The Railroad That Came for the Fir

General G. T. Yeomans, of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, passed through the city yesterday after a week's traveling in this vicinity and in the Gray's Harbor country, looking over the timber and mills with a view to recommending to his company the use of fir in the future for cars instead of pine, heretofore. Mr. Yeomans was very favorably impressed with the country and thinks that the company he represents will have to come here sooner or later for lumber for car building. He is accompanied by Mrs. Yeomans, and they were the guests of General M. P. Benton. They left on the 2 o'clock train after dinner, and will stop off in the Big Horn country in Montana on their way to Chicago.

Mr. Yeomans said yesterday in regard to the occasion of his visit:

'I have known for several years, in fact, ever since the Burlington system was in existence, that our company would be compelled ultimately to look to this country for its lumber for car building, and I have taken a good deal of interest in your reservations in the timber line and have read a good deal about your timber resources. I have not had a chance to get out in the country at all on this trip, but I have visited nearly all of the timber mills of the western part of the state and have seen many nice firs. At Gray's Harbor the day we were there the people did not seem to think they were anything out of the ordinary. Your firs are about like our pines. Your lumber has been used extensively in car building, and your spruce is something like our cottonwood.

'No, I don't know much about the cedars of this country, and, in fact, I did not know that you had so great an industry in that line until I came out here. I don't think that for our use cedar will ever be available, for it is too soft, but for fir, making lumber for general building purposes, I do not see why a large trade could not be built up in the East. We have never handled any lumber from the Coast yet on our own account, but are looking forward to the time when we can do so with profit. You see this country was never open to us until we completed the Billings cut-off, and since then we have only handled your lumber for the [??] of the traffic agreement existing between the two roads.'

Mr. Yeomans said that he was not prepared to say what he thought of the fir of this Coast, but it was plain that he was favorably impressed with it for the purposes for which he had investigated it, and it may be that within a short time the Burlington will be in a position to draw heavily upon the mills of this vicinity for timber for car building. Concerning the excellence of the fir and its relative strength compared with other varieties of woods, he was not in a position to make a statement, but he did say that the fir appeared to be as good, if not superior to, the pine heretofore used by the company exclusively. He said that he could tell nothing about the scientific tests made by the government of the woods throughout the country, for in Louisiana the tests show how good the timber is there and how much better for general purposes it is than other varieties. The same kind of a report is made of the yellow pine in the state north, and then the report on the white pine of Michigan seems to eclipse all others in lauding the excellence of that timber for all commercial purposes. The same kind of tests have been made of the cedar and fir of this country, especially in the Puget Sound district, but Mr. Yeomans is taking no government report as a basis of his own report; he is observing and examining the timber as he finds it and will tell his road what he thinks about it after having gone over the ground.

Concerning the talk of the Burlington extending its line from Billings to Puget Sound, Mr. Yeomans had nothing to say, but did remark:

'I think it would be a little premature. No, you did not [??] the possibilities of the [??] you know times are hard and, while a company would very much like to [build] a Puget Sound terminal, it may be a long time before it is done. But the Billings cut-off is built, and it may be that the line will be finished to the Coast.'

Mr. Yeomans would not say anything about what the people in the East thought about J. J. Hill's plans for the future with reference to the operation and management of the Northern Pacific railroad. When told that it was thought by some railroad men that Mr. Hill had no intention of continuing to operate the road and that he merely intended to take the line, build up its [??] and then sell out to [??] and still have the [??] leave the Northern Pacific take care of itself, he merely said, evasively:

'Still, I have always been of the impression that Mr. Hill was more of a financier than a strictly railroad man.'