The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-14
Alaska,
By N. p. d.

BIS
the one best bet remaining in the world
to-day: the "last frontier land,' as he
calls it, where a man may arrive and not
6nd the whole world there before him. In
stead of Bill Nye's anguished cry, "Oh,
where were my ancestors when the In
dams sold Manhattan Island for $20T
Mr. Stephenson holds out the hope that
any one going to Alaska now stands an
excellent chance Of being in on the ground
! floor and the corner lot. -.
He represents Alaska as calling not only
10 'the Wild" but to jobs and fortunes.
As a matter of fact, he seems to think
| Jack London's stories emphasized "the
Wild altogether too much, and calls them
aabsurdly untrue to Life" Mr.. Stephen
son is at one with the doughboTs, how
ever, in commencing the Alaska poems Of
Robert W. Service, and quotes the follow
1 ing: ,
| Some saw God was tired when He made it;
| Some say it's good land to shun;
| Nav be- But there's some as would trade it
| For no land on earth-and I'm onel
In his introduction, Mr.. Stephenson,
Who was formerly United States Commits
sioner of St. Michael, interprets Alaska's
| call as follows:
ALASKA is calling for men-men to cul-
| tivate her farms, to develop her mines, to
| build her railroads, to man her fisheries
| and her humber camps. She will soon be
| asking for business men to manage her
stores, for lawyers, doctors and dentists,
for teachers, ministers and priests, for
actors and motion picture operators. In
another year Uncle Sans great railroad
will be running Pullman cars across this
sparsely settled country. This means
progress Alaska will live. She will prove
good although at certain seasons of the
year frigid mother to thousands yet un-
born. The homely old proverb in regard
to the early bird is peculiarly applicable
to Alaska. The worm is only waiting to
be caught"
But the impression left by Mr.. Stephen
sons book is that if every bird proves to
be an early bird the Alaskan worm will
be big enough to go around. For every
thing in Alaska seems to be the biggest In
the world, from the country itself to the
pansies and volcanoes and mosquitoes.
When every other part of Alaska Is filed
there will still be room in the crater of
the volcanic Mount Katmai alone for a
good many of us. Kilauea in Hawaii
used to be called the king of volcanoes,
but Mr.. Stephenson quotes an expert re-
port in the National Geographic Mag
asine as saying:
IF every single structure in New York,
Brooklyn, The Bronx and the other Dor
eughs of Greater New York were gathered
together and deposited in the crater of
Mount Katmai the hole that remained
would still be more than twice as large as
that of Kilauea."
When Mount Katmai erupted in June,
1912, it buried an area about the size OF
the State Of Connecticut TO depth vary
ing from ten inches to ten feet, and
smaller amounts of the ash fell as far as
900 miles away. 1t is the same with
geySers in Alaska, which spout higher
than geysers anywhere else. Mr.. Yard,
for example, in his recent book on our
National Parks, told of Old Faithful in
the Yellowstone that spouts 100 feet, but
Mr. Stephenson tells of Old Faithfuls in
the Mount Mckinley National Park in
Alaska that spout as high as 5000 feet
which seems to be about the proportion
everything in Alaska bears to the rest of
| the world
| He describes Alaska as being not one
but many countries; only two-ffths of the
whole has ever been mapped. He says a
! man might travel continuously for year
and take advantage of the Cast ice" and
the first water" the strongest boat and
the fastest dog team, and yet not begin to
cover this Gargantuan land, where pansies
are three inches across and asters are
seven inches in diameter and dahhas are
i ten; where sweet meas AFRO pina Pact hioh /.