The Alaska citizen., 1917-01-22


 men,s.
 And now We quote from your story. the part written under the sub-head Paying High for Filth" T cannot now recommend travel ins In the interior to anyone who has delicate stomach, or a sensi- tive nose, or is particular about the company he keeps or the language l.. hears. or has limited time at his disposal which requires the making Of close connections. or is obliged to be economical of money, as well as time. The steamboats on the Yukon arc filled to the sunnel with cargo. md each boat also pushes one or more scows similarly loaded The one that was on had another boat fastened to lts side. They carry, on
 their own decks or on the scows. cattle, swine sheep and poultry, the ! decks containing which I have never seen washed. Passengers who come ! To the river by the companys rail
 road, and those who are near the 1 border change from a boat with the British flag 10 one controlled by the same people bearing an American
 Ias and are almost always obliged ! be.ween voyages. to remain a few , days at a hotel with metropolitan l prices and village accommodations 1 It Is generally believed that this is l intentional, for the sake of benefit
 ing the keepers of hotels, restaurants and shops. and thus tempering their l grievances at the eXtortionate freight
 hey are obliged to pay. It is com
 mon occurrence for a boat to be
 stranded upon a bar and to remain there surrounded by the wilderness any length of time between several hours and several days; such events and the amount of cargo on the barges afford other explanations of these delays"
 In answer to the foregoing, MT Frost, we would ask you a few ques- ] tigns, at the same time telling you that We have travelled on that same steamer "Yukon' more times than you have fingers and toes, and that , such a complication of exaggerated statements we never before saw ! Inder one head. Did you come to
 lIa ka with the expectation of find ing in this far-off corner of the
 world, accommodations such as you would expect to find on the river and ocean steamers of the east, or lid you come to see men and cor porations building up an empire? If l ou came for the first named reason 9e would respectfully state that it
 would have been better had you re nained in your steam-heated offices
 Il New York or else have taken a rip to some of the older portions ,G the world.
 We of Alaska are trying to build ID an empire, and We have faith enough in the country to believe that We shall one day do so; We or our progeny, for most of us have our homes here. In the process of doing 70 it oftens happens that we are compelled to travel under the same roof with animals and on steamers containing our winters outfit. Your cry in the paragraph quoted above, is "economy." We'll, that's just the reason We do it.
 Just here We will also take oc- casion to tell you that you have ex- aggerated in your statements relative to the transportation of cattle, swine horses and sheep. Horses on rare occasions, are carried on shipboard, but cattle, swine and sheep always occupy barges all to themselves And in this connection we will state that while you were seeing, as a boy, Kit Carson, the Arkansas Traveller" at the Boston theatre as you state, in cluding the old sternwheel steamboat for which you now seem to have so little use, We were enjoying the eX- perience, also as boy. of travelling on the Mississippi river and it's tribu taTies on the same kind of boats and with the same kind of travel ing companions on the boats, not on the barges as Is the case here In Alaska All of which goes to prove that you should have started in nearer home in your criticism in that regard.
 As you state in your story, and it is one of it's few truisms. Alaskans, both men and women, are known