The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1900-01-10
CENSUS In FAR ALASKA.
FOURTEEN ENUMERAToRs TAKING
THEIR LIVES IN THEIR HANDS.

Low for the Gold Region - Usc Dog
sieds and Canoes In Interior travelling.
Among the men whom the United
States is sending into wild and dan
gerous regions on its errnnds are IA
who will receive very little recogni-
tion aud will never be known as
heroes, and yet they are taking their
lives into their own hands in the SER
vice OF their country as truly as the
soldiers in the Philippines. They are
the census enumerators in northern
Alnska.
These IA men go about their peril
ous duties urged by no desire for
money, for they have accepted the
positions ut sacrifice. The wages
offered to them, $40 day, are alb.
surdly low in the gold region, and at
first, according to the report of Agent
Samuel G. Durham, he was unable to
get any good men for the work They
simply laughed at him. Finally Mr..
Dunham, who is man Of energy,
made strong personal appeals. He
appealed to the mems friendship, to
their love of adventure, aud to their
love of country, and finally succeeded
in getting them TO undertake the
task for what they regarded as pit
tance.
1t is not long since Major Ray
issued an urgent appeal to the govern
ment not to let emigrants go to the
Cape Nome region in the winter. He
declared that it was suicide. Yet
half of the IA enumerators have
already set out for their posts of duty
and will spend the winter travelling
over the wild and desolate regions of
Northern Alaska. They will do their
travelling on dog sleds and canoes.
There is no other way, except along
the coast, where they car use revenue
cutters.
Many of them go into regions where
lawlessness prevails, and some into
the lairs of outlaws aud cut-throats.
"The chances are that / will have
Muldoon's picnic this winter" cody
wrote Enumerator John w. Kelly
after reaching his district and finding
his route lay through region in
tested with Indian outlaws. 81 will
take duplicate census in memoran-
dun book, so that If ! am shot there
will be some chance of recovering the
work. If am killed and ] have any
allowance for work already done at
the time. please pay the money earned
to my sister, Miss Cora Kelly, Jack
son, Mo"
Census Director Merriam has an in
/ Ia, 81 1aI %
from Mr.. Dunham on the progress Of
the work. The Yukon is the dividing
| line between northern and southern
| Alaska. The enumerators in southern
| Alaska will not have an easy time,
but they will have no such perils to
confront as those north of the Yukon.
The director says that Durham, who
has been at work all the summer, is
the very man for the task. Physically,
he is strong and powerful, and Mr..
Merriam says that no man of less
strength could be entrusted with such
work. He is alert and vigorous, quick
of resource, and has had experience.
A "dog train" consists of six or
eight dogs and sledge, and it is in
this conveyance that tho Alaskan adj
venturers are making their journey
through the wilderness of snow aud
ice. They will have to make long de-
tours through uninhabited wilds to
reach camp here and there, made
up of mere handful of settlers. The
dogs are worth from $50 to $50
apiece, and it costs the government
80 cents day to feed them. Each
enumerator takes with him an Indian
interpreter, who gets S5 n day. When
the enumerators reach creeks and
rivers that are navigable, they will go
down them in canoes, as Durham jo-
cosely says in one OF his reports, ''for
the purpose of enumerating the float
ing population.
When Kelly arrived in the Kotzebue
district and got ready to start on his
journey, he reported that he had gone
there on the revenue cutter Bear. 81
was nine days on the Bear" he cheer
fully reported, "with Captain Jarvis,
the most of the time chasing Indian
murderers. An Indian outlaw named
Olturek had just waylaid and killed
two penniless adventurers named Os-
ienborg and Jansen, and thrown their
bodies into caches. There was no mo-
tive for the crime except the one given
by Kelly - pure cussedness" aud O
desire to hurl defiance at the officers
of the law. After the killing, which
followed the murder of the two miners,
Olturek sent word 10 Jarvis that he
would shoot the first white man who
came near him. The first white man
to start for Olturek's neighborhood
after this warning was Kelly. But
before he got there Olturek was dead.
Dunham reports the outlaws death,
but gives no particulars. There are
more outlaws in Kelly's way, how
ever, including an Indian named Lo
. komuk, who is also looking for white
men.
Census Director Merriam believe:
that there will be greater rush tt
the Nome region than there was t,
the Klondike There were 5000 peo