Digital Bob Archive

SEPTEMBER 1918 - PART 1:

Of the eleven passenger steamers operating in Southeastern Alaska by five companies, the Princess Sophia of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Co. was the favorite of Juneau travelers. The 245-foot vessel, new in 1912, was noted for her schedule-keeping and had had only one accident. That was in 1913 when she struck Sentinel Island Reef north of Juneau. She was not much damaged and was able to go south under her own power. In the summer of 1918 she was carrying full passenger lists on almost every trip.

A troupe of 12 members of the Chautauqua circuit arrived on the steamer Spokane to conduct a Chautauqua Festival at the Juneau Elks Hall from September 5th through the 8th. The group, which came from New York via Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco, included musicians and lecturers. The programs for Juneau, said to be educational, inspirational and entertaining, included lectures and both instrumental and vocal music. Season tickets for the five programs, including a matinee, were $4.40.

The old Pacific Coast Coal Company bunkers at the foot of Main Street, long a landmark on the Juneau waterfront, were being torn down so Willoughby Avenue, which then terminated at Main Street, could be extended southward.

Enrollment in the Douglas Public School, when it opened on the day after Labor Day, was 135, including 45 in the High School. The Treadwell School had 57 pupils and the Douglas Parochial School had 40. The Juneau Public School had six teachers for the lower grades and six for the junior and senior high schools. Enrollment was not reported in the Juneau papers.

Joseph Sprague planted 20,000 Colorado brook trout fry from the Juneau Fish & Game Club's hatchery in Lawson and Cowee Creeks and announced that he also planned to stock Nevada Creek.

U.S. Marshal J.M. Tanner and his deputies emptied 2400 bottles of beer into the gravel and dirt on Court House Hill. The beer was seized in a raid on a cache at Second and Franklin Streets two weeks previously. The empty bottles were donated to B.M. Behrends, president of the Juneau chapter of the American Red Cross, for its salvage department.

The Perseverance Stage, operated by E. Scataline, was making four round trips a day from downtown Juneau to Silver Bow Basin.

The local chapter of the Red Cross set a goal of a thousand sacks of sphagnum moss to be gathered by local volunteers. Half of the moss would be sent to Seattle and the remainder would be locally fashioned into bandages to be shipped overseas.

The War Industrial Board ordered all newspaper publishers in Alaska to reduce their paper consumption by 15 per cent, commencing on October 1. The postmasters in the various towns were to keep track of paper use. The Board suggested that papers reduce their subscription lists by cutting off all overdue subscriptions.