38 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



inch widths. However, it is a mighty good wood, and with proper 

 manufacture, seasoning and handling there is a big future for it. 



On my way to the great western commereial center of western 

 Washington — Spokane — I made several stops at various sawmills, 

 where I found fir, cedar, larch, white pine and western pine being 

 produced in large quantities. A good many of these western oper- 

 ators are still depending on the uncertain mountain streams for 

 the transportation of their logs, with the result that a good deal of 

 log stain is observable in the product; and again the character of 

 the atmosphere does not contribute to good seasoning, with the 

 result that altogether too much lumber is stained and very indif- 

 ferently handled. 



.'\gain, what may be regarded as extremely wasteful manufactur- 

 ing methods obtain in nearly all localities. A manifest improve- 

 ment will surely come about in lumber manufacture and handling 

 methods before any considerable profits can be attained in lumber 

 production. This observation is made advisedly, regardless of the 

 fact that the stumpage cost for timber holdings belonging to these 

 various companies was obtained at a remarkably low price. 



Spokane is the commercial center of large lumber manufacturing 

 interests. Surrounding it is a vast empire of timber and agricul- 

 tural lands. There are several important sawmill plants in the 

 city itself. This is the headquarters of the Western Pine Manu- 

 facturers' Association, the secretary of which is A. W. Cooper, a 

 Forest Service graduate, who is as generous with his time and 

 information as Secretary Boorman over at Kalispell. I am deeply 

 indebted to him for a multitude of courtesies, and the pleasure of 

 a conference with more than a score of the leading members of his 

 association. 



The lumbermen out there come to association meetings. A little 

 hike of two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles seems to be 

 as nothing to them. They make a trip of this sort with as little 

 thought of effort as a Chicago lumberman would in dropping around 

 the corner for a highball. The lumbermen out in the West work on 

 the ' ' team ' ' plan. They regard anything that is good for the indi- 

 vidual lumberman good for the total of the interests. They ex- 

 change information and play fair with each other. They are get- 

 ting there. 



At Spokane I stopped at the big hotel bearing the name of the 

 city, and I coaxed Mr. Cooper over to have lunch with me the 

 day after my arrival, and it was here I encountered a surprise. By 

 the merest accident, of course. Cooper and I drifted through the 

 men's cafe on our way to the dining room, and naturally stopped 

 at the bar for an Appolinaris. Mr. Man at the right of us observed 

 to the chemist behind the bar, "Give me a Gibson cocktail." Mr. 

 Man at the left, with equal insistence said, "Give me a Gibson," 

 and inside of a minute there was a fusillade of "Give me a Gibson ' 

 cocktail," from a dozen sources. 



First I regarded this thing as a joke that had been put up on me 

 by either Boiling Arthur Johnson, Leonard Bronson or J. E. 

 Rhodes, but my curiosity was aroused, and so I changed my order to 

 a "Gibson," which resulted in the discovery that a Gibson cock- 

 tail under the western classification is simply what is Tcnown in the 

 East is an " extra dry Martini, ' ' — one-half a slug of dry gin and an 

 equal amount of French vermuth stirred up over a chunk of ice. 

 I still think that Johnson or someone of the bunch is responsible 

 for this nomenclature, but it is a certainty that I found Gibson 

 cocktails the vogue from Spokane to Seattle, and clear down the 

 length of the Pacific coast to San Diego. It may be possible that 

 they are the vogue in lower California also, but I stopped before 

 crossing the Mexican border, and therefore can 't tell for a cer- 

 tainty. 



The Spokane hotel is a pretty good blufiE of a hotel for any land, 

 but still these people are building a bigger one to supply the de- 

 mand for additional accommodations, and are proposing to build 

 one that will be an eyeopener. 



When you get within a hundred miles of Spokane you will hear 

 the natives and traveling men all talking about the wonderful 

 restaurant of Spokane — Davenport's. Davenport's is regarded 

 as the gastronomic Mecca of western Washington. You are told 



of this marvelous eating resort, about its splendid interior, fault- 

 less cooking, service, game, and all this sort of thing. As a matter 

 of fact Davenport's is about as garish a joint as you would find 

 on Sixth Avenue in New York, and it is manned by a bunch of 

 expatriated hack drivers disguised as waiters, with a sprinkling 

 of Greek brigands. It is just a pretense for good food, good 

 cooking and good service. It is a monumental bluff of pretense 

 and imitation of first-class metropolitan restaurants. Still, Daven- 

 ports 's is the ultra-fashionable hangout of Spokane. 



In theatrical parlance, the Inland Empire country is referred to 

 as the "alfalfa circuit." I think it should be denominated with 

 more appropriateness as the "willow plume circuit." I know I'll 

 get myself disliked for the observation, but the disease known as 

 the willow plume originating in Paris and brought o%'er to New 

 York some five or six years ago, is in its most aggravated form in 

 Spokane and surrounding cities. Women wear substantial, com- 

 mon-sense shoes, and long, parti-hued woolen coats, but ninety 

 per cent of them are addicted to these appallingly big flat hats, — 

 a cross between an umbrella and the roof of a summer house — 

 which are loaded down with masses of feathers. I walked past the 

 open portiers of a dining room in which was being engineered a 

 ladies' tea fight by Spokane's elect womankind one day. I didn't 

 see any ladies — not even the tip of one nose. It was a billowy 

 mass of feathers akin to the foam of the surf at Atlantic City. 

 One night I sat at the theater between two of these appalling 

 headgears, the rims of which lapped at least a foot across my 

 knees, when the center sections were held on the laps of the 

 ladies at my right and left. 



I had the pleasure of a very delightful visit at several of the 

 big mills at Sand Point, Idaho, and vicinity. I made one stop at 

 North Yakima, Wash., about midway between Spokane and 

 Seattle. North Yakima is another typical, well-ordered little city, 

 in the center of the great apple-growing region. There is one 

 big sawmill plant there, that of the Cascade Lumber Company, 

 a modern and up-to-date plant manufacturing quite largely what 

 is known as western pine. However, the name "western pine" 

 doesn't spell anything to the uninitiated. "Western pine" is 

 Finns ponderosa, the yellow pine of the West masquerading under 

 various names in various sections. It is a growth which starts 

 in just north of the city of Mexico, and in various qualities ex- 

 tends clear to the arctic circle, and also has a considerable growth 

 in California. In Mexico it is known as Mexican white pine; in 

 Arizona as Arizona pine; in New Mexico as New Mexico pine; 

 in the Inland Empire as western pine, and in California as Cali- 

 fornia white pine. Depending on soil and latitude, it varies con- 

 siderable in quality, but the sapwood makes a most excellent 

 imitation of white pine, and is used as a substitute both locally 

 and through the entire East in the manufacture of doors, sash and 

 interior finish. 



I am indebted to A. H. Huebner, of North Yakima, manager of 

 the Cascade Lumber Company, not only for a pleasant visit at his 

 big plant, but also for sundry specimens of the' apple orchard 

 product of that region, which I buried most religiously in my grip 

 and ate one apple a week through the remainder of my journey, 

 and finally succeeded in getting one monster specimen back to de- 

 liver to my wife in Chicago. The Cascade Lumber Company's plant 

 is a good one and very well handled, and while perhaps it 

 negotiates its drying problem of western pine 'as well as the best, 

 there is still improvement that should be made. 



Don't forget for a minute that there are boomers in the land 

 in the Inland Empire. They are just as numerous and busy as 

 further westward. Talk about the living embodiment of the 

 circus poster — they're it. 



The California land barker, pestiferous as he is, is a babe-in-the- 

 woods beside some of these Inland Empire fellows — and don 't forget 

 that the former is no slouch. 



Then I went to Seattle, where Proctor Knox's alluring forensic 

 story of Duluth is duplicated. But as Kipling says, this is another 

 story. 



H. H. Gibson. 



