The Ketchikan miner., 1907-06-15
EXCHANGE GOSSIP


 "Git your places all '
 Nothin' been a doin'
 Since way last fall
 Children on the stairway,
 Fiddler on the box,
 Caller in the middle,
 Yelping like fox:
 Shanghai, git your Banty--
 Lordy, but you're tall
 Swing 'em to their places,
 An balance all
 "Bluebird in the center'n'
 Seven hans round;
 Swing 'em to their places 'n'
 yerybody pound
 Balance to youl Honey
 Alaman, 1 say
 Run an git your Guinny,
 An all chaw hay
 Come ahead, my Lady
 That's the proper thing
 On to the next. balance.
 All cheat or swing!'
 Hard rock miners are prospect ing in the Panama district, according to the Fairbanks Times. in the belief that it will prove as rich in quartz as in placero.
 It is reported from Gakona that the complete outfit of farming machinery sent in by James Fish has reached its destination. Farming will be conducted at Gakona this sum- mer on a large scale, under the man. agement of C. w. Bram. Fine crops of hay and vegetables have been raised on this farm for several seasons past. Valdez Prospector. Gakona is at the confidence of river of that name with the Copper, where a post office was established in January 1906.
 The Seward Gateway tells of an encounter between the steamship Saratoga and whale in Prince William Sound, not far from La touche, in which ''the whale rose suddenly in the ships path and the brow struck the monster amidships, nautically, or in the slats, as anatomy is understood in the prize ring The passengers in the bow of the ship who saw the mix-up are of the opinion that it was lady whale because it did not turn and roar like man who had been tipped over by a dumpcart. It merely glided away like a lady who has been insulted by masher, and yet the spectators thought they detected symptoms of physical injury as if the whalebone corset worn by the big fish had suffered some damage. The Seward Gateway says that the cable tolls in Alaska offer cumula- tive testimony to the beneficent character of the ideal paternalism in whose glow the territory is now bask- ing, particularly press rates. Canada permits the transmission of news to newspapers at half cent a word over the Canadian land telegraph lines. Press rates to Alaska vary according to distance but average at least 3 cents word, with a discount when the same message goes to several papers.
 Low press rates to northern news papers are not gratuity to the paper but an advantage to the people. The newspapers cannot afford to pay large sums for telegraph news and the number of words taken is limited by the rate. Ii the rates were cut in half the readers of Alaska papers would get twice as much news.
 A curious obfuscation of judgment in arranging press rates is found in the fact that minimum press rates radiate from Seattle alone. Whether this is a bounty to Seattle or the pro- duct of brainstorm is uncertain but the fact remains that press message can be sent from almost any station in Alaska to Seattle and back to al most any other Alaska station for less money than it can be sent direct from one Alaska station to another. A re- duction in cost is effected by repeat ing a message several times un- necessarily and incidentally losing a good deal of time in it's final delivery. It is true that the Alaska cable and telegraph are military lines, as the people are patronizingly informed and that the privilege of using the wires for private business is favor dispensed by the government, and the frequent reiteration of this fact and parading of its profits show how grudgingly the government grants concessions to Alaska How different in the Philippines and Cuba.
 The establishment of the cable and land telegraph lines in Alaska are pointed to by the opponents of home rule as evidence of the great gener- osity of the general government, and yet in the same breath we are told that they are military lines, and that the people ought to be thankful for being permitted to use them at more than double the rates which obtain either in the States or Canada. They seemingly forget that they have fully