| IDITAROD PIONEER j
Published Every Saturday Evening at Iditarod, Alaska.
FRANK E. BECKER. EDITOR
tsl t 0*0. U Arbuokle. Publisher No. 17
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THAT COURT QUESTION
The latest reports from Fairbanks are very disquieting
in the direct assertions that are made to the effect that there
will be no term of the district court held here this summer.
Some arrivals say court will be held here, others say it
won’t. As a consequence we are up in the air, all spraddled
out.
We are informed that a report has gone from Iditarod
to Judge Overfield assuring him that there is not enough
legal busigess to justify his coming. Tt’s h ard to believe
it, but we have it on good authority. We also learned that
a list of cases on the calendar here was sent to the court,
and the first comment made thereon was, “Well, there are
two divorce cases and they will take about half an hour if
the going is good.'’ The fact that there were thirty other
cases seems to have been overlooked.
Now it may be that Judge Overfield has intended all
the time and still intends to come, however, he may not,
wherefore we rise in our place to make a few timely re
marks.
There is a burning wish in our bosom that we had a
large megaphone and could shout directly into the judicial
chambers,—we are very anxious that Judge Overfield learn
just how we feel about this proposition.
Adopting for a moment the Jeffersonian attitude, we
wish to remind you, gentle reader, that courts were made
to serve the people, and that God never created man in His
Own image just to have somebody to serve the courts.
Roll that little morsel between your horny palms, place it
carefully in your dudeen and then smoke it.
Continuing along that line of reflection for a moment,
we might also strain out this tidbit of common sense, to
wit : Judges were apponted to administer the law as eco
nomically as may be, and are supposed to do their adminis
tering right on the spot where the people are. There has
never yet been devised a successful wireless administration
of justice.
This brings usdiiectly to the meat of our discourse,—
a fact that looms up like a smokehouse in a fog, namely :
There are two important centers of population in the fourth
judicial district. One is Fairbanks, the other is Iditarod.
They are nearly equal in the number of inhabitants,—they
are fast becoming equal in industrial importance. If court
should sit in one of them, why not the other?
Many times since the stampede of 1910 peopled the
Iditarod with more than 3000 souls, have we had occasion
to refer to a fact that is perfectly well known and which is
no other than the remarkable consistency with which we
have been getting it in the neck as far as the administration
of justice is concerned. The law says that a man may sell
liquor if the people of the vicinage consent, and he puts up
a thousand dollars for his license, but for the mere privilege
of drinking its own tanglefoot, the Iditarod was compelled
to expend and is still expending, many hundreds of dollars
in telegraph tolls and traveling expenses just to get the ear
of the court.
Since the freezeup last fall there has been a continuous
stream of travel up the Yukon with a trail well worn by
unwilling witnesses and litigants. This has been of enor
mous expense to the government, but we do not pretend to
be so virtuously indignant about this. In fact it rather j
tickles us to see the government paying out something in
this country. We are indignant however, when we reflect
that it is all being accomplished at the great private ex
pense and inconvenience of our own citizens.
We cannot conceive that a judge imbued with the
spirit of fair play could further subject us to an injustice
of this sort. We know that Fairbanks, moved by a spirit
of self-aggrandizement, is making every effort to hold the
court there, but we are confident Judge Overfield is not
influenced by such considerations.
By spring there will be forty cases on the Iditarod
calendar. Among these, there are a number of important
mining cases, the final disposition of which will materially
add to the output of next season. Matters of extreme im
portance in the settlement of town property controversies!
and public timber grabbing also need consideration, besides
a number of grave criminal charges including murder and
assault cases. It is inconceivable that all this army of de
fendants, litigants and witnesses shall be dragged away
from their field of endeavor to take a round-trip water
Merchants Cafe
ABSOLUTELY
FIRST-CLASS
Large P^artien Catered To
Cbas. E. Miller & Ernest H. Slenter, Props.
Open-Cut Headlights
TO DO YOUR MINING
Three thousand and five thousand candle power, throwing a shaft of light
1500 feet.
Call at the Iditarod headquarters for information concerning the ,T T5
COLT'S ACETYLENE LIGHT MACHINE.
Pioneer Sheet Metal Works
JUST ARRIVED
Ladies’ Sandals and Shoes
Fine Assortment of Men’s Leather Belts
TGoED^rEirT~MT
ITS MOTTO IS AS EVER :
Quality-Purity-Reliability
G. J. Hurley, President J. P. Gleason, Vice President A. Bruning, Cashier
Annan Bank of Alaska
Corner First Ave, and Richmond St., Iditarod
CAPITAL $50,000.00, FULLY PAID IN 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.
IS NOW OPEN AT
THE OLD STAND ON
WILLOW STREET
Prospectors’ and Miners’ Supplies.
Snow Glasses, Optical Goods, Etc,
BEFORE BREAKUP.
•-Ring Up ========
Willow Street, Iditarod Phone 40
journey of over 2000 miles, because the court doesn’t wish
to take the trouble to come here.
It has been the practice in the past for federal judges
in this wide domain to make some effort to get to places
where their services were required. We sincerely hope that
Judge Overfield will do nothing to set aside so eminently
fair a precedent. _
SELF-CONSTITUTED CONSERVATIONISTS
Like recurrent attacks of the whooping cough or the
pip or some other malodorous or noisy affliction, the Idit
arod is about to break out again with the timber question,
and the grave matter of the timber hog and his illegal
placer locations will once more come up for consideration.
As everybody knows, who knows anything, timber is
one of the scarce and costly necessities of this section. As
nearly everyone knows who has kept his fingers on the in
dustrial pulse, there are many get-rich-quick individuals in
the country who have cudgeled their think receptacles in
vain effort to devise means of grabbing all the standing
timber what is, but failing to cook up a scheme that would
hold water, they have fallen back on that time-honored
bunco game of staking timber tracts by means of the as
sociation placer claim.
1 his is a wide-spread evil and has been flourishing
merrily. Nearly all the available timber in this vicinity
has been taken up in this manner, and already the first
echoes of the war between operators and fake locators are
beginning to reverberate through the valleys.
ri he matter was first brought to the attention of the
public last summer through cases brought in court and
although the various legal phases were argued all over the
place nothing was settled. True to the time-honored policy
of the government, the land department made no effort to
put a representative on the scene, and paid no attention to
the timber question in the Iditarod beyond issuing didatic
statements to the press at Fairbanks calculated to awe us
and throw the fear of God into the hearts of the timber
trespasser.
Through the winter, the question has slumbered to a
certain extent for the reason that most of the operators
were able to secure their wood without coming in contact
with the timber sharks, but now it threatens to break out
again for the fake locators are demanding stumpage, and
the operators refuse to pay.
the fact that many of these high hillside locations are
made with no pretense of attempting to make discoveries,
is well known. That they are made for the timber only, is
also well known, and that they have no right to sell the
timber from these claims, goes without question.
The operators are about to take the matter into their
own hands and are sending out men to cut timber where
ever they can find it, except upon bona fide locations. This
will surely result in more court trouble, but that it will re- ,
suit in a final solution of this question is to be doubted.
Maybe so after the camp is worked out and we have settled
these problems for our.-.elves, the land office will send a man in to
show us how it should be done.
Billy Marks ’ Slayer
Acquitted in Seattle
In Seattle March 24 Edward Goggins, the former Alaskan, on
trial for the murder of William Marks, late of Chena and Iditarod,
was declared not guilty by the jury, after deliberating two hours—
it being held that ths killing was in self defense. The trouble be
tween Goggins and Marks grew out of a card game in which it is
alleged marked cards were an important factor. According to the
testimony, as introduced by the defense, Marks precipitated the
quarrel, in spite of all that Goggins could do to avoid trouble.
When an argument started, Goggins left the place, but was fol
lowed by Marks, who finally drew a knife, thereby compelling Gog
gins to protect himself as best he could. In his statement of the
trouble before the court, Goggins took up just two minutes of the
court’s time, and his story was so straightforward that the jury
had no difficulty in making up its mind as to the justification of the
act.
Hillman Finally Deals
Himself Into the Pen
0. D. Hillman, the1 famous Seattle real estate manipulator, who
was early in March convicted on 18 different counts, was, on Aptil
l, sentenced to two years and a half imprisonment at McNeil island,
and in addition he must pay a fine of $5,200, together with all the
costs of the case. Hillman immediately gave noticf of appeal, and
pending a settlement of this point, he was offered his liberty upon
the furnishing of a bond in the sum of $215,000. Unfortunately for
the convicted swindler, he was unable to immediately raise the re
quired amount, and In consequence he was taken to the county jail.
SEWARBITES ARE
EXPECTING BOOM
Residents of Seward are expecting a
boom this spring when the railroad
company begins construction work. In
addition to the press reports to tlie ef
fect that the money has been raised to
push the cons!ruction to the Matanuska
coal fields, the people of Seward are
further encouraged by the fact that the
company, or persons connected there
with, have had parties in that place
this winter who have taken a number
if options of mining property, both
gold and copper, along the line of the
road.
As a further indication that the com
pany intends starting work early in the
spring, they state that just previous to
■ he closing down of work on the road
last fall, Col. Swanitz, constructing en
gineer, sent to the front an engine,
with several cars of provisions and
tools, sufficient to last two or three
months so that work may be com
menced from the present end of the
line before the road is opened from
Seward.
Russians Beat Us To It
At a point on the Kuskokwim river,
about 150 miles below Georgetown,
there is a legend to the effect that the
Russians mined the first gold found in
Alaska. Just where these old diggings
were located has been a matter of con
siderable speculation among miners and
prospectors for years. But now comes
a story to the effect that these old dig
gings have been found by a party of
prospectors who went down there last
summer with the object of finding them,
aud the report is that these men were
successful and found a creek with a
rich pavstreak.
THE OLD-FASHIONED BONNET
How dear to tuy heart is the old-fash
ioned bonnet,
The old-fashioned bonnet that Nell
used to wear;
Without any plums and red cherries
stuck on it,
The bonnet that didn't require phony
hair.
The dishpan effect may be stylish and
stunning,
The waste paper basket that's lately
come in
May be quite the rage and recherche
and cunning,
But give me the hat she tied under
her chin. —Detroit Free Press.
Killed While Proving Safety
At Los Angeles recently J. O. Nitch
ker, while giving an exhibition for the
benefit of a number of women of how
to alight with safety from moving cars,
fell and fractured his skull, and died a
few hours later from the injuries.
Old Quartz Property
On Gaines Greek Sold
The sale of the famous quartz ledge
on Gaines creek is the rejtort brought
back from Innoko by Car! Rogers, of
rbe American (sink, who says rbal the
property was recently purchased by
Lew Edwards and Bill Warner for $25,
000. the first payments not being made
public. John Mackey was one of the
owners, but the names of his associates
Cannot be learned here.
This ledge has been known for several
years, and besides being quite rich, is
thought to be extensive. It layson the
divide bet ween Gaines and Yankee, and
has been worked in a small way. In
fact, it has been a bank account where
the owners could take out better than
wages at any time with mortar and
pan. The new owners will try to open
it up on a larger scale.
THINGS LOOKING BAD
FOR WILLIAM REAGAN
Already convicted by rumor and sen
tenced all the way from 10 to 20 years
for rape, Wm. Reagan, the well-known
tailor of Fairbanks seems to be in it
very bad way. The last authentic news
concerning the case is to the effect
that it was set for trial on March 29 on
the charge of rape, the victim being
Miss Violet Myers, and the defendant
being held without bail.
The trial was continued from March
29, and the latest arrivals know nothing
about the conclusion of the case or any
sentence. It is possible that he has
been sentenced however, and since the
evidence in the case seems to have been
vety strong and the feeling against him
very bitter, it is probable that he is up
against it hard.
The defendant has been a tailor in
Fairbanks for some years, and con
ducted a shop back of the old W.-A.
bank building on Second avenue. He is
a married roan, Mrs. Reagan being out
side at the present time.
The complaing witness, a girl under
16 years of age, is the daughter of Mrs.
Gussie Myers, a widow who has been
working in Reagan’s shop. The offense
is charged to have been committed
some months ago. _
NEW YORK CHOOSES
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR
Albany, April 1—At a late session of
the legislature held last night, James
O'Gorman, Democrat, was unanimously
elected United States Senator on the
first ballot. The election of O’Gor
man was the result of a caucus held
earlier in the evening, and the selec
tion appears to meet with general sat
isfaction.
Id it a rod Machine Shop
Black St., Near Slippern's Mill UstVour Machinery With Ua for Sale McDonald, Hermr & McDonald