To Arthur M. Compton, Portland, Oregon: “…Have just returned from a trip to the Arctic, went up to meet Peary, but he evidently hasn’t found the pole yet. Alice Nash… will tell you of some of our numerous ‘stunts’ when you see her…If only you and the girl had been with us on our northern trip!! It was great! Off the beaten path and just fine and dandy! Frank is off at a Masonic banquet and I am trying to rush things for the Str. tomorrow…I shall go out by the first boat and I hope to have our house in order by the time Frank gets to Portland…” Portland businessman Frank Swanton became US Postmaster at Nome, Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush, a thankless job that required handling the enormous crush of mail, sent to and from adventurous prospectors, which accumulated during the winter season when steamer transportation with the “outside world” became impossible. His wife, Ella Leotta, was a Portland socialite, popular as a professional “elocutionist” and “dramatic reader” who was credited, while visiting her husband, with doing “active humanitarian work” among Indians “within the Arctic circle”. She was apparently serious about searching in the Arctic for Robert Peary, then on his second quest to reach the North Pole, which, as Mrs. Swanton records, eluded him, though eight months later, he claimed to have achieved a “Farthest North” world record.