- LAST RITES SAID FOR MRS.
J. H. McLEAN, AT FAIRBANKS
(Fairbanks News-Miner.)
< Under the impressive ritualistic ser
vice of the Pioneer Women of Alaska,
exemplified in Fairbanks for the first
time, the body of Jean McLean, be
loved wife of J. H. McLean, Takotna,
Alaska, merchant and pioneer, was
lowered to the grave yesterday after
noon. Eagle Hall, where the services
■ were held, was crowded by the many
friends of the departed, who had come i
to pay their last resects.
The service was conducted by Mes-j
' dames Edawrd Hering, Pi. R. Collins
and Jesse Rust, president, historian;
and chaplain, respectively. The eu
. logy was ‘delivered by the Rev. J. F.
Vernon. A choir composed of Mrs. F..
. M. Dunham, Mrs. J. H. Groves, J. T.
Hutchinson and Robert W. Taylor,
rendered-sacred seecltions during the1
. service.. The pallbearers were George1
VVesch, Thomas P. Aitken, A. P.1
Payne, Julius Shaffrik, Lynn Smith
and(Hurries E. Taylor.
BortaL was in the local cemetery,;
in accordance with the wish of Mr. j
McLean',, whose journey to Fairbanks
to be—at the bedside of his wife was
stopped.vhy the telegram-announcing
her dehth.
Mrs. Jean McLean was born in
•Scotland on December 12, 1878. She
came to America during early maiden-,
hood-, and had resided with her hus-!
s band in various sections.of the North
- for 28 years. During the-first years I
i of-the.Ta.Bana Valley rushhshe-had ac-'
,» companied her husband, who then was j
•• a river captain, master of. the steamer 1
Terrell and other early-day craft, to j
the new frontiers. Mining -was fol-|
. lowed in this district for some years, I
v and when the. Innoko and Upper Kus
kokwim gave -promise of gold they
were among the first to cast- their lot
with the newecamps. They conducted
; a roadhouse at Takotna for several
years, later-having' sold to'miter the
mercantile business - She was brought
to Fairbanks by airplane early last
fall and entered .Sfc. Joseph’s Hospital,
■ where it wras revealed there could be
t na iiope for. recovery.
VA DOG AND At RAT-TALE.
Auaren thought ht had the best rat|
| . dog.iu: the country andHold his neigh-!
bor so. But while they, were talking a
. - hup* rodent walked' leisurely across:
t .the yard. 1 The dog, which was in the
j rat’s path, moved aside and disinter
estedly watched it until -it disap
i peart d beneath the wood pile.
A loud laugh . burst from the
neighbor’s throat. “So that’s yo’
r champ ratter? A fine .lap dog he
|fi is!”
"“Watt,7. said the -owner. -“That was
■ one of om rats—just wateh him when
i; . a strange rat comes into the yard!”
.,»*S3|bS»l« ;
! McGrath
Pool Hall
Fresh Fruits
Candies
Tobaccos
..Pipes
Cigarettes
Soft Drinks
Cigarette Holders
Geo. Mutchler
Proprietor
I
CARIBOU EASILY TAMED IF
YOUNG, HUNTER DECLARES
(Dawson News.)
Despite the seeming weakness and
docility of the caribou family, the
amount of effort necessary to capture
a wounded animal after it has been
shot is often surprising. One oldtime
hunter has stated that on several oc
casions he has sent a bullet clear
through the heart of one of these ani-'
mais, only to have the fleet-footed
beast lunge for the brush, where, in
many instances, it s very hard to
trace them to their death. The chances
are that if a hunter crashes a bullet
through the neck or, say the leg, of a
caribou, it will escape into the under-;
brush and eventually die there, but
without the marksman ever being able
-o get the faintest clue to its wnere
abouts. This holds true, of course,
provided the wounded animal . en
scaped within a forest, where it seems
a natural trait of their species to take
full advantage of every secret of hid
ing from their pursuers.
Another interesting theory is ad
vanced by well known hunters, that a
baby caribou will follow a man once
it has whiffed of his breath. Julius
Stankus, a veteran of Alaska and the
Yukon, tells of the following personal
experience which bears out this state
ment:
n was during the period before
.1)00, when I was trapping and fish
g at Chatanika bay, in the Aleutian
elands, situated in the Bering Sea,”
tates the pioneer sourdough, “that I
irst heard of the old Indian tradition
that one could make a baby caribou
ollow one anywhere by blowing one’s
oreath into its face. I was dubious
about the legnd, but one day, while
jut hunting, I decided to put the the
ory to the test. I ran across a band
of calves and, rushing upon one of
them, 1 Hung my arms about its
neck and breathed heavily into its
nostrils, immediately I untangled
myself and started off in the opposite,
direction.Sure enough. The baby
caribou was following me. I kept
right ongoing until I hit my cabin,
and still the calf followed in my foot
steps. There was a small stairway up
to my house, so I figured, that my
proselyte would halt at the foot of
the stairs. Nothing doing. It fol-j
lowed right up those stairs and fol-1
lowed me through the front door. To;
further test the solidity of the tradi
tion I ‘rambled from room, to room,
but no matter where it was, the kit
chen, the bedroom or the dining room,
that little calf was bound to follow.
Something like Mary’s lamb. And do
you know that in order to get that
cussed little calf out'lof the house I
had to go out first, then dash hack
and close the door. The baby caribou
whined and whimpered around the
yard until I came out again, where
upon I fenced off a little corral, and
from that time on it was the greatest
pet I ever had outside of my- limping
grouse.”
So goes the story as told by the.
Veteran hunter. Handed down* as it
was, as an Indian tradition, he tried
it out and it worked like a charm, so
in • commenting upon thi various
characteristics of the antlered herd, it
might be appropriate to mention here,
by way of suggestion, that those desir- j
ous of capturing a fine young caribou
calf should leave their firearms at1
home and, instead, hypnotize the ob- j
ject of their pursuit with an attack j
of warm breath applied in large i
quantities and at close quarters with :
the animals. «
Outside of their wandering traits, j
their greatest resistance when fired
upon, their super agility, their-domes
tic qualities, there s not much else
that can be said in connection with
the caribou species. The flesh of the
caribou is excellent eating, their
hides come in handy for moccasins,!
parkas and other native-madd articles j
of wearing apparel. They make su- j
perb trophies when mounted, and, re
gardless- of the great numbers of I
these migrating bands, they provide •
plenty of excitement for the- enthusi- ;
astic hunter. They are, indeed, the
gypsy line of the animals of the
North, and their home is without a
doubt in the heart of the Northland,
where the word “caribou” is as com
mon as are the large herds of these
antlered and nimble beasts which
ever trek the vast wastes of the
Northern realm
Denizens of the city who were mak
ing their peregrinations along the
■ Dawson water front this morning,
long p'ofore the lirst streaks of dawn
I began to light the day, spotted a
small band of caribou coasting along
I the river bank in front of the White
I Pass office. Several dogs.gave chase,
j but the fleet-footed .animals-soon left
; their fanged pursuers in the.dust_f m
inediately upon reaching the ferry
jetty, however, they took to the water,
negotiating the slush-filled stream
with apparent ease and continuing
their flight up the West Dawson
slope without a halt.
With the bands making so bold as to
venture right into the. city, it seems a
shame that ambitious hunters should
go to such pains of walking away over
to the West Dawson hills when they
might park themselves in some down
town hotel lobby and watch their
chance for shooting one of the ani
mals as it ambles along First avenue.
'AILROAD CONDEMNED
TO 1 OSE MONEY
■(Portland Oregonian.)
The Government’s Alaska Railroad
having lost $1,169,000 in the first ten
months of this year, it is in order for
some congressman to move that the
„rack be torn up and that the North
ern Territory he relegated to its sav
age solitude., no longer to be dese
crated by the whistle of the locomo
tive. Others .will find the cause of th>
loss to be the practical embargo c
development administered in the na
>f conservation by a host of burea.
•rats, who step on one another’s to.
n pursuit of any man who tries to
produce anything that would make
traffic for the railroad.
When the United States won the
Southwest from Mexico and cleared
Utie to the Oregon country, it gave
mines to any men who would take the
gold and silver out of them, and when
it subsidized transcontinental rail
railroads it gave land to any who
would farm it. The The result of
that policy s the West cf today, and
the nation s vastly richer for having
been lavish with gifts. The men who
thus made the West were and still are
honored as the bone, sinew and
brains of the nation. If men of the
same type go to Alaska, they are
either. warned away from precious
mines ami forests or their enterprise'
is cramped by the rules and regula
tions of the bureaucrats.
A dispate' from Anchorage gives a
hint of the manner n which the Alas
ka Railroad could be raado to pay. It.
reads:
“Hauling equipment to a gold
dredging district under development
near'Fairbanks, the inland and north
ern terminal of the line, made more
than half the freight revenue this
year.”
If coai And oil land were freed from
trammels of the leasing law, and if
sawmills and paper mills were permit
ted to manufacture the over-ripe tim
ber, there-would be no question of
making the railroad pay. Men would
homestead the rich farm land and
would produce food far .employ ees of
urines and mills, making more traffic.
There is a wealth of gold, silver and
copper awaiting development, and,
since one gold district paid half the
freight revenue, another might in
crease it 50 per cent.
’• ;> but.p. government nfatuated
usion that all pioneers are
2Sted as thieves would -build
through, a jrirw,. rich coun
then prevent men from pro
u^c.ng-traffic for it by developing the
country. The Government’s loss is
the cost ofvits own folly.
ii. .. i . i. .i i . i _ ■ i; »—W—
UNDERWOOD FAVORS SMITfc
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Representa
tives of of the national parties arc
already looking forward to the open
ing of the presidential campaign for
the election of 11*28. The Democrat*
see much encouragement in the gains
made in the Senate and House of
Representatives, and predict a Demo
cratic landslide the coming campaign
Senator Underwood of Alabama to
day reiterated the statement that
Governor Smith of New York will
win the presidency if nominated by
the Democratic convention, and an
nounced his intention of aiding Smith
to get the nomination.
ar> YEARS AGO—
There were plenty of real estate
agents—but no realtors.
An undertaker was known ‘by hie
name—cot as a mortician.
The livery stable flourished—the
gasoline filling station was'-'unknown,
Sugar was four cents a pound—
sggs fourteen cents a dozen.
The rubber-tired buggy sped un
consciously toward its extinction by
the impending balloon tres.
Bobbed hair was known qnly thru
the artistic relics of an ancient
Egypt—the crowning glory of woman
tad not yet been extinguished.
Jass and lounge lizards were still in
the process of incubation.
The Volstead Act and author were
inheard of ami unsung.
The barber shop ensemble special
;-zed In “Sweet Rosy 'O’Grady” and
glasses clinked in long since unforgot
ten emporiums to the more or less ef
fective rendering of “On the Banks of
he Wabash Far Away.”
The “horseless carriage” was in its
nfancy—the airplane was still • *
Iream.
Trust-busting and free silver occu
lied the iimelght.
Theodore-Roosevelt was coming intc
lis own—Woodrow Wilson a college
irofessor—Herbert Hoover a mining
ngroeer in far-efF China—John Persh
ng a major in the Philippines.—Ex.