The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-18

!: FALLAC|ES ABOUT alaska



Juneau, Alaska; it will become valuable
in a few years, as the city grows and
then will have all I want" remarked
a prosperous-l looking Los Angeles man
a few days ago. in my hearing.
1 looked at him in amused surprise, for
the man seemed to be in earnest. "If
what you say is true and you can get the
land" 1 remarked, "how are you going
to live until it becomes as valuable as
you hope?"
"Oh, that is easy" he replied, with
confident air, Il am just going to raise
vegetables and garden truck to live ON
and sell, for there is whole lot of money
in that up there
The man had never been there, but
having conceived as he supposed rapid
and easy way to wealth, he determined
On this course, and sure enough ne SOLO
his business here, his cosy home and fur
~liture; took his trusting wife and small
family with a capital Of about five hun
dred dollars.
Yet he is but one of thousands who,
buoyed by false notions, leave good
living and pleasant home to return af-
d
heartened and homeless, to begin life
anew amid old surroundings
I know of several in this city who
echoing his fallacies and remarks, have
done likewise.
NY friend did not realize the difference
between this paradise of nature and the
frigid roughness of the one he contem-
plated visiting. Yet he reasoned from
analogy and said: Men came to Los
Angeles in early days, took up land; the
city grew up around them, the land in
creased in value, making its fortunate
owner rich and influential Therefore 1
will go to Juneau, which is thriving
city, take up government land: the city
will increase in size and population, my
land will increase in value and I shall
become rich"
If the conditions of the two places were
the same his reasoning might prove corr
rect, but because of the vast difference
he will be disappointed. When our Los
Angeles friend gets to Alaska he will
soon find that he cannot take up quar-
ter section of land within fifty miles of
Juneau city, for the very good reason
that he can't find any to take up. Why?
Because the entire country almost is al
reay taken near that city, not as home
steads, but as mining claims. Again,
even if he were fortunate enough to find
any land to take UP, it would do him
no good, for it is utterly unfit for agri-
cultural purposes In the first place, to
make gardening possible he would have
to shovel off the snow, then construct a
roof to keep it off. After this.he would
have to build subterranean fires to thaw
the soil. In other words. he would have
to build dollhouse, and to do that his
money would not go far.
''If our friend got the land could he
grow vegetables?" Possibly, in the
course of two or three years. am ac-
quainted with about the only produce or
vegetable gardener in that region and he
lives twelve miles from Juneau. He in
formed me that he had about one acre of
ground in his garden, that he spent two
years labor and $4,000 to get that one acre
into such shape that he could utilize it as
vegetable garden. Judging from this
you can readily see that our Los Angeles
man, by the time he pays $500 to get
himself and family there won't have
much left to raise vegetables as means
of subsistence, while that mythical land
of his is being increased in value be-
cause of the growth of Juneau city.
Vegetables in Alaska and nearly all
other produce are imported from San
Francisco and Puget Sound. Being
freighted so far, of course, the price is
high. paid twenty-five cents for a sin
gle head of lettuce and was glad to get
1t at that, Lettuce and onions are about
the only vegetables that can be raised
there at all. There are few wild straw
berries and thimbeberries that can be
1l>+ \ +oJx inr,r of
about eighty miles by steamer.
The main reason, outside of the scare
ity of land expense, that vegetables can
not be raised there, is that the summer
season is so short and 80 wet. A person
that has not been there cannot realize
the great amount of snow and rain that
falls there. l was there through one
summer and during the three months
there were not over three weeks of real
sunshiny weather and not over three
days at time free from rain. The an
nual rainfall there is 14O inches. Just
think of it, and then that we only have
about Is inches here. And yet the people
in Alaska could not live without the rain
in the summer. 1t acts as disinfectant.
The soil is composed of decayed vegeta-
BILE matter where there is any soil, and
when the rain ceases for few days an
unbearable stencil rises like a fog from
the ground and permeates everything.
The streets in the summer are actually
paved with mud more than ankle deep,
so that If our Los Angeleno took his
bicycle with him he will have to turn it
into a mud scow The sidewalks are
built about six feet from the ground to
keep the pedestrian out of snow in VIM
ter and mud in the summer. The foot
hills are never free from snow and Be-
ring bay, on the semicircuar shore of
which Juneau is built, is never free from
icebergs, some of them nearly as large
as the Van Mugs hotel, and only one
eighth out of water at that.
What does the laboring man do In
Alaska If he can't depend on agricul-
ture?" you ask. There are two or three
things he can do, but the principal in
dustry is, of course, mining. The labor
ing man, unless he is "prospector" and
has mines of his own, can work during
the summer for mine owners at large
wages. There is not much mining done
In the winter, Sc he loafs around the
balance of the year. The mines that are
tunnellng have work the year around,
but on account Of the cold and snow,
the placer claims are abandoned about
eipht months in the year Some men