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TIE VALLEY SETTLER is published
every Friday by the firtanuska
Valley Farmer 13 Cooperative
Association nt Calmer, Alaska,
f.!nr. Editor: Marie Wilson
Subscription rates : $>1,00 year
by mail: 1,50 year
nailed anywhere: 10^ copy
This paper is ussued for the
pur^ osc of yiviny inTormation
and nev/s of the flatanuskn Valle
Farmers Cooper tiny. Association1
work, problems, accomplishments
and also, nows of local and yor
cral interest; and to help fost
er the cooperative spirit of
the farmers of the Matanuska
Valley.
» <• C9 <-)
Last week's issue of the VALLEY
SETTLER was some what larger
than usual. it was necessary
to increase the nvar.ber of pages
in order to accommodate the
amount of material to be printed.
Under the present circumstances
it is impossible lor me to do
this extra amount of work each .
week.
Therefore, this week'3 issue
consiits of the usual eight
pages. This amount of space,
a^ain, loos not permit mo to
print all the material which
has arrived at my desk.
Another letter from hr.Bisson
will appear next week.
Editor® note: The following
letter has been received v/ith
a request to print it in this
issue of the VALLEY SETTLER.
11 Dear Editor:
Reading the letter of C.E.
Bisson in last weeks copy of the
"Valley Settler" caused mo to
do a little thinking, as it un
doubt e^l:/ did many ethers in
the valley. The results of these
thoughts was the recollecting of
an nxperience that I had as a
boy, aged about twelve years.
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It was my pleasure to spend
my summers in those days, visit
ing my numerous relatives. Part
of two of these summers were
spent in a snail lumbering town
in northern Wisconsin where lived
five families related to me, one
of which was an uncle of my fath
ers named Julius, a nan about
70 years of age,
Julius had come to America
with his wife during their early
married life. He was a master
craftsman in wood and almost
equally good with iron. Trained
in Germany under the Guild sister\
he had worked as an apprentice
for seven years. At the end of
that period he was permitted to
make his own tools in the shop
and then start out on his own.
In his yard he had his shop.
There he spent his time repairing
and nuking those things the
neighborhood demanded*
Compared to the tools I had
used in l.anual Trining shops in
the cities where I had been fort-,
unate enough to attend school,
his were crude and unfinished,
and I was often criticizing and
comparing the two as I tinkered
about his shop, trying to make
some of my toys.
One day after a particularly
exasperating experience in trying
to drive nails in a rabbit pen
with his hammer I made a remark
at which the old gentleman lost
pati..ncc,
"Como wid me,” he said*
I was a little bit fri0htened
when I saw he was an0ry but did
not dare disobey.
Wo wont into his little
blacksmith shop which was sep
arated from the woodworking shop*
He set me to the task of pumping
the bellows for the forge as soon
as the fire was started and then
selected from his scrap pile a
piece of iron, which, was soon
glowing in the forge.
In the next hour I saw grow
tofore my pyes the head of a small
hammer very much sIranilar to the
ones 1 used in the manual training
shop at school. Without pattern,
he finished with rrvsp and file
and then tempered this iron,
V;e then wont to the wood,
(continued on page 7)