We have been in this place for three days, going about everywhere, and find it a wonderful example of a rapidly built city—solid and substantial, wide streets, great and costly public and private buildings, an admirable system of swift-going street cars, running in every direction, by cable or electric power; fine dry-goods and other stores, and every indication of great business activity and success.
The citizens inform us that in 1880 there were thirty thousand inhabitants in this city, and now there are fifty thousand. Judging from the crowds on the streets and in the street cars, and the business activity seen everywhere, this must be correct. We attended service on Sunday at St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, built by Mr. Wright, of Philadelphia, in memory of his daughter. The church is a beautiful one; the service was rendered in an impressive manner, and the sermon was excellent.
Wishing to see Seattle, the other famous city of the State of Washington, I went there by rail in two hours, and, accompanied by a relative, spent the day looking at the buildings and shops, and travelling on the electric street cars, which run everywhere, with what appeared to be dangerous speed. We had an excellent lunch at a good hotel, situated on top of a hill, from which we looked down on the city and harbor. Looking at the solid blocks of business houses, wholesale and retail, and the beautiful private residences, and knowing that there are now about fifty thousand inhabitants in the city, it is difficult to comprehend that fifteen or twenty years ago it was almost a wilderness. After lunch, we took seats in an electric car, and were carried five or six miles with the greatest ease, to a beautiful lake, where we found many interesting things to look at for an hour or two. We hear of a great deal of jealousy between Tacoma and Seattle, but to a stranger they appear to have much in common—large, substantial and handsome buildings, many of which would not be thought out of place in any city; prompt, energetic, and lively business men, and every appearance that the foundations have been laid for two great cities, to which the immense products of India, China, and Japan will naturally come for distribution throughout the United States and Europe.
CHAPTER IX
ON BOARD THE “QUEEN” FROM TACOMA TO VICTORIA.
Steamer “Queen,” July 7, 1892.
AT 9 p.m. on the 5th instant we went on board the steamer Queen, which, as there are no hotels in Alaska, is to be our home for two weeks. The steamer is a fine, large vessel, with ample accommodations for two hundred or more passengers. I had secured and paid for two first-class staterooms two months in advance, but found, the first night, that the ones given us were the worst on the ship, being directly over the boiler, and consequently so hot that it was impossible to live in them unless the doors were open. In addition to this annoyance, when the watch was changed at 9 p.m., and at 1, 4, and 8 a.m., the ashes were hoisted from the hold, the rough and noisy machinery used being located in the rear of our rooms, apparently within a foot or two. The iron ash-can was about eighteen inches in diameter and four feet high, and when it was rushed up by steam power, it made a tremendous noise, making sleep impossible. In the morning I called on the purser, and asked him to change the rooms. He said that he could not “change all the rooms in the ship,” but on being informed that unless he gave my sister better accommodations we would abandon the trip and go ashore at the next stopping place, he changed his mind, and gave her a good room in the cabin below, but refused to change mine unless I would pay fifty dollars additional. On consultation with my roommate, Mr. Edwin S. Townsend, we concluded that the advance asked was a violation of our contract with the company, and that we would not pay it. We therefore endured the distress and annoyance of the ash-lifting machinery. I did not remove my clothing at night, but lay on the bed until the ash-can nuisance commenced, and then left the room and walked the deck until the noise stopped, in about half an hour. Being forced on deck at night had its inconveniences, but it had its compensations also, for it gave me the chance to see the magnificent scenery by moonlight; and, one night, there was a splendid display of aurora borealis, which illuminated the entire northern sky.
After five nights spent in this disagreeable manner, one of our friends had a talk with the purser, and induced him to change the undesirable rooms for comfortable ones on the upper deck. We learned with much satisfaction that the steamer during the entire trip will go through a series of inland seas, and that we shall look upon the Pacific Ocean but two or three times, and then for only a few hours.