The
ALASKA SOURDOUGH
Published for the Sourdough and Che
chako as well, by
A. B. CALLAHAM
Subscription $3.00 a Year.
Single Copies 10c.
DOUGLAS, ALASKA
Office, Rear Natatoriura Telephone 435
A CARD OF THANKS
Not a single kind word, expressed
last week to the publisher of the Sour
dough about this publication, has been
received without genuine apprecia
tion.
Not a single wish—from the heart,
as (his publisher believes—that the
Sourdough might succeed, has been
received without gratitude.
To those who subscribed for (lie pa
per, without payment of cash, the edi
tor is very grateful. A subscriber is
a subscriber, and what this paper
wants is a subscription list.
Even for those who kindly consent
ed to take the paper on trial for a
month, to be paid for at the end of
the month, the publisher has a cer
tain measure of appreciation.
But for the 87 who had the cour
age. in tin1 first week of the Sour
dough's life, to pay a years subscrip
tion in advance, the publisher has the
very highest degree of gratitude.
The publisher will be grosly mis
understood if this is taken as his
measure of those who have not sub
scribed. Every man knows his own
business best. And the publisher real
izes that during the week he has not
seen half the residents of the Island.
Of that kindly eighty-seven
some subscribed on account of the
merits of the publication, but the pub
lisher believes that more of them
subscribed through motives of person
al friendship.
Friends like that—but never
mind; we might get sentimental.
But anyhow, The Sourdough will
never forget its friends.
CONSERVATION, GOOD AND BAD
It is a mistake to think that all con
servation is bad, and it is difficult to
see how any one who has ever lived in
the United States could make it.
Certainly a conservation which would
have saved Snoqualimy Falls from a
corporation like the Puget Sound Rail
way company, would have been good
conservation. Snoqualimy is a ease of
a tremendous water power which once
belonged to the people, but was
seized by a corporation and con
verted into electricity and sold
back to the people at a profit—
not so consciousnessless, however, as it
was before the city of Seattle develop
ed a water power of its own. Any con
servation capably designed to prevent
the handing over of tremendous water
power to corporations to bo sold back
to the people at a price made possible
by monopoly, is good conservation.
Whitby island is a fertile spot in
Puget Sound. Here and there may be
found a rancher, making a tidy profit
in garden truck. Stretcheu between
are large areas covered with standing
timber, owned* by the Puget Sound
Mill company. On the other side of
the Sound, and along the shores of
Hood's canal is a vast country in pre
cisely the same condition. These areas
would afford comfortable lives for a
thousand homeless Seattle laborers.
These timber covered areas are being
•conserved, not for any future genera
tions, but for the heirs of Pope and
Talbot. These timbered tracts cannot
be released from the forest reserves
of the Puget Sound Mill company by
•orders issued by the president of the
United States. The settlers scattered
here and there between the company’s
holdings may have a greivance against
the United States, but not because of
^conservation by the government of the
United States. A little conservation by
the government twenty years ago,,
was a lack of it in Washington state,
would be by now thickly settled with
prosperous farmers.
It is human nature to lock the stab
le after the horse is stolen, and the
locking of Alaska in the ice chest has
been as natural as it has been out
rageous. There is just as little wisdom
iii the conservation of Alaska as there
and this part of Washington state
There are, in Southeastern Alaska,
an abundance of small streams, each
furnishing a small amount of water
power. It is doubtful, however, if
there is more than one stream which
would furnish as much as five thous
and horse power without the expendi
ture of a fortune. Salmon creek might
produce that much, but it would cost
a million dollars to develop it. These
little streams may be of inestimable
value iu the development of the coun
try by furnishing power for private
use to furnishing power for mines, but
it would be folly to conserve them
for running the cars of municipal
street railways in the future metrop
olis of Admiralty island, for instance,
not so much on account of the power
as on account of the improbability of
the metropolis, as on account of the
insufficiency of the streams.
The immense fortune of Weyer
houser is built upon a thrifty practice
of securing at a small cost immense
tracts of splendid timber which was
once the property of the United States,
and holding it for a higher price. But
in Alaska the forests do not amount
to much. There are no- immense tracts
of splendid timber in Southeastern Al
aska.
The Sourdough believes, however,
that the forestry regulations here are
undeservedly unpopular. The editor
of this paper has never bought any
stum page, nor cut either piles or logs
or cordwood, but lie understands that
the settler is not required to pay any
thing for the wood he cuts for his own
use, and that the price that one must
pay for timber for commercial purpos
es is purely nominal, and barely suffi
cient to cover the cost to the govern
ment of preventing needless waste,
and making impossible any lessor
Weyerhousers who might wish to ac
quire such timber as we have, and sell
it at prices based on a virtual mono
ply.
THE ALASKA LABOR UNION
The new hall, for the erection of
which a contract was let this week to
L. G. Thomas, will, when it is built,
be an exceedingly useful institution to
the town of Douglas. It will be an in
stitution which has been needed here
for a long ime. It will be also, a struc
ture which will be a credit to tin* town.
But it will be more than that. It
will be a monument to the success ot
the kind of a union the Alaska Labor
Union is.
The Alaska Labor Union is primar
ily, to afford an expression from the
men in the contests between labor and
capital. hue essential distinction in
its character, however, is the emphasis
which it places on arbitration.
Under the superintendency of the
present incumbent, there has been lit
tle occasion for the exercise of its pri
mary function. The members of the
union have had no greivauces to ad
just. The Alaska Treadwell Gold Alin
ing company is, of course, not a phil
anthropy. But the management pur
sues a policy which makes for the con
tentment of the men. The wages paid
are not the highest in Alaska, but the
local cost of living is controlled by the
company, and ita is doubtful if any
place can be found where the dispar
ity between the cost of living and the
going wages is as great as it is j at
Treadwell, either in or out of Alaska.
The usefulness of the Alaska Labor
Union however doef» not begin and end
with the exercise 6$ its primary func
tion. Its great Usetulness has been as
a benefit society. Here on Douglas, is
land, practically all of us depend on
the fruits of our daily labor for the
comforts of life which we buy, and
when we are overtaken by illness or
disability for labor, our incomes
cease. To its members who thus suf
fer the loss of their wages, the Alaska
Labor Union pays a sum each week.
Scores of men on Douglas island have
been helped over the rough places by
that “little old ten dollars per.”
The editor of this paper has written,
for the Washington Post, “An Appre
ciation,” of Governor Clark, which
will be reprinted in the next issue of
the Sourdough.
Th® Air Mlmiimg Expert
By “MICKEY" RICE
(Through the courtesy of F. E. Kelly, the Sourdough has received a num
ber of poems written by “Mickey” Rice. None of them have ever been pub
lished, and nearly all of them have Gastineau channel themes. They will be
printed in the Sourdough during the subsequent weeks. This is by no means the
cleverest in the lot).
Away back in the early days;
* ’Twas twenty years this fall
When places were producing,
'And Treadwell was but small,
When miners could got grubstakes,
For almost anything;
When merchants took no notes
But said “Just pay us in +be
spring. ’ ’
Before Frank Cook made his pile,
Or “Peek-a-boos” were a fad
Before Maloney became mayor,
Or “The Greek,” a city dad;
Before Dave Martin learned how
On a four-flush to stand pat
Before Jake Rice became a star,
Or Margerie got fat,
Before George Rice learned how
To jolly and to spiel
Before Bill Brennan had cut a chop,
()r Moses turned a wheel.
’Fore Harry Jordan or “Slim Jim”
Cropped out as dandy sports
When Juneau was a Hamlet,
Devoid of schools or courts.
Since then we’ve had promoters
From almost every state.
From Boston, Yale and Harvard,
To the foggy Golden Gate;
From Montana down to Texas
And from there to Puget Sound
And there’s always ’bout a hundred,
Of these gents a loafing ’round.
They 've reduced out vulgar fractions
And consolidated claims;
And christened all our prospects
With double jointed names
’Till it looks as though old Webster,
Hadn’t any more to lend,
They extended our extensions
’Till there’s nothing to extend.
One day a mine promoter,
From the mercenary east
With his cheek as smoothly shaven,
As an Indian Faddist priest
Dropped into town from somewhere
T don’t know where—’sno lie.
But they said he was a tourist
And he came on the Delhi
Thev dropped him down at Casey s
Where he stamped around and cuss
ed
The “blarsted, bloomin’ country”
’Till we thought him ’bout to bust.
Then he turned ana tackled Casey
Saying loudly, “I presume
You got my application
For a two-compartment room.”
Casey pondered for a minute
Then he'simply smiled and said:
“You are mighty lucky, partner,
If you get a single bed.
I’ve filed your application.
But I ain’t got any “sweet”
And the market ain’t providing us,
With very much to eat;
But I’ve got a brand of liquids
That’s as good as you can find
Providin’ your acclimated,
To our particular kind
And if you’re feeling frisky,
And a hankerin’ to bet
We can deal you a bunch of faro
And amuse you with roulette.”
A gang of Treadwell miners
Who were lingering round,
Then allured this thirsty stranger
To go and see the town.
They took him down along the line
And showed him every sight.
And pursued the local customs
Which control the town at night.
And when they got this gezeer
Sufficiently confused,
They took him to a tunnel,
That was very seldom used;
They made the cuss a mattress,
Of thousand dollar ore
They covered him with empty sacks,
And left him there to snore.
Next day when this promoter
Got himself released,
He prepared a technical report, and
Sent the same back east;
He said: “A chap named ‘Cordwood
Jim’
Was monkeying around.
And stumbled ’gainst a chunk of ore,
Protruding from the ground.”
And just because it assayed high,
And looked uncommon fine,
lie kind o’ lost his head and thought
He'd found a paying mine.
And then he finished his report—
‘‘They’ll work her out in spring—
I spent a whole night underground,
And didn’t see a thing.
Next day this bold promoter
Was interrogating Jim,
With a sort of sneeking notion
That he’d got the best of him.
As they sat down on a pile of rocks,
With a jug of Holland gin,
Which same they were imbibin’
Out of glassware made of tin.
Then this expert springs the question,
With a wise look all around,
“Are you sure and certain, Jimmie,
That your bloomin ’ ledge goes
down f ’ ’
Old Jim he thought a moment,
While a gazin’ in his cup,
Then he answered, kind of sudden,
“Well, by God, she don’t go up!”
That night he made his last report,
This expert of renown—
“Find Ked Diamond don’t go up,
Therefore i turn it down.”
Next month the news, it got back east,
It was too good to keep,
That every mine on Douglas ilse,
Was rich and wide and deep!
When this promoter heard the news,
He took himself to bed;
There he toosed and groaned for
weeks,
And then they found him dead,
And the coroner’s certificate,
It "was concise and brief—
The late lamented wasn’t sick,
He simply died from grief.
THE TALES THAT A&E TOLD
Not long since, a Treadwell swimmer
planned a little ledgerdemaine for the
amusement of an audience at the club
tank. He was to be put in a bag, the
bag tied with a trick knot, so that after
he sank out of sight he could untie the
knot by pulling the end of the string,
which was to be placed inside the sack,
get out, tie up the sack again, and
swim out. The sack was made of bed
ticking which did not let much water
in, and although the sack, weighted by
stones sank immediately, he thought he
was floating on the surface of the wat
er, and, afraid to do the trick where
it would be discovered, he waited for
the sack to sink. After two minutes
and a half he was rescued. His first
words were an expression of impa
tience because the sack would not
sink.
The next day it was confidently told
that the bag was badly chewed where
he had endeavored to secure his re
lease with his teeth, because he could
not untie the knot. It was just as con
fidently told that one or more of his
teeth were broken when they tried to
open his mouth to facilitate the pro
cess of wringing the water out of him.
On the day that Dan Popovitch was
shot, the writer telephoned the story
to the Juneau Dispatch. The shooting
occured a little before 1 o ’clock. The
correspondent did not know' of the
shooting until 1:20, and 1:45 is closing
time for Douglas copy on the Dis
patch. The ferry w'as missed, and the
story had to go in. The telephone had
to be used, and to the surprise of the
correspondent the Dispatch stated next
day that eye witnesses said the wound
ed man had first called his assailant a
name, and then struck him over the eye,
when, at the most, the correspondent
had never meant to say more than that
this was the assailant’s story. The tele
phone is always an uncertain means of
communication, and so the paper went