The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-11-01
SERVING TIMEI IN A RIVER TOWN
Two Weeks Sentence Imposed by
Steamboat Company. Boat Full.
Tourists Refused Passage. Outside
News is Weeks Old. What Life and
Travel Is Like When One Gets Into
the Interior Of the North Land.

Travel Is Like When One Gets Int
the Interior Of the North Land.
The "about five days" stretched In
TO seven before the Alice came, and
imagine | know how a prisoner fel
when he was counting the last day
Of his time.
II rained the most Of the time, |
cold driEzle that was almost snow. ant
we simply had 10 stay inside. Their
was nothing TO read but newspaper
more than a month old, papers we hat
read before coming in. In digging fol
something new under pile Of papers
a foot deep, ] found copy Of the
Buffalo Evening News, dated some
time In May, and wondered IL tho
New Yorker who brought IL in had al
much pleasure and comfort as ! was
enjoying.
The nights were as discomforting as
the days. After midnight the colo
would settle down and had to spread
my coat and overcoat over the blan.
kets to keep warm.
When the rain would let up Wilson
and | would walk the beat" from the
fort to the Indian village, about a
mile, and swarm Of mosquitoes would
follow us. Every man Of the 200 in
habitants Of the town would declare he
"never saw the like" Of the weather.
Probably he never saw a summer any
different, but as this section Of Alaska
Ia being doomed for a farming coun-
try, it was part Of the program to
alibi.
In the more than thousand miles
had travelled this was the first place
where | had seen anything growing
that had a ten to one chance. Here
there was soil, black, rich soil, and /
never saw vegetation look so green
and grow so rank. wondered il the
potatoes 0ust little garden patches)
were not all growing to vines and the
vegetables to tops. A man told me
this would be the result unless the sun
came out soon, and it would when the
moon changed.
He should have been in the weather
forecast bureau. The moon changed,
the sky cleared and at three o'clock in
the morning a killing frost descended
on the potatoes and vegetables, and
farming on the Tenanna took set
back. was told that fog saved the
gardens further up the river.
"Too bad" said Austrian joe"
"Too late to ship in potatoes now"
The folders and boom literature
sent out picture Fairbanks and the
surrounding country as wonderful
agricultural section, yet the boats that
come up from Nome bring loads of the
very stuff the folders state is being
raised in such abundance where it is
unloaded
II isn't farming country. | don't
believe it ever will be. The seasons
are too short and the weather too un-
certain. When the sun does shine or
its long summer schedule, everything
grows wonderfully fast, but the sud
den and unexpected changes in the
weather, and killing frost, will ruin
everything in an hour. In my judg-
ment crop raising in Alaska is as un-
certain and hazardous as mining.
There were only two places to eat
in Tananna, and you could take your
choice--and there was no choice. Two
chinks had restaurants side by side,
and they had closed combination on
competition. Meals were one dollar
each, and there was no discount TO
tourists. A longshoreman would sit
at the lunch counter and order the
same meal as did and pay four bits
for IL, and then the Celestial would
ring up one dollar for me, at the same
time, while | watched the figures on
the cash register. 1t appears to me
splendid exhibition Of nerve. But
tourists are considered legitimate
prey. They are stalked. But ! will
say that the meals were good and well
barring some trifes. One Of
the trifcs, or pair of them, were
two able-bodied mosquitoes floating
around in my coffee cup, ] called the
chink's attention tothe natatorium and
ne remarked. get in water" ] asked
for another cup Of coffee, and he re-
lpied. "Makee no diff, get in next cup"
left the coffee for the next man.
When the weather cleared we slop-
ped out TO little stream where some
miners we're prospccting-hghting the
water and caye-ins and trying TO get
4 hole down TO bed rock. One Of them
told me tHre was "a prospect" there.
"A prospect Those two words are
heard all over Alasxa. They are tn
miners hope. the crub-s;akers' curse,
"A prospect" Men chase them for : |