The Nome nugget., 1931-05-23

three aspects for which an entirely new root is often used. The spelling is fairly easy and although there are several letters and sounds that we dc not have in English, l have net round them very difficult. Sev- eral consonants often come togeth- CT. swever, and this often makes terrible tongue twisting neces- sary.
 The Aldan district here is in about the same latitude as Anchorage but it is considera bly, colder even than Fairbanks. They say it Se:s down to e5 degrees Centigradc here, which is about S5 degrees Farenheit. The coolest it has been here so far is 65 F. Theoretically the work goes on just the same down to 65 F., but very little is really done except by the horses. 4 most noticeable thing about the weather is the evenness of the temperature.
 The housekeeping situation is difficult. For the four O, Us it takes one ma1 about hl'f of his time to tend to the buv,"s af s1i : plies in the stores. trading with the farmers. hiring cooks and Eetiins the accounts sirai ight. th } latter es pecially being very complicated We have had five cooks in two months. n a very short time they get "stak- ey" and independent and besides. it is difficult to get a woman who lis clean enough for our 'foreigl habits
 As far as eating is concerned we get along fairly well bu; I often long for a double order of ham and and a cup of coffee! Soup, black bread and tea are the mainstay of ue country. The soup is quite good but l am afraid it will be a long time before ] get used to soup as the ''piece de re- sistance" of the dinner. The black bread is not bad but it is often a little sour. The tea is one of the best things of the country. We usually drink from four to five cups at every meal. get big kick out of seeing three coffee drinking SwedeS inhaling tea like SO many English old maids.
 Another interesting institution k the "cottonwe" or Russian felt boots which are worn by men. wo- men and children during cold weather They are knee length. half an inch thick. quite stiff and everyone walks '%n the street like a bunch of c.ipples. They are warm and dry and we will prob ably come to like them before the winter is over. also have really nice pair of soft leather boots.
 haven't taken many pictures so far as light is poor and l have mt any films to waste. but this spring l expect to get some good negatives. The print papers here are not so good.
 Here in Aldan there is small CT percentage of women than in other places as they do not want to import any more food than is absolutely necessary. So most of the good looking girls are married. ev- en the young ones, many of whom are only seventeen years old.
 The purely social activities seem to be quite limited. The workers spend large per cent of their spare time in their various trade unions and the more responsible men in the office have either com munist meetings or conferences at the office nearly every evening. They certainly spend enought time at their work and politics, but it is difficult for an outsider to say how much of it is all work and how much is mere talk,
 There is another American here who is working on dredge construc- tion. He has a Russian wife So he doesn't live with us. He doesn't speak Russian very well and she