The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-07-22
Nome and the Newspapers.

There is an entertaining shade of yell
lowness about the treatment of the rush
to Cape Nome and the situation there
in many newspapers. East and West.
The subject is one that stimulates the
Imagination. Special correspondents
who have been sent out feel It neces-
sary to earn their salaries. and conclude
that the very environment demands
something bordering on the sensational.
SO. whatever OF fiction may have crept
into the reports from Nome last sea-
son Is mild when compared with the
lurid accounts that are now in vogue.
Here Is the staid Commercial Adver-
tiser. for instance, one of the sober
minded papers Of New York, that has
weird and wonderful accounts OF do
ings at Nome. II has even picked up
somewhere a correspondent who walked
along the Seattle water front one day
and requires two columns In which to
express his sense OF the wildness and
wickedness of Seattle As no accounts
Of the wealth of Cape Nome year ago
could be too extravagant, so the situa-
ton at the present moment cannot be
drawn by the same sensation mongers
In colors too dark or thickly laid on.
To the chorus is added the voice of en-
vious rivals. the Spokesman Review and
ha nrau hA tai Of Aa al.
less greed OF cities and transportation
companies whose profits they did not
share. II Is all so forced and fosiishly
drawn as TO remind the public once
more Of the article last spring which
told the country about the preparation
OF Atty armored dredges or Puget
sound. whose owners were to engage
in deadly combat for the corporations
with the armed miners on Nome's gold
en- sands.
Newspapers n this stamp have. we
fear a good deal 10 answer for. and are
stiil adding TO their account. II Is there
fore all the more q matter for congrat-
ulatIon that the newspapers OF Seattle,
at the center where excitement natur-
ally stood highest. have told the exact
truth from first to last, just as they are
reporting the Nome situation now with
out pallistlon or exaRgerAtion. The re-
ports brought cut last season were pub
lisaed with sorupulous exactness, and
the facts have Justified them ALI Cape
Name Is exactly what Il was represent
ed 10 be. district Of great promise, Of
undoubted riches ia gold. whose devei-
opment VIII be q work q years ana hard
labor, not Of hys,erla.
Talk about "persuadlng" people 10 90
there Is suprcmely silly, The boomers
who gathered CA ,he borders OF OKLA
homa before the opening Of the puhlic
lands we're net melted To their rush sy
anybody Part 81 them settled the
country and acquired valuable proper.
ties, part ct them iosi " hat little they
had Part = them strAyed back 20
other regions, sad3sr ogt not wiser men.
For that sort ae people never learn. No
Representations could have hcla people
eaek from Nome this year. and thou
sands % Passengers and tons Of freight
addlti0aA could have been taken were
accommodations available OF these
a ao went NTH rational plans ard pre-
vision. probably few win be aisappolnt-
ed Many Will have 10 endure not only
hardship but real suffering.
Mere than hslf OF the people who
stampedea 70 Nome did 10, 20 to work
the sands. but their fellow men, Never
was there seen such an exodus q
schemers, an with a fortune breeding
g.aR- These p@n engaged IN a gam
be: ~.n o. lose tAey have 40 complaint