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HE development of the Puget Sound country during the past quarter of a century has been most remarkable. Twenty-five years ago, few, if any of its towns and settlements were on the maps. was but fifty-six years ago that Daniel Webster declared in Congress: "What do we want of this vast worthless area of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust; of cactus and prairie dogs; a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless and uninviting, without a harbor on it ?"

It was fifty-five years ago that the first settlement (Tumwater) was made on Puget Sound; forty-eight years ago that the first permanent settlers came to the vicinity of Seattle. It took Seattle three years to gain its first 150 inhabitants. Then followed an Indian war, and even that small population was reduced, slowly to grow again, until in 1861, it gained its first triumph-the then small school, dignified with the name of Territorial

University. In 1875 it had several stores and sawmills and about 1,750 people; in 1890, 43,000. In 1900, Seattle claimed a population of 81,000, not including some actually adjoining suburbs, with at least 6,000 During this decade, too, the worst financial depression in the history of any new

AN INDIAN FAMILY

On the Sound near Seattle

country had afflicted not only Seattle, but all the Sound country. In the Tsuers river valley, back of Cape Flattery, not less than twenty claims and ranches were abandoned, many houses being left with furniture in them. For years things stood still or went backward in many portions of the Sound country, yet to-day Seattle and its environs have not less than 110,000 population, and the gain is so rapid that houses cannot be built fast enough to keep rents down to a reasonable figure.

What has caused this wonderful growth? Some will answer, the energy of the people. Others, with equal knowledge of conditions past and present, will give the credit solely to remarkable resources. Of course it is really a combination of both-energetic, keen, resolute business men; a territory with natural resources and commercial advantages richer and greater than almost any other on earth. The people are from every part of the Union,

A RAILROAD SCENE IN SEATTLE Where the tracks meet in the City

and they have confidence in themselves and one another. Reverses strike them; they are hoisted skyward by some unexpected petard like the great fire of 1869, but they land right side up and set to work, no matter what their age or condition, with all the confidence and cheerfulness in the world. A man may lose every dollar he has, but the next day will find him stirring about, setting new enterprises afoot, working like a horse, laughing at a good joke, and telling of the many adventures that have made his life jolly.

There is a citizen of Seattle, engaged in grading streets or building roads. His sons are running engines in some of the nearby mines or doing any other honest work they can find. All in that family are cheerful and apparently happy, although such a thing as a

"spare dollar" is almost unknown to them; yet before the hard times of '93-5, they could have "cleaned up" a half million. They will be on top again if they live long enough.

Another old man, small, spare, keen-eyed, quiet, but frankly courteous, was with Kit Carson, and fought his way across the continent. His biography would read like a romance. He has made and lost three fortunes-the last six years ago. He never was cowardly enough to drink to drown trouble, and old as he is, he has a nerve like steel. There is probably not a thing on earth that that old man fears. He is confident that he will make another fortune, and that he will live to see Seattle the largest city on the Pacific coast.

These old-timers-there are a hundred of them in this vicinity-have that in them that

would make a flower garden in the centre of Sahara. The present generation, too, are a resolute, practical lot. Seven out of ten can cook a meal before a camp fire, build a camp or a boat, or form a syndicate. They never talk vainly, but they make strong statements about the Sound country. Each is a selfEach is a selfmade man, yet he does not worship his creator. There are probably 1,500 of them in Seattle, all worth from $5,000 to $500,000 each, and striving to get more. One well-known citizen of Seattle, during the recent hard times, mortgaged his home for $18,000 to pay taxes on vacant brush lots, which are to-day amply repaying his faith.

Best of all, they work like brothers. Recently, a little company of them happened to be assembled at the Chamber of Commerce,

when the news came that the Moran Bros. Company must scale their bid on the battleship contract by $100,000. They subscribed $27,000 in fifteen minutes, and raised the other $73,000 in five days by subscriptions from all over the city, ranging from $25 to $5,000. Every one of those men will tell you, with pride shining in his eyes, how Robert Moran, during the Alaskan rush, was left, by the failure of a Pennsylvania and a New York transportation company with nearly three quarters of a million dollars worth of Yukon river steamers on his hands; how he looked about for men to take them north and sell them without finding any who cared to take the risk and responsibility; how he donned his working clothes, hired a convoy of two sea-going

SEATTLE FROM THE WATER-FRONT

tugs, and with that fleet of thirteen flatbottomed river steamers set out across the Pacific and up through Bering sea; how everybody prophesied total loss and wondered for twice nine days over the outcome of this attempt; how he overcame all obstacles, showed his iron will, risked his life, got there and sold his boats for "big money."

The aristocracy of pluck and ability, of power to do better than his fellows under adverse circumstances, is the only aristocracy these men recognize. A "father's son" is but common clay, until he has won his spurs

It is so in business. It is so in the professions. A leading professor in the state university, was a newsboy in the streets of Seattle twenty years ago. Who his father

was few knew or cared. All know that the professor is a man of brains, modesty and industry.

An honest grocer is as good as a bank president. He and the magnate of finance call each other "Jehu" and "John," and go fishing or hunting together. What is true of the men, is equally true of the women. There are better common schools and more of them, there are more literary and dramatic

FOLIAGE ON THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS Showing the huge leaves of the "Devil's Club," a shrub common on the western slopes of the range

societies, more theatres and clubs than in almost any other city of like population that can be named. This is not an excessively religious community, yet Seattle proper has sixty-five churches. There are 134 fraternal and benevolent societies, forty-eight newspapers, and other periodical publications.

A few years ago, a broken-down newspaper man came to the Sound region for health. He struck out for the woods and mountains; and a man whom he had never seen or heard