The Mankato free press., 1904-02-05
NORTH AANKAIO
Avn interesting lecture.


It is too bad that more of the North
Mankatonians did not see fit to come
to the Belgrade Avenue Methodist
church last evening to hear what Mr..
Horace Cummins of Eagle Lake had to
say about what he saw and learned dur
ing his sojourn in Alaska from May to
December last year. No more than a
dozen were present but these were very
glad indeed that they had come as they
were most delightfully."- entertained by Mr.,
Cummins for an hour and half.
Mr.. Cummins makes no pretense of be-
ing a public speaker. Yet he was him
self so thoroughly in earnest in all that
he had to say and was so interested in
Americas possessions in the far north,
that he imbued his hearers with the same
eagerness to speculate on the outcome
of the compact the United States and
Russia perfected in the year 1867.
The speaker first took up the subject
of Alaska historically, dwelling at some
length on the secret alliance the Unit
ed States had with Russia during the
Civil War and on the way in which
Russian warships hovered about Ameri-
can ports, as if to say to the rest of
Europe, ''Hands Off," until series of
decisive victories over the Confederates
made the preservation of the Union an
assured proposition. A cry of corrup-
tion and public theft went up when a
few years later the federal senate rati-
fed the treaty, paying Russia $7,200,-
600, for that God-forsaken northwestern
corner of North America.
Since that region was purchased it has
paid for itself over and over again
merely through the production of seal
skins But the other animal products
of the sea, and what the land yields,
lumber, gold and marble, will in time
render its value so great that the price
paid by our government for the sover-
eighty over the region will not be worth
mentioning in comparison.
At Shakan, on Prince Edward Island,
are located the holdings of the Alaska
Fish and Lumber company. Here is a
great waterfall coursing down a great
ravine, with almost limitless power that
may be utilized in the running of mills.
Close by are magnificent marble de-
posits. Mr.. Cummins hoped to see the
time when the Alaska Fish and Lum-
ber company would be using this water
fall for the saving up of marble into
slabs for shipment into all the markets
of the world. The production of marble
would in time he said prove wonderful
source of wealth in Alaska. Marble of
as fine quality as ever was yielded by
the quaries of Italy or Vermont or Mas
sachusetts or any other place existed
here in exhaustless deposits.
Mr.. Cummins also spoke very inter
estingly of the natives and their curious
manners and customs.
- y
News of Death.
Mrs. J. J. Schaus received news to-
day of the death of her aunt, Mrs
Thomas Garrigan of Kilkenny, MINI
The sad intelligence came very unexpect,
edly as Mrs. Garrigan had been in the
best of health according to the state
ments of the last letter received from
her home. A telegram announcing that
she died yesterday morning was received
by Mrs. John A. Arnold, sister of the
deceased and mother of Mrs. Schaus
Mrs. Arnold and her daughter Miss Lens
Arnold left for Kilkenny today. The
Arnold home is on North Fourth street
on the city side of the river.