Clic Nome Nugget
Published Monday, Wednesday
and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125
P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH
$16.00 A YEAR
W. A. BOUCHER..EditorPublisher
EMILY BOUCHER .Society Editor
Entered as second class matter
October 14, 1943, at the Dostoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Aci
of March 3, 1879.
WEDNESDAY. FEB. 28. 1945~
SIDELITES ON WHAT’S
DOING IN JUNEAU
Nomeites included in the
trip of legislators to Sit
ka by air, and the Pioneer
Home, are: Senator Coch
ran. Representatives M. J.
Walsh, Wallace Porter and
Bess Cross. Mrs. M. J.
Walsh was a special guest.
On the Equal Rights
Bill, Senator Whaley la
belled the measure as a
“lawyer’s dream,” and a
“natural in creating hard
feelings between the
Whites and Natives.” Sen
ator Scott is quoted as say
ing that the issue is raised
to create political capital
for some legislators an
concluded by saying that
“White women have done
their part in keeping the
races distinct; if white
men had done as well
there would be no racial
feeling in Alaska.
Senator Cochran made
use of the Dream Thea
tre as the prime example of
an establishment where
discrimination is practic
ed.
Representative Ed An
derson introduced the bill
on a basis of American
principle.
Senator Allen Shattuck
said: “This bill will ag
gravate rather than allay
,the little feeling that now
exists.
Senator Walker sup
ported Senator Cochran by
saying that discrimination
has forced Indian women
to live lives worse than
death.
Representative Bess
Cross entertained with a
buffet supper for the legis
lature and friends in Jun
eau, in the Baranoff Gold
Room.
: -
[NOME?
We receive frequent re
quests on information as to
how Nome got its name.
A recent edition of the
Alaska Weekly carries an
item by an engineer to the
effect that when he was
charting and mapping this
country after the discovery
of gold, he noticed that a
certain cape had no name
so he put the inscription on
that spot with the word
“name” intending that it
be given a name later.
However, it was misread
and the point became Cape
Nome.
There is another version
which also seems likely,
and that is that when the
first White people landed
here they asked the Natives
what place it was and they
answered “Kanomie”,
meaning, I don’t know or
I don’t understand.
If anyone knows of an
other answer, we’d be glad
to publish it.
GENESIS OF “G. I.”
Since the publication of
our editorial on this sub
ject recently, various per
sons, including a retired
general officer whose fam
ily has been connected
with the Army for several
generations and whose tes
timony on the point may
be taken as conclusive,
have been setting us right
as to the correct etymology
of “G. I.” It appears that
“G. I.” does not mean, as
we had assumed, and as is
now very widely believed
even in the Army itself,
“Government Issue,” but
“Galvanized Iron,” and was
applied to only one article
of standard issue equip
ment. By a certain associa
tion of ideas it became a
term of opprobrium among
enlisted men in the old
professional Army, a fight
ing epithet, in fact. Thus
the general says he cannot
help a feeling of shock
when he hears the term
used nowadays in polite
society or sees it in print
in decorous journals. He is
even more shocked when
he hears soldiers apply it to
themselves or to others. He
recalled a time nearly 35
years ago when he sat on
a military court which was
trying a soldier accused of
an assault on another sol
dier, and the assailant’s
defense was that his victim
had called him a “G. I.”
What seems to have hap
pened is that in 1917 and
afterward the new soldiers
absorbed some of the vo
cabulary of the Regular
Army without absorbing
the connotations. Thus
some of the terms under
went a very rapid modifi
cation of • meaning. In
France, in 1917-18, the
term “G. I.’’ was being
used to describe the atti
tude of the military police
in Paris and had the con
notation of “tough” or
“hard boiled.” A few years
after, says our informant,
it had undergone a com
plete semantic reversal
and was being used as a
term of high approval.
Thus the mid-1920’s when
the general was a patient
at an Army hospital, he
: was astonished to hear a
nurse speak in terms of ob
vious admiration of one of
the doctors as “a real G. I.”
Concerning “Joe”, as a
term of address or designa
tion, the general said it was
never Army usage during
his term of active service.
He thought, however, that
it might afterward come
into use as a natural corol
lary or counterpart of
“Jane”, a generic word for
Army women. The tradi
tional soldier’s vocative,
“Comrade”, was still al
!ft- 1 ■■■ 1 ■
most universal until after #
the Spanish War and the
Philippine campaigns. The
general believes it fell into
disuse among soldiers be
cause it had been adopted
by Marxists and other pol
itical radicals; anyway,
after 1917 it was easily and *
rapidly supplanted by
“Buddy”. — (Washington
Post).
The Spanish have a train
that can speed safely at 80 *
miles an hour around
curves. The motorists of
America can harly wait.
C A VETS
FINEST IN WINES
BEERS AND
LIQUORS!
See Us When in Need of
Spirits!
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Nome Directory
ANVIL LODGE
NO. 140
Meets First and
Third Thursdays
Each Month
W. M. CAMERON, W. M.
NORVIN W. LEWIS. Secy.
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STANLEY R MORGAN. N.G.
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ROBERT BALDWIN, Sec.
IRA D. ORTON
Attorney At Law
Room 1—Nevada Building
Nome, Alaska
Seattle Office:
801 Lowman Building
Telephone EL. 6396
O. D. COCHRAN
Attorney At Law
Phone Main 121
Nome, Alaska
HAGEN
JEWELER AND OPTICIAN
Court House Is Opposite Us
Phone Main 49
UP5IDE-DOWN FOJfttOUE
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