1 TAIMANA LEADER [
Published Every Thursday at Tanaka, Alaska.
Vil X SAM J. CALLAHAN, EDITOR No’IT
Coo. M. Arbaokle. Manager 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES I
Advertising Rates on Aoalication.
ADVERTISING ALASKA
Juneau, Alaska, has taken the advice recently given
by Governor Clark and will proceed promptly to issue ad
vertising pamphlets calling attention, specifically and in
detail, to the many opportunities open in the great North
ern territory for capital and enterprise. The time is par
ticularly opportune for sending out advertising matter of
the kind, for at no time has there been so much attention
directed to the splendid material resources of Alaska as is
the case at present. Indeed, the present tendency is to ex
aggerate the money value of the resources of Alasua out of
all proportion to the truth.
Alaska affords one of the finest fields in the known
world for young men of energy and enterprise and for the
investment of capital as well. The idea that the great re
sources of that wonderful territory can ever be monopolized
or absorbed by any group of capitalists is too fantastic for
serious consideration. It left open to individual explora
tion, investment and development, as the rest of the coun
try has been left, and if not treated as a fertile field for the
exploitation of communistic ideas of bureaucratic faddists,
the development of Alaska will be wonderfully rapid.
There will be homes for hundreds of thousands of people
there: opportunities for the creation of great industries
from small beginnings, and wealth-making with no capital
save energy and enterprise, such as few other parts of the
world have ever offered.
The only present danger to the welfare of Alaska comes
from the prevalence of the idea in many quarters that
Alaska should be treated solely as material property of the
federal government, to be used merely for the purpose of
extracting revenue therefrom: not as the potential home of
hundreds of thousands of individualistic American families,
making their own ways and developing an empire with
their own resources and energies: asking nothing from the
federal government, save equality in treatment with that
accorded other American communities.—Seattle Post-Intel
ligencer.
Gordon Betties Thinks
Well of the Kuskokwim
Gordon C. Betties, Alaska’s best-known prospector, arrived in
Tanana direct from the Kuskokwim River region last Friday
evening.
He is the founder of Tanana, having moved up from the Old
Station when the slough filled in and shut the steamboats out from
that point in 1894. The house is still standing, just west of the
Northern Commercial Company’s, in which his trading post was
established.
“A region of great extent and vast resources” but poorly
expresses his conception of the Kuskokwim, a section of the
territory which is attracting a great deal of attention just now.
Mr. Betties was one of the three first white men ever to winter
in that country. The time was 1888 ’89, and his companions were
“Tuck” Lambert, one of the discoverers of gold on the Fortymile,
and Harry Mellich, both now dead. At that time he discovered
and located a large deposit of cinnibar near Kolmakoffsky, which
is just now beginning to be developed. He will not profit by it.
After its discovery he and his associates concluded that the out
look of the market for quicksilver did not justify development
work in a place so remote, and the property was allowed to lapse.
For some years now the mine has been under bond to California
men, and after extensive prospecting it is learned they have closed
the deal and will begin the erection of reduction works the present
summer. Mr. Betties said he proved the ore body to be 80 feet
wide and globules of mercury could be seen all through it.
Beginning on the Kantishna, Mr. Betties says; the mineralized
belt that extends through the Kuskokwim mountains runs in a
perfectly straight line southwest for about 400 miles. It includes
the Innoko and Iditarod diggings. What thorough exploration
may prove cannot be foretold with exactitude, but it is clearly his
opinion that the Kuskokwim side of the divide gives the brightest
promise. Supplies for the Innoko diggings will come through
the Kuskokwim, but those for the Iditarod will always go in from
the Yukon. There will undoubtedly be two supply centers for. the
Kuskokwim—one east and the other west of the Iditarod.
The Kuskokwim is navigable for 500 miles. The bad bar at
the mouth of the river has.aTways impeded traffic, but last summer
a narrow but deep channel was located, through which steamers
entered and went without difficulty to Bethel. It is perhaps the
best-timbered river in interior Alaska. The climate is not unlike
that of portions of Idaho. It is subject to Chinook winds and the
season is much longer than on this side of the divide.
- Mr. Betties is by inclination and experience a hardrock miner.
While he thinks so well of the Kuskokwim and will return to that
section on the opening of navigation, other parts of the country
also appeal to him as containing great possibilities in quartz- Two
sections, in particular, he believes will become rich producers in
that line—the Cbandlar, where S. J. Marsh is beginning opera
tions, and the upper Koyukuk, where lack of transportation for
the present renders quartz development impracticable.
WESTERN DRIFTWOOD
The Man From Nowhere
The only time I ever saw Him
was one evening at dusk some lime
ago: He was seated on a gi,«ds
box cn the C.P.R. dock, watching
the stevedores preparing a steamer
for a voyage into the North. There
was not much about him to attract
attention, unless it was the maroon
colored silken kerchief he wore
about his neck. His lelt hat wa<
broad of brim, but the biim *vas not
stiff. The crown of his hat was
high and not dented in the fashioi
common in the North. In fact thN
man's headgear was typical of the
great Southwest. The kerchief
too, was of the Southwest. His
feet were coveted with thick-soled
miner’s boots that reached had {va\
to his knees When he looked U|
from under the hritu ot his wrang
ler's hat, his features showed lean
and clean cut. The uecromancv ol
the North had traced deep lines in
his face, the sun of the Southwest
ern deserts had colored his face the
color of mahogany, the culture ol
the Kist had taught tlie expression
in his eyes and a hunger which
glowed in them, and which was not
physical, did not wholly erase th>
expression.
I have forgotten now just how ii
was that I entered into conversa
tion with him I am not naturally
very observant and I was not, at
first, attracted by his dress nor his
manner. I- spoke to him in a
friendly conversational way in the
course of passing and repassing
him in my stroll up and down the
dock, for I was waiting, too. He
seemed to welcome the informality;
he seemed to want to talk. After
we had spoken of the weather and
kindred topics, he asked me if 1
had booked a passage on the
steamer that lay before tis. I ex
plained that I had not, that I was
merely looking after some ship
ments of goods. Then I asked him
the obvious return question.
“Yes,” lie said, quickly, “I’m
going back North, and I’m going
for good. I’il never see this part
of the earth again Ever feel like
you wanted to hurry off and bury
yourself, stranger?”
I said I had, for the sake of sym
pathy, and asked him whence he
was from, for by this time I was in
terested.
“My last job,” lie said, after a
pause, ‘‘was at Paloduro, Texas,
where I extracted the princely sti
pend of $45 per month, while eti
gaged in the gentlemanly profession
of fence riding. But I’m not ‘from’
Paloduro, nor from the Lone Star
any place. I’m just from nowhere,
stranger. From nowhere. Lots of
ray brand floating up and down
this coast; stranger. Any God’s
amount of them.”
I admitted that human western
driftwood was not uncommon along
that stretch of 'coast which exteiul
from Seattle north to Nome. But
I had not given the thought much
attention before. I asked the man
from nowhere whither lie was
bound.
His eyes laughed as he spoke:
“Stranger, I wish you would tell
me. I’m just going north, that’s
all, and I get there; where I’m
going, there won’t be any mail nor
any newspapers; and when I pass
out there won’t be any regular
funeral, either.”
The stranger said this with such
vehemence that I became thor
oughly interested. Here was a
man, I reasoned with myself, intel
ligent, apparently well educated,
sane, bound to bury himself in
some unknown wilderness, to sepa
rate himself from all contact with
his kind, to close to himself the
sources of information of current
history, by which we keep abreast
of our times; pour quoi? J asked.
“Stranger,” (this is how he told
it me) “there's a whole lot in love;
isn’t there? I mean, you know,
that a fellow bears a lot and reads
a lot these days about romance and
ail that, and there’s always love
mixed up in it. People talk about
love too much nowadays, and for
get to accept it as a natural condi
tion. I reckon folks felt al>out it
just the same way as they do now
away back in the time when An
tony was busy roping Cleopatra,
but the-y didn’t sit down and try to
analyze it the wav they do now
I’ll bet \ou that Orpheus wasn'.i
writing newspaper specials about
how he loved Kurydice, and Eury
dice wasn’t telling anxious femalt>
through the tu ig.izines what to do
when Reginald or Harold waive 1
to break off the engagement be
cause their lady loves chewed gum
No, stranger, love in those days
was taken as a ttatutal condition,
and when folks fell in live the
didn’t get all heated up about tri
fles, either.
“The trouble with me is that !
just went along believing in that
oi l kind of love You see, stranger.
I was brought up in the East, kept
right at home in a small town
going to school ami to church an
all that until ii a as lime for me io
go to college Before I got through
college I had a whole lot of new
ideas, but the outstanding i lea was
that I wanted to wander. How
ever, I didn’t wander, not right
away. I went home and started
into business, and it was while 1
was home there that I met the fin
est girl in the world.. I wanted to
get married right away, because
that gill su.e had been roped, tie !
and thrown, stranger. But when 1
came to have a wash up, why there
wasn’t e:lough color in iny sluice
box to buy a parlor carpet Just
about that time things, got noisy up
Nome way and, after debating the
thing backwards and forwards and
from both sides, I went over to the
girl's house one night a.id told her
I was going to hike We 'had a
pretty weepy evening and all that
and mavhe it wasn’t hard tor me;
but the last thing she said was,
‘I’ll he here waiting for you when
you cotue back, boy, and whether
you’re rich or poor, or sick or in
health, I’ll be wanting you.’ Then,
just before I closed the front gate,
she whispered ’God bless you ’
“It’s plumb indelicate in me,
stranger, telling you all this, but it
helps me to have somebody know,
and as there’s no names mentioned
and as I won’t be round these part
again, I reckon it can’t hurt very
much.
"I could go#on and tell you books
of stuffabout the luck I didn’t have
in the North. I wrote eveiytirue
there was a chance to get mail out
and I always intended to hike back
the next summer. But always
when next summer came the
chances seemed better and finally I
hit it fairly good and 1 got together
enough stuff to make a start. That
was last year, stranger Things
have happened since then I went
home all right and I saw my f >!k'
and the fi'st thing they tol l m
was that the girl had ti'-d up with
■mother chap. I don’t blame her
It seems she didn't get any of my
letters, and my own folks got nolle
for some reason or other i didn’t
get any home'letters, because I was
shifting camps so often. Anyway,
just figured it out that the world
had hit oil too far ahead for me. I
didn’t see the girl at all, didn’t let
her know I was home. I trans
ferred most of my little pile to my
mother, and then I hit out again.
I went down into the Panhandle to
try ray. luck there, and from that I
went into Mexico and took a whack
at mining there. But there’s too
many people around and I was al
ways thinking, thinking and won
dering, I spent my pile and
punched cattle long enough to get
a grubstake And now, stranger,
I’m bound North for keeps. I’m
not pitying myself and I ain’t
whining none, stranger, but I just
can’t figure it obt.”
Soon after tins the North-bound
steamer pulled away. The stranger
was standing by the rail when she
cleared and when he was almost
lost trorn view, the man from no
where waved his hat at my.—Vic
toria Colonist.
Job Printing at The Leader office.
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.
Northern Commercial Co.
STAGE LINE
Carrying U. S. Mail, Passengers ami Express
CONNECTIONS THROUGH TO VALDEZ
FOR RATES APPLY TO
CEO. J. MILLER, First Door Below N. C. Store
m
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
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-° R- ;
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