“Rah! rah! boom—ah!”
With all this din ringing in their ears the good people of Portland see our train pulling away from their beautiful station. As they wave their adieus we pass from their sight on a run of 146 miles over the Northern Pacific Railway to Tacoma, Wash. N. P. engine No. 617 is drawing us, managed by Engineer F. W. Bockerman and fired by H. Deam. The conductor is Henry Buckley and the brakemen are H. Harkins and Tom Martin; Mr. Martin is a young man from Chester County, Pennsylvania, who has come West to seek his fortune, and has accepted the position of a brakeman with the expectation of rising in the ranks, and we wish him success.
From Portland to Goble, 39 miles, we follow the Columbia River, which is very high, and much of the low land is submerged. We can see buildings surrounded by water that have been vacated, and we are reminded of the El Paso flood. We look beyond this desolating waste of water and in the far distance can see the glistening summits of Mt. Hood and Saint Helens. Reaching Goble, our train is run on to the great ferry steamer “Tacoma,” transported across the Columbia River to Kalama, and into the State of Washington. Leaving Kalama, we pass through a fine farming country, where agricultural industries seem to be extensively carried on. After passing Centralia, which is a flourishing town of about 3000 inhabitants, we have a splendid view of Mt. Rainier for several miles while we sweep across the Yelm prairie. A short stop is made at Roy to pick up Brothers B. W. Johnson and S. H. Ewalt, of Mt. Tacoma Division No. 249, O. R. C., who are members of committee on entertainment, and who promise to show us the city of Tacoma after our arrival there. The country through here seems to be rich in natural resources, for bordering the fertile valleys can be seen heavily timbered hills and here and there a coal mine in operation.
Arriving in Tacoma at 4.40 P. M. Eastern (1.40 P. M. Pacific), we are immediately taken out by Brothers Johnson and Ewalt to see the town and are joined by A. F. Haines, passenger agent of Northern Pacific Railway, Capt. A. Thompson, of the Portland Oregonian, C. P. Ferry, Esq. (who bears the distinguished title of “Duke of Tacoma”), and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, L. Ceasar, Esq., president of Tacoma Bank and a member of the Board of Trade. The first place we visit is the County Court House. “This,” says Mr. Ferry, “is one of the finest buildings in Tacoma, which, you know, is the county seat of Pierce County. We had to have a court house and thought we would build a good one; it cost $400,000.” We amused ourselves looking through the museum located in this building, many of the relics and works of art having been contributed by Mr. Ferry, who collected many of them in foreign countries through which he has traveled. We spent half an hour in the Court House and then entered into a street car, which took us a much-enjoyed ride through the city to Point Defiance Park.
To form a true conception of a Washington forest one has but to visit this wonderful park. Such majestic trees we never saw before, many of them six and eight feet in diameter and estimated to be 300 feet in height, great
