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About The morning Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1899-1930 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1908)
16 THE MORNING ASTGRIAN. ASTORIA, OREGON. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21,' 1008 A A Pen Pidure of the Lower Columbia Valley. This article was recently published in the Daily States of New Orleans, written by John H. Whyte, manager of the Chamber of Commerce in this city: "Every State in the Union most probably excells every other in some one particular. It would perhaps be one of the most interesting features of current litera ture, that which would set forth in just what specific agricultural pro duct, mineral resource, manufacturing industry or commercial opportunity any given State excels all the others. This would be especially interesting to any individual who might be seek ing a new business location or the best place in which to make a certain investment, and interesting to all good Americans possessing that commend able pride which causes them to wish to be considered well informed con cerning their own country. "It has occurred to me that an ar ticle about Oregon as seen through the eyes of a former New Orleanian along the lines just indicated might pass muster before the respected edi tor of the States, though armed as I always knew him to be, with the most terrible of blue pencils. "And that blue pencil gives me a thought to start with not a blue thought but a thought about most ar tistic, pleasant things of blue. "To one who has lived all his life in the Central or Southern States, as I have, it is difficult to understand the color scheme of some of the world's famous land-scape painters, especially those of Holland who persist in mak ing the predominate tone of their pictures blue. "The Dutchmen even make blue chinaware to the exclusion of almost all other kinds. "Now for the first time in my life I understand and appreciate that there are blue landscapes, intensely blue, and they are pretty, much prettier in na ture than blue paintings or a blue china done in windmills. "My home is near the crest of a big hill' from which you can always see such beautiful and eternally snow capped mountains as Hood, Pitt, Adams, Rainier and St Helens; and from this hill of my domicile though higher man the greatest elevation ini Louisiana, I can see the mouth of the the sun sets exactly in the river's mouth as seen from my window, and I consider it a sight worth a trip across this broad continent to see. "It is a blue sunset. At least it is purple just where the sun sinks into the limitless expanse, with all the deep valley behind it spreading be tween the mountain peaks of Wash ington and Oregon, a blue much bluer than the thin blue of the sky, as blue as Dutch China or Dutch pictures. And it is very beautiful. "I am sending you an excellent photograph of the sun setting in the mouth of the Columbia as I have seen it, but your imagination must supply the purple and blue until the expon ents of the science of photography have perfected their art to the degree of reproducing colors through the camera. "Blue runs riot in the color scheme of Oregon. The Columbia River is from seven to fifteen miles wide in front of the port of Astoria. From the tops of the highest mountains on the Oregon side of the gorge to the tops of those on the Washington side in many places it is more than 50 miles. Blue dazzles and bewilders in all this great valley. Sometimes, in fact quite often, it is colored just like the landscapes of the South, but many, many times can it be seen over whelmed in blue. Every morning as I eat my soft boiled eggs and toast, I sit where I can look out of my din ing room window down over this river of blue, and while at first it seemed very strange, and it took me a long time to get used to it, I am now thoroughly convinced that the blue in the color scheme of nature as it is applied to Oregon is. not only very beautiful, but something that should be pointed out by the close observer as being of exceptional interest. In deed this blue color scheme has im pressed me quite as much as did the fact that the cisterns were built in the air in New Orleans, and all grave yards there were above ground. Oregon with its two mountain systems, the Cascades and the Coast Range, has much of the most beauti ful scenery in the world, especially through that part of the mountains pierced by the matchless Columbia with its renowned Cascades. It has valleys more beautiful than any oth ers in the United States and cele- mighty Columbia River where it ) brated for their beauty the world tumbles headlong into the Pacific around, among which may be men Ocean. During the midsummer months n'oned those of the Willamette, the Hood, the Rogue and the Nclulcm Rivers. "But there is another beautiful sight in Oregon that can not be seeu under such favorable conditions anywhere else. The latitude and the conditions of the air appear to be just right to make it possible to get the best sun set cltcct on the splendid snow capped mountains. If one should search the world over it uugiit not be possible to una a more sublimely beautiful etlcct in nature than that produced by ML Hood immediately after sunset. In the home of a friend 1 saw a picture of this dazzling snow peak on which the sun continues to shine several minutes alter it has sunk below the horizon of the rest of the world, and I thought the artist might possibly be suffering from an overwrought im agination, such was the riot of the colors displayed. But one would no longer wonder at the impression in which the artist had attempted to convey were he to see the original As seen from a distance, the effect varies from the livid hue of the light ning as the sun sinks further and further down, to the softer radiance of the aurora borealis. "Between these there are shaded, produced with the prismic perfection of the rainbow, the most brilliant of purple and crimson and yellow. As the twilights in this latitude are very long drawn out, one often times be ing able to read a newspaper more than an hour after the sun sets, the observer has an abundance of time to enjoy this rare spectacle which grad ually fades to a pale white finger pointing silently up among the stars. "God could have made prettier than Oregon scenery but many do not be lieve He ever did. "There is no climatic excuse here for a man not to work unless indeed he is too lazy. I have never seen the thermometer above 80 degrees in As toria and in fact it has only been to that point twice during the summer. In the winter time it seldom freezes. The mean temperature during the summer months is 61 degrees, and during the winter months 41 degrees, a difference of only 20 degrees. There are no mosquitoes, no flies and no malaria or any other kind of fevers. Longevity is remarkable. A picture was pub lished in the Oregonian a few weeks ago of a man 86 years old crowning a woman 116 years old as 'Queen of the Pioneers.' "Not only does vegetation grow very large here but people and live stock also assume exceptionally large and robust proportions. "At the Astoria fair early in Sep tember, as an instance in point, there TROY LAUNDRY CO. I N the Troy Laundry, Astoria has one of the best and most up-to-date plants of any city of its size on the coast. No ex pense is spared in keeping it a modern plant in every respect. The latest and most improved laundry machinery and methods are used and it is conceded by all visiting laundrymen that the quality ot work turned out by them is equal to the best grade of work of any laundry on the coast. Special care is given to the wants of their many patrons, resulting in the rapid increase of business and the good will and confidence of the Astoria people. Their pay roll of over $15,000.00 per year is beneficial to the city as it gives steady employment to between thirty and forty people. Besides their pay roll a large amount of money is ex pended monthly for supplies and maintenance. A visit to this institution is a surprise to those who are not familiar with the operation of a modorn steam laundry. Visitors are cordially welcome and shown the different methods used in cleansing their linen. ASTORIA, OREGON were turnips on exhibition that weighed 50 pounds, cabbage heads fully at large, and some of the finest applet, pears, strawberries, black berries, loganberries, raspberries, cherries, and plums that could be col lected together in one exhibit any where. ' Potatoes grow so profusely that farmers have made as much as $600 an acre raising them. Naturally where there it so much vegetable energy there is more than the ordi nary amount of animal and mental energy. Salmon weighing lest than 20 pounds are tossed back in the river by the fishermen who catch them for the canneries. It is not uncommon to see fish weighing from 60 to ltX pounds. Horses and cows and dog grow larger here than in most other places. Babies are bigger than they are in Louisiana and as logical sc quence to also are the men and women that grow up from them. I weighed-in a party, exactly the akidoo number of grown men, just before wc took a recent river trip and there were only two who weighed less than 162 pounds, and I was one of the two Here I might add parenthetically that I weigh 15 pounds more than I did when I left New Orleans on March 22nd, last, ami now tip the scales at 150. In this party of 23 (here were seven who weighed more than 185 pounds, two that weighed slightly over 200, and one line young athletic specimen who weighed 218 without even the suspicion of stoutness. "Climatic conditions are such that one can carry on hard mental work which Oregon Is noted the world over and in which the State moot likely excels. Apples grown in Hood River Valley have acquired a reputa tion such that they bring the highest price of any grown anywhere in the world. A poor man cannot even afford to cat them although he may he fortunate enough to raise them Genuine Hood River apples are worth more than California orunues. One variety, culled the 'Delicious,' sells here for 30 cents apiece, and is scrv ed on the tables of the swell Portland Hotel, at the rate of two for 75 cent "The Royal Chinook salmon l found in the highest state of per fee lion in the Columbia River near As toria. His royal highness has made famous both Astoria and Senator l'ttliou whose home is in Atoiia since the Senator list established the custom in Washington of giving a Chinook fish dinner at the close of each Senatorial session. But it is only the native Oregonian who know the epicurean delights of 'salmon checks.' As for Oregon's crawfish they are as large at an Atlantic lobster, and many fishermen have made small fortunes catching them, In tome places in the larger cities, there are little shops where nothing is served but Oregon crawfish, and you buy them by the half-dozen. After yu cat one portion of course you are at liberty to call for another and an other until you eat as many dozen a you like. "Another delicacy of which Oregon boasts that should be mentioned in "Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad Co., while in Astoria lust July, said: 'This it undoubtedly the place from which tht grain shipments of the great Colum bia River Valley will be made. You have (he situation here unquestion' uhly for the port of (he future.' "It was only 65 years ago that New York began to change into a big city, The Albany papers ridiculed the ef forts of what is now the metropolis and wound up by declaring that New York harbor could never be more than a gangway to Albany. "For the same reason New York became a great rity, so must there be a great port in the lower Columbia Vulley. Both are down grade from everywhere. "The Columbia is the nearest port to the Orient. It is one of the three great ports em the Pacific Coast and God will never make any more. At two thirds of all the people of all tht world live on the shoret of the Pa cific the commercial future of this ocean must become more important than that of the Atlantic. The com pletion of the Panama Canal will do much to enhance the value of Mm I Pacific commerce. ' L I he Northwest Is now entering upon n period of development (hat will surpass anything hitherto known. And the most rapid development to be witnessed in the Northwest, will come in the lower Columbia Valley and unless the law of gravitation ceases to govern the forces of the earth and it becomes cheaper to send 1 .1 Q 3 NW t TO ' s 'i with the minimum of fatigue, and 1 can scarcely conceive the possibility of nervous exhaustion in Oregon, es pecially in the case of an Oregonian to the manor born, and therefore who could be reasonably expected to have a physical constitution as rug ged as the great mountains and giant fir tree here abundant. It is worth a great deal to live in a climate which affords such advantages for mental activity, especially when one has nothing but the product of his mind to offer in the world's market. "Very few housekeepers use ice dur ing the summer months, because there is no occasion for it. In the larger cities like Portland and Astoria, al most ice-cold water clear as crystal and chemically pure comes direct from the hydrant and faucets furn ished by mains that have their source in the mountain streams. "There is one extraordinarily beau tiful feature of Oregon that is first noted by the stranger and then long est remembered by them, that of the roses. There are roses in Dixie and roses in California, but nowhere are there roses that will begin to compare in beauty, odor or profusion with those of Oregon. And nowhere in Oregon are roses to be seen in such luxuriant perfection as in Portland and Astoria. Portland has assumed the worthy .title of the 'Rose City' and each year it holds a' carnival called the rose feista, In Portland roses may be seen growing on trees as high as a house or on bushes below your hand. "There are several products for this connection, is 'razor clams.' But delicious as they are, 1 prefer digging for them to eating them. They can burrow into the sand much faster than most people can spade. "As for dairy products, one who has never tasted Oregon butter, milk or cheese, docs not know what real good cow specialties are. "As for future prospects commer cially the Columbia River which drains one-sixth of the total area of the United States and which is as much as 15 miles wide at the mouth is an inspiring theme to railroad build ers and financiers of the West, and in fact to those of all parts of the world who have given the important sub jeet that attention necessary to in sure some familiarity. And it has been a theme calculated to furnish inspiration for the past many years. "Thomas Benton while in Congress in 1850, said, 'The Columbia River will one day provide the great outlet to the Pacific Ocean for the entire western half of the United States.' "S. H. H. Clark, the father of American Railroads, said: 'Here will be built the greatest maritime city on the Pacific Coast. "Collis P. Huntington once said 'The mouth of the Columbia River is the only natural outlet to the Pacific Northwest' "Archibald A. Schenck, engineer of the New York Central Railroad Co., has asserted, 'Whoever controls the railroads to the mouth of the Colum bia River, will for all time control the transportation problemt of the Pacific Northwest' commerce up hill than down, the largest city on the Pacific will be close to the mouth of the greatest river that flows into the Pacific Ocean. "And it is well to remember that the commerce of the Columbia River basin is now doubling annually in a geometrical ratio. "One in the least wise possessed of the gift of prescience, in the light of the statements of the wise men of finance gone before, and of the facts of the present day, might say: Stand ing guard over the majestic port near the mouth of the only mighty river that flows into the western ocean, nature's highway for'an already vast commerce, a commerce that springs perennial like the grass of spring, Is the great Pacific port of the future, a powerful commercial center brought into existence tinder the Immutable laws of trade. Far back in what was once called the desert, through the process of irrigation, most communi ties are springing up where once the prairie dog and the rattlesnake were the only inhabitants. And these Irri gated villages and towns and counties, the sites of which a few years ago produced nothing more valuable than dust storms and northers, throuoh irrigation and intense cultivation will soon become the deal daces for hu man abode. These communities, toon .. 1 to be as thickly populated as the oasis of the Sahara, will annually pour down the Columbia millions of dollars worth of agricultural and manufac turers products where a few vears ago there were only dollars worth."
