e Eskimo constituents. There are a
picturesque little Russian church, and the Jesse Lee Home for orphans
and foundlings, endowed by a number of charitable women in Washington.

It was quickly learned that a number of the more adventurous ships were
frozen up in the ice. Others were not known about; perhaps they had
found a lucky opening and slipped through. Several of the vessels then
in the harbor, essaying to get through, had met with ice in quantity,
and had discreetly returned. A photograph taken by a passenger on one
of these latter ships, posted up on the _Lane_, tended to chill the
ardor of some of the enthusiastic souls who were for going right through
and losing no time in accumulating wealth. It is safe only for wooden
vessels, specially fortified for the purpose, to "buck" the ice, such as
whalers and the United States revenue cutter _Bear_, which was among the
first to arrive at Nome. The _Santa Anna_ had had a fearful time of it,
having been afire in the hold for four days, reaching Dutch Harbor,
however, with no lives lost, but with all baggage destroyed.

Naturally, every one was keen to be ashore and to stroll about the
island, meeting friends who had come on other vessels. Everything was
"wide open." Hastily-erected saloons and gambling devices of all kinds
were doing a flourishing business, patronized indiscriminately by the
sexes; and there was a large run on the stores for candies and sweets
generally. I trustingly gave to one of the most intelligent-looking
native women some soiled clothes to wash. When returned they were
scarcely recognizable, but she insisted that they belonged to me. People
were almost universally complaining about the over-crowding on their
ships and the poor food, so much so that we of the _Lane_ began to
believe that we were living strictly _en prince_. Some of the horses
which had been taken ashore were in a pitifully cut-up condition, but
nearly all that I saw at Nome were splendid-looking animals. Base-ball
matches between nines picked from the various ships were held, with the
usual ensuing umpire difficulties. After a while, however, the novelty
of the thing wore away. Under the leadership of a certain "judge,"
prominent in the organization of townships in Oklahoma, a party of us
from the _Lane_, half in jest and half seriously, staked out, pursuant
to law, a town site to be known as "Lane City," and drew lots for our
respective real-estate holdings. This move seemed to c