"A trail blazer, a man of vision, a virile journalist, not always scrupulously correct in conduct or suavely spoken, but physically and mentally strong in times and places where strength was mastery.",
C.H. Gibbons - Editor - Vancouver Province
"As a newspaper writer, his style was a model. It embodied a standard of excellence in simplicity, directness, conciseness and originality which journalists in all parts of Canada and many sections of the United States have envied and striven to copy."
The Victoria Times
"Petty and self seeking in every line he wrote, he prostituted his undoubted journalistic ability to further his own ends."
The Miner (after he sold it)
"Houston's whiskey swilling has attracted the attention of many historians, but his role as a trenchant critic of large corporations, particularly railway companies, in British Columbia should not be overlooked. While not altruistic, he devoted himself on occasion to improving the communities in which he lived; he was a civic populist on the frontier."
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
[In Nelson] "he had found the stage on which his complex, idiosyncratic, obstinate, impetuous, obstreperous, combative, unyielding, compassionate, and highly aggressive nature could act out its tormented destiny."
John Norris - Historic Nelson
