The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-22
ENGLAND IN THE NORTH
She Wants to Grab a Big
Slice of Alaska From
America.
so SAYS MoNs1GNoR Tos1.
British Engineers Running a New
Line to Cut Off Glacier Bay.
On the Yukon.

Monsignor To.i, g. J., Project Apostolic
of Alaska, and Father Barnham, S. j., ar
rived in this City Monday from Northern
Alaska and are staying at st. 1gnatlus
Church on Hayes street. Monsignor Tosl
came to San Francisco on business con-
nected with the Catholic missions in the
northern territory, while Father Barnham
will go East, where he will see his friends
and enjoy short rest.
They started off on their long journey
from st. Michaels, Alaska, July Is, and
with the exception of a weeks delay at
Seattle, due to the illness of Father Tosl
from the exhaustion of travel, they travelled
continuously until last Monday. Father
Tosi is a man well on in years, who has
given the larger portion of his life to mis-
sionary work and his priestly duties. He
was laid up second time upon his ar
rival here and was not quite we'll last night,
so Father Barnham represented him.
Father Barnham drifted away in a con-
versation from his missionary work to the
interesting question of the boundary be-
tween Canada and Alaska.
England has surveying party up there
now, running new line to suit itself, ;" he
SAID 1HeSe eHSinecIS ere uoI ou
junketing tour to amuse themselves" he
said. ''They are working hard. They
have a magnificent equipment and have
already accomplished great deal.
''Unless we have gumption, we shall lose
an immense slice of Southeastern Alaska.
They will steal Glacier Bay and some
grand harbors. We have not paid enough
attention to this question. Alaska until a
few years ago used to be called Seward s
To- Ia oth hi l.
about the country and people here did not
take interest enough in it to think about it.
at is only within the last few years that
our people began to go to Alaska in large
numbers, and now it is fast becoming a
favorite resort of American tourists. And
why do they go there? Above all else it
is to see Glacier Bay, the most sublime
sight of lifetime. And that is what the
English want to take from US.
"In Europe people sit in front of little
glacier and go into raptures over it-a
miserable two-for-a-nickel affair in COM
parison with tho glaciers of Alaska. No
body appreciates those facts more fully
than the Canadian Pacific and the English.
1.-The only ship that can sail through the
Iand-locked waters and Glacier Bay is an
American vessel. What great thing it
would be for the Canadian Pacific and the
Canadian or English spectators to take
get up there; you could not see Glacier
Bay without going on an English or Cana
dian vessel. American ships would be
cast out unless they would fly an English
flag. And nothing could be landed for an
immense portion of American territory
unless in an English harbor. You could
not get even bag of flour without paying
tribute to England, for it would have to
enter Canadian port before being taken
inland across the boundary to Alaska.
81 talk about this with considerable feel
ing, for am an American and my people
were Americans in Connecticut since 1851"
He betrayed how he felt about the APP
parent intention to grab the best part of
Alaska from America, as he went further
to. protest against it and the neglect of
Alaska by the National Government.
1--WE are cut off, he continued, "by the
general Congress. We have no right rep
resentation, and what is needed now is
man who will rise up and bring this ques-
ton in the full magnitude of its impor-
lance before the people. Arbitration? We
always lose in arbitration. We lost in the
San Juan question. The sixty-m limit
in the Boring Sea was nonsensical. We
lost there, too. suppose the English will
decide on boundary of their own between
Alaska and Canada. Then we will howl.
Canada will howl too, and there must be
arbitration, of course. Now, why do the
English make this move at this late day,
after 145 years? Since 1S4f the boundary
was a settled fact. It was never disputed
when the territory belonged to Russia and
was known as Russian America. 1t Is still
on all the English maps, which shows that
it was accepted by England through all
these years, and to ask for arbitration now
on new line is nothing but impertinence."
Father Barnham did not give glowing
account of the placer mines on Birch
Creek. near Fort Yukon, 1000 miles up the
river. He said that there are nearly 1000
men at Forty mile Greek and thereapouts,
but they have only about sixty working
days in the year and ten months of winter
with the temperature often so degrees
below zero. Though very rich in gold it is
difficult to make the mines pay under such
circumstances. At Forty-mile Creek,
where there never had been trouble of any
kind whatever, detachment of Canadian
police was stationed quite recently, and
Father Barnhafn said he expected serious
trouble there this coming winter between
the American miners and the Canadian
officers.
The Project Apostolic has decided to
build a hospital at Forty-mile Creek for
the miners and natives, and will have a
doctor there. The Sisters of st. Anne,
eleven of whom are at the missions teach
ing Esouimaux and Indian children, will
act as nurses.
The Jesuit fathers have five stations for
Indians, one each at Forty mile Creek,
Nulato and Holy Cross and on Shagiluk
and Kuskokwin rivers. For the Esqui-
maux there are mission stations at the
mouth of the Yukon, at ST. MichaeIs,
Norton and Kotzebue sounds. There are
nine priests engaged on these missions,
and they have two large schools for the
children who speak English. and can beat
their masters at the civilization game Of
chess. The fathers prefer to GO slowly
making catechumens. of the older natives
until superstition disappears and the
natives can be trained to understand and
appreciate Christian teaching.
Father Barnham has almost completed
dictionary of the Esquimaux language,
having gathered fully 1000 words of their
limited vocabulary. He has the manu-
script with him, and also the copy for an
Esquimaux catechism in idiomatic Ian
guage, both of which he will have printed
in the East.
BERNARD SOWARTZ'S MONEY,