Au Eye-Opeuer shouldn’t limit his oeulary 
work to exposing the operations of the ordi¬ 
nary, regular swindlers, who illegally prey 
upon hi9 friends: there are other sharpers 
who, in a perfectly legitimate way, “bleed” 
them just as much, if not more. The worst 
sharpers of this intelligent aye are not usually 
ranked with the criminal classes. Oh, no, in¬ 
deed ! Some of them hold honorable places in 
banks, raitroads, gigantic transportation and 
manufacturing corporations, lawyers’ offices 
and fine mercantile establishments. They 
fleece the public in quite a legitimate way, 
bless you! but they do it just as effectually, 
yes, and a good deal more so, than the vulgar 
scamp3 whom the law pursues. What more 
honorable or wealthy body than the Minne¬ 
apolis millers! Who would dream that they 
would seek the shekels of the public by “trick 
and device?” Yet there is little doubt that even 
while they are apparently benefiting the farm¬ 
ers of the Northwest, they are seeking to 
covertly fill their own coffers, mainly, how¬ 
ever, through the cupidity of their victims— 
the very trait on which ordinary swindlers 
mostly rely for the success of their machina¬ 
tions. The telegraph tells us that lately they 
have been raising the price of wheat quite 
liberally in the territory from which they 
draw their supplies: but a letter from Fargo, 
Dakota, says this advance in price is an old 
dodge of the Millers’ Association, which they 
play every season, the granger always 
swallowing the bait with the avidity 
of a Mississippi River catfish. The As¬ 
sociation owns most of the stock of the 
Western Pacific Elevator Company and of 
the Minnesota and Northern, aggregating over 
100 elevators, iu which tbe farmers store their 
grain for higher figures, and it is to stimulate 
deliveries here they advance their prices. In¬ 
stead of shipping his grain to Minneapolis or 
Duluth, as he usually would on a dull or de¬ 
clining market, thereby saving elevator 
charges, the farmer stores It for tetter prices 
in the Association's elevators at home. It is 
pretty well known to tbe general public, and 
thoroughly known to these shrewd operators, 
that nine farmers out of ten seldom sell a 
bushel of wheat during an advancing market, 
when they can possibly hold it, and the result 
is that the millers get the fanners’ wheat ou 
storage, issue their receipts therefor, ship it to 
Minneapolis, grind it into flour, ami ship it 
east or abroad before they are called upon to 
pay a cent for It and while they are charging 
for its storage, as the fanuer. having their 
receipt, never wunts to see his wheat. Then 
when the occasion suits these high toned 
sharpers, they “knock the stuffing” out of 
tbe market, and when prices begin to tumble, 
the grangers rush pell melltotbe Association’s 
grain-houses and sell at whatever price they 
cau get. fearing that if they hold much longer 
they will not bo able to pay storage and ele¬ 
vator charges. Perfectly legitimate—isn't it? 
—on the part of the millers; and perfectly 
natural—isn’t It?—ou the part of the farmers 
anxious to make the most from the results of 
their hard labor! Tbe dodge, in one of its 
multitudinous forms, is played on the farmers 
in nearly all parts of the country. Just think 
a moment whether there isn’t some kind of a 
“millers’ association” in your own neighbor¬ 
hood. 
The grave-yard iusurance companies which 
have been often denounced here, are still 
nourishing as vigorously and persistently as 
Canada thistles. The Attorney-General of 
Pennsylvania, in which State they have beeu 
growing most ruukiy, is determined to, as it 
were, pour vitriol on them. Last Monday he 
proceeded against u score of them at Harris¬ 
burg, requiring them to show cause why their 
busiuess should not be suspended. They are 
all known as “mutual insurance companies,” 
and most of them wer«? proceeded against in 
1882, shortly after our first exposure of them, 
but the proceedings were stopped, as it was 
claimed that they were complying with the 
law. The Attorney-General is now resolved, 
however, to break them up. Some “mutual 
iusurance companies” have a long and bene- 
fieeut record ; but most of them are simply 
“confidence swindles,” or worse. We have 
numerous inquiries about the character of 
such bodies; but it is impracticable for us to 
answer such questions. They are mere local 
little “benefit societies,” whose officers and 
headquarters are unknown beyond the cir¬ 
cumscribed field in which they operate. The 
only way to flud out their character is to ap¬ 
ply to the State Superintendent of Iusurauce, 
at the capital of the State. If his report is 
rot favorable, have nothing to do with any 
of them, however favorable may be the re¬ 
ports of even reputable men in the section 
they “work;” for these are often hoodwinked 
—and sometimes it is to their interest to be so. 
Highly “respectable” men have been detect¬ 
ed, over and over again, in the commission of 
the most flagrant acts of fraud aad knavery 
in connection with w grave-yard insurance 
companies.” 
Another trick in the same line as the “lost 
heir” swindle, described last week, is played 
much more frequently than one would imag¬ 
ine, judging by tbe notices of it in the papers; 
for the victim, having acted dishonestly, is 
generally ashamed to proclaim his loss. In 
this case, the “crook,” haviug secured a 
number of names of supposably gullible people 
at a distance, gets a letter-head printed em¬ 
blazoned with the picture of a hotel or other 
respectable-looking building. He then writes 
to his intended dupe, announcing that Mr. 
“Soaud-so” has just died suddenly at his 
house, and that on searching his baggage, the 
name of his correspondent was found. The 
baggage is, of course, very valuable, to prove 
which an itemized list is generally forwarded, 
with a request for a remittance to pay ex¬ 
penses of burial, etc.; on receipt of which all 
the “valuables” will be forwarded. Sometimes 
the guest hasn't died, but “mysteriously dis¬ 
appeared,” leaving au unpaid bill, and the 
very valuable baggage will be forwarded as 
soon as the amount of this is remitted. The 
amount asked is usually so small in comparison 
with the value set upon the baggage, and the 
suspicions of the would-be dupe are so effec¬ 
tually allayed by the business appearance of 
the note from the proprieter of such a re¬ 
spectable-looking house, that in a great many 
cases, the remittance is sent; but, of course, 
in no instance is the “baggage” ever forward¬ 
ed. The “crook” can easily get any number of 
addresses in several ways. Of course, the 
dupe knew nobody of the name of the deader 
vanished guest; but he was willing to risk a 
few dollars iu hopes of getting a valuable 
“stake” dishonestly. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.—XLT. 
ALASKA. CRUISE. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Glacier Bay is an arm of the sea ruuuing 
up into the main-land nearly to the 59th paral¬ 
lel, and is bounded on the east by a peninsula 
formed of the White Mountains, and on the 
west by a peninsula in which are located Mt. 
Fairweather 15,900 feet high, and Mt. La Per- 
ouse 15,000. The western coast of this peniu- 
sula. or promontory, is washed by the open 
sea. There are several small islands in Glacier 
Bay, aud all this sea of islands amid which 
we have been cruising since touching Tougass, 
tho southernmost Alaskan port, is called the 
Alexander Archipelago. 
The mercury which on tbe previous day 
marked 04 degrees at noon, fell to 40 degrees 
at 9 A. M., as the steamer approached the 
Muir Glacier. The heavens were clouded,aud 
the cold, as we sat on deck with the wind 
blowiug directly on us from tho region of ice, 
was very penetrating, although we were clad 
like Esqimaux for warmth. The water was 
full of small icebergs, aud trees had gradual¬ 
ly disappeared from the mountains, ltseemed, 
indeed, as if we had been suddenly dropped 
into the arctic regions, and the sensation was 
decidedly novel. The foot of the glacier lies 
directly across the entire head of tho bay, 
and is probably a quarter of a mile in width,aud 
from 200 to 400 feet in bight, the highest point 
being in the middle, where it rises like a 
cathedral tower—a massive, maguitlceut wall 
of ice, battlemeuted with a thousand forms, 
while over the base open caverns of translu¬ 
cent hues of the clearest tints, walls liued 
with stalactites and the line of the tide lying 
like a broad border from shore to shore. The 
ship stopped at a distance of 200 yards, and 
saluted the glacier with canuon, and echo was 
tbe response. The captain »eut further greet¬ 
ing of rifle bullets, but the effect was about 
like giving the earth a dig with your heel. 
We could hear the cracking of the ice up the 
stream, and every now and then a large mass 
would break off aud slowly reel iuto the 
water with a tremendous roar, the water 
spouting ltk<» geysers. There was something 
terrific in being so near this uueomprehended 
thing of Nature, which set the ship swaying 
iu 00 fathoms of water, when a berg loos¬ 
ened and fell iuto the bay. To me the lower 
half of the ice wall resembled white marble 
veined with blue—but marble transparent, 
translucent, polished aud gleaming, and in 
guch delicate tints of blue and green and pur¬ 
ple as cauuot be described; and the upper 
half, ou which suow covers the ice, looked not 
unlike peaks and domes and cliffs of lime¬ 
stone. During the warm weather the ice 
melts to a certain extent, beneath, and also 
above, the -water trickling down through 
crevasses and gorges. 
After about an hour’s halt in the deep water, 
the ship turns toward the shore, where anchor¬ 
age can be had, and we go ashore in boats, 
and at once begin the ascent of the glacier up 
over the moraine, which is here swept to either 
side. Heavy wraps soon become burdensome, 
and a cairn is made of them on a huge bould¬ 
er, and on we go over pebbles, rocks, boulders 
—and if any boy or girl ever wonders how so 
many stones have become round and smooth, 
neither would wouder any longer if placed on a 
glacier moraine, a mighty torrent of rocks 
worn smooth in the track of the glacier. All 
beneath lay the ice, smooth as glass and look¬ 
ing fairly black. Now aud then we would 
slip on it, and go sprawliug. Finally, we were 
enabled to reach the snow fields above, where, 
instead of rocks, we climbed over endless suc¬ 
cessions of snow peaks and drifts, leaping 
across crevasses, deep gorges in the ice, down 
which we dropped pebbles to bear a faint sound 
unmeasured feet below—tbe sides of the eorges 
being of the lovely tints of icebergs. The laddie 
bounded over the snow scape like a chamois, 
never in the rear, and tireless with eager in¬ 
terest. At length we reached an ice pinnacle 
5<X) feet high, from which we could look over 
the great (Did of the glacier, and count with 
unaided vision, pouring down from the moun¬ 
tains rising high around on three sides, 15 
smaller glaciers into the Muir, any one of 
them 03 large as the Rhone Glacier, which so 
many people go to Switzerland to see! How 
comparatively few Americans indeed, realize 
that in their own land, and under their own 
flag, are the greatest marvels of Nature. We 
counted 15, as I have said, but there are pos¬ 
sibly as many more, for when a glacier is 
covered with detritus, as it often is, it is at a 
distance undistingnishable from the uncovered 
earth. We could readily discern the sweep 
and scoured-like track of the moraine over 
the vast expanse of ice that gradually con¬ 
tracted into a narrower, deeper compass to 
meet the sea. 
We began the difficult descent regretfully, 
wishing that we had the facilities at hand for 
days of camp and exploration. We scarcely 
felt a sensation of fatigue, so Sue was the air; 
and while we had bewailed the cloudiness of 
the morning, we now found consolation fn the 
thought that a hot sun would have dazzled 
and burned us to a great weariness. Not a 
drop of rain had fallen, aud we had encount¬ 
ered no slush (of which we had beeu fore¬ 
warned), that stout boots were uotsuffleieut 
protection against. My needless rubber over¬ 
shoes bad been cut into shreds. 
However unchanged iu appearance the 
glacier seems from year to year, it is quite 
evident that it has greatly receded. I think 
Vancouver, in his “Voyages.” mentions that 
he was unable to get into this bay, and he 
wrote in the last century. I have heard of a 
huried forest iu the vicinity of this glacier, 
but T quite forgot about it when we were 
there. The visit covered about six hours. 
The length of this glacier is not known, hut it 
is estimated at from 50 to GO miles, and it has 
its source iu the Fairweatber Mountains. 
Although there were no trees to speak of in 
the neighborhood of the glacier, there was 
some vegetation, and tbe Captain of the 
“Idaho” said that he was going to take us 
from glaciers to strawberries. At half past 
two o’clock, unexpectedly, but to the delfght 
of all, the sun came out, the clouds lifted aud 
reveated to us, as we went sailing down the 
bay, Mt. Fairweather and La Perouse_ 
mountains above mountains of suow white 
peaks, and the higher north we go the sharper 
grow the peaks and more serrated the moun¬ 
tain ridges. 
Indeed, it had teen a scarlet day among 
many red-lettered ones, and the sail down the 
bay, no longer cold, was full of pleasant inter¬ 
est, from the multitudinous forms of the small 
bergs upon which parties of gulls would alight 
for a ride. 
At five o’clock the “Idaho” dropped anchor 
in a sheltered, sunny bay, called Bartlett’s 
Cove, where after dinner the sailors rowed us 
ashore. It is a fishing station with a few log 
houses,Indians, poles on which fish were drying, 
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