THE OLDEST
UVMGTHMGS
And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower whose
top may reach unto heaven.
Thus is recorded, in the
eleventh chapter of Genesis, the
building of the Tower of Babel.
While this tower was doubtless
still standing, and a hundred
years or two before tfce birth of
.Abraham, a tiny seed in the
warm soil of a mountain slope
on quite the opposite side of the
.vorld thrust into the light of
day a slender green spike which
was destined, during an exist
ence of more than four thousand
years, to become itself a lofty
tower; noble in form, “with a
physiognomy almost Godlike,”
as John 'Aluir puts it, pulsating
with life to its topmost leaflet
more than three hundred feet
above the ground, and giving
forth a babel of bird song to the
accompaniment which the sum
mer winds played upon its many
millions of tiny leaves.
On the stump of this prostrate
sequoia tree, one of the noblest'
of the celebrated big trees of
California, John Aluir countedj
more than four thousand rings,
a ring for every year of its life.
Its trunk, exclusive of bark, was
thirty five feet eight inches in
diameter- As the bark ol tine
very largesi sequoias is two feet
or more in thickness, this giant
must have measured forty feet j
in diameter when it was still
growing on one of the slopes of
the Kings river.
In the Sequoia National park,
iljpon the upper slopes of the
Sierra Nevada mountains in cen
tral California, and in the little
General Grant National park six j
* miles away and under the same
management, grow 1,166,000 se
quoia trees, of which 12,000 are :
more than ten feet in diameter.!
Some of the others have these dr 1
mensions:
General Sherman tree: Diame
ter, 36.5 feet: height, 279.9 feet.
General Grant tree: Diameter,
35 feet; height, 264 feet.
Abraham Lincoln tree: Diam
eter, 31 feet: height, 270 feet.
California tree: Diameter, 30
feet; height, 260 feet
George Washington tree: Di
a inter, 20 feet; height 255 feet.
William McKinley tree; Diam
eter, 28 feet; height, 291 feet.
Dalton tree: Diameter. 27
feet, height 292 feet.
There are sequoia trees of great
size in several other parts of Cal
ifornia also notably in the Yo
semite' National park, where
three distinct groves are found;
but by far the greate-t number
and the individual trees of great
est size, are in the Sequoia Na
tional park and its little neigh
bor
It is extremely difficult to
realize what the dimensions of
these trees really mean.
To visualize as best you can
the greatest of those now stand
ing* the General Sherman tree,
measure off and stake its diame
ter, 36 feet 6 inches, upon the
ground in front of a church the
height of whose steeple you cauj
readily ascertain. Then stand
back a distance equal to the
height of the tree, 280 feet, and
look hard at the stakes whose
distance apart represents the
thickness of the trunk.
Now raise your eyes slowly,
imagining this trunk rising in
front of the church, tapering
very slightly as it rises. When
you are looking upward at an
angle of forty-five degrees from
the spot where you are standing
{and this will not be difficult to
calculate) you will be looking at
the point where the top of the
General Sherman tree would be
Hi It wre growing in front of
your church insjtead of in the
Sequoia National park. The
known height of the steeple will
help you verify this calculation.
It will help your comprehen
sion of the great size of these
trees to ,know that a box big
enough to have easily held the
ill-fated ship Lusitania, one oi
the largest ever built, could be
made from inch boards sawed
from any one of these great se
quoias, with boards enough left
|>ver to build a dozen houses.
J
Automobiles and six-horse
teams have been driven up and
down the fallen trunks of sev
eral great sequoias, and there are
regular \ wagon roads running
through gaps in the trunks of
several others in our national
parks. Two parallel street car
lines and a driveway might be
run through the trunk of several
of the very largest.
But tjie age of the Sequoia is
still more difficult to realize. It
is beyond compare the oldest liv~
*ing thing.
Several of the trees now grow
ing in hearty maturity in the Se
quoia National park were vig
orous youngsters before the py~
amids were built on'the Egypt
m desert, before Babylon reach
ed its prime. Hundreds of them
^ere thriving before the heroic
ge of ancient Greece—while, in
act, the rough Indo Germanic
ncestors of the Greeks were still
warming from the north Thou
.ands were lusty youth through
all the ages of Greek art and
.ioman wars. Tens of thousands
were flourishing trees when
whrist was born in Bethlehem.
But with all its vast age, the
jequoia today is the embodiment
jf serene vigor. No description,
>ays Muir, can give any adequate
.dea of its majesty; much less
..s beauty. He calls it nature’s
! .orest masterpiece. He dwells
upon its patrician bearing, its
| suggestion of ancient stock, its
trange air of other days, its
horoughbred look inherited
rom the long ago. “Poised in
idle {fullness of strength and
; .eauty, stern and solemn in
j mien, it glows with eager en
| thusiastic life to the tip of every
: leaf and branch and far reaching
| root, calm as a granite dome, the
j first to feel the touch of the rosy
J beams of morning, the last to bid
the sun good night.”
The sequoia is regular and
symmetrical in general form. Its
powerful, stately trunk is pur
plish to cinnamon brown and
rises without a branch a hundred
or a hundred and fifty feet—
which is as high or higher than
the tops of most forest trees. Its
oulky limbs shoot boldly out on
every side. Its foliage, the most
feathery and delicate of all the
conifers, is densely massed. The
aright green cones are about two
and a half inches long, gener
ating seeds scarcely more than
m eighth of an inch across. The
wood is almost indestructible
except by lire- Fallen trunks and
broken branches lie for centuries
undecayed and almost unaltered.
The sequoias are the glory, as
they were the cause, of the Se
quoia National park. Scattered
here and there over great areas, |
they cluster chiefly in thirteen
sepirte groves, and it is in these
groves that they attain their
greatest size and luxuriance.
NOTICE.
Because of the backward spring i
the time for cleaning up has been;
extended to June I. By this'
date all householders are urged
to have their premises in good1
condition.
W. D’ARCV CHACE,
Health Officer.
NOW IS THE TIME to
have your spring job printing
done—before the boats arrive,
prompt service and reasonable
prices at Nugget office.
| FIRE tURM SIGNALS
♦
13.Standard Oil Co.
13 .Carsten* Cold Storage
14 .J. J. Seanon Co., office
lit.. Headquarters Saloon
31. *. The Lobby
*4 ..Pioneers Igloo
I <1..Fire Department
| 31.Discovery Saloon
I *2.Yorkey's Cigar Store
42.Third Ave. and Lane’s Way
I .. Engine House. Phone Main 9? ..
7 whistles, water.I. Are out
I *»N|g/
a BOUT your magazines and newspapers
not arriving from the outside, when
it is possible for every one in Nome to
subscribe for the Nome Daily Nugget
which furnishes the latest telegraph
news as well as local happenings.
You do not even have to go to the
postofflce; you can have the paper
delivered to your home or office every
day day before supper is served
) ■ \
SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGE
YOUR HOME INDUSTRIES
DOLLARS spent outside go out of cir
culation and never return here again.
Dollars spent with your home mer
chants makes for Home Prosperity.
..— --—i.
ALASKA STORIES
USED IN SCHOOL
i
--—
j
Among the outside newspa
pers running Frank G. Carpen
.ten’s ferial story of Alaska is
the New Orleans Time-sPica* |
yunc. That paper tells of a j
Louisiana teacher who has i
adopted Carpenter's writing in j
ner school work, says the Ruby
Record Citizen.
“In the school geography,’’
says the Times-Picayune, “very
little is told about the great pen
insula extending into the north
l ’acific ocean. The history oi
the purchase oi the territory in
the far north is told in brief in
the geographies, but real, live
stories eatured by details are
lacking. The means of supply
ing the needed material is now
afforded.
Aliss Carrie Leslie, teacher of
the seventh grade of the Caren"
cro Central school in Lafayette
parish, was an experienced read
er of Carpenter’s travels. She
noticed the many points that he
brought out, and the exactness
and all around excellence pleascd !
her. Therefore, having found:
that the geography did not teach ■
all that was essential, Miss Les- |
lie quickly adopted Carpenter’s!
stories in her school work and !
now the .Alaska travels of the!
explorer are being used as a sup- |
[dement to the study of geog-|
raplty.
WE CAN DO IT.
For firet el«»» work and prompt de
livory phono Main 161 and M>« People',
Stoam Laundry will land and gat your
laundry.
W. J. WILLIAMSON, Prop.
COMPLETE RACE STORY.
_: !
A complete story of the All .Alas
ka Sweepstakes Dog race, day by !
day, with the score card was
printed in issue of April 15
Nome Daily Nugget. Extra cop
ies will be on sale at this office.
_1
|
The Nugget la giving lta subscribers
more telegraph news than any other
paper in Alaska and will continue to
do so. Send In your name and ha ve i
■he Nugget delivered to your home or
office. Do It now.
.....L~~
1
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO300
3 A fine line of BREADS. COOKIES. FAST RIBS and COLD 5
jj LUNCHES at the S
| ARCTIC BAKERY & COFFEE HOUSE |
ROSE CANDY STORE f
0 Home .made candies, chocolates, -alted peanuts, peanut can 5
s dies and Ice Cream. §
1 DROP IN AFTER THE DANCE OR SHOW §
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooocoooooe o8
* i
NOME
i COFFEE HOUSEl
AND BAKERY |i
, Recommend ite clean and whale- \
| aome bread and pastry of all <[
; kinds. !|
’ We cater to family trade P
( Orders far entertainments
[ promptly filled. <J
r«»i| «.»»e-.»'» -»-e <
Chas. W. Reed i
• ]
• '
Machinist & Blacksmith ;
_ t ■!
• i
liasoline Enitinu. Moists •
Boilers. Pipe mii! Pipe
Hitting* |
No. 5 Front St. •
I The !;
LOBBY
Wcttergren & Berjfgren ;!
Proprietors ;!
VWVArWVWWWWWWWWW
AIWAVAWYWVAVWSASAVA
i; The
Angeles
I A. Q. OLIVER i|
PROP. j|
Phone Main 33 ;•
VWAMWWVWVWWWWWV
I Horseshoe ;
' Geo Hall & Albert Hartman. j
Proprietor*
1 PHONE MAIN 112
! LEWIS HUNTER RYE AND J
J ATHERTON BOURBON J
Direct from Bonded Warehouse f
! RAINIER DRAUGHT BEER '
' Finest Brands of Wines. Liquors '
> and Cigar*. ’
"“sprIng "medTcne""1” "
A good spring tonic taken at this time of the year is of
great benefit to everybody.
Amtong the simple and tfticient spring medicines thr fol
lowing are recommended
CA3CARA BARK
SASSAFRAS BARK
sulphur and cream of tartar
Also
APARIENT powder. i
Which contains Sulphur, cream of 'Tartar and other valua
ble ingredients.
SOLD ONLY BY US.
HILL’S PHARMACY
SOMETHING NEW
Last fall we had a few cases of Ranch Eggs put up in
sealed cans according to the government formula, liquid
glass. They have kept so perfectly that you cannot detect
the difference from Nome laid eggs.
They are $5.00 per can o f nine dozen or 75c per single
dozen.
Telephone White 17 for a dozen.
PfldfK (OLD STORAGE COMPANY
ADVERTISE IN THE NUGGET
AND GET RESULTS