The Wrangell sentinel., 1922-08-24
Can't Be Beat

AldShd io U uis Aeiuu ch The extent of those wonders is un- known and impossible to guess. A greater frontier than has been, vast empire mostly unexplored. the Lord seems to have his arms around the people who in Alaska go up against the unknown, unprepared and come out of the experience in better condition than they were in when they started out upon the Great Adventure.
 Take the case of Aviator Prest. A chechaco, he started by airship through an unknown country; started without food or fire, 'just to see what he could see," and came to grief in a swamp of niggerheads, his airship bottom-side up, stuck for fair and, according to the rules of the game, he was food for the mos quitoes and due to die a horrible death. He was probably pinned un- der his machine when it landed. and all the people of Interior Alaska suf- fered with him for three whole days, while money and men were turned loose without limit to try and recoy- CT the remains. It was another one of those Tragedies of the North land" most of which never happen ed.
 What happened to Prest? The Lord had his arms around him and was paving the way for him to the Beautiful Isles of Experience. In the niggerhead swamp was a herd of caribou, and Prest's machine landed right in the middle of the herd. In the minute of landing, the foodless man had a thousand pounds of fresh meat on his hands, just killed and sufficient to last him for months. The Green Grass Grew All Around, flowers bloomed therein and berries for dessert abounded, while the leaves of the trees on the edge of the swamp furnished him with clean dishes for the remainder of the sum- mer without once having to wash a dish. The gentle rain fell and fell and fell until no mosquito could ex- ist in Prest's vicinity unless it wore galoshes and a mackintosh and was belted with a cork life preserver. The Gladiator who started out to make Roman holiday for the pop ulace of Alaska landed squarely in the middle of a northern picnic, and the only guest at the party! Can you beat it?
 They wire us that Prest is "un- daunted," and will try it again next year. We can see why he should be ''undaunted," and we can see why he should try it again next year. He has tried it two years in succession, and has lost an airship each year, but look at the experience he has had! The first time the gales wreck ed his ship the thoughtful storms wrecked it in wet territory, at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, just be- fore he would hit the Arid Belt of America" The second time his air ship killed caribou in Alaska in the closed season, and no law can touch him for that! The next time his airship will probably knock the top off Mt. Mckinley and create a flat site for a summer hotel which will be priceless as an investment; or, if he takes the lower attitudes and lands in a ditch where the Hammon dredges will be working next year, he will come out of the ditch so en- crusted with gold that he will be worth a fortune to any rich collector of rare and beautiful objects of vir- tue!
 Alaska IS great country As Lou Dockstadter used to phrase it in 1908, you awaken here on a summer morning and find ton of ice on your doorstep, and you didn't order it, and it doesn't cost you a cent. On the Impossible Outside what you would get the same morning would be wet spot on the sidewalk and a bill for $10.-Fairbanks News-Mi- ner-Citizen.