USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
504
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
armed and equipped that they were fairly laughed out of exist- ence by their own absurdity, and certainly added nothing to the soldierly proficiency of their participants.
To return to the National Guard of Washington, its members, as they have repeatedly proven, are no " carpet knights," mere holiday soldiers, whose principal business it is to gild some festiv- ity by a street parade. On the contrary, they have, on five occa- sions at least, showed that they were made of sterner stuff. The first of these was when Companies B and D did heroic service, as already mentioned, during the anti-Chinese riots in Seattle ; the second, during the mining troubles at New Castle in 1888, at a cost to the State of $163.74 ; the third, in defend- ing property and preserving order at the Seattle fire in June, 1889, when five companies were employed for three weeks, at a cost to the State of $4000.38 ; fourth, at the fire in Spokane, costing the Government $686.54, and the fifth, during the min- ing outbreak in King County in 1891-in this one half of the entire strength of the National Guard of the State was called into service for a period of three weeks-all of which goes to prove not only the absolute necessity, but great economy, of this ever-ready but always last resorted to element of protec- tion, whose legal life in Washington dates back but little more than five years.
It is worthy of remark that General O'Brien, who was origi- nally Quartermaster-General, having been nominated on the Re- publican ticket from Thurston County in 1880, but who dis- charged the duties of Adjutant-General in connection with his own during his entire term, gave his services gratuitously, laborious and trying as they were, from 1883 to March 27th, 1890, at which time the Legislature placed the salary of the Adjutant- General at $1500 per year-about that of a lieutenant in the regular army.
The present organization of the National Guard of Washing- ton is as follows : The First Infantry Regiment, located west of the Cascade Mountains ; the Second Infantry Regiment, lo- cated east of the same range, with ten companies each, and one unattached company at Waterville, Douglas County ; the First Cavalry Battalion, one company located at Sprague, in Lincoln County, and one at Tacoma, in Pierce County, with headquarters at Spokane. The infantry regiments have been augmented
505
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
by the addition of one company located at Olympia and two companies in the Second Regiment, located respectively at Clyde, in Walla Walla County, and Tekoa, in Whitman County, presenting a total of 121 officers and 1267 enlisted men, aggregat- ing 1388 officers and men. All, with the exception of the offi- cers-who must provide themselves-are furnished with the regulation uniform of the United States Army, which, with few exceptions, are in fairly good condition. The arms and equip- ments are such as are furnished by the War Department to the regular troops, and are drawn from the general Government upon requisition made against the annual allowance set apart for the equipment of the militia of the several States, based upon the congressional representation from each State, and amounting for the State of Washington to $2764.98 annually. This appro- priation can only be drawn by the States in arms, ammunition, and quartermaster's supplies.
The militia of Washington-that is to say, the number of men available for service, but not enrolled, aggregates, in round numbers, 61,700, which, after all, is but a shadowy sort of back- ground to its thoroughly. disciplined National Guard. A vague sense of numbers, figured on returns of population, whose esti- mates do more harm than good ; for the soldier, unlike the poet, is not born, but made, and by no means a quick creation either. War is a trade, and its apprenticeship must be of the longest. The force known as the State militia suggests a confidence not founded in reality, an army on paper, having the same relation to a trained and efficient combatant that the standing timber in the forest has to the board finished and ready for use.
CHAPTER XLVI.
A PASSING CLOUD-FINANCIAL STORMS THAT FOR THE MOMENT OVERSHADOW WASHINGTON.
" The darkest hour precedes the dawn, It tells the coming day, And where the deepest gloom is born The storm clouds break away. The lane is long that knows no turn, The pains no pause attend, And prairie fires full fiercely burn, But quite as quickly end.
" The highest tide must turn to ebb, It may not ever flow, And fairest life find tangled web Where winds opposing blow. So commerce feels both flood and fall, Dark days of deep distress, Its waxing wave, uplifting all, Its times to ban or bless.
" Take courage, then, this night of gloom That seems so full of dread, And wrathful as the red simoon, Is still with blessings wed. 'Tis but the mirk that marks the hour, That heralds brighter morn, Whose darkness paints with mightier power Hope's rainbow on the storm."
-BREWERTON.
WE have endeavored, in writing this history of the State of Washington, to avoid all undue eulogy and that optimism which sees only the best, and, on the other hand, those gloomy pessimis- tic views, tinging all with sadness that come within the scope of their observation. The middle path seemed safest and preferable, and it has been our aim to follow it. Though we have had nothing
507
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
but kind words, and justly so, to say for the territorial progress of Washington and the first years of its still infant statehood, yet there exists a condition of things at the present hour which it would be worse than folly to ignore-a cloud, a passing one, it is to be hoped, but nevertheless sufficiently opaque and threat- ening to overshadow for the time the prosperity of the State, demanding recognition and possibly some attempt at explana- tion on the part of her historian. This difficulty is the general depression of business, stagnation in almost every department of trade, accompanied by inevitable shrinkage in values, and wide- spread doubt and uncertainty in the conduct of financial affairs -a condition of things by no means confined to Washington, for she suffers in common, and, comparatively speaking, in a lesser degree, with her sisters of the federal Union in the commercial distress now prevailing in every mart of the civilized world. Nor do we believe, upon a calm revision of the whole situation, that this state of affairs is the result of overtrading or even of the speculative excitement which during certain years of the last dec- ade culminated in what is known as "a boom" or temporary furor, more especially in real estate, sending up prices abnormally beyond their true valuations. In this respect Washington pre- sents the singular attitude to-day, almost paradoxical, of a dull market with actual value-for the solid improvements made in the mean while have more than equalized the difference-fol- lowing an intensely lively one based upon fictitious founda- tions. It was a period when lands yet wedded to the primitive wilderness rose suddenly in price from the few dollars per acre demanded by the Government on first entry to hundreds and even thousands ; when a " business lot"' supposed to be eligibly located doubled in value almost before the deeds of its last owner had reached the office of the recorder. Cities on paper grew up like Jonah's gourd, to flourish for a night, and "additions" crowded by the score, albeit though far away as distant relations, to woo the embrace of some possible metropolis and claim kindred with a metropolitan dignity yet to be. Just here let us say that in those days of wild excitement, when Eastern capital was fairly begging for investments, and our brokers were besieged with re- quests " to be let in on the ground floor," there was more fair dealing and far less of that knavish trickery so common to such fevers of speculative mania than the Far West has ever seen.
508
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
" Tender feet," as new-comers are generally known upon the Pacific coast, were for the most part honestly dealt with ; there was, indeed, with the manifest anxiety to purchase, really no need of misrepresentation. Men who a year or two before had filled menial positions or even been glad to clear land to gain their daily sustenance suddenly found themselves almost millionaires ; some, who could scarcely sign the name that transferred their title deeds, became wealthy beyond their wildest dream of afflu- ence. Madness seemed to rule the hour, yet there was a deal of method in this brief reign of financial insanity. It is true that there are many rich in acres and lots who are " land poor" to-day, and, it may be, sorely tried to meet inevitable taxes and assess- ments. Yet these have only to bide their time and tide over the present stress to find safe harbor and remunerative returns in the near beyond. That the local enbarrassment has been increased by a desire, often enhanced by rivalries between competing cities, to push on and provide facilities whose magnitude antici- pated their need cannot be denied ; streets have been opened, " improvements" made and outlying tracts brought within the corporate limits by the vote of a majority never called upon to pay the heavy assessments necessarily levied to liquidate their cost, and this to the manifest hardship of the interested lot owners. Then, too, an iron-clad system of taxation, not of the lightest, combined with full assessments and an added penalty of no less than 20 per cent upon all unpaid corporate or county liabilities, coupled with the dread of losing one's property en- tirely by tax sale, has added greatly to the gravity of the per- sonal situation. Who shall say, moreover, whether that ring, so potent in some of our Eastern cities, which weds the un- scrupulous contractor with the yet more dishonest civic govern- ment, may not have found its counterpart in some instances in the Northwest, to the detriment of the tax-payer ? Something of this we have already suggested, but it seemed necessary to recapitulate to make our meaning clearer and more apparent. Passing from the specific to the generic, it is a mooted question as to the causes which inaugurated this present prevailing busi- ness pressure. It seems to puzzle and defy the analyses of even far-seeing financial experts, and will probably find no practical solution until the extra session of Congress shall cease their
509
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
unpatriotic attempts to thwart the will of the people by avow- edly prolonging a desired settlement through windy speeches no one cares to hear, and without further delay wisely revive or abrogate entirely all inimical legislation, and thus remove ex- isting barriers by opening new channels through which the present stagnation may be relieved and commerce once more find an unrestricted course. We are, fortunately, not called upon to vivisect this much-vexed question, vital to all, and yet in rela- tion to whose manifest disorder, its diagnosis and appropriate remedy, our doctors so diametrically disagree.
One cause, we will venture to suggest-its antidote-a manly and patient courage combined with hopeful waiting for brighter skies, is too patent to be named. This cause is fear-a somewhat senseless scare-which, like sudden panic among veteran troops, is most dangerous, because unreasoning, spreading like wildfire from man to man until the cloud no bigger than a hand's breadth is magnified into a coming cyclone, darkening the heavens with its wrath. This foolish fright is fed and increased by its own self-amplification of existing evil. It is the exemplification of that oft-told tale-most applicable here, as touching this general distrust-of the bargain made by the cholera to destroy but fifty in its devastating march through a certain village ; and when remonstrated with because death took fourscore, declared in de- fence that the number agreed upon had not been exceeded, the fifty only having been honestly sacrificed, while fear killed the rest. And this element of panic is more perilous, because in the present age of almost instantaneous communication, when the chained lightnings leap to do our bidding and the ends of the earth whisper together and join hands, you cannot touch one without disturbing all. A difficulty on the Bosphorus brings the troubles of the Golden Horn to bear upon the markets of London and Paris, which find their reflex in New York and New Orleans, and die away in echoes that seriously affect even the far distant merchants and manufacturers doing business upon the shores of Puget Sound.
There is, moreover, a positive gain in such perturbations, ultimate and not immediately apparent to the superficial ob- server. Like tornadoes and freshets, these financial disturbances have their providential and purifying influences upon the busi-
24
510
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
ness world, just as the East India hurricanes, fearfully destruc- tive as they are. have their ministry for good in dispelling the fever mists and miasmatic germs, which, if permitted to linger, would pave the way for the still greater evils of the pestilence. The whirlwind sweeps the forest and freshets swell to madness the torrents of the stream, but it is the rotten and shaky tree that is certain to succumb and the tangled masses of decaying driftwood that must be carried by the fierceness of the tide, with all its attendant worthlessness, into the sea; so in financial storms, the weak and already tottering concern must be the first to give way ; the house that ekes out its precarious commercial existence by dishonesty and "kiting" will surely go, while stronger firms, though they bow before the blast and contract their branches for awhile, bend but never break. As the fire fiend sees a fairer city rise upon the ruins of the district he devastated, so the hour of apparently endless darkness passes away. The storm subsides, the clouds, should they return after the rain, grow radiant with the glory of the sunrise, cease to threaten, and become the decorations of a more perfect morning. Commercial crises are, after all, but crucibles in which each is equally tested, and those only who come forth purified by the flame are refined gold, stamped in the mint of trial with the seal of honesty, and henceforth to be doubly trusted.
Yet we will suppose the worst that could befall. What then ? Is Washington, therefore, bankrupt ? Far more favored than some of her sister States-than unhappy Colorado, for in- stance, in the streets of whose capital city strong men, willing to work, are this day begging their bread for want of employ- ment -she has her substantial sources of wealth, of which none can deprive her, nor does she depend upon any one industry or fountain of revenue. She can count her cattle by the thousands upon her eastern hills ; the fields of innumerable farms already whiten with the grain which must soon crowd the cars that whirl it away to the countless avenues through which it seeks and finds a ready market ; she has her unfailing fisheries, her mines of mineral fuel, her export of hops, her forests of timber, with the mighty mills that make their products merchantable-these she possesses, and, above all, utilizing each, there remains that pluck, energy, and determination to succeed, even through paths of painful self-denial, so characteristic of her citizens. Where
511
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
their pioneer predecessors turned daily defeats into ultimate vic- tories in the days that tried their souls amid the perils of its wilds, the men of to-day, with far greater advantages, will as surely triumph ; and though the night be dark and long, watch and wait for the blessing of the All Father, well knowing . that it is but the harbinger of a purer, clearer, and more benefi- cent day.
CHAPTER XLVII.
IN CONCLUSION.
" Born on the banks of Puget Sound, 'Mid mossy dews and damps, The foresters this flagstaff found, Chief of its woodland camps.
" It wore the ensign nature made, Flinging its banner free, For centuries it gloomed the glade That knew no nobler tree.
" Fit emblem for that glorious State We call ' the Evergreen,' The Northwest vainly strives to mate Where'er her snow-peaks gleam.'
" Now shorn of every spreading bough, It bears the nation's sign, The Stars and Stripes that all allow Are Freedom's own ensign.
" Transplanted from the distant West, Chicago sees it fly, Where wondering eyes behold the best The marts of earth supply.
" And there above the stately home Our Washington uprears, It mourns no more Pacific's moan Or dark pine's fragrant tears.
" As towering o'er those crowded halls, It floats that standard true, The flag, that ne'er dishonored falls, The red, the white, the blue."
-BREWERTON.
AFTER so many pages of solid fact, involving hours of re- search and patient study, the author begs permission to indulge himself, and possibly relieve the monotony of the stricter ways
513
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
in which we have felt compelled to walk with the reader by turning aside for a moment into a more flowery and inviting path, where reality and romance may accompany us unconflict- ingly, and yet this little flight of imagination-the first and only one we propose taking-may nevertheless be entirely true, and certainly falls within the scope and has an indisputable bearing upon the sequence of our historical narrative.
In the year of grace 1492, when the solemn shades of Puget Sound were only tenanted by the wild wanderers who fished its shores or made their transitory homes upon its wave-beaten bor- ders ; when the great snow mountain looked as calmly down as it gazes on fairer scenes to-day upon an unbroken wilderness dimmed by no village smoke and disturbed by no life save the Indian or the scarcely less savage beasts of the forest ; when the mighty Columbia, the Oregon of the poet, rushed through the gates of its innumerable cascades to lose itself amid the billows of the Pacific, yet
" Heard no sound save its own dashings,"
two events were simultaneously happening, separated by thou- sands of leagues, having to the careless eye of the thoughtless observer no possible connection or common significance, and yet so indissolubly united and bound up with each other that it is impossible to disassociate them from the two greatest events four centuries of progress were destined to behold.
First, then, and most important in the march of events, bid memory recall the story told in the opening chapter of this his- tory-the scene enacted on that fateful October 12th, 1492. Stand with us in fancy upon the foam-crested sand dunes of San Salvador and summon up the ghostly shadows of the past ; and lo ! they come like weary, storm-tossed birds, flying from the turmoil and mystery of the sea. Behold the ships of the great navigator -- the strange, quaint caravels of Columbus, marine experiments of a comparatively ignorant age-as they creep in from the graying of the dim horizon line of the ocean beyond. And now, with a freshening breeze, they spread their sails, heavy with the tropic night dews, to the easterly wind and force the hulls, soiled and sea-stained by opposing billows, more swiftly on, till pushing bravely through the brine, with roar of cannon, blare of trumpets, and flags given to the gale, they press
514
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
forward victoriously to this long-desired but almost unhoped-for anchorage. Only too happy to escape the dread and desolation of the dreary outer wastes so anxiously traversed, they furl their tired wings and hasten to the strand. There, beneath the grate- ful shadows of the waving palms, and in the presence of the natives, who gaze with wondering eyes upon these strange vis- itors, whom, in their simplicity, they regard as gods, the weather-beaten mariners raise the ensign of Castile and Leon, and with solemn ceremonial take possession of all they behold in the name of the rulers of Old Spain, planting her many-blazoned banner in token of their sovereignty, and, beneath its broad folds, the Christian cross, that emblem of peace to all, yet heavy to bear, as to the Master who sanctified it by fainting beneath its load, to those unhappy spectators, to whom its misinterpreted mission was ere long to prove a galling yoke ; but whether for good or evil-and much of both resulted from it-the deed was done ; and Columbus, the admiral of the Indies, had given to Hispania "a new world."
And now let us shift the scene, span the mighty distance, and standing by the waves of a calmer sea, the inland ocean of far-off Puget Sound, yet to be christened the " Mediterranean of the West," traverse together the woodland paths till we reach a secluded spot separated by a mile or two from its shores., The place is an aisle of the primitive forest, dewy with mossy damps, haunted by umbrageous shadows, and softly carpeted with the débris of a thousand years. Its solemn silence has just been rudely broken by the thundering crash of a falling monarch of the wild, a many-armed and magnificent pine long wedded to the soil. It leaves an opening, into which the sunshine, so long a stranger to its depths, looks wonderingly down. And what does it behold ? A group of Indian girls, who, attracted by the overthrow of a patriarch of the forest, have clustered round a baby pine, half hidden by the uprooted earth, yet making its way in timid fashion through the rich leaf mould of many moons. It has hitherto been shaded and stunted by the over- powering presence of its parent tree, but will grow and flourish now and fatten upon the decaying trunk of its fallen progenitor till it broadens, shoots upward, and thrusts forth sturdy arms to warn off its fellows. Let us leave it to the rains and the unfail- ing culture of God's gardening ; we shall meet with it again, for
515
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
it has a destiny to perform, a mission, so strangely improbable, that no " medicine man" of all their tribes, however wildly fan- ciful, would dare to foretell its future fate or predict the min- istry which full fruition must call it to fulfil.
Four centuries have fled. How vast the change ! Well may we ask," What hath God wrought ?" The wilderness is wasting beneath the assaults of a civilization no savagery may with- stand ; the settler's axe has let in the sunshine ; the busy mill devours the forest on which it feeds ; the " fire canoes" of the pale face vex the seas hitherto only broken by the beat of the Indian's paddle or the leap of the silvery salmon speeding its way to some distant spawning ground. The tepee and the lodge give place to city spire and suburban home ; the prairie smiles with wealth of golden grain, and the cattle of the settler graze or wander upon a thousand hills ; the unceasing march of time brings round a memorable anniversary, a natal day which inter- ests the whole civilized world, and which the nations propose to recognize and commemorate. It is the birth of a new hemi- sphere, of two hitherto unknown continents, born out of the night of barbarism into the full-orbed day of letters and art. Most of all will our own land "keep the feast." A mighty scheme has been projected to celebrate the auspicious advent of the long-looked-for festival. It is carefully conceived and liber- ally carried out. A central city of the continent (Chicago) is selected as a convenient site and fit theatre for the holding of that great Columbian Exposition, " where the nations might meet in peaceful rivalry to behold an exhibition of garnered treasures, brought from the four winds of heaven, which should include everything best and rarest of utility or in æsthetic creation. All to honor the memory of Christopher Colon, the discoverer of a new world. It was determined that each State should establish upon the grounds a rooftree or home building, where its own commissioners might welcome and receive her citizens. Wash- ington, though her statehood was still in its infancy, decided not to be outdone even by her elder sisters of the " Old Thir- teen." Her first State Legislature, assembled in 1889, passed a law appropriating a sum already mentioned to generously carry out the wisely formulated plans of her World's Fair Commis- sion. It provided for the erection of an edifice whose whole material should be literally " to the manor born." This build-
516
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
ing, appropriate and ornate in all its details, rose in obedience to the mandate of the commonwealth, and was constructed in accordance with the design of its able architect, aided by the no less skilful hands that labored to do his bidding. It was fin- ished, yet one thing seemed lacking-a staff which should fit- tingly sustain the banner to which the new-born State of Wash- ington had just added another glorious star. It was then determined that the Evergreen State should plant the federal ensign nearer heaven than ever yet the flag of any nationality displayed from a single staff, had been given to the breeze. The command goes forth, and her woodsmen search her forests for their loftiest and most magnificent representative, a straight and goodly tree, a pine worthy of the place for which it is destined. At length their anxious quest is ended ; a shaft was found so tall and stately that it might well furnish the final adornment of the temple for which it was designed. Is it too great a stretch of imagination to suppose that this was the then baby pine round which the Indian girls gathered, while far away, so many, many moons ago, the caravels of that fearless pilot of solitary seas were finding their anchorage beside the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.