by nature or by the irrigation ditch.

Yet most of this development of the Puget Sound country and the inland empire of Oregon and Washington has been accomplished since yesterday. What changes have been seen by the first man who settled on the site of Spokane! But they are not more varied than his own career. When the yellow lump picked up on Sutter's Creek caused men to cross the continent ahorse and afoot in the quest of gold, Mike Cowley was old. enough to become one of the Argonauts. The fifty dollars borrowed from his aunt in old York State soon dwindled to nothing; yet he managed to work his way to the coast, only to be disappointed in his search for wealth in the mines. But a few dollars came to him by clerking it." He spent them for goods which he packed to the mines on a cayuse and sold for double their cost. Then he bought two cayuses; and then a train of them. A few

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hundreds swelled to a thousand dollars and more. With the news that silver had been found in the Coeur d'Alenes region in Idaho, Cowley was drawn into the rush of adventurers to the new Eldorado. He took a pack train of goods with him. Coming to the ford of the Spokane River, he saw the need of a ferry, and returned from the mining camp to build a barge, with which he poled the would-be miners across the stream. Moreover, he opened a general store and traded beads and gunpowder for furs from the Indians. There he stayed and watched the city grow from a cluster of cabins to its present proportions. And as it grew, Mike Cowley grew with it. To-day he is a bank director, merchant, real-estate owner, and his check is good for a half-million.

Spokane, with its hundred thousand people, the seventy-five millions they have invested in business and industry and the fifty millions of bank clearings recorded annually,

is known to-day as the Metropolis of the Inland Empire. In view of the fact that Mike Cowley camped on its site in 1872, its growth may well be called phenomenal, but it is only one illustration of the progressiveness and determination that pervade our ultimate West. Seattle in 1870 contained only a thousand people. In less than twoscore years it has grown to over 200,000. The deposits in its banks, which ten years ago were less than five million dollars, now exceed sixty millions, while the bank clearings at the present time are over five hundred million dollars annually, being fourteen times larger than ten years ago. The expansion of the banking business is largely due to the industrial growth, for in 1900 the total number of factories was but 950. Since that time the number of industries has increased to 1500, the capital invested to over thirty million dollars

beside which it stands is in size the world's greatest harbor. Including the main body of water and the many arms which stretch here and there in the State of Washington, it has a coast line of not less than 1600 miles. These two cities are the principal shipping points for a very large part of the States of Oregon and Washington, as well as for the adjacent territory, in all embracing 165,000 square miles a country which has over three times the area of the State of New York. The forests of Oregon and Washington represent 100,000 square miles, and there is shipped thence an enormous quantity of timber, not only to other parts of the United States, but to Europe, Mexico and Central and South America. From the city of Tacoma alone, wheat in the form of grain or flour is going across the Pacific in such quantities that every year the revenue from

The statistics of the growth of Tacoma-the other great port on Puget Sound-show a development almost as rapid. The body of water

So there is the combination of which the people have taken such

advantage. They have had the seed from which may grow prosperity, and in their progress prosperity has been attained. Figures, as the saying goes, make dry reading, but they prove the facts.

The makers of our Last West have such pride in what they have accomplished, that the next great exposition in America will be partly in honor of this work although the next-door neighbors, British Columbia and Alaska, the "Land of Seward," will join in the celebration at the city of Seattle during the last half of this year. The arrangement of the event in itself is no small feat, considering its magnitude and the expense which must be incurred by a population which is not one half that of the city of New York. But here are a people not to be deterred from putting through what they plan. When the citizens of Seattle were told that $650,000 was the sum needed from them, in just one day it was secured, although the city contains. but 200,000 people. That is called the "Seattle spirit"; but the State of Washington contributed a million, the National Government appropriated another million, the miners of Alaska, the business men of British Columbia, the Last West as a whole, engaged in the task of making the exposition worthy of this country, and it represents the expenditure

Not even the

of ten million dollars. display at St. Louis was more varied than that to which the nations have now been invited; for the natural wealth of this little-known region will be strikingly displayed, as well as what has been done in agriculture, lumbering, irrigation and general industries, the great fisheries of Alaska and those of other than Alaskan waters. For the first time the world will have an opportunity of realizing the richness and extent of the gold and copper deposits of the Arctic treasure-house.

The site selected has been beautified by Nature. On the shores of Lake Washington, on the outskirts of the city, a vista of this impressive sheet of water is combined with views of the original forest, giving a setting that is wildly picturesque. Stretching out over a space of two hundred and fifty acres, the display will be housed in buildings not only spacious and suitable but of designs in keeping with the event. As the illustrations show, they are impressive in size and of architectural types both appropriate and attractive. The main buildings are grouped around central decorative features. They include, besides the Auditorium, halls devoted to the Fine Arts, Transportation, Manufactures, Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Mines, Machinery, the United States Government, Canada, Japan,

of a permanent character and will be turned over to the University when the show closes. These are the Auditorium, and the Fine Arts, Machinery, Forestry, Washington State, Arctic Brotherhood and Women's buildings. This is the first time that so many permanent structures have been erected for an exposition. In all, $605,000 has been spent on buildings that will be added to those now owned by the University.

National interest in the affair is shown by the number of States. represented by individual exhibits. A number of counties in the State of Washington have erected structures of their own. The United States Government has five buildings -its main structure, and separate edifices for Alaska, the Hawaiian

Government is typical of the enterprise and art of that nation.

In all, over a score of large edifices have been provided. Much taste has been shown in placing them on sites where their picturesque exteriors are seen to the greatest advantage in contrast with the natural background afforded by the woods and water. And the grounds have been ornamented with a view to completing the picture which the Exposition will present. The walks and drives wind amid not only greensward, but beds and rows of plant and shrub. In this climate flowers bloom in great variety, and acres of the site have been devoted to beds differing in color and design. The floral display will be one of the most attractive features. Advantage