The west shore., July 01, 1888, Page 359, Image 13

THE WEST SHORE.
A PICTURESQUE TOUR.
TART II.
"PORTLAND, the metropolis of the northwest,
1 claims, and well deserves, more than the pass
ing notice of the tourist. In many respects it is a
city unique in its characteristics. A recent writer
aptly ob8erre8 that from whatever direction a person
approaches it he emerges from the woods. Its site
was originally selected, with rare prescience, from
among those continuous woods of which the poet sang
loDg before its locators even thought of seeking homes
on these far-off shores. The judiciousness of their
action has been amply vindicated by the passing
years. Attempts have been made to build up rival
communities fearer the sea, but each effort has failed
in its purpose. Until within the past five years, nat
ural gravitation has resulted in pouring into Port
land's warehouses and commercial establishments, by
rail and by steam and sailing vessels, the undivided
wealth of the great Inland Empire. Within that pe
riod, a railroad having its terminus on Puget sound
has challenged a " division of the spoils." Rut the
result has been to arouse the public men of Portland
to the exhibition of renewed energy, vigorously di
rected, not only to the retention of fields already won,
but to the enlargement of her commercial dependen
cies and tributaries, and right well have they done
their work. A fixed population of sixty thousand
souls is claimed for Portland and its adjacent towns
and villages within a radius of three miles, all. of
which, by the operation of the same force of natural
law which has made the city what it now is, will in
evitably, and that within a short time, be included
in the corporation proper. These things arc, perhaps,
of but incidental interest to the tourist Neverthe
less, the knowledge of the fact that for a third of a
century Portland was practically without a rival for
absolute supremacy in trade for a region greater in
area than that of three or four ordinary monarchies,
will serve at once to emphasize tho ever multiplying
evidences of wealth and refinement and culture which
present themselves to view, and explain tho painfally
apparent contradictions of a four story, hundred ft
wide, marble fronted block, in close juxtaposition with
a tumble-down rookery, mossy with age and strangely
incongruous with its surroundings.
Portland has many attractions; but what tho Old
South church is to Boston, what Independence hall
is to Philadelphia, what its bay is to Naples, what the
Acropolis was to Athens, or the Forum to Rome, Ml
Hood is to this city.
Grim monolith In nature's U-rnple va.t,
White varJm of the gate ay ta the , j
Through hich ihc j rou l Columbia j-um iu UA !
When nkies are dou.llewi ami the air U Ulm,
Anil all the vale in rarrt4 ith flotcr,
And all the trves are glorious in grtrn rol' ;
When binls are ncMing ami the fleM are luh
With prom i e of grval roj irul x-filial Urn,
And onhanls heavy ith unriprniHl fruiu,
Ami nature iKM-ms onr more at her full prime,
Fair as in Klen at creation's lan
S-rene in hid unblcmlhel purity,
The towering mount, in rotw of wmiite white,
And seen of all men, nitncws Ur to ail
That tho rouml earth, swung by its goMm chain
Fast by th throne of (Sol, can hot I move!.
Such is Mount Hood as it appeared to me, aenwa
fields and through long vistas of grove and orchard,
on a Jono day not long ago. If I am asked from
what point of view about Portland the In st impress
of its grandeur can bo obtained, I confess myself ut
terly at a loss how to reply. On a favorable day
that is to say when neither clouds, fog nor smoke obscure-a
walk along Front street, say from Btark to
the southern boundary of the city, pausing at each
cross street for an observation, will result In a memo
ry stored with a kaleidoscopic panorama of unsur
passed sublimity. As tho visitor ascends tho higher
elevations of tho city, Hood reveals its mighty bulk
in new, but not more fascinating, situations. Chaste
and beautiful, Mount BL Helens rises clear la view,
M unt Adams lifts its white front above tho envious
hills, and as greater heights are reached at length,
eight snow-clad peaks complete tho "vision iplen
did," while far below, river and lake, forest and home
stead, city, village and unbroken wilderness, lend
graco and beauty and rugged grandeur to tho scete.
Portland's homes, from thoso of tho millionaire,
noticeable for their luxurious appointments, to ima
of tho modest burgher, tree-embowered, lawn-sur-rounded
and llower-bodecked, rightfully challenge
comparison with those of older cities. Her thanes
and docks, at which lie ibij from remotest climef,
her commercial establishments, her banks and insur.
anco companies, aro striking eridencrs of hr com.
manding situation in tho great northwest China and
Japan bring hero their finest wares and most ti.
tensive articles of bric-a-brac for tho choice of tour,
ist or denizen with purses equal to tho occasion. Her
public school system is abreast of tho times, and her
high school building is the finest May oa the coast.
Her private educational establishments hare a de
servedly high reputation. Her churches aro minis
tered to by men of mark and tola. Her hospitals are
noticeable for their txc-Ucc '
I hare heretofore hinted at th abundct yield of
tho tv.il, from which h'-r fruit and veg-Ub! carkM
is suppli'iL Just 14 me copy h'fo a tnnwnuhm
! of tho contents of om of tho city fish stalls oa Juno