The Seward gateway., 1916-02-16
PIONEERS TELL
 AWFUL YARNS
OLDTIMERS COT TOGETHER LAST NIGHT AND LOOSEN
 ED UP AMAZINGLY.

The Pioneers met in their hall last night and entertained by relating stories of the early days in the terri tory, days before we had mail teams, railroad, wafFles, newspapers, la grip pc, chambers of commerce, city coun- CHS, obstreperous cables and city at torneys or any other blessings or the reverse. To give the most glaring ex- ample of the wonders related the story told by one pioneer should be told first. The name of the relator of this piece of history has slipped the memory but the story itself will cling forever to the mind. Over twenty years ago they told him up on Cook Inlet of a bear which an an- cestor had killed in that quarter and which was so large that the thousands of inhabitants who lived in the vil- lages in them days packed away some of the meat and continued to pack it for several years. John Noon is known to be a perfectly veracious statesman but he told things last night that proved him to be nothing better than a politician. He and an- other fellow once started out from Juneau, something like a quarter of a century ago, in a schooner for some place hereabouts and the fellow told him he was a perfect sailor A strong wind came up and kept up and the boat was hove to long enough to en- able her to visit the coasts of Japan, China, the Philippine islands and Portage Bay or some place near it. The skipper spoke most learnedly of sextants and things and one day when the vessel was off the coast of Corea somewhere and tossing in the break CTS with Noon hugging a broken mast stub the captain remarked that he was about to catch the sun and take his bearings.
 "If you do, for Gods sake hold on to 'em," yelled the Alaskan legislator, above the lesser bowling of the storm.
 This story would be all right until Noon said they finally hit a piece of Alaska and found a man there, and the narrator turns to the man who was sitting next to him, Mir. Fillmore, and asked him to state if he was or was not that man. Mir. Fillmore cor roborated and everyone came to the conclusion at once that Noon and Fill more had ben sitting together not without some purpose.
 E. r. Cassel told of the discovery by Jack Dalton and the visiting by Henry Bratnober of district in the interior where copper is so plentiful that there is no room for rock. Noon came to Cassel's aid by declaring he knew the district well. Matt Button, who acted as chairman of the enter tainment, read a poem about dream in which he saw Lindley Green, Dr. Romig and several others looking as though they were dead, but that wasn't so hard to believe. Al Cham belain was asked to represent the city council and said he was sick, which might also be believed. Otto Moses sang a song which he said he could do better than story telling and he succeeded in proving that his mOdesty about his power of narration was well founded. It was suggested that Bob Guest be asked to tell about some re- markable pile-driving in them days but the suggestion was turned down, and after some more things that materialized and didn't, the Critic, Dr. Sloan, summed up in a manner that showed he was the greatest fic- tionist of all. Next meeting a fine program will be given.
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