ogether, the
mountain is literally cloud-capped, and its peak hidden from view. Those
who are fortunate enough to be able to appreciate the awful and unique
in history, never tire of gazing upon Tacoma. They are glad to inspect
it from every side. Some call it a whited sepulchre. There was a time
when it was anything but the calm, peaceful eminence of to-day. Every
indication points to the fact that it was once among the most active
volcanoes in existence.

There is a town, or rather city, of the same name as the mountain. This
is situated on Commencement Bay. It is under the very shadow of the
great mountain of which we have spoken, and which seems to guard it
against foes from inland. Fifteen years ago it was a mere village, of
scarcely any importance. It has rapidly grown into a town of great
importance. In 1873 the Northern Pacific Railroad Company decided to
make it the western terminus of their important system. This resulted in
renewed life, or rather in a genuine birth to the place, which now has a
population of 40,000 people, and is an exceedingly wealthy and
prosperous city. The Tacoma Land Company, ably seconded by the railroad,
has fostered enterprise in this place in the most hearty manner, and now
some of the large buildings of the town, of the very existence of which
many Eastern people affected ignorance, are more than magnificent--they
are majestic.

Seattle is another and even more brilliant diamond in Washington's
crown. It is a great city, with a magnificent harbor, its name being
that of a powerful Indian chief who, when the town was founded forty
years ago, had things practically his own way. It grew in importance
very rapidly, but in 1889 one of the largest fires of modern times
destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property, including the best blocks and
commercial structures of the city. People who had never seen Seattle at
once assumed that the city was dead, and speculation was rife as to what
place would secure its magnificent trade. Those who thus talked were
entirely ignorant as to the nature of the men who had made Seattle what
it was. Within a very few days the work of reconstruction commenced. The
fire hampered the city somewhat, and checked its progress. But Seattle
is better for the disaster, and stands to-day a monument to the "nil
desperandum" policy of its leaders.

Spokane Falls is another wonderful instance of Northwestern push and
energy. It is a very young city, the earliest records