TAWANA LEADER
ra. i
Published Every Thursday at Tanaka, Alaska,
BY GIBBON PUBLISHING CO.
Geo. M. Arbuokle, Manager
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PSOBERft FASI3Y TALES
Galveston has proved herself secure. The sea wall she
reared with so much care has stood the test of a storm as
fierce, though not as long continued, as that which brought
her to the edge of ruin a few years ago, This modern King
Canute, the engineer, has said to the sea: “Thus far, and
no farther;” and the sea has heard and obeyed.
The storm serves to call attention to some of the truly
amazing works which are taken as matters of course in
building the modern city,'says the Denver News. Galves
ton takes a low sand pit of an island, drowned at every
high tide. She builds a wall around a portion of this
island, and then fills in the ground inside the wall. What
was a sandy swamp, she makes into a fit and proper found
ation for skyscrapers and grain elevators and ore chutes and
warehouses and all the colossal things that modern man
needs. San Francisco in warned by disaster that she has
been playing her luck too far, and she proceeds to build a
city earthquake proof, as Galveston is building tieje proof.
New York finds her granite island too small for her grow
ing business, and drives a tunnel under the Hudson river
through which hundreds of thousands of people will soon;
be carried each day, Chicago has no granite base, so sin
piles her skyscrapers on concrete boats sunk yards down
in to the black mud of the old lake bed, and each anchored
by concrete anchors to the yet deeper mud below. And so
it goes.
What a fairy tail it is; and how utterly it outclasses in
interest and wonder the romances of a half-barbarous age.
Here a fairy waves a wand and drives back the hungry sea.
There a witch murmurs a spell to stay the trembling earth.
In yet another place a .wizard throw's forth steel threads
like spiders’ webs, which become highways on which men
pass to and from the Island of Gold. And in all places,
laboring gnomes ply strange labors in the depths of earth,
w'hile the sprites of upper air build towers to scale the
clouds. If Hans Anderson had been a prophet, and had
embodied these things in his fairy tales, how the wise world
would have laughed at his folly,
As predicted by The Leader several weeks ago, Col.
Claypool on his arrival in Tacoma did not find the politi
cians waiting the wharf ready to buckle the Cushman
toga to >ais slanting shoulders. With his usual modesty,
the Colonel has decided to defer the official announcement
of his candidacy for congress.
Forced Mother to Buy Stock
Chicago, July 30.— Mrs. Marie Mayfield is interested in a Mexican
•mine some time ago she induced her mother, Mrs. Gertrude Hinckley,
a widow, 55 years of age, to buy $3,500 of the stock, Mrs. Hinchley
was not impressed with her purchase, but Mrs. Mayfield insisted that
her mother should buy an additional $3,500 worth of certificates. Mrs.
Hinckley refused. A quarrel ensued and Mrs. Hinckley was shot in
the neck, the bullet passing out cf the mouth. At first both women
reported the shooting accidental. Mrs. Mayfield disappeared, and latef
Mrs. Hinckley told the police that her daughter deliberately shot her.
It is likely that she will die. Mrs. Mayfield was arrested last night
and charged formally with attempting to kill her mother. Mrs. May
field declared that the shooting was an accident.
A GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT
We’ve had a good roads movement down to Pohick on the Crick;
We raised some ready cash fur what we couldn't get on tick,
An’, bein’ a partic’lar job, we thought it would be wise
To get some men of probity to come an’ supervise.
An’ as a further guarantee ’gainst chances of neglect,
We took another set of men an’ t*ld ’em to inspect.
An’ these arrangements didn’t seem jes’ what they ought to bo
Till we’d secured some talent competent to oversee.
There arose misunderstandin’s ’bout emoluments and rank,
But the pay-roll checks kept cornin’ very regular to the bank.
Somehow the highways didn't seem to lose their ruts an’ lumps,
An’ every time we went to l‘own we had to bump the bumps.
We found it hard to comprehend what such delay could mean
In work so well inspected, supervised an’ overseen.
The only manual labor on this job that seemed so slow
Was done with great reluctance by a small boy with a hoe.
The situation naturally shocked our civic pride.
We called seme meetin's an’ the proper people testified.
We got the overseers to tell exactly what they knew
An’ heard from the inspectors an’ the supervisors, too.
• Then we drew up resolutions an’ delivered an address
To vindicate cur efforts to uplift an’ to progress.
We have solvxvJ the difficulty an’ our hearts are full of joy
At seein’ discipline maintained. We fired that no-’count boy.
—Washington Star.
ALASKA CRUSOE DIES FORGOTTEN
Join] Travers, who many years ago defended the American flag
against the horde of Indians on a lonely iittle island off Alaska, is
dead at Mount Hope Retreat, near Rathmoro, Md., where he had
been about twenty years. He was 70 years old. Although Tra
vers had a meteoric career, no sooner had he been brought to the
i asylum bound in chains than he was forgotten.
Travers in his youth drifted west with the United States army
j and became a fur trader at Seattle, then a trading post. He soon
grew prosperous. Unlike most post traders, he saved his money,
dickered with the Indians, and like Alexander Selkirk, he bought
a little island and was soon monarch ot all he surveyed.
His money, fine clothes and other luxuries soon excited the
jealousy of the Indians, who were green with envy when they could
not go to church on Sunday in the same style as their white neigh
bor. Moreover, the paleface could always go to his larder and pro
duce a storehouse of “spirits,’* while they almost sold their souls
for a drink of the “firewater.”
The formal cause of dissension, however, was an American
flag, which Travers hoisted on a pole in front of his log house. A
council of war was held by the Indians and they resolved to tear it
down.
Travers had not lived in the Northwest in vain. He had a full
chest of ammunition and a dozen or so muskets. He heard the
rumors of an attack, barricaded his log house, primed his guns and
greeted Ins savage foes with a shot. They retreated, vowing ven
geance. Travels managed to get word to Seattle, and a gunboat
was despatched to keep the flag afloat.
Travers kept his courage to the sticking point, and tire flag
still waved. It was with joyous heart that Travers, a day or so
afterward, saw the little gunboat steam into’ the harbor and train
its guns on the thicket, where slunk the Indians.
For a while Travers lived in peace. Then he began to bc-lieve
that someone was constantly after him. He armed his cabin until
it had the strength of a small arsenal. He never went out without
a gun under each arm. He grew worse and finally his white
neighbors had to send for the gunboat again. This time Travers
left the island in chains. He was taken to Seattle, then to San
Francisco, and shipped across the continent to Mount Hope, Md.
—Fair News.
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Prominent Italian inercliahts and professional men have ap
pealed to the chief of police of Spokane, to break up a Black
Hand society the members of which have been threatening lives
uuless large sums of money are paid. The Spokane police have
known of the existence of this Black Hand society for some
time, but this is the first appeal for protection that has been re
ceived from their own countrymen. The leaders have been located
and arrests will follow shortly.
Harry W. Treat, a Seattle millionaire, has received a letter
from a member of the Black Hand fraternity, demanding $1000 and
threatening that his house will be dynamited in the event of non
payment. He turned the letter over to the police.
Lightning struck the power house of the Bell mine at Tellur
ide, Col., August 9, setting the building on fire. Three workmen
were instantly killed and four are in a very critical condition.
The building was entirely destroyed.
The tables have been turned on the German press, which bit
terly criticized American women “for their unnatural relations
with men of other races,” following the murder of Miss Sigel in
New York. Miss Hoffman; a prominent German actress, was on
Aug. 9 killed at Frankfort by her Chinese lover, who immediately
after his act committed suicide.
Japan on Aug. 9 handed an ultimatum to the Chinese govern
ment regarding the position of the two governments on the An
tung-Mukden railway. The ultimatum intimates rather strongly
that Japan will feel herself free to act in the matter provided the
two governments cannot agree on the propositions made by Japan
relating to the construction of the line. The complicated relations
of the two governments are being watched closely by both nations,
the ultimatum being the main subject of disscussion. It is under
stood that China will likewise take a firm stand on the subject and
to expect the governments to come to an amicable understanding
now seems hopeless. They, are too. far enstranged to co-operate
in the rebuilding of the line. Japan, however, will not postpone
the reconstruction of the line in any event, but will work within
the next ten days. Then there is likely to be trouble. One of the
main causes of friction is the stand Chinese officials have taken
against the Japanese settling along the railway. Any Chinese
who sells property to a Japanese is heavily fined or otherwise pun
ished. It is understood in Tolcio that the United States is backing'
up China in the matter, and it has been intimated that the Pacific
coast fleet is to be despatched to the Philippines in order to be
near in case of actual warfare. There is a great deal of suppressed
excitement around the government buildings in Tokio, and a bustle
as of preparations for war.
Harry Thaw failed to convince the court at White Plains, N.Y.,
last week that he was not insane. He was returned to the asylum
at Mattewan on Saturday. Attorney Moreschausser who has been
conducting the insanity case for Thaw said that he expected the
decision in the case, as Thaw’s conduct at the trial in no dissipated
the suspicion as to his insanity.
A Washington dispatch of August 13 says that steps will
shortly be taken by the general land office in the hearing of the
coal-entry cases from Alaska with the view to canceling all entries
of issuing patents to locators. It is the policy of Secretary Ballin
ger that honest locations should be rllowed, but it is the Roosevelt
policy, now being furthered by Agent Pinchot, to cancel all entries
and conserve the coal of Alaska to the world to be drawn upon
after all other coal fields are exhausted. The matter will be heard
about the middle of September.
Hay Pilot Taft
St. Louis, July 31.—President Taft’s trip down the Mississippi
from St. Louis to New Orleans will be the greale.-,t demonstration in
the history of the river, viewed from the preparations that are being
made here and in Washington for the event.
The. President’s itinerary has been completed and includes stops at
St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville, Cairo, Memphis and Vicks
burg. The usual invitation was extended to Mark Twain to pilot one
of the principal vessels down the river during Roosevelt’s trip from
Keokuk to Memphis, hut he was unable to acespt. Friends of Mr.
Clemens declare he wili probably agree to pilot one of the boats this
time, as lie lias great personal regard for President Taft.
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