The Alaska daily empire., 1916-09-25

A before Alaska was discovered
 is evidenced by the fact that as far back as 1864, three years be- fore Secretary Seward made his fa- nous purchase from Russia, some adventurous missionary launched Q newspaper at Sitka but 1t did not long survive the shock incident to the launching. In the early sos, however. newspapers were published weekly at Juneau but not until 96 was 1t considered a field for daily, and then 1t was a starvation propo- sition.
 One of the earliest Juneau publi- cations was the Weekly Miner which was started in the late sos by Frank Meyers who, had he pos sessed judgment equal to his pug naclty, could have retired with Q fortune, but as it was, he retired with just sufficient to pay his way and that of his family to Port 1 Townsend, Wash. where he has since made his home. Meyers claim to distinction is that. while engaged in publishing paper in Juneau, he was arrested thirty.two different times and taken to Sltka, then the capital of the district, on the charge of criminal libel. In fact. if Mey- CTS printed an issue Of his paper that did not cause his life to be threatened or even cause his arrest ihe accounted that particular issue a failure.
 E. o. Sylvester was another early day Juneau newspaper man, his pub licatlon being called the searchlight, Being a meek and lowly individual. Sylvester did not court trouble as did his contemporary. Myers. and the result was that his paper was but little read and little missed when 1t suspended publication, though it's editor was man of scholastic at- tainments.
 William Arthur Beddoo was an- other pioneer journalist of Juneau. He was an Engllshman and, in mo- ments Of confidence. was wont to intimate that royal blood ran pell men through his veins. Beddoe was clear and forcerul writer and for years, after leaving Juneau, was edi- tor of the Dawson Daily News in the period when that paper was mighty inruenence in the Yukon He finally went to Ottawa where he played" the press gallery in the ! Parliamentary building for a number of years, later securing a govern. ment position. that of trade commis- sioner for Canada at Aukland. New Zealand. Some of Beddoe's enemies said at the time that had there been a position open more distant from Ottawa than was Aukland, he would have been sent to fill it.
 But when Alaska was regularly dis covered in the fall of 1897, that be. ing the year the whole civilized world was startled by news of the rich placer discoveries in the Klon- dike. was really the beginning of newspaper history in the North. Then 1 1t was that Juneau was. to a certain extent given the "go by" and Skag. way took a position as the leading lcity in Southeastern Alaska, being the accepted gateway to the interior after Dyea had made a yalient but vain struggle for the title. True, Dyea had couple of newspapers late in '97 and early in '9S but after lHfe's ntful fever they slept the sleep that knows no waking.
 At Skagway, however, it was diff rerent. There the Weekly News, the pioneer paper of the town, and the Daily Alaskan and Daily Budget flourished like green bay trees and heralded news. authentic and other wise. which was readily and greedily devoured by the cosmopolitan popu- lace there at that place. It was in Skagway early in the spring Of '9S that the writer crossed the thresh- old of his newspaper career in the North. which career he has since continuously followed, either in Alas ka or Yukon, making him the dean of the profession north of 5S. Had Governor Strong not laid down news paper work to take up governing, he would have been the dean of the fraternity in the North. but he lost out when he accepted the plumb from Washington. The writer sue ceeded Governor Strong as editor of the Skagway News early in '9S and again succeeded him as city editor of the Klondlke Nugget at Dawson late in '99. Being a rolling stone in those days and lured by reports from Nome, the now chief executive of Alaska hiked on from Dawson tO the latter place late in