STEEP TRAILS 



stores, made up of English, French, Spanish, 

 Portuguese, Scandinavians, Gennans, Greeks, 

 Moors, Japanese, and Chinese, of every rank 

 and station and style of dress and behavior; 

 settlers from many a nook and bay and island 

 up and down the coast; hunters from the wil- 

 derness; tourists on their way home by the 

 Sound and the Columbia River or to Alaska 

 or CaUfomia. 



The upper story of Port Townsend is charm- 

 ingly located, wide bright waters on one side, 

 flowing evergreen woods on the other. The 

 streets are well laid out and well tended, and 

 the houses, with their luxuriant gardens about 

 them, have an air of taste and refinement sel- 

 dom found in towns set on the edge of a wild 

 forest. The people seem to have come here to 

 make true homes, attracted by the beauty and 

 fresh breezy healthfulness of the place as well 

 as by business advantages, trusting to nat- 

 ural growth and advancement instead of rest- 

 less "booming" methods. They perhaps have 

 caught some of the spirit of calm moderation 

 and enjoyment from their English neighbors 

 across the water. Of late, however, this sober 

 tranquilUty has begun to give way, some whiffs 

 from the whirlwind of real-estate speculation 

 up the Sound having at length touched the 

 town and ruffled the surface of its calmness. 



220 



