OPH1R
November 24.
Waino Puntilla and Robert Jaque
mci here on business concerning
transfers of mining property.
Robert Jaquemai having finished
• hi. summer’s work on Spruce creek
moved to Little creek to prospect
his ground there this winter.
Eric Hard arrived from Tolstoi
and left by plane for Takotna.
Alf Greenberg went by plane to
Oi 'pple.
John J. Geskey, who is prospecting
hi,; ground on Niggerhead Bench,
on Ganes, was in Ophir the 26th.
Max Simel, mail carrier, arrived
ft ;m Tolstoi by dog team the 25th
ard left on tote 26th.
J. M. Floward..
TAKOTNA
Louis Laskey, N. <*. manager,
made a brief business, trip to town
during the week.
Lee Lamprecht came in from Yan
k'e, Tuesday, and will remain at his
hbme here for some weeks.
Ed Nolette of Yankee is in town
on business::.
Ed Adams, A. R. C., with (Turly
Anderson and John McClung, is en
gaged in repairing the winter trail
to McGrath.
Owen Gray, Ganes, spent several
dnys in town during the. week.
John Beaton arrived in town' dur
ing the week from Yankee creek'.
Mr. Beaton is now waiting for a
plane to return' him to Flat from
where he intends to", leave for the
outside shbrtly.
A. H. Twitchell'is at present re
pairing the telephone line between
here and McGrath. There has been
no communication between Takotna
and McGrath since the storm on
Wednesday when the lfne was blown
do^rn.
PREDICTS BOOM IN MINING IN
TERRITORY FOR 1935.
J. H. Wheeler, president of the
White Pass and Yukon Route, who
has just returned to his home in
Seattle after spending the summer
months as usual at Skagway, be
lieves Interior.'Alaska and the Yukon
Territory will be invaded next year
by an army of miners and prospect
ors and that next spring will wit
ness a renewal of the gold fever of
the Klondike days.
“Through the supplying of equip
» ment and supplies, Seattle will play
an important part in the intensive
revival of placer mining in the
North next year,” Mr. Wheeler said
to the Alaska Weekly, “and in that
section. The new and higher price
, of gold gives the miner a double
ft break, for it has occurred without
being caused by a boom and when
the cost of supplies is not excessive
and the miner secures an increased
^ of more than 70 per cent for his
labor. Another important factor in
U the development of placer operations
[is the aold water thawing process,
givng a low cost of preparation as
compared with the old method of
using, wood fires to thaw promising
^ ground. The water thawing method
makes it possible to work gravel
E . . . ■ "' V' '
ADVENTUROUS AMERICAN OF
A CENTURY AGO.
Among some Mayan relics recentl
ly brought back from Central Am
erica and placed in the Metropolitan
museum in New York City was an
old pistol. It is an old muzzle loader
said to have belonged to William
Walker, American soldier of fortune,
whose exploits thrilled the world
nearly 100 years ago. Walker, a
Tennessean, was successfully a doc
tor, lawyer, editA-, soldier and ad
venturer. As glamorous as any fig
ure in a novel, he led an army of
200 men as adventurous as himself
into the country overcoming the
government and etablished himself
president. He"’ was president in
name only, ruling the little country
with an iron hand and Ieving tri
bute until a rebellion aided by near
by Guatamela overthrew his govern
ment and captured Walker. He was
executed by a firing squad in 1800,
the usual fate of freebooters.
MCGiRATH GIRL HAS UNUSUAL
OCCUPATION.
An unusual occupation for women
is that followed by Miss Helen Koe
nig, of McGrath, who has a contract
for servicing the planes of McGee
Airways and several independant
flyers. She also checks and handles
all freight carried by the planes.
Clothed in breeches and blazer she
goes about her work quite natur
ally, handling a case of gasoline or
a sack of fiaur as easily as most
men..
During the. summer when part of
the pianes use pontoons and land on
the river and others on the river bars
she uses a. small outboard motor
boat for transporting the freight
and oil. In winter she uses a dog
team.'
In cold weather it is a part, of her
duties to warm up the engines for
the pilots. It is not unusual to see
her out in the first faint streak of
dawn with the mercury at 30 or 40
below, tending the fire pots with
which the planes are warmed.
Helen is part Eskimo and proud
of it, slender, graceful and just
eighteen.
She finished the elementary school
grades at McGratth and is carefully
saving her money for a course at
Fairbanks College, after which she
would like to be a flyer.
Miss Koenig has been to the coast
but much prefers the interior and
cares not at all to see the great out
side. That she is efficient and re
liable is plainly shown by the non
chalant manner the pilots reach out
and initial her slips with scarcely
a second glance..
President Wilson used to find
great pleasure in relating how he
once had his special car sidetracked
at Hannibal, Mo., so that he might
make a quiet pilgirmage to the mon
ument erected on the bluffs to
Mark Twain. Unknown to the nat
ives, he asked one of them if he re
membered Tom Sawyer.
“Never heard of him,” the Mis
sourian made answer.
“Do you recollect Huckleberry
Finn?” asked the president.
“Finn? Finn?” mused the native.
“There was a family of Finns down
the road apiece but I don’t think
there was a Huckleberry among’em.”
“Do you happen to recall Pud
dinhead Wilson?”
“Oh, yes, sure, I voted for him
twice, suh!”—Cappm’s Weekly.
beds in a few hours.
“Reports from all sections of the
Yukon and Alaska indicate that hun
dreds of old time miners will rehurn
to the mining game in the North
next spring.”
ALASKA COLLEGIANS DISCUSS
ESKIMO DIET.
The College is becoming “Eskimo
conscious” since the return of the
St. Lawrence Archealogical Expedi
tion. When conversation lags in the
dormitory dining room, one of the
•‘Islanders can usually liven it up
by telling how the Eskimos live,
the most natural dinner topic is that
of food, but whoever brought up the
subject of Eskimo food habits may
have regretted it before the “Island
er” finished. At any rate the re
porter gleaned some interesting facts
from the discourse.
Eskimos have been greatly af
fected in their diet by the coming
of the white man, according to
members of the expedition. Strong
black tea is served at every meal
and old and young are equally fond
of it. It is not unusual to hear
little children crying for “kaya”
which in their language means tea.
Pilot bread and baking powder bis
cuits are especially relished, for it
isc seldom that they are obtained.
Perhaps the lady of the house will
get really ambitious and make a
batch of tasty doughnuts, using
baking powder, flour and water,
which she mixes and makes into
little round balls that cooked in seal
oil. The Eskimos consider this a
great delicacy which is to be in
dulged in not more than once a year
oome oi tne wtawwuw ic
able to obtain rice, raisins, and can
ned fruit, but not often.
Their main food is meat, mainly
that of the walrus or margona as
it is known to them. This they eat
either cooked or dried. Dried walrus
is eaten by dipping the meat first
in a bowl of blubber oil. Whale
meat is eaten in much the same
fashion except that they relish the
portion directly below the skin,
sort of a slimy, greasy substance.
This is eaten directly after the kill
ing of the whale which is always
the occasion of a great feast.
In the summer they break the
monotony of their diet by obtaining
bird eggs and later in the season
young auklets, seagulls and cormor
ants. They eat a little reindeer meat
but do not much care for it, prefer
ring walrus and whale. Strange as
it may seem, fish does not enter in
as an important food. Always meat
comes first and only when it is
scarce does the Eskimo resort to sea
foods.—Farthest-North Collegian.
After trying for an hour to get
his old car started, James Duncan,
Brandon, Manitoba, was so mad he
picked up an axe and with its flat
side struck the engine a blow hard
enough to shatter it. It barely
made a dent in the surface but to
Duncan’s amazement when he tried
the starter the next time the motor
began purring and has been run
ning perfectly ever since. Now
Duncan carries the axe in the car
with him wherever he goes.
Customer—I want to buy three
potted geraniums.
Florist—We have no geraniums
bpt I can give you chyrsanthemums.
Customer—Chrysanthemums won’t
do. These plants are to replace
some geraniums I promised my wife
to water while she was away.—Path
finder.
/
Fred King
j
Notary Public
McGrath, Alaska
WHAT DO PHYSICIANS DIE OF?
A record of 3,354 deaths of med
ical practitioners in the United
States in 1933 shows the average
age at which death occurred was
04.4 years, as told by the Journal
of the American Medical Associa
tion. Two doctors lived to be 100,
46 reached 90 or more, 357 died be
tween 60 and 64. A toal of 450
died before reaching 50. Thirty-one
passed on between the ages of 25
and 29. Heart disease which took
1,131, was the chief cause of death.
Next came cerebral hemorrhage
which was fatal to 360; pneumonia,
313; cancer, 286 and arterial scler
osis, 248. There were 70 suicides
and 10 homocides. Of the 3,354,
83 were women.
Scotland Yard of London reports
it has made 400,000 identifications
by the fingerprint system in the
last 30 years without a single er
ror being recorded. Fingerprints
may be accepted as infallible evir
lence of identification, Scotland
Yard officials declare, as there is
no known instance in the world his
tory where two prints of different
persons have been exacly alike.
TABLE OF DISTANCE BE
TWEEN NENANA AND FLAT
Miles
Neitaaa . 00
Tavern Roadhouse . 17*4
Knight’s Roadhouse ... 23 Vi
Ninteen-Mile Roadhouse . 58
Diamond Roadhouse . 76
Roosevelt Roadhouse . 89
Lake Minchumina . 115
Trapper’s Cabin .-... 13?
Lone Sstar Roadhouse . 159
Telida Roadhouse .. 169 Vfe
Slow Fork Roadhouse .-. 187
East Fork Roadhouse .-. 206
Berry’s Landing Roadhouse . 227
Big River Roadhouse.. 241
McGrath . 2*’<3
Takotna . 280
Bill Goss’ Roadhouse .291
Ophir . 300
McCafferty . 305
Brown Creek shelter cabin . 318
Fritz shelter cabin . 338
First Chance shelter cabin _ 343
Sshermeyer R. H.. 360
Iditarod .-. 376
Flat . 384
Bonanza shelter cabin, 12 miles fronr
Flat.
Crooked Creek shelter cabin, 19
miles from Bonanza.
BRANCH POOL HALL
FLAT, ALASKA.
BEER. WINES. TOBACCOS.
CANDIES. CARDS.
BARBER SHOP.
Hot lunches served any time. Everything
first class.
ANDREW MISCOVICH - ALEX TAVITOFF
When in Anchorage Stop at
THE MORRISON HOUSE
t
Pleasant Rooms With or Without Board
Reasonable Rates.
MRS. MARY MORRISON - prop.
LOUSSACS DRUG STORE
Anchorage, Alaska.
Drugs Rubber Goods RCA Radios
Liquors of All Kinds. Olympia Beer.
Special, Prompt Attention Given All Mail Orders.
HEWITT’S PHOTO SHOP
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA.
Tirects your attention to their amature finishing department to
gether with their 24 hour service.
Carrying a full line of standard and Portable typewriters, Burr
ough and Victor adding machines.
Battery radios for those living in unwired homes, fresh stock of
b&.teries at all times. MAIL ORDERS SOLICITED.