The Mena weekly star., 1897-12-22

tqpf w p'ef W6fks 5iid our systen
 Of uater works is as fine as any in the
 world All we had to do was to build a reservoir upon the mountain side and pipe the water down. The pres
 sure is wonderful and although every
 house in the town is frame, we never
 have any big fires
 duncan has about 4,o00 people and
 beween thirty and forty saloons, /" re-
 marked the judge with smile. You
 know Alaska isa prohibition country,
 but we have saloons galore There
 are not over 200 hte people in Sitlxa
 and yet l once counted fourteen Sd looms there. Everybody drinks whis-
 key and it's useless to try to close the saloons, because the proprietors have to be tried by jury and it is impossi- ble to get twelve men fit to serve on jury who do not patronize these saloous Then, too, the witnesses called can never remember just when they took drink, or in fact just where and only within the last three mouths has an effort to prosecute the salooG-lSeepers been successful Then, by some strange chance every saloon keeper in the country was fined s1oo All but three paid their fines and l opened up their saloons the next mora | ing The three who were unable to pay their fines were sent to tho prison in stka and when they had served their terms out and retur7ed to Ju- neau they were given a grand recept- ion and one of the clergymen in Ju ueao delivered an address of welcome. He said afterwards that he did not know what kind of meeting it was, but he made the speech, just the same. and it was duly printed in the papers as feature of the reception to re- turned saloon-keepers.p
 Prohibition Does Not Prohibit.
 "Gambling is the principal pastime of the people. and yet it is rare oc- when anyone is killed in a gaming house Do you know why it s that so few people are murdered n Alaskaa We'll, the man who is .empte to commit murder thinks twice md when he considers the fact that there is no way on earth for him to escape, he desists. You see. 1t takes a good while to get out of that country, since fl is impossible to ride horse more than q mile or two at the most. Since the adopriou of the civil law in Alaska in lss4 there mas not been a legal hanging and only one lynching.
 When one man kills another up there. it is almost impossible to con- vict the murderer Every manln Al aska has at some time or other aided or helped every other man, and when one tried for murder. you can't find twelve men in the vicinity, some of whom, and often all, have not been favored by the man on trial at some time The murderer is always acquit- ted {"
 The Prison At Sitka.
 The only prison in the territory is in Sitka, and the cells are wooden ones When Judge Williams went to Alaska, eleven years ago, there were more cells than prisoners. Now the prison is crowded, and four guards are re- quired to watch the the prisoners who t who are serving their terms, all under one year Criminals who are sen fenced to more than year are sent to San Quientin prison in California
 Judge Williams is vice president and general manager of the Prince Will Hams Sound Mining and Developing company which has located twenty placer claims in the vicinity of Prince Williams sound. These placer depos- it's were discovered in October by | mining expert and are very rich. pan ming out S5 to the ton.
 s'When one stops to consider that | placer gold mining is profitable when the stuff pans out five cents to the | ton. it is plain to see that this strike | is rich one,' said the judge I've 1 have 26O acres in basin, and all the 1 water we want for hydraulic mining, and think we can wash several mil- lion dollars worth of gold out of it. The prospects ar most fiattering.