Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/196



176 W. D. LYMAN

twin cliffs to the pebbles on the beach fairly quivers with the breath of the past, and even the sagebrush, moved by the gentle Wallula zephyr, exhales the fragrance of the dead leaves of history.

But if the past is in evidence here, much more the present stalks triumphant. Look at the cities by which this series of celebrations will be marshalled and the welcomes that will be given to the flotilla of steamers all the way from Lewiston to Astoria. Consider the population of the lands upon the river and its affluents, nearly a million people, where during the days of old Fort Walla Walla the only white people were the officers and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company.

But if the present reigns here proudly triumphant over the past, what must we say of the future? How does that future tower! Where now are the hundreds, there will be the thousands. Where now are the villages, will be stately cities. We would not for a moment speak disrespectfully of the steamers that will compose this fleet by the time it reaches Portland, but we may expect that after all they will be a mere bunch of scows in comparison with the floating palaces that will move in the future up and down the majestic stream.

Therefore, fellow citizens of the Northwest and representa- tives of the National government, I bid you a three-fold wel- come in the name of past, present and future. And I welcome you also in the name of the commingling of waters now pass- ing by us. While this is indeed Washington land on either side of the River, this is not Washington's river. This shore on which we stand is washed by the turbid water of Snake River, rising in Wyoming and flowing five hundred miles through Idaho and then forming the boundary between Idaho and Oregon before it surrenders itself to the State of Wash- ington. And, as many of you have seen, half way across this flood of waters we pass from the turbid coloring of the Snake to the clear blue of the great northern branch issuing from the glaciers of the Selkirks and the Canadian Rockies nearly a thousand miles away, augmented by the torrents of