Sam Hill Scouts Seattle for a Hill Family Winter Home and an Oriental Steamship Line

Samuel Hill, son-in-law of President Hill, of the Great Northern, announces his intention of making Seattle his home during next winter. He was in this city yesterday, accompanied by Mrs. Hill, Miss Mary Hill and Miss Hopkins, all of Minneapolis, and Miss Ruth Hill and [Miss] Ferguson, both of St. Paul. The party arrived in Mr. Hill's private car, and will remain here several days.

Mr. Hill is in the West on a tour of inspection of the road, and also is combining recreation with his trip to this city. He has made a close study of the climate of Puget Sound, and has decided that Seattle offers many inducements for him to bring his family here, where he will be closely in touch with the railroad. Previously he has sent his family to Southern California and to Washington City, and is now ready to try this section. He is pleased with the people and with the climate, and the only drawback he has found is slight — that the drives of the city are not of the best.

Mr. Hill said his visit here was of no business significance. When asked about the Oriental steamship line proposed by James J. Hill, he said that no one but Mr. Hill himself could speak of that subject. When the president returned from his Western trip he was much pleased, and remarked particularly the development of the country. While he was in Seattle he had telegraphed to Sam Hill asking him to entertain distinguished guests of the Minnesota Iron Company on board the new lake steamer Northwest. There were more than [a few] notables in the party, including Marshall Field, P. D. Armour, George M. Pullman, Gov. R. P. Flower and Robert T. Lincoln, and they had expressed themselves as more than delighted with the new vessel. They said it was the most perfect they had ever seen.

"I only mention this," said Mr. Hill yesterday, "to show that the boats are a creation. There is nothing like them afloat. Each one is really a boat within a boat, and with their quadruple expansion engines they are marvels. You may be sure that if Mr. Hill does establish a steamer line to the Orient he will put on the very best boats obtainable. I do not know that he will take the Northwest or the Northland as types, but he will certainly give the public the most complete steamers possible."

There was something in Mr. Hill's manner to indicate that the Asiatic steamer line was a settled fact, notwithstanding he insisted that James J. Hill was the only man who could tell definitely whether anything was to be done.

"What the people of the West need," continued Mr. Hill, "is to become creative. 'A little farm well tilled' is a motto that safely could be adopted in this section. I know that to Minnesota a few years ago there came a colony of crofters who knew almost nothing about improved farming machinery, yet they settled on a tract of land, worked it up in small portions, and in a few years they became so prosperous that they almost owned the county. I think Washington should pay considerable attention to immigration. Along the Columbia, in the eastern part of the state, there are large areas that need only water to make them wonderfully productive, and as soon as people who will take hold of the land can be brought in, those tracts will do their part toward building up the state."

Mr. Hill asked many questions about the industries of the West. Washington lumber, he said, was becoming famous, and the cedar shingles from this state had so great a reputation that no one now thought of building a house in his section without them. Seattle strawberries already had made an entrance to St. Paul, Minneapolis and Chicago, and had at once commanded public favor.

"In my opinion," said Mr. Hill, "the man who raises hogs is better by far than the speculator. The speculator has only the paper on which he writes as a record of his transactions, while the hog producer brings forth a product that can be marketed. I am a friend of the hog. You can take it and sell it, and that is what you need."

One of the greatest industries to be built up on the Sound, Mr. Hill thinks, will be the fish industry. He pronounces the fish as the very best, and recommends the halibut, the salmon and the crab as worthy the attention of the dealers. He expressed surprise that so little had been done where so little outlay was required and the profits sure.

"What your people need most of all," concluded Mr. Hill, "is to become producers. Let them develop the resources of the country, and then all will contribute to general prosperity."

Mr. Hill is a plain, unassuming man, very approachable and direct in conversation. He is president of the Montana Central, a part of the Northern, running from Butte to [Great] Falls. He is also president of the Eastern railway of Minnesota, vice president of the Minneapolis Union, and secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Minneapolis Western. He will remain here a few days, and will then go to Portland, thence returning and going as far north as New Westminster. From that place he will leave for the East, probably by the Canadian line, although he may come south and return to Minneapolis by way of the O. R. & N.