Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-09-10
UNCLE SANS FIRST COLONY.
Alaska Territory and the Wonder.
full Journey Thither.
The Beauties and Marvels of Puget
Sound-Henry LOOMS Nelson on
the TranscontinentaIT Trip.

1t is here that we find the colonial
| question in its most acute state. and it
Is here also that we encounter the prac-
| tical results of one of our colonial eff
forts. The subject Is interesting, and
throws some light upon our democratic
EFFORTS to govern distant people through
the agency of party helpers; but this is
Tor the future. writes Henry Loomis Nell
son from Skagway, Alaska, to the Boston
| Herald.
One cannot speak Of Alaska without
| saying something of the trip to our in
| teresting possession, and ! shall find
| 1t necessary to say what have learned
or political and territorial conditions in
other letters. The scenery, the society,
| the promise of the land are, however.
! so intensly interesting to the stranger
from the distant East that they fur
nish an agreeable topic and one which
| ought to be interesting to Americans
This naturally suggests the first thought
which comes to the observing traveller,
and which deepens with him as he
goes on, and that is the negligence Of
our opportunities by the people along the
Atlantic and even by those of the mid
die West of our own wonderful coun-
try
Once in a while one meets some peo-
pie from New York or from Boston in
these distant lands, but as a rule the
2
absence. II is another striking fact
that when the people of the Pacific
coast Of Puget sound or of these north
ern waters, speak of the East and Qf
eastern people, they do not think Of the
Atlantic seaboard, Of New England or
Of New York. but of the states along the
Mississippi and their own immediate kin
dred who have remained there
This is doubtless due 10 the fact that
while the Atlantic seaboard has peo-
pied the middle West. the middle West
has, in its turn, peopled the plains Of
Dakota and Montana. and OF the
Pacific coast. Moreover. while from
the capital of our Atlantic seacOast has
been supplied tho funds for the trans
continental railroads, most of those who
are administering them are jewellers Of
the states along the great river whose
steamboat men have been transformed
by Hateful progress into railroad men.
So that the impetus to these far west
ern regions Of money and of men comes
from the middle of the country, and il
the people here see any dweller in
remote regions he is likely to come from
St Paul or Minneapolis.
A Boston Man is the name in the
Chinook language for an American, as
King George Man" is still the name
for an Englishman, all of which shows
that, in their regions, the Boston man
was once as enterprising as the Eng
lishman. Even yet the resemblance
holds. for the Boston sportsman and
tourist is about as frequently seen on
these waters the English nobleman
and traveller. Both come to sport or
to see. No one from the Atlantic and
its coast land comes to nsh, because
no fisherman who is familiar with our
salmon who fights for MS life would
troll with a spoon for sockeye salmon
who prefers even net to the glortes
of a contest.
but what Is interesting us now is the
fact that our far Fastener comes here
almost as little as the Engnshman. The
men and women NJ the Atlantic sea-
board who can travel for two or three
months prefer the old land the old
cities, the old civilization--and the new
rof Europe. To go to Alaska is n globe
trotting effort and therefore few I'M
dertake it. Few love the trifing taste
of hardship involved. and fewer still
love the beauties of nature.
There are in fact no necessary hard
ships involved in this journey, although
there may be some excitement, and one
who must always have dainty food
would better remain Mt home, or at
some hotel on the way while his com
panions climb the mountains or scour
the country. But as for the stra light
trip, including no side excursions, there
is every comfort. One rides in a Pull
man sleeping car from St Louis to the
coast and stops at a hotel in Seattle
which is sure to be far better than
hotels in cities of like size in the moro
established East, for the simple rea-
son that there is more demand here
than there by commercial travellers,
financial magnates and others for such
Injuries.
If one wanders off the beaten track
ones palate is likely to be surprised.
The one thing Rocky mountain inn
% oil far y tI1 toI1
the trout which swarm at his front
door He gives you unwholesome veal,
which is shipped in" to him, and keeps
the trout for himself, and he shows his
own high appreciation Of his home prod
ucts by calling venison obtained out of
season, veal. AS for his own meals.
they answer to the definition of owen
Wister in The Virginian." 1t was
the old trick" says Mr.. Wister, "of
copying some metropolitan menu TO
catch travellers of the third and last
dimensions of innocence, and whenever
this is done the food is of the third
and last dimension Of awfulness." If one
is too particular about food, he would
better keep away from the haunts Of
nature which are to be hunted off the
railroad track, but it's a poor traveller
who thinks so much Of the menu.
There is not so much wealth of
scenery anywhere in the world. GER
seen from window or a platform, and
from dock, from the eastern slope
OF the Rocky mountains to this place.
There arc discomforts, but they are
slight and may be easily forgotten; in
deed, they are actually forgotten by one
who appreciates nature, The ride
across The plains is not so Ireary as 1t
was. When you take the Great North
ern railroad you will learn the inten-
tons of the government as TO irrigation,
and your doubts as to the fruCttyinS ef-
fects of water will be halted by descrip-
lions of the results which have already
been accomplished.
You viii see the same broad land on
which cattle feed, and you wonder that
they thrive upon IL. This year, though,
YOU will find along the two roads, the
Great Northern and the Northern Pa
ciiic. that the plains are greener than
they used to be, and this has come from
water-more abundant rain than usual
and seepage from the irrigation canals
already established The cattle men
astonish YOU with their objection to this
greenness and say that their shipments
of stock have been delayed because of
it; that the cattle do not get in good
condition for shipment until they have
had the dry food of the plains.
As you go on. on either railroad, you
see the results OF irrigation with your
own eyes. You see pleasant farms in
western Montana, and then you will
see fruit ranches at Wnatchee, Kals-
pcll, Mlssoula, Ellenburg, Bozeman,
Yakima and other places. These fruit
ranches and the wheat farms are won
derful to look upon. The yield is so