270 SPORT INDEED 



Streets deserted, dwellings vacated and closed, and no 

 sign of life, except it be the shingle mills and the 

 woodchoppers' shanties on the outskirts and away 

 from the " avenues " and " boulevards " that grace 

 these silent towns. 



A real estate dealer in Seattle told me that the 

 growth of his town had been much retarded by in- 

 vestments in these mushroom spurts — investments 

 which promised no more returns to the investor than 

 if he used his capital in buying up town lots on the 

 moon, or in leasing the rainbow for a paint-shop. 



Seattle and Tacoma are less than forty miles apart, 

 and as both towns are ambitious and growing there is 

 great business rivalry, as well as bitter jealousy be- 

 tween them. Each claims the larger population, busi- 

 ness and wealth ; each declares it has the brighter 

 prospects for the future, and each delights in decrying 

 the boasted advantages of the other. Our candid and 

 unprejudiced opinion is that Seattle is, by all odds, the 

 more enterprising, and therefore the more promising 

 of the two. Certainly it has much more life than 

 Tacoma, and more public spirit. 



Tacoma had been so nursed and coddled by the 

 Northern Pacific that, in a measure, she lost her inde- 

 pendence. On the other hand Seattle had to scratch 

 and fight for her railroad favors, and fought so well 

 that she compelled the Northern Pacific to come off 

 its Tacoma perch and hustle for its share of the trade. 



*'^*';y ^. 



