j ' IDITAROD PIONEER j |
1’crushed Kvery Saturday kveninu at Iditarod, Alaska.
lot 3 Geo. M. Arbuckis. Publisher No. 24
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
One Year $10.00 One Month 1.00
Six Months 5.00 j Single Copy. 25
Advertising; Rates on Application.
COXVKNTIOXS
lte]ublican national convention, Chicago, June 18.
Oemociutic national convention, Baltimore, June 25.
There are no new candidates for delegate to congress
to report this week. >Si\ are now in the running, if there
is no mistake a unit the new Republican candidate, Sim
mons, reported from Nome last week—a veritable man of
mystery, for none ci' the local political lights have ever
included him in their list of eligibles, or know him as an
entity or nonentity: why he was sent, by whom, or from
where. The name Simmons is singularh rare in Polk's
Alaska tiazettci r. ami in the list of 115 lawyers and politi
cians credited to the territory it does not occur once. A
couple of decades ago there was in the States a Simmons
who manufactured a liver regulator of known power and:
elfcetive;u. can il be that lie has given to Alaska a son
with a mission 1 purge the land of its ills*
The other candidates are Wickersham, the present in
cumbent, of whom it has ever been declared that he was
doing right only to gain a commanding position from which
to do wrong: Gilmore of Nome, who is accredited with the
remarkable achievement of converting to righteousness cer
tain emissaries of Satan delegated to enlist him in their
master's cause: Ilairais and Jennings, so steeped in the
essence of Democracy that they are offering it to the people1
in a double dose: and Karls Kramv.unas of Ketchikan,
Socialist. Truly, it is a picturesque array, in which the
last mentioned is not the least conspicuous, for he is said ■
to be really a tv,an of parts, numbering with his other at-1
tainments that of an accomplished linguist—the rudiments •
of which, we arc ready to believe, had been mastered by the
time he had learned to articulate clearly the syllables of his
own wonderful name.
With less than two mouths intervening between this
aec1 the day of election. and with so many candidates repre
sent::' f !'■' different lights and shades of political thought,
tl; i 1 l-e some interesting campaigning done soon,
lot '. 1: l . and the starting of the heavy work waxes!
lav. A ouiiicnt of congress beinu at hand, Wicker
slum: ^vi!I pivbabk come home and set the ball a-rolling.
It it juupi.u. iic *»in, iL’i pi'iiiit ai Ci i sc vission is a tonic lor
the minds and morals of us all.
--.
I
Some fifteen hundred years ago, more or less, yEsop
the Athenian gave expression to a delightful conceit when
he put into the mouth of a fly, sitting upon the axletree
upon which revolved the wheel of the chariot, the words:
“O, see what a great dust I am raising!" .Just now the
fable seems to point itself somewhat exclusively at Colonel
Roosevelt, but the circumstance is more apparent than real.
The world is full of men high and low who are fitted by
the jest to a nicety. It is very rare that a man in great
political station can forget the personality of his own figure
while he applies himself conscientiously to the duties of his
office; but in such cases the man's greatness tops and orna
ments the place: whereas meaner natures get luster from
position. It is a strange fact that in war this rule applies
with far less strictness—sometimes all the units in a great
army every one being in tune to embrace oblivion that the
interest of the work may not languish; wherefore war, on
the average, is a more glorious calling than politics, al
though the pinnacle sometimes is reached in the latter. Pur
suing these reflections, it is noteworthy and most creditable
to human nature, at its best, that in unforeseen disasters,
like that at Galveston, September S, lit00, that of the
l’itanic recently, that on the Alaska coast but a few days
ago. and many others that could be named, the spirit of
man is ever exalted. In the last-named instance the partic
ulars are wanting: but, with natives, with coolies, or with
the more favored whites, the rule in its universality had to
apply and the work of the Creator he vindicated by his
creatures. I rue, there are exceptions, but they but illumine
the dominant mass. At Galveston ghouls cut the fingers
from dead women's hands for the sake of the rings they
bore, but men shot the ghouls and cast the carrion into the
NOW OPEN I FIRST-CLASS ROOMS AND BUNKS
I
Drink Eastern Deer f“
Minor’s Home Saloon
THE HOME OF THE ‘ ‘QUAKER MAID"
[■'dot of Willow St., Iditarod
MAX EL? Diskaket and Ophir City,..,
fours' Supplies and General Outfitting a Specialty
C. J. Hurley, President J. P. Gleason, Vice President A. Bruiting, Cashier
American Ban
Corner First Ave. and Richmond St., Iditarod
CAPITAL $50,000.00, FOLLY PAID 111 GASH
General Banking Business Transacted Upon Liberal, But Conservative Lines
GOLD DUST PURCHASED UPON ASSAY VALUE
And we guarantee our assays against any of the government assay offices.
Clippings from your gold furnished you for the purpose
of obtaining check assays if desired.
We solicit your business, and assure you of our courteous, prompt and
careful attention combined with fair treatment, whether
your account may be large or small.
THE BIGGEST AND BEST_
FLAT CITY
Glantz Si Swanson, Props.
FURNISHED
ROOMS
Dining Room
and Bar
Stables in Connection
v/p hvp That the chickens Men's Heavy Shoes
"s na'8 have beat H to the ’
Sc many tali timber. Men's Fine Shoes
$9.50 Shoes Reduced to,,. $7.50
$9,00 .. 7.00
$8.oo “ “ “ 6.00
$7,00 Siloes Reduced to,,. $5.00
$6,00. 4.00
$5.00 “ “ “ 3.00
MsMahon, Flat City
Famous Old Quaker f^aid Rye\
'---iMMa -
DRAUGHT BEER, DOMESTIC CIGARS
Good Music Every Evening
Flat City
GOOD STOCK CIGARS AND LIQUORS
Large Stables, Warm Dog Kennels Open Day and Night
THE HOME FLAT „„„
Furnished Rooms, Glean Spring Beds, Bath, Dry Rooms, a"<l'ver1'hX«"'"'1,1
Flat City
sea— thereby relievi ig justice of the hypocritical forms that
often render it nauseating and sometimes abortive. On
the sinking Titanic no vainglory prompted Smith to sound
his orders from the lowering bridge or the hundreds of
others to do their respective parts in protecting the weak
by hastening the end of the physically strong but brutal in
nature; but they acted as men whose minds had taken on
the qualities of God while yet cleaving to the body. But
the moral it was set out here to point is this: that it is in
the greater calamities of states and peoples that human
virtue is revived and justification made for the tragedies of
life and the seeming cruelties of nature.
COMMISSIONER STIER
STILL AT GEORGETOWN
The following letter from Edward J.
Slier, dated Georgetown, .Tune 1, is
self-explanatory :
G. M. Arbuekle, Esq.,
Publisher, Iditarod Pioneer.
Dear Sir,—In t he issue of May 25th
of your valuable paper I noticed an
article headed “Good Report From
Bear,” given to you by one Edward
Lebto.
Mr. Lebto may be right—they may
have good pay on Bear creek; but I
have not moved my office of commis
sioner and recorder from this place,
Georgetown, my designated head
quarters, to the mouth of the Aniak,
and I have no idea of doing so, for
there is nothing so far found on the
Aniak or its tributaries to justify the
moving of the recorder's office to that
place, and, further, I could not move
until the judge of this division of
Alaska ordered the to do so.
There is one cabin up, and that is a
wood-chopper’s cabin at, tlie mouth of
the Aniak. Neither are people [lull
ing down cabins in Georgetown to
move to the Aniak. There was one
cabin that was torn down and floated
down river, presumably to the Aniak.
Mr. Arbuckle, I write you this note
so as you can correct through the
columns of vour valuable paper, the
erronious impressions that the article
in your issue of May ’Jo may have
caused in the minds of the public, that
I had moved my office of commissioner
and recorder from Georgetown to the
Aniak. Respectfully yours,
EDWARD J. STIER,
Commissioner.
Thorns from some varieties of cactus
have been found to work better than
steel needles when used to transmit the
sounds of phonographs.
Volcanoes and Earthquakes:
Their Relation and Attendant Phenomena
The causes of volcanic action are
still much obscured, though various
explanatory theories have been ad
vanced. The view now most generally
accepted is that internal heat, which
increases towards the earth’s center,
causes the evolution of a groat body of
elastic vapor, which expanding and
seeking an outlet wlieie there is the
least resistance, manifests itself in the
upheavals and explosions of an erup
tion. The body of vapor is thought to
be derived from the superficial mass of
the earth, become hydrated, or com
bined with water. Such action, as well
as the presence of the molten rock
known as lava, is accounted for by vast
internal displacements, bringing the
inner crust, with its high temperature,
nearer to the surface. Volcanoes are,
in general, to be found in areas where
the earth’s crust is of an inferior
strength, These areas are naturally
ocean basins, the territory bordering
on such basins, or tiie ranges of moun
tains marking or flanking tiie outlines
of the continents. With I ho possible
exception of Wrangell, Alaska (having
reference to the mountain, 11.000 feet
high, east of Copper river, near lati
tude 02 deg,), no active volcano exists
far inland save in a district which is
either the scene of a comparatively
recent displacement or is marked by
an instability in tiie earth’s crust. One
of tiie chief lines of distribution sur
rounds the Pacific ocean, running along
the western coast of South, Central
and North America: tiie Aleutian
islands, Kamchatka and tiie Kurile
group; Japan, Formosa, the Philip
pines, tiie Moluccas, the North Heb
rides, New Zealand and South Victoria
Land. Numerous phenomena are ac
cessory to volcanic disturbances, nota
bly earthquakes, electric, magnetic
and various acoustic manifestations, of
the latter a very marked instance be
ing on tiie night of the 7th of the
present month, when for nearly two
hours at short intervals explosive
sounds were heard in Iditarod— a dis
tance of at least 300 miles in a straight
line from the scene of volcanic activity
the sounds at tlie time being generally
attributed to blasting operations, but
in reality more closely resembling the
detonations from heavy gunnery a mile
or two distant.
The relation of volcanic action to
earthquakes has been recognized since
the days of Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny,
but it is only in recent times that in
vestigators have been enabled to fix
such relation with considerable fidelity
to detail. It is found that active volca
noes are confined to the margins of the
seas or to the seas themselves, from
which it is argued that leakage of sea
water into the hot interiorof tite earth
causes the generation of great quanti
ties of steam. Sometimes the pressure
of this steam pushes masses of molten
lava far back undei the earth away
from the vicinity where the force orig
inates. and this causes earthquakes a
distance away from the sea to which
volcanoes do not approach. The erup
tion of volcanoes always relieves the
pressure and such earthquakes cease.
On the other hand earthquakes so
caused are not always followed by vol
ear ic eruptions, because the steam
pressure is relieved by the formation
and movement of faults in the earth’s
orust, or escape through Its ures, most
commonly in the Boor of the sea. where,
upon abatement of the pressure be
neath, the fissures would close. As
witnessing one efifeet of volcanic pres
sure. it is noted that in the great
earthquake of September 10-15, 1899,
the coast of Yakutat bay, Alaska, was
elevated 47 feet 4 inches, and the ele
vation extended for more than 100
miles, with small depressions in a few
places. Moreover, Prof. H. O. Curtis,
of the D. O. Mills expedition of Lick
Observatory, at .Santiago, Chile, re
ports that the late Valparaiso earth
quake raised tlio coast. 10 feet. Similar
known instances are quite numerous.
The seat of ilie disturbance felt and
heard in the Iditarod last week may he
the Iliamna volcano, 12,066 feet. high,
on the west coast of Cook inlet. It is
known to be "alive.’’
NEW FIRS ENTERS LOCAL
TRANSPORTATION FIELD
Messrs. McKeague & Kindred, hav
ing taken over and thoroughly over
hauled the barges and other equipment
of the Keystone Transportation Com
pany, are now in position to make
contracts for river freighting
Their equipment consists of the
barges Gnat, Mosquito and Microbe,
all of which are of Seattle registry.
The Gnat has been fitted with a 15
horsepower engine, and the firm can
handle 18 or 20 tons of freight, each
trip. They are also prepared to under
take special journeys, such as to Mud
river and other camps.
Both members of the firm are expe
rienced river men, and shippers would
do well to consult them regarding rates
of freight and passage.
Select Outside Lumber, corrugated
iron and roofing paper at Ross & Nes
tor’s.
Opposite Traction Co. Depot
THE CM FLAT CITY
Now Open for Business Under New Management4 JOE N, HONDA, PROP,
jp AMD BAKERY,
*sa Foot of WillOw S»rpet
Now Open for Business. CUISINE UNEXCELLED
Best oi Everything in the Market Scr/vd WEALS 73c AND UP
I
J. K. Beattie. W. ('. Mitchell, 1-1.-nest
i Johnson, Herman \Vestover ami others,
bound for the K tynktik. expect to yet
away today on the si-am barge lied
Winy.
The Red Winy- so named after one
of the richest claims in the northern
camp -lias been thoroughly overhauled
and refitted for the trip. It isequipjted
with a 9-horsepower boiler, and. being
| >f light draft, no difficulty is antici
pated in reaching Betties. On arriving
■ at Bottles it is probable that the barge
will be dismantled and the toiler taken
up to Hammond river, where it will
become available for mining purposes
rJ'he party is well equipped for a long
stay in the Kovukuk, a large quantity
of provisions and other supplies being
taken along. Several dogs and sleds
will also be aboard.
,T. E. Beattie will act as skipper for
the voyage, while W. C. Mitchell, who
is co-owner with Beattie in the Red
j Wing, will act as pilot. The owners
! are not laying themselves out to carry
1 passengers—the party being in the na
ture of a private one, which has adopted
this means of travel as the most pleas
I urahle, as well as the most economical,
! way to reach the diggings at this time
of the year.
J. E. Beattie visited the Kovukuk
last summer, when he secured inter
ests on Hammond river which will un
doubtedly prove of great value, if the
reported discovery of a pat-streak on
that stream proves to be correct.
WATER
Some misconception seems to exist
regarding the water gauge at theN.C.
Co.'s dock a' the foot of Richmond
street. Tito gauge is not an automatic
one, but is operated by hand, and
marks the depth of water over the bar
at Richmond, several miles below IJit
j urod City. It is known that if a vessel
can negotiate the Richmond bar it can
reach this place without difficulty.
Thus a glance at the gauge will inform
the inquisitive whether certain boats
can come up or not.
For example, if the gauge shows but
eight or nine incites, it is known that
only the smaller boats, like the hiitie
Delta and the launches, can reach the
city, If, on the other hind, 10 or 17
inches on Richmond bar is registered,
the Reliance and steamers of similar
draft can come here direct, and thus
save the c >st of transshipment.
it was explained to a Pioneer repre
sentative that it is not the depth, lint
the width of tlie channel, which lies at
the bottom of the trouble when low
water prevails, and it is believed that
the difficulty could be overcome by the
placing of deadmen in the vicinity of
the Richmond bar, so that boats could
be lined up over the shallow places.
Infinite, Humboldt., Puerto Rev, Op
timo, Lovera, Rock and a fine line of
Puerto Rico cigars at Empire (.’onl
ine reial Co.
The Pioneer for Job Printing.
CEMft’PftD 'OIM'a'
dMiliUii rlaoi,
ipn BE* *ti rinpij
ill tiMvfl wyjflt
For the first li ne in many years the
steamier Com hi fail-d to claim the
honor of being the liisi steamer from
the Outside to reach Nome, upon the
opening of navigate u at the Seward
peninsula port It had been reported
in Oirside papers that the gallant Mo
wooddn vessel I ad changed hands a i
would be put in the Soul hwes -n. n
Alaska trade. and tills prol ; hi a •
counts for its nntrippcariir.ce this year.
Time and again tlio (An win reached
Nome from two to three weeks ahead
"f its big competitors, aud whenever it
left Seattle for the first trip of the
season it was loaded to its capacity
with passengers who hud, in many
cases, booked reservations months
ahead. Us departure from Seattle was
always witnessed by a large crowd, who
cheered, to the echo as she cast old from
her moorings and turned ! r lend to
ward the golden North In her day
the Corwin must have reaped a rich
harvest fur her owners, hip her day
done.
This year it is the Senator which
reaches Nome first. She arrived ui
Monday at Oa.ru., nod. at •
telegraphic advices receive
earlier date, had fully (»to t
aboard for rations parts of Alaska
The Victoria was but a few hours be
hind the Senator. She also had
goodly number of passengers.
(>1(1 Lace}-. Tyler. Monogram. Ather
ton and Cedarbrook, also fine old For'.
| Sherry and Flams at Kinpire ('«nr.*
! mercial Co.
Fancy box paper 50c and 75c.
LOMEM EROS.
Or. Heinrich Worimann.
r'ivsldan and Surgeon
i < Mfiwes: Iditarop and Ft.at < n v
Telephones at eaeh i aee
1 It. HF.HI.A (I), r uri i i;
ORS. BEHLA & CARTER,
Dentists
Offices, Pioneer I)rn«j Si ore>.
Flat ('i*y
Appoint meets 1,\ Tob-eL ;.o
ALFRED E. MALT BY.
Attorney at Law
N '■**.*.;*v l'i’iiur
Office Simpson Kid#, First and \V; a
CHAS. E. TAYLOR.
Attorney at Law,
Notary I’nlilir. t.'otiveyaneinp,
liichnnnd St., lditaroil
Wickersham «£ Roden,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Iditarod. Alaska
GEORGE WOODRUFF ALBRECHT,
Attorney at Law
Michigan. '81 Alaska. 10 Kentucky. 91.
The Pioneer Attorney o! thi* Camp
Beef, by the side,.$ .40
Veal, “ .50
button, bv the carcass. . .40
Turkeys, per lb.40
Halibut, 35
IPITAROD MEAT CO.
Second St. Phone 13
First Class in Fact First Ave., Iditarod
BEATTIE HOUSE
Furnished Rooms, Bath Rooms, Spring Cots Good Stables Adjacent