department, long-distance telephones, railroad to the Anvil
Creek mines, and projected electric-light system, Nome has indeed become
a city. As a matter of fact, the social atmosphere of Nome now demands
a white collar and a shoe-shine. Wonderful when one thinks of its
geographical situation, almost in the Bering Strait, three thousand
miles from any port of supply, scarcely one hundred and fifty from
Siberia, in a cheerless, Arctic country, barren of everything save gold!
When the telegraph line from the Klondike to St. Michaels is finished,
the cable, which has already been laid, will carry it through the
remaining one hundred and fifty miles, and Nome will then daily, in all
seasons, be in touch with the outside world.

I met Captain Baldwin, a prominent and useful citizen, who was selecting
characteristic photographs to put in an album, as a gift to President
McKinley from the citizens of Nome. And this was on the day of the
President's death. The terrible news of the assassination I did not
learn until I reached Port Townsend, in Puget Sound, September 26, when
the hollow shout of the news-vender, "McKinley dead and buried,"
considerably lessened the pleasure of home-coming. The mayor of Nome had
recently made a trip to Canton in advocacy of the removal of Judge
Noyes, and the President's questions as to how the people of the Nome
region lived had suggested the appropriateness of the intended gift.

The mines near Nome had been and were "showing up" well. Old channels
were being discovered, and it was generally admitted that more gold was
in sight than ever before. There had recently been found on Anvil Creek
the largest nugget which Alaska had yet produced. This was on
exhibition; and I elbowed my way through the camera fiends to heft the
boulder-like mass, which weighed ninety-seven ounces, or a little over
eight pounds (troy), and was worth $1552. I have been informed that
another nugget, slightly larger, was discovered in the same vicinity
soon afterward. It is not improbable that, when the creeks shall have
been worked out by the present methods of sluicing, quite as much
additional wealth will be accumulated from the debris by hydraulic
operations. The great richness of the country lies in the
"benches,"--creek flats and hillsides,--and to operate them successfully
great ditches are being constructed. For instance, on Ophir Creek the
Wild Goose Company now has under way a ditch, paralleling the creek,
twelv