Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1910-09-08

younger guests taciturnity. which grew
as the dinner progressed. piqued her.
so at the first opportunity she bent her
efforts toward rallying him He an
swerpd politely. but she was powerless
TO shake of his mood
At last he spoke:
you said those watchmen have In
structions not to harbor travellers.
Why is that?"
1T is the policy of the companies.
They are afraid somebody will discov-
er gold around here. You see. this Is
the greatest salmon river In the world.
The run is tremendous and seems to
be unfailing; hence the cannery people
wish TO keep 1t all to themselves"
II don't quite understand
ut is simple enough. Kalvik is so
Isolated and the fishing season is so
short that the companies have to send
their crews In from the States and
take them out again every summer.
Now. IL gold were discovered here
abouts the fishermen would all quit
and follow the strike, which would
mean the ruin of the years catch and
the loss Of many hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars Why. this village
would become a city i'm no time IL such
a thing were TO happen. The whole
region would Gil up with miners. and
not only would labor conditions be en-
tirely upset for years. but the eyes Of
the world. being turned this way, 9TH
er people might 90 into the fishing
business aud create competition
which would both influence prices and
deplete the supply Of fish In the Kali
vik river. SO. you see, there are many
reasons why this region is forbidden
to miners. You couldn't buy a pound
Of food nor get nights lodging here
for kings ransom. The watchmen's
jobs depend upon their unbroken bond
Of inhospitality. and the Indians dare
not sell you anything. not even a dog
fish, under penalty Of starvation. for
they are dependent upon the compa-
MES stores"
80 that is why you have establish
ed trading post Of your own?"
"Oh, dear, no. This isn't store.
This food is for my men,"
Your men?"
Yes | have crew out In the hills
on a grub stake This is our cache.
While they prospect for gold | stand
guard over the provisions"
Fraser chuckled softly. Then you
are bucking the salmon trust?"
After fashion. yes. knew this
country bad never been gone over, SO
l staked six men, chartered a schoon.
er and came down here from Nome In
the early spring. We stood Off the
Waterman, and when the supply ships
arrived we had these houses complet-
ed. and my men were out In the hills
where 1t was hard to follow them.
stayed behind and stood the brunt of
things"
But surely they didn't undertake to
injure your said Emerson. now thor
oughly interested In this extraordinary
young woman.
"Oh, didn't theyr' she answered.
with peculiar laugh. "You don't APP
preciate the character Of these people.
There is no real code of financial mo-
rality. and the battle for dollars is the
bitterest of all contests. or course,
being woman, they couldn't very we'll
attack me personally, but they tried
everything except physical violence.
and ! don't know how long they will
refrain from that. These plants are
owned separately. but they operate nm.
der an agreement with one man at the
head His name is Marsh-Willis
Marsh--and OF course he's not my
friend
sort Of united we stand. divided
we fall"
Exactly. That spreads the respon.
sibility and seems to leave nobody
guilty for his evil deeds. The first
thing they did was to sink my schoon.
er. In the morning you will see her
spars sticking up through the ice out
In front there. One of their tugs 'ac.
cidentally' ran her down. although she
was at anchor fully 300 feet inside the
channel line. Then Marsh actually
had the effrontery TO come here per-
sonally and demand damages for the
injury 20 his towboat. falsely claiming