V_ ____——————■jW—
K strictly fresh Eggs, Butter, Fruit
and Groceries, and appreciate
^ prompt deliveries, try
KING’S GROCERY
'Phone 1^8
___—-—-—
[ Keystone Produce Co.
E. G. AMES. Manager
fresh Eg^s, Blitter, Fruit, Vegetables
Cor. Keyitone Are. «nJ McKinley St. PHONE 44.
Government Auction Sale at St. Louis
Attracted Many Buyers and
Bidding was Brisk.
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 23—At the gov
ernment auction sale yesterday one
hundred and thirty-five thousand
pelts f're sold and the average prices
were fXich higher than at any previ
ous sale. One silver fox pelt, which
was declared by buyers to have been
the best ever seen on the market for
years, was sold to a New York buyer
for $2,600.
The success which attended the
government sale has established the
fact that St. Louis is the best fur
market in the United States and effec
tually disposes of the claims of the
Pacific coast cities that the govern
ment sales should be held on the
coast. Buyers were present from all
parts of the world and the bidding
was very spirited, especially for the
blue fox pelts, which had been graded
into three classes before being offered
to buyers.
RAILROAD MAN PRAISES
WORK ACCOMP LISH ED.
“I never in ray experience in rail
road saw as good a roadbed as
that now being constructed by the
Alaskan Engineering commission on
the government railway line leading
trom Anchorage to the Matanuska
landing. It is simply idea! The
greater part of the roadbed is com
post d of grave: of ;st the right size
for this purpose, the gravel beinb ob
tained from the cuts necessar., to the
construction The record or achieve
nien in railway construction li the
matter of time, made by the Com
mission, aiceeds that of any otter
no.yfiern railway. Actual eonstruc
tio^flaljrrk began the latter part of
May, land by the end of this month
thirty two miles of grade, which in
volves the moving of about one mil
lion cubic yards of material, will he
completed. Of course, in prairie re
gions, in temperate zones, better iec
ords have been made, but in a virgin
country, with the handicaps 'ne.P.ent
to railway work, the record has not
been reached by other construction
■forces.”
The above statement was made to
the Pioneer by G. M. Campbell, upon
his return this week from a trip over
the completed part of the work as far
as the Matanuska landing in the com
pany of Gen. Supt. O’Reilly. Mr.
Campbell has been engaged in rail
way construction in Canada and the
United States, most of the time as a
contractor, for the past fifteen years,
and is qualified to speak with author
ity with respect to the local project.
Every advantage haB been taken
by the Commission, says Mr. Camp
bell, of the possibility of supplying
the work from the waters of the
Knik arm, thereby lessening the cost
of such supplied to the station men.
The men are living well on about
60 cents per day. Some of the ex
perienced timber workers under con
tract says Mr. Campbell, have made
as high as $8 per day in getting out
piling for the bridges. “To my own
personal knowledge,” he continued,
"no station men have made less than
the going wages and some that were
experienced and good workers, have
made as high as $6 and $8 per day.
*rfie average worker has cleared, over
and above expenses, about $100 per
month.”
. “Credit should be given the locat
ing engineer,” said Mr. Campbell,
"who has located a line through
rough country, avoiding difficult con
struction and securing a four per
cent grade against the load, with a
maximum curvature of six per cent,
which means an inexpensive line to
maintain and operate.”
“One thing that gratified me was
to see the homesteaders In the Mata
nuska valley busy on tie contracts, in |
a great many caseB getting the ties
from their own land, thus clearing
their land at the same time.”
With what steel is now in the
yards and with that which is now be
ing unloaded from the freighter Sew
ard, which arrived Wednesday from
the south, there will be a sufficient
amount to lay track over the com
pleted grade from Anchorage to the
Matanuska.—Cook Inlet Pioneer.
Steamer Admiral Karragut now Com
ing Nprtli, will Try to Reach
Railroad Town Next Month.
SEATTLE, Oct. 23.—The officials
of the Admiral Steamship line, whose
liner Admiral Farragut sailed Wed
nesday for Southwestern Alaska
ports, have announced that the Farra
gut will try to reach Anchorage next
trip owing to the heavy offerings of
freight for the new railroad town,
and are accepting freight subject to
the risk of the vessel not being able
to reach her destination.
Alaskans in Seattle who have lived
for a number of years in the Cook
Inlet district are divided in their opin
ion as to the possibility of the steam
er reaching Anchorage at any time
after cold weather has set in. They
state that heavy ice fortns rapidly in
the Inlet and should the steamer be
caught at Anchorage while the ice is
being forced against that shore by
the .tremendous Cook Inlet tide, that
she would be destroyed as no vessel
can withstand the ice when backed by
the wall of water which rolls into the
inlet.
: CITY OF PUEBLA WILL
GO SOUTHWARD TONIGHT.
~
The local office of the Alaska
Steamshp company has received ad
vices from Seward that the steamer
City of Puebla will reach Valdez at
midnight tonight and will sail soon
after for Corodva. The steamer will
load a cargo of copper ore at Oordova
and will take the inside passage down
the coast in order to clear up pas
senger and freight business which
has been waiting for her owing to
the loss of the Mariposa.
The Puebla left Seward at 12:30
this afternoon.
Tonight.
i See the two-act feature, “Duty,” at
the Liberty Theatre. New program
Sunday.
Congregational Church.
Rev. J. F. Dunstan, pastor.
The following services will be held
on Sunday:
10:45, prayer meeting.
11, Devotional service,, subject,
“Our Bigger Business."
12, Sunday School.
7^16, Song service.
7:30, Evangelistic Service, Subject,
“Guilly or Not Guilty.”
Tuesday evening, Bible Study cir
cle.
Thursday afternoon. Ladies' Aid.
Thursday at 7:30, Prayer meeting.
Captains of launches plying on the
Sound express the opinion that the
friends of Jack Whalen and Ike West
berg are needlessly worrying over
their safety and are sure that no mis
hap has befallen them. They state
that both Whalen and Westberg are
familiar with every nook along the
coast from Valdez to Ellamar and
could find shelter anywhere. They
are also reported as careful and not
the kind of men who would reckless
ly venture out in a small boat in a
storm such as has been raging dur
ing the past tew days, outside the
Narrows.
Will Create New Cardinals.
ROME, Oct. 23.—It has been offi
cially announced that Pope Benedict
will create twelve new cardinals at
the consistory which will be inau
gurated on November 22.
THE NARROW BOSPORUS.
At IU draatMt Width It Maasgraa
Only 9,838 Fset.
The Bosporus contains few danger
ous submarine rocks or Shoals. The
locality Of these few is indicated by
lighthouses or buoys. The water is
only slightly tinged with salt and Is
marvelously clear. The sands, glitter
ing apparently near the surface, may
be twenty feet below.
«On a map, of whatever scale, each
of those familiar straits, which cleave
lands and continents asunder, seems
hardly more than a silvery thread
Yet as one sails over their famous wa
ters the opposing shores on either
band sometimes appear far away. The
strait of Gibraltar, which wrests Afri
ca from Europe, is sixteen miles wide:
that of Messina, forcing its way be
tween Italy and Sicily, is from two to
twelve: that of Bonifacio, which, like
a blade of steel, cuts (Corsica and 8ar
linla hf)drt. Is seven miles in width at
its most' contracted point: even the
Dardanelles expands from over one to
four.
But the illusion as to distance creat
ed by the map is reality as to the Bos
porus. Off Buyoukdereh, where it at
tains its largest breadth, its hemmed
in waters broaden to only 9,838 feet,
or about one and four-fifths miles. Be
tween Ronmeli Hlssar and Anadoli
Hlssar they shrink to one-sixth of
these dimensions, or to 1,641 feet.—
From "Constantinople.” by Edwin A
Grosvenor.
THE MUDDY MISSOURI.
How the River Lowers the Surface of
the Land It Drains.
The Missouri is the muddiest river in
the Mississippi valley. It carries more
silt than any other large river in the
United States except possibly the Rio
Grande and the Colorado. For every
square mile of country drained it cur
ries downstream 381 tons of dissolved
and suspended matter each year. In
other words, the river gathers annual
ly from tile country that it drains
more than 123.000,000 tons of silt and
soluble matter, some of which it dis
tributes over the flood plains below to
form productive agricultural lands,
but most of which finds its way at last
to the gulf of Mexico.
It is by means of data of this kind
that geologists compute the rate at
which the lands are being eroded away
It has been shown that the Missouri
river is lowering the surface of the
land drained by it at the rate of 1 foot
In fi.036 years. The surface of the
United States as a whole is now being
worn down at the rate of 1 foot In
9,120 years.
It has been estimated that if this
erosive action of the streams of the
United States could have been concen
trated on the, isthmus of Panama It
would have dug in seventy-three days
the canal which was completed after
ten years’ work with the most power
ful appliances yet devised by man.—
Geological Survey Bulletin.
Quarantined.
In one of the little mountatn towns
of the south a Chautauqua meeting
was held last summer for the first
time. The fact was advertised for
some distance round the town.'but the
older negroes especially did not under
stand what it was all about.
Across the front of the little hotel of
the village was flung a banner bearing
the one word “Chautauqua.”
Up to this hotel one day drove an old
negro in a one horse wagon containing
a few vegetables, which he hoped to
sell to the proprietor, as he had done
on former occasions. But when he
saw the banner with its ominous word
he was seized with fright aud would
not go into the building or even gei
out of his wagon. When the proprietor
appeared the old fellow inquired nerv
ously. “What disease is you all quar
antined for. boss?”—Youth’s Compan
ion.
Tossing In a Blanket.
Tossing In the blanket is a very old
sport or punishment. "Blanketing"
Ben Jenson called it. and In Hollnshed
(1557) we Olid a denunciation of “jest
ing, plaietng, blanketing and such other
Oilthie and dishonorable exercises."
The French have a special verb,
“berner," for it "berue" being the
name given to the sheet or blanket
used. The verb "berner" 1s nlso used
fur the Moorish punishment, in which
four men hold the victim by his an
kles and wrists and send him as high
as they can—presumably with no blan
ket to catch him.
Now He Has Millions.
“See that fellow in the limousine?”
said one man to another at Washing
ton and Illinois streets as a big car
passed.
“Well, I can remember when he
didn’t have but one pair of socks; now
be has millions.”
“Gee. be must have some washings."
replied the friend whose mind does not
run to Snances.— Indianapolis News.
By Comparison.
"Dobbins Is a great comfort to me.”
"1 don’t see how yon can say that.
He’s the most tiresome cbump 1 have
ever met.”
“That’s Just it. Although 1 don't
•mount to much. It’s true, every time
I. look at Dubkins 1 feel that 1 could
•mount to iess.” — Birmingham Age
Herald.
His Favorite Play.
Edith—That Mr. Phan Is conversa
tionally Impossible. Ethel—Why so?
Edith—We were talking about the the
atre, and when I Inquired what was
his favorite play he said If he bad any
favorite It was seeing a man steal
second.-Boston Transcript.
THREE INQUISITIVE SCOTS.
Ard How Thoy Happened to Originate
the dute Industry.
.Tomes Logie, who Is supposed tc
know more about Jute than any one
else In America, tells In a very In
teresting way how Jute came to be
known to Europe and the west:
"In 1840, on a Saturday afternoon,
three Dundee flax spinners were walk
ing to their beautiful residences in
Brougbty Ferry, about four miles east
of Dundee, on the banks of the Tay,
and as usual strolled along the docks.
At that time there were several Clip
per line sailing vessels trading with
Dundee in Indian products, principally
grain, linseed, etc., and on this par
ticular Saturdiay one of these vessels
was discharging her miscellaneous
cargo, and these canny Scots observed
a fibre in some quantity on the dock
nnd made inquiry as to What it whs.
“They were told It was some Indian
product that had been obtained in
Bengal, and was suitable for the dun
nage of ships. Tbey examined tbe
fibre a little more carefully and ail
thought it would be possible to spin
the fibre on their flax machinery. The
result Was that Monday morning they
made a bee line for the agents of the
ship1 and asked what they were going
to do with this waste material.
"They got the reply. ‘We propose
dumping it into tile river,’ and when
they expressed a wish to experiment
with It they were told they could cart
it away from the dock nnd were wel
come to it If they paid the cartage.
Thus the Jute Industry started—for the
fiber turned out to be nothing less than
what we know commercially today as
‘Jute.’ ’’—Exchange.
SUBMARINE TACTICS.
Locating the Enemy, Getting the Range
and Making an Attack.
How does a submarine attack? How
does it locate the vessel it wishes to
torpedo and how does it proceed about
the business of sending such vessel to
the bottom? Here is the way the com
mander of Uncle Sam's submarine flo
tilla tells It:
“A submarine will come to the sur
face at 5,000 or 0,000 yards from the
vessel it is attacking—far enough so
the enemy is not supposed to see the
periscope. It stays up long enough tc
get the enemy’s course, then goes down
and sets its course to intercept the en
emy’s ship.
"The vessel must be coming more or
less toward the submarine, otherwise
the submarine, with its low submerged
speed, cannot catch it.
“The oiilcers of the submarine will
know the revolutions of the approach
ing ship and will use the gyrocompass
wiili which to work out its exact posi
tion. They will know just when to
come up to be within range.
“When the submarine comes up it
will show the periscope as little as pos
sible, take quick aim and fire its first
torpedo. If it wants to remain there
out of curiosity to see the effect it can.
But if it does not it goes right down
again.
“It stays a short time under water,
turns the cap bringing new torpedoes
up into the- tubes and then comes up
for a second shot if necessary.”—Pitts
burgh Press.
Proverbial Philosophy.
I don’t know, writes a correspond
ent. whether the absurdity of some of
our proverbs when used ns a mea^s of
comparison occurs to people when they
quote them. For instance, “As drunk
as a lord.” Any one who looks into a
metropolitan police court when the
night charges are being dealt with will
see thnt Intemperance is not the ex
clusive privilege of peers of the realm.
“As dead ns Queen Anne.” Why Queen
Anne? Wily not Queen Elizabeth or
Queen Boadleen ? “As deaf as a post.”
A post is devoid of all the five senses,
not hearing only. "As cheap as’dirt”
What is the exact market value of
dirt? It is not mentioned in any
tradesman's catalogue. “As poor as u
church mouse.” Who knows* that ec
clesiastical mice are less well off than
their secular brethren ?—London Stand
ard.
Bee Line.
A soldier on guard was questioned
as to his knowledge of his duties.
“You know your duty here, do you.
sentinel?"
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, now. suppose they should
open on you with shells and musketry,
what would you do?”
“Form a line, sir.”
“What! One man form a line?”
“Yes, sir; form a bee line for camp,
sir.’’—New York American.
In Doubt.
“Will you love me forever and a
day?’ sighed the newly betrothed
heiress.
“It nil depends.” replied the scion of
an ancient but Impoverished family.
"Do you think your money will last
that long?”—St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Germany’s Crown.
The most militant In form of Euro
pean crowns Is that of Germany. Which
shows eight shields bearing alternate
blhck eagles and Jeweled crosses, while
poised on four swords blazing with
diamonds Is a globe crowned with a
cross of gold.
Economy.
Economy is What makes a man west
his dress shirt down to work the next
morning. It Isn’t comfortable, but he
bates to send it to the laundry only
half soiled.—Detroit Free Press.
In the life of a man there-Is but one
real love. The trouble Is that he usu
ally can't tell which one It Is.—Smart
Bet
EXPRESS
MEETS ALL BOATS AND NEVER MISSES \ TRAIN
Auto for Hir e Day or Night.
Buy and Sell Anything.
Phone 82 J. A. SPENARD. Prop.
Jas. E. Wilson, Freighter
Large or Small Deliveries Made
to Any Part of the Country.
PROMPT SERVICE GUARANTEED VALDEZ, ALASKA
When in Chitina Stop at the
CHITINA HOTEL
Finest Held ie the Interior— -Well Heated. Clean Rooms.
Bar in Connection. Rates Reasonable
MERCHANT’S CAFE
FRESH BREAD AND PASTRY DAILY
Phone 83 Clms. Fischer, Propr.
UPPER TONSINA ROAD HOUSE
Best of Meals—Prices Reasonable
GENERAL STORE. - TRADING POST.
Telephone connects with Chitina.
General Freighting. KNUTE NAFSTED. Msr.
VALDEZ REAL ESTATE AGENCY
Doing Business As Usual
Independent Laundry Co. j
Satisfaction Guaranteed | | Foot Keystone Ave j
Telephone 66 I I Routfb Dry lCc lb l
Mead’s Sheet Metal Works
PLUMBING, STEAM AND HOT WATER HEATING,
Sheet Metal Work, Metallic Roofing, Mine Air Pipe, Pipe and fit
tings, Valves, Etc. Motor Bont Supplies.
Borated on Broadway VABDEZ. ABA SKA
Pacific Alaska Navigation Go.
PUGET SOUND PUGET SOUND
California Alaska
ALASKA
Steamers sail from Seattle at 9 P. M. on
5th, 15th, 25th—EVERY MONTH
Steamer Sailing 15th calla Illamna and Kodiak—All Sailing call at Kalk
aad Anchorage.
CALIFORNIA «
Seattle to San Francisco every Wednesday and Sunday, connecting with
Steamera Yale aad Harvard far Southern California.
Right reserved to change schedule without notice
RICHARD J. RING WOOD. Mgr, Seattle ( VALDEZ DOCK CO, Local Agt. j
ALASKA!
STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. Mariposa, S. S. Alameda and S. S, Northwestern
sail from Seattle the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th
EVERY MONTH
From Valdez south—7th, 13th, 19th, 25tfr and 31th for Cor
dova* Skagway, Juneau, Wrangall, Ketchikan and Seattle.
: ' ‘ _ •
Regular freight service for Ketchikan, Wrangell, Juneau, Sheep
Creek, Treadwell, Douglas, Skagway, Cordova, Ellamar, Valdes and La
touche. Explosives, S. S. Seward, on the 6th; Latouche, on the 16th; S. S.
Cordova, 26th of each month—right reserved to change this schedule
without notice.
*, B. TRACY, Oen’l Agent VALDEZ DOCK CO* Locnl Agent.