fortunately and mysteriously destroyed by fire. Since then, the State has rented apartments in a brick block on the principal business street, where the public archives are kept, together with the State Library, and where the Legislature holds its biennial sessions.
Notwithstanding this lack, the town is not without some of the handsomest buildings in the State. Reed's Opera House, the Chemeketa Hotel, the Bank building, the new Wallamet University building, and some of the stores, are quite worthy of an older and wealthier city. The private residences, too, are many of them spacious, and even elegant. Taking it altogether, Salem is probably the pleasantest town in Oregon; and from its central location, together with its importance as the capital, can never be less than the second city of the State. It has now connection with Portland by the Oregon Central Railroad; and very soon will be, by the West Side Railroad, connected with the country bordering on the Columbia River.
The Agricultural Society of Oregon have their Fair Grounds at Salem, where annually are congregated the rural population from every part of the State. Those who come from a distance are provided with tents, beds, and cooking utensils; the fields adjoining the inclosed grounds swarming with these families, their tents, wagons, and animals. The occasion is employed to renew old acquaintances, and talk over the politics and agricultural interests of the country. Each year witnesses some improvement in stock or machinery; and the articles on exhibition are very creditable, for a State with so limited a population. The prizes offered are liberal, when the resources of the Society are considered.
The manufactures of Salem are: one woolen-mill,
