the pedestrians feet sank, and which the tides kept water-soaked, the only attractive feature of the place being some wonderfully large, broad-leaved maple-trees, growing down at the south end of the water-front with their roots in the bay, and which, alas! are no longer to be seen. In truth, there was little in the Seattle of 1890 to remind one of what had been.
What I saw, in place of the former town, was a city of fine proportions spread over a smooth slope, and extending not only to the summit of the hills, but out of sight beyond, with lines of cable and electric cars traversing the streets in every direction, a solid front of docks and wharves where shipping lay, or came and went with the hours, and which had altogether the most metropolitan look of any city in the Northwest.
Seattle is not, like Tacoma, a new town. It was founded in 1852, by D. S. Maynard, C. 1). Boren, A. A. Denny, and W. N. Bell, who took claims side by side on the shore of the bay. Henry L. Yesler was admitted to the company the same year, and built the mill whose sawdust helped to fill in the city's front, as aforesaid. It was to Yesler's saw-mill more than anything that the town was indebted for its growth, this being the first mill to establish a lumber trade with San Francisco. Its mess-house was a place of general rendezvous for travellers up and down the Sound for more than one decade. Around its rude but hospitable board, and about its ample hearth piled high with blazing fir-slabs, were recounted the many strange adventures which befell the numerous guests, including volunteer Indian fighters, naval officers, judges of the courts, and shipmasters.
The founders of Seattle belonged to that class of men born to follow the beckoning of the star of empire in its westward orbit. Talk about Columbus discovering a new world! What was his voyage to the months of dreary marching across the continent, the setting out from Portland, then a cluster of rude cabins, in a sailing-vessel for the Sound, and the disembarkation upon an uninhabited shore, in the midst of a November storm, of women, children, and household goods! When they were landed, after many hours of labor, "the women sat down and cried," says one of their chroniclers. Alas, how often women's tears bedew the earth which brings forth plentifully of its riches
