The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-14

THE BIRMINGHAM A
 a dog sled, to Old Woman mountain. He had to sleep out in the snow, but
 he did not suffer as much from the
 cold as when stationed at Fort Lin coin, near Bismarck, in North Dakota.
 I was interested in Mrs. Jepsons de- 1 scription of her housekeeping arrange
 ments. She says that most of their
 supplies are canned goods from the outside but they have also wild fowl and reindeer from St. Michael. The
 reindeer meat is as sweet and as juicy
 as a tenderloin steak. They have plen- 1 ty of fish and the Eskimos bring fish
 and berries to the house for sale. One of the chief troubles of the house. keeper Is the servants. The day called Mrs Jepson had expected an Eskimo woman to do her washing. The arrangements had been made the day previous, but 10 o'clock came and
 no washerwoman appeared. She was sent for. She came and worked from I'll o'clock until 3. The washing was then half done, but the girl said she had to leave and that she could not come back on the morrow. as she had
 to pick berries. I am told that the ] money to work steadily. The other day
 a fisherman whose nets were full, could not get the Esl1imos to help him pull them out of the water, all | though he offered them half of the catch.
 The Island of St. Michael is under military rule. The storekeepers, trad CTS and others live here merely at the twill of the army, and the commander makes the laws. No liquor is allowed ] to be sold. and everything is under Iarmy regulations. The soldiers look Iwell and happy. They have comfort able quarters, and what with their
 drilling and rifle shooting they are
 kept busy. They rise at o'clock in
 the morning, except on Sundays and holidays, march to their breakfast at
 6:45, and have dinner at noon The
 mess call for supper is sounded at
 5;30, and the call to quarters at night 1 is at d0:45. Taps are sounded at Il
 D. m., when all lights must go out
 | I stopped for sometime at Fort Gib-
 bon, Uncle Sam's military post on the
 lower Yukon. and I also saw the sol diers at Haines. or Fort William H.
 Seward, which is the military station 1 for southeastern Alaska There is an- other station near Valdez, and there was formerly one at Eagle, not far from
 the boundary of Canada. I visited the
 post at Eagle on my way from Dawson
 to Fairbanks. It is now abandoned
 and the buildings are in the hands of
 one or two soldiers as caretakers.
 | Going on down the great river, stopped at Fort Gibbon, at the junction 1 of the Panama and the Yukon. This
 military post is one of the most im- I portant in Alaska. It is in the very heart of the territory, about halfway , between the international boundary and Nome, and almost midway between the Arctic ocean and the Pacific. Fair banks, the terminus of the government railway, is several hundred miles up 1 the Panama valley. Fort Gibbon was established in 1898, and the next year Congress set aside 3S,000 acres of land l there as military reservation. The post is on the southeastern corner of | the reservation. It adjoins the town of Tanana, which. next to Fairbanks. ' is the most important place in interior l Alaska. It is estimated that it cost something like $1,00O,000 to clear the land and erect the buildings for the post, and that it costs $500,O00 a year to maintain it.
 l The post now has about 150 men, in- cluding the officers and soldiers of Company of the Fourteenth United States infantry. It has a hospital corps { a signal corps, and a quartermasters S department. All of it's buildings are steam heated. large central plant be- ing maintained for the purpose. It has sias-lghting plant, but 1t is now plapned to install electricity, and the er ineers are estimating the cost of SAGA a plant
 ] The soldiers at Fort Gibbon are husky and healthy. They do not ob- ject to their stay in Alaska, and man age to keep themselves in good spirits summer and winter. They have gym 1 nasium, amateur theatricals and nov ling picture shows They play base ball, and have two good teams which have matches once a week when the weather is good They have also a band, and a part of their regular exer- else is practice shooting with rifles. l The government has now five mili- | tary posts in Alaska, and it's force com sists of about 1900 officers and sol diers. These men not only guard the territory, but they operate the cable
 and telegraph service, make and su- perintend the roads and trails, and have the control of all river and har- bor improvements undertaken by the ! government. In the past they did a | great deal of police work; but just new their chief business is the main tenance and operation of the cable and telegraph system. The army telegraph is the only one in the territory. It consists of about 50 stations. of which l 10 are wireless. There are 40 telegraph offices and more than 1000 miles of l land lines. The submarine cables are about 5000 miles in length and they
 connect the territory with the United States proper at Seattle. The cable | goes to Sitka and Skagway, and 1t reaches every important port from i Ketchikan to Seward. the southern terminus of the new railroad There
 are wireless stations at Nome. Circle | and Eagle operated by army officers. l and also at Valdez, Sitka Cordova.
 Kodiak Island, Udatka Dutch liar Dor and Pribilof Island operated by | the navy department. The land lines are all under the army. and they make l it possible to reach the outside world
 from almost any part of Alaska.
 l The construction of these telegraph l and cable lines was undertaken as a military necessity, and 1t seems to he ?