Douglas Island news. [volume], July 24, 1907, Image 1

About Douglas Island news. [volume] (Douglas City, Alaska) 1898-1921

Image provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections

                
The Douglas
VOL. 0.
DOUGLAS CITY AND TREADWELL, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 1007.
NO. 34
?'THE BEHRENDS" in fine Mercerized
Lingerie Lawn, with tine Valenciennes
Insertion
"THE BEHRENDS" in white India lawn
with lace and tucks,
and ouly
??THE BEHRENDS" iu tine Mull,
a very faucy embroidered front
at
with
?'THE BEHRENDS" in very flue white
Mull with tine lace medallions,
a perfect dream
$2.00
$1.50
$2.25
$5.00
TO OUR
"BEHRENDS'
B.M. BEHRENDS CO.
INCORPORATED
JUNEAU
I &**}
*
*
?C
4t
4(
t
Is proving itself to be one of the best fitting and most stylish shirt- 4*
waists that have ever been introduced to the Alaska trade. As stated
before, these goods were made expressly for us, and we fully guarantee
them to give satisfaction.
DOUGLAS ISLAND CUSTOMERS buying a $5.00
or over we will give ferry tickets to and from Juneau.
*
*
4c
ALASKA J
*
?* WE ARE >
I DOUGLAS AGENTS |
*t FOR rf
??>
<| P. -I., Examiner, Chronicle, Star, f*
<? Times and Oregonian
3 ?
^ We also carry the
J Leading Periodicals & Magazines
? For NICE TABLETS and
FINE WRITING PAPER j?
? WE ARE IT! i
<' Our line of ,>
4* t>
j Cigars and Tobaccos >
Is the most complete in Alaska w
If
^ V*
j Our Candies are Always Fresli! >
| We carry a full line of Fruit! t
<? (During the fruit season) jSfr
J ?
j All the LATEST $1.50 BOOKS! ?
$ ? $
^ Crepe, Tissue and Shelf Paper ?
! DOUGLAS NEWS DEPOT I
? * ? ^
? VVWVVWWUUUWUViVVVVW'VM^v*
Special Wall Paper Sale
33 l/s Per Cent Discount
For 30 days on our entire stock of Wall Paper $
and Mouldings. Our stock is the largest and
most complete in Southeastern Alaska, and this
is an opportunity you cannot afford to miss.
i
c. w. young co. i
Men's Goods
The
only *wm . |
place i&Tvd
v 35?
< on RV/
j earth C^A'
j guy Groceries
d
OF
)ONM???jH??O9OO9eO9e?OOMOO?OMMMilWd9OM8DO?OiO0M)j
LODGE DIRECTORY.
I. O. O. F.
Alaska Lodge, No. 1,
meets at Odd Fellows'
Hall, Douglas, on Wednesday evenings r.t 8
o'clock.
Visiting brothers are cordially invited to,
attend. ALEX NELSON. N. G.
ALFRED JOHNSON. Secretary.
Aurora Encampment No. i
meets at Odd Fellows' hall first and third
Saturdays, at 8 p.m.
Brothers of the Koyal Purple are cordially
I nvited.
OLIVER DRANGE, C. P.
HUGH MCRAE. Scribe.
Northern Light Rebekah Lodge No. i
meets at Odd Fellows' hall second and fourth
Saturdays.
Visitors are cordially invited.
MRS. ANNA BABQUIST. N.G.
MRS. GERTRUDE LAUGHLIN. Sec'v
K. of P.
The North Star Lodge, No. 2,
K. of P., meets every
THURSDAY EVENING
at 8 o'clock.
in Odd Fellows Hall
ED. ANDREWS, C. C.
L. S. FERRIS, K. of R. & S.
Visiting Knights are cordiully invited to at
tend.
Douglas Aerie, No. 117, F. 0. E.
Meets, 2d and 4th Sundays
at 1:30 p. m.
at Cogging' Hc.ll.
All visiting Brothers invited to attend.
ELMER E. SMITH, W. P.
JOHN 9TOFT, Secretary.
PROFESSIONAL.
DR. A. BYRON GEHO
Physician and Surgeon
'Phone 4 Office Hours 2 to 4 p. m.
OFFICE OVER ELLIOTT & SMITH'S DRUG I
STORE, FRONT STREET
DR. F. L. GODDARD
Physician and Surgeon
TELEPHONE NO. 3
DOUGLAS - - ALASKA
DR. C. M. HARRISON
DENTIST
Bunter Block, between Front
and 2nd Sits. Douglas City
'Phone, Douglas 3-8.
I.J.Sharick
WATCHES, DIAMONDS,
JEWELRY
JUNEAU ALASKA
The Northland
The Latest News, from Reliable
Sources, Concerning the Great
North. Condensed.
Information for Everybody.
An epidemic of small pox is reported
iu the Western Alaska cannery camps, i
At VVrangell, John Kassuuk and Lou
ise Stuteeu were quietly married on
July fourteen.
Just at the time of the Christian Eu
deavor convention the Seattle water
supply ran short.
The town of Homer now has a white
populatiou of forty, which includes six i
women and several children.
The property of the Jualpa Company,
which is back of Juneau, is advertised
for sale by the U. S. Marshal.
Seveu men took out 407 ounces of
gold iu twenty dhys on Poor Man's
creek iu the upper Kahiltna region last
month.
The board of road commissioners for
| Alaska has declared that all roads and
trails constructed by it shall be sixty
feet wide.
A small steamer built at Valdez was
purchased by the federal government
before it was launched. The price paid
was $15,000.
George Krascing, one of the best
known miners and prospectors in the
Rampart district, died at Thauksgiviug
on Juue 13, of pneumonia.
The Solomon like glory of Rev. Fath
er Duncan, the missionary king of Met
lakahtla, causes other missionaries to
be afflicted with a reservation itch.
Miss Alice B. Hamblett, for some
time the teacher at the government
school at Port Gravina, died on July
3d, at the home of her sister at Seattle.
The first act of self government in
the Philippines was the election of
members of the house of representa
tives on July 20th. Alaskans will please
take notice.
A Bonanza creek miner tuied to draw
the cap of a dynamite cartridge with
his teeth, and as a result of what fol
lowed, he will talk with his hands for
the rest of his life.
A description of the "Fourth at Sul
zer," as published in the Ketchikan
Miner, gives the dinuer bill of fare,
which starts in with chicken soup and
winds up with monkey nuts.
A theory in regard to the explosion
on board the barge Japan, which oc
curred near Ketchikan, is that stowa
ways became involved in a fight, a shot
was fired and the dynamite did the
rest.
\
Spruce creek appears to be like the
biblical 'widow's cruise of oil,' which
never failed. Every year we hear it
will be worked out by the fall, but
every summer some one finds a spot
a little better than ever.? Atlin Claim.
Exit Dance Halls and Gam
blers in the North.
BY C. H. E. ASQUITII.
No more is tbe dance ball aud the
?
gambling bouse a part of life in Alaska
aud Yukon! Official edicts issued from
Ottawa and Washington have abolished t
what were once the priucipal amuse
ment places of the seeker after woalth
in tbo Northland.
Au era that began in the days of '40,
that has filled the pages of literature
with its doiugs, the life that Bret Hart
immortalized in tbe "Outcasts of Poker
Flat" and other tales, came to an end
uuwept, unbonored and unsung a few
weeks ago. ,
It was pure coincidence that both
the American and Canadian govern
ments should almost on the same day
issue orders tliatdauce balls, gambling, i
drinking in boxes, and various other
evil, but hitherto considered necessary,
elements of frontier life must forth
with be abolished. From the issuance
of that order, the ideal of tbe law en
forcers on both sides of tbe one hun
dred rnd forty-lirst meridian has been
to make the north as safe, as sane, as
quiet aud as moral as Ottawa or Wash
ington.
No longer may Kipling sing "Never a
law of God or Man ruus north of tbe
fifty-three." For at the present time
not only frontier law, but the law of
the quiet east is enforced as far as the
Arctic circle, and in somo places far
north of the circle.
The passiug of the dance bails and
gambling houses in Alaska and Yukon
marks another stop in the polishing off
of the Northland. The people of the
North in late years have been quietly
advancing along all Hues and the pre
vailing iguorance as regards the coun
tries will receive a shock of enlighten
ment in the near future. The Alaska
Yukon-Pacific Exposition which will be
held at Seattle in 1909 to exploit the
Northland will show Alaska and Yukon
to the world in their true light.
Although it will be the aim of the
Exposition to give the people an idea
of what the two territories have to offer
in the way of homesteads, agricultural,
commercial and industrial opportuni
ties, early life in the Northland will j
not be neglected and one of the most
interesting displays will be the repro
duction of frontier life as it used to
be. Since the dance hall and gambling
house have become thing6 of the past,
it has been planned to give the public
an idea of just what frontier life was
like. On the Pay Streak, the amuse
ment thoroughfare of the Exposition,
enterprising Northerners will build rep
licas of some of the famous old dance
and gambling halls over whose coun
ters millions in gold dust have passed,
and between whose log rafters five
score mighty fortunes have been frit
tered away. It is expected that some
of the famous gamblers of the early
days, many of whom have since settled
down and become citizens of weight
and respectability, will be present.
The days of the picturesque gambler
who staked fortunes on a single card,
of the dance hall girls whom the min
ers nightly pelted with nuggets of gold
as they sang their turns, did not end
with the civilizing of California. For,
when Klondike was discovered, and j
half a million people started on a wild :
rush northward, foremost in the weary ;
climbers of the Chilkoot, first to build j
at Log Cabin City, leaders in the cross
ing of Linderman, aud not the last to
brave the terrors of Whitehorse rapids j
were these gamblers and those women!
who went north to prey on the gold ;
winners.
In those days when thousands were !
Hung about as lightly as two bit pieces '
today, nothing was too insignificant to j
escape betiing upon, no sum was too |
great to risk. One man lost six huu- 1
dred thousand dollars in a couple of
months; others were content to win or
lose ten thousand dollars nightly. Pro -
fessional meu iu Dawson expected to
win or lose from three to four or live
thousand dollars nightly an the card
tables! Seldom was less than a hun
dred dollars staked.
Much of this money went to the j
dance hall women. It is the fashion to j
decry these women and to assume that
they are all bad beyond redemption.
But that is far from 'the truth. Many
of the women in the dance halls who
danced nightly with the miners and
who shared their drinks, were as inno
cent of wrongdoing as the most care
fully protected convent girl of Paris or
New York. Indeed, in the early days
before the mothers, wives aud sisters ,
of the miners .arrived iu the country
many of these women married well.
Many who today are taking their place
as leaders of society in hundreds of
towns throughout the United States ? i
women known as the wife of the rich
miner, Mr. Blank ? first met their bus- j
bauds on the floor of a Dawson dance ,
hall and charged them five dollars for
the privilege of dancing half a dozen j
rounds to the screech of the cheap
phonograph.
"A new country gets the best of
them," said London in Dawson. "Look
there at Lucille, with the face of an
augel and the tongue of a gutter devil,
at Mollie who looks like one of Gains
borough's old English beauties stepped
from her frame to revel out the century
in a Dawson dance hall ? and Eva, what
a mother that girl would make."
This is the life that the recent law
has forbidden. Gambling, that is open \
gambling, has long since been stopped
on the Canadian side but it has con
tinned in secret. On the American side
it has beeu open till this recent order.
But for the past four years both these
have lost the interest and the seusa- :
tional features of the early days.
Many men today, bent and broken
iu fortune, look back to those early '
days with a bitter feeling, with the
wonder so common to all humanity, j
"How could 1 have been such a fool?" j
For there were hundreds of men who
had worked hard all their lives, who
went north with the rush and in a few
days picked up a fortune of/nearly a
million and in a few monthrlater were
without a dollar. The story of one to
day, a caretaker in a big Seattle sky
scraper, will tell the tale of many.
This man was about forty when the
discovery was made. He sold a couple ?
of houses liis father had left him and
got together a sum of three thousand
dollars. lie reached Dawson among
the first, staked on upper Eldorado,
and inside of a couple of months knew
himself wealthy beyoud the dream of
avarice.
For a few months he worked faith
/
fully, uud then it was necessary to visit
Dawson. The second night in Dawson
he needed somo tobacco and left the
cabin in which he was staying to get it.
Passing a gambling hall, he strayed in
to see the fun. There was in this man's
blood, although he had never gambled
before in his forty years of life a strain
that came from some long dead ances
tor. Throwing 3 small poke of dust on
the table more iu fun than anything
else, he played for small suras at first.
But inside half au hour he was dead to
all the noise and color about him, to all
but the whirr of the dial that meant a
small fortuue won or lost at each revo
lution. He sent for hia bank book, for
the deed to his claim, and when the
long rays of the autumn sun strayed
over the dome late next forenoon, he
was stripped of claim, wealth, every
thing, except the clothes in which he
stood. Never again opportunity came
his way and today instead of driving
in his own automobile and seeing his
children educated at the best colleges
of the couutry, he slaves twelve hour6
a day, his children are apprentices to
different trades and he himself is a
broken old man at the age of fifty.
The wild and wooly element iu the
life of the last frontier has at last been
vanquished by the ever spreading tide
of civilization. Even as Polly, the
Duchess, Jack flamblin, Jack Osborne,
Yuba Bill and Tennessee Pardner dis
appeared in the early sixties; as well as
all the other whole-souled, genial, witty
peoplo that pertain to the beginning of
a mining camp, so in Yukon and Alas
ka the old time gamblers, the women
who had five pounds of gold thrown at
them sometimes in a single night, as a
reward for singing a couple of home
songs to men long separated from home
scattered and fled. The fortunes they
made came easily and went as easily.
Few pictures of earth have as much of
garish color, of largo, free, swiuging
life, and finally, of hidden, hopeless
pathos, as the lives of the underworld
in the great gold rush that was the
most picturesque feature of the last
decade of the nineteenth ceutury. The
life has passed away, and all that re
mains are here and there a few garul
ous old men who relate to all who have
time to hear how they once "could sign
my cheque for a million, sir," iu the
days when Dawson hummed with the
last picturesque Sppearauce of the
frontier life, such as the unrestricted /
Anglo-Saxon would have it.
The Yukon Valley News mixes relig
ion and mining in a way that makes the
ordinary sinner wonder if it scoffs, or
alludes to the ordinance of baptism.
It says: ' "Rev. M. E. Koonce arrived
from Pennsylvania and lost no time in
getting out to Hoosier creek. He is
said to have gotten into harness at
once. Two shifts are running ou the
hydraulic works and it is believed that
Mr. Koonce found the situation pleas
ing."