Show mae GATEWAY TO ALASKA 1 seattle t t I 1 e t the h e northern metropolis SPEC 4 1 IAL A L 0 FR R ft FR ia ES F PO 0 N D 0 E C N 4 E there has been much argument along a long contest to decide which should be the capital of alaska there has never been any about seattle being its metropolis this hillside city Is as much a par part t tae we north as it if it were in the heart 0 of it yet it takes longer to go to boundary line than it does to go st paul to new orleans when wish to hold a convention the people of nome meet the residents of juneau in seattle which as a matter of corn coin para lve tive distances Is about the as if the people of boston were to to atlanta ga to confer with from los angeles cal the seattle papers devote as much space to alaskan matters as they do to the affairs of the state of wash ington which to make another corn coin parison is about as odd as it if the 4 4 ON THE yukon L buffalo papers printed the local news of utah this is all due to seattle a remark able geographical location on going to or coming from alaska it is the only way it Is the front and the back door it sells the gold hunter his outfit as he passes into the tabled fabled land of wealth and it if he finds the precious yellow stuff affords him a thousand ways to spend it when he comes back II 11 he falls fails and returns broke it gives him work so he can earn another stake hundreds of writers have exhausted themselves in discussing the spirit of the west the hopefulness the courage the enthusiasm ot ox the west ern man cannot be beg i avoided here he tells you is the place where the lord intended the elect should sit if you seem incredulous he will con dinue look at this harbor finest in the world see that lake purest r ii I 1 ing water on god s green earth I 1 and our ball club why old fellow weve we ve got a team here that can trim em no mater where they come from his pride is boundless his faith reaches all things his belief in the men his admiration for the thi women and his confidence in the institutions of his locality make liim eloquent as he espouses them it 1 Is a fine spirit and the right one it will carry a man far and it will carry a corn coin farther it if its men all join in it I 1 is fitting that the spirit of the west should be so manifest in this far western town its people are not only talking but working it if they cant can t chop a hill down to the level they do the next best thing and climb over when a ship building firm in seattle fell short of securing the contract the build a battleship for the government the citizens raised that sum within a week presented it to the shipbuilder and landed the con tract when the people of alaska need financial aid for some deserving cause it is as natural for them to turn to seattle as it is for a small boy to approach his father it is a busy spreading wide open town where everybody from peanut ven veli ders era to highwaymen follow their 01 respective vocations and succeed at them the trail trall to the golden north Is the scene of 0 all emotions and almost every heart beat whether gay or grave Is felt in seattle the other night klondike jim came down 0 i gang plank with enough of the yellow stuff on his back to make him stagger A carnival was at its height A make believe queen sat upon a mimic state and upon her head there was a tinsel crown many lights flashed dan b bands ds played glasses cl liked jim a hungry eyes and ears fed upon the sights and sounds so ands in his dreams out there under the pale cold stars with desolation pressing dowa down upon him and eating into him his fancy had pictured scenes like this a thousand times jim felt in his pock et the weight of some of the coin coins he had received in exchange for his gold dust he planked down a coin and stalk ed into the tent it was beneath the dignity of a to wait for change and it Is a well known tact fact that circus managers do not keep mee mes boys to run after people who go away without their money jim liked the show he went to others and he liked them all everybody liked jim he stood up in the beer garden and shouted everybody have a drink on me seventeen waiters got busy filling the order five years of dreary tramping of arctic drudgery of the solitude that sometimes makes a man cry out for the anguish of it had made jim greedy for companionship there really is no hunger in the world so fierce as the craving for association it mattered little to jim that the crown of the queen was made of pasteboard or that the people who were drinking his liquor were false friends there was light and and his blood was again running warm in bis his veins that awful stillness was blotted out there was a root roof over him and merry roistering roy people near him he drank and laughed him self to sleep in his dreams he was again under the lonely arctic sky poking his fading camp fire and lie Is bening wiling to lo 10 his dogs as they howled at the night but all seekers for gold in the frozen north do not find it it far from it many follow the fleetle e willo will o the wisp of fortune only to be led to their doom A young couple from the mid die west were married and went to the klondike they had the courage courage and hope which Is the legacy of youth but inside of a year the man was found on his back in the snow his arms outstretched and his dead eyes staring into eternity the woman broken in health and crushed with grief made her way to dawson after disposing of all her effects except the clothes she bad had 4 A CN ONT THE BOUNDARY LINE upon her back she still lacked 20 of having enough money fo to pay her way to seattle she obtained the bal ance by cutting off and selling her hair arriving here she could go no fur aner she was too weak to seek em and too proud to beg she went nent to bed in a cheap lodging house and was soon so alarmingly ill III that a physician was called when 11 be came she was standing stan standing hing upright in bed holding an imaginary wolf at bay see his white fangs and his long lolling tongue she cried his red eyes have followed me over the snow until they burn into me hear tho the sound of his stealthy feet treading after me always after me the tho doctor quieted her but his trained eye soon discovered that he had a fatal case the unfortunate woman nad no thoney but she was treated kindly she fought death bravely enough but the vital spark sank lower and lower oh god be good to me and let me go back to indiana she would sob and then she would be out in the snow again alone with the wolf stumbling falling ever as she ran it was heartbreaking to see her thin hands choking the pillow in the delu slon sion that she had the wolf by the throat at last she turned her pretty head cropped of its luxuriant hair and said its no use doctor I 1 give u up p there isu t any more fight left in me the north has conquered me but w when en y you u send word to the folks in indiana doctor be sure to tell them I 1 was a good woman to the end tell them I 1 was true to poor dead harry and to them hem and to myself A woman can lose everything you know doctor even her loved ones and her life nad nd still be rich in her purity I 1 ve been terribly cheated in the game of living but I 1 ive ve played fair and clean honest I 1 have doctor honest I 1 have when the physician told the news paper man about brave little kate a losing fight the eyes of both were vet and the paper next morning con albed a flaring head line which read caught in tho the pitiless grasp of the north |