Ullj? Chitina Sfcator
CHITINA, ALASKA.
Cordova Office: Dally Alaskan
Published every Saturday by
WILL A. STEEL HARRY O. STEEL
Editors, Managers and Proprietors
O. E. BENNETT, City Editor
ADVERTISING RATES:
Made know n upon application. They
will be found reasonable for the ser
vice given.
Application has been made to the post
office department for the entry of this
newspaper as second-class matter at the
postoffice at Chitina, Alaska, under the
act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICK:
One month.? .50
Six months. 2.00
One year. 3.50
Office: Hotel Chitina Building.
CHITINA, SATURDAY, MARCH 18
LET US MINE
OUR OWN COAL
RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT.
Alaska might well be termed the
greatest bargain that one nation has
ever bought from another. Russia,
when she sold Alaska to the United
States, little thought that she was
selling one of the righest portions
of the earth. If the Russian gov
ernment had ever known what min
eral wealth it contained Alaska
would undoubtedly still be under the
‘ mailed hand" of the Romanoffs. A.
H. Brooks, of the U. S. Geological
Survey estimates that there must be
at least $500,000,000 worth of plac
er gold in Alaska. Mr. Brooks and
his assistants are very conservative in
their estimates and one might safely
multiply that by a hundred and be
correct.
In lode gold mining, one mine
alone has produced over $30,000,000
and it is practically the only deep
gold mine being worked. Other gold
mines are being opened up and in a
few years the returns from them
should at least double the present
amount. When one looks at the
mineral wealth of Alaska, its gold
copper, silver, oil and coal, one can
not begin to form an estimate of the
wealth of this northern country, that
but a few years ago was considered
a howling wilderness. A few years
ago copper made many a millionaire
out of poor miners in Montana and
Arizona, and one day Alaska is go
ing to raise another big crop of
them, and before many years.
The greatest crime against Alaska
and Alaskans is the non-opening up
of her coal fields. Let a passenger
get on a steamer in Seattle coming
to Alaska and usually that steamer
stops at a British Columbia port to
coal, if not she is using British Co
lumbia coal that has come in foreign
bottoms to the United States. Alas
ka has untold tons of coal that is
lying idle waiting, waiting until the
government of this great country will
only give the Alaskans what is due
them and open up the coal fields.
The official government figures on
the coal lands of Alaska are very
conservative. The coal areas known
at the present time aggregate 1,238,
square miles, about three times that
of Pennsylvania’s coal bearing area.
The unsurveyed coal bearing lands
are estimated at some 50,000 square
miles. Mr. Brooks lowest estimate
of the coal in Alaska is 15,104 500,
000 tons. This stupendous total. Mr.
Brooks says, could be multiplied by
ten or a hundred and it would still
be a conservative estimate. All
these millions of tons are lying idle,
while the coal mine owners in the
states and foreign countries are wax
ing fat at the Alaskan’s expense.
On the western coast of the Unit
ed States one can see steamers and
sailing vessels arriving almost every
day from Australia with coal, and if
it pays to ship coal over 10,000 miles
from Australia and other places, why
shouldn’t it pay to ship coal a mat
ter of a thousand miles from Alaska?
The United States has naval stations
scattered all along her Western coast
line, and if ever the country is in
vaded by a foreign power, it will be
ten to one on the Western coast. In
defending the coast the government
will need coal and need it b-idly
and instead of waiting for it to be
shipped from the Eastern coal fields,
why should she not have millions of
tons of Alaskan coal on hand? it
would be safe to say that if any oth
er government had the untold wealth
of coal lying under its hands, it
would have been opened up years
ago.
Coal is one of the greatest assets
a nation can have; nearly all na
tions that are great in the industrial
world are large coal producers. At
the present time in nearly all manu
factures coal has to be used. Where
is the coal to come from for smelting
purposes, when Alaska is producing
the millions of tons of copper she is
going to within the next few years?
This coal question# has been writ
ten about in nearly all magazines in
the country but what has come of it?
Nothing. The Alaskans are still
waiting for someone to show the gov
ernment “light’' so tnat they will
open the coal fields, and thereby in
crease the population of this coun
try by thousands of people. A total
of 1,817,000 ounces of silver have
been taken out of Alaska. We also
have tin, lead, iron and quick silver
ores waiting to be mined. Petroleum
has been found and all indications go
to show that there are vast quanti
ties waiting for the oil borer and his
machine to tap it.
The way the seals were slaughter
ed in past gone days was a crime,
and today the sealing industry is
nearly a thing of the past, but the
value of this great industry has
already reached the amazing figure
of $125,000,000. Salmon is another
industry that runs into an amazing
number of figures. The value of this
industry is $10,000 000 every year.
Now, the only way to get at this
wealth is by railroads. The life of
Alaskans one might say, depends on
railroads being built to tap her store
houses of treasure.
Many people think that Alaska is
a “poor man's Eldorado,” but it is
not, for what Alaska needs is capi
tal, and capital can only be had from
lar^e corporations or from the gov
ernment itself. And the government
up to the present time has shown no
inclination to help Alaska. The peo
ple of Alaska should assist any cor
poration that wants to help develop
Alaska, providing, of course, the cor
porations “play fair and square” to
wards Alaska and its people.
Two years ago, when Hatfield, the
rainmaker, failed in the Klondike to
make rain, he was lucky to get out
of the country with his life, so mad
were the miners to whom he had
promised rain, so that they would
have wafer enough to wash their
dumps. Last heard of he was do
ing the rainmaking stunt in Cali
fornia with success, only that the
rain was ordered in small quantities
and it came in a deluge that threat
ened to flood the country. It may be
like the case of the man who had
one leg shorter than the other and
he tried Christian Science. The leg
started to grow all right and when
last heard of would not stop and
was about six inches longer than it
ought to be and still growing. So
may the case of this rainmaker be;
so lookout California!
The revolt in Mexico is stirring
things up in Latin-America. For the
past few years the little ••yellow-bel
lied” republics have been quiet more
or less, and that is something very
wonderful. One reads in magazines
that bull fighting is the national
sport of these nations, but not so, as
that is, one might say, only a “side
show.” “La revolution” is the great
game they play, as one is liable to
be either a cabinet minister or to be
backed up against a “dobe” wall, and
filled full of holes that would make
him look like a colander that hangs
behind a kitchen stove. Paraguay is
again taking a hand at their nation
al game and bull fighting has stop
ped. '
- ■ —
A little while ago a woman was
arrested in New York for smuggling
goods ashore from a steamer. Now
we venture to think that no matter
how respectable a family a person
comes from, that when they are re
turning from a foreign country with
a number of small dutiable goods in
their possession tfie main thought is
how to get them ashore without pay
ing duty on them. The same person
would almost rather die than steal
anything, yet when It comes to beat
ing the customs officials they have
no qualms of conscience. It is just
the same as the boy whose parents
own an orchard, yet the same kid
will “swipe” apples from another
nan’s—i. e., stolen sweets. Our sym
pathy is with the woman.
The government officials who have
charge of the Indians on the Copper
River should be called up on the
carpet, especially those in the medi
cal department. Of the Indians liv
ing along the Copper River it 1b safe
i
ALASKA, THE BEAUTIFUL!
Did you ever stop to figure why the people in the East
All picture our Alaska as a land of ice and snow?
Of tundra bogs all bottomless, lit by cold auroral lights.
That never saw the gleam of flower, or a summer's warmth and
glow?
When a dog is once possessor of *n evil sounding name.
There's nothing easier in the world than to magnify his fame;
While the hardest task that ever was proposed to man to do
Is to make the world at large believe the stories were untrue.
Alaska’s name’s been bad enough, through its life of forty years,
An endless round of caustic jokes, and of thoughtless jibes and
sneers;
Yet every mail still sails away with a load of living seeds
In the shape of ice-snow pictures, to perpetuate the weeds.
They are nothing new or startling to your kindred in the East;
They've had them year by year so long, they’re weary of the feast;
Every section has its blizzards, and wherever you may go,
Each railroad has its troubles, and each state its share of woe.
Just forget them for a season to become a bunch of furs
Tobogganing down icy streets with a motley team of curs.
Forget there are photographers, ’till the Spring has opened wide
The veins of every living thing—then just show the other side.
If you want to send them pictures of mountains capped with snow,
Just take them in the Summer, when the valleys down below
Are clad in velvet cloaks of green, with a wealth of flowers aglow.
Suggestive of the song of birds, where the tinkling streamlets flow.
You can send them lovely pictures of our mighty walls of ice.
But be sure that in the foreground there’s a bit of something nice;
Say, a little picnic party, in a group of shady trees,
With the smoke just drifting idly in the whisper of a breeze.
Tell them all about the squirrels and the magpies and the bees.
The humming birds and butterflies, and the robins in the trees,
The lilies on the tundra ponds, and the swallows in the air.
And the balmiest of Summer, with no equal anywhere!
Or on days when you are busy, and can scarcely write a line,
Just send a bunch of violets or a spray of columbine;
They will feel less anxious for you—will not wonder why you
roam,
When they feel that you are living ’mid the things they know at
home.
Don’t grip their hearts with terror, for the loved ones far away
Judge better by the pictures than by any words you say;
While the world is always waiting for the novel point of view,
Something new about Alaska—and the job is up to you.
Spread the story of its beauties to the waiting world outside;
Be a booster for Alaska, and r^de in upon the tide.
—R. H. STRETCH.
to say that 95 per cent of them are
diseased and suffering from a dis
ease that requires constant attention.
The railroad company has done a
good deal towards helping the ln^
dians, both as to medical aid and
in the way of food, but all of this
has been done out of charity. Now
the Indians along the river live a
good deal on dried salmon and that
diet does not help their condition at
all. A few days ago a white man
was up at an Indian camp buying
dried salmon for dog feed and one
of the Indian women in the camp
asked him to have a look at a boy’s
foot that had been “sick for a long
time,” as she put it. The boy was
suffering from a disease that is al
most as loathesome as leprosy, and
he was only one of many. The wom
an asked the white man to send her
up some medicine, but what could
he do, knowing what was wrong with
the boy and knowing that only med
ical aid could do the boy any good?
It is up to the government officials
who are paid for this work to drop
in on the Copper Kiver Indians and
do something.
Capt. Frank Turner, of the Yukon
River fleet, has made a fortune in
Vancouver, B. C., real estate.
DR. A. FJEIMUCH
. . PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
MacCORMAC HOTEL, CORDOVA,
Telephone 21>
John Hirst
Jesse Brown
The Nevada
Restaurant
A Place you can get a
GOOD .MEAL
Cooked as you want it and
well served
AT POPULAR PRICES
Wine or beer served with
meals
Private suppers or banquets
served at short notice
GEO. DOOLEY
General Commission Merchant
Agent: Agem:
Armour’s Hot Drink Supplies Fire Extinguishers
Kahn Bros. “Monogram” Royal Typewriter Co.
“What We Haven't Got We Get”
New and Second Hand Goods Bought and Sold
ALASKA STEAHSHIP CO.
Fastest and most commodious g*~~ is sailing between
Cordova and Seattle.
Sails from Seattle— Sails from Cordova—•
March 8.Alameda..March 10
March 14.Northwestern.March 24
March 24.Alameda.March 81
April 1.Northwestern.April 8
Tills company reserves the right to change schedule or
steamei-s without notice.
Tickets on sale at up-town office Alaska Steamship Bldg.
Baggage or freight will not be received at dock later than one
hour before sailing time.
R. J. BARRY, THOMAS J. TALLENT
__Ticket Agent
Buy Your Clothing at the Home
Store and Save the Freight
We Will Sell You Everything
AT CORDOVA PRICES
EINKELSTEIN & SAPIRO
CORDOVA MEN’S OUTFITTERS
Chitina, Alaska.
Just Open
Billiards - Pool
CIGARS
Confectionery
Soft Drinks and.
Solo Tables
Bowling Alley
TIBBS BROS.
Send Your
Job Printing
To the
Chitina Leader
Chitina
News
Stand
All the latest
MAGAZINES & PERODICALS
Cigars, Tobacco’s, Confection
ery and Soft Drinks
POOL AND SOLO TABLES
Barber Shop in Connection
You can play or read while
awaiting your turn
AL CHURCH & TOM BRADY,
Proprietors
FEED STABLE
HAY AND GRAIN
FOR SALE
First Class"Accommoda
tions for Stock, Steady or
Transient.
H. CHAMBERLAIN, Prop.
Log
Cabin
Restaurant
GOOD COFFEE
Babbage
The Old Sour-Dough
Watchmaker and Jeweler
t • pa.
In Chitina Pharmacy, Chitina.
Leaves Chitina
TUESDAYS,
FRIDAYS
and SUNDAYS
| Carrying Passengers Express
and U. S. Mail
Office in Hotel Chitina
Chitina Bakery
& Coffee House
GESSNER & STANGNETH
Proprietors
FRESH BREAD
Cakes and Pastry
Always on Hand
Main Street, — Chitina.