Wonderful vitality.

It has been well said of Spokane Falls, that “it was another fire-devastated city that did not seem to know it was hurt.”

If Washington can stand the loss of millions of dollars in its four great fires of the year, at Cheney, Ellensburg, Seattle, and Spokane, it is the strongest evidence that its recuperative powers have solid backing.  It does seem to stand the loss, and actually thrive under it.

The great fire at Spokane Falls on the 4th of August, 1889, burned most of the business portion of the city.  Four hundred and fifty houses of brick, stone, and wood were destroyed, entailing a loss, according to the computation of the local agent of R.G.  Dun & Co., of about $4,500,000.

The insurance in the burned district amounted to $2,600,000.

No people were ever in better condition to meet disaster, and none ever met it with braver hearts or with quicker and more resolute determination to survive the blow.

The city was in the midst of a period of marvelous prosperity.  Its population was increasing rapidly, many fine buildings were in process of construction, its trade was extending over a vast region of country which was being penetrated by new railroads centering within its limits, and there were flowing to it the rich fruits of half a dozen prosperous mining districts.

[Illustration:  Oneonta gorge, Columbia river, ore.  On the Union Pacific Ry.]

Its working people were all employed at good wages, and money was abundant with all classes.

Hardly had the sun of the day following the fire risen upon the scene of smoking desolation, when preparations began for rebuilding.  It was felt at once that the city would be rebuilt more substantially and more handsomely than before.

The rebuilding of Spokane commenced on a very extensive scale; the city will be entirely restored within twelve months, and far more attractively than ever before.  The class of buildings erected are of a very superior character.  The new Opera House has been modeled after the Broadway Theatre, New York; the new Hotel Spokane, a structure creditable not only to the city, but to the entire Pacific Northwest; five National Bank buildings, at a cost of $100,000 each; upon the burned district have arisen buildings solid in substance, and beautiful architecturally, varying from five to seven stories in height, and costing all the way from $60,000 to $300,000.  This sturdy young giant of the North arises from her ashes stronger, more attractive, more substantial, than before.  And there is abundant reason for solid faith in the future of Spokane Falls.

It is the metropolis of a region 200,000 square miles in extent, including 50,000 square miles of Washington, or all that portion east of the Cascade Mountains, more than half of Idaho, the northern and eastern portions of Oregon, a large part of Montana, and as much of British Columbia as would make a State as large as New York.