5ip Daily DrnBpertnr
PUBLISHED BT
•TEWART A SELBY, Froprtaton
VALDEZ, ALASKA
Published Dally Except Sunday
Bntered as Second-Class Mall Matter,
July 23, 1*12, at the postofflce of Valdes.
Alaska, under act of March 8. 187*.
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The Weekly Mlaer.
The Dally Prospector and Weekly
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only, per year .A1AAS
Business Office and Editorial Rooms,
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TEL. 168
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SATURDAY, JANUARY IS, 1917
SAM BU M.
SAM BLUM is dead. His light
went out so suddenly that the asso
ciates of years find their minds in
stinctively resisting belief in the trag
ic end. Men have not been accustomed
to regard this virile figure from the
standpoint of death. Not yet fifty
>ears of age his great natural powers
were still on the ascending scale. He
was approaching the summit of a suc
cessful career with vaster achieve
ments only beginning to unfold.
To Valdez the passing of Sam Blum
is the climax of a moving picture ?f
disasters. He was the most impor
tant financial figure of the town, the
dynamo of large business enterprises
that were a vital factor in its activ
ities. Twice within eighteen months
his investments were stricken and de
pleted by fire, but each time with the
courage of genius and the persistence
of his remarkable race he met the is
sue unfalteringly and inspired his fel
low citizens with new hope by, the
prompt and decisive announcement
that he would build again above the
ashes the flames had left of his huge
property.
The loss of a man like Sam Blum
to any community is an event—one
of the landmarks of its history. To
Valdez at this time it is a civic ca
lamity His executive strength, his
business judgment, his nerve and en
ergy, his public spirit, his abounding
charity, all were needed in the batt o
to revitalize the town.
It is difficult for those who have
known him long to realize that this
forceful man has passed without
warning from the zenith of vigorous
life to the nadir of cold abstraction
and voiceless dust. His late fellow
citizens, standing at the outposts of
death to honor his memory, look
doubtfully for his successor.
“Each morn a thousand roses
brings, you say:
“Yes, but where leaves the rose
of yesterday?”
Men have little time in this hurry
ing world to consider long of the
dead, but Sam Blum will be missed
in Southern Alaska as few men would
be missed, and the surviving friends
are legion who wave after him a
mournful farewell as he enters the
dawn of futurity or the dreamless
sleep of endless oblivion.
ANGUS CHISHOLM.
The death of Angus Chisholm, who
died by his own hand in his apart
ments over the Senate saloon yester
day, was a distinct shock to his many
friends in Valdez and the Territory
at large. Of a jovial, lively disposi
tion; with apparently no cares in the
world; untouched by age or disease,
and with an income more than suffi
cient for his wants, he was the last
man his acquaintances would have
picked upon as a candidate for self
destruction.
Mr. Chisholm was a man with no
enemies, and a legion of friends. Of
p. 11 the old-timers in Valdez, perhaps
he had the most acquaintances in the
Territory. To know him was to give
him your esteem. His death is a dis
tinct loss to Valdez, for all called him
“Friend.”
JOHN BARLEYCORN ON THE KI N.
The spread of the prohibition
movement is something that cannot
be denied by the opponents of prohi
bition, and the most significant fa't
to date is that there is no sign of a
reaction. During the past four or
five years the prohibition wave has
attained a momentum that threatens
to sweep all before it. It may be
ns the liquor men assert, that the se
verity of the laws will cause the pen
dulum to swing the other way, but
the odds seem to be decidedly on the
e ther side.
The reason for this probably is that
the saloon question is no longer a
moral issue. It has become economic
as well. The moral side probably is
the most powerful 'influence in the
movement, but it has been demon
strated that efficiency and the licensed
saloon do not track. Europe, in the
throes of war, is one of the most pow
erful arguments that the prohibition
ists can offer. The working man and
the fighting man are given stimu
lants of coffee instead of liquor. It
has not yet been demonstrate*! that
a coffee jag is less harmless- than a
whiskey jag, but It seems to be more
popular.
It is practically certain that the
nation in less than a decade, will give
prohibition a thorough tryout in a
national way, judging from the tre
mendous growth of the movement in
the last decade. Popular trend is to
ward the prohibition movement, and
our nation’s representatives have
their ears to the ground, attuned to
catch the slightest whisper of public
.
sentiment.
The last election wiped out *5,500
licensed saloons distributed as fol
lows: Alaska 450, Michigan 3285,
Montana 1600, Nebraska 825, South
Dakota 203, Maryland 135, total
6,498.
Alaska was hit doubly hard by the
prohibition wave. In an unsettled,
chaotic 3tate, with few laws, and no
power to enforce those made by its
legislators, it faces a deficit by the
loss of the saloon money and the fish
tax money. The schools of the Ter
ritory, which depend upon the license
money to a certain extent, will be
sadly handicapped by lack of funds
[f Alaska had Territorial government
In the true sense of the word she
could retrench by passing laws ap
propriating monies for the schools
and establishing a school fund for
the upkeep of our educational insti
tutions. But she has no power; no
money and no credit. The school
terra of the coming year will un
doubtedly have to be greatly shorten
ed, with the probabilities that all
High Schools will be dispensed
with altogether until means can be
Revised to make up the deficiency.
IT IS SAID Death loves a shining
mark. In no way could this be bet
ter exemplified than by the loss of two
cf Valdez most prominent citizens
cn the same day. The town has had
i streak of misfortunes the past few
months that has been hard to en
dure, and the last blow is the great
est of them all.
COURT ORDERS SPECIAL
LOCAL OPTION ELECTION
V,
HELENA, Mont., Jan. 13.—County
commissioners of Sheridan countv
must proceed with the holding of a
county local option election, the su
preme court ruled today in a decision
by Chief Justice Theodore Brantlv.
Justice Sanner concurs.
The county option fight has been
waged for months in Sheridan coun
ty. After the petitioners were turned
down by the county board they ap
pealed to the district court which sus
tained a demurrer to the sufficiency
of the petition. The case was carried
to the supreme court in the name of
Andred Fadness. That tribunal holds
the petition was sufficient for the
commissioners to proceed with the
election, reverses the judgment of the
district court and ordered the peti
tion to be allowed.
A Worthy Axiom.
“The time to save is when you
don’t need it.” And you don’t need
it now as much as you will after a
while.” Better begin today by tak
ing out a policy in the Equitable Life
Ins. Co. Alaska Investment Com
pany, Agents. 2t
Episcopal Services.
Morning service, 11:00.
Sunday School, 12:00 m.
Vesper Service, 4:00 p. m.
Services for the second Sunday in
Epiphany will be conducted by Aaron
E. Rucker, lay reader.
LOST—The Empress lost a day
book, film record, camera and pack
age of goods. Please return to Fry ■
Bruhn’s.
OR. JOHN C. BRANNER.
Ex-President Leland Stanford
University, Authority on Geology.
*■■■■■ ■- .. ..
WILY CECIL RHODES.
The Way Ha Disaavarad the Diamond
Fielda of South Africa.
Hava fOd ever beard how diamonds
ware discovered In South Africa? And
did you know that Cecil Rhodes was
the man who made the discovery? Bdt
bare is the story:
A German trader in skins nnd ostrich
feathers from the interior, with Pieter
maritzburg as bis frontier station,
drove into Cape Towu one afternoon.
He bad been two months bringing in
his wagons, each drawn by ten yoke
of long horned oxen, from the frontier
trading post named.
This trader, among other curious
things, bad a dozen or so very brilliant
pebbles, which be was showing to his
friends.
“Flue specimens of globular quartz,”
said a doctor newly arrived, who had
just enough of a smattering of geology
to know nothing at all about it.
“Would you mind giving me one or
two of those pebbles?" said a tall,
dark skinned, slender young man. “Or
I will buy them from you at whatever
you may consider them worth. I have
no such stones in my collection at
home.”
“My dear sir." the other replied,
with the heartiness of a dweller on
the veldt, “you are very welcome to a
couple. Pick out any two you may
fancy.”
The dark young man selected two
about as large as a medium sized hick
ory nut, thanked the trader and im
mediately sent the “globular quartz”
off to Amsterdam. As he thought,
the report came back saying that the
stones were diamonds of incompara
ble (lawlessness. Then started the
rush to the diamond fields.—Philadel
phia North American.
WHEN COTTON BALES BURN.
Firemen Always Dread That Type of
Warehouse Conflagration.
A type of fire that the firemen dread
a great deal is a blaze in a cotton ware
house. These fires generate an im
mense amount of dense, suffocating
smoke and because of this fact have to
be fought almost exclusively from the
outside of the building. The smoke is
of too dangerous a character to allow
tbe men to remain any length of time
Inside. Therefore the fire fighting has
to be done entirely from the outside
by pouring great streams of water
through the windows and doorways
until it is finally “drowned out.”
There is an added danger at fires of
this type that is not generally known
The cotton bales are packed so closely
in these buildings, with practically no
space between them, and such an enor
mous amount of water must be used
to extinguish the fire, that the cotton
absorbs the water and begins to swell
And the “swelling” or expansion of the
cotton has been sufficient in a number
of cases to force out the wall* of the
building, causing the structure to tum
ble into the street and within a short
time after the outbreak of the fire.
This was ttye case at a fire in a cot
ton warehouse in South Brooklyn sev
eral years ago. Within three-quarters
of an hour nfter this fire started, al
though it was in a substantial looking
stone building, the walls suddenly
bulged out and crashed into the street,
and a number of firemen working near
by narrowly escaped being killed.—
Charles T. Hill In St. Nicholas.
Sunken Ship* Mark Hi* Grave.
There are many monuments to the
“father of the British uavy.” Sir Fran
cis Drake, throughout the world, but
his tomb" is in the great deep upon
which he made his everlasting fame
He died Jan. 28. 1595. in his ship the
Defiance, near the town of Nombre de
Dios. West Indies, and in a leaden
coffin his body was lowered into the
waves some six miles from shore. As
a last honor to him two of his ships,
with all the prizes that were in the
fleet at the time, were sunk beside bis
casket. At the time of bis death the
great admiral was in his fiftieth year
and in the prime of his physical and
intellectual powers. Since his death
the British navy has never been with
out a ship bearing his name.—Ex
change.
Classifying Him.
A gentleman who dined regularly at
a certain restaurant often ordered a
dozen clams. One day he counted them
and found but eleven. Still another
day the dozen was one short. He
called the waiter and asked him, “Why
do you give only eleven clams when 1
order twelve?”
"Oh, sir,” replied the waiter. “1 didn't
think you’d want to be sitting thirteen
at table, sir.”—Christian Herald.
Exclusive.
“I was surprised to hear that yon
were Newcome’s guest at his week
end party. How can you associate
with such a vulgar upstart?”
“1 didn’t. There were so many nice
people among the guests that we didn't
have to associate with the host at all.”
—New York World.
Big Difference.
“Do you know the biggest difference
between an egg and a man?” asked
the fool.
“What is the biggest difference?” de
manded the sage.
“An egg never gets too fresh,” re
plied the fool.—Cincinnati Enquirer.
Anecdote*.
“What is an anecdote, pa?”
“An anecdote, my son. is a short and
funny tale which at once reminds the
other fellow of a tale which la neither
short nor funny.”—Puck.
Gratitude is the fairest blossom
which springs from the soul, and the
heart of man anowetb none more fra
grant.— Hosea Ballou.
4
©wing tn % Iteatlj
nf
Ulr. i>am Slum
)
tliea? g>inr?B will
ht rlnfiri
Swturiay ani Ulnniiag.
Slum anb (Hompang
VALDEZ CAFE
AND BAKERY
Fresh Bread and Pastry always on band
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
BERGSTROM & ROGSTAD. Props.
PHONE 17 - Thrss deers Mew Owl Drs*.
Steamship O/.aina Safe.
BLOCK ISLAND, R. I., Jan. 13.—
Tiie Clye line steamship Ozama, for
[which four coast guard cutters had
[teen searching the past week, arriv
jed here today. It is believed she was
forced to run to sea to escape th
fierce storms of Christmas week.
Dora Arrives Seward
The steamer Dora arrived at Sew
ard this morning from her westward
trip to Unalaska and way ports.
POSTMASTER GENERAL
OF CANADA DIES j
OTTAWA. Canada. Ian. 13.—Be
[coming ill here after returning from
[a trip to New York, Thomas Case
Casgrain, postmaster general of Can
ada, died recently from pneumo
nia. He was born in Detroit, in.
1852, and was attorney general of
Quebec from 1891 to 1896, when he
introduced many important reforms.
He sat in parliament as a conserva
tive for many years. He opposed the
Taft-Fielding reciprocity compact in
1911. He was appointed to the bor
der Cabinet to his present position
i in 1915.
LOST—Was saved out of th* Em
press theatre on the n.orning of th :
I fire: A theatre ledger, camera, and
can containing asbestos cable, thumb
screws and extra parts for picture
machine. Please notify A. H. Pinkus
For good home-cooked meals try
'Mrs. M. Olson, on Hobart street. •
I _
I Pictures and Panoramic Views
I make fine presents. Valdez Drug
!co. tt
i _
• The Home of the Pat-a-Cake. At
j I.ove-Wh:;'ey Co. tf
Compare the Cost
Count the Saving
Is used by countless house
wives who have determined
that they must have the best
at the lowest cost. Orescent
is a perfect leavener; it’s price
is reasonable.
AT ALL GROCERS
25c lb.
OREBCRNT MFG. CJO.,
Beattie, Wash.
PROFESSIONAL CARDS.
DR. S. WICKES MERRITT
Office* over Valdes Drag Co.
Phone ’Iff McKinley Street
Contract Surgeon. U. S. Army
A. A. Surgeon, U S. Public Health Serv.
(Marine Hospital)
JOS. A. SILVERMAN, PH. 6. M. D.
PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON
Over Owl Drug Co.
Res. Phone 170 Office Phone 1'.)
DR. H. COCKERILLE
Graduate National Uslrwilty
Washington, D. C.
DENTIST
Fourteen Yean in Valdez.
PHONE 110
Office Rooms in Whaling Building
DONOHOE & DIMOND
ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW
OMce Opposite Conrt Hoist
Phone U VALDEZ. ALASKA
JOHN LYONS a E KITCHIB
LYONS & RITCHIE
ATTORNEY M- Al -LA W
oaces la " haling Balldlng
Phone tat VALDEZ. ALASKA
ASA C. BALDWIN
CIVIL ENGINEER
U. S. Mineral Surveyor
McKinley Street oppeeite V. M. Store.
Valdes, Alaska
To Bring Bark Refugees
WASHINGTON, D. C„ Jan. 13.
Final plans for bringing home tho
LOO Americans interned for month.*
in Syria and Palestine made by the
state department today and communi
cated to Ambassador Elkus at Con
stantinople provide for the sending
the cruiser Des Moines from Alexan
dria, Egypt, to Bairut as soon as the
icfugees are brought from Jaffa
lurkinsh military authorities refin
ed to allow the Americans to leave
trom Jaffa, but have given permis
sion for use of the Beirut route.
Banquet Steel rtanges, plain and
polished tops, at Mead’s. tf
Try the Cottage Dining Boom for
good home-cooked meals. Mrs. M.
Rucker, Phone 131.
We have all outside rooms, well
lighted, and well ventilated at the
St. Elias.
Anything in nugget and ivory jew
elry at Valdes Drug Co.
All kinds of cocktails. At the
Candy Kitchen. tf
Two Hundred of the latest Colum
bia Phonograph Records Just receiv
jed on the Alameda. Owl Drug Co. tf
Candy KitcM
L W. HUNT-<-la Owl Drag Star*.
FOUNTAIN DRINKS
HOT-COLD
LOUIE’S CAFE
Everythin* First class
Open Day and Night
ANDY MAROVICH, Prop.
The Best Place m Valdez to
Stop at is the ^
Arctic Hotel
Wans, Light Roomo -The Hone of Comfort
RATES REASONABLE
| BATH ROOM Speciel Rate* By the Month
| PHONE 133 MRS. SYR1NG, Prop
ATLAS JUNK CO.
Whole..1. and Retail Dealers in
ALL KINDS OF JUNK
Buyers of Metal, Rubber, Ma
nila Rope, Sacks, Machinery,
Pipe, Hides, Furs and Bottles.
1043 Railroad Avenue, So.
SEATTLE, WASH.
Valdez Miners Union No. 188
Western Federation of Miners
W. H. GARNER. President.
Granite Mine
CHAS. McCALLUM, Secretary.
Valdes Alaska.
When In Seward Stop at the
COLEMAN HOUSE
GEORGE SEXTON, Prop
SlRICTLY FIRST CLASS
Fourth Ave, Seward. Alaska
VALDEZ LODGE
NO 108
Free and Accepted Maaoua
Regular Communications first Wed-«
nesday in each month In McKinley
Hall. Visitors always welcome.
P. M. BROWN. W. M.
ED WOOD, Secretary.
BULL MOOSE PARTY IS
“OFFICIALLY DEAD”
NEW YORK, Jan. 13.—The doors
tof the progressive headquarters hern
state and national have been close)}
owing to the failure of the progres
sives in New York state to poll the
necessary votes in the recent elections
to entitle their ticket to a place on
the ballot, and the party has lost its
official recognition in this state.
Valdez Miner, |3.0* per year.
I