azardous trip which should be condemned equally with their
owners. Narrow escapes from complete disaster have not been infrequent,
and persons who in good faith have bought first-class accommodations
have gone aboard to find that they have been _second_ purchasers, and,
in overcrowded ships, have been obliged to resort to the floor for
sleep, and to bribery of the stewards for decent food. Many a chapter of
horrors incredible could be detailed by unfortunate participants in the
Nome travel. It was with astonishment and genuine regret that I read in
a recent Nome paper of the suicide of my cabin-mate on the _St. Paul_,
the pleasant Knight of the Green Table. Despondent, he had deliberately
shot himself through the head. He was a general favorite, "square" in
his "profession," and his untimely end was widely regretted.

X

THE END OF THE CONSPIRACY--A WORD FOR ALASKA

After having served only three months of his year's sentence, on the
plea of ill health and through strong political influence, Alexander
McKenzie had been pardoned by the President, and was again free to
descend, if he chose, upon the mining fraternity of Cape Nome. But he
showed excellent judgment in returning to his Dakota constituency. The
Court of Appeals, in its opinion in the McKenzie contempt cases, had in
effect declared that an outraged community had patiently endured
injuries unparalleled in the history of American jurisprudence, and that
the people were entitled to high praise for their abstinence from
forcible resistance. Apropos of this, the then senior senator from South
Dakota, in his defense in the Senate of McKenzie and Noyes, had engaged
the attention of that body in a tirade against the honorable court.
During the winter, people had been brooding over their grievances, and
when spring came there was frequent mention of "necktie" parties and
"shotgun" excursions, in a way that carried conviction of settled
purposes. As a further inducement to Mr. McKenzie to seek other spheres
of activity and usefulness, the Circuit Court of Appeals had made
orders, and appointed an officer to serve them, requiring Judge Noyes,
Mr. Wood, the district attorney, Mr. Geary, the lawyer and
ex-Congressman who had advised and defended McKenzie, and one Frost, a
special agent from the Department of Justice at Washington, to appear in
San Francisco in October, 1901, and show cause why they, too, should not
be punished for contempt of court. After all, th