The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-09
The Midway Of the North.

The Midway or the North.
The Cape Nome country viii present
one of the most interesting sights in
the world this summer to visitor who
should go without the desire for wealth
or the intent TO try for IT, but merely
as a spectator of the manifold activity
and ingenuity of man. For 1t will be
an Arctic Coney Island: an industrial
Midway Plaisance; a concrete exhibit
ton of the fertile thought, the quick
action. the infinite diversity and enter
prise Of the American people.
It IL not the gold-seeker who would
interest most such an onlooker. but the
people who have studied his wants. his
needs. his weaknesses and the lures
that will draw from him most readily
the wealth that he wins from the
treasure house OF the North. For the
past year men have been devising all
over this country how to make strike
at Cape Nome without handling shovel
or rocker And the variety of schemes
that have been elaborated is a testi-
mony to the inventiveness of the
American people.
or course there will be the usual ac-
cessories Of the mining camp In pro-
fusion never seen before. The dance
hall and the saloon and the gambling
hell will flourish as they never did in
any other mining camp on earth. For
never, probably, did as great an army
Of treasure hunters gather upon any
one spot in so short a time. But there
will be other. more legitimate, more In
teresting features of the new camp and
the sudden spread OF standardization
to that desolate coast. 1t Is no exag-
geration to say that hundreds OF thou
sands of dollars have been expended
upon devices. machinery, appliances,
improvements from which It is hoped
to gather a larger treasure than any
claim would yield.
AS rule we get only hints of these,
because the inventors of projects and
those interested in them guard their
secret carefully. lest competition should
divide the field. But there viii be
scores upon scores OF original schemes
to furnish comfort. convenience and
service to the people at Nome. The
holds of the ships about to sail are
packed with curious machines of many
types. Machines to dredge the bottom
OF the ocean, TO work the beach sand,
to operate on the tundra. to save the
-four gold which escapes rude pro-
cesses. are there by dozens. The beach
at Cape Nome will look like the me-
chanical department OF some great ex-
position in a land whose Industries and
whose apparatus are unfamiliar.
Then there are the incidental occu-
patlons. There are plans for every
conceivable form OF profitable activity.
Electric lighting and heating plants ara
among these. The latest thing is none
too good for Nome. and immense sums
have been invested in such enterprises
from which II is expected 10 receive
cost and an added profit In the opera
lions Of one short season. There are
diminutlve railroad cars and baby loco
motives, 20 be operated over a track
that goes with them. There will he
lighters Go ply between vessels and
that hsrborless coast. there will BE-
boats to ply from place TO place upon
a: there viii be every conceivable form
Of service for which It is believed that
the gold-winner win pay with his
wonted prodigaiity.
This will be the strangest commu-
nifty ever seen upon the face OF this
old earth. for 1t will combine the ex-
tremes Of primitive rudeness and high
| civilization. Upon that stretch OF mo
| notonous beach. unified by nature for
anything but the explorer. and UMPIRE
! pared for the reception Of a multitude,
tens Of thousands viii settle them
selves In rude comfort But any Of
those people may have tomorrow
/ enough 10 pay for the Injuries tina:
win tempt all the more strongly In tbs
heart OF natures wIldness aud desola-
ton. Therefore. side by side with sea
and sand and tent there win stand ap-
| planes and evidences OF an advanced
Industrial and social development
Like the iuxtaposition OF culture and
savagery. II will offer the strangest
the most instructive OF contrasts. The
man to whom the race for wealth Of
fers no temptations that would lead
him 20 the North, might well wish thai
he could make'the trip just to glance
in at the strange hyperborean kalei-