The Daily Struggle of the Henderson’s Bay Ferry

Mr. P. F. Kline came into the office of the Post-Intelligencer here today and said that he was in distress and had just been wondering if some of the enterprising men of Seattle, of which he had heard so much, could not help him out. He sat down and said: 'I live near Purdy, on Henderson’s Bay. You won't believe it, but it is nevertheless an absolute fact—I haven't kept strict account, of course, but I make it by a rational estimate—that I have been for three months at the steamboat landing looking for a boat. We grow lots of strawberries down there and make lots of good butter, and we want to bring them to market, but our communication and transportation facilities are in a discouraging state. They are so discouraging in fact, that I have about made up my mind, if they are not bettered soon, I will prove up on my land and leave it until civilization is done for that section.'

'The Clara Brown runs in there twice a week, does it not?'

'They say it does, but it don't. They advertise it, but it is a deception,' said Mr. Kline testily. 'The boat Irving used to come in there as regular as clock work when Brown was Captain of her, and the fact that Brown’s to buy a new boat to build a larger and better boat for that trade is good evidence that the route paid. But the Clara Brown, that has taken the Irving’s place, arrives just when she takes the notion, apparently. I’ve been in Tacoma for some days, and I went down yesterday to see if the boat was going to make the trip today—her advertised semi-weekly trip—and I was told at the wharf that certainly they were going. So my son-in-law, Mr. Hart, engaged the little boat Emelia yesterday and took his furniture around ahead of us, as he was just moving onto his place, and the tide would not allow the Clara Brown to get up to the wharf at a time to suit him. I followed today to help him. I took the cow and my two daughters—one of them Hart’s wife—with their babies down to the wharf today to go over on the Clara Brown, but when I got there they were very sorry, but they were not going today. We had to come back and will have to wait here until Monday. All that time, Hart is over there wondering what is the matter, while his wife is here fretting about how he is getting along with his furniture on the wharf. New what I wanted to ask is this: I believe if Seattle knew of the state of affairs at Henderson’s Bay and the number of people who stand in need of regular communication with a trading point, and the amount of trade that could be secured by supplying it, that she would reach out for it at once.'