STEEP TRAILS 



general. To many, especially in the Atlantic 

 States, Washington is hardly known at all. 

 It is regarded as being yet a far wild west — 

 a dim, nebulous expanse of woods — by those 

 who do not know that railroads and steamers 

 have brought the country out of the wilderness 

 and abolished the old distances. It is now near 

 to all the world and is in possession of a share 

 of the best of all that civiUzation has to offer, 

 while on some of the Unes of advancement it 

 is at the front. 



Notwithstanding the sharp rivalry between 

 different sections and towns, the leading men 

 mostly pull together for the general good and 

 glory, — building, buying, borrowing, to push 

 the country to its place; keeping arithmetic 

 busy in counting population present and to 

 come, ships, towns, factories, tons of coal and 

 iron, feet of lumber, miles of railroad, — Ameri- 

 cans, Scandinavians, Irish, Scotch, and Ger- 

 mans being joined together in the white heat 

 of work like religious crowds in time of re- 

 vival who have forgotten sectarianism. It is a 

 fine thing to see people in hot earnest about 

 anything; therefore, however extravagant and 

 high the brag ascending from Puget Sound, 

 in most cases it is hkely to appear pardonable 

 and more. 

 , Seattle was named after an old Indian chief 



254 



