THE MATANUSXA VALLEY PIONEER
Published Thursdays
at Painer, Alaska
-Jack Allman, editor
and publisher
* Subscription rates
$2.50 per year. If by
lail add fifty cents for postage.
Angle copies 5b locally, 100 else
where.. For sale at Bert’s Drug
Yere we are, making our bow a
■ ain just as we did when we fot out
the first copies of the PIONEER on
.ugust 22nd. But this time we are
standing upon untried legs without
"he dependable financial arm of the
corporation to lend sunport. This
issue of the PIONEER is the first
without the familiar ARRC in the
masthead.
Because it takes nickels to pay
for fuel, lights, pacer stock, sten
cils and the like, wre cannot, as did
the corporation, nut out hundreds of
copies free of charge throughout the
camp and colony.
Ne will, however, distribute this
and the next issue without cost to
all who drop into the office. By two
weeks from today we hope to be able
to brag of a fairly couple to circu
lation of the. valley through regular
sulscriotions.
tohe, Anchorage
Tlie new home of the 71 OUTER is
somewhat different than the little
10x12 tent on Pinrerlake Road. It
is now the sixteen by thirty tent
formerly occupied by the tinekeener.
The first section has a table and
benches with late magazines and ra
cers from various .11 ask an cities. It
is a ilr.ee where you can meet your
°riends, or leave your packs. Hake
it a habit to drop in. There is a
bulletin board listing truck or any
ibher transportation going out to
the different camps. Come in and get
the dope, No need wearing out your
thumb along the road.
The center section is where the
weekly accident occurs, and the for
mer .Itwwod office is our living
-uarteis...just twenty feet from the
less house door. . This has its ad
vantages. It is a cinch we will al
pys be ut> no matter how early you
call in the morning. Not oven a
deaf man could sleep through the
■ lid clanging of that beaten rail
road iron, the imperious summons to
r sdx o'clock breakfast that the
crews refer to as the ’ gut hammer.f
Like the Lion’s Mouth of Addisons
"Spectator,” we, too, will have a
box beside the door. VTe call it the
Pioneer’s Powder Horn and into the
slot you may drop any noint of in
formation you wish to query, or any
legitimate kick you wish to regis
ter. Through the Powder Horn we
hop« to settle misunderstandings be
fore they grow into something moro
dangerous.
For instance, a colonist came
into the office the other day and
got a load off his chest. His dan
der was up. He had been refused
permission to service his Guernsey
com with a fine Brown Swiss bull.
Ho thought that was carrying corp
oration authority a little too far,
After all, it was his cow.
The mistake was that no one had
taken the trouble to give a reason
for the ruling. lie was most sen
sible about it and soon over his
anger when it was pointed out that
all the stock brought in by the
corporation was of fairly pure
strain, if not a reel thoroughbred,
and that those lines would soon
disappear with uncontrolled cross
breeding,.
Use the Powder Horn. We will
do our darndest to got the answer
to any complaint. A better under
standing between the busy official
and the colonist with an individ
ual problem will do much to make
the going easier for both.
Wonder what the folks hack in
Wintery "useor sin and the neigh
boring. states will say when they
learn bhat we are having spring
weather with the mercury at forty
above all day?
To determine the exact moment
when it becomes dark on the day
when nightfall ends the long fast
of Rama dam practised by the h'oh am
mo dans , an official of their
church nulls a hair from his head.
If,
m’
lenrth, he cannot
toll whether it is black or white,
he announces that darkness has
fallen.
By this unique method we have
determined that daylight arrives
at 8:2b and that it is dark at
3:25.
Sourdough Sam laughs at such
foolishness as pulling out hairs.
;ie clings to the old Alaskan man
ner of determining this point.
"If you can see to swing an
axe , itf s daylight."
‘■Stampede Red” Robinson suggest?
the hockey team throw their skates
away and go in for water nolo.
H. s. Lee, one time settler in
the valley who returned when he
learned of all the activity around
here, discovered some old straw
berry plants when the rain melted
away their protective covering of
snow. He brought some into the
office and they look like they
just came out of a greenhousee..
not even burned on the edges with
frost, Nature sure nlays some
funny tricks up here in the "Fro
zen ..retie."