The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-01-06
SUNDAY SOCIAL.
PERSPECTIVE AND RETROSPEc-
 TIVE.

TIVE.
 How smooth and even and rolling
 the mountains look that perch them
 selves about us on every side, and how
 soft their curves appear from the dis
 tance, Is it not so of the pathway of
 life? As we look backward over the
 brief span of our little city. how softly
 undulating appear the epochs and events that seemed in their time to be jagged cliffs, abrupt precipices, bold declivities. How the great evolution ist Time blends the rougher with the finer fabric until indeed
 "DiStdnce lends enchdntment 10 the
 rieD"
 A few brief months ago We were welcoming the advent of strangers among us, and with an apology on our lips were telling them, not what We were, but what we hoped to be. Would it not be worth the time for us to pause now, on this the yestibule of ? new century, on the advent of new year among us here, in this far North land and ask ourselves how far our earlier predictions are realized? How nearly do we approach the frution of our hopes? How far are We advanced toward the plane of the older civiliza- tion? How far do we fall short of what we ought to have accomplished in material growth and the broader de- velopment? Let us, each individual, ask himself what part of the result bears his imprint. how much of his individual effort is woven into the tex ture of the cloth-that we may spread out before us as the sum total of our efforts of nearly four years of com munity exstencei
 Three years ago our invitations to the stranger were full of the future; they glittered with grand promises and shone refulgent with hope. We prom ised the uniformed sojourner a new Eldorado, an Arctic Atlantis, a land where "every wind that rustles whis- pers gold"
 Since those days many thousands of the discontented of all nations, of the
 
 tempted fortune among our icy noun tains, and followed the ignus fatuus in to the bowels of our frozen valleys. And not all have won a smile from fickle Fortune. Indeed the far larger number have gone again with another failure jotted down in their life book, Is 1t strange that this has been so? And have not the successes among us been proportionately greater than in the crowded cities, and on the equally l crowded acres of the older world?
 Let us see what We have done here | within our own sphere The cold cal culator of three or four years ago would have been content to come here, try fortune for a season or two, sue ceed or fail, and rush again back to what he would have called a habit | able land" How many of us came lere first with more than this in view? But we have more, We have done more, Te are more than we even hoped to | De. We have not perhaps followed our sarly ambitions, we have not many of . IS lived up to our prearranged plans, but in an almost individual struggle | Tor an individual success We have done more, far more, than our vainest am bitions promised. We have built up, even upon the threshold of most for bidding land, city of homes. We have brought here our families, our wives and little ones. We have among bn ,f music, flowers, social circles, churches, societies-indeed, a world of culture numbers us now as part of itself. We have brought with us our arts sci ences and avocatons. We are indeed part of that world that begins now it's physicians, lawyers, teachers of music, educators of the young. We are merchants, manufacturers, me chanics. We have our holidays, our religious fesivals. Indeed, We are a part of the social circle of the older world.
 And yet We are the same men and the same women who came to Alaska 30 recently to get gold and go home. How insidiously the change has all come about. We have not felt 1t our selves. We hardly realize it now un- til We rub our eyes as from a sleep look about us inquiringly, and still sometimes wonder if it may not be a dream. Even our ambitions have changed. We have almost ceased to even think of ever going back to our old homes, and daily, hourly, we are planning some new comfort for our selves, some luxury of an enduring kind. This has come to be our home We have come to love even the bois- terous winters that once fairly shiv- cred our frames in their anticipation. And who would ever tire of the snow capped peaks that stand sentinel over us throughout the year! Where will we find purer air. sweeter water, or a more genial summer sun?
 And when we look back only a short way and see ourselves as we were when we came here, full of the one dea-gold-bearing great packs upon