TANANA LEADER
Published Every Thursday at Tanana, Alaska.
9*1. M SAM J. CALLAHAN. EDITOR No. 20
Ooo. M. Arbaekte. Manager
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SOME MEN’S OWN LITTLENESS
In a reminiscent story of Virginia City when the Com
stock was at the height of its glory, a contributor to an
Eastern paper tells of one kind of annoyance suffered by
Charles Goodwin, editor of the Virginia City Enterprise.
Goodwin was a man of splendid attainments and often en
tertained people of education and refinement who came out
to the great mining camp from their New England homes.
To the editor the view which led away through the steep
sides of Seven-mile canyon out across miles of flat sagebrush,
then to the sandy expanse of the sink of the Carson river,
where the river mysteriously disappeared into the earth,
and far beyond to the snow-capped mountains of the Hum
boldt range—to Goodwin the scene was one of inspiring
beauty and delight. However, the grandeur of the situa
tion rarely impressed his visitors, and his good nature and
hospitable instincts were often tried by the gloomy view
they took of the surroundings. On one occasion a class
mate of Goodwin’s went up to Virginia City to visit him
and took lunch. In departing he tarried on the veranda
and looked off toward the Humboldt range and turned
pityingly and said: “Good Lord, Charley, I should think
the dreariness and desolation of this outlook would drive
you mad.” Goodwin had been tried once too often. With
a big sweep of his arm, comprehending all that lay below
in the canyon, the desert, the sink and further on to the
purple mountains, tipped with white, he replied: “Sir, the
good Lord has made it possible for a man blind to all the
beauties of this earth to dig his way through a college.
xou, sir, standing there, are an evidence of what I have
said. You are in sight of yet you ar* blind to the grand
est, the most ennobling panorama of nature God has ever
spread upon his beloved footstool. There nature in her
most glorious mood has painted a canvas for the eyes of the
soul but damn you, Jack, you never could see anything
pretty outside of Central Park! I tell you sir, that you are
incapable of distinguishing between somberness and sub
limity in nature; I tell you, sir, that a man whose soul is
refined above a longing for the frou-frou of silks on Fifth
avenue cannot without a trembling at his own littleness
and insignificance view so mighty, so glorious—Must you
go, Jack?”
The feeling of the enthusiast who had come to love his
home in its setting of mountain and canyon and desert
scenery will be understood by some Alaskans who read the
statement made before the house committee on territories
by L. h, Powell, of Nome, at Washington, March 23. Mr.
Powell, among other things, said: “I do not think that I
ever met a man, unless he has a wreck somewhere in his
life, in Alaska, at any point that I have ever visited, who
wished to stay there and live. Of course the man might in
some instances have gone up there to hate himself and live
there several years. But aside from that kind of men, I do
not know that I have ever met a man in Alaska who was a
good citizen who was in there because he wanted to live in
the country or to make it his home.” Again: “I think
that a man who has ever known the conditions such as we
have in the United States, as we know those conditions
down here, can hardly reconcile himself to live in a country
where there is, as they term it there, nine months winter
and three months of darn bad weather, as we have it in
Alaska. Then oftentimes there is bad weather practically
the year round, and it is not a pleasant thing to contem
plate. Mr. Powell said a good deal more along the same
line of mental cleavage, so to speak, but enough has been
quoted to show that he is not in harmony with the works of
nature as manifested in the land where he temporarily re
sides. With him, as with the old-time Nevada editor’s
guest, there is some innate frailty of the understanding,
some hindrance to a rational conception of things, that
will leave him still poor if he succeeds in accumulating as
much gold as is contained in all of Seward peninsula. The
world holds some riches that he is even incapable of want
ing. His conclusions regarding others are false, because
their ideas and aspirations and conception of things are
barred to him by the statute of limitations.
A little inquiry will show that human beings differ as
widely in their likes and dislikes of natural surroundings
as in any other matter of universal interest. Some love
the plain, some the mountain and some the sea; some the
snow and some the warm sunshine; some prefer it wet and
some dry: some like marked changes in the seasons and
some equability. A few men have tired of Hawaii—every
day and every night approaches perfection, but the monot
ony palls. However, a majority can find some feature to
admire anywhere and can derive soine pleasure from God’s
handiwork however he has fashioned it and wherever he hasj
placed it. The man is to be pitied who feels like an exile
from all things pleasurable while lie is pursuing fortune in
Alaska. He needs something that the gold will not buy.
A MUSICAL TRAGEDY |<
- ! I
Sara Schildkret is a Hungarian inusi- (
cian and leader, who makes and con
ducts about the most pleasing lot of
noises of anybody in the lyceum con-.
cert business. That is saying much, I *
for there are thousands of really good : j
musicians in the platform world. Sam j'
and his delegation, known as the Hun- j ‘
garian orchestra, played at the Long- i
worth-Roosevelt nuptials. Further, on i
his convex chest Sam carries enough
medals to fix up a cozy corner. He
likes music, especially his own, and
audiences love him and his because
they will play as many encores, almost,
as ate called for.
At one stage of one of the Schildkret
programs the lights are turned low,
the orchestra breaks into a wild, bar
baric strain that makes the audience
blind and forgetful for an interval
sufficiently long to let Sam mane his
escape from the platform and get ■
around to the back of the room—or ‘
tent if it be at a Chautauqua—whence
he comes through the dim, religious
light, softly playing “Dearie” on his
flute, while the orchestra reduces its
accompaniment almost to a whisper.
This is line and impressive and thrilly,
and audiences never fail to go wild
over it.
Last summer at erne of the Cliautau
quas Sam had reduced the lights and
started the wild, barbaric, sensuous
crash of timbrel and viol and horn and
reed, had slipped from the platform
and made his way Secretly to the back
of the tent. Then in the gloom he
started, like a sylvan faun, or Pan or
anybody else of that general descrip
tion, to play “Dearie” down the center
isle. The audience, enraptured by the
heavenly strain, for the usual fleeting
and delicious moment, wondered from
whence it came.
But right in the midst of this audi
ble sweetness; iq the midst of the
thrill and the thrall and the sway of
sound and rhythm and ethereal delight,
Sam Schildkrit—Siam who had played
at Alice Roosevelt’s wedding and whose
chest bears medals from kings, Sam
who was bringing from that magic
flute those enchanting sounks — fell
over a dog!
The story really ought to stop right
here. So it does.—Chicago News.
PUT UP STATIONS
IN ONE MINUTE
“There is no other country with
a trained squad of men possessed ot
apparatus which can be taken from <
h wagon, set up and put in opera
tion, capable ot sending a wireless
message 25 miles and occupying
one minute and eight seconds only
Irom the time of command 'Halt,
open station!’ to the first buzz of
tbe wireless wave producing spark,’’
says Popular Mechanics.
“There is more to opening a
wireless station than hauling the
apparatus from the wagon. It
means erecting a mast 40 feet high,
spreading for 150 feet each four
stranded wires which perform tbe
double purpose of bolding up tbe
mast and of Serving as tbe auteuae
of tbe wireless set, spreading an
other smaller set of insulated wire
at tbe base of the mast for a
‘ground’and connecting tbe instru
ments and the source of power.
“When tbe first portable wireless
was made in this country a few
years ago a 60 foot mast was re
quired, demanding a complicated
system of guys, a troublesome
ground and several hundred feet
radius of clear space for the erec
tion of the station. The writer well
remembers seeing the first tests of
erecting this mast at Fort Myer,
Va., and thinking that a hostile
force would have little trouble find
ing time to demolish such an outfit
luring the three-quarters of an
lour ii took to get it i:i working
irder "
Caruso gets $2,5)0 every time lie
ings. Tanana lias a pretty good singer,
>ut the last lime he sang he only got
15 and costs.
Swedes to Produce Radium
Bohemia claims credit for producing
a second grain of radium, which i9 now
uvai.able for shipment. The value 19
fixed by the Austrian government at
$2,375,000 an ounce, with the medical
demand far exceeding the supply. A
British consul slates that a radium fac
tory has been started at Lidingo, near
Stockholm, Sweden. It will employ 120
men, and expects to produce four and a
half grams of radium per year, using a
large amount of radio-active material.
As a gram equals 15.5 grains and there
are 480 grains in a troy ounce, each
grain is valued at $4,948, making the
expected Swedish output total $345,123.
In tiie ‘•Woman’s Column” ^f an
Outside paper Lhe writer says ‘‘A wo
man ought to be pretty sure of a man
before she decides to take him for
keeps.” The paper didn’t have any
“Man’s Column.”
GOLDEN NORTH CAFE
Carrying the Best Supplies on the Market
OYSTERS, FISH AND GAME
IN SEASON
Centrally Located. In Connection with Grand Hotel.
ED Y. LEE, PROP.
HEADQUARTERS FOR TRAVELING PUBLIC!
Pioneer^ Tower Houses
Two First-Class Resorts
Stables for Horses and Dogs. Warm Bunkhouse where
you can dry your clothing and sox.
Joe Anlcich, Prop. Tanana, Alaska
Santa Fe
When You Go to California Where Every Month
is June, Travel on the
CALIFORNIA
LIMITED
k On)y Train in Southern California, via. Any Line,
V Exclusively First-Class Travel
HAS A PULLMAN CAR FOR GRAND CANYON
N II ■ II ■ t ,1
EAST OR WEST
THE COMFORTABLE WAY IS VIA. THE
Great Northern
Railway
CLOSE CONNECTIONS
To All Points East or West, With Two Modern Over
land Trains in Either Direction Daily. \
FOR FULL INFORMATION ADDRESS
F. I. Whitney, Passenger Traffic Manager, St. Paul, Minn.
—O R
S. B. Yerkes, Assistant Gen. Pass. Agent, Seattle, Wash.