Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-07
WONDERS OF ALASKA
ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAYLOR
TALKS OF Els TRIP.

Alaska is wonderfully and truly 4 coun-
try Of magnificent distances" said II. A.
Taylor. assistant secretary OF the treasury.
today. with Mrs. Taylor have just I'm
ished 5000 miles Of travel in the great ter
ritory, largely on personal business. It wss
an experience I shall never forget
"It is frequently the case that mans
nearest neighbor Is 500 or 1000 miles away.
and he thinks little Of 1t. A citizen Of this
country visiting Europe can cross the
ocean. go all over Europe and come back
and will then not have travelled 1900 miles.
yet we travelled 5000 miles In one single
territory and saw comparatively little OF II
then. Most of our journey was by boat. q
great part OF the time on the immense
Yukon river. Naturally, we had some
thrilling experiences. We arrived at Nome
by steamer, but there Is no harbor there
and fierce storm arose at sea 1t was
impossible for US to land. and my wife
and myself had to stay on the steamer for
six days. Some of the others went ashore
before that time, paying large sums of
money to the Nome boatmen who ventured
out to the steamer. On the second day
these boatmen offered to take passengers
ashore for 500, but two or three days
later they reduced the price to $25 per
head. and many people accepted their Of
fer. There Is a saving station at Nome,
and 1t was generally known that was on
board the steamer. / was pleased when
several boats drew up alongside the steam
and offered to take me ashore. 1t was
the life savers paying me the compliment
Of coming out for me. but 1 could not ac-
cept their invitation, Mrs. Taylor was
i'll and could not go ashore.
A Country Of Daylight.
Alaska in summer time. at least the north
ern part of 1t. is a country of daylight. The
sun never sets, and people do not know
what 1t is for many weeks to sleep In the
darkness of night. This Is true at Nome as
well at many other points 1 remember
that we were lying at Fort Yukon one
night. the steamer leisureIy loading and I'M
loading freight. Fort Yukon is the extreme
northern point of the Yukon river and is
within the Arctic circle. 1t was IL 80 O'Clock
at night and many of us were playing cards.
no artificial lights being necessary. A men,
Der of our party came In and said: Come
and see the beautiful sunset. We went on
deck and saw the sun going down behind
the bluffs of the river. Twenty minutes
later the same man came In and said:
Come out and the beautiful SUNRISE
and, sure enough, there was the sun coming
over the top of the same hills. II we had
been on top of the hills the sun would not
even have gone out of sight. 1t Is pecu-
liar experience.
People never go to bed at the time they
do here. The usual hour for retiring Is
about o'clock in the morning. At Nome,
LOT instance, the streets are nlIeQ with peO-
pie at all hours of the day and night. Wom-
en- go alone upon the streets at or
o'clock in the morning without fear. They
are safe there here. and I expect
safer, as the city is well policed and obedi-
ent to the law.
Nome has become the biggest city In
Alaska. 1t is the center of the mining in
dustry OF the territory, and will undoubt-
edly be a permanent city. as new discov-
cries are constantly being made. 1 have In
my pocket a free pass over a railroad run
ming out of Nome that some of the owners
think they will run to the north pole some
day. 1t runs from Nome to the mining re-
gions about fifteen or sixteen miles out, and
is known as the Nome-Arctic railway
There are endless possibilities in the mining
line in this region. and hundreds of men are
becoming wealthy.
Alaska has no agricultural possibilities,
In my view, and people ought not to be told
that 1t has. There are here and there gar
den patches but a rule the soil Is unfit
for agricultural purposes, being rocky and
barren. There are just three sources of
revenue in the territory-mneral, furs and
fish. The territory is rich In mineral pros
poets. almost every mineral In the world
being found there. including gold, silver,
tin, iron coal, marble. l do not look upon
the chances of railroad construction as
amounting to much there Is little upon
which a road can feed