Aberdeen Throws a Party for Its First Northern Pacific Train

Aberdeen, April 2.—Special.—Fully 1,200 citizens of Aberdeen greeted the first Northern Pacific train, which arrived in our city at 6:30 last evening. The band was on hand and hailed the arrival and departure of the train with sweet music, while cheers of the assembled crowd, which lined the track for some distance above and below the new depot, added a continuous chorus to the enthusiastic greeting. A speech of welcome was delivered by Attorney McGarry.

The arrival of this first train into Aberdeen proper is a consummation long labored for by the people of this city, to reach which it has been necessary for them to build the connecting link from their own resources, at a cost of over $10,000—a considerable sum for a town of 2,000 people to dig up during these hard times. But now that their labors have been crowned with success the people feel well rewarded for the sacrifices they have had to make “to get the railroad.”

The new spur reaches three sawmills, with a combined daily capacity of not less than 250,000 feet of lumber, each of which has been equipped with dry kilns and machinery necessary to fill Eastern orders. Sidings are already in at two of these mills, and all are shipping lumber to the Eastern trade. Not since the boom days has Aberdeen been in as prosperous a condition as she is today. No laborer is idle, merchants report business excellent, and never in the history of Grays Harbor's development have indications seemed so favorable in all the towns for a long season of prosperity as at this time.