Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/138

 128 P.W.GILLETTE. designed to carry, they will soon be worn out and we will have no boats. ' ' The meeting adjourned amidst roars of laughter, and Eph Day kept his place and still measured up big loads of freight. The Florence City gold excitement of 1862 brought the Ore- gon Steam Navigation Company a flood of prosperity. They could not possibly take all the business offered. At Portland the rush of freight to the docks was so great that drays and trucks had to form and stand in line to get their turn in de- livering their goods. Their lines were kept unbroken day and night for weeks and months. Shippers were obliged to use the greatest vigilance and take every advantage to get their goods away. Often a merchant would place a large truck in line early in the morning, then fill it by dray loads during the day. That great rush continued for months. A San Francisco merchant established a store in Lewiston and ship- ped via Portland a large stock of goods, which arrived in Portland in the spring, but they did not reach Lewiston until late in the summer, because he had no one here to get them in line to take their turn. So, notwithstanding the enormous price of freight and passage it was impossible for them to meet the demand. So great was the increase of business on the Columbia, and so attractive the high rates received, that it tempted the People's Transportation Company, of Salem, to put on an opposition line to compete for a part of the glittering prize. But they soon learned what they should have known in the beginning, that it was impossible for any one to compete with a company who held the valley of the Columbia by the throat, and had undisputed possession of the portage roads. So they were only too glad to withdraw. and be satisfied with the Willamette River. Rates were cut down some during the short contest, but were soon restored. Some time in the '70 's Henry Villard was sent to Oregon in the interest of German bondholders in the Holladay Railroad and Steamship Line. Mr. Villard had been associated with Mr. Gould in some railroad matters and had acquired a snug fortune. During his visits to Oregon his shrewd business eye