this applies to all Western Washington, it applies to no part with greater force than to King county. The first settle ments here were practically wiped out during the In dian war of 1855-C, this being the center and chief scene of operations. The White river massacre, the seigo of, and attack upon, Seattle, etc, are the most noted events of that struggle. Every farm bouse in the county, and part of Seattle, was destroyed, and the inhabitants were driven to a small strip of shore line, where they lived under the protection of the guns of government war vessels. llecovery from the setback then experienced was not fully effected for a number of years, since which tho wonderfol progress of the county is forcibly illustrated in the tables fol lowing: M UTIO. United States coiikiw, IhM .KKf " 1870 ;,ir Territorial " 1875 2,fiU " 1879 ,K " " 18.81 Mil " 1883 10,2 12 " 188,) ift.imi Kstimnted x.mlation, m 2S,0iW VOW CAT. Territorial eWtion, 18.')!) W " IHtiO 3W " ' 1870 I,V7 1882 l.Hll 1881 5.07S iKHfl ..VW It is but fair to state, however, that women voted in K8 and 18811, when they constituted slwut otw-thlrd tho entiro Vol ing strength of the county. Not Itulu lintf thetn, tho male vol of King county numbered not Icm than thlrtyflvt hundred in 1884, grid four thousand in 1 81. AMKHKMEXT. 1874 1 l,iB7,Wrt.ttf 187D ,W1,M).M 1HH2 a.frttM'iJW 1HM 7,Vil,7lfl.(M 1887 I2,4.17,bl.) If tho foregoing tables were not enough to con vinco the most skeptical, it might be fulled that in 1809 eight marriage licenses were issued, nine in 1870, one hundred and forty.fhe in 1SS0, and two hundred and fifty.fivo in 18H7. In 1B72, tho sum of f 1,140.00 was paid to tho teachers of the King county pallia schools. In im, tH.W7.00 were paid, and in W $20,020.00. Daring tbc school year now drawing to a close, the amount paid to teachers will excctdtlO, 000.00, or ten times as much as sixteen years ago. Tha children of tho county, at tho taking of the last school census, July lit, 1W7, nuralcred six thousand seven hundred and nincty-six, exceeding ly tbreo hundred and cighty.firo tho entire population in HHl, including Chineso and Indians. King county has resources within her lordrs suf. ficient, almost, to make her independent of tho rent of tho world. Not only has she timkr in endles. quantity and great variety, minerals as lefore stated, tho finest of fisheries, and agricultural resources of vast magnitude, lut she has fine waterways, nagoiuV cent scenery, a most healthful and invigorating elk mate, ami above all, a population devoted, loyal, unit ed, enterprising and determined. Tho waterways iu