The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-17
SPIRIT OF TEE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Lending Journals
UpOH Current Topics-COmDiied EverV
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
ALAsl ALASKA!

From the NJ Y. Tribune
The last vestige of hope has departed, and
the night of cold despair settles over damp,
snowy, scrubby, tangled-up, uncomfortable
country. Alaska, fguratively speaking, is no
more. Two special agents of the Treasury
Department, sent ont TO make thorough in
yestipation of the condition and resources Of
this wretched region, have returned and re-
ported, and to an inquiring Senate has the
Secretary transmitted two dolorous docu-
ments detailing the dreary discomforts of our
hyperborean territory Reluctantly, then, do
we reach the conclusion that Russia, when
she sold Alaska, sold also the United States
For some time we have supposed this to be
the case, yet there has been all along dim
hope that something might be realized out of
seal-slSins that the deposits of coal, which II
dug up and sold at highest market rates
would more than pay the national debt,
might not turn out all slate and bitumen;
that the Goldfish might prove numerous enough
TO bring down restaurant prices to the poetlcal
standard of
"Tweve and a half cents for two nshbals;'
and that possibly the Alaskan cranberry crop
could be made to favorably affect the pie
market But these last hopes now seem
doomed to disappointment.
The estimated cost of Alaska present and
future, within a period of twenty-five years,
is put at somewhat more than forty-three mil
lions of dollars In return for this expendi-
ture the special reporters of the Treasury De-
partment say that we may hope to get, with
good luck, 800, 900 year out of seal skins,
and five or ten thousand for customs. AS
for the fisheries, which next to the sealeries
were the most promising source of profit,
their only drawback is that better fish can be
caught nearer marketin the waters OF Oregon,
Washington Territory, and British Colum-
bia There is coal, to be sure, in Alaska, on
Admiralty Island, but it abounds In reslnous
matters and ends in smoke. 1t is not adapted
to generate steam, but might be used in the
production of illuminating gas. Inasmuch,
however, as the demand for street
lamps, chandeliers, and burners is not lively
in that region, it is safe to say that the
carboniferous deposits of Alaska will sleep
undisturbed while the much better and ap-
parently inexhaustible coal fields of Colum-
bia, Washington, and California hold out.
There is much good lumber in Alaska, but,
like the coal and Goldfish, it is too far off;
and when you get there 1t is almost unat-
tainable. being either in impossible swamps
or far up the mountain slopes with no faci-
iities for bringing it down. 1t is thought
that a little cold comfort might be gotten
out of an ice crop at Kadiak, sufficient to
supply the whole Pacific coast" but year
ago the amount obtainable was so insignif.
cant as to hardly pay the cost of shipping, as
ii was q notable fact that at Sitka there was
not ice enough last year to freeze cream for
public festival in midwinter, and-shades
of Msillard and Fussel,-the cream was
served unfrozen. The report also says that
SO long as the cost of bringing ice to the
Pacific market raises the retail price there to
ten cents per pound, it will not be used by
4he masses. Now, if Alaska is not cold
enough to produce ice, it ought certainly to
be warm enough to raise vegetables. Here
again our modest hopes are dashed. Listen
70 the melancholy plant of the special:
During the last summer, although 1 tra-
versed the most desirable and fertile portion
of the territory, and was entertained by the
most hospitable residents, my total supply of
fresh vegetables up to the time of my leaving
the country. in the latter part of August,
comprised two small radishes and an onion
obtained in Kadiak, and of these it should be
added that the growth was forced IN hot
houses, and that without such special care the
supply would have been even less than ii
was In relation to the growth of cereals
"a practical agriculturist,' says the report
''would naturally inquire how grain could be
better cured than hay in a country where sucl
wet weather prevails, with so brief intervals
of clear sky" and though ''having had man,
years experience as a farmer, the agen
grimly confesses his inability to answer tn
question.
about three hundred, of whom perhaps hun
dred and twenty-five voters The native
amount to indefinite thousands. Those @
Eastern Alaska come under the general ar
pellation of Koloshians, though not related
so far as we know, to the people whom Pat
apostolically addressed. The missionary eff ort
of the Greek Church among them have nC
been eminently successful. A church wf
built for these unappreciative Koloshians
Sitka, and their head chief baptized, ordained
given a robe, and made priest Of so far
possible, but he never made any conversion
in that character, and just before his deatl
which occurred since the transfer of the TIE
ritory, he designated n slave for sacrifice
his funeral ceremonies, a procedure N
recognized by the Greek Church. and oil
which throws considerable doubt upon Il
character of his evidences" He would see
to have fallen from grace, TO say the leas
and his people never having had any to fl
from were about to accommodate his humal
wishes, and would have done so but for t
interference of the newly constituted auth
rites. We are unable, in the inspired strai
of Bishop Heber, to say of Alaska as of 9th
pagan lands,
"And every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile
The whole thing is vile and as for scenel
if there is any il cannot be seen on accoU
of the fogs and general mugginess of 81
forlorn region. If there be one thing mC
definitely settled than another in regard
Alaska it is this: that our Government c
make nothing out of it. The question
how much shall we lose? One hundred q
twenty-five voters are not worth setting uI
territorial government for. Customs of f
1O tan thOugond dnllare r1er annum will if |