Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-07-02

An IrOntOn GlrFs View of Alaska.

rooms in the farthest part of Alaska
than in the finest mansion on the Lake
Shore drive in Chicago"
This is what one woman thinks of
the United States golden peninsula.
She has nothing against Chicago. She
is an Alaska enthusiast. She wouldn't
live anywhere else. To her Alaska is
an Ell Dorado, Utopia, composite
of all sorts of ideal places. This
woman, Mrs. Rose Hughes Leech, is
in Chicago at present. She is living
at 1903 Langley avenue, but she is 60
p! ing back to the 'ice farms" OF the
Behring straits region. Mrs. Leech
has been in Alaska the greater part of
the time since 1898. 1t was the Alaska
fever, and not the gold fever, that took
her there, and now she is a champion
of that far.away land. She thinks
more of it than she does OF any State
in the Union-more, even, than Of her
native Missouri.
| 1t was at Teller, a little gold camp
up near Cape Prince of Wales, that
Mrs. Leech came to like life among
the Eskimos. She settled down there
alone in little two.room house. She
grew to like the region, and she's 60
ing back within month. She is not
going to Teller, but to the growing
little camp of Seward, on Resurrection
bay in southeastern Alaska.
This woman does not find herself
lost among the Eskimos. She is not
tenderfoot. She knows the ways of
the Alaskans, both natives and immi-
grants. The Eskimo language-if 1t
may be dignified by the name-was
mastered by her in short while. She
can drive q reindeer or dog team as
we'll as Laplander, and she doesn't
scorn to wear the garments that Arctic
winds and Alaskan fashion DEGREES she
shall wear. Mrs. Leech was the fifth
woman-and the first unmarried one
to 60 to Teller. Eventually the popula-
ton grew until there were three dozen
women there during the "summer,"
but few of them had the courage to
brave the weather of the winter
months. But she grew to like the
place, and the people, and the climate,
the ruggedness, and the novelty, or
rather the monotony of 1t all. No one
else can tell quite go we'll why she
likes the peninsula as she can herself.
Here is what she has to say:
"Some persons have said they liked
Alaska for the unbounded joy it gave
them in getting out Of the region.
That is not my reason. l like the
place as home. For one who fancies
a rugged, outdoor life there is no
place in the world like Alaska. For
the physically weak it would not be a
desirable place. should not advise
any one to 60 there. Certainly the
white silence of the region, those long
dead Alaska nights in the winter, and
the never-setting sun of the summer,
are things which cannot be said to
give very great variety to Alaskan
existence. There is a dreary same
ness about 1t all, but no one could be
else than loyal who understands Alaska
and knows its promises and foresees
its future.
Sat first it was the novelty of the
life that won me. | went to Nome
during the gold rush there. 1t was
new to me. When that was over |
went to Teller, and more out ofthe-
way place could hardly be planted on
the face of the globe. Still we made
it happy place in which to live.
"Away up there one feels as If he
were as far from home as he could get,
just as if, for instance, he had landed
on the moon and didn't know how he
was going to get back to earth again.
1t is not knowing that you are 30 many
hundreds or thousands of miles away
that makes you feel SO. 1t is because
everything there is so different.
"There is little there that you see
here, and there is little here that you
see there. Yet all that is there IL
wondrously beautiful. 1t is worth
giving up all there is here to have the
brilliant aurora borealis dropping be-
fore you across the heavens on every
one OF those long winter nights. 1t IL
worth living there to know that yor
live in the only place on earth, per
haps, where everybody is absolutely
equal socially, whether they be rict
or poor.
"In Alaska he who will work will
prosper. There never was a place
where so many opportunities are
offered by nature. The whole PENN
sula is planted with gold, but one mus
work and be patient to get his share
OF it. For those who do not care te
be miners there is soil and climate
that will some day open the eyes o.
Az'EaEaz s1..a =