H»tf rrn
f ' '.. '~; ': BURN |i
EAT { MATANUSKA
ALASKA I COAL
FISH I ; .!
•- the ALASKA EVENING POST
, = SEWARD, ALASKA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1917. Ten Cents the Copy
Volume M. Number L-.-____— -----—------— —
GERMAN FUNDS 1
AIDTHEI.W. W.
_
tirand Jury Will Investigate I'inanc-j
int; of \nti-War Work In
Slates %
WASHINGTON. Sept. 11. O'y
Mail via Anchorage).—Where the In-:
dustrial Workers of the World got
their money to conduct their nnti-wai
propaganda and activities will t>e in
vestigated by the I’nited States grand
jury now in session in Chicago, where
the Industrial Workers maintain their
national headquarters.
There is considerable evmence
pointing to a fund, from which with
drawals were lavishly used to finance
anti-war conspirai ies. Heretofore the
connection between German tunds and
persons hostile to the government;
could not be established.
Reports and disclosures to federal
officials in Washington city, as a re
cent seizure in different parts ot the
country by federal agents of indus
trial worker documents, and litera
ture. indicate a nation-wide conspiracy
to hamper the government in every
conceivable way, short of interference
and navy operations.
Exposure is made of plans to defeat
the selective conscription law. to burn
crops, to agitate labor disturbances
and to curtail production in war indus
tries.
The prime motive behind all these
plans was to cripple the government s
war plans.
-A
RICr! FIND OF
PLACER GOLD
Placer Strike Is Said to he Twenty
live Miles Smith west of Old
Trading Post
DAWSON*. Y. T.. Sept. 11. (Uv Mail
via Anchorage).—A rich placer dis
covery is reported at the junction of
Seymour and Kitchener creeks, twen
ty-five miles southwest of Selkirk and
thirty-five miles inland from the Yu
kon river.
Eight miles of Seymour creek is al
ready staked, and also several miles
of Kitchener. Several tributaries oi
the two creeks h;rve likewise been
staked.
Experienced mining men say the
value or extent of the find cannot be
ascertained until next spring.
EXPLOSIVES KILL
U. S. OFFICER
Teuton Aviators Drop Poisoned
Candy and Cherries Wrapped In
Paper Ha^s
LONDON. Sept. 11. (By Mail from
Anchorage).—Cine officer in the medi
cal corps of the United States army
was killed and another officer and five
privates in the corps were wounded
yesterday by bombs that were dropped
from German airplanes on American
hospitals in a French village on the
English channel coast, according to
the correspondent ot Repter s News
Service with the British headquarters
in France. The hospitals are in charge
of contingents from St. Louis and
Harvard university.
Besides the American casualties
seventy-two patients of other nationa
lities were killed and three oi nation
alities other than American were se
verely wounded by the German
bombs.
Reports from Mt. Belland, Franco,
state that German aviators have
dropped to the ground there poisoned
candy in paper bags and poisoned
chocolate cherries in lead coated pa
pers. French officers have issued or
ders forbidding soldiers from eating
candy or provisions found on the
ground.
RANK OF SEWARD DECLARES
10 PER C ENT DIVIDEND
_
At a meeting of the Boarl of Trus
tees of the Bank of Seward held yes
terday, a 10 per cent dividend was de
clared on the captital stock of the in
stitution. .
The following officers were elected
for the ensueing year: Charles E.
Brown, president; Sidney Anderson,
vice president; H. S. Baiderston.
cashier: Robert H. Romig, assistant
cashier.
- -- A ■ -
ODD FELLOWS START
IU11.DING OPERATIONS
Excavations are being made for the
handsome new building to be occu
pied by the Odd Fellows. It will be
located on the lot between the Harri
man National Bank building and the
postoffice. The building will be of
wooden construction and will provide
a spacious lodge room anti other con
veniences, plans for which have not
been fully completed.
CIVIL si 1 I BEG l N IN
U. S. COMMISSIONER'S COURT
Alex VVirak has brought suit in the
U. S. Commissioner’s Court against
John Schuman Haynes for alleged
wages due.
CAPT. A. E. LATHROP
PURCHASESCORNER FOR
NEW EMPRESS THEATRE
Sidney Anderson, acting as agent for A. E. Lathrop,
purchased for cash today, lots 39 and 40, in block 9, from
Frank L. Ballaine. Mr. Lathron is leaving Anchorage
for Seattle on the S. S. Alaska and will have plans drawn
while in Seattle for a modern theatre building for Sew
ward. He has always had unlimited confidence in Seward
and its future and is now backing it with his money.
Lathrop is a stockholder and director in the Bank of
Anchorage, and owns valuable business property in both
of these towns. He also owns and operates the Empress
theaters in Cordova and Anchorage in connection with
the Empress circuit throughout Alaska, which he con
trols. __ _
No cable news has been received to date and just
w hat the trouble is will not be definitely known until the
arrival of the Admiral Evans Saturday night.
The Admiral Evans is due to arrive in Seward Sat
urday night.
The S. S. Alaska is due to arrive in Seward Sunday
night.
How the war looks to an .Alaskan
who has been in the front-line
trenches is graphically told in a let
ter received by Arthur Mears, of hair
banks, from Jim Mears, formerly of
the interior metropolis.
One of the interesting features of
the letter is that the writer, who has
been on the western front and is now
in military circles in England, be
lieves that the war will last at least
two more years. The day when peo
ple expected to see the war ended
within a few months has passed and
all are evidently preparing, both in
America and abroad, to light lor
years. •
The letter reads:
Lewisham Military Hospital, Lon
don, S. E., May 29.—Dear Art: 1
sent you a field postcard about three
weeks ago, which was a foolish thing
to do, seeing it was to let you know
1 had been wounded. 1 guess that
in the time which elapses between
that card arriving and this letter you
will have been pretty anxious, but
there is no cause for worry, old chap,
I will soon be fit again as a fiddle. 1
only got a bang through the fleshy
part of the thigh, and if it had not
been for a touch of fever which de
veloped in the hospital I would have
been out of bed a week ago. 1 lett
the line on the 8th of May, and after
passing through a casualty clearing
station (I went through our own am
bulance station first). 1 eventually
landed at a Scottish hospital in
Rouen, about 80 miles from the mouth
of the Seine. 1 was there a week be
fore being sent to England, and could
you guess what my feelings were to
get back to old “Blighty” agai.i? Af
ter those horrible months in La Belle.
France, to be whirled once again I*on
don wards in a luxurious hospital
train, watching the green meadows
on each side. Should you ever hear
anyone running down the Old Conn
try again, give ’em one for me, will
you.
I have only discovered England dur
ing the past twelve months; I am
sure I never knew it before, although
I spent the first seventeen years of
my life here. 1 am hopping around
now as gay as a lark, and I’m begin
ning to think that shell of Fritz’s did
me a real good turn. I heard hun
dreds of them during the days preced
ing the 8th, but when I heard this
particular one coming, l thought it
had my number on. We had just
changed ends of the stretcher, one end
is considerably heavier than the
other, so we change every two or 300
yards. We had just started again
when this shell came; they make a
noise something like an express train
dashing across the end of a country
lane; just a roar and a rush of wind,
and then—oblivion. My pal was kill
ed, and the Scottie we were carrying
and the stretcher went—well, I don’t
know where. Two infantry in a sap,
or communication trench, dragged me
in and brought me down. We were
at Bullecourt, in what they call the
Hindenburg line, and were in a small
salient comprising the heap of bricks
and debris which for military purpos
es they still call a village, so we were
enfialded on both sides by artillery
and machine guns, not to mention the
snipers. A man simply takes his
I . t • n
chance, and we were working iour
days and four nights. On a strip of
what had been a country road three
quarters of a mile long 120 of our fel
I lows were killed and wounded in the
four days, so you can imagine with
what feelings we went up that road
so many times during the days and
nights. A man feels that he will
never get out of such a corner alive.
A Furtsville lad was ki'l?j; we used
to hang together, as we were the only
two fiom the vilage and earne away
togothei. Poor old chap, he was al
ways singing that song, “When 1 get
back, to my home in N. S. W.,” elim
inating the Tennessee. It makes a
man into an agnostic or a fatalist.
They should not be anxious about
me at home, as I sent the mater a
cable. Yesterday was Whit Monday,
and the weather was like sunny New
| South Wales, but they would not let
me get up, and today is my first day
out of bed. I hope to be out of the
hospital in a couple of weeks, or three
ALASKAN SENDS A LETTER TO
FRIENDS, FROM THE FRONT
weeks at the most. This place swarms
with nurses and Y\ A. D/s, all gentle
folk. Some come around in the after
l noon just to hand out the tea and
buns. Someone came today, and 1
had a whirl around London in an auto;
the nurse was not in at the time, so
1 hopped out. People are always com
ing with invitations to bun-fights and
joyrides around the parks.
When 1 am discharged from the
hospital 1 get fourteen days’ leave, so
1 will be able to make quite a stay in
Hull and Brid this time. That will
be about the middle ^f June and the
weather should be good. 1 wish you
would semi us some Yukon photos if
you have any. Have you some of
those we took along the Yukon? 1
would like to have a few, now that 1
am in England, perhaps for a consid
erablie time.
Do you know some of the small
roads we were working in at Bulle
court were choked up with dead men,
and every time we passed up with a
wounded man we saw men who had
just been killed. We could see men
being killed right in front and behind
us by shells. Every trip we would have
to keep stopping to examine men who
had just been blown up. Arms, legs
and other parts of a man’s body were
laying all along the paths. We would
have to step over men’s bodies and
pick a way through the dead. We car
ried in German wounded also, and
often thought to ourselves it would be
tough to get knocked bringing in a
Hun. Prisoners were coming in ev
ery hour of the day, some of them
being the most comic looking cusses
you ever saw; some tall and lank>
and wearing glasses, while others
only youngsters about sixteen. I had
I souvenirs galore, but most of them
were left behind when I was wound
; eel. About three weeks previously six
| of us had a narrow escape of being
taken prisoners at a place called Lag
necourt. Fritz attacked on a six-mile
front one morning at daybreak, ami
our part was the only place where he
broke through, and they reached with
in twenty-five yards of a road wit I
high banks in which us fellows were
We only had about twenty men there,
and were outnumbered by at least lb
to 1; it was only the opportune ar
rival of a company of reserve batta
lion that saved us. From where wt
were on top of the bank we could see
in front and on both flanks for at least
half a mile, and about five o’clock we
saw the Fritzes coming across tin
fields in mass formation, crowds ol
’em, just like bunches 0/ gray flies—
it was when they retreated that they
got socks. We could see the 20th
battalion hop over from the road to
our left and the Fritzes throw down
their rifles and run, when a few start
ed they all followed suit. It was great
to see them doubling for their lives
across country, and our chaps chasing
them with the bayonet. He did not
have much “sand” that day or he
could pretty near have got us back
to Bapaume if he had kept on push
ing. The officers reckoned the enemy
lost 1,500 men, and it was all over by
8 o'clock. The papers said that little
scrap was the most open fighting since
the retreat from Mons, and we were
picking up our fellows whilst hand-to
hand fighting was going on only fifty
yards away.
We had 00 prisoners carrying our
wounded that morning, we superin
tended, and our chaps took some Red
Cross prisoners also. The terrible
Hun looses a h—1 of a lot of his ter
ribleness when once one has made his
acquaintance—he was more an object
of pity to us.
The Canadians did some*' good work
up at Arras a few days before this.
We could hear the bombardment, as
we were not a great distance away.
* * Any of the boys of the Yukon
this year.
Remind me to Fairbanksans who j
know me and try to get that elusive
“stake.”
The government holds two shillings
a day of our pay until we return, so
Fll have a small one myself by the
time this bally war is over; it looksj
like two years yet. Au Revoir,
Affectionately
JIM. j
THE FOLLOWING SHORT MESSAGES, ON THE
WAY TO ANCHORAGE, WERE PICKED UP HERE
BY OPERATOR-IN-CHARGE OF THE A. E. C.:
PETROGRAD, Sept. 14.—Martial law now prevails
in the city. Further details are lacking.
SAN DIEGO, Cal., Sept. 14.—Boat captured off En
senada, brought here today, has both fleeing slackers and
enemy aliens aboard.
-♦%
SEATTLE, Wash., Sept. 14.—A dispatch from Wash
ington, I). ('., says Shipping Board has authorized in
crease in wages of 12,000 men employed in the Seattle
shipyards on great building contracts.
BERLIN, Sept. 13.-~The war office announces this
afternoon nine thousand captured at Riga.
--—4
LONDON, Sept. 13. — Chancellor Law, in a speech
before the House, said Germany’s greatest mistake was
the forcing of the United States into the war.
-*-j
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 14.—An invitation to
the United States to join the Inter-Allied Parliament was
extended by Franklyn Ballon, of the majority party of
the French deputies. The decision to invite the United
States was arrived at in a meeting held behind closed
doors.
Members of the local military unit
are requested ti be present tonight at
a very important meeting in the Arc
tic Brotherhood hull. Much business
of importance will come before the
meeting. Reports of various com
mittees will be read and arrangements
for the future will be made. Everyone
of military age is asked to be on hand.
--tt
—
Ml SICALK RKHKAIt SAL
AT C HI RCH TOXICHT j
—
All singers who are to take part in;
the sacred musicale at the Methodist!
church Sunday evening, are asked to
meet in the church for practice this
evening at eight o'clock.
Miss Francis Root will act as pian
ist, while Mrs. Munro will lead the
singing.
-tt
ALAMEDA SAILED SOUTH AT
ELEVEN O’CLOCK LAST NIGHT
The S. S. Alameda arrived from the
westward at 5 p .m. last evening, go
ing to the San Juan docks to load
salmon and leaving at eleven o’clock
for Seattle.
The following passengers from Sew-1
ard were aboard: M. J. Mesford, L.
T. Jacobson, H. Haasch, Charlotte
Paris, Asher Ireland, Geo. W. Sivon,
Sam Carlson, A. Bakken, W. D. Cop
pernald.
U. S. ARMY
IN HONOLULU
HONOLULU, T. 1L, August 20, (By
Mail).—Upon an ancient Hawaiian
training field, where warriuis of the
centuries ago were developed for
hand-to-hand fighting, the United
States army is to open a training
camp for officers on the plains of Lei
lehua, twenty miles from Honolulu,
on the military reservation where now
are established 8,000 United States
soldiers in Schofield Barracks. The
camp will open August 27 with 101
applicants for officers' commission, 100
of whom will be regularly designated
and the odd man will be Brigadier
Samuel Ivan Johnson, U.o commands
the National Guard of four regiments,
but who is anxious to obtain extra
training as a mere rookie.
Un the Leiienua nains in tne an
cient days Hawaiians were taught the
I.ua, or a form of juijitsu, which in
volved a complete knowledge of the
human anatomy, by which they were
enabled by a twist of the fingers to
dislocate joints of victims, a.ul later
to replace the dissembled members.
It is a coincidence that the United
States War Department selected the
old Leilehua Plains for an army gar
rison and that a portion of the same
should be set aside now for training
the officers for America’s new national
army.
RAILROAD WORK IS
. BEING RAPIDLY POSHED
ON SEWARD DIVISION
A communication received last night from the An
chorage Times states that Frederick Mears of the Alaska
Railway commission, says that he has been instructed to
complete railroad work as soon as possible through to
the Matanuska coal fields and to the Talkeetna mining
district. Also to connect up the road with the Seward
' division.
The temporary holding up of any work on the road,
' given out in last Saturday’s papers as Secretary Lane’s
statement stated, has been passed up and authority is now
| given to go ahead and rush all work to completion. The
i Seward division has already started the work all along
the line with large gangs of workmen, some foremen hav
as high as sixty men under them. This is, indeed, good
I news to all, and it will not be long until coal will be com
ing in over the Seward division to. the docks.