davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1916-01-02

even alfalfa. I saw potato patches
that were yielding four tons to the
acre, and one potato field which.
was told. had crop in the ground
that will sell for $4,000.
Another surprise was the wild berries
that grow all over Alaska, and an
other the wild flowers that make the
sides of the hills and the lower slopes
Of the mountains blazes of color
found plenty of grass everywhere in
my travels. and the weeds in places
were as high as my head. I saw fat
stock on the home eads of the Tanana
valley. and visited dairies which wereA
supplying butter and milk to the towns
and mining camps nearby. The Aleu-
tian Islands have a climate milder
than Scotland. and on the island of
Kodiak, which is as big as Porto Rico.
they are now raising Galloway cattle
and long-wooled sheep.
* = M
I'm connection with the farming OF
Alaska j shall describe new industries
winch l have found starting up here
and there over the territory. / shall
speak of the fox farms and show how
fur farming will eventually be one of
the great sources of our clothing. The
climate of Alaska is just right for furs
and the hunter and trapper will eventN-
ally be displaced by the fur farmer
There are fox farms sprinsing up
here and there along the Yukon and
other rivers, and fox skins are sbipped
from there to the markets of London.
Another great possibility of the fu-
ture Will be the raising of reindeer for
the United States markets. 1 have Wis
tied the reindeer herds and the slau~h-
terhouses at Nome. where the deer are
even now being killed, to be sent in
cold storage to San Francisco and
Seattle. The shipping of venison has
already begun and the time is not dis
tant when fresh deer meat from
Alaska will be sol din all of our cities
Just as fresh Alaska salmon and hal
lbut are sold today.
But L have written enough to give
you peep at the new world which
Uncle Sam proposes to throw open by
railroads 1t takes notes made on the
ground and snapshots out in the open
to give living descriptions. These
hope to furnish in my letters to came.
They were written in Alaska and will
be dated and published as they came
from my pen.
FRANK C. CARPENTER,
Evening star., 1916-01-02

above the sea. 1t is from six to eight
miles in width and it forms an easy
way for Uncle Sans new railroad to
get into the great central valley. 1t
is over that pass the survey has been
made.
- Extending westward from the Alaska
range, we have the Aleutian mountains
that run hundreds of miles through the
Alaskan peninsula, and then, dropping
down into the sea. form the Aleutian
Islands. extending 1,200 miles farther.
They are volcanic peaks, some of which
are 5000 feet high. The volcano of
Katmai belongs to that chain.
North of the great plateau is the
Rocky mountain system. This is not
so high as the mountains of the south.
but in places the range is one hundred
miles wide.
$: *
We are apt to think of Alaska and
The north pole as synonymous. They
remind us of nothing but glaciers or of
mountains of ice and of perpetual
snow. We have read of the terrible
cold. where the thermometer falls to
seventy degrees below zero; of the
reindeer and dog teams flying over the
snow. and of the Cimmerian darkness of
the long winter nights. The truth is.
Alaska is a world in its climate. and the
nights are so bright that they seem al
most day. only 0ne-1Ourth OF the country
lies inside the Arctic circle and has
weather that could be considered as arct-
ic. Other parts of it are as temperate g
Tennessee or Kentucky, and southeastern
Alaska. a region larger than Maine.
has winter climate milder than that
of Washington city. The great Yukon
valley, land of rolling plains and
plateaus. has winters like those of
Montana and northern Dakota, and the
summers of the whole territory are
not far different from those of Ohio.
Indiana and Virginia. In midsummer
| found the whole lani covered with a
dense vegetation, and 1t seemed to me
that you could drop any part of it
down into the main body of the United
States and at a slight distance away
you would not recognize the change.
x
There is such Grass ignorance con-
cerning the climate of Alaska that
will say little more about latitude.
Take the city of Seward, which is to be
the terminus of our new railroad. That
town is no farther north than st. Pc
tersburg, and it is not half SO cold in
the winter. Juneau, the capital of
Alaska, is in about the same latitude
as Edinburgh. the capital of Scotland,
and Juneau is. l venture, by far the
warmer. 1t is the same of Sitka and
Copenhagen. The whole Scandinavian
Evening star., 1916-01-02

amount of good coal in Alaska at 15O,-
000, 900 tons, and others say that the
country has enough coal to last the
human. race more than 100 years at
the present rate of consumption.
Alaska is an unknown world as to
it's farming resources. l stood on the
hills near Fairbanks and looked over
a million or so of acres of tillable soil
in the Tanana valley. The whole ter
ritory is said to have 50,000,000 acres
of possible farm lands. and the Aleu-
tian Islands will feed thousands of
cattle Here and there I visited the
homesteaders. and l stopped for some
time at all of Uncle Sans expert
mental farms. Upon one of them the
grain which stood in the fields reached
to the height of my head, and 1 saw
them growing oats, barley and hay, and
Evening star., 1916-01-02

the life history cards. AT the last fed
eral census, taken in 1910. in order to
provide for the detailed classifications
required with respect TO the popula-
tion. these cards. representing nearly
93.500.00O inha bitants. were sorted be-
tween seven and eight times, and were
counted between four and five times. in
the aggregate equivalent to the ham
ding once of nearly 1,200, 900, 900 cards.
X
Thus. in matter of months these
machines accomplish results which it
would have taken corps of clerks
some years to cover. The tabulating
machines. which can do all but Nhink
perform this work of classification
with great rapidity and absolute ac-
curacy, for by some inscrutable process
they cast aside every imperfect or i'm
properly adjusted card.
The statistics of population gathered
and compiled in this manner were in
the last census contained in four large
volumes. One of the watchwords of the
Department of Commerce is economy
and efficiency" and the tabulating and
sorting machines of the census bureau
have done their full part in this regard
Plans for taking the census must be
before the actual work of enumeration
begins. The increase in population must
be calculated and every card and blank
be ready before the first of the COM
pany of enumerators takes his place as
a part of the working force of the Of
fee.
year is spent in this preparation
and every precaution taken against
possible mistakes, for as calculations
are made In millions an error might in
vOlve proportionate loss
The Office force of the census bureau
during the census period numbers be-
tween $500 and 1000 persons, fully
half of whom are connected with the
population division. This force is
greatly increased when the corps of
10000 enumerators and many special
employees are making their house-to-
house visits, and the work of those in
charge is of the most arduous and diff
fcult character during the whole of the
census-taking period. Immediately
after the returns are received and
classified the work Of tabuIation and
Evening star., 1916-01-02

Of training for a career in statistics,
she was ready to fiil an important va
cancy when the opportunity offered.
To a recent caller at this laboratory
Of figures. which occupies several floors
of the Commerce building. Miss Riddle
berger said few words about her
work. Asked what interested her most
in connection with it. she replied:
The immense contrast between the
millions in which we must think and
calculate and the absolute accuracy
with which the smallest detail in con-
nection with the work must be con-
cefved and carried out. is one of the
chief attractions of this work, in my
opinion. We think here in millions and
make plans to handle them, yet no.
where Is the unit more important or
more carefully considered"
Necessity is verify the mother of in
vention, and every demonstrating time.
with it's overwhelmingly increased
number of people to be enumerated. has
forced upon those who have charge
of the work the necessity of inventing
means and methods commensurate with
the handling of the masses of statistics
with speed and absolute accuracy. The
census bureau at Washington has re-
duced tabuiation of statistics to the
finest point Of mechanical science yet
attained. Machine after machine has
been developed to manipulate the ever
increasing multitude of figures which
every ten years brings forward to be
computed and classified.
The census records, which little over
hundred years ago were painfully
Transcribed in longhand, have develop
ed through various forms of abbrevia-
tions to a system of holes punched in
cards, to be first sorted and then
counted by electric machines of the
most delicate adjustment. and capable
of tabulating from 10000 to $4,000
cards in a working day of seven hours
These tabulating machines record the
equivalent OF sixty facts at one opera
tion. and perform their part in the
statistical work with almost uncanny
efficiency.
One reads an item telling the exact
number of fnen of certain foreign
race in the United States. This statist
tical item could not have been given
but for the skillfui classifying of all
the important facts chronicied upon
Evening star., 1916-01-02
Begins Story Of His Travels i'm Alaska
OUR Last Great FonteGaphc Descriptions
- Raoad-Aong
Chag Dragging Channels Among
Farming andCopper Mines Pay Millions Ddend-Coa Enough
Farmn
Farming.

variety of it's lands and waters. II
is country of seas, lakes and rivers
and of almost as many islands as the
empire of Japan. 1t has vast CONT.
mental mainland, with mountains anC
valleys. rolling plateaus and great
lowland plains I travelled a thousand
miles through rocky islands in going
from Seattle to Skagway; and later
pela2o, which extends from the end
OF the Alaskan peninsula about as
FAR westward as the distance from the
Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river
Porto Rico. and Prince of Wales Island
is as large as Connecticut. All of these
islands are green f$om one years end
to the other, and some have vegeta-
tion as dense as that of Hawaii.
! spent some time on our coast sur
vey vessels which are now exploring
the waters and dragging the channels
for the terrible pinnacle rocks that
rip open the hulls of the big ocean
steamers. The officials tell me that
the Alaskan coast line. with its wind
1ngs. is longer than the gfrth of the
world at the equator. and that 1t is
for the most part uncharted The De-
partment of Commerce is building
The rivers of Alaska cover all parts
of the territory, and their navigabie
waters reach thousands of miles. I!
travelled almost 1000 miles on the
Yukon. That river is the fifth among
the great streams of the North American
continent, and in the United States it is
surpassed only by the Mississippi Mis-
souri,. The Kuskokwim. which lies
south of it, has just been opened by
the coast survey vessels. and it is
found that steamers can travel upon it
into the heart of the country as far
as from New York to Cleveland.
I spent two days steaming from
the Yukon up the Tanana river
from Fort Gibbon to Fairbanks. That
river flows into the Yukon. 1t will
be cut by the new railroad now build
ing. 1t has a wide valley as long as
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
And then there is the Porcupine. that
enters the Yukon at the Arctic circle.
1t is a big stream. that flows 500 miles
down from the north. Dan Cadzo. who
has a store on it just beyond the
Canadian boundary. tells me he can
go by steam all the way to his sta
tion.
Into the lower Yukon empties the
Innoka. up which you go to the Idita-
rod gold region. and from the north
comes down the Koyukuk, whose sands
are also gold bearing. The latter stream
is 500 miles long.
Have you ever heard of the River
Kobuk? 1t flows into the Arctic ocean
Evening star., 1916-01-02

at Kotzebue sound. They are now
washing gold from its sands, and Mr.
Patterson, who has a trading station
at its mouth. showed me the photo
graph of a gold nugget from there al
most as big my fist. The Colville
is another great river that drains the
far north.
The mainland of Alaska is practically
unknown. 1t consists of a great CEN
tral valley over 200 miles wide. with
mighty ranges of mountains on the
north and the south. These ranges cor
respond to those which uphold our
trail valley is much lower and it slopes
gently down toward Bering sea. The
fall is less than foot to the mile all
the the way from the Canadian boundary.
The Yukon. which flows through it.
is SO sluggish that it builds up
great islands, and on the Yukon flats.
about two days ride from the boundary
or Canada. the stream is in places
twenty miles wide. At the lower end
or the valley and along Bering sea
there are coastal plains; and another
great plain extends from the Arctic ocean
nack distance of perhaps $50 miles be-
1ore the rugged highlands begin.
And then the mountains of Alaskai
Be1ore / investigated the country
thought it was almost all mountains
and had no idea that there were mil
hons on millions of acres of lowIands
and high rolling plains. There are some
for miles without seeing hill.
There are low tracts of vast extent
far in the interior. The Yukon fats,
which / crossed last summer are in the
heart of the country and only 800 feet
above the level of the sea.
Nevertheless, Alaska has the highest
mountains on the North American con-
tinent 1t has some of the greatest
glacial fields upon earth. and scores of
its peaks never lose their perpetu-
al snow. Mckinley, which kisses the
sky at over 10000 feet. is the tall
est mountain north of the Isthmus of
Panama. and it will be Of easy access
to tourists when $e new railroad is
finished. A little farther east is Mount
St Elias. which is $4,000 feet high,
and about Mount Wrangell, in a ter
ritory not three-fourths as big as
Massa chusetts. there are ten snow clad
pealss twice as high as Mount Wash
ington. and two which are higher thar
Mount Blanc. There are three noun
ta;ns there over 10000 feet high which
have not yet been named They
belong to the Alaskan range. which
runs around the whole southern
coast and has Il width here and there
approximatinG eighty miles. The range
has several low passes, and one of
these, Broad pass, is only 200 feet
Evening star., 1916-01-02

plant on which these blossoms grow is
reaching height of more than one
foot
In the florists trade these little t1ow-
ers are called Foundation flowers" be-
cause they are mostly used for back
ground work
They are distributed by the great
florists supply houses of New York
Philadelphia and Chicago. These houses
deal in autumn leaves and grasses that
have been chemically treated ribbons
papers, odd-shaped baskets. floral de-
signs in wire ready to be filed in with
flowers. sheafs of wheat and wreaths
of leaves for funerals, wire for wiring
the stems of flowers. moss, birch bark.
cork bark. cherry and cedar bark for
window and window bob trimming. anu
great variety of ready y-made articles
in bark. They supply the artificial
palm trees and the artificial grapevines
and clusters of grapes.
Evening star., 1916-01-02
Break! Break! Break!

1OHN L. SULLIVAN, addressing q
~ temperance meeting in Brooklyn,
said:
"Once more the time for New Year
resolutions approaches. and the best
resolution all of you can make is to
join a temperance society. Thousands
of homes have been saved from ruin
by just such New Year resolutions. for
these solemn VOWS. made January 1,
often bear good fruit.
For many of u.s. continued the
speaker, take our resolutions more
seriously than Jones did.
"'Oh, James, Mrs. Jones said, re.
proachfully. to her husband about the
middle of January. you have broken all
those good resolutions you made the
first of the year,
Yes. l know Jones answered, cool
ly. I know l have broken them, but I
shall make others quite as good next
year."
Evening star., 1916-01-02

long had the habit of placing their or
ders with certain importing houses
americans have never turned their
thoughts to the raising of these flow
ers on commercial scale. They have
reasoned that there are so many other
things to be raised and which prom
Use more profit than the cultivation of
1mmortellesJ that the business was not
worth the trouble. The immortelles
are mostly ANIMALS, though there are
species of the flower which are per-
ennials.
Those species which are called in the
florist trade ''strawfiowers'' and by
botanists helichrysum have quite a
. wide range of coloring. Some of the
varieties are white. light yellow. va
rious shades of orange, while others
come in blue. pink and red. '.Helichry-
sum- is combination of Greek words
meaning golden sun" and was ap-
piled at first to the yellow varieties Of
the straw flower. Some of these varie-
ties are double flowers resembling
somewhat in form that of half-open-
ed rose. These flowers do not fade
even If left on the plant all season
until the frost blights them. and if
they are cut from the plant before the
coming of frost they will retain the
form and color generally all winter.
1t is not necessary that they be kept
in water. The hardness of these little
flowers is truly surprising.
There is another variety of the ever
lasting which is called by botanists
"xeranthemum." That is word which
is compounded from two Greek words
meaning dry flower" Students or ex-
perts on the everlasting say that this
is one of the prettiest and most satis-
factory specimens. The plant bears
wealth of blossoms of bright rose, pur-
pie and white, and because of its bril-
lance and hardihood it is grown main
ly in garden borders. Sometimes these
flowers are cut and made up In the
country in what are called winter
bouauets." Florists use them as the
background or filling" for many kinds
of large set pieces and sometimes in
large pieces the motto is built up of
them Plants of the xeranthemum
variety of everlasting grow about three
feet high in soil and situations which
they like, and they blossom from early
summer until frost
There is another member of the ever
lasting family. 1t is called ''rhodan-
the" which is Greek for rose flower"
A popular name for this variety is
Swan river everlasting. Its flowers
are double and bell-shaped, and in
color are rose pink, a color which they
retain for months after being cut. The
Evening star., 1916-01-02

peninsula is within the same latitude
as Alaska. and some of the Aleutian
Islands are farther south than Bir-
mingham, Berlin, Dublin or Warsaw.
ketchikan and Moscow are on about
the same parallel.
Alaska is an unknown world as to
its mineral resources. Only about one
fourth of the country has been ex-
piored by our biologists, and not one
hundredth of it has yet been touched
by the foot of the prospector Never
theless. its placer mines have already
brought in more than 100000, 900
worth of gold. DIR. A. H. Brooks OF our
geological survey estimates that there
are several hundred million dollars
worth of gold dust and nuggets still in
the gravel of the Seward peninsula.
FIFTY million dollars worth had been
taken out of that region up to 1908, and
curing my stay at Nome 1 saw them
dredging and hydraulicing quantities
or gold from the tundra. Enormous
dredges are now working at Dawson,
and the Klondike is still producing its
millions of dollars year. I spent
some time on the gold dredees there.
and shall tell you how they are turn
ing over the icy gravel beds of tho
klondike to depth of from thirty to
sixty feet.
A great future for Alaska will be
iounu IN us quartz mines. You have
all heard of the Treadwell properties
and of their product Of low-grade
gold. Just opposite them. across
the Gastineau channel, other mines are
being opened that are already produc-
ing millions. and will be producing
millions for a century to come. The
gold regions of Juneau promise to be
second only to those of South Africa
in their great gold production.
The copper deposits are unknown
and unprospected, although some have
been opeped which are already produce
ing millions of dollars per annum. In
coming back from Alaska / Travelled
on a steamer which had 100000 worth
of copper concentrates in it's hold. and
the manager of the mine from which
they came told me his company would
pay s6,OO0,00O in dividends this year.
There are new copper mines on an
island not far from Seward, and conner
is being mined at profit on Prince
of Wales Island, in southeastern
Alaska.
AS to the coal of the territory, the
Matanuska fields are to be opened up
by Uncle Sans new railroad. There
is one patch not far from the route
which is said to have veins forty feet
thick and to contain many million tons.
Some of our geologists have figured the
Evening star., 1916-01-02
MISS OLIVE NJ. RIDDLEBERGER.

compilation begins and occupies from
two to three years.
division Miss Riddieberger is familiar.
She is, in way. the right-hand man
of the chief statistician, relieving him
of much work coming under his per-
sonal care. She assists in planning the
volume of work preparatory to the
census taking, is thoroughly familiar
with the handling of the returns, and
in the statistical work she is fully at
home She has studied the delicate
mechanism of the tabulating and sort
ing machines and knows their capacity
to nicely.
This is important, for while operated
to their full capacity always. care must
be taken not to overload the machines
at any time. She takes her share in
Evening star., 1916-01-02
Getting Back at Him.

ELEANOR GATES. the dramatist.
6 tells a story about the dramatic
critic:
'The young man." Miss Gates says.
had roasted an actress dreadfully in
his dramatic column. He was intro
duced to her few days later. and she
complained:
"T think ii was real mean of you to
roast me like that especially when
you know that / have three children
and a husband. who is dramatic
critic. to support
Evening star., 1916-01-02

G1HERE is very small proportion
IL of mankind whose lives are
considered by the world in gen.
q eraI of sufficient importance to
he im,nortalized in what is known as a
hiogrs ply; but the protecting govern
ment of the United States. maintaining
responsibility for its wards. feels other
wise and has taken the trouble of pro-
caring life history in outline of every
individual in the realm.
IT. however, one were confronted with
one of these biogra phies-which were
made by the population division of the
census bureau for every one of the
nearly 0o,000.000 people in the United
States who were born before 191o-it
is doubtful if il could be read BY the
subject.
Ii would look to him very much like
a post card which had been covered
with meaningless abbreviations. for
many of which holes had been punched
out. Each abbreviation, however, stands
for an important fact. and every hole
indicates its relation TO the individual,
while the whole represents a hard and
Fast review in miniature of his status
At the census period.
Remarkable strides have been made
in census taking and recording since
1890, during which time Mr.. William
c. Hunt has been chief statistician of
population for the census. One of Mr..
Hunts most valuable assistants in the
work under his charge is woman.
Miss Olive Nj. Riddlcberger Is
trained statisticisn, whose work has
beer of Importance in the last two
censuses OF the United States. Women,
as a rule, flee from figures. but Miss
Riddleberyer delights in them, enjoys
statistics and prefers her work to amy
other.
1t is said that -mathematicians, like
poets, are born. not made. and Miss
RiddIeberger exempIiies this rule. for,
consulting her taste early in life. she
decided to choose figures as her life
work. When she entered the bureau Of
the census as stenographer and type
writer she saw her opportunity of
turning her taste and natural talent to
account. and. taking a two-year uni
vsrsity course in mathematics by way