Fort Wrangel news., 1898-07-06
4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION
The Demonstration in Fort Wrangel Fully in Keeping with the Char
 acter of the Day.

in remembering the day i'll which the fathers declared their political indepen- dence of Great Britain.
 \ committee of ten, namely: Will oughhy Clark. H. |. Weymouth, I. G. Wilson. Oscar C. Stoue. c. W. Bloom hardt. q. W. Kennedy. \. c. Mcbride, l.. l.. Scott. T. k. Needham and B. \. Stephens, had been elected at citi Zens' meeting to engineer the celebra ton. and. after selecting Mir. Clark as president of the day, and Rev. G. w. Kennedy as speaker, and collecting the necessary funds. the committee turned the arrangement of the program over to Capt. Stephens. who found him self seriously handicapped for time and help.
 However the interest of several la dies was enlisted, and a very creditable literary program was made up.
 Sergeant Gillis. of Co. \, National Guard of Alaska, detailed the necessary men to do the flag raising and fire the salutes, and hat part WIS carried out without a hitch.
 Promptly at , o'clock a. m. an ele- gant tWelve-by eight foot American flag specially purchased for the occasion by Duncan McKinnou, was raised on the flag pole on the summit of Mount Dewey. and. as the stars and stripes tloated To the breeze. the national guard fired the colonial salute of thirteen guns. in honor of the thirteen original colonies, which reyolted from the tyr rany of King George Ill. The piece fired is brass cannon, which was loan ed for the occasion by sub-Chief ketti- shan of the klinket Indians. He says it was obtained by his ancestors from the Russians oyer ole hundred years ago.
 By eleven o'clock d m. the literary program was under way at the opera house, which was well filed
 President Clark called the house to order, and the audience sang two stan gas of America. led on the piano by Miss Lulu keefe.
 Rev. c. N. Kennedy made feeling and patriotic invocation.
 Dr. Y. McAlpin. in a well-trained voice. read the declaration of indepen- dence.
 The public school children. who had been drilled by Mrs. Lizzie Sanger, marched on the stage, and sang only as enthusiastic young Americans can sing. the new song of Yankee Dewey Dandy
 They were very neatly decorated with ribbons in patriotic colors, and each one held an American flag The song is a favorite one with the children. and they sang it with q hearty good will that elicited generous applause.
 The Wrangel band played Hail Co lumbia," that brought forth loud ap- plause.
 The hit of the day was made by Cap tain Thomas \. Wilson. who in a most inimitable manner. recited the famous story of the unfortunate Abner Dean who married Nancy.
 Pretty Miss Bertha Bunt recited patriotic poem entitled "E Pluribus Unum.' which won her fresh laurels in the elocutionary line. and from the waves of applause which greeted her appearance and effort, there is no doubt that she succeeded in pleasing the audience.
 The public school children sang "Marching Through Georgia" and the band followed with the same tune.
 Rev. c. N. Kennedy then delivered the oration, and it is evident that the committee made no mistake in the se- lection of speaker It was fine ad- dress, and reviewed the causes of sepa- ration from the mother country, traced its history briefly down to the present, spoke hopefully of the future of the country, and paid tribute to the pio- neers of Alaska It was frequently punctured with applause, and only lack of space stops synopsis being given here.
 The last was a piano solo by Miss Lulu Keefe, which was a rendition wor thy of that young lady's bright talents.
 In the afternoon the Indians held games, on the green east of the Pres byterian church, peculiar to their GUS toms. A large mum Der of whites were present and greatly enjoyed the sports. They were conducted by Rev. A. Stark.
 At o'clock p. m. a skiff race was pulled off in which Jack Collins won prize of five dollars against profes- sional. Jack prances around now with high feather in his cap, and the sport ing club is thinking seriously of send ing him as delegate to the next nation al convention. The fact of the matter is, it was put up job on the part of the boys to let Jack re-im burse himself for expenses incurred in payment for a cargo of cats recently shipped to him from Juneau.
 The run was over the old time course which the Indians have padded for ages. The starting point was from the west end of the C. P. R. wharf. and the course was around Spratt t's Ark. anchor