The silver lance., 1899-10-13

IN a San Francisco woman belongs
.hs distinction of being the only female
edttor and proprietor of a newspaper
throughout the length and breadth Of
me great Yukon region-that land Of
snov and ice, of hardy pioneers and Of
-o,d SAYS the San Francisco Examiner.
Ant Clara e. Wright, just past 30 years
~ age. bears her distinction modestly.
"It,s lust a matter OF business" she
says. "I nnd it pays, now that have
psssed the experimental stage with my
nub,ication, and money is what l am
sfter." And such a unique publica-
zion as the Rampant City Whirlpool Is!
Its motto, 1--WE amt so warm!" gives
an indication OF the paper and its pub
Nsher. Established in January of the
nresent year, as a twelve-page monthly
publication, it's advertising business
has Increased to such proportions that
the energetic publisher had to just dou-
bic the number Of pages, while the cir
culation far exceeds the total popula-
tion of the place of its publication,
men, women and children-a circula-
tion that no other journal in the world
can boast Of And this, with the pa
per selling at 81 copy-no reduction
for term subscriptions-and the over
worked publisher unable to supply the
demand at that Did you ever stop to
consider the labor involved in getting
out an ordinary newspaper, with Its
almost human typesetting machines,its
corps of news-gatherers and editors,
and its lightning presses that turn off
many thousand copies in an hour? If
you have, make another pause and give
thought to the labor devolving on this
undaunted California woman, with not
a soul to assist her but her daughter.
There is not a single type in Rampant
City; a printers stick" would be a
curiosity, while there is not even a
cider press, much less a printing press
anywhere nearer than Dawson, some
hundred miles away. plain ordinary
typewriter makes the whirlpool. with
the manipulation of Mrs. Wright and
her daughter Doris. In the old days in
San Francisco Clara Wright supported
herself and little Doris after the death
Of her husband, ten years ago, by stem
ographic work, and when she went to
in June of last year she took
along the machine that had long been
the means of her livelihood here. That
Il now proving a satisfactory
substitute for presses. Advertisements
and reading matter, editorials and
headlines are all the same, capital let
ters doing service for all display type,
while small ads and reading matter
30 in the lower case letters. Being
business manager, advertising solicitor.
clerk, managing editor, city
sditor, local staff, ,compositor and press
woman combined, it is no wonder that
he Rampant Whirlpool is not published
more frequently than once a month.
A weekly publication under such cir
would be almost an impos-
dbility; daily issue would mean men
al and physical collapse. Not in the
east elated over her multiplicity OF
tiles, not crushed by their weight, Mrs.
Wright sets about her daily tasks with
launtless courage and rejoices over the
act that with the growing business the
lays have heightened proportionately,
or every advertisement, every news
tenn and each new subscriber means
ust SO much more lingering of the
typewriter. When the rush to the
<londike set in she determined to go
o the new El Dorado. 1t was not until
'une, 1898, however, that she was able
o make the start, and then against
he advice of her friends, and unac-
save by her ten-year-old
who had been left fatherless
lmost from the time of her birth, Mrs
Wright started for Dawson by way OF
Il. Michael. Arriving there she en-
ountered SO many people returning to
he states, with most wonderful tales
4 the Klondike region that she deter
mined to cast her lot on the American
ide Of the boundary line. According
y she went to Rampant City, the CEN
er of the vast gold discoveries on the
Iinook and its tributaries. No thought
I starting a newspaper entered the
ady's head at first. She had gone to
hat country for gold, and the pre-
ious metal lay buried deep in the
She made a personal inspec-
lon of the different creeks and gulches
d the district and located several |
laims, while she acquired an interest
q several others that had been located.
Aftsr the streams froze up and deep
now covered the ground, Mrs. Wright
made frequent long trips to the claims,
perils and hardships that
many strong men shrank from.
Mrs. Wright conceived the idea OF
tarting a newspaper upon her return
rom one of these trips, when the in
susely cold, dreary, sunless days az
orded little opportunity for a woman
4 her energetic temperament to do
So In January OF the
,rssent year the Rampant Whirlpool
,egan its career under circumstances
. unfavorable as those usually attend
4. of ,-xrpo1 b1-