The Ketchikan miner., 1907-07-06
EXCHANGE GOSSIP.

L-NoI1 A -NNITJ oOSClI.
 -Referring to the recent restoration of the three million-acre military re- serve near St. Michael to the public domain, the Seward Gateway remarks that 'the government needed 5,000 square miles for a military reserva- tion at the mouth of the Yukon river as badly as it needs snowshoes for straw bosses on the Panama canal. Nevertheless the sequestration was not valueless to everybody. Several trading corporations had previously established posts on the land and their vested rights were not disturbed. They also established roadhouses and when musher set up tent on the reservation wherein to abide over night soldier beckoned him off with a bayonet. This made it necessary for the luckless wanderer to stag in one of the favored taverns at an ex- orbtant rate. Nobody outside of officialdom knows whether commis- sion was paid to the army officers for services in driving trespassers upon the reservation into the roadhouses. :" To say nothing of the necessity for large reservations, the need for mili- tary posts and garrisons at remote points in Alaska may very properly be seriously questioned.
 At Fairbanks lately, two men who had been indicted by the grand jury on charge of forging and uttering a deed to mining property worth a for tune were turned loose on their own recognizance so that they might at leisure file bond of $1, GOO for appear ance in court. It is not apparent that these men were treated too leniently for all that was needful was reason able certainty that they should be on hand when wanted for trial But the action in their case was in sharp con- trast to the treatment of the editor of puny little Panama town. The editor was indicted for criminal libel-and all that was needful in his case also, was reasonable certainty that he would appear for trial, However, his bond was fixed at s, GOO, and he went to ly taken to court handcutied and shack led and chained fast to a steamers $ cabin. In the instance of the two men first named it was left to the court to punish them if they were found guilty; the poorer man was pun ished in advance of his tria. l-Y ukon Valley News.
 That's the way to boost Of course well informed people know that Skagway is second among Alaska mining towns in the value of its re- sou:ces, Seward being first, but the man who won't shinny on his own side ought to get out of the game. Sew ard Gateway. Ketchikan. needs no boosting, Without boasting, it may be ,truthfully claimed that the Ketch- ikan mining district wlll produce more mineral wealth in this anno domini 1907 than any other given sec tion of Alaska, with the possible ex- ception of the Nome and Panama camps. Put that in your smoke and pipe it on to the next.
 -'One Clevenger, who used to ped de what he called Christian gospel around Copper Center, whose rating there as a knocker was at premium while his reputation for veracity tipped the other end of the scale, writes to Home Mission Echoes that Alaska is very bad and is steadily growing wolse. The territory is a little better since Clevenger, left and for that reason it does not begrudge him the acquisition during a short stay of money enough to buy good farm in Washington according to his own statement.
 Il. A. Sane the l.. s. Commits sioner of Hoonah, is officiating in that capacity at Wrapgell pending the action of Judge Gunnison on the peti- ton of the people of the latter place, asking Tor reinstatement of A. V. k. Snyder removed at the request of the Governor. Snyder was a soldier in the civil war. and doesn't relish being re- m owed at the instigation of man who, though once in the naval ser vice, is not known to have ever vol untarily placed himself in a position to be shot at by anybody but the n newspapers firing paper pellets.
 Multi millionaire Weyelheuser, the owner of millions of acres of tim Der lands, approves oe the government forest reserve policy. Must be that he has already possessed himself of all he needs in his business.