The Canal Fund Was Almost Full—and St. Louis Was Waiting

Subscriptions to the $50,000 subsidy for the Seattle & Lake Washington Waterway Company are nearly complete. Yesterday's canvass made a good showing, and another vigorous effort is expected to make up the needed sum.

Among the subscriptions received yesterday were several large round sums, including $3,000 from Jacob Furth, $1,000 each from Mrs. Alice H. Hill and H. C. Henry, and $500 from M. K. Downs. Of the day's total, $6,050 was brought in by R. R. Spencer, who secured subscriptions through the National Bank of Commerce in addition to his own.

It is now just a month since subscriptions were first called for at the Armory, where more than $30,000 was pledged at that meeting. Had all interested parties been in the city, one week should have been ample time to raise the $50,000, but the absence of many property owners made more time necessary. The committee prepared circulars and secured addresses of non-residents. Hundreds of packages, each containing a prospectus of the project, a map, copies of contracts, a circular letter and blanks, have been sent to property owners in different parts of the country.

For the past ten days the committee has refrained from much active work at home in the hope that non-resident owners would do their share. It has now concluded that there should be no further delay in closing up the subsidy, even if it has to be made up entirely by home people.

The date fixed by the state for beginning work on contract No. 3 is May 28. Unless the subsidy is secured at once and the report of the appraisement committee forwarded to St. Louis, work cannot be commenced by the specified date. That the St. Louis capitalists are anxious to know whether the subsidy will be raised without further delay is apparent from the following telegram received by the waterway company:

'St. Louis, Mo., April 23, 1895. Eugene Semple, President S. & L. W. W. Co., Seattle: I wish to urge on you the necessity of arrangements being completed soon. When can it be done and papers forwarded? HENRY KEMPLE AMES.'

To this the waterway company, after consultation with the subsidy committee, answered by wire:

'Seattle, April 23, 1895. To Henry Kemple Ames, 701 Union Trust Building, St. Louis, Mo.: Will close subsidy in three or four days. Report of appraisement now forwarded. EUGENE SEMPLE, President S. & L. W. W. Co.'

To comply with the above telegram, the subsidy must be completed and appraised and the report forwarded to St. Louis before the end of the week. The committee therefore asks that the subscription be closed up not later than Wednesday evening next.