MKMI1KRSHI1- KKPKKENDfM
The following letter has been received from the
Grand Vice President, Charles E. Taylor, of the
Pioneers of Alaskl, and Is published tor the benefit
and consideration of the Pioneers.
Iditarod, Alaska. September fi, 1924.
To the Officers an1 Members of
Igloo No.. Pioneers of Alaska.
Brother Pioneers:
Through the courtesy of our Grand President. I
am addressing you upon what I believe to be the
most vital question confronting the Order today.
The time is drawing near when each of you will
be called upon to exercise your vote upon one of
two questions,
1. Shall we retain the present limita
tion of membership, and admit only
those who came to Alaska prior to the
year 1901, or,
2. Shall we extend that time and ad
mit also those who came to Alaska as
late as December 31, 1905.
To the larger Igloos, such as Fairbanks and
l^ome where, at each meeting the Igloo is filled to
capacity, the matter may probably seem unimport
ant; nay, more, it may seem that the present con
ditions of membership are all sufficient; everything
seemingly going along nicely and smoothly as pos
sible; but to the 23 or 25 Igloos scattered all over
the Territory, many of which Igloos are trying hard
for continued existence, the question is. indeed,
▼ery significant; in fact, it is most vital, because
If the relief such Igloos are seeking does not soon
arrive, some of them will, of necessity, go out of
existence, and in behalf of these Igloos, I now ask
your serious consideration of the question.
Before you cast your vote, I request each of
you to ask yourself the question, WHY DO I BE
LONG TO THE PIONEERS OF ALASKA?
I heard a member of Igloo No. 4 say, in effect.
“Because it is an honor to belong to the Order; an
honor that we should not lightly bestow on a Chee
chako.” To that I would say, wherein lies the
honor? If It is an honor to have come to Alaska
prior to 1901 the mere joining of the Pioneers did
not add to nor detract from that honor. Manv
old-timers who came to Alaska long prior to 1901,
do not belong to our Order; yet the honor of long
residence, if honor it is, is their’s also: they ob
tained it without the assistance of the Order. So it
is fair to assume that that is not the real answer
to the question.
The objects of the order are to unite Pioneers
and to promote the best interests of Alaska. The
uniting of Pioneers carries with it the idea of mu
tually assisting brother and sister Pioneers when
ever possible. Those are most worthy objects and
should be encouraged in every way, but to fulft
these objects and obtain the best possible results,
the order must and should be as strong as possible.
The Order of Pioneers of Alaska has been very
strong in the past, in numbers, influence and pres
tige. It has been a power for good in Alaska, -«nd
has figured very extensively in the history and up
building of the Territory; all of which is as it
should be, for who should know Alaska’s needs bet
ter than the Pioneers of Alaska. But time has
thinned our ranks alarmingly; each year Nature
has demanded and has taken heavy toll of our mem
bership, until our number has decreased about one
half, and is still decreasing. In our largest Igloos
this may not be so apparent, but in the outlying Ig
loos where, through varying condkior«. the mem
bership has been reduced from hundreds to a mere
handful, the continued call upon the survivors,
though just as cheerfully responded to, makes mem
bership sometimes extremely burdensome, and the
load is getting heavier each year, until it has reach
ed the point where they must either take in new
members, or give up and quit altogether, and NO
ONE WANTS TO QUIT.
Alaska is still In its- Infancy, still up-building,
still making history, and will so continue for many
years; the work of the Pioneers is by no means com
pleted; in fact it is just commenced, yet I have
heard It suggested that we allow ourselves to die
out and that we now turn over our work to a new
generation. Brothers, FORGET IT; GET BUSY.
The advice, 'counsel, prestige, energy and action of
the Pioneers is needed NOW, more than ever, and
the real Pioneer was never known to quit, at least
until he had to.
Every Pioneer takes pride in his Order, and nat
urally desires to see it as strong as possible. THEN
LET US BE STRONG AGAIN.
All around us are many desirable citizens, who
have been in our midst for over twenty years; they *
are .well known to us; they have been long identi
fied with Alaska; yet, they are not eligible for mem
bership in our order because they lack a few short
years of residence; They are real Pioneers in npirit;
they have the best interests of Alaska at heart, even
as we have; they wish to join our ranks and work
with us for Alaska’s good, and will, if allowed to do
so, be a credit to our order.
Brothers, in behalf of those Igloos which are
i seeking this relief, and who wish to continue and
to expand, I earnestly request that you give this'
matter your most thoughtful consideration, and if
possible, admit those worthy citizens to membership
who would dome in under the proposed amendment.
Let us lower our bars of limitations and open our
doors for L little while longer; let us take on a new
iease of life and with our newly found strength let
us GET BUSY and work for the continued good of
the order for the best interests of Alaska.
Sincerely and Fraternally yours,
CHAS. E. TAYLOR.
Grand Vice-President.
(Reprinted from the ‘•Pathfinder of Alaska”)
LATE TELEGRAPHIC
NEWS BREVITIES
Jl'IWK REED IMPOSES 3 HEAVY SENTENC ES
JUNEAU. Alaska. Dec. 25. (AP)—Special—Wed
nesday Willie Watson and Charlie Johnson, two In
dians. were convicted of the robbery of the Postofflce
and store at Hawk Inlet in November, and were sen
tenced by Federal Judge T. M. Reed, on several
counts, to eighteen years each on McNeil’s Island,
and to pay a fine of five hundred and fifty dollars
each. Some of the sentences run concurrently, so
the total time for each will be ten years in prison.
Suzuki, a Japanese convicted some days ago of mur
der in the first degree without capital punishment,
for the murder of Margaret A. DreanofT, a pretty
sixteen year-old girl at Petersburg in July, was sen
tenced to life imprisonment on McNeil’s Island.
ALASK.X-GASTINEAU PROPERTY BID IN
AT FORECLOSURE SALE AT JUNEAU
JUNEAU, Dec. 27, (AP)—Special—On December
24th., according to advices made public today, the
Alaska Gold Mines Company made a successful bid
of two hundred dollars for all the property of the
Alaska-Gastineau Gold Mining Company at a sale
by the Master in charge under a foreclosure of a
mortgage and was awarded the property which in
cludes eighty-six lode mining claims and two groups
of placer mining claims, together with the towns of
Thane and Perseverance and the mill sites at those
places, and all water rights and pow'er development.
The judgment under the foreclosure was for six mil
lion seven hundred thousand dollars. The property
development cost sixteen and a half million dollars.
A forfeiture- sale was necessary as a step in clearing
the title to the town of Thane, the townsite, mill
sites, water rights and power development to an
Eastern nitrate concern which will build an enor
mous nitrate plant at Thane.
8TROLLKR H’HITK TELLS
OF KARLY Rl'SII TO NORTH
The following appeared recently in The Stroller's
Weekly, published in Juneau:
“Our cabins were near; I could see. I could hear.
But between us there rippled the creek
Arid ail summer through with a rancor that grew.
He would pass me and never would speak.”
Probably there is no hatred more bitter, more
deadly or more cherished than that which is bred
by familiarity and close association. That this is
true has been demonstrated ever since the morning
stars sang together by’ those who. through circum
stances. have been thrown in each other’s company
and forced to bear with each other on account of
conditions that render separation practically impos
sible and entirely inexpedient.
In the rush to the goldfields of the North more
than a quarter of a century ago men who had been
friends for many years becapu\ .deadly enemies on
the trail through being too closely associated in
partnership and through seeing too much of each
other. And yet their interests were interlocked to
the extent that they were forced to remain together
until their destination was reached The Stroller
has in mind two men who had been neighbors in the
State of Washington for many years. The Klon
dike excitement developed and they pooled their in
terests and started for the goldfields. By the time
they had packed their outfits over the Chilkoot Pass
and built a boat at Bennett their friendship had
turned to hatred amounting to deadly loathing.
And yet they could not dissolve their partnership.
For many days they maintained sphinx-like silence
the one toward the other. When they arrived at
Dawson they tied up their boat and unloaded the
contents in two separate piles on the hank of the
Yukon river. One of them picked up a saw and
cut the boat squarely in the middle and each man
turned his half of the boat over his provisions.
This done and without a spoken word the men
squared off and fought until both were exhausted
and both were badly beaten, though not to the point
of surrender.
It was not unqsual for partners to saw their
boats in two. split tents, tear stoves apart or cut a
candle when reaching Dawson after spending, in
some cases, months together on the trail. The
Stroller has in .mind the case of Ham Grease Jimmy
and the No Shirt Kid, who left Skagway with their
.ioint possessions on a handsled in January of 1900.
following the lakes and rivers from Bennett to Daw
son. They were thirty five days on the trail, days
filled with hatred the one for the other. But they
could not separate and on their arrival in the gold
metropolis they were too tired and exhausted to
fight. They hired a double bed at the old log Se
attle Hotel and slept for three days and nights.
They awoke refreshed, went out and had a square
meal and returned to their room and had a square
“Take dat fer portendin’ to be sick and gettin'
me to haul you on de sled from Hellgate to Selkirk”
said Ham Grease as he landed a haymaker on No
Shirt’s jaw.
“And you take dat fer de time you harpooned
four of de six slices of bacon an' den spit in de
fryin’ pan when you to’t I warn’t lookin’.” counter
ed No Shirt as he hooked one to the kidneys of Ham
Grease.
And the case of Ham Grease and No Shirt was
but one in thousands. Some who were too coward
ly by nature to indulge in physical combat would
invoke the law in their efforts to humiliate their
erstwhile partners and the result was that many an
innocent man was haled into court on some trumped
up and trivial complaint only to be discharged bv
the police magistrate after hearing the charge, but
the fact that he was discharged would not compen
sate for a night spent in jail before his case came
up for hearing.
Two men. both of whom had been well known to
the Stroller before any of the three had ever seen
the North, were cabin mates in Dawson the winter
of '99. Both were intelligent men and both had
held prominent positions on the outside, but neither
was doing anything in Dawson. One day one of
them called on the Stroller and confidentially told
“I fear Joe is losing his mind. He has quit
taking off his clothes at night—even crawls into his
bunk with his boots on. I w’ish you would advise
him to write outside for enough money to take him
back home. I would do it but I know he would
tell me to attend to my own business.”
The very next day Joe came to see the Stroller.
When asked how he was he replied as follows: “I
am all right, but I am worried about J. H. He has
been acting very strange for the past several days.
He sits up near ly all night burning up our wood
and then wants me to be quiet so he can sleep all
day. I advised him to write to his wife who has
some money, that he is not working and to tell her
to send him enough to go home on. but he very
promptly and vigorously requested me to attend to
my own business. Maybe you can do something
with blm. There’s a gun in the cabin, but I have
hid all the cartridges, for to be plain with you, T
would not put It past him to take a shot at me. I
sometimes fee] that I am not safe in the cabin alone
with him."
A few weeks later both of them secured employ*
ment, one as a miner, and the other at carpentering.
Their work separated them, and that fall they left
together for the outside.
Two others who braved the hardships of the trail
arrived in the Klondike and jointly secured a claim,
on one of the richest creeks. Having neither grub
nor tools, they took in another party and gave him
a third interest in their claim, he to furnish them
with provisions for the winter and machinery with
which to work the claim in the spring. The two
erected a cabin on the claim and settled down for
the winter. They soon began to get on each oth
er’s nerves and an open quarrel resulted. Then
they divided the cabin by drawing a line across the
middle of the floor and each fellow kept, to his own
side of the line. The arrangement necessitated two
stoves so that each could cook when he pleased and
what he pleased. The only thing used in common
was the door, but it being directly In the middle of
the cabin each would use It without trespassing on
nis neighbor’s side of the deadline. And there they
remained for more than four months, never ex
changing a word and each fellow living, eating and
sleeping on his own side of the line.
One afternoon Jack left the cabin and went to
town. Two hours later he waa watching the play
on a faro table in Tom Chisholm’s place when, much
to his surprise. Bill walked in, and going to him.
“Have you anything valuable or that you care
for in your end of the cabin?”
It was the first time they had spoken for month*
and Jack was almost taken off hia feet by having
Bill address a question to him. But. recovering
his self-possession. Jack came back with:
“What the hell business Is It of yours whether T
have anything of value In my end of the cabin or
“You are perfectly right,” replied Bill “It i.«
none of my business what you have In your end of
the cabin, but I thought It only fair to tell you that
I set fire to my end before leaving.”
And it was not only business partners that were
surfeited with each other’s company on the trail
and in secluded points where men were thrown
much together. For example, a man took his wife,
a bride of but a few weeks, far up toward the head
waters of the Klondike river, almost to the foothills
of the Canadian Rockies. They left early in the
summer in order that a cabin could be built and a
trapline blazed before winter set in. They were
gone ten months, when they returned with several
thousand dollars’ worth of furs. But had they no'
been a very sensible couple there would have been
business in a divorce court as soon ns they could
have gotten to where divorce courts flourish and
hold sway. The droller had it from the woman
herself, who said: '~~
“For ten months I did not see a human being
except John, and he saw nobody but me. And how
we did get on each other’s nerves! For days at a
time we would not speak to one another and when
we would it would be in a snarl. I declared a hun
dred times to myself that I hated the very sight of
John, and I know he felt the same way about me.
But now that we have come back to civilization and
had something to eat besides canned goods and wild
game, we each understand Just how the other felt
and we each have somewhat different views of life
from what we had back there In the Rockies. But
I’ll bet if I had been Robinson Crusoe l would have
killed Friday, and had I been Friday I would have
killed Crusoe.”
rASSKXGER FLIGHTS IN EUROPE
SHOW VERY FEW ACCIDENTS
LONDON, Dec. 1!*. (AP)—Only six deaths have
been recorded in the last five years of English com
mercial aviation. More than 50,000 passengers
were carried during that time, and about 4.000,000
miles flown.
The English commercial air services have had a
remarkable growth, starting with a total of 20 pas
sengers for 1919 and steadily Increasing. Most of
the passenger service was done between London and
Paris, where six trips are now made daily. The
routes to Berlin, Moscow and Cologne are now being
operated daily and carry on teh average of two pas
sengers. The freight capacity of the planes is us
ually taken several days in advance.
The Imperial Airways, the national syndicate, is
preparing to add 3.000 miles daily service to the
1,660 miles it now operates. The new route in
cludes Zurich-Home and Paris-Madrid.
Teh price of air travel has been reduced from
ten to seven cents a mile.
DEATH TAKES HEAVY TOLL
OF PILGRIMS TO MECCA
BATAVIA, Dutch East Indies. Dec. 13. (AP)—
Of 50,000 Dutch Indian Mohammedans who made
the pilgrimage to Mecca thin year, about 5,000 have
died on the way back from disease and exhaustion,
consequent upon the hardships of travel in visit
ing the holy places of Islam. Moslems believe
that by these visits they well gate sanctity here and
paradise hereafter.
The death rate of this year's pilgrimage has
been higher than* nsul sad te attributed to so
many of tho pilgrims Mag aged and Infirm.
ALASKAN DIES IX CALI FORMA
SANTA BARBARA, Cal., Dec. 26, (AP)—John
Howell Cobb, former Attorney-General of Alaska
died of heart disease at his home here tonight. He
had recently returned to the States from-an extend
ed trip to Alaska. His widow and son, living here
survive him.
QUIET CHRISTMAS AT WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26, (AP)—With sad mem
ories at the first Christmas since the death of their
son Calvin Coolidge, the President and Mrs. Cool
idge prepared for their second Christmas at the
White House on a very simple fashion, the only
guests being Frank W. Sterns and his wife.
FIRPO TO BE MATCHED WITH GIBBONS
OR RENAULT MADISON SQUARE IN APRIL
PARIS, Dec. 27, (AP)—Luis Firpo expects to be
matched either with Tom Gibbons or Jack Renault
for a fight at Madison Square Garden, New York.,
in April, according to a statement he made to
French sport writers upon his arrivay here yester
ANDERSON GETS PAROLE AND IXDITMEXT
AS Hi: LEAVES N. Y. PENITENTIARY
Ossining, N. Y., Dec. 25, (AP)—Former Sup
erintendent Anderson of the Anti-Saloon League
who was in prison convicted on a charge of forgery
and who waa one of those paroled on Christmas
was met by officers with an indictment charging
grand larceny and extortion as he left after signing
on parole.
COMPLETE RETURNS GIVES 7.33H.827
plurality FOR PRESIDENT COOLIDGE
WASHItjGTpN.
turns of the
(AP)—Complete re
presidential election give Coolidge
polled plurality of 7,339,827, the largest ever
given a presidential candidate and a total of 15,
718,789. Davis totaled 8,378,962 and LaFollette
4,822,319. The total vote for the three candi
dates was 2,280,987 greater than in the 1920
election. Coolidge’s total was 433,411 less than
Harding's due to the fact that there was a third
party candidate. The LaFollette vote exceeded that
received by Theodore* Roosevelt in 1912 which was
4,126,020.
AIR ROUTS FROM RUSSIA TO AMERICA NOT
FEASIBLE, SCIENTITS OF SOVIET SAY
LENINGRAD, Dec. 27. (AP)—Special—A con
gress of Russian scientists have decided that an
airplane route through Bering Straits to America
would not be feasible for passenger service on ac
count of the paucity of industries in the, Bering
Straits district Jn the Aretlc, but might be useful
for a postal roi/a '