Mary Osborn Douthit

“ HOME OF EVA EMERY DYE heroes of the West. The author has painted these heroes in the coloring of her rich imagination, and adorned with grace of expression the life history of those who first broke the silence of the wilderness with the heraldry of civilization. The influence of the author's personality directs in a measure the reader's trend of thought. Happy is it if the written page has embalmed the sentiments of truth and of right; more important far is the spirit that dominates the home, for wider into the world reach the waves it sets in motion. ”

“ The hands that work unobserved and silently have builded into the national edifice that which will enable it to withstand the storms of time; and these hands are the hands that rock the cradle—the hands that keep the hearthstone bright and the light burning in the window for wandering feet. ”

“ Just beyond, Washington Butte stands like a benign guardian of the peaceful homes and happy people clustered about its base, or spread out over the expanse of the beautiful prairie. The prairie is charmingly diversified by the woods that skirt the banks of the streams, and in spring time over its verdant landscape wind broad sloughs like ribands of silver. ”

“ The sweet home life of Eva Emery Dye will continue to live in the lives of her children. To the world it affords the testimony that women, who would send abroad a message and earn undying fame, need not divorce themselves from home life nor avoid that most sacred function, motherhood, but through the faithful discharge of these high offices gain a fullness of soul that may enkindle in the minds of their readers aspirations for higher and holier living. ”

“ Douthit was called upon to fulfill; not alone to pray at their bedsides, but also to write their wills. In those days the wife was a nonentity in the eyes of the law, and was known in her husband's will as her husband saw fit to place her. On one occasion a man, knowing that death was very near, called Mr. Douthit to write his will. "Now," said the dying man, who was possessed of ample means, "I wish my will to be drawn up in this way: So long as my wife remains single she is to have half of my property; if she remarries she is to have nothing." ”

“ This scene in its entirety, be it in sunshine, or when "Oregon rains are raining," or when the harvest moon shines pale and calm upon it, holds memory's eyes entranced by its loveliness and grandeur, but no other part of its sublime whole is so near and dear to us, or has left upon our hearts an impression so indelible, as the buttes. ”

“ DR. THOMAS CONDON, the geologist, and the most noted man of science the Northwest can claim as her very own, has given to the world an invaluable contribution, "The Two Islands." This book, explicit in detail and so simple in construction that it is within the grasp of a child's mind, is yet so rich in scientific lore and so deep in research that a sage may peruse its pages with profit.
Dr. Condon is at home in this work, for the book is a recital of his own study of the field. In this Northwest, the home of "The Two Islands," he has faithfully labored for half a century. ”

“ Sometimes the great hands that have helped to chisel out the cornerstone and to mold out of human thought the keystone to the arch have also been among the silent workers. While building grandly above, they have reached down among the workers in the realm of home and builded as grandly and as wisely there. ”

“ ONE of the most wonderful miracles that Nature ever wrought is to be seen in the Thunder Mountain gold region, State of Idaho. This curious freak consists of a rough shaft, composed of boulders and gravel towering seventy feet high. It tapers slightly and is crowned by a huge rock, whose weight is estimated approximately at fifty tons. ”

“ Ah, these quiet lives! to the actors seemingly of so little worth, yet how strong the current of moral and spiritual forces they set in motion; moving unseen beneath the waves that disturb the surface, but change not the momentum of the stream below. ”

“ Douthit. "Yes," replied the man, "she helped me to get it all. We had nothing when we were married." "Then," said Mr. Douthit, "half the property is justly hers whether she marries again or not, and I shall write no such a will." The man pleaded, but without avail; if such a will were written it was done by another hand.
On another occasion a man had died and left a widow and several children without means. ”

“ Its vast area in good grass on mountain and plain affords sustenance to innumerable herds. The equable climate makes stock raising a comparatively safe industry. This same fine climate is also conducive to fruit growing, and Grant County's luscious fruits are not unknown. Notwithstanding the only means of transportation is by way of the "Prairie Schooner"—in other words, the slow and expensive freight wagon— Grant County's apples have found their way to the markets of the outside world. ”

“ WHEN we consider the hands that build a nation, we naturally look to those whose workmanship is uppermost—the statesman, the legislator, the soldier, the philanthropist, the author, the painter, and the poet. ”

“ In mineral richness Grant County ranks among the first in the state. From coal bed to gold deposit, both placer and quartz, there seem* no limit to its stored wealth, which the enterprising citizens are Gradually rescuing. ”

“ Agriculture he believed to be a high calling, one that brings man into the natural life where he lives simply and attains peace and happiness in the true sense. Every movement instituted to promote the well-being of the farming class received his hearty co-operation. ”

“ While an abundance of snow falls in the mountains, which insures a goodly supply of water for mining and irrigating purposes, in the valleys it is light, and hillsides adjacent are bare most of the winter. ”

“ Slavery he regarded as a wrong—a curse alike to the black man and to the white, and a condition for which no section nor country was alone responsible. He believed, however, that those who best understood the negro's character and the conditions of slavery were the best qualified to cope with the problem and render a solution.
Notwithstanding Mr. Douthit belonged to a long-lived family, his father having lived to the age of 84 and his mother 96, he died at 60. Beside the wife he so tenderly cherished through her years of suffering, he noAV rests beneath the pines of Eastern Oregon. ”