Special Xmas Week Sale
All silver mesh bags and vanity cases to be
closed out at one-half price
All Casseroles at One-Third Off
A large assortment of candies in beautiful Xmas boxes
from which to select.
Many durable and entertaining toys for the young folks
OWL DRUG CO.
RUSSELL HERMANN, Manager.
STEAM HEATED HOT AND COLD BATHS
Copper Block Hotel
VALDEZ, ALASKA
“The House of Comfort”
PHONE 7 for men only
MERCHANT’S CAFE
FRESH BREAD AND PASTRY DAILY
Phone 63 chas- Ftocher« ProPr
BANKER SEES DANGER
IN A RUSSIAN LOAN.
, NEW YORK: Commenting on the
Report that the Russian government
is seeking a loan of $60,000,000 from
American bankers and manufactur
ers, Jacob H. Schiff denounced the
Czar’s government as inhuman and
not deserving of American aid:
“So long as we have no commercial
treaty with Russia,’’ Mr. Schiff said,
“all dealings on our part with Rus
sia carry a risk to us, which should
pot be lost sight of. But aside from
this, are we willing to ignore the
experience every, country has had,
which has had large financial deal
ings with Russia? It is true Russia
is an honest debtor, so long as its
creditors will loan it anew to pay ma
turing debt. Look at France. She
is clogged with Russian bonds, upon
which now in her need she cannot re
alize.
“This present proposition ot a large
credit to Russian banks, to be secur
ed by the deposit of Russian Govern
ment bonds, is only a thinly veiled
Subterfuge, for it is well known that
■banks in Russia are naught but tools
pf the Government, whose bidding
th'by have absolutely to do, so that
inability of the Government to make
good must unavoidably involve the
banks. V A»d where is Russia going
to cover the large requirements for
the intere^f. payments on its huge
debt it France shall no longer be able
to extend financial assistance to the
Russian Government?
“You see I am leaving aside en
tirely the sentimental factor which to
Americans however, should appeal
laith particular force. So detestable
and inhuman a Government as the
Russian, which destroys the homes of
its people and ravages and murders
its own subjects by the hundreds of
thousands, neither deserves nor
should receive comfort froin Ameri
can banks and bankers.”
CONCERNING THE ALASKA
GOLD MINING COMPANY.
When the news reached New York
that the values o£ the urea in the Al
aska Gold jnipje at Juneau had failed
to come UR to. the expectations, and
that operations would be curtailed
for some time, the stocks of the com
pany were subjected to a rapid de
cline, falling off from one and. one
half points each day. Replying to an
inquiry as to the conditions of the
$»ine the Boston Commercial says:
“The recent decline in the price of
Alaska Gold stpck.tpUewed the ann
ouncement of General Manager Jack
ling that the average grade of ore
being mined is somewhat lower than
originally expected. This caused quite
a nlumber of the holders of the stock
to sell and take their profits. As we
understand it, the eompany is now
mining from a relative small urea
the mine npt, having yet been suffic
iently developed to make possible
the drawing of ore tnup several
different parts to thus obtain an .av
erage of the whole -deposit. Alaska
Gold has immense resources of low
grade ore, probably sufficient to sup
piyan output.of 6*000-to 10,000 tons
dally for forty or fifty year*. It is
a gigantic manufacturing proposition
and substantial profits will be earn
ed even though the ore should aver
age only 61.60 ton instead of 61-76
tof 2.00 as expected. It will probably
be a rear or .two hefore JJb^L company;
will be in a position to begin paying
dividends. After the plans of the
management shall have been carried
through to compeltion the company
should be able to earn at least $5 a
share annually for its stock.”
AMERICAN SCHOOLBOOKS
MADE IN JAPAN.
American schoolbooks are being
printed in Japan and sent to this
country at prices far below the cost
of production here. Japanese com
positors earn about 15 cents per day,
and pressmen and binders are paid
in proportion, and they are swift, in
telligent workmen, ranking high in
the printing business. At the price
they produce the books this is about
one-twentieth the wages paid in sim
ilar employments in the United
States. Paper can be made in Japan
for less than oner-half the American
cost of production. A world tourist,
lately returned from the Far East,
found that American schoolbooks, for
the use of American boys and girls,
were being reproduced in Japan and
exported to the United States at 7
cents apiece. The American whole
sale price for the same book is 33%
cents. Schoolbooks are admitted free
of duty under our present Free-Trade
Tariff. Previous to 1913, they were
dutiable. We wonder what American
publishers, American printers, press
men, bookbinders and paper makers
think of schoolbooks for American
children "made in-Japan.”—Ex.
Big Railroad Purchases.
If the Pennsylvania railroad shall
buy the 9000 cars it is asking prices
for its present disbursements for
equipment will exceed $18,000,000.
Several days ago it announced the
disbursement of $7,600,000 for rails
and locomotives and these cars for
which the company is now in the mar
ket would cost about $11,000,000.
The number of cars is about the same
as the number just bought by the
New York Central. Other railroads
are buying freely of cars, locomotives,
rails and track fastenings. The busi
ness of the country is already vast,
end it ,is expanding all ,the time, and
now that railroad earnings ,nre in
creasing encouragingly the, companies
are venturing to let go et their funds
and • this,-> in , turn, , incremes the
amount of prosperity.—Philadelphia
Record.
GOKTHALS JL.IFE ONE
SLIDE AFTER, ANOTHER.
! BALTIMORE: "Life is one dam
slide after another/’ is the sign that
greets .visitors to the office of Col.
Goethala, Governor of the Canal
Zone, according to Dr. Joseph T.
Singe-Wald, Jy., associate in Econom
ic Geology, at Johns Hopkins Uni
versity, who has just returned from
a seven months’ tour of South and
Central America and the West In
dies; ■' r> ■ i
H The sign originally read "thing’' in
place of 7st|4«^.te>4j0'pta* «M»
dosing of the cautfifcr4h* tremen
dous earth jam, the Covemor chang
ed the wording. According to Dr.
Singe-Wald, who made a study of rock
formation at Zion and Gold Hills,
which rise at either side of the Cule
bra eut, the Canal will not be dear
of obstructions for several years.
A fine display of nugget Jewelry at
__if.
LEGEND OF THE ROBIN.
Indian Story of How the Brava Bird
Got Its Rod Breast.
When white uieu first came far
across the sea to this country they
found many birds such as they had
pevur seen before. Hut they found oue
which they likijd best of all It had a
pretty red breast, and they called It
robin, for its red breast made them
think of a bird back iu the old home
which they loved most of all. .
The Indians had a story about how
the robin got its red breast. They said
it happened a long time ago. when
there was only oue fire in all the cold
far north.
A hunter and his son kept the Are
burning day and night until tho father
fell ill. and the son had to watch the
Are nil alone. The great white bear
was waiting for a chance to put the
Ore out so he could have all the north
to himself. lie saw the boy full asleep:
then he jumped on the fire with bis
wet feet and put it out.
But a gray robin saw him. and when
be was gone she pecked about in the
ashes till she found a tiny live coal
She fanned It with her wings until It
blazed out and turned her breast red.
Then she flew away to every hut In
the cold north. Wherever she touched
the ground a fire sprung up. and soon
there were plenty of (ires to keep the
people warm. After that the robin's
breast was always red instead of gray
—Exchange.
LESSON OF THE LETTERS.
A Warning the Thoughtful Old Lady
Gave the Heedless Young One.
They were two women, one young,
radiant; the other gently, beautifully
old.
"But, auntie. It’s such fun.”
The older rose.
"Wait."
in a moment she had returned. Two
faded, yellow letters lay upon the
young girl's lap.
"Read them."
Wouderingly the girl obeyed. The
first read:
"Dearest—I leave you to John. It is
plain you care for him. 1 love you
Just now It seems that life without
you is impossible. But I can no longer
doubt If you cared there would be
no doubt John is my friend. I would
rather see you his than any other’s,
since you cannot be mine. Uod bless
you. WILL.”
The other:
“Beloved—1 am leaving you to the
better man. For me there can never
be another love. But it is best—it is
the right thing—and 1 am—yes. I am
glad that it is Will you love Instead of
me. You cannot be anything but hap
py with him. With me—but that is a
dream I must learn to forget As ever
and ever. JOHN."
—Joseph Ball in Life.
How the Roman Empire Grow.
Rome was founded 750 B. C.. Che
kings were expelled 509 B. C., and It
was not until 290 B. C.. 400 years after
the founding of the city, that the ^ Ro
mans conquered their immediate neigh
bors, the Samnites. Latins, etc. It was
not until 260 B. C.. following the defeat
of Pyrrhus, that Rome was supreme
in Italy, from the southern boundary
of Cisalpine Gaul to the Sicilian strait.
For 350 years, from the foundation of
the city, the Romans could stand on
the bills of their city and almost look
across their entire territory, as It
stretched away only some twenty miles
on either hand. After the consolidation
of their power in Italy, however, it
took them but 150 years to conquer the
world.
Cast and Wrought Iron.
In a paper recently read before the
Society of Chemical Industry the state
ment was made that the strength of
cast iron was affected by the addition
of wrought iron in the following pro
portions: With 100 parts of cast iron
ten parts of wrought iron increase the
strength 2 per cent: twenty parts Of
wrought iron increase the strength
32 per cent; thirty parts of wrought
iron increase the strength 00 per cent;
forty parts' of wrought iron Increase
tl»t strength only 33 per cent. The
maximum result is therefore produced
With 80 per cent wrought scrap.—In
dianapolis News.
’ Ths Harm af Damp Houses. •
It is dangerous to health and even
to Ufa in a damp, moldy, bouse or one
built brer a moldy cellar. Many years
ago the London Lancet in an article
on diphtheria traced, the disease in cer
tain cases to the presence of certain
molds, asd fungoid growths which
seemed to be breathed into-the throat
Remember, one of the best disinfec
tants la lime. Moldy cloths, such as
shoes and other articles-that are unfit
for use. should be destroyed at once.
< W«H Iwlimui
"There goM a maar who haa delved
deepln Roman history.**
"An authority on the subject, eh?"
“Bare. He knows lots morp about;
Julios Caesar than the averags voter
knows about his congressman.”—Spo-1
kane Review.
v ».,.L . ... i ,m
Milestones tn Life.
"Did anything ever feel more con
spicuous than your first long trousers?"
■- “Only the vast expanse of my first
dress shirt"—Louisville Courier-Jour
nal.
, .i ry —>- —
Nothing ts It. )
His Wife—Never mind If you have
lest everything. Yog still have me
)(r. Bustnp—But you're not an asset:
you're a running expense.—Judge.
■ ■■■■——*■ e.r.iiM . t
Prejudice corrupts tbs taste, as it
perverts the Judgment In all the con
cerns of life.--Racine.
FAKED VENTRILOQUISM.
▼*>«« Deception Made Poeeible by the
Loud Speaking Telephone.
A great deal of ventriloquism is not
ventriloquism at nil. In fact, tlie mod
em wonder In this line of pleasant and
deceptive nrt needs to have none of the
n'/l time ventriloquists' ability at all.
he may—and often does—stand on the
opposite side of the stage from his
manikin and puff a cigar quite con
tentedly. to the amazement of the au
dience. The dummy answers with a
ready line of repartee, delivered In
stentorian tones. Nor is that all. for he
turns and twists his head, waves his
arms, kicks up his feet and otherwise
acts in a very lifelike manner.
The secret of the dummy’s voice -is
She loud speaking telephone and of his
actions various electro magnets. As
may be guessed, hot If are operated by
some one off the stage. In order to
produce all the desired effects the dum
my figure is fitted inside with a loud
speaking telephone receiver, with the
horn or large mouthpiece pointing to
ward the audience. The receiver is
connected with a special transmitter
In an anteroom some distance away.
An ordinary operator’s breast trans
mitter Is also concealed in the body of
the dummy, so that whatever is said
by the ventriloquist on the stage is
transmitted to the operator in the ante
room. enabling him to speak for the
dummy at the proper time.—Argonaut.
WONDERS OF THE ALPS.
Changes Nature Wrought to Uplift
Their Towering Peaks.
Nothing in the world’s history is more
impressive than the story of the Alps.
Ten or twelve million years ago. pos
sibly far more, a long unseen line of
weakness, a crack of fissure in the
earth’s crust stretched away from
France eastward hundreds of miles. On
this line followed huge volcanic out
bursts.
Next ensued a vast slow subsidence,
which went on through geologic epochs
until where Mont Blanc now rears its
summit 15,780 feet was a sea fringing
an old continent Large rivers emptied
into it. Deposits of mud, sand, gravel
were laid one on nnother as the sink
ing went on until the layers became
50.000 feet, nearly ten miles, thick.
Then at last commenced a great up
lifting: the struggling subterranean
forces raised a huge loud. For ages
this went oo until the rocks, crumbled,
crushed, contorted, rose above the wa
ters and continued to rise, forming lines
of mountain chains and making Swit
zerland a tableland.
Every hour since then rain and snow,
river, glacier and avalanche have been
sculpturing Into peaks and carving into
lakes and vulleys that vast platform
with its recent sedimentary covering
and primeval granite core.
The result is a land of upequaled
grandeur.—London Telegraph.
The Old Turnpikes.
The first great American highway,
that between New York and Philadel
phia, was long known ns “the old York
road.” Its construction in 1711 was an
example which led the colonists at
other points along the Atlantic sea
board to construct similar roads where
there were no water routes. They were
usually built by chartered companies
and were called turnpikes or toll roads.
Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New
Jersey had many roads of the kind.
The first macadam road in America
was built in 1792 between Philadelphia
and Lancaster. In 1811 there were
said to be 4.500 miles of chartered turn
pikes in New England and New York.
During the next twenty years the na
tional government spent many millions
of dollars in constructing great high
ways, but the panic 'of 1837 and the
building of railroads and canals put an
end to that branch of government
work. _
A Financier.
••Look here. Jimpson,” said Brockle
bank. To terribly mortified about not
having paid back that dollar I borrow
ed of you last June, but honestly, old
man”— ,
“Oh, that’s all right. Brock.” said
Jimpson. “Don’t speak of it.’’
"Oh, bnt I must speak of it, old
man,” Raid Brociclebank. “1 can’t treat
a friend that way. you know, and I—I
want to pay you, and 1 will. Jimp
sure thing. If you’ll lend me $2 I’ll
pay off that dollar right now, and we
can start fresh again.” — New York
Times.
A Swimming Grindstone.
Some of the fishermen on the river
Tyne, In England, are not only igno
rant, but stupid.- On-one occasion two
of these .fishermen were caught by a
heavy freshet and driven out of the
river to see- As the story goes,, one of
the men uv In the dusk a hoop float
ing by. The hoop was foil of foam.
“We an saved!” exclaimed the man.
“Here’s a grindstone swimming!”—81.
Louie Globe-Democrat
; A Reporter's Snoop.
Reporter—I've got a good piece of
news here this moraiag. I’ve found a
person ..who has., been confined to one
room his entire life. Editor—Good!
send it up. Who is It? Reporter—Why,
a three-day-old baby at our house.—
Philadelphia Record.
Consolat ten.
First Criminal Lawyer—FactAans
stubborn things. Second Criminal Law
yer (cheerfully)—Oh, yes! If they were
not our fees would be smaller.—Pitts
burgh Press.
" i'—--r1 ■ ■ « —
Down sad Up-.
Hew gag—He’s s low down crook.,
BUdad—Who’s s low down crook?
Hewgag—The man higher up.—Chicago
Herald.
CITY EXPRESS
MEETS ALL BOATS AND NEVER MISSES A TRAIN
Auto for Hlr e Day or Night.
Buy and Sell Anything.
Phone 82 J. A. SPENARD. Prop.
Independent Laundry Co.
Satisfaction Guaranteed |
Telephone 66
Foot Keymone Ave
Roujfh Dry lCc lb
When in Chitina Stop at the
CHITINA HOTEL
Finest Hotel in the Interior—Well Heated, Clean Rooms.
Bar in Connection. Rates Reasonable
UPPER TONSINA ROAD HOUSE
Best of Meals—Prices Reasonable
GENERAL STORE. - TRADING POST.
Telephone connects with Chitina.
General Freighting. KNUTE NAF9TED. Mar.
VALDEZ REAL ESTATE AGENCY
Real Estate, Insurance, General Brokerage
Absentees Business Properly Handled
Treat Building, Alaska Ave. Telephone No. 60
Mead’s Sheet Metal Works
PLLMBING, STEAM AND HOT WATER HEATING,
Sheet Metal Work, Mine Air Pi|>e, Pipe and Fittings, Valves. Etc.
Motor Boat Supplies, Paints and Oils.
Located on Valdez Dock, Opposite Prospector Office. Phone 24
Pacific Alaska Navigation Co.
PUGET SOUND
California
Admiral
Line
PUGET SOUND
Alaska
ALASKA
Steamers sail from Seattle at 9 P. M. on
5th, 15th, 26th—EVERY MONTH
Steamer Sailing 15tk calls IHamaa and Kodiak—All Sailing call at Katk
and Anchorage.
CALIFORNIA
Seattle to San Francisco every Wednesday and Sunday, connecting with
Steamers Yale and Harvard for Southern California.
Right reserved to change schedule without notice
RICHARD J. RING WOOD. Mgr., Seattle l VALDEZ DOCK CO., Local Agt.
ALASKA
STEAMSHIP CO.
s. S. ALAMEDA AND S. 8. NORTHWESTERN SAIL FROM SE
ATTLE THE 10TH, 20TH AND 30TH,
EVERY MONTH
FROM VALDEZ SOUTH—8TH, 18TH, 28TH, FOR CORDOVA,
JUNEAU, WRANGEL, KETCHIKAN AND SEATTLE
Regular freight service for Ketchikan, Wrangell. Juneau, Sheep
Creek. Treadwell, Douglas, Skagway, Cordova, Ellamar. Valdes and La
touche. Explosives, s. 8. Seward, on the 5th; Latouche. on the 16th; a S.
Cordova, -nth of each month—right reserved to change this schedule
without notice. ., ,
P. B. TRACY, Goal Agent VALDEZ DOCK CO. Local Agent.
When You Leave
For the Outside
take the
a w
One roadw-^ne management«~one service aUthe way
through to Chicago. It's the Short Line to the East
THE NEW STEEL TRAIL
For ipafarmfition pad literature write of ask
^ m J, C. MARTIN, Agent, Valdes, Alaska.
CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST, PAUL RY.
A^M: vfs -.v <j*i * k
A. E. HARRIS, Freight and Passenger Agt,
Juneau, Alaska