The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-07

also mas an adequate water system to meet the needs of households, although not for fire. The fire department in case of fire pumps water from the ocean, and most notably on one occa- sion performed efficient service. One of the public utilities of Nome is an electric light plant, and another is a thoroughly up-to-date telephone ser vice. There is no need, as yet, for street cars, but steam railroad ex- tends from Nome to several of the nelghboring creeks, and by the end of next summer will carry passengers far intcA the Kougarok country to the lSlward.
 The two great needs of the town are a greater insurance against fire and a sewage system. The sewers may come within the next few years, for it would appear that no great problem is in- yolved in their construction and main tenance. Frost in the ground might prove an adverse factor, but it would be possible, at some expense, to keep sewer pipes parallel to them, as it does at present in connection with the Water system. A system of sewers would naturally add greatly to the To- cal health and comfort, although it must be admitted that the town has never suffered from lack of sanitary appliances.
 The most serious problem confront ing the city of Nome to-day is insur- ance against fire. The buildings are of wood, and although some of them are sheated with iron the metallic cov- ering is simply protection against sparks In case of configration in anoth- CT part of the city or in neighborlns stree. The danger of fire is not dimin- ished by the fact that gas and oil are burned in many of the business houses and residences. Electric lights are at the present time too expensive, due SD the electric people say--to the high price of coal; but there Is some pros- poet that cheaper lights will be pro- ivded before long. At any rate, there is some very earnest talk about it. Stove are another menace, for few of the buildings in this town are heated by steam. A central steam heating plant is one of the possibilities of the future and the question of its install lation and cost to the individual con sumer should be examined into by an expert authorities without delay With steam heat from a central plant and universal lighting of buildings by cleo tricity there would be a good prospect of securing fire insurance in Nome at living rates. At present there is none of yeriaa on al VAr h. itlve figure, and little at that, It is to be said, on the other hand, that the fire | department is a paid department and is we'll trained, and that the people , generally are more careful in regard i to fire danger than people are in other ! places. Nome has never had but one serious fire, and that destroyed only a small section of the town,
 This Is an incorporated town under 1 the Alaska civil code and as such maintains it's own municipal govern { ment It's city administration com pares favorably with that of any town of similar size in the states. The prin- !, cipal business streets are paved with
 wood and kept in good condition, and , the police protection is adequate for a i city as orderly as this.
 ! There is seldom any disorder in the town. Thieves and burglars do not thrive in the community, and drunken 1 ness Is less common than in most other l places of the same size Whatever may be said of the standard of public
 morals, 1t Is indisputable that small , disorders in the streets and petty cases in the police court are not many in this | community.
 | A city of perhaps seven thousand in I summer Qncludlng tributary mining
 districts) and twenty-five or thirty ! hundred in winter Nome seems larger
 than it really is. Business is good the
 merchants are generally thrifty and
 some of the mercantile houses are I transactng an enormous trade There 1 is dynamic energy about the place that 1 is both western and northern in qual- ! ity
 The merely picturesque features of
 Nome appeal strongly to the tourist
 and the stranger. The Esquimaus live
 on the sand spit at the mouth of Snake river, but they visit the streets of
 Nome at all hours of the day and even.
 ing, offering their native wares for 1 sale. The stores, too, are full of furs l ivory and curios. People live here on the shores of Boring Sea, healthy, hap
 py and prosperous, but, with the ex- ception of the native inhabitants, they
 are all here for gold There will be a thriving town here for century or
 two, probably, but the present genera
 tion will go back to the states or tc , former homes in distant parts of the 1 world as soon as they make theil
 stake Seattle Post -Intelligencer