Chapter XXXI: Appendix

Since the foregoing pages were finished, a period of six months has passed. Nothing has transpired which should affect the opinions formed and expressed by the author in favor of the attractions which Oregon offers to the energetic and industrious. The past half-year has been one of successful development for the State as a whole. A bountiful harvest, which has been vouchsafed to Oregon while many Eastern States and many European countries have had to mourn because of drought or excessive rain and consequent scarcity, has again proved how highly favored by position and climate is this Western nook. And now, in the early days of October, we have had a week's rain to soften the clods and prepare the ground for tillage, but the sun of the Indian summer is shining with soft brilliancy, and we look for crisp nights and mornings, and lovely days, for from six to ten weeks to come.

During the six months, Eastern capital has been prodigally turned into Oregon and Washington Territory by Mr. H. Villard and his associates. New lines of railway designed as feeders to the Columbia River route are being pushed to completion regardless of cost, while the trunk-line, along the side of the Columbia River, is being still urged forward by the united forces of over three thousand Chinamen and all the white laborers that can be picked up. Time alone will show how far a line, which winds and twists along the banks of the mighty Columbia in devious curves, overhung by mountain-sides loaded with loose rocks at the mercy of every winter's storms, can be trusted to carry the enormous traffic predicated for it; and, granted that this slender reed has the necessary strength, at what kind of port is the hoped-for mass of grain for export to be delivered? The following article appeared in the "Daily Oregonian," of Portland, on the 10th of this last September. The newspaper in question claims to be the leading journal of the State, and is in fact the only one publishing full daily telegraphic dispatches. It is also the organ of the Villard interest, and it may be taken that it is not likely to overstate the disadvantages attaching to the city of its publication:

"THE COST OF NEGLECT."

"The water in the rivers between Portland and the ocean is at about
the usual September stage, but, owing to the absence of any means
whatever of dredging the bars, the depth at the three or four shoal
places is less than in former seasons. Steamers drawing seventeen
or even seventeen and a half feet come up by plowing through a few
inches of mud at certain points, but ships have not the force to go
through, nor, in many instances, the iron bottoms to stand the rub.
It is not safe to load a vessel which must pass down the river more
than sixteen feet. The result is, that grain-ships can only be
partly loaded here, and must take a large proportion of their
cargoes down the river. The American ship Palmyra went down
Thursday with 900 tons of a total wheat cargo of 2,200. The bulk of
her load--1,300 tons--must be carried down by barges and taken in
at Baker's Bay. The Zamora, now taking wheat here, can only be half
loaded at her Portland dock. Lighterage costs $1.25 per short ton,
or six cents per cental. Thus the Palmyra must pay $1,625 extra
because the river is not properly dredged. The average of
lighterage this season will be about three cents per cental on all
wheat that goes out of the Columbia River."

It is not far from the fact that, although from sixty to sixty-five shillings is a well-paying freight for ships from Portland to the United Kingdom, and although abundance of sailing-ships are available from the substitution of steamers in so many parts of the world, yet the actual freight charged has ranged from eighty to eighty-five shillings, this resulting from a combination of causes, of which the charges for pilotage, towage, and lighterage are among the chief.

Of course, all these charges come out of the pocket of the producer, and, unless some radical change can be effected, there is no apparent reason why these sums should not be cumulated to such a height as to place the valley farmer on the level of his Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington Territory neighbor, who does not realize for his wheat much over thirty-five cents a bushel on an average market price of seventy-five cents.

Nor would there be much hope of a reduction in the inland transportation charges, were matters to progress as they have been doing during the past six months. Everything pointed toward the centralization of the control of every railroad and steamboat line in this State and the adjacent Territory in the hands of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, presided over by Mr. Villard. The narrow-gauge system of railroads in this valley, owned and operated by the Scotch company, with headquarters at Dundee, was six months back the sole hope of the valley farmers as an honest competitor with its huge rival. But a few months ago announcement was made that Mr. Villard had secured the Scotch company, by a series of astute operations in Scotland; and now, under the ninety-nine years' lease which he obtained, the narrow-gauge company has ceased its independent existence, and its traffic is being assimilated as to rates with that of its former competitor, while it is so conducted as to stifle its growth as a separate organization, and throw all its vitality into the other roads.

But the anticipations, expressed in the earlier pages of this book, of an active rivalry to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, through the Oregon Pacific Railroad and its outlet at Yaquina Bay, are being realized as rapidly as men and money can do it.

Early in July last the news came through the wires that the financial battle had been won by Colonel Hogg, and that construction was to be pushed forward immediately. Short as the time is, much has been done, and more is being done. Engineering parties were organized and fitted out, and their work is nearly complete in all its parts. A good line of easy grades is located through from Corvallis to Yaquina Bay, presenting no extraordinary difficulties of construction. On this, as I write, a large force of both white and Chinese labor is employed, with the full expectation that the line will be surveyed, built, equipped, and running within four or five months from the time the first spadeful of earth was dug. Difficulties in starting a great enterprise like the Oregon Pacific Railroad, of course, abound, but so far have been successfully met. Meanwhile the goodwill of the valley farmers has been maintained throughout, and the new road will open with abundance of customers. Therefore, all interested in the undertaking are well satisfied with the prospect of having to operate a line which shall save the valley farmers two hundred and twenty-one miles in actual distance, and save them half the present charges for transportation between the valley and San Francisco, and which gives also an early prospect of ocean-going ships loading direct from an Oregon port, with wharves within three miles from the ocean, for the European or Eastern market.

It does not seem, then, an unreasonable augury that the day of exorbitant freights, excessive pilotage and towage charges, half-cargo lighterage, and also of traffic discrimination, will have passed away for ever, so far as Oregon is concerned, when the Oregon Pacific is opened. And I think every reader of this book will admit that it is a matter of just pride to see projects formed years back, and adhered to through much evil speaking, slander, and belittling, come to their full strength and fulfillment.

The last time I visited Yaquina Bay was during the closing days of September. The afternoon sun shone on the little dancing waves as we rowed across from Newport to the South Beach, where the harbor-works are going on. A heavy equinoctial storm had raged for two days before, and it would have been no surprise had the incomplete works suffered. But we found the men busily employed in piling large blocks of rock on the mattresses made of large, long bundles of brushwood, secured with cords, and deposited carefully in the line of the breakwater. Many of the hands were Indians, who were working very intelligently and quickly under the direction of our old friend Kit Abbey. No damage whatever had been done, but, on the contrary, the storm had piled the sand in even layers, five or six feet deep, on each side of the breakwater, solidifying and strengthening the work. Already the channel nearest to the beach, which had robbed the main channel of some of the tidal water, had been permanently closed. And the increase of the tidal in-and-out flow thus caused had proved to the satisfaction of the United States engineer officer in charge the correctness of the theory on which the works were designed. So that all tends in the one direction of opening this harbor, on which so many hopes are fixed, to ocean-going ships of deep draught.

Fortunately, the facts are being daily ascertained, tabulated, and certified by the independent authority of the United States engineers; they have minute surveys of the channel, and the changes operated by the new breakwater will be observed and recorded. Thus, as soon as the time comes to invite the shipping sailing to the Northwest coast to enter the port, there will be no further room for question as to depth of water and ease of access; but the facts will be so patent and plain to the world, that no one need be longer blinded by the persistent misrepresentations of interested parties.

The effect of the opening of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, which in two, or at most three years from now, will meet at or near Boise City, Idaho, the lines rapidly pushing westward to that point, will be manifold:

First, it will open the new port at Yaquina to commerce, and so give the Willamette Valley its independent outlet, unaffected by terror-dealing bars, winter ice, and exorbitant charges. Second, it will in its eastward progress open up to settlement a broad belt of fertile and well-watered country, at present well-nigh untenanted. Third, it will operate as a check to the pretensions of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company to entire monopoly of the transportation of the State, and its boasted consequent ability to fix fares and freights at its own sweet will.

THE END.

TWO YEARS IN OREGON.

By WALLIS NASH, author of "Oregon There and Back in 1877." _Second edition._ With Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

The following are a few out of a very large number of press notices:

_From the New York Sun._

"Under the title of 'Two Years in Oregon,' by Wallis Nash, we have
an authentic and exhaustive guide-book, written for the benefit of
those persons who intend to settle there. There is nothing in this
volume to recall the superficial observations of the ordinary
tourist; yet, although the author has confined himself to
collecting information of real value to the emigrant, he has set it
forth in a distinct, unpretentious, and attractive way."

_From the Springfield Republican._

"For the best picture of Oregon as it is to-day, we are indebted to
an Englishman. 'Two Years in Oregon' is the title of the book,
written by Wallis Nash, and published by D. Appleton & Co., of New
York. Mr. Nash conducted a colony of his countrymen some time since
to the neighborhood of Corvallis, a thriving town a hundred or more
miles south of Portland. He did not attempt to set up a New
Jerusalem of his own after the example of unlucky Tom Hughes in the
Rugby venture, but mingled all his interests with the settlers
already on the ground, and good success has evidently attended his
efforts. Mr. Nash has made a thorough study of the State and its
resources. He has considerable literary skill, and while his book
contains the practical facts and statistics needful to the posting
of the would-be immigrant, it has besides enough racy descriptive
writing to make it attractive to the general reader. Oregon has two
distinct climates. The Cascade Range, cutting the State in halves,
is the dividing line. On the Pacific side of the mountains, where
most of the settlements are located, there are milder winters,
cooler summers, and a heavier rain-fall than upon the plains
stretching to the eastward of the range. There, too, are the heavy
forests for which the State is noted. Wheat is the staple crop of
the Oregon farmers, and last year there was a surplus of over one
hundred thousand tons sent to market. Sheep husbandry is
considerably followed, and the climate appears admirably adapted to
the profitable raising of all kinds of livestock, while all the
fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone yield remarkably. With
better transportation facilities, a mixed agriculture is likely to
be pursued in the future. The State has suffered much at the hands
of transportation monopolists. The Villard combination have so far
had almost complete control of the railways and waterways, and the
rates charged have been enormous. A Portland merchant's freight
bill on some goods shipped recently from New York, showed that one
third of the whole amount was charged for the water-carriage of
seven hundred miles from San Francisco. The company's railroad
charges are still heavier. According to a new schedule of reduced
rates from Portland to Walla Walla, two hundred and seventy miles,
twenty-four cents is the rate for a bushel of wheat, against two to
four cents a bushel for greater distances on Eastern roads. Mr.
Nash devotes a chapter to the iniquities of the Villard monopoly
which bears so heavily upon the farming community. There is
prospect, however, that the burden may be lightened when the
railway now building eastward from Yaquina Bay to a connection
through Southwestern Idaho with the Union Pacific is completed."

_From the Portland Standard_ (_Oregon_).

"Mr. Nash's experiences and observations as set forth in this book
are correct representations of Oregon life. His opinions are not
biased and warped by long residence, so as to give everything a
color beyond the truth in favor of the beauties and facilities of
the State for persons desiring homes, and which would be found to
be untrue by strangers seeking farms and residences, and
consequently bring disappointment to them after the trouble and
expense of going there. Mr. Nash represents the State as it is, and
his book is calculated to do far more good as an advertising medium
for bringing immigration within her boundaries than the many
pamphlets issued by immigration bureaus, painting in high colors
beyond the truth the many advantages which Oregon presents. This
book should be widely circulated and read. It will attract
immigration and capital to the State with an impetus not heretofore
felt."

_From the Corvallis Gazette_ (_Oregon_).

This journal gives a large number of commendatory extracts, and
concludes its notice as follows: "Many others are equally
complimentary, and we are glad that Oregon, and especially the
Willamette Valley, are being so well advertised. We understand the
book is having a large sale."

_From the Albany Register_ (_Oregon_).

"'Two Years in Oregon,' by Wallis Nash, is the title of a very neat
work just issued from the press of the Appletons, New York. It is
the impressions made and the experience gained by the writer after
a two years' residence in Oregon, written in a most entertaining
and attractive style. It will be read everywhere with pleasure, as
it is a most faithful description of things and scenes as the
writer beheld them. The picture, to our mind, is nowhere overdrawn.
Portland is faithfully pictured, and 'The Oregonian' so faithfully
portrayed that its poor editor will never forgive the writer."

_From the Philadelphia Press._

"Mr. Nash's book describes the State in the most practical manner.
It describes the scenery, the society, the legislative
peculiarities, the economical advantages and disadvantages, the
state of the industries, the transportation question, and all the
various points which a possible emigrant might wish to know before
he took the decisive step. It is written in a pleasant, vivacious
style, and can be read with much profit by any one who takes an
interest in our own great West."

_From the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent_ (_England_).

"Mr. Nash's 'Two Years in Oregon' is one of the most charming books
we have lately come across. He is a shrewd and careful observer,
and writes with grace and ease. The illustrations, also, of the
book are more than ordinarily clever. Mr. Nash evidently feels a
warm interest in Oregon, and his book will go a long way to attract
public interest in that direction. Few men can tell a story better,
or enable readers to realize more vividly the appearance of a
country and people they have never seen. The emigrant, the
politician, the student of men and manners, the naturalist and the
political economist, will all enjoy this book, which we hope will
soon be followed by a fresh work from its author's pen."

_From the University Press._

"This book has for its author an Englishman who visited Oregon in
1877, and who then traveled 'its length and breadth.' He moved his
family there in 1879. He now sends out this interesting and
instructive volume in answer to the many letters received by him
asking for information. He is an easy, simple, unostentatious
writer. We believe, as he says, that he has endeavored to give 'a
faithful picture of life as it is in Oregon to-day.' He has good
descriptive powers, and has enlivened his book with several amusing
incidents."

_From the Chicago Times._

"This book is the work of a man who has lived two years in the
State, with an observant eye, an apparently judicial and impartial
mind, and a ready and fluent pen. It embraces pretty much
everything in the way of information about the region which any
emigrant would like to know on pretty much all of its natural,
social, and political features. It is, indeed, almost a guide-book
to the region, but is one quite out of the usual sort, enlivened
with a great fund of personal and local anecdote and incident,
which serves to make it very interesting reading. It offers to the
public a more complete compendium of information about one of the
most interesting, at least, of American localities, than can
elsewhere be found in the same space; and as one of the chief final
centers around which American civilization promises to reach its
ultimate development, everything connected with it is of interest,
not only to Americans, but to people abroad also."

_From the New York Evening Mail and Express._

"It would be impossible in a brief notice to state even the
substance of this book, which is packed with information of all
sorts, information procured and conned by himself, which neglects
nothing that a would-be emigrant ought to inquire into, which is
close in observation, terse in deduction, good-tempered,
warm-hearted, hard-headed, and, what is more than all this,
thoroughly amusing."

_From the Utica Observer._

"A book like this is especially timely. The author, Wallis Nash, is
an English settler in the great Willamette Valley, and discourses
of his adopted home with the tone of an avowed advocate of its soil
and climate. He combats with his own observations and the official
weather reports the wide-spread belief that Oregon is a land of
perpetual rains, and presents altogether the most comprehensive
sketch of the existing industries and possible development of the
State which has yet been published."

_From the Chicago Inter-Ocean._

"Mr. Nash narrates his own experiences, and gives a detailed
account of the agricultural, business, and social resources of the
State in an obviously impartial manner."

_From the Chicago Journal._

"In the year 1877 the author of this volume visited Oregon,
traveled through its length and breadth, and, on returning to his
home in England, published a book giving a short account of his
journey, and recommending the country as a desirable one in which
to settle. A few months afterward he left England at the head of a
party of twenty-six persons, and, upon arriving in Oregon, settled
at Corvallis, a pleasant little village on the banks of the
Willamette River. After a continuous residence of two years in that
far Western State, Mr. Nash again gives the result of his
experience, as a guide to the emigrant who may intend to make
Oregon his future home. He presents in a favorable view the
agricultural and business prospects of the country; the social and
political life of the people, and while he does not claim that a
competence can be secured without persevering industry, he
maintains that the inducements offered to the enterprising and
energetic are such that in a few years the emigrant of moderate
means and some experience will be able to acquire a home and
pecuniary independence. The book contains a vast amount of
information useful to the emigrant, and it is written in a
pleasant, chatty style. The descriptions of the varied scenery, the
character sketches of the settlers, and the laughable incidents
recounted, give an additional pleasure to the volume, which is
enriched by several illustrations of Oregon scenery."

_From the St. Paul Pioneer Press_ (_Minnesota_).

"Any thorough description of Oregon, its resources, and the people
who settle in it, must win many eager and interested readers. But,
to do full justice to Mr. Nash, he has taken but little advantage
of this fact. His book, which he modestly styles 'a guide-book to
Oregon for the intending emigrant,' is far more than this. It is a
pains-taking description of the natural features of a great Pacific
State; of its soil, climate, and productive qualities; of its past
development and future promise; of its leading industries and its
adaptation to others; in short, of all that a man who has lived in
Oregon with his eyes open might be expected to find out, and all
about which one who has not lived there might be expected to wish
information. There are in existence very few works which tell in
such short compass as much about any State east of the Rocky
Mountains. There are very many points in this hand-book which it
would be interesting to present in detail, but nothing less than a
careful reading will suffice. The story told by the writer about
the outrageous swindling out of their land grant of the men who
constructed, at great sacrifice, the greatest wagon highway in
Oregon, deserves investigation. If Mr. Nash is correct, the farmers
of Oregon have no reason to love Mr. Villard or his transportation
company. The greatest drawback to the settling up of the State is
the iron grip and remorseless extortions of the railways. This book
is from beginning to end thoroughly readable. It furnishes more
information than whole folios of statistics, or any number of
glowing descriptions by hasty, prejudiced, and uninformed
correspondents."

_From the Chicago Evening Herald._

"Mr. Nash's data were gathered during a two years' residence, and
are so well digested and so thoroughly re-enforced by the practical
and personal experiences of the writer and his friends, that the
most captious critic can not reasonably pick many flaws therein.
Mr. Nash is evidently not only a close observer, but an eminently
practical man, and in describing the advantages and disadvantages
of Oregon, keeps constantly in view the information which other
practical men, seeking a location, would be likely to need and
appreciate. A great many chatty and amusing pages are devoted to
anecdotes of early and later life in Oregon, and to the fortunes
and misfortunes of those who sought first to subdue the virgin soil
of that State. Some of the concluding chapters of the book are
devoted to a very intelligent discussion of the existing
transportation problems in Oregon. All in all, the work is not only
readable, but has an intrinsic value which those who wish to know
all about the _terra incognita_ of which it treats will thoroughly
appreciate."

_From the Janesville Gazette._

"The book contains a vast amount of information useful to the
emigrant, and it is written in a pleasant, chatty style. The
descriptions of the varied scenery, the character sketches of the
settlers, and the laughable incidents recounted, give an additional
pleasure to the volume, which is enriched by several illustrations
of Oregon scenery."

_From the Detroit Evening News._

"Mr. Nash has just written for the benefit of his old friends and
neighbors in England a little book relating his observations and
experiences during his first two years of frontier life. It
contains much interesting information about Oregon and its people,
and coming from a disinterested source will be especially
acceptable to those contemplating removal to that State."

_From the Columbus Dispatch_ (_Wisconsin_).

"It is a compendium of information, and will be an addition to any
library."

_From the Boston Journal._

"Mr. Nash writes especially for the benefit of emigrants and
intending settlers, but the book will have an interest for all
readers who like to trace the developments of social and political
institutions in a swiftly growing State. The author writes with
enthusiasm, but frankly and sometimes critically; and he has
collected a good deal of valuable information, which, together with
the results of his own experience, he presents in an animated and
pleasant manner."

_From the Christian at Work._

"It is a capital book."

_From the Ann Arbor Chronicle._

"To read the book is like making a trip to Oregon without the
tediousness and expense of the journey."

_From the Milwaukee Sentinel._

"The reader instinctively feels that here is a careful, temperate
guide, who can be absolutely trusted."

_From the Springfield Union_ _(Massachusetts_).

"A valuable book."

_From the New York World._

"It is a description of the country and of life in Oregon that is
worth reading by anybody who may for any reason be interested in
the subject."

_From the Cincinnati Commercial._

"A fascinating book."

_From the San Jose Mercury_ (_California_).

"A highly interesting and instructive volume, marked by fairness of
statement and honesty of opinion."

_From the Omaha Republican_ (_Nebraska_).

"Mr. Nash has written a most interesting volume. His powers of
description are simply magnificent, and, with such an expansive
theme before him, he has wrought out a book that will no doubt have
ready sale, and do a great measure of good in placing the
advantages of Oregon most entertainingly before a large and choice
number of readers."

_From the Philadelphia North American_.

"It is a very good report which Mr. Nash has to make of the State,
and of the people by whom it is inhabited; and as he tells his tale
in the plain, straightforward way of a man who is relating facts,
and nothing but facts, and who simply desires to make known the
truth, it can not fail to make a favorable impression."

Cordial commendatory notices of the work have appeared also in the following journals:

Albany (Oregon) Herald.
Benton (Oregon) Leader.
State Rights Democrat (Albany, Oregon).
San Francisco Argonaut.
San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco Bulletin.
Montreal Daily Star.
New York Herald.
Kansas City Times.
Buffalo Courier.
Kansas City Journal.
Worcester Daily Spy.
Philadelphia Business Advocate.
Holyoke Paper World.
Albany (New York) Evening Journal.
Akron (Ohio) Gazette.
Syracuse Daily Journal.
Pittsburg Gazette.
Syracuse Herald.
Charleston (South Carolina) News and Courier.
Chicago Tribune.
Albany Argus.
Cincinnati Gazette.
Boston Post.
Montreal Gazette.
Boston Gazette.
Philadelphia Times.
New York Observer.
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot.
Boston Times.
Portland (Maine) Argus.
Petersburg (Virginia) Index and Appeal.
Davenport (Iowa) Gazette.
Albany Country Gentleman.
Cincinnati Times.
Boston Commonwealth.
Boston Courier.
Pittsburg Telegram.
Brooklyn Times.
Indianapolis Sentinel.
Boston Journal.
Providence Press.

_For sale by all booksellers; or sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price_.

_D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York._

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