country was now the Council City Precinct and
Recording District, a subdivision of the Second Judicial Division, as
designated by the Alaskan code. A United States commissioner, with
liberal jurisdiction and a marshal at his back, supplanted our military
tribunal and the mining recorder of the last year. With the exceptions
that his jurisdiction in civil matters is limited to a certain amount,
that he can neither grant an injunction nor try title to real estate,
his powers, judicial and otherwise, are plenary and varied. For
instance, in addition to his civil and extensive criminal jurisdiction,
the commissioner is _ex officio_ probate judge, coroner, notary public,
mining recorder, and tier of matrimonial knots. In the latter capacity
he is not overburdened with work, and having once tied, he has no
authority to unloose. There is a section of the criminal code which in
mining matters worked very salutary results. Under it an action of
"criminal trespass" can be brought in the commissioner's court, in which
the court may consider the record title, and, in proper cases, oust
irresponsible "jumpers" or legal blackmailers, who may then, if they
wish, in a legal way, seek a remedy in the District Court at Nome. We
proceeded on several occasions under this section. If the defendant was
found guilty, he was ejected from the premises by the marshal, and
either paid his fine and costs or languished awhile in an unupholstered
"jug." Although, naturally enough, he was in the country to better
himself from the ground, and not primarily from his fees, our genial
commissioner presided over his court with dignity, fairness, and
ability. I always made it a point to wear a necktie in appearing before
his Honor. After a trial he might drop into our cabin; and, over a
cigar and a little Scotch whisky, we would suggest wherein, in our
opinion, he had erred in his rulings or decisions, to which presumptuous
insinuations he would either good-naturedly assent or demur.

There was a lot doing. The District Court, though not appointing
receivers, was grinding out injunctions, or temporary restraining
orders, which, frequently conveyed by some legal luminary, came drifting
over from Nome, and, in consequence, some poor devil or arrant rascal
was thrown out of his job and summoned to appear at the metropolis.
There was a pause, however, about the middle of August, when Judge Noyes
pulled up stakes and sailed for the "outside" to prepare himself f