A Dead Explorer's Lantern Slides: Alaska Comes to the Seattle Theater

"Through the Heart of Alaska," by J. O. Hestwood, at the Seattle theater last evening proved to be an interesting discourse, and was listened to by a medium-sized audience. The lecture was a treat in itself, but its enjoyment was greatly enhanced by numerous views of the route taken by the late explorer Wilson and Mr. Hestwood and other comrades in penetrating into the American land of the midnight sun.

The lecturer, while he brought out the fact that Alaska was a country where the soil is almost fabulously rich with treasure, made no attempt to picture the life of the miner as anything but a series of hardships inconceivable to any except those who have made the arduous journey to the far north, and one requiring some capital before entering on it. Thrown in with the narrative, and intertwining it like little bits of sunshine, are flashes of wit and unexpected rays of humor that call for a responsive laugh from the audience.

Despite its vast extent of territory and untold mineral wealth, Alaska is shown to have cost less than half a cent an acre at the original price paid by the United States to Russia. The key to the tremendous empire stretching southward from the frozen polar sea is the Yukon, second in size only to the largest in the world, sixty miles wide at its mouth, with its two branches, the Pelly and the Lewis, uniting at Fort Selkirk.

The lecturer graphically traced the outline of the two routes into the region, detailing the perils of navigation on the Yukon and the chain of lakes and the mountain gorges connecting them. One of these is the Grand Canyon, where the immense chain of mountains, the lecturer said, seemed to have been cleft in twain to let the flood of water through. Down this gorge the river plunges with race-horse speed, but notwithstanding its dangers Wilson, the explorer, guided safely through it a loaded boat, being the first man to make the attempt. In two minutes and twenty seconds he went three-quarters of a mile, as if the fragile vessel with its cargo and adventurous passenger had been shot from a gun. Once safely past the rapids, the travelers entered a beautiful place lighted up with bright sunshine where it seemed summer reigned supreme.

Other views were thrown upon the screen, notably the White Horse rapids, Forty Mile creek, a canyon on Miller creek and a scene on Boundary creek at the 141st meridian, showing a mountain of lime. One of the most interesting pictures was one taken from a high peak and designed to give an idea of the country to the stranger unfamiliar with the stupendous work of nature in the region of the great mountain chains. The view was intended to command a section of 400 miles where there was scarcely an acre on which the wayfarer could pitch a tent.

In the course of his address Mr. Hestwood paid a high tribute to the honesty, steadfastness of purpose and courage of Mr. Wilson, whose life had been the penalty of his travels into the center of Alaska. A portrait of the explorer showed a handsome young fellow, with determination stamped all over his features.

Tomorrow Mr. Hestwood will go to Tacoma, and Tuesday he will appear in Olympia, after which he will visit other towns in Washington. It is the intention then to go to Oregon. The lecturer is being managed by H. A. Frederick, who is well known to all the people of this city from his connection with the Seattle theater.