Seward daily gateway., 1925-09-16


 l Valdez few hours and we looked over the town A half-dead little settlement with many vacant houses and abandoned business places. At the time the now famous Richardson highway was being built from Val dez to Fairbanks there was consider able activity here. Now with the | highway completed and the new gold diggings far in the interior about all thebusiness appeared to be centered in the salmon cannery manned by Chinese operators.
 The unusual thing about Valdez is that it is built on the ocean end of glacier. Soil to the depth of twen- ty or thirty feet has washed down from the high mountains on both sides. With solid ice to furnish a footing, the inhabitants build their homes, raise flowers in profusion and have spacious lawns. The cannery is mounted on piling, also long line of small shacks in the rear that ap- pear to furnish a hazardous habita- tion for the Chinese laborers and their families. The incoming and outgoing tides splash with abandon underneath their homes.
 fear this lengthy communica- tion may be an imposition, but be- fore 1 close I cannot resist the in- clination to tell this little story which you must admit is, lone on me-"
 You have not yet forgotten how the little city of Bandon was nightly disturbed over the episode of the school principal who said something and the pupil who understood, or mis- understood, or Whatnot, and all the annoying aftermath.
 We'll, I met my Waterloo under somewhat similar circumstances. It was this way On board our ship was tourist, an alert elderly woman nearing three score and ten" I sur mise. She was small in stature, bent ill body and decidedly lame from a recent fall. She has spent many years as school teacher and at present is sole arbiter of the destin- les of a group of three hundred fam lilies on an island in Puget Sound.
 l thought she appeared lonely, so l spent part of my time slowly walk ing with her on the promenade deck or chatting in the social hall. She was an interesting conversationalist and 1 enjoyed her description of the earnest effort she put forth to Amer icanize the unruly juveniles. These youngsters, most of them, came from homes of foreign born parents and all of them were bolshevic-so she said.
 One dull day she was staying in- side but I was conscientiously doing my daily dozen" on the promenade deck in spite of chilling winds and flurries of heavy mist At last I gave up the struggle and went in the social hall. As I sank wearily in the comfortable cushions of an easy chair next to my school teacher friend, 1 started to say, or tried to say, Its too damp and cold to stay outside" Believe me, uttered just three words when she, as quick as a | flash, came back at me with: That's a swear word"
 Since when has damp been a swear word? If she jerked the word out of my mouth before I could hang on the last letter should I be humiliated | before all my touring companions? She looked askance at me and felt | the sting of disapproyal in her sharp little eyes. I tried to clear myself | of suspicion but she locked and barred all the avenues of approach. | 80, there was 1, abandoned by the | sea; on the sea. Do you see?
 (NOTE-The Bruno Ogostino refer red to in the above article is we'll known in Seward and during the time Mrs. Ribble visited in town, he was also here and took passage for Latouche on the same steamer. Upon his return to Seward, he in- formed the Seward Gateway, who had previously asked him to call on Mrs. Ribble, and which he promised l to do, but, owing to the fact that The was not in a presentable con- dition," being in his working clothes, he let the opportunity go, however, much to his regret.