T H E TORCH OF REASON, S IL V E R T O N , O R E G O N , OCTOBER 11, E. M. 300 (1900.) 2 T ra v e ls :— T h e H udson an d th e By accident, ra th e r th an sense, the the ships and business move up the shall call the beauty acquiring riv Oregon or C o lu m b ia. BY T. B. W A K EM A N . nam e of Capt. G ra y ’s m erch an t ship, “ The C olum bia,” was given to the m outh of this river, or ra th e r the adjoining land; but C arver and the other first explorers down from its source in d ista n t m ountains had given it the I r d ia n nam e, th e O re gon , “ the great w ater.” So was it generally known, and its consecra tion was th u s begun by B ry an t in 1817 in those ever m em orable lines of the T hanatopsis: T he rivers and m ountains of a country were its o riginal Deities— and such they should ever rem ain; for winds and waters, indeed all, depend upon them . T hink them over,—the Nile, Jo rd a n , Tigris, Ganges, The Yellow, Danube, Seine, Tham es, H udson, M ississippi, Ore “ Take the wings gon or C olum bia: all are m oun Of m orning, pierce the Barcan wil tain begotten. Yet they are h u m a n derness, ly begotten, for they repeat and Or lose thyself in the continuous echo back the souls of the people woods who deified, or as we say m odernly, poetised and thus consecrated them . W here rolls the O regon , and hears no sound, U ntil this consecration grow sover the Rivers and M ountains of a Save his own d a sh in g s—yet the country it is, to and in the heart, dead are th ere.” the “ Devil’s C o u n try ,” where new T his passage should have fixed homes m ay be located and “occu pied” but not really lived. The the nam e forever, for it was ap p ro reason is th a t we are the creatures, priate, and the nam e more nearly the growths of environm ent, as D ar given by “ the dead who are th e re ,” win and Spencer have proved, th a t than any other. (See H. H. B an is, we are at bottom, Fetichists. We croft’s H istory of Oregon, Vol. 1, cannot help it; we only live as we invest our m inds, h earts and lives pp. 17-25.) “ C olum bia,” a foreign nam e taken in the great G od-the Environm ent which creates and sustains us. from C apt. G ra y ’s ship, would have When we are tran sp lan ted to a new done for the A m ericans to give to and very different co untry we are country, territo ry or state so as to like trees, and we cannot feel it to honor Colum bus and W ashington be home— never! u n til our new in their two u ltim ate and ad jo in Oregon roots pierce it and feed our hearts ing states on th e Pacific. from it. Then it m ay become “ God’s was the riv er’s common nam e in C ountry,” but it is h ard for old the whole territo ry . Columbus and trees. “ Were you homesick when C olum bia had no more application you first cam e to th is wonderful to this river th an th e m an in the o o u n try ?” we said to a venera moon— not half as much as Queen ble old lady. “ ‘Sick’ d o n ’t begin,” E lizab eth ’s A dm iral D rake, who she replied, “ I just squalled .uid first sailed to its m outh in 1579. The Indians, the discoverers, the howled like a dog!” Such are the thoughts n atural to explorers, the P resident Jefferson, a m odern thinker who sails up th e who had it annexed to the U nited Oregon, wild and wonderful, m is States, the great consecrator B ry named the Columbia, and yet re an t, called the G reat River the O r members the H udson. The reason egon, and so it m ay be, even though is th a t the H udson, one of the the State has been nam ed from it. world’s p rettiest, hum anest rivers We used to say the H udson, or and sea in lets— half tide and half N orth riv e r—but now we say “ T he river, is one of the few places on H udson” only. So may it be “ the this co n tin en t th a t has become Oregon or C olum bia,” until possi really consecrated by its people. bly “ the O regon” revives. C ertain J t was not terrible, but all useful, ly th a t should be its home, poetic fruitful, cheerful, benign and beau and sacred nam e; though geograph tiful to begin w ith; and from it, ers m ay for a long tim e use the .every year since the- “ H alf Moon” other, or both. T he nam e th a t B ry dropped its anchor in it, has it fed a n t adopted can never be w holly .milder feelings into the souls of washed out, for T hanatopsis alone those who have lived, or passed or is likely to live as long as there is lingered over it. T hus P aulding, I an y th in g hum an to die. Poe, B ryant and Irv in g have helped The river is large, broad and to infuse deep into its landscape m ostly with good c u rren t; and the soul-life of a m ighty people. sweet, clear, em erald w ater, like In nearly the same latitude over more than 3,000 m iles of dusty plains, rocky deserts, and arid m ountains a sim ilar people have now liegun to hum anize and con secrate their m ightier, th eir won derful river, the O regon . It is a hard task, but they will not fail, for they are invincible. The first difficulty is struck in its false name. mile-wide, slan tin g shored river to P o rtlan d , which is 12 miles up the W illam ette. Soon after passing th isg en tle riv er, the banks of the Oregon became more ab ru p t. The m orning m ists vail the sight until finally M ount Hood looms above them with its snowy peak— as if to forbid fu rth e r progress. Soon the sun and breeze sweep th e m ists aw ay and the se cret they would hide stan d s re vealed. Those snows cam e ages ago to quench and freeze a volcan ic hell. T hrough th a t frozen hell our stu rd y little steam er works its way against a stiff cu rren t all the day, till at sunset we reach The Dalles. I t is moHtlv all the sam e story of an invested and solidified Inferno; th at is told with grotesque and w onderful variatio n s of rocks, now p erp en d icu lar alm ost to the sky, now colum ned, now’ tw isted, gnarled and distorted so as to defy the im agination as to how they came, unless they once lived and cavorted like the Hell Crags in F aust: “ And Crags g ian t shouted— ho! ho! How they sn o rt and how they blow.” er “ the Oregon;’’ the now m eaning less “ Rooster R ock” will take its new nam e, “ C astle Rock,” and so m atch the “ C ath ed ral.” Yes, the w onderful will be clothed by the ap p ro p riate and beautiful in tim e, for the people who are to do it are living, or being born every day. W here do they live? W hy, in th a t awful p urgatory, “ the great m id dle W est” , with heat or cyclone swept prairies, with scorching a l kali deserts, with the barren soli tudes of parching and freezing m ountains! Ye m iserable who are doomed to live in th a t to rtu rin g p urgatory, save up your m oney, so as to get a sum m er’s breath of heaven by the clear m ountain riv ers and shores east of the Alliga- nies or west of the Sierras and Cas cades. Of all places the valley of the Oregon is and will be more and more the unequaled w atering place of the West. The sum m er air, al ways pleasant by day, ju st cool enough at night, and (only th in k of it!) never a m osquito!! T he water alw ays fresh, clear and d rin k ab le, alw ays ready to kiss you all over when you en ter it for But all this you have,or will have learned, from sight, hooks, photos or pictures. M ilder features relieve. There are breaks through the walls th a t tell of fruitful and hab itable backgrounds and valleys, like the shaded gate to the Hood river peach and fru it valley. Then there are a few d rift banks and shelves along the river th a t begin to sm ile with a hum an echo. But these are rare, even the few brooks on the m ountains having to run off into th e air, all become a sp ra y ing m ist before they reach the riv er below. “ Ah m e!” as Dante said when he entered the Inferno. W ho shall tra n sla te th is frozen hell in to a lovely and blessed pathw ay and bower of “ T he E a rth ly P a r a dise. The people will feel it and are com ing. T here is no delight w ithout co n trast. There could be no heaven unless founded upon hell as its co n trast. To open these valleys, and spread new homelife over these lava rocks and ledges will m ake those who do it most sensible of the value of th a t new life which is alread y replacing the In d ia n b arb arism ,-sp rea d in g the tu rf c a r pet, stippling the landscape with trees, and veiling the petrified hor rors of the hell th a t was, with the m an tlin g vines of the com ing p a r adise. Of th a t paradise those hor rors are, by reason of the co n trast, the best possible foundation as to both chem istry and sen tim en t; for lavas m ake the richest soils; and agonies past m ake only more ex quisite the com forts and joys th a t overgrow them . Y ear by year th is chaos of won a bath. And if you follow these ever the green N iagara; which shows th a t it ru n s m ostly over alu m in ous, or clay soils. The ocean re ceives it with a “ h a r” and a broad and beautiful bay, ten miles or so in diam eter, the finest salm on fish pond in the world. A storia, perched on a prom ontory on the south-east shore, is an em byro city struggling ders will become properly clothed We w ith fish and lum ber, hut most of an d even properly nam ed. talking w aters to th eir home you will find it in those m ighty rollers of the Pacific which will lift you in th eir em brace a t “ Seaside.” An esteemed E astern friend says th a t the people should m ake the river of th eir country its bride, and th a t they can only be well-to-do, happy and blessed in co n stan tly recognizing and sustainin g m arriage. th eir She finds a u th o rity for it in her favorite a rtis t w riter, Van Dyke, th u s: “ The life of a river, like th a t of a hum an being, consists of th e union of soul and body, the w ater and banks. They other. They act and belong react The stream together. upon each m oulds and m akes th e shore; hollowing out a bay here, and building a long point there. The shore guides and con trols the stream , now detaining, now advancing it, now bending it in a hundred beautiful sinuous curves, and now speeding it straig h t as a wild bee on its hom e ward flight, to its ocean hom e.” These travels m ust end here. B ut we now know th a t next sum m er the d u st begrim m ed and p e r spiring victim s of the “ m iddle W e st” will miss the great delight of the year unless they wait upon and en joy the “ G reat W a te r” of the W est as she journeys from The Dalles to the Ocean— helping to m arry to her the newly civilized landscape, as the C atskills to the H udson, and old Venice to the sea.