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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79395-0.txt b/79395-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30eae92 --- /dev/null +++ b/79395-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4650 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79395 *** + + + + + [Illustration: The Chilkoot Pass.] + + + + + IN THE KLONDYKE + + INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF + + A WINTER’S JOURNEY TO DAWSON + + BY + + FREDERICK PALMER + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + NEW YORK 1899 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS + + + TROW DIRECTORY + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY + NEW YORK + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE START FROM DYEA + + Choosing Comrades--Jack Beltz and his Dogs--Fritz Gamble--From + Sheep Camp to the Summit--Packing over the Chilkoot Pass--The + Halt at Lake Linderman--A Night in a Sleeping Bag--Coasting + down the Frozen Yukon--Half Way to Dawson _Page 1_ + + II. ON THE TRAIL + + Personalities--The Forebears of Jack and Fritz--Good Camp Manners--Dog + Individuality--Dude--The Team of Huskies--Wayfarers + at Five Fingers--Fort Selkirk and Pelly--The Thanksgiving + Turkey that Did Not Get to Dawson--A Diet of Flapjacks--Suburbs + of the Klondyke Capital--The Passing of the Trail _Page 36_ + + III. DAWSON + + Social Aspects of Dawson--Cornering the Tinned Food Market--Cheechawkos + and Old-Timers in the Early Days _Page 61_ + + IV. THE FIRST DISCOVERIES + + The Beginning of Mining in Alaska--Forty Mile Creek--Canadian + and American Deposits--The Largest Log-Cabin Town in the + World--Life of the First Adventurers--The Superfluity of + Six-Shooters--Leaving the Latch-Strings Out--The Way of the + Transgressors--Indian Charley and his Nugget _Page 66_ + + V. MINERS AND MINING + + Reaping the Gold Harvest--Thawing and Sluicing--Miners and their + Theories--The Dome--Expensive Timber--Empty Pockets but + Dollars in the Dumps--The First Millionnaires--Color in the Pan--Once + a Prospector Always a Prospector--Figuring Fortunes--Capitalists + in Demand--The Forty Happy Kings on Eldorado _Page 85_ + + VI. SOME KLONDYKE TYPES + + The Fool and his Lucky Friends--More Theorizers--Joe Staley and + Billy Deddering--French Gulch Bench--Good Fortune that + was Deserved--Neighbors and Twins--No Cure for the Gold + Fever _Page 111_ + + VII. GETTING ACQUAINTED + + Mr. and Mrs. “Meenach” and their Menage--The Juvenile Mining + Company, Limited--Voss--The Arch-Deacon--A Sour-Dough + Stiff--A Dalmatian and a Turk--Siawash George and his Steam-Engine--Miss + Mulrooney at The Forks--The Price of a “Square” + with Trimmings _Page 126_ + + VIII. ARCTIC TRAITS + + Daily Life in Dawson--Renting a Cabin--Circumventing the Huskies--Joey + Boureau and his Restaurant--The Faro Dealer’s Wife and + her Bakery--The Laundryman and his Claim--Jack Beltz’s + Schemes--A Pair of Dreamers _Page 153_ + + IX. PILGRIMS’ TRAILS AND TRIALS + + Itineraries--Alleged Unimportance of Experience--The Case of Father + Stanley--Press Agents and Primers of Wealth--The Secretary of + the Seattle Chamber of Commerce his own Convert--Pardners + and Promoters--Outfits--Home Comforts for an Arctic + Climate--Heterogeneous Boat Loads--The Nancy G--Tragedies of the + Passes _Page 163_ + + X. PROFITS AND LOSSES + + Newspapers as Profit-Winners--Hearing about Dewey--A Drop in + Eggs--Market Items--Lemons against Scurvy--The Mercury at + 110 Degrees--An Averted Moving Day--Industrious Scavengers--The + Klondyke Itself--Aspects of Summer--Bandanna Hats and + Pink Lemonade--A Restaurant Trust--The Grasshoppers and + the Ants--Disillusions _Page 181_ + + XI. GOVERNMENT + + The Canadian Policy in the Yukon Province--Taxes and Fees--The + Gold Commissioner’s Office--Conflicts between Territorial and + Dominion Governments--Timber Grants--The Value of the + Mounted Police--The Newly Rich at Dawson--The Order of + the Yukon Pioneers--Mrs. Constantine _Page 200_ + + XII. DOWN THE YUKON AND HOME + + Good-By to Dawson--The Extinction of the Unfit--Steamboating to + St. Michaels--Mosquitoes and Sandbars--Pilgrims by the All-Water + Route--Behring Sea--Civilization Once More _Page 212_ + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The Chilkoot Pass _Frontispiece_ + + FACING + PAGE + + “Packing” Timber 8 + + Pilgrims Resting on the Chilkoot 8 + + A Halt 14 + + Guiding the Team 18 + + Borrowing a Hint from Ice-Boats--Just Above White Horse Rapids 22 + + Over the Bench Ice of Thirty Mile River 26 + + Crossing a Brook 32 + + In Camp--The Dogs’ Porridge 40 + + The First Boats 54 + + A Typical Pilgrims’ Boat 66 + + Yukon Indians 78 + + On the Creeks 88 + + A Flume on Bonanza Creek 102 + + Cleaning Up 108 + + Shovelling a Clean-Up into a Gold Pan 108 + + The Discoverers of French Gulch Bench at Work 124 + + Pardners and Twins for Forty Years 124 + + Miss Mulrooney of The Forks 142 + + Jack Beltz 156 + + “The Huskies” 156 + + On the Pass 164 + + Caches of Pilgrims’ Outfits at the Summit 172 + + Bargaining for a Newly Arrived Boat-Load, Dawson 182 + + In the Camps of the Cheechawkos 188 + + A Yukon Steamer 198 + + The Main Street of Dawson 208 + + A Dawson Good-By 214 + + + + +IN THE KLONDYKE + +I + +THE START FROM DYEA + + CHOOSING COMRADES--JACK BELTZ AND HIS DOGS--FRITZ GAMBLE--FROM SHEEP + CAMP TO THE SUMMIT--PACKING OVER THE CHILKOOT PASS--THE HALT AT + LAKE LINDERMAN--A NIGHT IN A SLEEPING BAG--COASTING DOWN THE FROZEN + YUKON--HALF WAY TO DAWSON. + + +Originally, I had intended to accompany our Government expedition for +the relief of the miners of the Klondyke, which was in part mobilized +at Dyea when I arrived there late in February. As it never went any +farther, for the good reason that Dawson had been rescued from famine +by the migration of a portion of its population, I was left to my own +resources. Wholesome fatigue and clean camps on the snow were better +than the hospitality of a mushroom town built of rough boards and +tar-paper; a little adventure was better than watching for two months +the thousands of pilgrims of fortune in the desperate and monotonous +labor of putting their outfits over the passes; and I determined, +rather than to wait with them for the opening of navigation, to +undertake with dogs and sleds of my own the untried journey of six +hundred miles over the ice-fields of the Lewes lakes and the ice-packs +of the Yukon River which the Government expedition had contemplated. + +Whoever was to go with me must be companionable, industrious, and +loyal, lest in pitching a tent in a storm, when limbs ached from the +strain of the day’s tramp, an unruly temper might lead to the crisis of +blows or separation. In turn, I must work as hard as he; for we could +not afford to carry food for a stomach that nourished idle hands. + +Precisely the right kind of comrade, equipped with experience, I had +hoped would be forthcoming from among the men who had violated the +traditions of the early communities of gold-seekers in regard to winter +travel. Some members of this hardy little army were almost daily +arriving in Dyea. But their dogs were worn out, and they themselves +were inclined to laugh at my suggestion, more particularly at my money. +Having pointed out the greater difficulties of ingress than of egress, +they asked, with a touch of sarcasm, if I thought that they had made +the journey out from Dawson for the purpose of immediately retracing +their steps. + +Meanwhile, adventurous spirits but lately arrived from Seattle or San +Francisco came to offer their services with all the self-confidence +characteristic of a floating population. The references of some +were belied by their demeanor, and the demeanor of others by their +references. All were further belied by their dogs--Newfoundlands, +setters, and what not--which had received a few days’ training for +market purposes in Seattle. In consequence, I was almost despairing, +when I was accosted by a powerfully built, blond-haired, blue-eyed +fellow who impressed his personality upon me at once. + +“I hear you’re lookin’ for a dog-puncher,” he said, awkwardly. “My +name’s Jack Beltz. I’ve been a cowboy, and done a good many other +things in the West, and now I’m up against it with the crowd in Alaska. +I think I could do what you want”--and then with sudden fervor, “but +come around and look at the dogs! If the dogs are no good, you don’t +want me, that’s sure.” + +“Any further references?” + +“Well,” after a moment’s thought, “there’s Bangs, up at the Miner’s +Rest. He knowed me when I was on a ranch in Nebrasky. Dunno what he’ll +say. You can ask him, though. Anyhow, I’d be obliged if you’d see the +dogs ’fore you make a decision.” + +He waited outside the Miner’s Rest while I spoke with Bangs. + +“Jack Beltz!” exclaimed Bangs. “Well, Jack Beltz’s a fool when it comes +to hosses and dawgs. He thinks they can talk. But Jack Beltz’ll stick +to a thing that’s hard--he don’t like things that ain’t--till he comes +out of it or goes down with it, and all the mules in the army couldn’t +make him mad.” + +Then I followed Jack to a woodpile in the outskirts of the town, +where five fat and sleek huskies awoke at his approach, and at his +command lined up like so many soldiers, wagging their bushy tails over +their backs and watching his every movement with their sharp eyes. +From their mothers, who were native Indian dogs, they had inherited +their affection for man, however poor the specimen, and from their +fathers, who were full-blooded wolves of the forest, their strength and +endurance. + +In an hour after I had met him I had engaged Jack Beltz on the strength +of the fat on his dogs’ ribs, of his blue eyes, and of Bangs’s candid +recommendation. Placing my theoretical knowledge of the needs of an +arctic climate against his experience as a frontiersman, we quickly +made out a list of the supplies which were to be packed on our sleds, +minimizing everything in weight and bulk as far as we dared, but being +very careful to consider that while we might go hungry the dogs must +not. In all, we took eleven hundred pounds, four hundred of food and +bedding for ourselves and seven hundred of food for the dogs. + +Chance made the choice of a third member of the party, whose assistance +was necessary, as happy as the choice of its second. This big fellow, +over six feet in height, was Frederick Gamble, known to his friends as +Fritz, who had given up a career as an artist and had already spent one +unprofitable season with a pick and a pack in the Cassiar district. No +pilgrim accustomed to good living ever accepted a diet of bacon and +beans with better philosophy. + +It was already the 18th of March. If, as the old-timers said, the Yukon +became impassable by the 20th of April, we had little time to spare. +There was much in our surroundings on the day of our departure to lend +credence to their opinion. The sun, at midday, which turned the blue +of the little glaciers over our heads into a red, united with the wind +blowing from the ocean to thaw the snow on the mountain sides. In the +many places where the winter trail had been worn down to the sand of +the flats which the Dyea River overflows in the freshets of spring, +the pilgrims had to turn off to the still intact but spongy ice of the +winding little stream of the autumn and winter to find a better track +for their sleds. + +Canyon City, where the comparatively level stretch of eight miles of +the flats is at an end and the real ascent of eight miles to the summit +of the Pass begins, had grown into a little village with three saloons +since I had last visited it, only two weeks before. Here the river is a +thundering cataract in spring, dashing through a narrow gorge of rocks +which rise to a height of from twenty to a hundred feet. The sled road +of trodden snow with a basis of ice had become so mushy that the men +who panted forward, dragging their sleds and asking with their eyes, +if not with their tongues, for a hand to help them out of ruts, were +wondering whether they would not be forced to take to the summer trail +running over the wall of the canyon on the morrow. + +Beyond the canyon was a community of thousands of tents, Sheeps Camp, +a halfway station in the work of transportation from Dyea to the +Summit if not in the number of miles. It had doubled if not trebled in +population since I had last seen it, which meant that the bulk of the +pilgrims had their outfits this far on their journey. I slept here, the +guest of some friends who had an excellent bed of fir boughs. Before I +was up I knew that the day on the Summit was fair by the tramping of +the packers and the howls of the dogs in the main path, or street, of +the “town.” At this time, most of the days on the Summit were fair, +and it behooved the pilgrims to make the most of them. In midwinter +it often happened that intense cold and a fierce storm of fine snow, +resembling a blizzard in the Dakotas, made the Summit impassable. + +The series of steep ascents leading from Sheep Camp to the base of the +final, long, and much steeper ascent, called as a whole by the pilgrims +the Summit, was a struggling line of men and dogs, drawing sleds, and +of horses with packs. Oaths and howls were so numerous that no one oath +or howl came to the ear distinctly. You heard only noise, as you hear +an uproar of individual shouts at a national convention. In the early +days the pioneers had given to the little plateau at the base of the +final ascent the name of the Scales, because at this point they were +wont to balance their packs and readjust them for the last grim effort. +Beyond this neither horse nor mule could carry nor dog could draw a +load. The more supple animal man took his place. + +If you would see the Pass, of which so much was written when so little +was known of the Klondyke itself, you have only to imagine a broad +incline at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, seven hundred feet +in height, running between two snowy peaks at its summit, with men in +the foreground bending under the weight of heavy packs, and gradually +growing smaller as they ascend, until, finally, they seem like ants +dangerously near toppling over with their loads, though, to your relief +and amazement, crawling off the white blanket into the sky. + +[Illustration: Pilgrims Resting on the Chilkoot.] + +[Illustration: “Packing” Timber.] + +In the hard, well-packed snow, steps had been cut, making it a case of +walking up-stairs rather than of climbing. At intervals, more welcome +than the chairs on the landings of an apartment house which has no +elevator, seats had been cut. Men stepping out of the slow-moving line +found rest in these. It was not “game” to groan, but purple faces and +lungs gasping for more power for bodies quivering with excess of strain +told of misery that was felt if not expressed. When a man did break +down he collapsed utterly, and sometimes he wept. + +Fifty pounds was the usual weight of a pack for all who did not take +pride in exhibiting their brute strength. These, and the professional +packers who bore the outfits of pilgrims who could afford this luxury, +often labored under a hundred pounds or more. The hero of the day was +an Indian. He took up a barrel weighing three hundred and fifty pounds. +A Swede who crawled up on his hands and knees with three six-by-four +timbers strapped on his back shared honors with him, however. The +descent to the Scales was delightfully simple. You sat down and +tobogganed, using your heels as a brake, without any unpleasant +results if you had well-riveted overalls. + +On the crest were piled hundreds of pilgrims’ outfits, separated one +from another by narrow paths, making the whole seem like a city in +miniature. Buried under the seventy feet of snow which had fallen +during the winter were two other such cities, which their owners hoped +to recover in the summer. Beyond floated a large British flag over +the little block-house where the British Northwest Mounted Police had +established themselves to collect customs and to see that no one not +having a special permit entered Canadian territory with less than a +year’s supply of food. + +Jack labored for two hours in bringing up the dogs with the empty +sleds, while our goods came on the backs of the ants, who charged three +cents a pound for the service. Aside from the five huskies hitched to +a large basket-sled, we had two St. Bernards, “Patsy” and “Tim,” who +were born in the country, and duly christened and acclimatized there. +With “Patsy” and “Tim,” and my hand on the “gee-pole” by which the sled +was guided, I went under fire for the first time in descending the +inland side of the pass. Man and sled were put _hors de combat_ again +and again, while the dogs, who managed to keep erect, looked back on +me with professional disgust. I wanted to blame my misfortunes to my +moccasins, but Jack wore moccasins as well and maintained his footing +easily. Fortunately for the novice there are three small lakes--at the +time they were three fields of snow--in the nine miles from the Summit +to Linderman, and he could take advantage of the respite when he was +trotting across these to think out, in the hard-and-fast civilized +manner, how to avoid his frequent loss of equilibrium. + +We spent the night “at home” with Jack in his own camp on the shore +of Lake Linderman. Jack and his “pardner” Cliff had been among the +pilgrims who had attempted to reach Dawson in the same summer that the +news of the great “strike” was received by the outside world. The ice +formed in the lakes and rivers before they could build their boats, +and there had been nothing to do but to wait eight months until the +ice was gone. Once he had bought a team of dogs, however, Jack became +enamoured of making the journey now at last before him. On the other +hand nothing apparently had disturbed the patience of Cliff, who was a +broad-shouldered giant, over six feet in height. The pair had first met +in Seattle, formed an alliance “for dust or bust,” as Cliff said, and +had thought more of each other “every minute ever since.” Cliff was to +stay at Linderman now, but their alliance was resumed later in Dawson, +when Jack, Fritz, and I dissolved partnership. + +While we were putting our outfits straight and Jack was writing a +letter--from his sighs I concluded that it was to his best girl--Cliff +cooked flapjacks and fried bacon, sang snatches of what had been the +latest popular songs when he left Colorado, and talked to his favorite +dog, a Great Dane, who was as scarred as a veteran. + +“Think you’re going to be slighted, don’t you, Maje?” he rambled +on. “Froze off your ears already, ain’t you? ’Tain’t no country for +short-haired dogs, is it? Don’t want to lose your tail, too. No, sir. +You’re going to sleep in the tent same’s ever, and if they don’t like +it I’ll tell you ‘sickum,’ and they won’t be with us long.” + +Major curled up at Cliff’s feet as usual that night. Inasmuch as he had +a snow-bath whenever he was caught in a storm, he was more agreeable +than many human beings whose bodies had not touched water for months. + +In a day we had passed over the only portion of our journey on land, +and we were henceforth, as Jack put it gayly, to proceed downhill with +the current of the river at the rate of eight inches to the mile, +which is fast enough as currents go, but rather poor coasting. The +course of the Yukon through the heart of Alaska is in a semicircle, +with one end at the coast and the other end as near to the coast as +the head-waters of a stream can be, unless it flows on the level. Once +he has reached the lakes, the prospector may float for 2,600 miles to +Bering Sea, and but for this one of the two friendly deeds of nature in +Alaska--the other is abundant firewood--it is questionable if the gold +in the Klondyke would have been discovered in our generation. De Soto’s +exploring party would have had a similar advantage if the Mississippi +had risen within thirty-two miles of Cape Hatteras, and they would have +needed it if the valley of the Mississippi had been like the valley of +the Yukon. + +In harnessing our dogs at dawn, as we looked out across Lake Linderman +from Jack’s camp, the only color in sight in the vast expanse of +white was the needle-like fir-trees, cropping through the snow on the +mountain-sides, and the outlines of a few pilgrims in advance of the +main body, already astir, dragging their sleds on to Lake Bennett, +where, with whipsaws, hammers, nails, oakum, and pitch, was to be built +out of the forests the unique and variegated flotilla which was to +line the river-banks in front of Dawson in May and June. Jack snapped +the long lash of his whip, shook the “gee-pole” to free the runners, +cried “Mush!”--a Saxon contraction of the “_Marchons!_” brought into +the country along with many other words by the French Canadians--and +seven gallant four-footed comrades and three figures in parkees looking +like hooded night-shirts began in earnest their journey over the trail +hardened by the pilgrims’ footsteps. By the wayside we passed caches +of waterproof bags, one of them at either end of a pilgrim’s route of +daily toil in moving his outfit forward by relays, his own ambition +making him undergo longer hours and greater strain than he, a free +citizen (U. S. A.), would have endured for any other master. + +[Illustration: A Halt.] + +Linderman is only four miles long, and we were soon on Bennett, +where the afternoon brought, in sharp contrast to the keen atmosphere +of the morning, a blowing storm of moist snow which wet us to the skin. +When Jack halted the dogs for our first and our worst camp, whose only +consolation was a water-hole that had been made by some pilgrim, they +set up a howl of knowing delight. + +With the snow up to my waist I cut firewood out of the abundance +of dead timber, and then cut green spruce-boughs, which, when laid +tufts upward on the snow that was packed down as a floor for our +seven-by-seven tent, made a soft bed. Then I went for a pail of water +and brought in my sleeping-bag, and my work was done. The air had +cleared suddenly, and the weather had turned so cold that my parkee +had frozen as stiff as a board. I pulled it off, substituted dry +moccasins and socks for my wet ones, left the rest of my clothes to be +dried by the warmth of my body, and then, huddling myself up with my +sleeping-bag as a seat, I watched my comrades finishing their allotted +tasks. + +Fritz, who had been chosen cook, was sitting with one leg on either +side of the little sheet-iron stove, smoking a cigarette and making +flapjacks. Outside, by the light of the crackling blaze, I could see +Jack stirring something in a pan over a roaring fire with a big ladle +that he had whittled out of a sapling. Weirdly presiding over this +operation, their bodies in shadow and their wolf-noses thrust forward +with epicurean relish, were the huskies. Jack fed them only once a day, +but then all that they could eat of tallow, bacon, cornmeal, and rice, +thoroughly boiled in the form of a porridge. When he took the pan off +the fire he put it, safely covered, in the snow to cool, while the dogs +mounted guard over it, glaring at one another; and then he came to sit +on his own bed, and together we ate by the light of a candle hanging +by a piece of wire from the top of the tent. As I had my granite-ware +plate filled with beans the second time and took my fourth flapjack--a +flapjack an inch thick and seven inches in diameter--a twinkle came +into Jack’s eyes. + +“I like to see a man in earnest,” he said. + +Then he relighted his pipe and went back to his dogs. Having filled a +two-quart tin pan for each of them, with the ardor of a child he heaped +more timber on the dying fire, and, turning his back to the cheerful +glow, began a technical conversation on the state of the trail with +sleek old Dude, the leader of the team. + +Later, when he returned to the tent, the dogs were so many balls of +fur, their noses snuggled under their bushy tails. If two feet of snow +had fallen during the night it would not have disturbed the serenity of +their slumbers, and in the morning at the call to harness they would +have dug their way out and shaken themselves ready for duty. Jack +explained, as he pulled off his moccasins, that they had eaten only +half their usual rations. Having been treated to beefsteak in Dyea by +their generous owner, they rather resented marching fare; but they +would come down to it as soon as they felt the pangs of hunger, he +added. + +“Are you tired?” I asked him. + +“Me? No,” he drawled. + +He filled up the stove--he must always have a fire of some kind +going--and, leaning back on his robe, his hands behind his head, +he looked up at the top of the tent dreamily. He was still in this +attitude when I crawled into my sleeping-bag and quickly fell asleep. +The sleeping-bag did well enough for that night, but I soon repented +of it. With no opportunity for airing it properly, it soon collected +moisture and became as uncomfortable as a coating of ice. After I had +been kept awake for a night by the colder weather that followed the +storm, I ripped it open and used the furs as a robe, which, with the +assistance of a heavy blanket, kept me as warm as toast, though, when I +awoke, there was a glacial path through the space I had left open for +breathing. The wonder to me was that Jack did not freeze his nose--it +was a large nose--for he always slept with his head completely outside +of his coverings, his beard becoming as white with ice as that of +Father Christmas. + +“Blister me if I want to smother!” was his explanation. + +The first one to awake in the morning crawled half-way out of his +robe, and, dexterously leaning over, put the coffee-pot on the stove +and made the fire out of the kindlings which were always ready. To +dress was to put on your footwear, which had been drying--if it had +not been burning--before the stove. Then the robes and blankets were +rolled up and strapped to serve as seats for breakfast, and you stepped +outside into the invigorating air and did what you might in the way of +cleanliness. For my part, I washed my hands in the snow, using soap +liberally, with astonishingly efficacious results. After breakfast we +had to pack all the things that we had unpacked the night before back +on the sleds and lash them. + +[Illustration: Guiding the Team.] + +On the Lewes lakes, and the streams which join them in a chain, one +day was quite like another, with the exception of a single event of +importance to ourselves. At daybreak we were on the level trail, now +trotting and then walking, until our stomachs cried a halt. On three +occasions we had luncheon in the tents of pilgrims who, not having been +able to bring their supplies over the pass in the rush of the previous +autumn before winter was at hand, were making for the foot of Lake Le +Barge to take advantage of the three weeks by which the clearing of +the ice in the river precedes the clearing of the ice in the lakes. +While his partner was dragging his sled, one of our hosts was suffering +in his tent the torture of snow-blindness as the penalty of having +gone for a day without glasses. Another host, an old Dane from San +Francisco, had no companion, not even a dog. + +“Sometime I do get mad,” he said, “when the sled pull so hard, and I +say, ‘Yohn, you are a big fool to start for Klondyke when you are +sixty-nine.’ But we do not like to gif up. Nefer do we get so old we +tank it too late to make a fortune. If a man know as he would drop dead +on top of the Pass, I tank a man go on to see the t’ing out. I make a +fortune t’ree time, and efery time I haf many pad lucks--yes, very many +pad lucks. Sometime I get lonely, and then I say, ‘Yohn, there is your +wife, there is your shildren; it is Sunday dinner, and you are home +with a pile of gold.’” + +How we relished the one rapidly diminishing ham that we had brought +with us for our first luncheons, followed by the perfect relaxation +which comes with good digestion and physical fatigue, glorified by +a pipe, before we arose and turned our steps toward the brown line +of sled-track which stretched out over the expanse of white until +growing darkness made it dim, and Jack began to look out for the first +favorable place for a camp! + +At this time it was reported that a great “strike” of $2.50 to the +pan had been made on Walsh Creek, a tributary of the Yukon near Big +Salmon. The rumor afterwards turned out to be an exaggeration--only +thirty cents a pan being the amount actually found, which had grown as +it travelled up the lakes. Many of the pilgrims, among them ourselves, +who already had their year’s supply of food over the Pass, and some +who had not but were able to elude the police, leaving their caches in +charge of friends, put a tent, half a side of bacon, a few quarts of +flour, and a few quarts of beans on a sled behind a lean house-dog, and +hastened toward Walsh Creek without regard to fatigue or exposure. A +sallow and swarthy Quixote who had not made even this provision for his +stomach and none for his back except a small blanket, called upon us +one morning when we were at breakfast. Before he asked for something to +eat he introduced himself as a Cuban who had been a cook in New York, +but had concluded to be a cook no more now that fortunes were to be had +for a little hard travelling. + +“You see, gents,” he further explained, assuming a serene air of +fellowship, “I’ve been walking at night so’s to get past the police +stations. They won’t let a feller by when he ain’t got any grub. If I +carried grub I’d be too late for the strike, mebbe.” + +“But you’ll observe, I’m thinkin’,” Jack suggested, “that hotels are +few and far between in this region.” + +“Oh, I’ll manage to get on somehow. There’s a lot of luck in this world +if you dodge about so it’ll hit you. I didn’t know where I’d get my +breakfast, but I’ve got it, that’s sure.” + +He wished us much happiness, put his blanket on his back, and walked +on as unconcernedly as if he had a whole baggage train at his heels. +But this was not until he had suggested with the aplomb of the Bowery +that we would do well to take him on as a “pardner.” What became of +him I do not know. Possibly his body lies among a pile of driftwood on +some sandbar in the river. On the other hand, I should not be surprised +to see him one day on Broadway, a huge diamond in his shirt bosom and +a blond lady on his arm, or to read an account of him in a newspaper +under the head of “From Cook to Millionaire.” + +[Illustration: Borrowing a Hint from Ice-Boats--Just Above White Horse +Rapids.] + +The Walsh Creek digression caused two weeks’ delay at a time when +we felt the need of every day to complete our journey, and I accept +the awkward responsibility for it. At White Horse Canyon we were +offered the hospitality of a large cabin with a kitchen in one end and +bunk-room in the other, occupied by some workmen engaged in building +a tramway around the rapids. Jack suggested that we stop here for a +day because the dogs needed rest, he said, but really on my account, I +think. I had contracted a bad cough, and my legs ached like two great +teeth. In the afternoon I lay down on the cook’s bunk, and toward +evening Fritz started down the trail to a distant camp to find a doctor +who had turned pilgrim of fortune. Meanwhile Jake, the cook, dosed me +with tea made of sage that he had gathered on the mountain-side. + +“Your pulse is up to a hundred and ten,” the doctor said; “but all that +you’ve got is a plain, old-fashioned case of measles. You must have +caught them in Dyea, and you’ve greatly exaggerated them by physical +strain.” + +My comrades put up a tent in another cabin which still wanted doors +and windows, thus ensuring a soft light for the protection of my eyes, +which the doctor feared might be affected. They nailed some saplings +together for a bedstead, and were so ingenious in many ways, so kind in +keeping the temperature the same night and day, and in attending to my +wants generally, that I felt like a king in his private hospital. Jake +came in every day to make sure that I was taking the doses of sage-tea +that he sent in morning, noon, and night; while the big workmen came +in to hint that I must not let Jake have his own way too much. And I +lay on my back and thought of two things--strawberries and pineapples. +I would have given all my wealth for either--but not a five-cent piece +for a pear. + +My convalescence was not so dull as I sat on a bench in the kitchen, +learning, under Jake’s tutelage, how to cook oatmeal properly, how to +bake bread and to make good pies out of dried apples, and listening +to him expound his ideas of the world. He was a great cynic. If you +believed in one thing, he was sure to believe in another. One of his +favorite remarks with which he baited me was that “everybody is out +for the stuff; there ain’t no honor nowadays; and you don’t catch me +missin’ no dollars.” His boarders excused him by saying, “Any cook +that’s been in a minin’-camp or a lumber-camp is always a blisterin’ +crank.” On the morning of my departure I held out a bill to Jake in +partial remuneration for what he had done for me. He stirred the +contents of his pot this way and that, viciously, without replying. I +protested, and then he growled: + +“Gwan! What d’ye take me for?” + +As I waved him a good-by he called out: + +“Young feller, you’re all right, but you won’t argue.” + +In two days we were at the foot of Lake Le Barge, and on the second +of these we had travelled thirty-five miles, which made the dogs very +unfit for service on the day following. + +So all of another two days’ hard work was required to go from the +foot of Le Barge to the junction of the Hootalinqua over a portion of +the Yukon known from its length as Thirty Mile River, and certainly +worthy of some distinction on account of other characteristics. Many +more boats of the pilgrims’ flotilla were wrecked in the spring on its +hidden rocks than in the White Horse Rapids, which, I may add, have +received undue celebrity. If an average temperature of thirty degrees +below zero continues for several weeks, the current may freeze over, +but rarely is there more than bench ice along the shores; and this, +owing to the increasingly moderate weather and the falling water, was +fast breaking away in huge cakes, which fell into the stream with a +splash. Over that which remained, slippery, sometimes sloping toward +the river at a considerable angle, and often only a foot or two in +breadth, we must make our way. When there was no footing below the +sled, we attached one end of a rope to it, wrapped the other end around +our waists, and if one of us slipped and fell in the soft snow of the +steep hill-side above, luckily the others maintained their hold and +were able to prevent both sleds and dogs from going into the river and +putting an end to our little expedition there and then. + +There was only one accident, and that not alarming. Fritz thought that +he did not need our help to bring the St. Bernards over a place that +the big sled had safely crossed with Jack’s back and mine against it +and with the heavy steel prongs strapped to the heels of our boots +dug into the ice. We heard a cry of “Hurry up! This is cold!” and +looked around to see Fritz standing in a shallow eddy up to his waist, +his parkee blown up about his head like a veritable balloon, while +he braced himself against the sled. “I had to jump in to save our +bedding,” he said. We hurried on the faster so that he might keep his +blood in circulation, and he merely took the trouble to change his +socks when we made a camp on a fairly comfortable ice-cake, after +having assured ourselves that it would not float away with us during +the night. + +[Illustration: Over the Bench Ice of Thirty-Mile River.] + +Near the Hootalinqua the current slackens, and we crossed where the +stream was completely frozen over. Above us was a great jam of cakes +that had floated down, some of which rumbled under our feet, came out +in an open place below, and then went on to form another jam. A few +minutes later there was a boom and our bridge moved downstream with +the noise of a medley of bass drums. At noon on this day the sun had +made the trail so soft that we sank into it up to our knees. We halted +a little later, determined to start at one o’clock in the morning and +take advantage of the crust frozen during the night; and we had what +seemed at the time the good fortune to put up in a cabin which had +been abandoned by the mounted police. Having had an early dinner, we +were thinking of bed at six o’clock when two ragged men, their faces +blackened by cooking over camp-fires, came in. They sat down, and when +they had eaten with the heartiness of famished beings some things that +we had left on the table, one of them, whom his companion called “the +Doctor,” became explanatory: + +“You mustn’t mind our appetites,” he said. “We’ve just come from +Dawson. My pardner there, Yukon Bill, hain’t been out of the country +for eight years. Go easy there, Bill! Your manners are bad.” + +“Shut up!” roared Bill, looking as wild as a hungry lynx. + +“Oh, he ain’t as crazy as Jim,” continued the Doctor. “Jim was a sight +uglier ’n Bill, an’ you can see what Bill is. He took his share of the +bacon on his back an’ started out for himself this mornin’.” + +“No packin’ fer me! We kept the dogs, you bet, by----,” put in Bill +through a mouthful. + +Jim arrived three hours later. Without paying any attention to the +presence of other persons, he dropped his pack as if it were of lead, +fell down on the bench, pushed back his unkempt hair, and looked +vacantly at the stove. + +“Hello, Jim, you loon!” the Doctor called out. “As long’s we’ve said +quits, I ain’t goin’ to be mean. Have one of our flapjacks!” + +“Eat yer own dirt,” replied Jim. “I kin cook, an’ I’ve got just as much +right in this cabin as you have.” And Jim put a skillet with a piece +of dirty bacon in it on the stove. + +“Don’t push my pan off there, you eight-footed elephant!” cried the +Doctor. + +Jim lifted his skillet and turned on the Doctor. Then he set the +skillet down again with the action of one who is too tired for further +effort, and fell back onto his seat. + +“You Siawash sons of the devil,” he said between his teeth, “if I ever +git my strength on the outside I’ll lick both on ye till ye bawl like +a calf.” And brushing back his hair again he added, in a protesting +voice, after a moment’s pause: “I kin do it, too!” + +“Bully old Jim!” observed the Doctor. + +It was plain enough that the minds of all three of our visitors, +especially Jim, had been affected by the hardships that they had +endured on their long tramp, with only snow, trees, dogs, and their own +quarrels for companionship. Most of these grim travellers whom we met +coming out from Dawson--now and then one was limping from scurvy--had +neither tent nor stove, quite inadequate robes, no dishes except +skillets and cups, and no food except bacon, flour, and beans, and not +always beans. Earlier in the winter they put up a barrier of boughs +against the wind, and slept between two great fires, kept up by the +member of the party whose night it was to watch. + +At eleven o’clock the Doctor stopped talking, and we slept for half an +hour, only to be awakened by the arrival of another equally worn-out +party, and almost the last one from Dawson that we met. By the time we +were fairly asleep again these tired beings set the cabin on fire, and +Jack, in his good-natured way, put the flames out for them. + +At daylight I was awakened by Fritz, who was grumbling to himself about +the audacity and the stomachs that some people must have. I arose +to see him looking into two empty pails which he had left full of +apple-sauce and beans. + +“I was hungry as a dog in the night,” the Doctor explained, a little +later, “and I couldn’t help it.” + +Fritz replied by looking daggers at him. Then the Doctor offered a pair +of snow-shoes to Fritz as an olive branch. + +“If I thought that what you’ve eaten would make you downright sick, I’d +take ’em,” said Fritz. + +“’Twon’t,” replied the Doctor, in all honesty. “Nothin’ makes me sick.” +And he gave the snow-shoes to Jack, whose eyes were twinkling in +appreciation of the conversation. + +As we started out, five or six hours later than we had planned, we +resolved to eschew cabins hereafter. We had not done a half-day’s work +when a heavy wet snow set in, and the condition of the dogs compelled +us to rest. + +“Wear ’em out,” said Jack, “and it’s all up, anyway. We’ll boil some +beans and lay up some sleep ahead against a freeze.” + +Accordingly, dogs and men slept for thirteen hours. + +So slight was the freeze at night that the sun, now rising at four +o’clock, soon thawed the crust. The Big Salmon was already open, its +current destroying the trail and leaving a field of slush with many +places too deep for passage for a distance of five or six miles, which +was as wearing on the dogs as a full day’s journey under ordinary +circumstances. We only hoped that the Big Salmon was alone in its +enmity to our plans, for once the ice is out of the tributaries, the +ice in the Yukon cannot last long. It seemed to be imperative that, +in order to take full advantage of the slight crust which formed, we +should travel nights. We made this experiment once, starting out at 10 +P.M., and once was quite enough. + +The thawing snow had fallen away from the path, which was hardened by +travel from Dawson and therefore the better resisted the sun’s rays; +but when frozen it was as slippery as ice. In so far as you were able +to keep the sled from slewing on this razor’s back, that much you aided +the dogs. At intervals you walked outside the trail, plunging with +every step through the crust down to the slush underneath, while, with +body bent and arm extended with all the rigidity at your command, you +endeavored to hold the lurching “gee-pole” steady. Early in the evening +the great darkness seemed the more dense to visions strained by the +sun beating on the expanse of snow by day. With their eyes bloodshot +and almost closed with snow-blindness, the St. Bernards continually +stumbled and fell as they leaped from one side of the trail to the +other, blindly and vainly seeking a better footing. When we rested we +dug holes in the crust, and throwing ourselves prostrate, drank our +fill. At first, I tried to use a telescope drinking-cup, but soon I +regarded it as tawdry, inefficient, and unworthy of the occasion, and +followed the more robust custom of Jack, who enjoyed to the full the +pleasure of having made a convert. For one who had left White Horse +with a bad cough on the heels of the measles, such indulgence would +seem to be the height of indiscretion. But the cough was completely +gone, no room having been left for it in the development of every +muscle of my body by the handling of the “gee-pole.” + +[Illustration: Crossing a Brook.] + +At these times we would pay our respects with some bitterness to +the man who had made this strange and lonely trail, though in +better moments we were willing to admit that he was a pioneer and +a pathfinder. As soon as the ice would bear him, when the wind had +drifted the snow here and there and lifted the slush ice up to be +frozen into rifts, with his dogs and sleds he set his face toward +the coast, winding in and out between these rifts, back and forth +across the stream and along its banks, wherever he could find the best +footing; and all who came afterward followed in his footsteps. He was +making a path for himself and not for us, and it was to his interest, +if not to ours, to have it as crooked as the track of a snake, and on +the most crooked of rivers at that. + +With the falling of the water as the winter advanced, the ice was +rent with cracks. It fell away from the shores, leaving cakes on end +and fissures. You must toil up one side of a pyramid to slide down +the other; you held your sled up literally at an angle of forty-five +degrees, and sometimes you dropped up to your hips into the fissures, +for the thin covering of snow often made them invisible even in the +daytime. Yet to step away from the trail was like stepping off a bad +corduroy road into a swamp. + +In the darkness the trained eye of the master had to trust to the +halt and whine of the brave little Dude when we came to a place where +the surface water was deep or the ice had given away entirely. While +the master went ahead with a pole to make soundings, Fritz seized the +opportunity to roll a cigarette and to say in a drawl, as he sat on his +sled, resting: + +“If I were in town I would call a cab.” + +Jack had discarded his boots with sharp pegs--the three of us had worn +boots since it became warmer--to put on moccasins. These were soon +wet and quickly froze, giving him a sole of ice with which to walk on +ice. In utter exhaustion, once the big fellow threw himself upon his +“gee-pole” and gasped out something about not caring whether he went +any farther or not. Then he added: + +“Well, we’ll outlast this trail, anyway. I guess I’ll light my pipe.” + +Confessedly, I was rather glad of the incident. It is good to see +giants nod when you have nodded yourself. Only on the previous day, +over a mile of sidling trail, leaning on my sled to keep it from +upsetting, and righting it when it did upset, I had momentarily, I am +ashamed to say, turned cynic and protester. + +An hour before dawn a scimeter of light shot across the heavens, +followed by broadswords, fans, daggers, waves, and streaks of light, +dancing sometimes in playful panic and again moving in a sweep of +dignity. With the aurora borealis as our candle, we passed around +Freeman’s Point, built a fire for luncheon in a cove, and enjoyed +keenly the fact that we were half way to Dawson. + + + + +II + +ON THE TRAIL + + PERSONALITIES--THE FORBEARS OF JACK AND FRITZ--GOOD CAMP MANNERS--DOG + INDIVIDUALITY--DUDE--THE TEAM OF HUSKIES--WAYFARERS AT FIVE + FINGERS--FORT SELKIRK AND PELLY--THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY THAT DID + NOT GET TO DAWSON--A DIET OF FLAPJACKS--SUBURBS OF THE KLONDYKE + CAPITAL--THE PASSING OF THE TRAIL. + + +As we moved on slowly at dawn to make a few more miles before camping, +we saw the penalty of this savage run, which human stubbornness had +insisted upon making, in the blood left on the trail by the wounded +feet of our dogs. Jack at once covered them with the moccasins which he +had brought for the purpose. It was plain enough that the continuance +of night marches was unfeasible if we desired our brave steeds to +hold out as far as Dawson. While the sled slid easier at night, the +excrescences of ice were as sharp as lances, and though the mushy +trail of mid-day made the sled harder to pull, it was like a cushion +for a wounded foot. We compromised upon a portion of both evils by +determining to start at dawn and travel as fast and as long as we +could, practically. This gave only seven or eight hours on the road as +against the twelve or more that we had originally planned, and in order +to make the most of them we made the sacrifice for the dogs’ sake of +drinking ice-water for our luncheon instead of taking the time to boil +chocolate. Fritz preferring to handle the “gee-pole,” and I preferring +to assist in keeping the equilibrium of the big sled by holding the +handles at the rear, each settled down to this as his definite labor. + +We now had more time for our camps; more time for our pipes of +relaxation as we sat on our beds around Jack’s bonfires after the dogs +were fed and dinner was eaten. On one of these nights we were talking +of ambitions. + +“As a boy, I wanted to drive a street-car,” said Fritz. “When I grew +older they still called me Freddy, and I made pictures for a living. +That is enough to ruin any man; and, foreseeing this, I concluded that +I’d live on flapjacks and go unwashed, and be called ‘pardner,’ or +Pete, or Bill, or make baking-powder dough, or anything, till I found +a good placer mine. Then I’m going around the world, smoking the best +brand of Turkish cigarettes, and looking at other people’s pictures.” + +Jack had run away from home at the age of thirteen to the land of the +Indians that had been revealed to him in a dime novel secreted in a +haymow, and had earned his own living ever since. Meagre as was his +early education, he had picked up a surprising amount of information +from reading and from association. His eye was that of a scout; his +knowledge of birds and animals that of a naturalist; his love of +flowers that of a sentimentalist. He had varied his life as a cowboy by +many other occupations. At one time he had been a private coachman in +Omaha, just to see how it would seem. + +“I was gettin’ pretty sick of the job,” he explained, “when the old +lady I drove about leaned over to me one day, confidentially. ‘I’m +goin’ to get you a fine livery to wear,’ she said. Then I realized how +low I had fallen, and that evening I was a free man again.” + +He was longer on the Government survey than in any other employment, +rising until he filled a position of considerable responsibility. +Possibly it was then that he learned the ethics of camp-life; more +likely they were innate. He adhered to his own soap, his own towel, and +his own bedding, and was more observant of the small niceties of life +than are most of the men who wear the high collars that he despised. In +all of his seventeen years of wandering his greatest source of sorrow +was that he had never made enough money, according to his ideas, to +return home, though his pay had been as high as a hundred and fifty +dollars a month. He must have a few thousands, and treat the little +Pennsylvania village that was his birthplace to such extravagance as +it had never seen before. If he made a “stake” in the Klondyke, he +had planned to drive right up to the old folks’ door with his team of +huskies and a little red cart, distributing candy to the children as +the procession moved forward. + +The dogs, which at first seemed to me to be only so many domesticated +wolves of like dispositions, had now assumed strong individualities. +Dude, the leader, was worthy of the name given to him, on account of +his sleek coat of thick gray fur, by the frontiersman who had instilled +into him the wisdom of the trail and soldierly spirit and obedience. +He was the sergeant-major among Yukon dogs, far from being a pup in +years and far from having lost his vigor. When called to harness in the +morning he would stretch his body, arch his neck, throw his handsome +tail over his back, deliver himself of a peculiar little wolfish whine, +and trot straight to his place. Though your old sergeant-major may feel +a little stiff when he gets out of bed, he isn’t stiff when he has his +tunic on, especially if there are any recruits about. From the moment +that Jack called “Mush!” until he called “Halt!” Dude pulled steadily. +All the others shirked at times and needed the crack of the whip to +remind them of their duty, but the traces between Dude and the dog +behind him were always taut. He had the natural dignity requisite to +his position. The other dogs attempted no familiarities with him, such +as eating out of his dish or trying to bowl him over in sport. After an +unusually hard day’s work, before lying down to rest, he would gambol a +little with them as a relaxation from the steady strain in harness, but +not in a manner of equality. + +[Illustration: In Camp--The Dogs’ Porridge.] + +During their conversations while the master was stirring the porridge +he asked the sergeant-major what he thought of the prospects of +reaching Dawson before the ice went out of the river, Dude replied, +on the authority of Jack’s translation: + +“Don’t ask me! I can make it all right. But we ain’t certain of +anything as long as we have those house-dogs on the hind sled.” + +Next to Dude was Fox, a nondescript, who remained in good flesh up to +the last. He waddled and puffed in trying to keep up when Dude trotted. +Fritz said that Fox reminded him of a fat school-girl, her cheeks +daubed with molasses candy, and two braids down her back. + +Behind Fox was Jack, a pup, a mischief-maker, a rascal, and an actor. +All husky dogs are thieves. Some will take a pot off a stove by its +handle and hide it safely out of sight in the snow while they wait for +its contents to cool to their taste. Jack promised to become the most +accomplished of the clan. His wolf’s nose always told him where our +bacon was stored and his wolf’s eyes told him when his opportunity had +arrived. Once he had the meat out of his own basin of porridge eaten, +he looked up to see which dog had any left and got it before the other +dog realized what was up. He would scent an Indian camp even before +Dude, sometimes at a distance of two miles. In the traces he forgot to +pull while he looked at the ravens flying overhead or listened for +noises in the forest. Then the whip descended upon him and he would +seem very crestfallen for a moment, only to be at his old tricks and +to have his tail in the air in the next. The more he was punished for +dereliction during the day, the greater was his affection for his +master in camp. On the warmer nights when Jack slept outside of the hut +for the sake of elbow room, he would put himself on guard at the head +of the master’s bed of boughs and allow no other dog except Dude to +come near. + +Dude was partial to him. He regarded Jack as a wayward but clever pup +who was sowing his wild oats, and he knew, as an old sergeant-major, +that this would make the best kind of a dog in the end. Often the +master took hold of the ne’er-do-well’s ears and shook him, saying: + +“I guess I like you best, after all, Jack. That’s the way of the world. +You’re a rascal, but you’re clever.” + +Next in line was Tommy, Jack’s brother. Jack enjoyed getting Tommy into +scrapes and then leaving him to get out of them the best he could. +Tommy was forever sneaking about the tent, and he was so impolitic +in his choice of his moment of action that he was usually caught +red-handed and cuffed. Though he never succeeded in stealing half as +much as Jack, he came in for a great deal more enmity from Fritz than +all the rest of the team. Jack used to approach Fritz gayly as Fritz +sat with a leg on either side of our little stove, turn his coyote’s +head to one side, cock up his ears, and assure Fritz of his friendship +for a good cook and his contempt for all such curs as Tommy. He might +go and come many times in this way before Fritz’s back was turned. +When it was, however, he seized his spoil and trotted away in the +businesslike manner of a dog who is doing an errand for his master. At +a safe distance, he neatly dodged all missiles and smiled mockingly +back at the cook. When Tommy was licked in the traces he howled for +half an hour and his tail did not ascend for the remainder of the +day. None of the other dogs would make friends with so sour a fellow. +Perhaps he was only oversensitive and introspective, and I do him +wrong. I fear, however, that he will be sent to the penitentiary at +Forty Mile for a long term one of these days. + +Shorty, the end dog (wheel horse) of the husky team, was born in +Spitzbergen, where dogs are so white that when they are on a +background of snow you know of their presence only by the black spots +for their eyes and a bigger black spot for their noses. An equality in +breadth and length gave Shorty his name. Like some fat old gentlemen +whom we meet at the club, he was the more comical because he was +unconsciously so. He didn’t believe in being a martyr, and he always +carried his head so that one of his eyes was on Jack. When the master +was about to touch up Jack and Tommy, Shorty would begin suddenly to +pull very hard. His legs were so short and his body was so chunky that +if the team turned a sharp corner around a cake of ice he would often +roll over like a ball of fur; or, in trying to keep up he would slip +and fall down a fissure, hanging suspended by his collar while he +looked around at Jack, saying: + +“Oh, I know I’m the snapper of the whip! What next?” + +He blinked so oddly, there was such an expression of disgust in the +very way in which he lolled his tongue out, that you laughed at him as +you would at the old gentleman who finds another club member in his +favorite chair and reading his favorite paper. + +Tim, the larger of the two St. Bernards, was a sober, phlegmatic dog +of noble mien, who was funny only when he ate so much porridge after a +hard day’s work that he groaned with pain. + +“You needn’t look at me so reproachfully, Tim,” Jack would say, “I know +I’m to blame. But I’d feel just as mean if I didn’t feed you all you +wanted.” + +The St. Bernard is too high-spirited for the work of a draught animal. +At first Patsy seemed the better dog of the two. But Patsy wore himself +out by fidgeting, and then it was his turn to soldier while Tim did his +work. Toward the last they were in such bad shape that we dared to put +only fifty pounds on their sled. + +In the neighborhood of Five Fingers we met a dozen stranded pilgrims +whose desperate efforts to reach Dawson in the previous autumn had been +put to naught by the summary approach of the arctic winter when they +were within a few days of their destination. They had built cabins on +the banks of the river, wherever their boats had been inextricably +caught in a jam of ice, and settled down to the prospect of playing +checkers and fighting off scurvy for eight months, until summer came. +Of those who were unsuccessful in the battle, the most afflicted was an +old forty-niner who accepted with better grace than any of the others +a diet of spruce tea and rice, which he hoped would undo the work of +too much bacon. A few prospect holes had been sunk without any reward +except “colors,” because, as they explained, they were, in keeping with +their general ill luck, just outside of the gold belt. For selfish +as well as sentimental reasons we were glad that these unfortunate +fellows were not more numerous. We had always to tell them some of the +news, and then to leave their hospitality rather offended despite our +explanations that we could not afford to tarry with them for a day’s +rest when the trail was good. + +At one of the cabins a boy of seventeen years hobbled out to the +bank to greet us. He and his uncle had left Dawson for the coast +in December, drawing their own sleds. Hardship had so affected his +uncle’s mind, as the story was told to me, that to escape from the +country had become a brutal and selfish mania with him. He forced his +nephew, even at the point of the revolver, it was said, to do all the +work of making and breaking camp. The boy was so tired one night +that he crawled under his blankets without changing his moccasins, +which had become wet by the slush snow about the fire. He awoke in the +morning with his feet frozen. When they were overtaken on the trail +by a man with a dog team, the next afternoon, the boy, goaded on by +his uncle, was plodding along on legs which were frozen stiff up to +his knees, experiencing, he said, much inconvenience but no pain. +The fellow-traveller gave him a ride behind the dogs to the nearest +cabin, where, later, a doctor on his way to the coast found amputation +necessary to save the boy’s life. As for the uncle, he delayed only a +few hours, and hastened on his journey more energetically than ever. + +A little hunting had been done by the stranded pilgrims, but with no +success. We had hoped to obtain some venison from the Indians, but +though we passed many of their deserted camps between the Hootalinqua +and the Pelly, we came to only one that was occupied. Here two families +were sitting around a small fire with their backs protected on all +sides from the wind by a wall of brush about waist high. We secured a +few pounds of extremely tough steak in exchange for some corn-meal. A +small boy who looked quite like a young Jap knew a few English words +and had the gift of making comprehensible gestures. He explained that +he had heard his father’s gun go “boom!” far off on the mountain-side, +a few hours before. No chaffing could shake his confidence in his +father, whose name was Chook, as a great hunter. One boom, he told us +by signs, and the moose or caribou always tumbled over into the snow. +The temptation to wait and see if Chook would return with fresh moose +or caribou meat was great, but we resisted it. When, however, we were +at the other end of the semicircle formed by the curve of the river +beyond the camp, a cry from the bank showed us Chook, who had hastened +through the woods by a trail known to himself, bearing a fine caribou +steak and a piece of liver. With him, besides the little boy we had +seen, was an elder brother who had been out to learn the way in which +Daddy crept up quietly until he was within a few steps of his prey. +Chook wanted sugar in exchange, but we had none to spare. Finally his +obduracy was overcome and he accepted corn-meal. Long after we had +passed on, he stood watching us, and presumably he was grinning over +his bargain. We enjoyed part of the steak; Jack, the pup, stole the +rest with such finesse that we forgave him. + +When we had passed one point which we recognized as a name on the +map, we looked forward from day to day, as we lessened the distance, +until we should arrive at another. In camp we compared our opinions +of how many miles we had made that day, and soon our estimates became +surprisingly accurate. After leaving Five Fingers, all our thoughts +were bent on reaching Fort Selkirk, where the Pelly, a great river of +itself, joins the Yukon. The trail for this distance was better than +for the fifty miles that had preceded it and the colder weather made +sledging better. Moreover, our new plan of shorter hours and harder +work was succeeding admirably. + +Long before placer mining was thought of in Alaska or in the British +Northwest Territory, representatives of the fur companies were +stationed at Fort Selkirk. The present post is across the river from +the upper ramparts of the Yukon’s bank, whose towering walls of rock +resemble the walls of old-time forts, even to the embrasures. In a +break in the ramparts is the mouth of the Pelly, which is to the Yukon +what the Missouri is to the Mississippi. + +Mr. Pettit, the trader at Selkirk, had only Indians for companions. The +aspect of this little man’s loneliness was heightened by his slight +form and his pallor, so out of place in a country where bare existence +is supposed to demand so much vigor. In summer he busied himself with +a little garden, which was an absorbing occupation because upon its +success there possibly depended immunity from the dreaded scurvy. In +winter he sat by his stove smoking when he was not sleeping. Watching +the Indians go through the ritual of the Russian Church in their +original manner, or dance around a dying fellow to keep off the evil +spirit of death, were diversions which must by this time have lost +their novelty for him. He had had nothing to sell for more than a year. +This was a great disappointment to his customers who were short of +those great requirements of aboriginal happiness, tobacco, sugar, and +gay-colored clothes. + +While we were at Pelly, the Indians became excited over the arrival of +news that one of the tribe, Ulick, had shot ten caribou and two moose, +“one sleep”--or more than a day’s travel--down the river. We made +careful calculations as to how much tobacco we could spare, and kept +a sharp lookout for Ulick, whom we met with his family dragging some +of the moose back to camp. For forty-five cents’ worth of tobacco we +secured thirty pounds of steak for ourselves and the dogs. To offers of +as high as a dollar a pound for more, he merely made the reply: + +“Got heap money! Want ‘baccy!’” + +Your husky dog is no vegetarian. Once we realized how much additional +pulling-power our team could get out of a little fresh meat we denied +ourselves for them. + +The height and the character of the mountains towering over our heads +told us that we were coming into the region of the Rockies. Every turn +of the river brought into view a panorama of low wooded islands made +in later times by a change of current; of islands that were Cyclopean +masses thrown up by chaos, and the nesting-places of eagles; of +mountains on either shore, whose strata seemed to have been kneaded and +stirred when soft as dough, and afterward, upon solidifying, to have +been rent by convulsions of the earth’s crust. + +But one was too busy with the handles of the sled fully to enjoy +scenery. You only knew that the vista seemed to be frowning upon +the impudence of you and your sled and dogs breaking in upon great +solitudes. Thankfully, the weather was more in our favor and the trail +was harder, as it had been between the Big Salmon and Pelly, and not +so sliding. At times it was as smooth as a skating-rink for a few +hundred yards where it was protected from the sun by the shadow of the +mountains and the forests; again, there was glare ice, where we might +ride for a little distance, jesting merrily about private equipages and +driving-parks; and, again, we drove flocks of wild ducks away from open +places, making us regret that we had only revolvers with us. Far over +our heads against the background of the blue sky we saw great flocks +of wild swans and wild geese moving northward in stately procession, +reminding us that summer was near at hand. At 2 A.M. the thermometer +was at from 10 to 20 degrees below zero; at noon, 80 degrees above, and +the crust of dawn had become like porridge. I had one ear blistered by +the frost and the other by the sun in the same day. + +But we little minded these extremes; for the trail continued to be +good, until one morning we arrived at the cluster of cabins called +Stewart City, at the mouth of the Stewart River, where we rested for a +day. Of the inmates of the cabins we bought enough rice to piece out +the rations of our dogs. + +A mile out of Stewart we met Anders, of Bay City, Michigan, who was +drawing his own sled as he swung along in great strides in the company +of an elderly man who had one dog. An idea for making a fortune had +occurred to him and to carry it out he had started for Dyea at once, +regardless of the season of the year. He was “going outside” to bring +in the stock for a poultry farm which he proposed to establish on an +island near Dawson. + +“Fresh eggs will bring ten dollars a dozen any time,” he said, “and a +spring chicken as much. I ain’t going to let anybody get ahead of me, +you bet. I’ve got a side of bacon and a sack of flour. I’ll sleep by +day and go without a blanket. I’ll make it to Five Fingers with my sled +and then I’ll take what’s left of my grub on my back and skin along the +shore till I get to the lakes, where I can get some more grub off the +boats that are coming in, snake a canoe somewhere, and paddle up to +Linderman.” + +I saw him in Dawson two weeks after the pilgrims’ flotilla began to +arrive. The ice in the river had broken before he reached Five Fingers. +He had climbed over mountains and beaten his way through underbrush +until he sprained his ankle. Then he crawled to a ledge of rock +overlooking the stream and waited until a pilgrim in a passing boat saw +the red bandanna which he waved as a signal of distress. + +“And I guess Dawson won’t have turkey for Thanksgiving this year,” he +added. “You remember the old feller that was with me? We got separated. +He couldn’t keep up with my gait. Well, our boat passed his dog running +up and down the shore howling, but we couldn’t find a sign of him. I +guess he was drowned.” + +It took us six days to make the remaining seventy-five miles to +Dawson, though now our outfit, including bedding and kit-bags, did not +weigh more than two hundred pounds. The weather at night had suddenly +moderated, as if the arctic winter, after a spasmodic resistance, had +given way entirely to the tropical summer. Henceforth, it was needless +to put up our tent, and we slept and cooked entirely in the open, +drying our wet footwear by the heat of the sun in the late afternoon. + +[Illustration: The First Boats.] + +Starting at 2 A.M. with the first light, we plodded straight ahead +through the snow up to our knees, until the dogs gave out. We followed +the trail where we could; followed it until it led us to the flowing +river, and then we made a detour around the open place. The snow-shoes +which we had brought thus far without having once put them on, now +became invaluable in making a path by slow and arduous tramping, as +monotonous as the beating of time, but a little more tiring, I assure +you. Without the relief of the color of the dogs or of the man in front +of you upon which to rest your eyes, little red spots would dance in +the glare on the snow even through heavy green glasses. Often the rest +of the party had to wait while Jack, who never tired, went on ahead +to see if, in case we should go around this or that island, we should +be obliged to retrace our steps. Again, in little side channels where +the water was deep only in a freshet, we hitched all the dogs to one +sled at a time and they dragged it over the sandy bottom and up on the +other side, where we were likely to strike out on an old Indian trail +bare of snow, and to have to lift the sleds from side to side to avoid +saplings. + +It was our boast that only once had we unpacked the sleds except to +make camp. This was at Five Fingers, where we had to carry our baggage +piece by piece up an ascent of forty feet. Even there we had sent the +dogs up with the small sled on bare ground. But now we could lift the +sleds and contents; or if the bank or ledge of rocks which we wished +to gain was very precipitate, we could slide them up on skids. Dude, +the old leader, would crawl up by himself without a whine, like a true +soldier. Jack threw the other huskies up bodily, and the clumsy St. +Bernards were pushed and pulled and coaxed up. + +Just when we had to undergo the greatest physical labor, and the +greatest strain from climate, our food-supply, so astonishing had +been our appetites, had dwindled to flour and bad bacon, and we had +remaining only a pipe of tobacco apiece, which was religiously saved +for our last camp. We missed most keenly our chocolate, of which we had +eaten half a pound apiece a day. With a slab of it for luncheon, and +only two flapjacks and a slice of bacon, we were not hungry again for +five or six hours. Consume all the flapjacks and bacon that we could +without suffering from that excess of quantity which is the foe of +exercise, in three or four hours our stomachs would be calling for more. + +On the afternoon of the fourth day out from Stewart, when the dogs +pulled up after one of the rushes they were never too tired to make on +scenting a camp, we looked up to see some figures standing on a pile of +logs which they were cutting for a raft of timber for a Dawson saw-mill. + +“How are ye?” they called. “Goin’ to town?” + +We had reached the suburbs! + +“Well,” replied Jack, “we’ve been thinkin’ some of it. How far is it?” + +“’Bout twenty miles. But you won’t make it. The ice is likely to go out +any minute.” + +On the day following we passed still another camp of rafters, who said +that the river was open in front of Dawson. They advised us to make +camp and accompany them when navigation opened. + +“We’ll be old inhabitants by that time,” said Jack. + +Every creek flowing into the river was a torrent, eating up the ice +and flooding its surface. We could see that the river was rising, which +was a sure sign that its days were few. However, we were confident of +reaching our destination on the morrow, though we had to desert our +sleds, put some flapjacks and slices of bacon in our pockets, and climb +over the mountain which hid “town” from view. + +Our last camp was on a wooded island where some prospector had built a +brush-house. Jack’s bonfire, especially large in honor of the occasion, +extended to this house, and we thought it rather good fun that we had +to save our bedding from the flames. But our jubilation was not unmixed +with sadness. We should not make another journey together, and we had +been good comrades, always venting our anger, when it insisted upon +expression, upon our sleds, and never blaming one another. + +Our hair and beards were long and unkempt; our trousers were the color +of mahogany; but we felt strong enough to go up the side of a mountain +on the run, and we had been so near to nature that we could truly claim +her for next-door neighbor. + +In the future, the numerous police stations built in the summer (1898) +will furnish food for travellers and their dogs. Already, therefore, +our journey in the manner that we made it is a thing of the past, and, +accordingly, one feels as he looks back on it a little of the pride of +the pioneer. + +“We can sleep as long as we want, to-morrow,” said Fritz, pulling his +robe over him, “and we won’t care whether it is going to freeze at +night or not.” + +“And we won’t have wet feet,” Jack added. “I guess it’s been twenty +days since they wasn’t sopping ’fore we’d been out two hours, and that +slush does feel rather clammy when the sun’s blisterin’ overhead.” + +Ten miles in ten hours was the record of our last day’s travel, over +the worst trail we had encountered. At dusk we rounded an island, and +to our right, on a small flat across the river (which here had been +opened by the current of the Klondyke), we saw the cluster of cabins +which was the pilgrim’s Mecca. There was glare ice, however, above the +Klondyke across to the little suburb of Dawson, Klondyke City. For the +first time in many days we rode on our sleds, finishing our journey in +triumph. + +“Don’t you know that it’s too late to travel on the river?” asked the +foremost man of the little crowd that came out to meet us. + +“Yes,” replied Jack, “and we’ve just made up our minds to quit.” + +Four days later, as if it had broken away all along the shores at +the same moment, the ice moved on toward the sea like a great white +procession, halted now and then by a jam, but not for long. + +“It’s a pleasure to see that trail go by,” was Jack’s comment, as he +watched it from our cabin-door. “I only wish I might pay it back in its +own kind by tripping it up a few times.” + + + + +III + +DAWSON + + SOCIAL ASPECTS OF DAWSON--CORNERING THE TINNED FOOD + MARKET--CHEECHAWKOS AND OLD-TIMERS IN THE EARLY DAYS. + + +At this season of the year the inhabitants of Dawson were passing +out of the chrysalis of fur caps into soiled, broad-brimmed hats +resurrected from cabin-shelves; out of winter clothing generally into +what remained of their last summer’s clothing. Along the thawing bog +called the main street, littered and odorous from sanitary neglect, +were two rows of saloons and gambling-halls, with mining-brokers’ +offices and the stores of shrewd speculators in food-supplies, who +always had one can of condensed milk for $2.50, one can of butter +for $5, and one pound of sugar for $1.50, and assured you that they +were the last in the country. To look out across the flat toward the +mountains was to see scattered cabins and piles of tin cans, which +at once let one into the culinary secrets of an isolated community +composed largely of men. At the restaurants, bacon and beans and coffee +cost $2.50. + +For a time in the winter in fear of famine the well-to-do hoarded +food as they hoard gold in a financial panic, and the restaurants +were closed because supplies were not procurable at prices that made +catering profitable. Then, a fifty-pound sack of flour sold for as high +as $100; but at the approach of spring the little capitalists who had +planned to sell their “corners” at great profit were glad enough to +dispose of such surplus as they had beyond their own needs at a loss. +To them the departure of hundreds of mouths which otherwise would have +been fed out of Dawson’s granary was as great a disappointment as a +report that Hungary’s wheat crop would greatly exceed expectations is +to the bulls on the Chicago Exchange. All of the luxuries and many +of the necessities of life were scarce; but, withal, there was quite +enough of bacon, beans, and flour to have satisfied the appetites of +the whole community for a month after supplies arrived. According to +the philosophy of the old-timers, there is never any danger of a man’s +starving as long as he will look ahead a little. So easy is it to +sleep and so little does one eat when one is not working that he can +live on a pound of food a day, if need be, and take the remainder of +his nourishment in slumber. On the other hand, vigorous labor in winter +demands at least three pounds a day, and it is upon this basis that +estimates have always been made in the valley of the Yukon. + +With a tiny can of cocoa, which I pounced upon in a store as if it were +an Elzevir in a junk-heap, and a few staples bought at extravagant +prices, we were able to prepare a superior meal in the cabin that I +had leased. But this was not until we had slept gloriously for sixteen +hours. There remained the problem of a bath, which was serious, as +the one bath-house in Dawson was closed for repairs. I solved it +legitimately, if uncomfortably, in the wooden tub which was lent to me +by a neighbor. + +The saloons had only a substitute for whiskey, of home manufacture. The +dance-halls were not open. All the men whose dust and presence would +make the camp lively were at the mines--or “up the creeks,” as the +saying goes in Dawson--preparing for the “clean-up.” + +In winter and in summer the trail leads up the Klondyke to the mouth +of Bonanza, three miles from Dawson, and thence up Bonanza to the +working-claims, about three miles farther on. In the spring, when the +currents are swollen, you must go over a high mountain by a path in +the soft snow. If you have a pack, this is hard work. On the way I met +a blue-faced old fellow--by his look if not by his limp he had the +scurvy--who promptly put me in my proper social status. + +“Are ye a Cheechawko?” he asked. + +“I don’t know, I’m sure.” + +“Well, then, ye are, and the river must ’a’ broke. Any man’s a +Cheechawko until he’s been in the country when the ice goes out. In +the old days we could lick the Cheechawkos into shape; larn ’em to +leave their latch-strings out fur a passin’ stranger when they was +away from hum, and larn ’em to eat what they wanted and to use the +best blanket in a cabin, but to lug nothin’ away. Fifty thousand of +’em, they say--clerks and farmers and dudes. They’re too many fur us. +Civilization’s here, and it’s a case of locking up yer dust after +this. But, young man, ye can’t be an old-timer, never! Ye can’t be an +old-timer, ’less ye’ve lived in the camps in the old days when a man +was a man and his neighbor’s brother.” + +And without giving me time to reply to his little lecture, he hobbled +on toward the hospital. + +Cheechawko is the Indian word for stranger, or, more literally, +tenderfoot, which has come into general use in the Klondyke; and toward +the Cheechawko, bringing in the more penurious ways of the outside +world, along with ignorance of mining, the old-timer feels a genuine +resentment. I was glad of the opportunity to see the veterans ere the +recruits had arrived. + + + + +IV + +THE FIRST DISCOVERIES + + THE BEGINNING OF MINING IN ALASKA--FORTY MILE CREEK--CANADIAN AND + AMERICAN DEPOSITS--THE LARGEST LOG-CABIN TOWN IN THE WORLD--LIFE OF + THE FIRST ADVENTURERS--THE SUPERFLUITY OF SIX-SHOOTERS--LEAVING THE + LATCH-STRINGS OUT--THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSORS--INDIAN CHARLEY AND + HIS NUGGET. + + +A little history of placer mining in the Yukon valley, at this turn of +my narrative, will be of importance, I think, in making what follows +more comprehensible. It was early in the eighties, if not before, that +the first prospectors, armed with Indian tales, faith, and a “gold +pan,” packed their supplies to the shores of the Lewes lakes over the +passes which were the means of communication between the Indians of the +coast and those of the interior. They followed the ice out of the lakes +and down the river into a practically unexplored country, panning out +of the gravel at the mouth of each tributary. + +[Illustration: A Typical Pilgrims’ Boat.] + +At first, these and the other brave spirits who were encouraged to +follow their example arduously poled their boats back up-stream in +September, with the result of their summer’s labor, to spend the winter +in one of the towns of the quartz-mining region in southeastern Alaska +or in the Pacific Coast States. Some had three or four hundred dollars; +others, who had impatiently disregarded certain “pay” on the bars +of the tributaries and had prospected in the hope of making a great +“strike,” returned with little or nothing. + +Soon they began to take in enough supplies to last them through the +winter, and to build cabins for their protection. A little settlement +sprang up on the site of the “diggings” of Forty Mile Creek. All of +the rich deposits thus far have been found not on the tributaries of +the Yukon but on the tributaries of the tributaries. (The wealth of +the far-famed Klondyke is not on the Klondyke River but on Eldorado +and Bonanza, which flow into it.) So the next progressive step was a +discovery which led to the working of the frozen ground in the valleys +of the numerous little streams tributary to Forty Mile, by stripping +off the dirt as fast as the very hot sun of the long days of the arctic +summer thawed it. This process, however, was feasible only when the +“pay-dirt” was near to the surface, and the season of activity was +still restricted to four or five months of the year. + +As the prospectors moved on down the river, gradually widening the +circle of their labors and their experience, deposits considerably +richer than those of the tributaries of Forty Mile were found on +the tributaries of Birch Creek in American territory. Here, for the +first time, an innovation, which did not appeal to everybody, made +it feasible to work twelve months in the year. An energetic man sank +a shaft to bedrock with fires. Then he drifted out his “pay-dirt” in +the same manner and piled it in dumps on the surface to be sluiced out +in summer. By the autumn of 1896, when the great discovery of Bonanza +Creek was made, Circle City was said to be the largest log-cabin town +in the world, and from twenty-five hundred to three thousand white men +dwelt in the Yukon valley. + +Experience in placer mining counted for little in a region where +conditions were so different from those of the Pacific Coast States. +There was no sprinkling of capitalists or mining engineers among +those robust pilgrims of the early days. Many of the hardships which +they endured are already a memory. They were cheered in their combat +with nature by no such tales as lured on the Cheechawkos of 1897-98. +The majority of them came from the frontiers of the United States; +a smaller part, generally of French descent, from the frontiers of +Canada. All were peculiarly the product of the Anglo-Saxon bent for +overcoming obstacles. Not infrequently there were fugitives from +justice, who, having the inclination and the energy to undergo great +physical trials rather than serve a term in prison, and learning a +lesson in manhood by bitter retrospection, have often become heroic +pioneers. More numerous than the inhabitants of the old centres of +civilization would suppose were those recluses who are ever seeking +lonely refuges out of touch with the advance posts of organized society. + +There was no prospect, especially when no “big strikes” had been +reported, to attract the idle and the dissolute who infest similar +settlements in more hospitable countries. Relieved of the parasitic +class and being interdependent in isolation from the outside world +under the most rigorous conditions for eight months in the year, their +inhabitants, despite the “pasts” of some of them, made Circle City and +Forty Mile the most peaceable of mining camps. Captain Constantine, +of the British Northwest Mounted Police, with a few men, had plenary +powers at Forty Mile, while Circle City was nominally governed by a +United States Commissioner and a United States Marshal. + +All the white women in both communities could be counted on the fingers +of two hands. Mrs. Constantine, the wives of a few missionaries and +of a few leading men, had come in on steamers up the river in summer +to join their husbands. Half a dozen half-breed women, with more or +less of the blood of Russian fur traders in their veins, composed the +demimonde of either camp. Full-blooded squaws performed the household +duties in some cabins for a civilized lord and master. But the “squaw +man” was the exception. In no part of the world where isolated white +men live among aborigines was the man who had a native mistress held in +greater disrespect than here. + +As a rule, the miners did their own washing and mending. Their +amusements were card-playing and checker-playing. The climate seemed +to exercise a softening effect upon bellicose natures, and even +intoxication seldom carried quarrels beyond a dispute of words. Whoever +struck the first blow had the consensus of opinion of the camp against +him. + +“We’ve got enough to do fighting Alaska,” was a saying which +sententiously expressed the general feeling, “without fighting one +another.” + +To the new-comer it was hinted that a six-shooter, which fiction makes +the inseparable companion of all men in a new placer mining camp, was +a superfluity that would keep him out of trouble only when he kept it +at all times hanging on a peg in his cabin. Its weight alone was equal +to two days’ rations in a country where the prospector had to dispense +with his helpmeet, the mule or the burro, and carry his grub for a tour +on his back. Therefore, arms were never carried unless there was a +chance of meeting with game. + +The essence of the “free miners’ law” was being on the “squar’,” which, +after all, is a rough equivalent of the brotherhood of man. Between +the disputants as to the ownership of a claim the “miners’ meeting” +decided which one was in the right. All offenders were brought before +the bar of their fellows. A man accused of theft, after an examination +of witnesses, was acquitted or convicted by the holding up of hands. If +guilty, he was, according to the circumstances, either warned to leave +the country for good--no slight penalty in midwinter with only the +hospitality of Indians to depend upon--or else ostracism was postponed +pending good behavior. “Miners’ meeting law” is unscientific and rarely +commendable, but here it served its purpose well because its methods +made it so seldom required. + +Under the force of self-interest a universal good-will prevailed. +Whatever a miner had--perhaps the increment of a summer’s earnings +which was to pay for another year’s supplies--he kept in tomato cans on +the table of his cabin with impunity. When he went away from home on a +journey to some other creek he left his latch-string out. On the very +evening of his absence, while his cabin was occupied by another, he +was, perhaps, sleeping in someone else’s without an invitation. By the +unwritten law of the land he enjoyed whatever luxuries of food and rest +the cabin afforded; but, likewise by the unwritten law of the land, he +washed any dishes that he had used and put them and all other things +that he had disturbed back where they belonged, folded the blankets on +the bunk, cut firewood in place of that which he had burned, and laid +kindlings by the stove ready to make warmth and cheer for the owner +when he should return, cold and weary. + +Cheechawkos who came down the river in the spring in their rough boats +at first, through ignorance, were often transgressors of the unwritten +laws. But so few arrived at a time that the majority were soon able +to convince them of the folly of courting trouble for themselves. +Anyone with a bad record could not obtain favors or a loan when he +needed it. After he had consumed the supplies which he had brought +into the country with him, he must rely upon the transportation +companies, established to meet the demand of the new settlements, whose +river steamers connected with ocean-going vessels at the island of +St. Michael in Norton Sound. When a man had been unfortunate in his +summer’s work, a reputation for probity would secure from the companies +a year’s outfit on a simple promise to pay. In treating generously +the real prospector who sought new fields, they only had an eye to +their own interests in the development of the country. Every canned and +preserved delicacy was included in a year’s supplies, costing from $500 +to $600. Canned plum pudding was a treat for the holidays; and more +than one miner ate _pâté de foie gras_ for the first time in Circle +City or Forty Mile. These luxuries, however, were no substitutes for +fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. + +The flat-bottomed river steamers continued on their course until +the ice in the river led them to seek a slough or side channel for +safety, all hands preparing to spend the winter housed up on board. +Then no more Cheechawkos’ boats could arrive, and the camps were as +completely separated from the outside world as a whaler caught in the +ice of Bering Sea. To all men, including the recluses, a “pardner” was +essential. For the recluses were recluses from civilization and not +from fellow-men of their own tastes; and no one, except a few of the +most perverse, undertook single-handed to put up a cabin or to live in +it alone. + +The “town” was on the river bank at the most accessible point to the +creeks whose wealth was responsible for its existence. Its cabins +clustered around the commercial companies’ stores and the saloons. To +one side was a camp of Indians and the mission station which ministered +to their spiritual wants and, following the paths of diplomacy, to the +spiritual wants of the miners--upon request. Fuel was brought from the +hill-sides and food was taken to the cabins on the creeks by teams of +husky dogs. + +When the winter settled down in serene triumph in December there was +not even the falling of snow to disturb the calm atmosphere. The fine +white particles under foot, which seemed as sharp as powdered glass to +the touch, were precipitated invisibly, like frost. They glistened on +the mountain-sides without a breath of air to stir them. In the few +hours of gray light out of the twenty-four, men welcomed the sound of +their own voices, or even the howl of their dogs, to break the silence +which was the fit companion of the dry, biting cold. At night they +forgave the still and merciless panorama of the day as they watched out +of their cabin-windows the play of the Northern Lights, in which nature +has furnished for the eyes a greater treat than is the breaking of +surf for the ears. + +With the coming of spring, when the sun mounted so rapidly in the +heavens, every man had his opinion and his reasons for it as to the +exact date when the ice should go out of the Yukon. After this--the +greatest event of the year--had taken place, all eyes kept a lookout +up-stream for the first pine-colored boat that should dart around the +bend with the rapidity of the current. The Cheechawko was surrounded +by a little crowd which asked him about the result of the previous +November’s elections, or if France and Germany had gone to war as +indicated by an August paper which the community had been reading for +eight months. + +As a rule, the early arrivals had been in the country before. They +knew the channels and the currents of the river, and could resist +the temptation of stopping to pan the gravel of the bars in search +of colors, for the old-timers had long since concluded that the +travel-worn particles of dust to be found at the mouths of all of the +tributaries of the Yukon which are in the so-called gold belt, were +vagrants and not the advance guard of a floating pilgrimage. They had +poled weary miles in their long boats and carried packs for wearier +ones without finding at the head-waters of the tributaries, which were +named by them and still await accurate mapping by geographers, any +original deposits. The shallow bedrock in the neighborhood of Forty +Mile put the original deposits there within reach of the summer’s sun +and the superficial investigation of the hurrying prospector, and +opened the way to the discovery of richer original deposits at Circle +City at a slightly greater depth of bedrock. + +So the miners had concluded that the next great strike, following the +progress of development down the river, would be made below Circle +City. On account of an Indian’s keen glance the contrary happened, and +they retraced their footsteps to find fortunes at a depth of thirty +feet under soil whose surface they had trod before. The sharp-eyed +Indian was a brother-in-law of “Siawash George,” and “Siawash George” +was an outcast, whose nickname was given to him by his fellow white +men. The Siawashes are one of the lowest orders of the American +Indians, and the old-timers, so largely men from the Pacific Coast, +use Siawash both as a noun and as an adjective to signify contempt. One +of the first white pilgrims to cross the passes, Cormac, was now the +father of three or four half-breed children. He had planned that his +marriage to a princess of the tribe would be the stepping-stone of his +ambition to become chief of the Sticks. In the autumn of 1896 he and +his family and retainers were encamped at the mouth of the Klondyke, +gathering from the land and the water, according to aboriginal custom +but with modern riffles and hooks, their winter supply of provender. + +[Illustration: Yukon Indians.] + +The Klondyke is one of the best rivers in the neighborhood for fish, +much better than the Indian River, which flows into the Yukon between +thirty and forty miles above it. At the summit of the water-shed +between the Indian and the Klondyke is a great mountain, which, from +its shape, the miners have named The Dome. In the snows of its sides +six creeks have their origin, three flowing into either stream. +The longest of these is sixteen miles. They wind through beds of +black muck, ranging from fifty to two hundred and fifty yards in +breadth, which lie between steep embankments. It is presumed that +the embankments are the walls of an ancient river channel. They +are indented only by the gulches cut by tributaries which once were +mighty but now have dwindled to little torrents which flourish only +with the first warmth of spring or after a heavy rain in summer. The +great heat of June, July, and August drew out of the muck with a growth +of tropical rapidity a rank grass upon which the moose fed in peace, +fattening his sides, made lean by winter’s privations. + +Here “Injun Sharley,” as he called himself, came to look for moose, +and here he found instead, as he was crossing the first tributary of +the Klondyke at a point where its bending course had dug a niche out +of the side-hill, a glistening nugget of gold. According to all of +the preconceived ideas of the placer mining prospectors, no creeks in +the region were so unpromising as these. Those few prospectors who +had tramped up this valley, finding a few colors in the shoals made +by washing the earth of the embankment, had passed them by with the +ever-ready expression of the country: + +“Oh, well, you can find colors anywhere.” + +If the turn of the creek had not washed one stray nugget as well as +stray colors out of a bench which no one found worth working two years +after discovery, the moose might still be feeding undisturbed in the +valleys of Eldorado and Bonanza creeks, which are now as expressive +of man’s handiwork as the rear of a row of tenement houses, and +certain unhappy newspaper correspondents would not have missed the +Spanish-American War. + +There is no reason to believe that “Siawash George,” personally, had +any great confidence in the “strike.” Rather--after having staked +creek claims for himself and “Injun Sharley”--he thought it worth +advertising, when advertising was so cheap because of the expert +canoists and good pedestrians in his family. He was further assisted +in spreading the news by Joe La Due, another “squaw man,” who has been +erroneously called Father of the Klondyke, just as “Siawash George,” +and not “Injun Sharley,” has been called its discoverer. La Due staked +out a town-site on the flat which had been formed in the course of time +by the alluvial deposits of the Klondyke at its mouth. He was fond of +“booms,” and as a part of his plan of promoting his latest boom he +offered lots for five dollars apiece to all who would stake claims on +the new creeks. Neither he nor “Siawash George” had much to lose and +they might gain a great deal if shafts were sunk to bedrock with fires +after the plan that had lately come into vogue at Circle City. + +When an Indian arrived at Forty Mile and then at Circle City with a +tale out of all proportion to the actual size of the nugget that “Injun +Sharley” had found, the miners received it with that garlic cynicism +which has its natural abiding-place in the unkempt beards of hardened +frontiersmen. They had become so used to strikes with no foundation +except an irresponsible imagination, as nominally to believe in nothing +that a man said about any find he had made. So they told the Indian +that he was a liar pure and simple, who had been primed by an ambitious +brother-in-law. The Indian had been told to expect this reply and was +not the least disturbed in mind by it. But no miner acts upon his +convictions in such a matter. He usually hurries off to the reported +scene of the find because, after all, “mebbe there might be somethin’ +in it.” But such were the reputations of Joe La Due and Cormac that +many of the earlier pioneers refused to budge. Their superior wisdom +was as unfortunate for them as absence from the settlements was for +those at work on the creeks. The two or three hundred, lounging in the +saloons and the stores or resting in their cabins, who made for the +mouth of the Klondyke in the mood of men who are playing a joke on +themselves, became rich. + +There were not enough claims on the discovery creek, Bonanza, for all +of them, so the later arrivals, just for the sake of staking something, +contemptuously staked a tributary of Bonanza, which they called in +their phrase a “pup.” Then there was naught to do but to wait until a +few of the more energetic fellows sunk holes on Bonanza. No one was +more surprised at the result than “Siawash George.” Bedrock on Bonanza +showed the richest placer dirt yet found in Alaska or the British +Northwest Territory. Those who had been in time to stake claims on +Bonanza settled down to work at once, incidentally extending their pity +to the fellows on the “pup.” The claim-owners on Eldorado, where no +shaft had been sunk, accepted the pity in good part and offered their +claims at various prices, ranging from one hundred to five hundred +dollars. Most of them were so lucky as to be unable to make a sale, and +are now worth from five hundred thousand to a million dollars apiece. +The “pup” is the richest placer mining creek in the world. + +Nine months after “Injun Sharley” had brought home a nugget instead of +a moose, the outside world heard of the great discovery. Such pilgrims, +attracted by the news, as succeeded in reaching Dawson in the autumn +of 1897 found that all creeks rising on the slopes of The Dome and all +other creeks at that time proven to be worth the working, had already +been staked by the old-timers who had followed the advance guard from +Circle City and Forty Mile. Feverish stampede followed on feverish +stampede to new ground. That putting down four stakes in a creek-bed +anywhere in the region was equal to drawing a fortune from a bank +became the gospel of the hour, which received its authority from the +original attitude toward the “pup” of the men who had staked Eldorado. +A man needed only to come into a saloon with a pack on his back, and, +being tired, appear silent and mysterious, to excite the suspicion that +he had made a “strike.” “Only an affidavit” of having found “color” was +necessary to have a discovery claim recorded, and a discovery always +meant a stampede. Having received a hint from a friend, or overheard +a whispered conversation in the street, a pilgrim would rush off for +a distance of more than a day’s travel, without food or blankets, +trusting to luck to feed him and keep him warm. Death was often the +result. + +Having staked the remaining creeks in a radius of from thirty to +sixty miles of Dawson, some of the new-comers rested in their cabins, +eating their winter’s supply of food. Others found employment on +the work-claims; and still others departed over the ice to escape +starvation and to thrill their neighbors at home with the information +that they owned claims. As the humor of the saloons went, there +remained for the oncoming host of May and June an expanse of unexplored +territory sufficient to keep a hundred times their number busy +prospecting for a century, but no gold at all, unless they could find +it for themselves. + + + + +V + +MINERS AND MINING + + REAPING THE GOLD HARVEST--THAWING AND SLUICING--MINERS AND THEIR + THEORIES--THE DOME--EXPENSIVE TIMBER--EMPTY POCKETS BUT DOLLARS IN THE + DUMPS--THE FIRST MILLIONNAIRES--COLOR IN THE PAN--ONCE A PROSPECTOR + ALWAYS A PROSPECTOR--FIGURING FORTUNES--CAPITALISTS IN DEMAND--THE + FORTY HAPPY KINGS ON ELDORADO. + + +It was just on the eve of harvest-time when I first visited the creeks. +In a day or two the flow of water from the gulches where the snow lay +thickest would make a head sufficient to wash the yellow grain out of +the dumps. Along the four miles of Eldorado, or its full length, and +the ten miles of working claims on Bonanza, lines of flumes and their +dependent sluice-boxes--the lumber for which had been drawn on sleds +from Dawson by husky dogs, or cut with whipsaws--formed a network +around the string of cabins occupied by claim-owners and their workmen +and around the piles of clayish-colored dirt, thawed out inch by inch +during the short winter days, which contained virgin wealth amounting +to ten million dollars. The hill-sides, once covered with timber, were +bare of all except stumps and scarred by broad streaks from top to +bottom, showing where logs for building the cabins and for feeding the +fires in the drifts had been slid down. + +If you descended by the shafts beside the dumps to the drifts, you soon +comprehended that reaping the harvest, once you have a claim, is not so +easy as picking wild cranberries. It is dogged work to build fires day +after day, running the risk of suffocation and permanent injury to the +eyes by the smoke, and pulling up the dirt, bucketful after bucketful, +by means of a windlass, with the thermometer forty below zero--and the +prospect of cooking your own dinner. The rising steam from the thawing +pay-dirt of the drifts, which fills the valley with mist, adds the +discomfort of humidity to the biting cold. Though the man who turns the +windlass may have to beat his hands and dance about to keep warm, he is +never in positive danger as is his partner below, who, in returning to +relight one of the series of nicely arranged piles of wood which have +failed to ignite, is likely to be suffocated, or, barring such slips +as this or any consequent accident, is sure to suffer continually from +soreness and smarting of the eyes, if not to have them permanently +injured by the smoke. + +In one spot of three or four square feet on Eldorado, the nuggets are +so thick that you can pick them out by hand as a farmer’s boy picks +potatoes out of a hill. In juxtaposition there may be as many more +square feet which are not considered worth thawing and sluicing; and +so the angles of the drifts seem like the path of a man of vacillating +mind trying to make his way to the light in darkness. From two to three +feet above the real bedrock is the false bedrock, a stratum of stone +broken into angular fragments, apparently by some great force passing +overhead. Between the two is the best paying-dirt, and occasionally +here is found, perhaps with particles of gold sticking to it, the tusk +of a mammoth who was the ruler in the valley before the days of the +moose. + +In the angular fragments of the false bedrock the miners who are +fond of making out the reason of things over their cabin-fires, with +diversified reading in newspapers or even a dip in a text-book of +geology at school as basic knowledge, find support for their favorite +theory as to how the yellow particles came to their resting-place. +Gold had never been found before in such incongruous surroundings. +Therefore, they contend, it must have been borne from its point of +precipitation by some force worthy of the situation and of Alaska, +where nature has a gift for seemingly paradoxical performances done on +a Brobdingnagian scale. What else but a glacier was equal to the feat? +It had scattered wealth in its progress like some good Lady Bountiful, +crushing with its great weight the false bedrock between whose +fragments the dust had fallen by force of gravity to the true bedrock. + +Another, a smaller and perforce a more confident school of thought, +holds that an ancient volcano “coughed” the dust out of the bowels of +the earth. + +[Illustration: On the Creeks.] + +For my part, inasmuch as the geologists themselves have come to no +certain conclusion, I hold that all the gold which has been found +in the Klondyke and Indian River districts was smelted in a great +pot in The Dome and has leaked out of its cracks. Then, as a fitting +corollary, I desire that one day an old forty-niner, as sturdy and as +fine as an old weather-beaten oak, shall discover the pot and find +a leverage strong enough to lift the cover off it; whereupon, a good +guardian, gently reserving enough of his millions to give him a certain +annuity for life, he may spend the rest in ’Frisco after the manner +of his own choosing as quickly as he can. But I am certain--such is +the irony of fate--that, instead of him, the happy man will be an +Oklahoma “boomer,” the father of several strapping daughters, who never +panned a handful of dirt before he mortgaged his all in order to buy +a Klondyker’s outfit. He will set his daughters up in the capitals of +Europe, where they will marry continental noblemen, while the whole +family will be miserable for life. + +In candor, I must say that with mine as with most theories there are +facts which go to contradict it. The claims on the upper reaches of the +creeks, which have their origin on the slopes of The Dome, are much +richer than those on the lower reaches, where the dust is finer and +more travel-worn as well as more scattering. But in the head-waters +nothing has yet been found which is worth the working. So either all +the gold leaked out some time before this force that carried it ceased +to operate, or the mythical person who has charge of the pot mended +the cracks, or, possibly--and this is my hope--the fortunes which have +already been brought to light were only an overflow, the palpable +result of the chemist in charge of the vessel having misjudged its +capacity. + +By the fifteenth of May the drifts were filled or partly filled with +seepage which had frozen below a depth of a few feet, where the +temperature is never above freezing. Work in them was at an end by +the first of May, when the surface earth had begun to thaw a little +at midday. Then the plane, saw, and hammer took the place of the pick +and shovel. If they had used rosewood at New York or London prices +the miners could not have built their flumes and sluice-boxes out of +more expensive material than that they had in the warping, knotty fir +boards which were condescendingly sold at $250 a thousand by the three +saw-mills in the country. Once the flumes were laid to the gulches and +to the dams in the creek itself, the sluice-boxes were properly laid +on the dumps which were to be washed first and the gates between the +two were made tight, the community was ready to reap the reward of a +winter’s toil as soon as the sun should thaw the drifts of snow on the +mountain-sides sufficiently to make a sluice-head of water. + +There followed a brief period of inactivity like that between sowing +and harvest for the farmer. Every man had his opinion of how much the +output of all the creeks would be, and the estimates varied from six to +fifteen millions. Within the big world of speculation there were the +small worlds of the groups of cabins which clustered around that of the +owner of each claim on Eldorado and Bonanza. For the laymen who had +taken portions of claims to work on shares and for the claim-owners, +especially those who had employed the workers on their claims at daily +wages, it was an interval of some anxiety. They would soon know in what +measure the estimates that they had made from specimens of pay-dirt +panned out in buckets of water in their cabins during the winter would +be verified. Men who had more than a hundred thousand dollars in their +dumps possibly had not five dollars in cash in their possession. + +The members of no community had ever been submitted to a greater burden +of usury. They bore it with rare good-nature. What else were they to +do? they asked. They needed money for wages, for food for their men, +and for lumber, and those in town who had money knew the value of it. +The regular rate in the winter was ten per cent. a month, and some of +the so-called millionnaires who had owned nothing except an outfit two +years before were owing as much as $25,000 on from three to six months’ +time. + +A spirit of optimism and good cheer prevailed. A sun bath, lounging in +a home-made chair on the stoop of a cabin (perhaps with a pair of moose +horns forming an ornamental back), was a luxury better appreciated in +the Klondyke than in a temperate clime. Sometimes a breeze, with a +faint odor of fir-trees and of the many wild flowers which spring up in +tropical luxuriance in the spring, came down the valley. Over the hills +were young birches which yielded a delicious sap for the tapping. There +was even gratitude to the tyrant windlass of the winter days in that it +had supplied exercise, given an appetite, kept the blood circulating, +and prevented the scurvy, which is to be dreaded only by the man who +lounges in his cabin, does not wash himself, does not cook his food +properly, and endeavors generally to imitate the bear. Nearly everyone +could hope, if he did not expect, that his claim or his lay would turn +out as well as he had estimated. At all events, he would have some +spending money. He knew that the early boats from Lake Le Barge would +bring in many luxuries just at the opportune moment when the “clean-up” +was about finished and he might go to “town.” He smacked his lips in +anticipation of the day when he would have all the eggs that he could +eat, regardless of their cost. + +One day the sun suddenly beat down with great fierceness, which was +unabated for several days. Then the water came gushing down the flumes +in greater quantity than was needed, and the men picked up their picks +and shovels again and began peeling off the dirt on the dumps and +tossing it into the sluice-boxes. The warmth was prolonged through the +night, so that the dirt continued to thaw as fast as they could strip +it off, and on many claims--whose owners had foresight or were in luck, +as one pleases to put it--there were two shifts working all the time +except when, once or twice a day, the boxes were being “cleaned” of +the accumulation of gold and the sand which sinks with it between the +cleats. The snowdrifts were melting as if they were under a blowpipe. +Even the tiny streams of the gulches become torrents, dams had to be +opened, and some sluice-boxes floated away from their moorings. Only +too soon was the loss of the wasted energy brought home. With the +snow gone and rains and the seepage from the thawing surface the only +source of water supply, the currents dwindled until many claims had +not a single sluice-head. The claim-owners on the tributary Eldorado, +with as much dirt to wash as the main stream Bonanza, particularly +had cause to resent the prodigality of nature in expending all of its +ammunition at once. Instead of having finished their washing in June as +they had confidently expected, all through July they were measuring the +head of water from hour to hour with the care of a physician feeling a +patient’s pulse. + +When the “clean-up” of a day’s shovelling was made, you might feast +your eyes on the consummation of the harvest. The water was shut off +and the cleats in the boxes were lifted and rinsed, leaving a residue +which glistened with yellow particles. Just a small stream was turned +on by the man at the water-gates, who was probably making the most +of his rest from shovelling by smoking a pipe of cut plug, and then +turned off again, or on a little more or off a little less, while the +most expert miner on the claim pushed the speckled sand-pile back and +forth with a common brush-broom until all the foreign particles had +floated off, except a sprinkling of the heavy black sand which is +invariably the companion of placer gold. + +Three or four or five thousand dollars--perhaps ten or fifteen or +twenty thousand if the “clean-up” be on Eldorado--which is three or +four or five double handfuls, is put into a pan with an ordinary +fire-shovel. The sight is bound to make your blood run faster and to +color your reason with an epic enthusiasm. That little yellow pile, you +know at a glance, will stand the test of chemicals. It must also accept +the concrete responsibility for all the disappointments, sufferings, +and deaths of the pilgrims on the trail and the worries of their +friends and relatives at home. Once you have seen a “color” in the +bottom of a pan with the black sand following it around like a faithful +servant, you can never again be deceived by the glitter of any false +gods. You would know it if you saw it between cobblestones on Broadway, +or if it were no larger than a pin-head at the bottom of a trout-pool. + +It is small wonder that once a man is a prospector, in good faith, +not a child of a wild stampede, he is always a prospector. There is +an heroic aspect, the more charming in contrast to the complexity of +civilization, in going from creek to creek which have no place on the +maps of geographical societies, taking a pan of dirt here and a pan of +dirt there, breathing fresh air, a zest given to your exercise by the +hope of success. + +For the moment, the yellow pile makes you feel like seeking a claim of +your own and harvesting its treasure for yourself. But when you look +at the miry path along the base of the mountain by the creek-side, and +think of following it with a pack on your back until it is no more, and +a wilderness begins; of passing on over the mountains until you come +to what you consider a likely place, and thawing through thirty feet +of earth at a rate of a foot a day in the hap-hazard possibility of +finding “pay-dirt,” you conclude that the poetry of the thing can be +better appreciated by sitting on someone else’s dump. + +Besides, as one who did a little prospecting on his own account and is +proud to say that he found a few “colors”--which is just what anyone +else can do in the Klondyke region--I observed that the recent arrivals +of Nestorian prospectors who took a delight in quoting to you from +Emerson when their hands were reeking with clay and their gray locks +were sticking through the crowns of old hats, do not like Alaska, +though free to admit its material opportunities. They could not be +weaned from the temperate climate and the skies of California, and were +determined to return to their old stamping-grounds, where any honest +prospector can get a grubstake from a speculative city man, and needs +nothing more to make him happy and free. + +After a few days’ washing the hopes of most of the laymen were +shattered; and so far as their peace of mind was concerned, the +worst of it was that they had only their own lack of foresight to +blame. They had learned that even in the Klondyke men do not make a +practice of giving fortunes away to strangers--except to music-hall +artistes--though, as in the centres of civilization, they often +negotiated a bargain with an air of self-sacrifice which is an +assumption of as much. + +Such was the attitude of many of the claim-owners below the discovery +claim on Bonanza and of a few above who had prospected their claims +well enough to have some idea of what was in them. They concluded to +let out their ground to be worked on shares, two men to each section, +which is called a lay. Many, especially those who had come in with +the little pilgrimage that reached Dawson in the autumn of ’97, were +enraptured over the chance of getting a portion of a claim on the +original creek and not far from “discovery,” at that. + +The number of applications quite exceeded the number of lays to be +let, and all through the winter the laymen on Bonanza were the envy +of their fellows. The samples which they washed out in their cabins +had the peculiarity of bringing promises up to original expectations, +because the laymen had the weakness of selecting the samples from their +best dirt. When the man who was in the drift came to one of those +rare spots in the pay-streak of Lower Bonanza where he could see the +tiny particles shining in the wall of earth like golden hoar-frost, +he gleefully called out to his “pardner” at the windlass to take it +into the cabin so they could see how much it ran to the bucket. In +the evening the happy children, upon the result as a basis, quite +overestimating the amount of dirt they had in their dumps, figured +out small fortunes for themselves, spoke of the claim-owner as a good +angel, hugged their knees fondly, as if they had materialized into +dust, and saw brilliant pictures in their smoke rings. + +In their letters, detailing their success to the folks at home, they +promised their wives new gowns and their daughters pianos. They were +doing so well that they felt that they could afford holidays. They fell +into the way of “knocking off” by mutual consent at noon on days when +they had to bake bread. If it was a little colder than usual in the +morning they succumbed to the temptation of making more figures and +dreaming more dreams by the fire and postponing work until the morrow. +“The gold’s in the ground; it’s ours. All we’ve got to do is to take it +out, and we’ve got to stay here two or three winters, anyway,” was the +argument with which they excused themselves. The size of their dumps +beside those excavated by employees who worked by the hour was a silent +commentary on the value of discipline. + +Mid-July found them in Dawson in a mood to afford at least one +more dish of eggs, one more dinner at the restaurant before they +settled down to the economical life which their necessities required. +Occasionally they took out of their pockets, to amuse their friends, +clippings from the home paper, in which they saw themselves made out +millionnaires. They reread the letters from home which had come along +with the clippings in the first mail down the river, and confronted +deep perplexities. It was only human that they should wish that the +wife had not gone so far as actually to order the piano and the gown. +While they calculated how much they would need for their winter’s +outfit and how much they could send home--if that fund did not all go +for eggs before the problem was settled--they formulated the wording of +their replies by which they should explain the situation. + +To the credit of the sex be it said that the wives of some of the +unfortunate laymen knew their husbands’ weaknesses. One optimist, who +had taken only $900 out of his claim instead of the $10,000 that he had +anticipated, received this reply from home: + +“God bless you, Charlie, but we’ve made too many ten thousands without +ever getting them for me to count my chickens before they’re hatched. +I’m being as economical as I can, and telling the neighbors that I hope +you’ll make a good year’s wages, but that it’s too early to tell yet +for certain.” + +Most of the laymen, if they had worked steadily for eight hours a +day--more are scarcely practicable on account of the long nights--would +have had more than the equivalent of the prevailing rate of wages. +Those who had felt themselves to be unfortunate in not getting lays and +had sought employment, because they had someone to tell them to go to +work in the morning, were in the mood of the school-boy who had studied +during the term and passed his examination as opposed to the boy who +had not. Their employers were better satisfied because their claims had +been worked with more system and thoroughness than the others, and were +more than glad to pay the interest, heavy as it was, on their borrowed +capital. + +While the laymen were inclined to exaggerate the amount of their +earnings in order to decrease the discrepancy between their winter +boasts and their spring returns, the claim-owners themselves, who early +in May were serene optimists and put the total output of the country +at $15,000,000, by the end of May were dour pessimists, asserting +their unbounded faith that the total output would not be more than +$6,000,000. Early in May, you see, there was an impression that the +Government royalty of ten per cent. on the gross product of all claims +had been repealed. At the end of May, Major Walsh, the Commissioner +of the Yukon District, arrived with the positive information that the +royalty would be collected. Most of the claim-owners on Bonanza had +suffered the same disillusion as their laymen; but most of them, if +the Government had not decided that they would have to pay the royalty +on the laymen’s gold as well as on their own, would have put on a bold +front, especially as their claims were for sale. + +When claim-owners met on the trail, after comparing notes as to the +number of eggs eaten at the first sitting, the invariable remark was: + +“I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about your claim being sold!” + +For no one was certain whether he or some stranger owned the wealth of +his dumps. Without any property under consideration by the capitalists +of London or New York, you were a kind of social outcast. Claims +that were under options were as common as mortgages formerly were on +farms in Kansas. + +[Illustration: A Flume on Bonanza Creek.] + +The prospect of famine during the winter had been responsible for this. +Some enterprising fellows, who were among the first to go out over the +ice, made the best of their opportunity as connecting links between an +isolated community and civilization. + +“Here you are,” they said to the claim-owners on Eldorado and Bonanza, +“paying a dollar and a quarter and a dollar and a half an hour for +labor and thawing the dirt out by inches, when capitalists, with +cheaper labor and improved appliances, can take it out for half the +money. Why, it’s a case of the old stage coach against the lightning +express. If they can block a number of claims and work ’em together, +they’ll gladly pay you on the spot more’n you can get out of your claim +the way you’re working it, and make a good thing out of it too. The +whole outside’s wild over the Klondyke. The capitalists are longing for +the chance. All that’s got to be done is to lay it before ’em. You name +your price and give me six months’ option and we’ll take ’em out and +sell ’em. What we get for ’em’s our affair. We’ll make our commission +out of the difference.” + +The enthusiasts believed what they said. They assured themselves and +the claim-owners that none of the arguments which held good in other +mining camps could apply in this instance. The Klondyke was a law unto +itself in all matters of investment, they said. They put dust from each +of the claims which they were to sell in a separate bag, and this they +were to offer to the simple-minded financiers of London and New York +as a guarantee of the correctness of their several representations. +Each zealous miner being desirous that his claim should show up well on +the list, some of the promoters obtained several thousand dollars in +nuggets. + +Such examples of success were not without their effect upon those who +went out over the ice at later periods. The field of all the claims +on the creeks as yet demonstrated to be valuable having been worked, +they turned their attention to those creeks which had been staked on +unfounded rumors by stampedes, and possibly were worth no more than +the beds of so many creeks in the valley of the Hudson River. They +neglected none of the details. Because it looks better to the lay eye, +they chose dust from Eldorado as examples of the product of these “wild +oat prospectors.” + +The moral effect of the option craze was unfortunate in more respects +than one. Men who owned claims on stampede creeks felt that they could +afford to waste their winter in idleness in their cabins as long as +they had property in the hands of New York capitalists. They could not +escape the heresy that a claim in the Klondyke, no matter what its +location, was regarded by the outside world as a valuable piece of +property. It was especially hard for those who had not funds enough to +buy their winter’s outfit, as they inquired along the river bank, day +after day, as the boats came in, to learn finally that the promoters +to whom they had intrusted their claims had arrived on the Pacific +Coast just at the time when the Klondyke was forgotten and all public +interest was centred in another subject, and, accordingly, had enlisted +in the volunteer army. + +Those promoters with small ambitions fared the best. In London +they sold a few of the cheaper claims, which, as a rule, were +disappointments to the purchasers. But sometimes it is better to be +trusting than to be wise. One young Englishman bought a claim on +Sulphur for $2,000 which would not have sold for $500 in Dawson at the +time. When he arrived to take possession of it in June, its value had +risen so rapidly on account of the later development of the creek that +he sold it for $20,000. The anxiety of the claim-owners on the new +creeks, as Sulphur, Dominion, and Hunker--all having their head-waters +on the slopes of The Dome--were called, lest the promoters had sold +their claims, was as great as that of some of the claim-owners on +Bonanza lest their claims had not been sold. Perhaps as many as thirty +claims on the new creeks had been worked to any extent during the past +winter, with such results as to increase their speculative value by +five hundred per cent. + +The forty happy kings of the forty claims on Eldorado also preferred +not to sell. That “pup” returned good for evil. It heaped satire upon +the satirists who had given it its name as a joke, and continued to +surpass all expectations. The optimism which over-estimated Bonanza +under-estimated Eldorado. These forty kings, as they compared the +output with their figures, concluded, with some pride, that all born +mathematicians are inclined to be too conservative. + +You could see the dust glistening in the dumps of the “pup.” The water +gurgling over the cleats in the sluice-boxes seemed to sing a merrier +song than on Bonanza. Every shovelful which it bore chuckling over the +cleats yielded up a dollar or more. It licked twice as much off rocks +that had to be lifted out of the sluice-boxes by hand because its +current was not strong enough to carry them on down to the waste pile. +At intervals, nuggets of some size were unearthed by the spade and were +tossed into a pan at one side. If you were a friend of the claim-owner +he would beg you to take your pick of the lot as a souvenir of the day. +But you would not get one worth more than ten or fifteen dollars, even +if you were greedy enough to choose it for its size rather than for its +beauty. The giants--one was found worth $600 and those worth from $50 +to $100 were not infrequent--had been spied in the drifts in the winter. + +A magnificent carelessness of details prevailed. A scientific miner who +had seen fortunes made in California out of a cent a pan would have +regarded the forty kings in the light of infants making a holiday with +a tack hammer and a gold watch. They could afford to laugh back at him +in return. There is some reason in their philosophy that one cannot +afford to pay men a dollar and a quarter an hour to pick up stray +pennies, and more in the philosophy that when you have a fortune you +have enough. + +It was not yet in the old-timer’s nature, rapidly as his character was +changing, to squeeze the last cent out of Mother Earth, in the manner +of some hard taskmaster, when she had given to him such a bountiful +harvest. A little line of dust, like a braid of gold lace, remaining on +either side of the sluice-boxes after a day’s clean-up was dismissed +with the remark that it would “come out in the wash” next time. If the +workman who had the uncomfortable and unhealthy position--especially +when the sun was directly overhead--of standing in the dump-box, took +a few minutes’ rest, he shrugged his shoulders and said that any dust +that was lost in the meantime could be a boon to the Chinamen who, +coming humbly after the white man’s departure, would patiently take +fortunes out of the white man’s tailings--unless the capitalist should +make the valley resound with the toil of machinery manned by cheap +labor, thus cheating poor John out of what he has come to regard as the +right of his race in placer mining countries. + +[Illustration: Shovelling a Clean-Up into a Gold Pan.] + +[Illustration: Cleaning Up.] + +There was not one strong box for the safekeeping of the daily harvest +of thousands on all of the creeks. The bags of dust were kept in the +little cellars which the miners had excavated under their cabins for +the preservation of their food. There was a joke which went the round +of the firesides during the food-panic that it would be cheaper to +fry the dust and save the hams. For the bags, made of roughly tanned +moosehide, the Indians received prices in keeping with those of other +things. They bore the owner’s name printed in ink, if ink could be +obtained; their capacity was about $5,000 each, and they were not +unlike, in their freshness as well as in their size, the dirty, worn, +brown little bags which were carried in lieu of purses. Three or four +of them were all that you cared to carry on your back. When you met +men on the trail bending as under heavy packs of slight bulk, you knew +their business. If there were many bags there might be an escort with +a rifle and there might not. Most of the claim-owners thought nothing +of sending several thousands by their employees, unaccompanied, to be +deposited in one of the Commercial Companies’ stores; but once the +“Cheechawkos” began to arrive, all sought locks for their cellar-doors. + + + + +VI + +SOME KLONDYKE TYPES + + THE FOOL AND HIS LUCKY FRIENDS--MORE THEORIZERS--JOE STALEY + AND BILLY DEDDERING--FRENCH GULCH BENCH--GOOD FORTUNE THAT WAS + DESERVED--NEIGHBORS AND TWINS--NO CURE FOR THE GOLD FEVER. + + +It was the greater world of the Klondyke that was bounded by the creek +claims. A smaller world was bounded by the hill-sides where there were +many fresh mounds of earth, suggesting that the population might be +digging their graves one by one. Graves of ambitions most of these +mounds were, in all truth. A few, readily distinguished as far as you +could see the two figures hovering over them, were the birthplaces of +the fortune which the figures were exhuming with the orthodox rocker. + +The original nugget washed out of a bench and deposited where Indian +Charlie’s gaze would light on it did not lead, even indirectly, to +the discovery of the wealth of the benches. This honor belongs to a +stalwart Swede, whose race in the Klondyke is the general butt of that +fine wit of our own race which makes a mark of a foreigner’s broken +English and his efforts to understand strange manners and a strange +language. One day in the spring of 1897 he went up the slope above his +cabin near the mouth of Eldorado and began to strip off the muck as +fast as the sun thawed it. Directly his neighbors saw what he was doing +they began to compose satirical remarks against the time when he should +come down. + +“Why don’t you go looking for gold up a tree?” they asked him. + +“I tank gold no grow on trees,” he replied, in all candor. + +“Say, did you ever hear,” they continued, as they held their sides, +“that the weight of gold makes it sink? I suppose you think the glacier +walked up on the hills and left a few millions there. The millions +didn’t roll down? Oh, no! That’s why we have to sink through thirty +feet in the creek bed to pay dirt. Better try the trees! You might find +a bear up the trees and bear meat would be worth three pennyweights a +pound in town.” + +“If you don’t dig some hole you no find gold. By tam! I dig a hole if +I vant to,” he replied, as he went into his cabin. + +“Well of all the fools,” they said, “it takes a Swede to beat the lot.” + +Men passing on the trails stopped to look up to the point where the +“fool” was working, grew friendly in despising him, and carried the +joke to the ends of the creeks and to Dawson, where it was elaborated +over the bars. + +One evening the “fool” quietly called on all of his friends among his +fellow Scandinavians, as well as upon certain Anglo-Saxons who had not +made fun of his English. They followed him up the hill and drove stakes +in the neighborhood of his prospect hole. The twinkle in his blue eye +was not unkind, though suggestive, the next morning when he showed to +the scoffers a handful of nuggets from a claim which was worth $50,000. +But scoffers accept nothing on faith. They would not believe that he +took the nugget out of the hill until they had panned some of his dirt +themselves. + +“Well, of all the lucky fools,” they said, “it takes a Swede to beat +the lot! Here’s millions been lyin’ within ten rods of us for a year +and we never knowed it.” + +Those who had sharpened their wits at the discoverer’s expense now +hastened to get a claim as near as possible to his, until a mile of +Bonanza on both sides of the creek was taken up, from the point where +the slopes meet the creek bed to their summit. Theories about the +habits of the glacier were qualified by the experts. Thenceforth, it +stood to reason that the breadth of no glacier of such importance would +be limited to that of a creek. The scoffers soon found themselves +saying that this had been their opinion all along, and eventually +became so imaginative as to hint that they had advised the Swede to +make the experiment. + +Poetic justice attended the immediate outcome of the stampede. The +pioneer and the parasite got their fit rewards. There was less than +an acre of good pay dirt on Skookum Bench, as it was called, and this +mostly fell to the discoverer and his friends. Here and there in the +neighborhood good day’s wages could be made with a rocker, and nothing +more. Enthusiasm over bench claims languished. + +“It was just like a Swede to strike the only rich bench in the whole +country the first time that he put his pick in the ground,” said the +scoffers. In their pessimistic philosophy, which exults over deserted +prospect holes, the latest strike is always bound to be the last. They +are the very ones who were the greatest optimists when they left home +to try their luck in the North against the advice of their friends. +This weakness is likely to grow on Klondykers who become too fond of +a sedentary life, unless their supply of bacon runs out and forces +action, or they awaken to a sense of their growing degradation when +they eat fresh eggs in Dawson and then see the world in bright colors +again. But long after the cynics are dead, strikes will be made in +Alaska by the class of real prospectors who cheerily face all hardships +and get out of them good digestions for anything from flapjacks to +moose gristle or even boiled willow roots. + +Joe Staley and Billy Deddering, who discovered French Gulch Bench, +the richest of all the benches, the spring following the discovery of +Skookum Bench, were of the order of real prospectors. They had served +their apprenticeship in various parts of the Rockies, which are the +playground of free men from end to end. + +Fond as I am of the California prospector, I am unwilling to accept the +verdict of his squint whenever he brings it to bear on a portion of +the earth’s surface, though Billy Deddering, I admit, as he understands +relative values, has reason to believe in his. But, in one sense, I +rejoice with him in his faith, inasmuch as the scoffers, who want to +make out that all success in the Klondyke comes from luck, and that +they have failed because they never had any, spun the yarn that a log +which he was shooting down the hill for a cabin knocked a nugget out of +the ground and thus became the godfather of his fortune. + +Some two miles above the mouth of Eldorado, French Gulch splits the +embankment which forms the western wall of the valley of Eldorado. +Billy’s squint, when he brought it to bear on the rounded corner of the +embankment on the lower side of the gulch in something of the manner of +an old-fashioned marine covering a sail with his telescope, told him +that this was exactly the place where gold ought to be found, even if +it was not. The first hole that he sunk yielded only colors. A clerk +from London or the Eastern seaboard of the United States might have +gone back down the hill with his pick and shovel in a fit of blues and +never come up again. Billy was not in the least discouraged. He merely +readjusted his squint, and concluded: + +“If ’tain’t here it must be farther up.” + +So it was. In the next hole he took $187 out of his first pan on +bedrock. Joe was with him at the time, but at the request of Joe I give +all the credit for the discovery to Billy. + +“It was Billy’s idea entirely,” Joe said. “He spotted the ground first.” + +“What did you do,” I asked Billy, “when you struck it after all your +years of buffeting about from one camp to another?” + +“Well,” he replied, “I looked around to see if anybody had seen us.” + +“Nobody did see us, so far as we could make out,” Joe put in, “but they +must have noticed that we went down the hill as light as if we was +walkin’ on feathers, though we was tryin’ to look very solemn, like we +was at a funeral. When somebody asked us if we had found anything I +reckon we kind o’ started, though we was careful to say, ‘Jest a few +colors.’ But durned if the crowd wasn’t up there ’fore the few friends +we had among our neighbors had fairly got their stakes in the ground.” + +“And you, Joe? What did you think of that night before you turned in?” + +“Old’s I am, and long’s I’ve been knockin’ about the world, I’ve never +been married, and naturally I thought what a surprise it would be to +mother, when she got a letter sayin’ that her oldest boy was comin’ +back to ’hio with a pile to pay off the mortgage and spend the rest of +his days on the old homestead.” + +“And you, Billy?” + +“I wished I was in ’Frisco with that hundred and eighty-seven.” + +Many times I climbed the hill to have a talk with Joe and Billy. +They were a relief from the loungers and speculators in the hotel +at the Forks, who seemed to think that the business of a newspaper +correspondent was to expound the possibility of the schemes for +enlisting capital which they were promoting. It was a pleasure to look +into the good faces of Joe and Billy, and to shake their hands, caked +with clay. I sat on a stone and smoked my pipe, while Joe carried +buckets of dirt to Billy, who looked up with a smile on his round +German face, which was spattered with drops of mud that had splashed +out of the rocker when he shook it, or when he ladled water on to the +dirt with a dipper made out of a butter-can. Joe said that he didn’t +mind if the fact that he had struck it was published in the _Sydney_ +(Ohio) _Journal_, but beyond that I knew he had no axes to grind, and +my highest ambition for the moment was that they should think me a +good fellow, while their greatest fear was that I was starving because +I would not go up to the tent and have a cup of coffee and a “bite to +eat” in the middle of the afternoon. + +The sun was accommodating enough to thaw the dirt as fast as Billy +could rock it, and Joe could bring it a little faster than either the +sun could thaw it or Billy could rock it. This allowed Joe intervals +in which to rest, to entertain me, and to relight his pipe. I used to +offer my pouch to him, telling him that he would get more smoke if he +used tobacco. + +“Couldn’t think of it. There’s nothin’ so sweet as the heel,” he would +say. “It gives me a puff, and that’s all I want.” + +It was not surprising that he wondered why the supplies of tobacco +which other men had brought in with their outfits were long ago +exhausted, while he had plenty left. He protested, notwithstanding +Billy’s denials, that he filled his pipe every morning--at least, +almost every morning. + +The experience of seeking with his own hands wealth direct from the +hands of Mother Nature had chiselled out the lines of his face in +distinct, unqualified characteristics, without any of the doubtful +gingerbread work which we find on faces in civilization. It was like +the weather-beaten image on some old church, careless of the storms +which make a new image streaked and mean. He and his “pardner” were +“rocking out” five hundred dollars a day; he was no man’s servant and +no man’s master, and more of a king than kings. I have gathered nuggets +on his claim as easily as I have picked up white pebbles on the beach +in boyhood. + +The great difficulty is in developing such a wonderful squint as +Billy Deddering’s and in finding the exact spot where such nests of +nuggets are located. If ever there was a poor man’s claim it is the +bench claim. All you need to work it are a rocker, which costs fifteen +dollars, and your pick and shovel. A blind ditch whose frozen walls are +as tight as a porcelain bath-tub will catch the seepage from the pay +dirt, which is thawed by the sun as it is gradually exposed. So you +have all the water that you need, without too much. If the bedrock be +at some depth, you can work in winter as well as in summer. A year at +the most will suffice to take out your fortune; and you have no worry +over borrowed money, flumes, sluices, or dams. + +If Billy had not already staked his bench claim rights for the Bonanza +Creek region, he and Joe would not have had to be content with a single +claim, and one of them would have got the claim just above discovered, +which was even richer, two men taking as high as a thousand dollars a +day out of it. Here was dirt richer than any on Eldorado itself, twenty +of whose forty working claims, probably containing thirty million +dollars, stretched out in a panorama before you when you looked either +up or down the creek. If one could have had a claim on the bench of the +size of the creek claims, instead of one only a hundred feet square, he +would have been more than a millionaire; and by hiring labor he could +have left the country in three months after the discovery with his +money in his pocket. + +Sad to say, there was not room for all on French Gulch Bench any more +than on Eldorado. The whole extent of the pay dirt was not more than +two or three acres. It was just as large as the dip in the hill-side, +which, according to the theory of Billy, caught and held the gold when +it was travelling, while all that passed over the rim went on down to +the creek bed below, leaving only an occasional color in its track. +But I disagree with Billy. I think that all is accounted for by the +giant keeper of the pot in The Dome having thrown out a handful of the +overflow across the hills. This makes the presence of wash-gravel, +which is absent, unnecessary, and reconciles itself to the presence of +nuggets in rotten mica shist, which is the most inexcusable of all the +paradoxes in Alaska, the old prospectors say. + +Aside from Billy and Joe, I came to know some of their fortunate +neighbors. Dan Saunders probably had the best claim of all. He was at +the hotel at the Forks one day, and in his cups when a man offered +in the bar-room to sell a claim on French Gulch Bench for a hundred +dollars. The Forks is the Stock Exchange of the creeks, and at that +moment, on account of some rumor, the opinion ruled that the bench had +been salted. The claim-owner believed it. Dan said he would give fifty +down and the first fifty out of the claim, and the offer was accepted. +The morning after, when Dan’s wit was not so brilliant, but his +reasoning faculties had improved, he went up to look at his elephant. +He came down a week later and tried to spend the two or three thousand +dollars he had taken out in the meantime. He could dispose of only part +of it, and returned to his claim in despair, somewhat disgusted with +city life. + +Burke, who owned the claim next to Saunders, was a type of the runaway +boys from the East who have turned up in the Klondyke after having +served an apprenticeship in the West. This one reaped among the harvest +of his wild oats the largest nugget that was taken out of French Gulch +Bench. It was the shape of an oblong pancake, without any quartz in it, +and worth $210. When I met him in Dawson one morning, he was gleeful +over the joke he had played on the old folks at home. For the first +time in five years he had written to them. They had as good reasons to +suppose that he was dead as that he was in the Klondyke. + +“Won’t their eyes pop and won’t they have something to tell the +neighbors when they find out that their worthless Tom is comin’ home +with fifty thousand cold!” + +That same day I dined with Joe Staley at the foremost restaurant in +town. When we had eaten fresh eggs and other luxuries which had just +been brought in from the “outside,” as he pushed his plate away from +him he shook his head dubiously: + +“I dunno as I’ll be so happy as I thought, when I settle down among +the cows and chickens,” he mused. “This grub don’t taste the way I +thought ’twould. Darned if I don’t like the beans and bacon that I have +up at the claim better, and I’ll be glad to be back carryin’ dirt to +the rocker for Billy to-morrow. They say once the gold fever’s in a +fellow’s bones it sticks like the rheumatiz, and I believe it. I reckon +it’s the only thing I’ll be satisfied with in this life. But I won’t +prospect in this godless region. I’ll go back to Californy.” + +On my way to see Joe and Billy I often stopped for a chat with Ned and +Fred Beck, who were sinking a shaft to bedrock at the base of French +Gulch Bench hill. These twin brothers had been “pardners” for forty +years. They had the vigor which comes from living among the Rockies. +Their faces, framed in white beards, were fresh and smiling. The +archaic furnace which they had constructed for sharpening their +tools, if not their age and personal resemblance, would have attracted +attention. + +[Illustration: The Discoverers of French Gulch Bench at Work.] + +[Illustration: Pardners and Twins for Forty Years.] + +“Have you never quarrelled?” I asked. + +“Oh, yes, lots of times,” said Fred, “and agreed on quits lots of +times, too. After Ned’s had a drink or two he always gets cranky and +wants to start out for himself.” + +“Not much crankier’n you do,” Ned put in. + +“That’s right,” Fred assented. “But when we’re sober we make it up +again and are ashamed of ourselves. We may be twins, but we’re just +fitted for each other.” + +“That’s right, too,” Fred assented. + + + + +VII + +GETTING ACQUAINTED + + MR. AND MRS. “MEENACH” AND THEIR MENAGE--THE JUVENILE MINING COMPANY, + LIMITED--VOSS--THE ARCH-DEACON--A SOUR-DOUGH STIFF--A DALMATIAN AND + A TURK--SIAWASH GEORGE AND HIS STEAM-ENGINE--MISS MULROONEY AT THE + FORKS--THE PRICE OF A “SQUARE” WITH TRIMMINGS. + + +One day, if the quartz claims which have been staked should fulfil the +hopes of their owners, the Klondyke will become a place of managers and +workmen, of stamp mills and chemical processes. To-day, there is very +little to say about the working of the mines, which is as simple as +building a fire, digging a well and doing the week’s wash, but much to +say about my friends and acquaintances there, who came from the ends +of the earth and represented most of its employments. Without knowing +individuals, the pilgrimage of the Cheechawkos would have meant no +more to me than a motley procession seen from a balcony. Those leading +citizens and well-known characters whom I met, under the guidance of +Captain Hansen in a round of the town on the evening after my arrival, +are worthy of a chapter by themselves. If I had taken advantage of all +the letters of introduction to claim-owners that they gave me I think +that I should have been three weeks in travelling the length of Bonanza. + +In return for hospitality that did not stand upon formality but laid +its hand on my shoulder and insisted, I could offer nothing except the +news from the “outside,” the bad news that there was no escape from the +royalty. I registered a vow that if I were to make the journey over +the ice again I would find room among my supplies for one more article +of luxury, or else forego the privilege of introductions. I saw in my +dreams the smiles with which my hosts would have greeted the offer of a +good cigar, until I had the conscience of a highway robber. + +“Don’t forget to call on Meenach!” said Captain Hansen. “He’s the +luckiest man in the country without exception. He doesn’t have to +darn his own socks and cook his own bacon and beans and you’ll know +him because he’s sleek and fat and clean-shaven. I walk up the creek +when I can get the time just for the privilege of poking my head in +at Meenach’s door. To a poor devil of a Klondyker it’s a peep into +paradise.” + +It was not enough that the fortunate Meenach should have his wife; he +had also his little boy of six and his two little girls, one of four +and the other of two years, with him. After he wrote to Mrs. Meenach +that he had killed his lion, she came on to him; and she brought with +her such thing as sheets, tablecloths, and pillows, and a regulation +cooking-stove. He never dared to compute just how much the stove had +cost him, preferring not to have his enjoyment of the luxury allayed. +The mere expense of bringing it up from Dawson would have bought two or +three good ones at home. + +To the miners the most wonderful feature of the Meenach cabin was the +carpet on the floor. Some of them wanted to take off their boots before +entering, and one suggested that if he were younger he would walk in on +his hands. + +“If you don’t mind,” he added, “I’ll sit with my back to the sheets on +the bed. It’s too much at a time. I want to drift into this easy like.” + +“Folks who live in castles may be bothered by having too many rooms to +care for,” said Mrs. Meenach, “but not I, in my cabin. I could put the +children to bed with one hand, stir something on the stove with the +other, and set the table with the third, if I had it. It’s no trouble +to go to the market in the morning. All our fresh vegetables are in +tin cans in the cache just outside the door. Oh, yes, there is much +to be thankful for if I look at it in the right light. We kept our +condensed cream, our canned asparagus and our canned peas all winter +without being frozen. Then, please heaven, something green grows in +this country. I have a little cranberry sauce from the poor cranberries +on the hill-side, and I agree with the children that it is ‘gooder’n’ +anything I ever tasted. If I could get a fresh cabbage I think I should +eat it all without waiting to put salt on it. Now I live from day to +day on the hopes of the eggs which are expected in on the first boats.” + +Thus she chatted while she warmed the tinned roast mutton in the +frying-pan, boiled the evaporated potatoes and the tinned sweet corn. + +“I’m not going to say that dinner, such as it is, is ready,” she said, +“because, in the Klondyke, that is quite superfluous.” + +It is good when you have eaten beans for a month off a tin plate +balanced upon your knee, to look upon a clean table-cloth again, to +sit by the window of a cabin in blissful certainty that your journey +is at an end, and have a good and gentle woman pour you a cup of tea. +I remember the meal as a banquet, not a dinner. After it was over, the +lord and master and I smoked our pipes until the little ones’ heads +began to nod, when I went into the cabin of one of his laymen to roll +up in my blanket. + +The children had reason to think that they were the only children in +the world and to be as proud as princes. But Mrs. Meenach’s fears lest +they should be spoiled by the adulation of the miners were equally vain +with her fears about their health. The extent of their illnesses was a +day’s indisposition on the part of the baby. Swathed in furs and scarfs +until only their noses were visible and their limbs were as stiff as +a doll baby’s, they might go out to play with their sleds for a few +moments at a time. Listening to the cries of the dog-drivers and the +howls of their steeds, which had turned their mother’s nerves on edge, +had been as good as the kuh-chuk-chuk-chuk of a railroad locomotive +to them. The miners, with frost-encrusted beards, were so many Father +Christmases who rarely forgot to bring a present of a nugget when they +came. + +With the coming of spring, an old Californian took the baby in his arms +while the brother and sister followed at his heels up the hill-side to +his bench claim. He showed them to a log, where they sat very gravely +while he unfolded to them a mighty scheme. In return for three kisses +apiece, one to be delivered when the bargain was struck and two when +the goods were delivered, he agreed to build for them a small rocker, +so that they could start a Mining Company (Limited) on their own +account. + +Their dividends were large until one of the laymen found out that they +were using the best portions of his dumps. Then the total income fell +to a dollar a day, which the boy explained was due to laxness on the +part of the president--his elder sister--and gross negligence on the +part of the assistant manager--the baby--who insisted upon turning the +gold pan bottom side up at critical moments. Their father played the +part of the unskilled laborer, and sometimes when he was ordered to +work he said, “In a minute!” an excuse which had to be accepted. The +time came when the old Californian could no longer keep his joke to +himself. + +“Meenach, seems to me I ’member tellin’ the youngsters that you’d carry +water for ’em to work the rocker with,” he chuckled. + +It was by a diversion from my programme that I spent the next night +with Voss. His name was not on my list, and I had never heard of it +until I drifted into his cabin. I was attracted by his speech, which +sounded a little unnatural in a community where expressions are +intended to convey a meaning and not to subserve the rules of grammar. +Despite his education, Voss was an old-timer among old-timers, greeting +them all by their first names. The most ferocious of them, out of whose +mouths an oath rolled with the ease and deliberation of their tobacco +smoke, regarded him as a personal friend. + +“He looks stuck up, but he ain’t stuck up,” they said. “He’s clean all +the way down and all the way through and game as a grizzly bear, and we +know. We’ve followed him on the trail.” + +The sincere fellowship which he felt for them in return belongs to +that philosophy which makes of the young men of old but impoverished +families, good and cheerful prospectors, ranchers, and cowboys. Not +in fancy--which misled so many poor souls among the Cheechawkos--but +in fact, they prefer the independent life of a mining camp to working +for a salary in a city; prefer washing their own dishes and rising +at 3 A.M., and harnessing the dogs to start on the trail to going to +an office every morning and leaving it every afternoon at a certain +hour. By all the manners that stamp the man, Voss was a child of +civilization, and such a child as was equal to carrying out his +determination not to return to it until he was master in his own right +of the little luxuries that keep the taste of ashes out of the mouth. +Often he spoke of these, then ran his hands into the pockets of his +overalls, took a pull at his pipe, and looked at his dumps with an +anticipation as keen as that of some naval captain of Drake’s day in +sight of the chalk cliffs of England, after years in foreign countries +on rations of hard biscuit. + +“But even before I carry out my plans of travel,” he said, “I shall buy +a ranch, where I shall have a home with no other habitations in sight; +where I shall have a good saddle-horse waiting for me, whenever I shall +grow tired of town. Once you have become accustomed to the silence of +the plains, the mountains, and the trail, mere country houses will not +satisfy you--something gets into the blood.” + +“You all catch it, I see,” I interrupted. “Joe Staley says it’s like +rheumatiz’ and it gets not into the blood but into the bones.” + +“Yes, bones--blood and bones, both!” was the reply. + +He had four retainers, who lived in his cabin: the boy, the Archdeacon, +Jim, and Grouse, the fox-terrier. The boy was sixteen or seventeen. He +had gone to the Klondyke, against his parents’ wishes, to find himself +nonplussed by the necessity of a food supply for the winter months. +Voss put him on his feet. The Archdeacon was of the Established Church +and a graduate of Oxford. He did not seem to be, but he must have been, +older than the boy, for he was gray and the father of three children. +Shortly after he was ordained archdeacon the something had “got into” +his blood and bones, and he vacillated between the church and travel +until his meanderings brought the promise of a brilliant career to the +guardianship of a flock of Indians, halfway around the world. He baked +the best bread that I ate in the Klondyke. Though he accepted praise on +that score as quietly as he did everything else, I could see that it +pleased him--better, perhaps, than the praise of a bishop. In getting +breakfast, which he had taken upon himself as one of his tasks, his +slippered feet moved about so softly that you were not awakened until +his voice called you at the right moment. + +“It is good to see many kinds of men and to do many things,” he +volunteered, as he lifted a flapjack from the skillet to my plate. +“When all the world was going to the Klondyke, I had to join the +throng. I got a lay on Bonanza and put some men to work on it. But, +unfortunately, I had no food for myself. Mr. Voss”--the Archdeacon +never omitted the Mister--“asked me to come and live with him through +the winter. What a pity it is that there isn’t such a good fellow as +Mr. Voss to take care of every unfortunate fellow like me!” + +Jim, in the language of the Klondyke, was a “sour-dough stiff,” and +he was certainly an unhappy man. A “sour-dough stiff” will, under no +circumstances, eat baking-powder bread. This eccentricity, developed +in the later years of a prospector’s life, generates others which are +its natural companions. He thinks that baking powder in the smallest +quantity is poisonous, and, therefore, is as finicky and miserable +as any other man who becomes a victim of dyspepsia through forever +thinking of some means to avoid it. + +In addressing his employer Jim uttered the word “Voss” in a harsh +voice, as if calling attention to its nudity and implying that he would +not subvert his rights as a free man by using “Mister,” though he were +to hang for it. He was the first to rise in the morning and he always +prepared his own breakfast. + +“Some folks don’t like my cookin’, an’ I don’t like some folks’ +cookin’, either,” he explained. + +On some occasions, when he felt a little lazy, he would condescend to +eat at the table with the others, but with an expression of martyrdom +on his thin, old face. Voss told me that Jim would probably confide to +me at the first opportunity how grossly the claim was mismanaged, and +so he did. Voss forgave his eccentricities partly because they amused +him and his friends, and partly because Jim was an expert in saving +fine gold from floating down to the waste pile. + +Jim’s contempt for the Alaskan miner’s knowledge of sluicing was +pleasant to hear unless you had to hear it often. He had a miniature +sluice for treating the residue which contains the lighter particles. +It were better to step on the hem of your wife’s skirt on the way to +the theatre than to lay your hands on this fine gold machine, as he +called it. Whether or not it was worth the time that Jim had spent in +building it, was a grave question with Voss. + +In making the “clean-up” Jim was the general in charge of the field. +The best-natured men on the claim were selected to assist him, and +even their patience sometimes gave out. Voss himself, accompanied by +the fox-terrier, who was general superintendent of the claim, winter +and summer, used to take up his station at the water gate. He did not +always interpret Jim’s orders satisfactorily, and I overheard this +grumbling complaint: + +“A man can’t play with a dog an’ pay ’tention to business at the same +time.” + +Everybody about the claim except Jim was the slave of the fox-terrier’s +moods. In New York or London you could have bought Grouse for five +dollars. Voss was offered $200 for him by another claim owner, but +would as soon have parted with his claim. I knew of only one other +terrier in the Klondyke. He was a companion, deserving the affix of +bull, of a doggy-looking man who walked up and down the river front of +Dawson. He was usually limping on three legs, but not infrequently on +two. He seemed to realize his position as the sole representative of +civilized dogdom among thousands of savages, and he no more thought of +surrender than a Roman prefect. The boast of his master that he could +whip any two or three of the huskies was well founded. Even when he was +attacked by a dozen he gave more wounds than he received, retreating +with the dignity of one who belongs to a ruling race. + +Provincial as Voss’s claim was in its isolation from the world, its +surroundings were cosmopolitan enough. Among his employees, aside from +Germans, Swedes, and French-Canadians, were a Dalmatian and a Turk. The +Turk was a good workman. When he had made his “stake” he was going to +buy a fig orchard in southern California. + +On the day that I visited the discovery claim of Siawash George, +which is only a short distance beyond Voss’s, several Cheechawkos were +panning some gravel at the very point where Indian Charlie had found +the famous nugget. They did not wash out a single color, and passed +on in disgust to do more prospecting on ground whose stakes--for the +most part fallen down--had been driven so long ago that the weather had +washed off the writing on their four hewn sides. Siawash George had +expended several thousand dollars in buying and bringing an old boiler +and engine up to his claim from Forty Mile. Owing to a fatal defect in +its pumping gear it would not supply half a sluice-head of water or do +the work of a small dam; but the noise of its puffing and his ability +to hire an engineer to superintend it at $15 a day greatly amused a +mind which had become aboriginal from family associations. + +Money playing an important part in the politics of Alaska as well as in +other countries, poor George had acquired a fortune only to find that +it was two-edged and might be an obstacle, as well as instrumental, in +the fulfilment of his royal ambition. On a fatal day he had brought +from Dawson to his wife some little brown things in a box which was +lettered in gilt. She had found them so superior to plain brown sugar +that they had opened a new world to her. She gave over her rights to +a throne to dream of the day when she should take passage on a Yukon +steamer to the land where shops were filled with chocolate bonbons. + +Joe Powers was a near neighbor of Siawash George. As both had squaw +wives there was a bond of union between them, and they visited back and +forth a great deal. Joe could not read or write, I was told, but his +good fellowship shone out of his ever-grinning face. + +“Some of the boys I knowed down in Circle and Forty Mile that’s struck +it big,” he told me in confidence, “is going into s’ciety when they get +on the outside. But I ain’t. How I would look in s’ciety, wouldn’t I? +The rest of the boys are about on the same pattern, too, I guess, only +they can’t see it when they look into a pool of water. I’m thankful +I know them dodgers on the outside are too clever for me. I’ll buy a +fruit farm in Californy. Nobody can beat me out o’ that.” + +However dangerous a little learning may be to some of the old-timers, +one does not envy them their dust, spend it how they will. It is +fitting that they who bore the brunt of the robust business of +pioneering should occupy the cabins of the masters on the Eldorado and +the Bonanza claims. Graduates of colleges and universities, who work +for them with pick and shovel for a dollar an hour, arrived on the +scene after the great strikes, and must take the consequences. + +It is scarcely half a mile from Siawash George’s to the cluster of +cabins at the mouth of Eldorado; and Eldorado flows into Bonanza about +midway of its working claims, making of The Forks, as the confluence +of the two streams is called, the hub of a wheel with three spokes. +When Miss Mulrooney came up to The Forks in the autumn of 1897 she +appreciated the mathematical advantage of the situation at once, and +acted upon her perception with such decision that the news of her +wonderful undertaking went up and down the creeks that very day. + +“Boys,” said the heralds to the scoffers, “there’s a new woman up to +The Forks with a bit of an Irish brogue and the tongue of a lawyer, +that’s goin’ to show us old moss-backs how to get rich. Hanged if she +ain’t got so much money to lose that she’s goin’ to build a two-story +hotel bigger’n any in Dawson right up here on the creeks.” + +“Strange things was to be expected from the Cheechawkos once the news +of a strike got into the newspapers all over the States,” said the +scoffers; while the saloon-keepers, being specialists on the subject, +apprehended with professional disdain that Miss Mulrooney might as well +start a hotel at the head of the Stewart or at the North Pole. + +The next instalment of news related that Miss Mulrooney was up on the +hill-side superintending the labors of the one lone mule surviving of +those brought down the river on rafts in the summer, which she had +hired for $20 a day to drag logs to the site of her building. That +class of women who are too common in the Klondyke are not given to this +sort of thing; and, moreover, they wear bloomers, while Miss Mulrooney +wore long skirts. A new woman deserved punishment for such folly, but +a good woman who wore long skirts was entitled to the friendly advice +which one of the leading claim-owners undertook to supply. + +[Illustration: Miss Mulrooney of The Forks.] + +“I’ve been in the country some time,” he told Miss Mulrooney, “and +I don’t mind telling you for your own interest that Dawson’s the +place, not The Forks, for a hotel.” + +“Now, that’s kind of you,” assented Miss Mulrooney. “And may I ask if +you would like something to drink?” + +“Er-r-r, well,” stuttered the Committee of One, as he tried to get his +bearings, “well, I admit I sometimes do, like the most of the boys--but +I didn’t know as you’d be mentionin’ that.” + +“Oh, I’m not, and I’m not likely to,” with a toss of her head, “when +I know there’s no chance of your accepting. Of course, if you or any +of the other boys was hungry or thirsty you wouldn’t think of buying a +drink or a meal up here. You’d walk sixteen miles to Dawson and back +for it, wouldn’t you? And the boys going over the divide to Dominion +or Sulphur when they break the journey at The Forks would hang up in a +tree over night before they’d sleep in a hotel, wouldn’t they, now?” + +A light burst upon the Committee of One. + +“You’ll pass, Miss Mulrooney, you’ll pass,” he said. “You kin take care +o’ yourself all right. With that head of yours, you’ll own the Klondyke +by the time you’ve been in the country as long as I have.” + +And the word that Miss Mulrooney was all right was passed along the +line. Every man on the creeks looked forward to the date of the opening +of her hotel. A democratic community could not confer titles, but it +might call her Miss Mulrooney of the Forks, and thus she will be known +for all time among Klondykers. + +Meanwhile, she expected that every day would be the lone mule’s last. +There was neither hay nor oats in the country. As the story was told +to me, he held body and soul together on birch bark and willow sprouts +until the final log was dragged to the foundations, and then promptly +expired. + +“He had nothing to live on,” as Miss Mulrooney expressed it, “and +nothing to live for, and I’m thinkin’ the poor fellow was so slow +because he just knew that his interest in the enterprise was all that +kept him up; and, like the rest of us, he wanted to postpone the last +hour as long as he could.” + +The third night after the hotel was opened the Committee of One, +himself, had to sleep on the floor because the bunks were all taken. +Nothing could have served Miss Mulrooney better than the food-panic +of midwinter. She had bought a full supply before everyone began to +hoard whatever beans or flour or whiskey he could get. All but two of +the restaurants in Dawson had to close their doors. The two exceptions +on fête days gave butter and apple sauce along with bacon, beans, and +coffee. Their owners grew to regard Miss Mulrooney as their animate +consciences whose voice was that of every miner who ate a meal in +Dawson when he was down from the creeks. + +“I don’t mind paying double,” said the Committee of One, to a Dawson +waiter, “s’long’s I get suthin to eat. Just bring that dinner over +again. Then I’ll have only half a square meal for $5, not to mention +that no fixin’s go with it. Miss Mulrooney charges $3.50 for a square, +but she gives you canned beef, canned mutton, and ham, and fixin’s, and +keeps askin’ you if you won’t have more and you keep acceptin’ till you +have to send for a drink ’fore you’re strong enough to get up from the +table. Jumpin’ John Rogers! How you fellers must suffer when you pass +out a bean and a rind and think of what a woman is doin’ up there to +The Forks!” + +If you want to reach a man’s heart through his stomach in a +scurvy-stricken country, feed him, if it is the best you have, with +sauce made of dried apples. Miss Mulrooney kept a great bowlful +of this on her table. The transient ate of its contents with the +ravenousness of the thirsty traveller drinking from a spring of cold +water. No sooner was it emptied--I know by actual observation of a +quart of apple-sauce having been eaten by two persons--than it was +filled again by the cook, rapid if rough in his movements, who picked +it up and put it down as if it were a red-hot ingot. + +The ground floor of the hotel was divided into the bar-room and +the dining-room. Cards were permitted, but no gaming-tables were +maintained. Upstairs was a tier of bunks running along the wall, with a +passageway between them. The blankets seemed cleaner than elsewhere--no +hotel had sheets--and the bunks had curtains. Either a nice sense of +individuality or sheer fatigue restrained the guests from removing +their socks, and I have known miners who were over-tired by a long +tramp not to remove their boots. They had enough respect for Miss +Mulrooney to hang the soles of them over the edge of the bunk, however, +though, if in their dreams they should participate in a stampede to +some new creek, their good intentions were sadly belied. The sole +occupant of a lower bunk, which was supposed to accommodate two in case +of necessity, might be awakened at any hour by a nudge, and: + +“Pardner, sorry to trouble you, but I guess you’ll have to move over a +bit to make room for me.” + +In winter the curse of a Klondyke cabin, banked with snow, chinked with +moss and dirt to the last crack and knothole, is lack of ventilation. +In summer, when there is no night and no two men quite agree on their +hours of sleep or hours for travelling, it was as good as reading a +local newspaper to try to sleep at Miss Mulrooney’s. The widening +cracks between boards of fir (put into the floors and partitions while +yet green) never permitted the slightest details of conversation +over the card-table or over the bar to be inaudible, except during +unavoidable and scarcely welcome intervals when you heard the tramping +and scuffling of heavy boots. I could discern the direction the +traveller was going upon entering the dining-room door; whether he was +coming up stairs to bed, or was going to call out to the cook for a +“squar” or “half a dozen eggs.” + +Andrew, a quiet, soft-voiced, obliging young man, who wore a white +shirt and was solicitous about keeping his tie straight, had charge of +the bar. According to all the traditions of new placer mining camps he +was as much out of place as the average bartender would be in a chair +of moral philosophy. He was so essentially lacking in combativeness +that no one ever thought of picking a quarrel with him. Luck and +whiskey, however, despite the Northwest Mounted Police, will generate +in miners a surplus energy which they are inclined to expend upon +furniture if not upon one another. Miss Mulrooney did not depend for +purposes of pacification upon a huge St. Bernard who was always at her +side when he was not drawing her upon her sled up and down the creeks +in winter, but rather upon her blarney. She knew when, where, and just +how much to apply. + +“I always appeal to their best instincts,” she said. “It’s easy to lead +and hard to drive. That’s what you men don’t understand. You try to +drive.” + +I saw her theory put to the test of practice. A giant who was so well +on in his cups that he could scarcely walk, concluded, only half an +hour after he had finished one, that he wanted another meal. When it +was placed before him he seemed to think that the cook was trying to +hurt his feelings by making him eat twice, and with an oath he threw +a dish of stew on the floor. Miss Mulrooney happened to be passing +through the room at the time. She stepped over to him and told him in +her pleasantest tone that accidents would happen. + +“Accident?” he asked, dazedly. + +“Of course,” she said. “I know you’re too much of a gentleman to do +such a thing purposely.” + +“Coursh! Coursh it was!” he kept repeating, as he dropped down on to +his knees and tried to scrape the stew up into a little pile, despite +her protests. + +Then out of the maze of his crippled memory another horror presented +itself suddenly and prompted him to arise. + +“Miss Mulrooney,” he asked, his face very red, “did you hear me swear?” + +“A little one--a slip,” she replied. + +He told her that it was only a real lady who would put so liberal +a construction on what he called a breach of “ettykit.” Fearful, +nevertheless, that she might secretly think ill of him, he followed +her about the hotel with apologies and dripping hands while he kept +repeating how a poor devil might be a little weak, so rarely did a good +bench claim fall to a poor devil’s lot, until the inner workings of his +conscience culminated in a full confession that the plate had not been +broken by accident but intentionally. She forgave him even this, and +then he went up-stairs and to sleep. + +“What I want to do is to make money, you may be sure,” Miss Mulrooney +would say if you persuaded her to tell you her story. “I was born in +Scranton, Pennsylvania. I had to earn my own living before I was out +of short skirts, and I kept on doing a little better from one thing +to another, till I was stewardess of a steamer on the Pacific Coast. +There’s nothing like being a stewardess to develop your wits when +you’re just a bit too independent for the job and you have to give the +passengers as good as they send when they’re sassy. I remember an old +Englishman who expected me to black his boots. I told him I wouldn’t, +and I told him if he put ’em outside his door again I’d be thinkin’ he +was wantin’ ice-water and turn a pitcherful into ’em. He went to the +captain. The captain was a Scotchman and he didn’t believe in puttin’ +on airs; and when the captain sent for me and I went to the captain’s +room I found the old gentleman there. Before we came out I had him +laughin’, and I’d never blacked his boots, either. But runnin’ errands +doesn’t suit me. I started for the Klondyke as soon as I heard of it, +and like the rest I’m going back either rich or broke.” + +The last time I saw Miss Mulrooney she was in Dawson searching for a +good location for a hotel which was to have sheets and be positively +palatial. Three weeks later, so I am told, it was completed. +Once her first venture succeeded, she had begun to speculate in +mining properties. Her position at The Forks gave her exceptional +opportunities for inside information, and she was a “pardner” of a +dozen leading citizens in as many enterprises. + +“If you ever go to Chicago or New York,” I suggested to her, “the +women’s clubs will be making a heroine of you as an example of what +their sex can do.” + +“Not if I know it,” she replied. “They won’t, I’m thinkin’, if they +hear I sold whiskey. Besides, there’s nothin’ new about me. I’m +old-fashioned.” + +Without abusing a much-abused word, I think that Miss Mulrooney may +be called a remarkable woman, more particularly as her own opinion of +herself is quite the contrary. + + + + +VIII + +ARCTIC TRAITS + + DAILY LIFE IN DAWSON--RENTING A CABIN--CIRCUMVENTING THE HUSKIES--JOEY + BOUREAU AND HIS RESTAURANT--THE FARO DEALER’S WIFE AND HER BAKERY--THE + LAUNDRYMAN AND HIS CLAIM--JACK BELTZ’S SCHEMES--A PAIR OF DREAMERS. + + +It depends upon the season of the year whether the town-site of Dawson +is liquid, mushy, or as flinty as frozen ground can be. At one time +in the summer of 1898 most of it was under water. Two weeks later, +the Yukon having fallen some sixteen feet, this same town-site was +at a respectable height above the level of the stream. The smaller +sandbar on the opposite side of the mouth of the Klondyke, which, out +of respect to the cabins which cover an area of six or seven acres, +has been called Klondyke City, is without the surface layer of muck +which held sewage as in a sponge under the noses of the residents of +Dawson. The good nature of the fellow, known as “Dud,” who keeps the +sole saloon and hotel at Klondyke City, was as largely responsible for +our choice of abode as the healthfulness of the location. Empty cabins +were scarce. “Dud” said he had one to rent. When I asked him the price, +I offended him. + +“You walk right in and stay till I tell you to get out,” he said. “But +if you go shakin’ your dust in my face I won’t let you have it at all.” + +So we stood our sleds up beside the door, set up our little Yukon +stove, threw our blankets on the floor, and were at home. The comfort +of my daily existence I felt to be great compared with a bunk in a +bunk-house for $2.50 a night, or a room with cloth partitions over a +bar for $10 a night. + +Fritz, who liked movement and life, went over to town to live in +the cabin of a friend, leaving Jack and me to do our own cooking or +to eat at the restaurant when we were of idle mind. The dogs also +patronized the restaurant without standing on ceremony. “Jack” carried +off almost the last ham in the camp, having lifted it from a nail +with the unostentatiousness of an expert thief. The proprietors of +the restaurant would not listen to reimbursement. They explained that +anybody who had been in the country for six years and let a husky dog +get the better of him deserved to be mulcted. It is out of deference to +the husky dog that the miner builds little caches, set on poles, for +storing food, which make the town look like a Bornese village, whose +inhabitants have deserted their old homes to live in cabins. + +The proprietors of the restaurant, in my opinion, were well worth +knowing. Joey Boureau--undeniably French-Canadian, but forever +repeating that he was a citizen of the United States--was almost as +dark as a Moor, with the torso of a Turkish wrestler. He yielded +neither to excess nor fatigue, blustered at times, never cared +for to-morrow, and was possessed of a ready wit. His blague had a +counterpart in the blarney of his partner, Tim, undeniably Irish +American and proud of it. This pair had been inseparable for the many +years that they had sought gold with the pick and in all the ways of +camp life. Upon the scales at the end of the oilcloth-covered dining +table they weighed out $2.50 worth of dust out of your bag whenever you +ate off their board. Whichever one happened to be in did the cooking, +and if both were in, one told stories to amuse the guests and acted as +cashier. + +But both were seldom there. One was usually at “Dud’s” faro table. The +other, when he grew tired of working brought his “pardner” home on his +arm, installed him in the kitchen, and immediately went out to enjoy a +little recreation on his own account. As he took with him whatever dust +there was in the tomato-can, which served as their cash-box, we heard +frequent excuses for the absence of moose steak on the table because of +lack of funds to purchase it. Just as their business was beginning to +prosper they sold it for a song to a Cheechawko whom they met on the +river-front. A week in town sufficed to spend the song, and then they +put packs on their backs and started over the hills, whistling as they +went. + +In one of the neighboring cabins the wife of a faro dealer had set +up a bakery. We paid her fifty cents apiece for pies and fifty cents +for loaves of bread, and had to order them beforehand to make sure of +getting them. + +Our laundryman had staked a claim in which he placed great hopes; but +his invariable charge remained seventy-five cents a garment. He related +with a realism almost tragic the details of the processes by which he +had arrived at the original color of the khaki trousers that I had +worn on the trail. Jack Beltz, for his part, secured the loan of +an old tub and a washboard, and after a day’s labor surveyed bandanna +handkerchiefs and what not hung out on the line with the mien of a +conqueror. + +[Illustration: Jack Beltz.] + +[Illustration: “The Huskies.”] + +Economy, however, was always a matter of necessity with him. On the +first night of his return from town he said, with some pride, that he +still had most of the dust which he had received in conclusion of our +contract. The next night before going to bed he built a fire in the +stove out of the driftwood which he snaked out of the river for fuel, +and sat for a long time in a reverie. + +“Well, I’ll have to earn some more,” he said, finally, to himself, and +dropped upon his blankets. + +In the morning, followed by his troop of dogs, who had regained their +spirits and their flesh, because he had fed them so bountifully, he +went up on the mountain side, where he picked a great bouquet of the +wild flowers which spring up in such profusion in summer. He never told +me of his losses, and I tried to avoid the appearance of suspecting the +truth, at the same time that I took practical measures to obviate an +effort to dispose of his robe for cash and to hypothecate his year’s +outfit, which was to be brought down the river by his “pardner,” Cliff. + +Meanwhile, he revolved in his mind many schemes for making money. The +price of moose steak, $1.50 a pound, suggested to him that a fortune +might be made in moose hunting. Learning that Dawson had no bowling +alley, he so far arranged to start one as to find that balls and pins +could not be obtained nearer than Seattle. This scheme was succeeded +by the more alluring prospect of taking dogs, which are valueless in +summer, as they are valuable in winter, to an island in the river to +feed for so much a month. Always before his dream had taken definite +form he dismissed it by saying he was no city man. He recalled his +experience in keeping the restaurant in a British Columbia mining town, +and he reverted to a proposition that was to the liking of his love of +robust vagabondage: + +“I’ll get a pardner and take the dogs and go up to the head-waters of +the Porcupine and cross over to the Mackenzie. It would be a rattling +trip!” + +As if in excuse of his venture he would add that he was certain to find +gold in that region. + +One day another dreamer, Kidd, came to join us. He was a protégé of +Jack, who had found him trying to put his outfit over the Pass. There +must have been such giants as Kidd, with such straight noses, curling +black hair and curling black beard, in the phalanxes that confounded +the Persians. But this type of the freshness and strength of country +life was quite modern. He slouched into the cabin with his hands in +his pockets, and included in the drawl with which he greeted us a +Missourian “Doggone it!” Like many other unfortunate fellows, Kidd had +been obliged to spend the whole winter in the neighborhood of the Pass. +Jack and his partner had made him a tent-mate in their camp on the +banks of Linderman, during the dreary period of waiting. Going on to +Le Barge after our departure from Linderman, he had arrived in Dawson +before Cliff. + +“That boy comes from a good family,” said Jack; “and I’ll bet they’re +proud as anybody that ever had a grand-dad who owned a lot of niggers +and went stone broke after the war. He don’t say nothin’ about it, but +it sticks out all over him. He didn’t know how to hitch a pack on a +mule’s back when I first met him. But though he was green, he wasn’t +fresh; and when tenderfeet are that way they’ll learn and you like to +learn ’em. When they ain’t, you like nothin’ better than to give ’em +the worst bronch’ on the ranch and leave ’em to find out things for +themselves.” + +It was not until after considerable urging that Kidd would consent to +share our cabin. His character was in sharp contrast to that of another +young stranger who entered and threw his blankets on the floor for +the night without any formalities. In the morning, picking up certain +articles of my kit which were lying beside my bed, he said: + +“You’re goin’ out on the first steamer. Don’t suppose you want these, +do you? I’ll take ’em along. They’ll come in handy next winter.” + +“He’ll get on,” quoth Jack, “but I’m ding-donged if he’ll get on with +my help.” + +Jack now included Kidd in his schemes, which became more and more +attenuated. Kidd would walk back and forth for some time as if in deep +thought, and finally drawl: + +“Gee-mo-nee! We must do something, Jack!” + +And Jack, as he looked out upon the rapidly flowing river, would agree, +and relight his pipe. Kidd admitted that he was homesick, “doggoned +homesick.” He had a right to be, for he left home with a thousand +dollars and his mother’s blessing, instead of finishing his education +and studying for the country bar. + +“Gee-mo-nee!” he exclaimed. “I was green, wasn’t I, Jack? I thought +you’d just pick the gold up once you got here. But doggoned if I’ll go +back broke. I’ll have as much as I had when I left or stay forever. +I’ve got three hundred of that thousand and I’ll make seven hundred and +my fare out some way this winter.” + +One day the dreamers found employment on the log booms for the new +saw-mill that was to be built on the island in the Klondyke between +Dawson and Klondyke City. Jack was as much at home on a rolling log +as on the back of a broncho. Poor Kidd fell into the water often, +but showed great persistence until the rise in the river made work +impossible and left them idle again. So Jack sat by the cabin door +keeping a lookout for Cliff, the third giant of the trio, who arrived +one day, with a broad grin. + +“Gosh!” he exclaimed, as he grasped Jack’s hand. “I was washed out of +the boat when we came through Five Finger Rapids, and blamed if I +wasn’t washed in again! How’s that for luck?” + +There was something of the New England Yankee in him, though he had +been born in Colorado. + +“I’ll bet you’ve give your money all away, ain’t you, Jack?” was his +next remark. “You wouldn’t be Jack if you hadn’t.” + +“Weeks ago,” was the reply. + +They secured a contract with one of the saw-mills to cut rafts of logs +sixty miles up the river. Here was a chance for Jack to swing an axe, +to build bonfires, and to do what he called an honest man’s work. With +his dogs around him on the day of his departure I said a regretful +good-by to the vagabond. + + + + +IX + +PILGRIMS’ TRAILS AND TRIALS + + ITINERARIES--ALLEGED UNIMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE--THE CASE OF + FATHER STANLEY--PRESS AGENTS AND PRIMERS OF WEALTH--THE SECRETARY + OF THE SEATTLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HIS OWN CONVERT--PARDNERS AND + PROMOTERS--OUTFITS--HOME COMFORTS FOR AN ARCTIC CLIMATE--HETEROGENEOUS + BOAT LOADS--THE NANCY G--TRAGEDIES OF THE PASSES. + + +Next to taking part in some event chronicled on the bulletin boards +your average pilgrim of fortune best enjoyed being near them. Least +of all he liked waiting in latitude 64 degrees for a month or more +for news of progress of the only war yet waged by his country in his +generation. When he left home the Klondyke was the ruling general topic +of the hour in the newspapers. When he reached his destination he was +quite forgotten, and public interest was entirely absorbed in the +invasion of Cuba. + +Viewed in one light, there was good reason for the pique which he +naturally felt toward Shafter’s army. He might see many wars, for +instance, before he saw the like of this Dawson pilgrimage again. +Thirty-five thousand generals, each one his own quartermaster, +packing a thousand pounds of food apiece over a rugged coast range of +mountains, building a flotilla with axe and whipsaw out of the primeval +forest, and travelling six hundred miles into a country having an +arctic climate in winter and a tropical climate in summer and yielding +no food except a little game, presented a spectacle more romantic, if +not so exciting, as the massing of an army corps under one general, its +extension into a battle line, and the capture of the enemy’s outposts. + +[Illustration: On the Pass.] + +The old prospector from California, British Columbia, Australia, or +South Africa formed only a small percentage of those who entered, with +the enthusiasm of children, a world of effort quite new to them. The +village loafer and the ne’er-do-well son of the banker became partners +on the trail. Mechanics who had mortgaged homes bought with savings +from their wages to buy an outfit, rubbed elbows with broken-down +speculators and business men who hoped to recover all that they had +lost by finding a placer mine. The farmer, the clerk, the artisan, +and the city or the provincial day laborer of the Eastern States, +Eastern Canada, and England, were as confident of success as their +associates who had learned in the severe school of the plains, the +veldt, or the bush how to preserve life and health in a new country. +If they had not swung a lariat or a pioneer’s axe, they had at least +beaten someone in walking or rowing or had gone longer without eating +than any of their immediate friends. + +Of the eighty thousand who left their homes for the Klondyke in the +winter of 1897-98 and the spring of 1898, some thirty-five thousand +arrived at Dawson. The battle was not always to the strong. More +important than physical strength were determination and cheerfulness. +Those who failed were as peculiarly Anglo-Saxon as those who succeeded; +for they had the restlessness which impels one to seek obstacles but +does not necessarily provide the force to overcome them. Most of those +who had endeavored to reach Dawson in the autumn of 1897 were stranded +on one side or the other of the passes, where they had to wait through +a dreary winter until the ice which had arrested their progress should +go out of the river. But only a small proportion of the whole number +of pilgrims made this attempt. The great majority planned to transport +their outfits over the passes in the early months of 1898 and build +their boats on Lakes Linderman and Bennett in the interval between good +travelling in a snow-bound country and the opening of navigation. + +All pilgrims, whatsoever their itineraries, were grist for the mills of +the towns of the Pacific Coast States and of British Columbia, bringing +welcome relief from a period of commercial depression. Enterprising +merchants, chambers of commerce, and steamship companies scattered +broadcast throughout the United States (whence came seventy per cent. +of the pilgrimage, ninety per cent. of it being Anglo-Saxon) pamphlets, +well written for the purpose, telling “How to Get to the Klondyke.” + +The career of “Father” Stanley, of Seattle, was used as a stock +illustration of the unimportance of experience to the prospector. This +lame old bookseller, having the enthusiasm of the fanatic in place of +real strength, had gone to the Klondyke in the spring of 1896. For a +time he worked on the bars of Stewart, taking out $10 a day. If he +had not been deformed he would have packed more food over the Pass. +Fortunately, his supply ran out in September, and on his way down +stream to Forty Mile, where he hoped to get more, he happened to arrive +at the mouth of the Klondyke just as the first miners from Forty Mile +were hurrying to the scene of Indian Charlie’s “strike.” As he could +not walk as fast as the others, they got all the claims on Bonanza, and +he had the good luck to get one of the best claims on Eldorado. + +A year later, returning on the treasure ship that brought the news of +the great strike, when he entered his house with a small portion of +his fortune--a hundred thousand dollars in cash--his good wife, as the +story goes, was at the washboard, where she had spent a deal of her +time during her husband’s absence, earning a living for a large family. +Her customers coming to make inquiries about their clothes were told to +take whatever was in the tub which they could identify as their own. As +for herself, she was boarding at the hotel, sending such of her apparel +as she had not thrown away to the laundry, and, moreover, was too busy +with the dressmaker to attend to any trifling details which might have +concerned her past life. + +“In the frozen fastnesses of the far North fortunes nestle in nuggets +of glittering gold for all”--but the press agents were too well +versed in human nature to say that these fortunes were to be had for +a pleasure trip. They mentioned hardships which put up a price of +success, thus making the nuggets more attractive, and, in a sense, +supporting the assertion of their existence. Anyone who would overcome +the hardships might have a competency for the trouble of thawing it out +of the frozen ground. No pilgrim felt himself to be less courageous +and vigorous than “Father” Stanley; and the wives of all pilgrims were +equally certain that, under similar circumstances, they could conduct +themselves with quite as much dignity as Mrs. Stanley. + +As became a primer to wealth, the pamphlets told just how much it +would cost to reach Dawson with the all-necessary year’s outfit, going +to the trouble, in a spirit of solicitude and rectitude, of setting +down opposite each article of food and each utensil, whether spade +or gold-pan, or oakum or pitch, or nails for boat-building, its cost +in dollars and cents, and adding up a fascinatingly small total from +a very tall column of figures. With a receipted bill for this, and +having paid his fare to Dyea or Skaguay, where he would disembark on +the mainland of Alaska and begin the transportation of his outfit over +the passes, the pilgrim, although he was supposed to have expended only +$300, needed no more money to take him to his mine. + +It was not to the credit of the calculations of the pamphlets, and +not testimony, in all if it was in some instances, to the success +of the numerous gambling establishments that sprang up at the point +of mobilization of the army of fortune-seekers, that the Seattle +post-office did an overwhelming business in money-orders in December, +1897, and January and February, 1898. The authors of the pamphlets +were not called to account for their errors. Rather, they received the +thanks of their employers. Once he was on the coast, it stood to reason +that while he was yet sleeping between sheets and eating meals cooked +by someone other than himself the pilgrim would not retreat because +he needed a few more dollars which were obtainable from friends or +relatives at home. + +Seattle’s success beyond all other towns in attracting trade was due to +a university graduate and an author of works on art. Having to give up +journalism in the East and seek health in the West, after some severe +tests of versatility of earning a living, he became Secretary of the +Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Such were the results of his knowledge of +the peculiarities of the Easterner, the Westerner, the Canadian, and +the Englishman, which he incorporated in separate pamphlets, that his +employers continued to raise his salary from week to week until the +war broke out and he relieved them of the embarrassing consequences +of their transports of generosity by resigning and starting for the +Klondyke himself (regardless of his doctor’s advice) as a convert of +his own arguments. + +The camp-followers of the host of individual quartermasters which +Seattle equipped and embarked, besides the gambler and the pickpocket, +included many men of elastic consciences and elastic schemes, who had +no capital but were ambitious to become capitalists. Those promising +large dividends on properties yet to be purchased or staked were +common; those proposing such grand things as running snow and ice +locomotives over the hummocks of the Yukon in winter were in some +measure distinguished. In the corridors of the crowded hotels you +overheard the consultations of “pardners” as well as the harangues of +promoters. + +Sacks of flour, bacon, and beans, the chief constituents of the Yukon +outfit, were piled on the sidewalks. In the windows of the stores were +samples of various improved edibles and home comforts for an arctic +climate. Fakirs on the curbs proclaimed the merits of patent sleds, +portable boats, and devices for thawing frozen ground. In selecting his +outfit, the pilgrim experienced the same emotion as the young wife who +furnishes a flat. When he had settled on the kind of sled, the kind of +stove, and the kind of tent that he was going to take, he faced the +important question of buying dogs or of drawing his own supplies from +Dyea or Skaguay to the lakes. If he had money enough he usually fell +a victim to the speculators, who sold the house dogs that they had +shipped into Seattle, after a few days’ training in harness, for fifty +dollars apiece. + +The last article of his outfit bought, he waited for his steamer to +sail, while his hotel bill grew apace. Liberal navigation laws, at +all times carelessly enforced, in these piping times of prosperity +became a dead letter. Every available sailing and steam craft in the +Pacific marine, which is comparatively small and is largely recruited +from the Atlantic seaboard, was called into service by the demands of +the pilgrimage. Fortunes were made in two or three trips of vessels, +which had been condemned as unseaworthy years before. To get all the +passengers they could carry they had only to offer transportation for +a pilgrim and a ton of supplies at a little less exorbitant price than +any of their rivals. + +Inexperienced pilots steered many vessels on to rocks in the tortuous +and narrow channels between the barren and mountainous islands of +the Alexander Archipelago which skirt the coast of British Columbia +and the adjoining territory of southeastern Alaska. Pilgrims not +yet embarked were too anxious about their own departure to think of +the miseries of those who had suffered from exposure and lost their +outfits, if not their lives. Rarely did the best steamers leave within +less than a week of their appointed sailing time. In loading them +there was little discrimination or even classification. Quarters of +beef for the restaurants of Dyea and Skaguay, dogs in crates and in +leash, mules and bales of hay, were put on the decks after the hold +was filled. Considering the experiences of a volunteer army with a +single quartermaster, better things were scarcely to be expected of a +volunteer army composed entirely of quartermasters. The chaos had the +sole attraction of not bearing the stamp of officialdom. + +[Illustration: Caches of Pilgrims’ Outfits at the Summit.] + +As an example of what a pilgrim might suffer, there was the case of +the Nancy G. When I left Seattle on February 15th, on the Nancy G.’s +mast still fluttered the torn ends of a cloth sign with fast-fading red +letters: “This fine schooner in the tow of a powerful ocean tug, will +positively sail for Dyea on January 25th.” Every day the passengers +went down to the pier to see if their outfits were still on board and +to see how repairs were getting on. A man with a hammer in one hand and +some oakum in the other came out of the hold. + +“You needn’t cuss me,” he said. “A schooner that’s been resurrected +after five years in the graveyard, ain’t what she was when she was new, +and you oughter know it. Every minute I lose caulkin’ up the old girl’s +corn out of your own crops.” + +Afterward they went to see the owner, who received their complaints +with an air of disdain, refused to return the amount that they had +paid in fares for the good reason that he had their signatures to a +contract for January 25th or thereabouts, and warned them in their own +interests that “thereabouts” was a very elastic word. + +“And I’ll tell you something else,” he said. “If you talk to me in this +way much more, I’ll have you up for riot. If you want to lose a gold +mine and go to jail, that’s your business and not mine.” + +The owner was a small man--a small man who had spent his life in the +new towns of the West. The passengers were mostly hulking Swedes from +the lumber camps of Minnesota and Wisconsin. They longed to lay their +strong hands on him for just a moment. But it was hard to lose a gold +mine, and they hadn’t enough money to pay for passage on another +steamer. So they slouched out of the owner’s presence more in sorrow +than in anger. I heard afterward that the Nancy G. finally started on +February 20th. Fate was so kind to her passengers that she did not sink +until the return journey. They were more fortunate than two hundred of +their fellows, who saw their outfits burned on the vessel which had +reached Skaguay just in time to have disembarked them in safety. + +To meet the demands of the migration to the interior, Dyea and Skaguay +had sprung up as quickly as a house of cards. When Indian Charlie found +his nugget there was no building at Skaguay and only a trading-store +at Dyea for bartering with the Indians and furnishing any supplies +to an old-time prospector which he had neglected to buy at Juneau. +The two towns are situated at the heads of either of two arms of the +Lynn Canal, which nature has cut through the rock as man cut that of +Corinth, upon sandy deposits at the mouths of the Dyea and Skaguay +Rivers, and separated by a distance of a mile in a straight line over a +mountain spur or of three miles around the point of the spur by water. +This spur, rising into high peaks as it reaches the summit of the main +range, is a barrier separating the two rivers and the two passes. + +Dyea is the gateway to Chilcoot Pass, which leads to Lake Linderman, +and Skaguay is the gateway to the White Pass, which leads to Lake +Bennett. They were not, as it appeared to the superficial observer, +trying to excel each other in wickedness, but in the amount of +business that they could do. Anyone who had been a resident of either +town a single day considered it his duty to warn you as a friend +against the rival town and the rival pass. In a week he had become an +old citizen. The small proportion who were on hand for the rush of the +late summer and autumn of 1897 were as proud as Lord Mayors. Then, +thousands of pack-horses, earning as high as $50 apiece a day, died +from the exertions to which they were forced by their owners. In the +winter their bones sticking up through the snow were snags to catch +the sleds of the pilgrims. Instead of a series of steps, the packers +on Chilcoot had to walk around bowlders, slipping on the fragments +of crumbling rock, and possibly, after all their exertion, reaching +Linderman and building their boats only to have them blocked by ice +half way to Dawson, where they were effectually stranded with their +outfits. + +Perhaps every fifth or sixth house in the main streets was not a +gambling hall or a dance hall. With these and a large idle population +it is easy to understand how men who had a few dollars in cash when +they arrived were obliged to sell their outfits and return home. The +enforcement of law was in the hands of a United States commissioner +and three or four deputy marshals. The commissioner was a gentle +optimist who spent most of his working-hours in an office with a window +looking out on the river and the mountain side, where he might see no +wrong-doing. “Soapy” Smith, gambler, by self-appointment, was Mayor +of Skaguay and General-in-chief of the Army of Disorder, composed +of characters from San Francisco and Seattle, who had no money left +after their fare to Alaska was paid and were looking for something +to turn up. When an atrocious murder was committed by one of his +followers, “Soapy” told a body of protesting citizens that they would +better mind their own business. As his army outnumbered theirs and was +better armed, they accepted his advice. The United States sent out +two companies of infantry, with instructions from the authorities at +Washington that they should not interfere with the affairs of the two +towns unless there was a riot. The Commissioner, seeming to regard +their presence as an intrusion on his rights, never asked for their +assistance. No murders or highway robberies were committed within sight +of his little window. In time, however, “Soapy” Smith met the death +that he deserved at the hands of one of his followers, and through the +efforts of the merchants and the better element the towns became more +orderly. + +Not every pilgrim who returned home was the victim of gamblers and +other parasites. For two or three days he might stop at one of the +hotels until he selected the parcels of his outfit from the piles +which had been thrown indiscriminately on the shore by common carriers +in haste to have done with their contracts. Then, with his tent, his +stove, and a cook-book, which was the gift of a baking-powder company, +his journey began in earnest. The novelty of making his first flapjacks +wore off by the time he had washed his dishes the second or third +time. It was not long before he came to the conclusion that the fellow +whom he had chosen to share all of his sorrows and joys was lazy. He +blamed his own disinclination to rise in the morning and all his little +failures upon him, as some men do upon their wives. Whenever he had a +chance he solaced his wounded spirits by telling a stranger that he +had put up with doing all of the work of his party about as long as he +could. + +Partnerships formed so gayly in Seattle by men who thought that being +a partner was being a playfellow, could not be expected to last +long at pulling sleds through the slush and going to bed in a robe +or a sleeping-bag which was cheap and inefficient, with a supper of +sandwiches made of sticky flapjacks and cold bacon. As he grew more +angry with his partner he grew fonder of his dog. Jim might beat his +poor Newfoundland, who was too nervous to pull even if he had ever been +taught how; he might put up with a poor dinner; but if Tom, who was +cooking, kicked the Newfoundland for stealing the bacon off the plate +or sticking his nose in the butter, it was the last straw. He demanded +a division of goods on the spot. But quarrels seldom resulted in blows, +because they occurred when the men were too tired to do more than join +in a contest of forcible language. + +It was the man who leaves the door ajar at home who went to bed without +washing his dishes. The Easterner now learned that, while he might know +things that the Westerner did not, the Westerner knew better than he +how to take care of himself. The Westerner always cooked a warm supper, +and dried his footwear before going to work in the morning; while the +self-neglect of the Easterner made hundreds of doctors at Dyea and +Skaguay the busiest in the world. Spinal meningitis was often the +penalty of sitting down to rest when dripping with perspiration without +throwing a coat over the shoulders. + +Even after their goods were on the summit of the Pass and the worst +of their labors were over, many pilgrims gave up the battle. One by +one they were thinned out until only thirty-five thousand were ready +with their boats when the ice broke in Bennett. This far I had shared +their experiences and then had gone on ahead. Mine was the privilege +of having been a Cheechawko and at the same time standing on the river +bank as an old-timer or among old-timers, to watch the arrival of the +pilgrimage in its unpainted, unique flotilla. + + + + +X + +PROFITS AND LOSSES + + NEWSPAPERS AS PROFIT-WINNERS--HEARING ABOUT DEWEY--A DROP IN + EGGS--MARKET ITEMS--LEMONS AGAINST SCURVY--THE MERCURY AT 110 + DEGREES--AN AVERTED MOVING DAY--INDUSTRIOUS SCAVENGERS--THE KLONDYKE + ITSELF--ASPECTS OF SUMMER--BANDANNA HATS AND PINK LEMONADE--A + RESTAURANT TRUST--THE GRASSHOPPERS AND THE ANTS--DISILLUSIONS. + + +It was only to be expected that the first boat of the season to shoot +around the bend above Dawson and raise a shout which would bring all +the population to the shore would be manned by a resident of Seattle +with the name of his beloved town painted on a huge streamer flying +from the mast. Enterprising citizens of the far West such as he owned +the stores at Dyea and Skaguay, the pack-mules on the trail, the +restaurant tents which had sprung up in Sheep Camp, and then, following +the pilgrimage on to Linderman and Bennett, generally made money out +of the Klondyke without having to use a spade, because of their +knowledge of the life and necessities of new communities. This proud +Seattleite with the boat had two hundred dozen of nominally “fresh” +eggs to sell, for which he received $3,600 within less than an hour +after he had landed. Those of the crowd who could afford it hurried off +to the restaurant for a “squar’” composed entirely of “ham and”. The +others, having to bide their time until luxuries were cheaper, found +compensation in the items of news which were passed from tongue to +tongue--for it had not occurred to the Seattleite to bring a newspaper +with him. + +“Thought there was more money in eggs,” was his aggravating +explanation. “’Sposed you fellers wanted to eat, not read.” + +[Illustration: Bargaining for a Newly Arrived Boat-Load, Dawson.] + +As he had heard it, within a week after the declaration of war with +Spain, the cruiser New York, Captain Evans in command, had reduced +the fortifications of Havana in three hours. The second Cheechawko to +arrive assured us that this was quite untrue, and that two of Admiral +Sampson’s squadron had been sunk and the Spaniards were winning on +every hand. The crowd refused to believe anything of the kind, and the +second Cheechawko received only $14 a dozen for his eggs. + +With the next boat came a single newspaper, soiled with bacon grease. +A curbstone speculator bought it for $15, stuffed it instantly into his +inside coat pocket, and a few minutes later was posting signs to the +effect that all might hear the news of Admiral Dewey’s victory read +by paying a dollar a piece that evening. His entertainment would have +netted him twice as much as it did if more than three hundred and fifty +people could have been packed in the hall in which it was held. Some +of the wealthy men considered this proceeding an outrage on personal +liberty and made it a point to buy between them any single copy of a +paper later than any others that had arrived and have it read at once +in the streets. + +Never did contrast better illustrate the comparative reliability of +even the most unreliable of modern newspapers. All winter the camp had +not had so much as a small hand printing-press, and news was carried +solely by word of mouth. Most miners have the weakness of exaggeration. +With some it is unconscious. Others enjoy testing a hearer’s credulity. +Twice, up the creeks, I heard that the Continent had declared war +against England and the United States; in the second instance, the +detail of an Anglo-American naval victory off the coast of Bohemia +perhaps was supplied. Such rumors were the natural fruit of the desire +of Americans and Englishmen to pay compliments to one another at a +juncture when the Anglo-Saxon alliance of the Klondyke was quite ready, +without any assistance from London or Washington, to stand in arms +against the whole world. + +Within a week some thirty boats all bringing merchandise had arrived. +In momentary anxiety of being lodged on a sandbar, without stopping +to make camps, their crews bending to the oars night and day, they +had raced with one another to the goal of high prices. Too many had +placed their speculative trust in eggs. After all, there were only four +hundred working claims, and the stomachs of each of their owners, and +of the chief gamblers and business men, were little if any larger than +that of the average human being. Eggs fell in five days from $18 to $4 +a dozen and finally to $3. + +A stock of fine millinery and ladies’ apparel, sold to the women of +the town, gave to one fellow a profit of $5,000. The first condensed +milk to arrive brought $1 a can; the first butter, $2.50 a pound; the +first ham, $1.25 a pound, and the first sugar, $1.50 a pound. Lemons +were more in demand in a scurvy-ridden country than oranges and bananas +and sold for double their price, which was seventy-five cents apiece. +But the happiest of all the newcomers was the one who had the only +boat-load of boots for a community which was miserable in moccasins in +warm weather. He received $15 a pair for fifteen hundred pairs which +had cost him $1.75 a pair in Montreal. A five-cent bottle of ink cost +$1; a fifteen-cent golf cap, $2.50; a pen-holder, fifty cents--the +smallest amount of dust that anyone cared to weigh out; socks $2 a +pair; a broad-brimmed summer hat, $20 to $40; a small whisk broom, +$2.50; a ready-made suit of clothes, from $50 to $200; canned roast +beef, $2.50 a can; canned oysters, a great luxury, $5 for a pound or +pint can, and cigars, fifty cents to $1 apiece. + +Against the profits which such prices represented the speculator had +to set the original cost of the articles, the expense of transporting +them to Dyea or Skaguay and over the one hundred and seventy-five miles +to the foot of Lake Le Barge, his own fare on a steamer out of the +country, and the loss of from three to six months’ time. + +During the lull between the arrivals of the few speculators from Le +Barge and the main body of the pilgrims from Linderman and Bennett, +it seemed at one time not unlikely that Dawson might be carried down +the river and a new town established on some sandbar. But there was +not enough snow left on the mountain sides to allow the tropical sun, +shining eighteen hours out of the twenty-four and raising the mercury +to 110 degrees, to accomplish its apparent purpose. Never had the +old-timers known it to be so warm so early in May, and never had they +known the river to be so high. They held that the Lord was displeased +with the prospective defilement of the country by an army of “clerks, +farmers, and dudes.” The Indians knew better. White man might be very +cunning in making a boat go up stream by burning wood in an iron box, +but Indian could tell him some things besides how to kill moose. Old +Indian could count off on his fingers some twenty years ago when the +canoeing was good on the whole town-site of Dawson. That was why Indian +never lived in Dawson but at Klondyke City. + +Day by day we saw the water approaching a few inches nearer to our +door-sill. It began to fall just as we were thinking of putting up +our tent on the mountain side. Only the roofs of some cabins in Dawson +were above the level of the stream. The suspension bridge between +Dawson and Klondyke City, whose woven wire cables were earning two or +three hundred fifty-cent tolls a day for their owners, was carried away +along with a great pile of débris that it had collected. You paid fifty +cents for being ferried from one island to another in the main street. +Along the bank, standing in their boats, pike poles in hand, were those +easy-going ones of the inhabitants who raised husky dogs for sale, did +a little freighting in the winter, and took naturally to odd jobs--and +I might say to squaw wives--now, in the heyday of importance, as they +rowed out in the strong current and brought in a tree which had been +uprooted by the flood. If the tree was suitable only for firewood it +was probably worth a quarter of an ounce, or four dollars; if large +enough for sawing, half an ounce. The average Klondyker’s dislike for +such work being quite as strong as that of the average man at home for +scavenging, the easy-going had a free field and earned enough in a few +days to buy winter outfits for themselves and their families. A few +had even better luck. They caught portions of rafts--in two instances +whole rafts--which had slipped their moorings up the river, and +steering the sum of two or three months’ labor of men probably unknown +to them up to the bank, let the owners of the saw-mill have it at a +bargain. + +A source of amusement if not of income was a ditch in one of the back +streets, hidden under three or four inches of water. As you stepped +into it up to your thighs you heard a roar of laughter from several men +sitting on a prominence near by. + +“If you don’t tell your friends, pardner,” said one of them, “there’s +room up here for another, and you can enjoy yourself watchin’ the +others tumble in.” + +With all the snow gone and no rainfall, the Yukon fell as rapidly as +it had risen. The thawing and crumbling soft earth of the embankments +of the upper reaches made it muddier than the Missouri at its worst. +For drinking water one had either to resort to the rivulets on the +hill-side, amber-colored from the moss, or go to the Klondyke, which, +once sluicing was nearly finished, became so clear that the bottom +was visible at a depth of ten or twelve feet, while the eddies and +rapids of its current as seen from the mountain tops, left a dark, +comet-like streak, stretching from its mouth for a distance of two or +three miles on the café-au-lait surface of the mother stream. + +[Illustration: In the Camps of the Cheechawkos.] + +By the fifteenth of June the river-bank was lined with the boats of +the pilgrims, two or three deep. A city of canvas, with the old cabins +and buildings as its heart, extended until the neighboring heights +were dotted with tents. Knowledge of boat-building had turned out to +be a misfortune, if anything, for the scows moved just as fast with +the current and proved quite as easy to manage, I was told, as smaller +craft pointed at both ends. The bow of each vessel bore the number +which had been put on by the Mounted Police when they examined outfits +for a second time for custom purposes at Le Barge or Tagish. Beside it +was the name of the pilgrim’s home town, of his sweetheart, his wife, +or his daughter, put on with coal if he had no paint. From the mast +fluttered a red bandanna, a towel, or possibly some absurdly elaborate +flag which had been made in the idle hour between the completion of the +boat and his embarkation. If there were three in a boat, which is the +best working number for a Klondyke party, one was in the bow on the +watchout for sandbars, the second was at the oars, and the third in the +stern with a sweep. Navigation had its perils, too. The river as well +as the Pass had claimed its victims. You heard on every hand tales of +wrecks in White Horse Rapids and in Thirty Mile River, whose hidden +rocks had proven even more dangerous than the White Horse Rapids. Many +a scow with merchandise which had cost its owner his last cent was +split in two, and those on board were thankful to find themselves on +shore alive. + +In their camps, the pilgrims found the mosquitoes of summer worse than +the cold of winter. Fevers and headaches upon their arrival in Dawson +were the consequences of exposure under the sun. It was even the fate +of a few to be taken at once to the big log hospital on the hill-side +which already had more patients than it could accommodate; and of a +part of these to be buried in the little cemetery beyond the hospital, +which gives to relatives of the deceased the sombre satisfaction of +knowing that its inmates, lying at a depth where the earth never thaws, +are preserved for all time--unless the town-site itself one day is +marked by hydraulics. + +Between the pilgrims when I met them in Seattle and when I met them +again in Dawson there was all the difference of volunteers in new +uniforms going forth to war and the dust-stained men who return. Their +tents, so white and new in Dyea, had patches where holes had been +burned by sparks or by carelessly hung candles. Their canvas bags of +provender were the color of the Yukon. Their cheap sheet-iron stoves +were so badly warped that the oven had ceased to bake well. Their +beards were unkempt, their faces tanned. The knees of their trousers +proved again how helpless a man is when alone with a needle. Many +were still wearing caps. A few had made substitutes for summer hats +out of wire, straw, fir twigs, and a bandanna. If the Seattle and the +Vancouver merchants could have seen the outfits which they had sold +after three or four months’ usage, they themselves might have wondered +at the skill of the manufacturers in making little seem a great deal by +the use of varnish. + +Very wisely the Canadian Government had provided that every pilgrim +entering Canadian territory must have eleven hundred pounds, or a +year’s supply of food. Flour was the cheapest thing to bring an outfit +that lacked two or three hundred pounds up to the requirements. Almost +without exception the pilgrims had failed to realize the importance +of luxuries in contributing a healthful and sustaining diet in the +North. Flour sold on July 1st, after the commercial companies began +to receive supplies, for $6 a sack, but white sugar sold for fifty +cents a pound. Everybody had enough of staples, but many had eaten all +their sugar--the larger part of their dried fruits, soup preparations, +and canned delicacies and smoked or chewed all of their tobacco. It +was easy to promise themselves on the trail that if they indulged +themselves in “something good” after a hard day’s work they could buy +more of the same article in Dawson. For they were certain that a great +many of their comrades intended to sell their outfits and leave the +country at once--so many of their comrades did. But they, too, had +eaten all their butter and evaporated eggs and kept any tobacco they +had lest they should run out of it on the way home. + +Pilgrims who had goods to sell hastened to find a niche for a booth on +the busy main street, where you could buy peanuts and pink lemonade, or +the substantials of eating; patent leather shoes, yellow-backed novels, +and cheap jewelry, or the substantials of wearing apparel. The six +restaurants formed a trust and kept the price of a meal up to $2.50. +In furnishing them with meat, the men who had used oxen for drawing +their outfits up to the Scales and again to draw them over the lakes, +now had reason to laugh back at the friends who had scoffed at them for +thinking that any animal except a dog or a mule was useful in Alaska. +An ox sold for $700 or $800 and was butchered at once before it had a +chance to eat any more hay--which was worth $100 a ton--while the rich +men stood by to see that they got the tenderloin. Besides beefsteak, +we had moose-steak. One moose, who had possibly come back to his old +pastures out of curiosity, was shot with a revolver only a mile out of +town. His slayer, who met him ambling along the white man’s trail as if +he were on a stampede to some new creek, sold his carcass for $500. + +Carpenters got employment at $15 a day on some one of the new dance +halls, saloons, and stores which were being built as fast as green +lumber for their construction could be obtained. Pilgrims without +any trade, if they were wise, immediately secured logs and built a +cabin, which served them at once as a temporary home, a storehouse +for their supplies, and assured them warmth and shelter when winter +should come. But the grasshoppers were far more numerous than the +ants. The debilitating climate of summer, joined with the indecision +of whether to leave the country or to remain, of whether to go down +the river to the American side or up the river to Stewart if they +did remain, supplied the majority with a good excuse for idleness. +Some did not even put up tents on the shore, but kept house in their +boats which they had moored to the bank. They sat on logs discussing +their experiences in shooting the rapids, and they kept watch of the +new arrivals for the purpose of guying anyone who had started before +themselves but had arrived later. + +There was something pitiful as well as ridiculous in the disappointment +of the pilgrim who had believed everything that he read in the +press-agents’ pamphlets, to find that a rich claim was not to be had +for working it. When he put his new gold-pan and a pack on his back +and went up the trail to the creeks, where possibly he found a few +colors in a rivulet, the old-timers laughed at him and asked him if +he liked prospecting well enough to pan ground that was staked two +years ago. If he carried a revolver they begged him, please not to +shoot them. Wearily, and with all his visions dispelled, he returned +to Dawson. His tent was no protection from the sun of midday. At night +the light made it difficult for him to sleep. As he fried his fat bacon +he could not help thinking that it was just strawberry time on the +“outside.” + +Few pilgrims had any money and those who had were inclined to spend +it on the luxuries which their palates craved. They walked up and +down the main street like the crowd at a country fair; looked on at +the drinking and gambling of the successful miners and marvelled at +the amount of dust that passed over the saloon-keeper’s scales; and +slouched in and out of the stores of the two commercial companies to +see the bulletin board, which had the list of names of men for whom +letters had been received. If they might not visit the new variety +theatre, with gambling hall and bar attached, where actresses from +’Frisco and Seattle sang the songs of a local poet containing spirited +references to the rich claim-owners--who, in return for the compliment, +opened champagne at $30 a bottle between the “turns,”--they could at +least enjoy the sights of the river bank. In the absence of so great +an event as the arrival of a scow with mules or the latest papers +on board, some “pardners” were either quarrelling or dividing their +outfits preparatory to selling them. With the first steamer from down +the river came the news from Circle City, which meant a great deal to +the old-timers. The Cheechawkos could not understand it, but, as became +a crowd which gets only a glimpse into the inside world, they made the +most of the peeps and simulated intense interest. + +One day a midget of a steamer, the first to shoot White Horse +Rapids--her parts had been packed over the Pass and put together on +Bennett--ran in between two scows and tied up so quietly that not more +than three or four hundred men saw it. Their pride was no greater than +the disappointment of the multitude, who refused to forgive the captain +until they learned that his whistle was out of gear. + +Next to knowing them personally, the Cheechawkos enjoyed having the +leading citizens and the foremost gamblers pointed out to them. They +knew the story of how the Eldorado kings had made their fortunes, and +how Jack Smith had once bet $7,000 on the turn of a card. Now and then +they caught a glimpse of the tall, raw-boned Scotchman who was the +richest man in the country. Two years before he had been a day laborer +at Circle City. When the value of Eldorado claims was an uncertain +quantity he bought one of the best for $800. He spent all the first +year’s output in buying undeveloped properties, and then bought still +others upon his promise to pay, which the miners accepted without any +written word. The clean-up had vindicated his judgment. Now the fact +that he had stopped on a trail to look at a claim was supposed to +increase its speculative value. + +And speculation still continued in both mining property and real +estate. A French-Canadian who had paid $5 for a front lot just after +the town-site was staked still held out persistently for $20,000, with +slight prospect of getting it. The “bottom” was out of the “boom,” +as every man who supported himself by gambling or speculation well +knew. No new strikes were made except on a few benches. None could be +made on the creeks at a season of the year when the seepage from the +thawing earth would fill a prospect-hole as fast as it was dug. Autumn +and winter have ever been the time for prospecting in the Klondyke, +and summer the time for cabin building or for taking provisions to +the heads of some of the tributaries in poling-boats preparatory to +prospecting. + +Roughly but surely the lesson was forced home to the pilgrim that a +fortune cannot be made in the Klondyke in a hurry. If he would have a +claim he must find it. Even after he has found it, he must spend two +or three years, unless he sells it, taking out its treasure. If it +were not for the humiliation of facing their friends from whom they +had parted with merry good-bys, nine out of every ten of the pilgrims +would have returned home at once. Thirty per cent. of them did, as it +was. Two-thirds would have gone if many had not loitered on in their +tents until it was too late to go except over the ice. The tenth man +developed those characteristics of patience and nonchalance in dealing +with obstacles which the veteran prospector possesses by experience and +by nature. For such as lacked this spirit and remained in the country +there was the prospect of loitering in their cabins until their +supplies were eaten, in the hope of getting a good claim on a stampede, +or of going to work for wages. + +[Illustration: A Yukon Steamer.] + +In all, the pilgrims must have spent $30,000,000, or $40,000,000, on +outfits and transportation. (The output of gold in the Klondyke for the +year was $11,000,000.) But they have paved the way with their failures +for the development of a vast expanse of country whose abounding wealth +is unquestioned. The hardships of a journey to Dawson are of the past. +An aërial tramway, without groans or perspiration, does the work of +the packers at one-fifth of the expense on Chilcoot, and a railroad +carries passengers as well as freight over the whole Pass. Steamers ply +on both the upper and lower branches of the river connecting at White +Horse Rapids with others plying on the lakes. Hereafter, the mines of +the Klondyke will be an established institution, like the mines of +California, and the prospectors who go there, better fitted for their +tasks. + + + + +XI + +GOVERNMENT + + THE CANADIAN POLICY IN THE YUKON PROVINCE--TAXES AND FEES--THE GOLD + COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE--CONFLICTS BETWEEN TERRITORIAL AND DOMINION + GOVERNMENTS--TIMBER GRANTS--THE VALUE OF THE MOUNTED POLICE--THE NEWLY + RICH AT DAWSON--THE ORDER OF THE YUKON PIONEERS--MRS. CONSTANTINE. + + +In its policy the Dominion Government, which took matters out of +the hands of the Territorial Government after the Klondyke “boom” +began, has apparently been largely influenced by the predominance +of aliens in the Klondyke. At least three-fourths of the 2,000 men +in and around Dawson in the winter of 1897-98 and of the 35,000 +pilgrims of the spring of 1898, were citizens of the United States. +Naturally, the members of the Canadian Parliament regarded with dismay +the prospect that the new-found wealth of a portion of their domain +hitherto considered valueless was going to American mints, and that +their constituents would be paying the expenses of administration, +which, owing to the isolation of the region to be governed, must be +comparatively expensive, for the benefit of another country. + +Accordingly, the placer regions of the Yukon Valley lying in British +territory were created a special province called the Yukon District, +under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Parliament. A Commissioner, +with the powers of a dictator, was appointed for the District, the +Judge of the district alone being responsible to Ottawa and not subject +to the Commissioner’s orders. The other civil officials were a Gold +Commissioner, who had charge of the recording of claims, a Crown +Attorney, and two Mining Inspectors for collecting the royalties. +The opportunities of the officials for their own aggrandizement were +exceptional by reason of the system of taxation devised. On the output +of all claims a royalty of ten per cent. was collected. Every pilgrim +had to take out a mining license at a cost of $10. For having a claim +recorded a fee of $15 was charged. Every alternate claim on all new +discoveries was reserved to the Crown, thus depriving the community of +half the reward of enterprise. These restrictions drove a great many +experienced American prospectors to the other side of the boundary +line and at the same time served the inexperienced as an excuse for +returning home. + +Major J. M. Walsh, who was chosen Commissioner, did not go to Dawson +in the autumn of 1897. His corps of civil officials preceded him while +he remained behind in camp on the Lewes Lakes, with a considerable +force of police, in order to escort to Dawson the United States Relief +Expedition. + +Among the foremost charges of maladministration made against the civil +officials was the one in connection with the water front, data of which +were given to me by several leading men. The Canadian law provides +that the main street of a new town shall be at all points a certain +distance from the bank of the river. In order not to have a crooked +main street, the men who staked the town-site of Dawson agreed to +follow this measurement, from the greatest indentation of the bank, in +a straight line. Those who bought lots on the main street supposed that +they were securing river frontage, which is invaluable. The spring of +1898 however, saw a long row of buildings whose back-doors were toward +the river and which faced the original row. The officials had let +the water-front to an individual for a nominal sum in the name of the +Government. The sub-lessees said, with a shrug of their shoulders, that +they did not care to say to whom they paid their heavy rents, and that +they were satisfied as long as they were left undisturbed. + +Captain Constantine, who had been transferred from the charge of +the police at Forty Mile to the same position at Dawson, was an old +fashioned executive. His departure in the summer of 1898 was agreeable +to him as well as to the other officials, because he was alone among +uncongenial company. He understood the miners; and they knew that, +though gruff, he was honest and incorruptible. Even the lawless ones +admitted this much; for in no community is simple integrity enforced +by a strong will better appreciated than in a mining-camp. Had he +been retained as administrator of the whole district, with the power +to choose his own assistants, Dawson would have been a phenomenally +well-governed settlement from the start, and the development of the +great wealth of the region would have been less retarded. Instead +of men who had spent their lives among pioneers, the Dominion +Government sent, as the reward for party service, men whose experience +was limited to local politics at home. With hundreds of experts to +choose from in British Columbia, an ex-captain of a whaler and an +ex-livery-stable-keeper were made inspectors to collect the royalty of +10 per cent. on an output of eleven millions of gold. + +Considering the expense of recording a claim, the owners of claims +and the prospectors had at least the right to expect from the Gold +Commissioner’s Office reasonable attention to duty. To have posted in +a public place a detailed map of the district, with all claims and the +names of their owners recorded, would have required little labor and +no expense; but it would have ruined the business of the clerks in +furnishing information. Considering the number of policemen with idle +hands, mail received in the summer might have been sorted with dispatch +and distributed at different windows under different heads. But a delay +of two or three days, and the prospect of waiting in line for several +hours before one could even ask if there was a letter for him, were +strong incentives, to miners who wished to hurry back to their claims, +to put a few dollars into an itching palm, and in return to receive +immediate attention at the side-door of the Post-Office. + +Unfortunately the arrival of Major Walsh in Dawson in the spring was +not productive of the reforms which an oppressed population had hoped +for. The acts of the officials, except that of a representative of the +Northwest Territory in placing a tax of $2,000 each on saloons and +gambling-halls, seemed to meet with the favor of the Commissioner. +He maintained that the Territorial Government was infringing on the +special powers granted to him by the Dominion Government; and he issued +an order that anyone who chose might sell liquor without any form of +license. + +The buildings on the water-front stood in the way of even a primitive +system of sewerage. Simple sanitary rules were not promulgated, much +less enforced. Absolutely no precautions were taken against the +epidemic of fever, which was responsible for so many deaths. Private +beneficence built the two hospitals, and it now maintains them and +carries on all charitable undertakings. Whatever has been done in the +way of improvements has been paid for by public subscriptions. The full +measure of the Government’s public spirit was the construction of the +barracks and stockade for the Police on the Government Reserve. Had +some of the money collected from the claim-owners and the prospectors +been expended on constructing trails and on a system of sanitation, +there would have been less ground for complaint. Doing nothing itself, +the Government often took the position of the dog in the manger. The +exorbitant price demanded for a charter forced capitalists to give up +the plan of building a railroad from Dawson to the mines, which would +have been invaluable in cheapening the cost of mining. After paying +for timber privileges in their licenses, the pilgrims found, to their +dismay, that the Government, or the officials, had given enormous +timber grants in the neighborhood of Dawson to individuals, thus +putting an artificial value on logs for firewood and building purposes. + +Very properly the loudest complaints arose from Englishmen, +Australians, and South Africans. If the new laws were directed against +Americans, they injured Canadians and other British subjects equally +as much, if not more. From the first, London regarded the Klondyke as +a great field for exploration, and most of the capital represented +there last spring was British. The royalty of 10 per cent. and the +failure to use the money so collected in constructing trails have been, +however, more injurious to capitalistic enterprise, which is largely +British, than to individual enterprise, which is largely American. A +poor man who takes from $5,000 to $50,000 out of a bench-claim with his +own hands will not be deterred from his labors by the royalty. But 10 +per cent. on the gross output makes a majority of company propositions +impracticable. Often it will wipe out a goodly profit, and put a +balance on the wrong side of the ledger. As soon as it was known that +the Dominion Government would not heed the appeals for the abolition of +the royalty, the reaction from the “boom” was complete. The appointment +of Mr. Ogilvie, the new Commissioner, who has a reputation for probity, +was as welcome to the aliens as to the other residents. He at once set +about the work of making reforms. + +Too much cannot be said in praise of the personnel of the Northwest +Mounted Police--mounted only in name, for they have not a single horse +in the Klondyke--which is largely drawn from the ranks of the young +Englishmen who enjoy “roughing it.” In preserving order they are +good-natured but severe. Malefactors are punished with the commendable +promptness of British justice; and no murderer in Dawson can snap his +fingers in the face of the law as one did at Skaguay. At Skaguay there +was no order; at Dawson too much civil government. + +For the first winter, being populated entirely by men from the old +camps, Dawson was, of course, largely a sociological counterpart +of Forty Mile and Circle City, except that the excitement and the +feverish optimism, which increased as the new discoveries continued +to surpass expectations, had hitherto been unknown in the valley. +The contamination of the old customs began with the arrival of the +fifteen hundred madly hastening pilgrims who succeeded in reaching +Dawson before navigation was closed in the autumn of 1897. It was +complete with the arrival of the great pilgrimage with its element +of toughs, gamblers, and other parasites. The time had passed when +every man nodded to whomsoever he met. Dawson had become a settlement +not of neighbors, but, like Mecca, of strangers. The old-timers were +developing those human weaknesses which are brought out in sharp relief +by the sometimes doubtful blessing of great and unexpected success. +Practical communism was easier for a man when he and his comrade were +equally poor than after chance had made him the owner of a plot of +creek bed worth from $500,000 to $1,000,000, while his comrade, who had +been too late in the stampede to stake a claim on Eldorado, was among +his employees. + +[Illustration: The Main Street of Dawson.] + +There sprang up as a consequence an aristocratic social circle called +the Eldorado Kings, suffering, in a measure, from the affliction of +the _nouveaux riches_ of old communities who live miserably under the +suspicion that whoever approaches them has an axe to grind. Yet they +did not forget their duties to their less fortunate fellows. They +gave bountifully to the churches, to the hospitals, and for the care +of those poor Cheechawkos who lay ill in their tents. Upon a special +occasion, the Order of the Yukon Pioneers--perhaps the death of a +comrade or perhaps a church sociable, where you bought ice-cream made +from condensed milk for $2.50 a plate--appeared together wearing broad +blue ribands. Foremost among them was Jack McQuestion. He was keeping a +trading post when the first prospectors entered the Yukon Valley. The +old miners came to him to settle disputes, and the poorest of them +asked him for the loan of an ounce of dust. + +On the day before the departure of our steamer for the outside, attired +in their best clothes and wearing their ribands, the old-timers +presented to Captain Constantine an address of appreciation and a +peck of nuggets. Then Jack McQuestion went over to the barracks and +asked that Mrs. Constantine should share with her husband the central +position in a photographic group of all the pioneers. She consented. + +The Captain’s wife had been her husband’s companion during his service +on the Yukon. When she was quite ill one winter and had to remain +in her cabin from one short day’s end to another--with long, dark, +monotonous nights between them--the kindnesses shown to her were not +limited to the devotion of her stalwart husband or the attention of +ruddy-faced privates, whose Cockney accent told how far they were +from the motherland of commonplaces and restraints. The miners who +came to the door to inquire how she was getting on, devised means +of entertaining her over their pipes and cabin fires, and then were +sometimes too bashful to put them into execution. For one thing they +learned by heart the contents of some old humorous journals in camp. +Though she had been the first person to receive the journals when they +had been brought down the river the preceding summer, she did not say +so, and listened with gentle patience to their jokes being retold again +and again. + +“Mrs. Constantine,” said one old-timer, as he bade her good-by, “we +ain’t much on manners, but we do know a lady when we see one.” + + + + +XII + +DOWN THE YUKON AND HOME. + + GOOD-BY TO DAWSON--THE EXTINCTION OF THE UNFIT--STEAMBOATING TO + ST. MICHAELS--MOSQUITOES AND SANDBARS--PILGRIMS BY THE ALL-WATER + ROUTE--BEHRING SEA--CIVILIZATION ONCE MORE. + + +Despite the diet, the isolation, and the inhospitable nature of the +country, many of the old-timers who had now realized the material +ambition which had brought them to Alaska and were going home, saw +the great crowd which gathered on the river bank to bid our steamer a +pleasant voyage, disappear in the distance with a feeling of regret +amounting to more than a momentary pang. From two to ten years had +passed since many of them had seen a paved street. + +“You’ll wish you’re back,” and, “You won’t feel natcheral,” their +departing friends called out to them. + +Out of deference to civilization everyone had bought certain of its +habiliments. New red ties stood out on the background of black +sweaters, and crumpled overalls drooped over patent leather shoes. Some +had taken whatever they could find to fit them, regardless of cost +and incongruity. Others had halted half way in making out a wardrobe +because they feared that they might not be getting the right styles +or because they got indignant at the prices charged by the Dawson +speculators compared with those on the outside. + +The dying woman who was the mother of the first white baby born in +Dawson, the sallow men who had limped down from the hospital just +before the steamer sailed, and the Cheechawkos who had sold their +outfits for just enough to pay for passage to Seattle, where they +would have to telegraph home for railway fare--these had no regrets. +We buried the woman half way down the river, two of the men before +we reached St. Michaels, and a third at sea when only two days from +Seattle. + +With good accommodations, the journey of eighteen hundred miles +from Dawson to St. Michaels would have been a pleasure trip. It +was far from that with us, owing to the Spanish-American war and +certain other reasons. The commercial company which charged us $300 +for transportation had two steamers at Dawson. It held them there +long enough to give us the questionable satisfaction of seeing the +steamer of the rival company, which had been delayed in coming up +the river from its winter quarters, arrive and cut prices before our +steamer, having room for seventy-five passengers, and one hundred and +seventy-five on board, started on ahead of her sister steamer. We were +to act as a reconnoitering force or a buffer, or whatever you choose, +for the sister steamer, which had a dozen lonely, armed passengers and +$2,500,000 in dust on board, with a view to saving her treasure from a +Spanish privateer if one were waiting for us at the mouth of the river, +as rumor from the outside said. Therefore, one hundred passengers had +to sleep on the floor of the dining-room or on the lower deck among the +Indians and the piles of firewood. + +[Illustration: A Dawson Good-by.] + +Except when we ate, and when the steamer poked its bow into the sand +in front of some piles of fire-wood on the bank, we could be fairly +comfortable lounging on the decks. For the eleven days which the +journey occupied, we had one tablecloth for three sittings at each +meal. As the miners had a general disregard for the utility of +dishes for holding things, the cloth did not preserve its original +color, even in spots, for more than two days. Our food was bad rice, +bad bacon and bread, and old canned roast beef, which, however, did +not count, as we could not eat it. If the company had only allowed +us to use our fingers instead of forks and knives which men who were +“working their fare” out as waiters washed indifferently, I should have +been much happier. By July, moreover, the little mosquitoes were out. +They, and not the big ones which come early in the season, understand +flying straight to the mark with rigid lance. They bit the Indians as +well as the white men, but to no purpose so far as making them hurry +in bringing on the wood. As soon as the steamer was in midstream, the +buzzing mists, which could be resisted only by the finest netting drawn +over the head, disappeared. + +Our principal stops in the eighteen hundred miles were at Forty Mile +and Circle City, where the deserted cabins were being once more +occupied and there was a chance that the old claims, which were good +for their day, would be worked again, and of a recrudescence of the +boom; and at Minook, where important discoveries had been made in the +past winter. But we stopped also at every little Indian village--to +please the Indians, one presumed--where the inhabitants came out to +meet us in their light canoes and wanted to sell furs and trinkets. At +many of these villages there were mission houses. We had on board a +Russian priest, who had come up on the steamer from Anvik and was now +returning. He was bold enough to say that he thought he needed this +little recreation after having been two years alone among the Indians. + +We had left behind the great mountains below Dawson, we had seen the +midnight sun across the vast stretches of flats below Circle City, and +were just congratulating ourselves that our Indian pilot had led us +through the last of the many shallow channels in the flats, when we +ran on a sandbar. Our mate and his Indian crew labored for twenty-four +hours before we were off. The next day a hog chain broke and our +engines were helpless. For the rest of the distance to St. Michaels we +were towed by the steamer which carried the treasure and had the misery +of seeing the fellows who had started two days after us and paid less +fare pass us on the steamer of the rival company. + +At St. Michaels we met three or four thousand pilgrims who were +going into the Klondyke by the all-water route. They had bought +transportation for themselves and outfits of new companies which had +attempted to tow flotillas of river steamers built in Seattle to St. +Michaels. Almost invariably the river steamers had been lost at sea +between Seattle and Unalaska, and those who depended upon them for +transportation to Dawson were only better off than others who had +attempted the journey on decrepit sailing vessels that had gone to +the bottom. It was a little unkind of our passengers, while we waited +for transfer to an ocean steamer, to enjoy setting before them in the +bluntest phrase an exaggerated account of the desperate condition of +all the newcomers in Dawson. + +Behring Sea was placid as a lake when we crossed it. After two days +for coaling at Unalaska and after five days on the Pacific, we entered +Puget Sound on the morning of July 19th. Everyone on board was thinking +of the steaks and the fruit that he would eat that evening for dinner. +The old-timers, who had heretofore resented the steward’s requests that +they should not expectorate on the decks, were a little ill at ease +at the prospect of the social restraint of civilization. Civilization +offers many advantages over Dawson or Circle City for spending a +fortune, to be sure, but such of the old-timers as were destined to +become poor again--and the majority were, I think--would no doubt +return to the pick and the pan as a wanderer returns home. + + +THE END. + + + + +_BOOKS ON OUR NEW POSSESSIONS_ + + +COMMERCIAL CUBA + +A Book for Business Men + +By WILLIAM J. CLARK + +With 8 maps, 7 plans of cities, and 40 full-page illustrations, and a +Commercial Directory of Cuba. Large 8vo, $4.00 + +“A thoroughly good and useful book. We should not know where to +find within another pair of covers so much and so carefully sifted +information bearing on this subject. Mr. Clark’s painstaking account of +the railway and telegraph systems; of highways and harbors; of rivers +and water supplies, and lighthouses; of sugar and tobacco growing; and +his detailed description of each province and of every city of any +size, together with a ‘business directory’ for the whole island, make +his book one of great value for reference as well as for practical +guidance. In the present situation of Cuban affairs it should command +a wide sale. Its accuracy is certainly of a high order.”--New York +_Evening Post_. + + +YESTERDAYS IN THE PHILIPPINES + +By JOSEPH EARLE STEVENS + +With 32 full-page illustrations from photographs by the author. +_Seventh thousand._ 12mo, $1.50 + +“With the observant and indulgent eye of an old traveller, Mr. Stevens +has seen everything in the islands worth seeing, and has described what +he has seen in a most interesting manner.... All is set forth by the +narrator in a breezy, chatty way that would be entertaining under any +circumstances.” + + --Philadelphia _Evening Telegraph_. + + +CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, NEW YORK + + +_THE WAR ON SEA AND LAND_ + + +THE CUBAN AND PORTO RICAN CAMPAIGNS + +By RICHARD HARDING DAVIS + +With 117 illustrations from photographs and with 4 maps. _Twentieth +thousand._ 12mo, $1.50 + +“Never has a war been reported as this has been, and never has a +history been written like this, by one who saw it all--while the blood +was hot and the memory vivid.”--New York _World_. + +“This is much the most vivid and readable of all the books on the +war that have appeared so far, and it is full of life and color and +incidents that show the sort of stuff of which our soldiers were made. +The book is written with a keenness, a vivacity, a skill and a power +to thrill and to leave an impression which mark a decided advance over +anything that even Mr. Davis has written heretofore.”--Boston _Herald_. + + +OUR NAVY IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN + +By JOHN R. SPEARS + +_Author of “The History of Our Navy”_ + +With 125 illustrations from photographs and with charts and diagrams. +12mo, $2.00 + +“Mr. Spears has plainly put his best efforts into that mighty combat, +the sea-Gettysburg of the war, the death-grapple of Cervera’s ships +and Sampson’s. His story of the action of July 3d is superb. It is +the most lucid and comprehensive description which has yet been laid +before the American people, and it is made all the more valuable by the +official chart of the ships’ courses which accompanies it. As a whole, +Mr. Spears’s book is not only true to technical details, but it is a +spirited and admirable piece of literary workmanship. It is one of the +few volumes out of the many hurriedly issued in the wake of the war +which will endure the test of time and stand as a faithful, competent +picture to future generations.”--Boston _Journal_. + + +CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, NEW YORK + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Italics are shown thus: _sloping_. + + Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained. + + Perceived typographical errors have been changed. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79395 *** diff --git a/79395-h/79395-h.htm b/79395-h/79395-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4324ece --- /dev/null +++ b/79395-h/79395-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7039 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + In the Klondyke | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h1 {font-weight: normal; + font-size: 250%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + } + +h2 {font-weight: normal; + font-size: 130%; + margin-top: 1em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + + + +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} + +hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} + + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} + + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdrb {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +font-size:90%; +} + + +.figcenter1 { + padding-top: 2em; + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption {font-size: 80%; + text-align: center;} + +.xxlarge {font-size: 220%;} +.xlarge {font-size: 140%;} +.large {font-size: 120%;} +.less {font-size: 90%;} +.more {font-size: 80%;} +.med {font-size: 70%;} +.mid {font-size: 55%;} + +.c {text-align: center;} + +.sp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} + +.lsp {letter-spacing: 0.2em;} + +.pad {margin-left: 2em; + margin-right: 2em;} + +.pad2 {margin-left: 1em; + margin-right: 1em;} + +.dropcap {float: left; width: auto; padding-right: 1px; font-size: 280%; line-height: 80%;} + +.dropcap1 {float: left; width: auto; padding-right: 5px; font-size: 280%; line-height: 80%;} + +.r {text-align: right; + margin-right: 2em;} + + +.bbox {border: 2px solid; + padding: 2em; + margin-top: 4em;} + +.bbox2 {border: 2px solid; + padding: 2em; + margin-top: 2em;} + + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + margin-top:3em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; + border: .3em double gray; + padding: 1em; +} + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79395 ***</div> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter1" id="f1"> +<img src="images/fig1.jpg" alt="chilkoot"> +<p class="caption">The Chilkoot Pass.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<h1> +IN THE KLONDYKE</h1> + +<p class="c">INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF</p> + +<p class="c large sp">A WINTER’S JOURNEY TO DAWSON</p> + +<p class="c med p6">BY</p> + +<p class="c xlarge sp">FREDERICK PALMER</p> + +<p class="c p4"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> + +<p class="c p4 xlarge sp">CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS</p> +<p class="c xlarge sp">NEW YORK 1899 +</p> +<hr class="full"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="c more sp"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1899, by</span></p> + +<p class="c less sp"> +CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS</p> + +<p class="c mid sp p6"> +TROW DIRECTORY</p> + +<p class="c mid sp"> +PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY</p> + +<p class="c mid sp"> +NEW YORK +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="c xlarge lsp sp">CONTENTS</p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c1">I. THE START FROM DYEA</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Choosing Comrades—Jack Beltz and his Dogs—Fritz Gamble—From +Sheep Camp to the Summit—Packing over the Chilkoot Pass—The +Halt at Lake Linderman—A Night in a Sleeping Bag—Coasting +down the Frozen Yukon—Half Way to Dawson   <i>Page 1</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c2">II. ON THE TRAIL</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Personalities—The Forebears of Jack and Fritz—Good Camp Manners—Dog +Individuality—Dude—The Team of Huskies—Wayfarers +at Five Fingers—Fort Selkirk and Pelly—The Thanksgiving +Turkey that Did Not Get to Dawson—A Diet of Flapjacks—Suburbs +of the Klondyke Capital—The Passing of the Trail   <i>Page 36</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c3">III. DAWSON</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Social Aspects of Dawson—Cornering the Tinned Food Market—Cheechawkos +and Old-Timers in the Early Days   <i>Page 61</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c4">IV. THE FIRST DISCOVERIES</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +The Beginning of Mining in Alaska—Forty Mile Creek—Canadian +and American Deposits—The Largest Log-Cabin Town in the +World—Life of the First Adventurers—The Superfluity of Six-Shooters—Leaving +the Latch-Strings Out—The Way of the +Transgressors—Indian Charley and his Nugget   <i>Page 66</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c5">V. MINERS AND MINING</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Reaping the Gold Harvest—Thawing and Sluicing—Miners and their +Theories—The Dome—Expensive Timber—Empty Pockets but +Dollars in the Dumps—The First Millionnaires—Color in the Pan—Once +a Prospector Always a Prospector—Figuring Fortunes—Capitalists +in Demand—The Forty Happy Kings on Eldorado   <i>Page 85</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c6">VI. SOME KLONDYKE TYPES</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +The Fool and his Lucky Friends—More Theorizers—Joe Staley and +Billy Deddering—French Gulch Bench—Good Fortune that +was Deserved—Neighbors and Twins—No Cure for the Gold +Fever   <i>Page 111</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c7">VII. GETTING ACQUAINTED</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Mr. and Mrs. “Meenach” and their Menage—The Juvenile Mining +Company, Limited—Voss—The Arch-Deacon—A Sour-Dough +Stiff—A Dalmatian and a Turk—Siawash George and his Steam-Engine—Miss +Mulrooney at The Forks—The Price of a “Square” +with Trimmings   <i>Page 126</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c8">VIII. ARCTIC TRAITS</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Daily Life in Dawson—Renting a Cabin—Circumventing the Huskies—Joey +Boureau and his Restaurant—The Faro Dealer’s Wife and +her Bakery—The Laundryman and his Claim—Jack Beltz’s +Schemes—A Pair of Dreamers   <i>Page 153</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c9">IX. PILGRIMS’ TRAILS AND TRIALS</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Itineraries—Alleged Unimportance of Experience—The Case of Father +Stanley—Press Agents and Primers of Wealth—The Secretary of +the Seattle Chamber of Commerce his own Convert—Pardners +and Promoters—Outfits—Home Comforts for an Arctic Climate—Heterogeneous +Boat Loads—The Nancy G—Tragedies of the +Passes   <i>Page 163</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c10">X. PROFITS AND LOSSES</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Newspapers as Profit-Winners—Hearing about Dewey—A Drop in +Eggs—Market Items—Lemons against Scurvy—The Mercury at +110 Degrees—An Averted Moving Day—Industrious Scavengers—The +Klondyke Itself—Aspects of Summer—Bandanna Hats and +Pink Lemonade—A Restaurant Trust—The Grasshoppers and +the Ants—Disillusions   <i>Page 181</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c11">XI. GOVERNMENT</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +The Canadian Policy in the Yukon Province—Taxes and Fees—The +Gold Commissioner’s Office—Conflicts between Territorial and +Dominion Governments—Timber Grants—The Value of the +Mounted Police—The Newly Rich at Dawson—The Order of +the Yukon Pioneers—Mrs. Constantine   <i>Page 200</i></p> + +<p class="c large sp"> +<a href="#c12">XII. DOWN THE YUKON AND HOME</a></p> + +<p class="pad"> +Good-By to Dawson—The Extinction of the Unfit—Steamboating to +St. Michaels—Mosquitoes and Sandbars—Pilgrims by the All-Water +Route—Behring Sea—Civilization Once More   <i>Page 212</i></p> + + + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="c xlarge sp">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p> +</div> + +<table> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">The Chilkoot Pass</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f1"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdr"><span class="mid">FACING<br> +PAGE</span></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">“Packing” Timber</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f3">8</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Pilgrims Resting on the Chilkoot</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f2">8</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A Halt</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f4">14</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Guiding the Team</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f5">18</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Borrowing a Hint from Ice-Boats—Just Above White<br> Horse Rapids</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#f6">22</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Over the Bench Ice of Thirty Mile River</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f7">26</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Crossing a Brook</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f8">32</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">In Camp—The Dogs’ Porridge</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f9">40</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">The First Boats</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f10">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A Typical Pilgrims’ Boat</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f11">66</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Yukon Indians</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f12">78</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">On the Creeks</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f13">88</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A Flume on Bonanza Creek</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f14">102</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Cleaning Up</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f16">108</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Shovelling a Clean-Up into a Gold Pan</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f15">108</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">The Discoverers of French Gulch Bench at Work</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f17">124</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Pardners and Twins for Forty Years</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f18">124</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Miss Mulrooney of The Forks</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f19">142</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Jack Beltz</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f20">156</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">“The Huskies”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f21">156</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">On the Pass</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f22">164</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Caches of Pilgrims’ Outfits at the Summit</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f23">172</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Bargaining for a Newly Arrived Boat-Load, Dawson</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f24">182</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">In the Camps of the Cheechawkos</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f25">188</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A Yukon Steamer</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f26">198</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">The Main Street of Dawson</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f27">208</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl">A Dawson Good-By</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#f28">214</a></td></tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="c xxlarge sp" id="c1">IN THE KLONDYKE</p> +</div> + +<p class="c xlarge">I</p> + +<h2>THE START FROM DYEA</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Choosing Comrades—Jack Beltz and his Dogs—Fritz Gamble—From +Sheep Camp to the Summit—Packing over the +Chilkoot Pass—The Halt at Lake Linderman—A Night +in a Sleeping Bag—Coasting down the Frozen Yukon—Half +Way to Dawson.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>RIGINALLY, I had intended to accompany +our Government expedition for the +relief of the miners of the Klondyke, which +was in part mobilized at Dyea when I arrived +there late in February. As it never went any +farther, for the good reason that Dawson had +been rescued from famine by the migration of +a portion of its population, I was left to my +own resources. Wholesome fatigue and clean +camps on the snow were better than the hospitality +of a mushroom town built of rough +boards and tar-paper; a little adventure was +better than watching for two months the thousands<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> +of pilgrims of fortune in the desperate +and monotonous labor of putting their outfits +over the passes; and I determined, rather than +to wait with them for the opening of navigation, +to undertake with dogs and sleds of my +own the untried journey of six hundred miles +over the ice-fields of the Lewes lakes and the +ice-packs of the Yukon River which the Government +expedition had contemplated.</p> + +<p>Whoever was to go with me must be companionable, +industrious, and loyal, lest in pitching +a tent in a storm, when limbs ached from +the strain of the day’s tramp, an unruly temper +might lead to the crisis of blows or separation. +In turn, I must work as hard as he; for we +could not afford to carry food for a stomach +that nourished idle hands.</p> + +<p>Precisely the right kind of comrade, equipped +with experience, I had hoped would be forthcoming +from among the men who had violated +the traditions of the early communities of gold-seekers +in regard to winter travel. Some members +of this hardy little army were almost daily +arriving in Dyea. But their dogs were worn +out, and they themselves were inclined to +laugh at my suggestion, more particularly at +my money. Having pointed out the greater<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span> +difficulties of ingress than of egress, they asked, +with a touch of sarcasm, if I thought that they +had made the journey out from Dawson for +the purpose of immediately retracing their steps.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, adventurous spirits but lately arrived +from Seattle or San Francisco came to +offer their services with all the self-confidence +characteristic of a floating population. The +references of some were belied by their demeanor, +and the demeanor of others by their +references. All were further belied by their +dogs—Newfoundlands, setters, and what not—which +had received a few days’ training for +market purposes in Seattle. In consequence, +I was almost despairing, when I was accosted +by a powerfully built, blond-haired, blue-eyed +fellow who impressed his personality upon me +at once.</p> + +<p>“I hear you’re lookin’ for a dog-puncher,” +he said, awkwardly. “My name’s Jack Beltz. +I’ve been a cowboy, and done a good many +other things in the West, and now I’m up +against it with the crowd in Alaska. I think +I could do what you want”—and then with +sudden fervor, “but come around and look at +the dogs! If the dogs are no good, you don’t +want me, that’s sure.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p> + +<p>“Any further references?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” after a moment’s thought, “there’s +Bangs, up at the Miner’s Rest. He knowed +me when I was on a ranch in Nebrasky. +Dunno what he’ll say. You can ask him, +though. Anyhow, I’d be obliged if you’d see +the dogs ’fore you make a decision.”</p> + +<p>He waited outside the Miner’s Rest while I +spoke with Bangs.</p> + +<p>“Jack Beltz!” exclaimed Bangs. “Well, +Jack Beltz’s a fool when it comes to hosses +and dawgs. He thinks they can talk. But +Jack Beltz’ll stick to a thing that’s hard—he +don’t like things that ain’t—till he comes out +of it or goes down with it, and all the mules in +the army couldn’t make him mad.”</p> + +<p>Then I followed Jack to a woodpile in the +outskirts of the town, where five fat and sleek +huskies awoke at his approach, and at his command +lined up like so many soldiers, wagging +their bushy tails over their backs and watching +his every movement with their sharp eyes. +From their mothers, who were native Indian +dogs, they had inherited their affection for +man, however poor the specimen, and from +their fathers, who were full-blooded wolves of +the forest, their strength and endurance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + +<p>In an hour after I had met him I had engaged +Jack Beltz on the strength of the fat on +his dogs’ ribs, of his blue eyes, and of Bangs’s +candid recommendation. Placing my theoretical +knowledge of the needs of an arctic climate +against his experience as a frontiersman, we +quickly made out a list of the supplies which +were to be packed on our sleds, minimizing +everything in weight and bulk as far as we +dared, but being very careful to consider that +while we might go hungry the dogs must not. +In all, we took eleven hundred pounds, four +hundred of food and bedding for ourselves and +seven hundred of food for the dogs.</p> + +<p>Chance made the choice of a third member +of the party, whose assistance was necessary, as +happy as the choice of its second. This big fellow, +over six feet in height, was Frederick +Gamble, known to his friends as Fritz, who +had given up a career as an artist and had +already spent one unprofitable season with a +pick and a pack in the Cassiar district. No +pilgrim accustomed to good living ever accepted +a diet of bacon and beans with better +philosophy.</p> + +<p>It was already the 18th of March. If, as the +old-timers said, the Yukon became impassable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +by the 20th of April, we had little time to +spare. There was much in our surroundings +on the day of our departure to lend credence +to their opinion. The sun, at midday, which +turned the blue of the little glaciers over our +heads into a red, united with the wind blowing +from the ocean to thaw the snow on the mountain +sides. In the many places where the winter +trail had been worn down to the sand of the +flats which the Dyea River overflows in the +freshets of spring, the pilgrims had to turn off +to the still intact but spongy ice of the winding +little stream of the autumn and winter to +find a better track for their sleds.</p> + +<p>Canyon City, where the comparatively level +stretch of eight miles of the flats is at an end +and the real ascent of eight miles to the summit +of the Pass begins, had grown into a little +village with three saloons since I had last +visited it, only two weeks before. Here the +river is a thundering cataract in spring, dashing +through a narrow gorge of rocks which rise to +a height of from twenty to a hundred feet. +The sled road of trodden snow with a basis of +ice had become so mushy that the men who +panted forward, dragging their sleds and asking +with their eyes, if not with their tongues, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +a hand to help them out of ruts, were wondering +whether they would not be forced to take +to the summer trail running over the wall of +the canyon on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Beyond the canyon was a community of +thousands of tents, Sheeps Camp, a halfway +station in the work of transportation from +Dyea to the Summit if not in the number of +miles. It had doubled if not trebled in population +since I had last seen it, which meant +that the bulk of the pilgrims had their outfits +this far on their journey. I slept here, the +guest of some friends who had an excellent +bed of fir boughs. Before I was up I knew +that the day on the Summit was fair by the +tramping of the packers and the howls of the +dogs in the main path, or street, of the “town.” +At this time, most of the days on the Summit +were fair, and it behooved the pilgrims to +make the most of them. In midwinter it +often happened that intense cold and a fierce +storm of fine snow, resembling a blizzard in +the Dakotas, made the Summit impassable.</p> + +<p>The series of steep ascents leading from +Sheep Camp to the base of the final, long, +and much steeper ascent, called as a whole +by the pilgrims the Summit, was a struggling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +line of men and dogs, drawing sleds, and of +horses with packs. Oaths and howls were so +numerous that no one oath or howl came to +the ear distinctly. You heard only noise, as +you hear an uproar of individual shouts at a +national convention. In the early days the +pioneers had given to the little plateau at the +base of the final ascent the name of the +Scales, because at this point they were wont +to balance their packs and readjust them for +the last grim effort. Beyond this neither +horse nor mule could carry nor dog could +draw a load. The more supple animal man +took his place.</p> + +<p>If you would see the Pass, of which so +much was written when so little was known +of the Klondyke itself, you have only to +imagine a broad incline at an angle of nearly +forty-five degrees, seven hundred feet in height, +running between two snowy peaks at its summit, +with men in the foreground bending +under the weight of heavy packs, and gradually +growing smaller as they ascend, until, +finally, they seem like ants dangerously near +toppling over with their loads, though, to your +relief and amazement, crawling off the white +blanket into the sky.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f2"> +<img src="images/fig2.jpg" alt="pilgrims"> +<p class="caption">Pilgrims Resting on the Chilkoot.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter1" id="f3"> +<img src="images/fig3.jpg" alt="timber"> +<p class="caption">“Packing” Timber.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + +<p>In the hard, well-packed snow, steps had +been cut, making it a case of walking up-stairs +rather than of climbing. At intervals, +more welcome than the chairs on the landings +of an apartment house which has no +elevator, seats had been cut. Men stepping +out of the slow-moving line found rest in +these. It was not “game” to groan, but purple +faces and lungs gasping for more power +for bodies quivering with excess of strain +told of misery that was felt if not expressed. +When a man did break down he collapsed +utterly, and sometimes he wept.</p> + +<p>Fifty pounds was the usual weight of a +pack for all who did not take pride in exhibiting +their brute strength. These, and the +professional packers who bore the outfits of +pilgrims who could afford this luxury, often +labored under a hundred pounds or more. +The hero of the day was an Indian. He took +up a barrel weighing three hundred and fifty +pounds. A Swede who crawled up on his +hands and knees with three six-by-four timbers +strapped on his back shared honors with him, +however. The descent to the Scales was delightfully +simple. You sat down and tobogganed, +using your heels as a brake, without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +any unpleasant results if you had well-riveted +overalls.</p> + +<p>On the crest were piled hundreds of pilgrims’ +outfits, separated one from another by narrow +paths, making the whole seem like a city in +miniature. Buried under the seventy feet of +snow which had fallen during the winter were +two other such cities, which their owners hoped +to recover in the summer. Beyond floated +a large British flag over the little block-house +where the British Northwest Mounted Police +had established themselves to collect customs +and to see that no one not having a special +permit entered Canadian territory with less +than a year’s supply of food.</p> + +<p>Jack labored for two hours in bringing up +the dogs with the empty sleds, while our goods +came on the backs of the ants, who charged +three cents a pound for the service. Aside +from the five huskies hitched to a large basket-sled, +we had two St. Bernards, “Patsy” and +“Tim,” who were born in the country, and +duly christened and acclimatized there. With +“Patsy” and “Tim,” and my hand on the +“gee-pole” by which the sled was guided, I +went under fire for the first time in descending +the inland side of the pass. Man and sled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +were put <i>hors de combat</i> again and again, while +the dogs, who managed to keep erect, looked +back on me with professional disgust. I +wanted to blame my misfortunes to my moccasins, +but Jack wore moccasins as well and +maintained his footing easily. Fortunately +for the novice there are three small lakes—at +the time they were three fields of snow—in +the nine miles from the Summit to Linderman, +and he could take advantage of the respite +when he was trotting across these to +think out, in the hard-and-fast civilized manner, +how to avoid his frequent loss of equilibrium.</p> + +<p>We spent the night “at home” with Jack +in his own camp on the shore of Lake Linderman. +Jack and his “pardner” Cliff had been +among the pilgrims who had attempted to +reach Dawson in the same summer that the +news of the great “strike” was received by the +outside world. The ice formed in the lakes +and rivers before they could build their boats, +and there had been nothing to do but to wait +eight months until the ice was gone. Once +he had bought a team of dogs, however, Jack +became enamoured of making the journey now +at last before him. On the other hand nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +apparently had disturbed the patience of Cliff, +who was a broad-shouldered giant, over six feet +in height. The pair had first met in Seattle, +formed an alliance “for dust or bust,” as Cliff +said, and had thought more of each other “every +minute ever since.” Cliff was to stay at Linderman +now, but their alliance was resumed +later in Dawson, when Jack, Fritz, and I dissolved +partnership.</p> + +<p>While we were putting our outfits straight +and Jack was writing a letter—from his sighs +I concluded that it was to his best girl—Cliff +cooked flapjacks and fried bacon, sang snatches +of what had been the latest popular songs when +he left Colorado, and talked to his favorite dog, +a Great Dane, who was as scarred as a veteran.</p> + +<p>“Think you’re going to be slighted, don’t +you, Maje?” he rambled on. “Froze off your +ears already, ain’t you? ’Tain’t no country +for short-haired dogs, is it? Don’t want to +lose your tail, too. No, sir. You’re going +to sleep in the tent same’s ever, and if they +don’t like it I’ll tell you ‘sickum,’ and they +won’t be with us long.”</p> + +<p>Major curled up at Cliff’s feet as usual that +night. Inasmuch as he had a snow-bath whenever +he was caught in a storm, he was more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +agreeable than many human beings whose +bodies had not touched water for months.</p> + +<p>In a day we had passed over the only portion +of our journey on land, and we were +henceforth, as Jack put it gayly, to proceed +downhill with the current of the river at the +rate of eight inches to the mile, which is fast +enough as currents go, but rather poor coasting. +The course of the Yukon through the +heart of Alaska is in a semicircle, with one +end at the coast and the other end as near to +the coast as the head-waters of a stream can +be, unless it flows on the level. Once he has +reached the lakes, the prospector may float for +2,600 miles to Bering Sea, and but for this +one of the two friendly deeds of nature in +Alaska—the other is abundant firewood—it is +questionable if the gold in the Klondyke would +have been discovered in our generation. De +Soto’s exploring party would have had a similar +advantage if the Mississippi had risen within +thirty-two miles of Cape Hatteras, and they +would have needed it if the valley of the Mississippi +had been like the valley of the Yukon.</p> + +<p>In harnessing our dogs at dawn, as we +looked out across Lake Linderman from Jack’s +camp, the only color in sight in the vast expanse<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +of white was the needle-like fir-trees, +cropping through the snow on the mountain-sides, +and the outlines of a few pilgrims in +advance of the main body, already astir, dragging +their sleds on to Lake Bennett, where, +with whipsaws, hammers, nails, oakum, and +pitch, was to be built out of the forests the +unique and variegated flotilla which was to +line the river-banks in front of Dawson in May +and June. Jack snapped the long lash of his +whip, shook the “gee-pole” to free the runners, +cried “Mush!”—a Saxon contraction of the +“<i>Marchons!</i>” brought into the country along +with many other words by the French Canadians—and +seven gallant four-footed comrades +and three figures in parkees looking like +hooded night-shirts began in earnest their +journey over the trail hardened by the pilgrims’ +footsteps. By the wayside we passed +caches of waterproof bags, one of them at +either end of a pilgrim’s route of daily toil in +moving his outfit forward by relays, his own +ambition making him undergo longer hours +and greater strain than he, a free citizen +(U. S. A.), would have endured for any other +master.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f4"> +<img src="images/fig4.jpg" alt="halt"> +<p class="caption">A Halt.</p> +</div> + +<p>Linderman is only four miles long, and we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>were soon on Bennett, where the afternoon +brought, in sharp contrast to the keen atmosphere +of the morning, a blowing storm of +moist snow which wet us to the skin. When +Jack halted the dogs for our first and our +worst camp, whose only consolation was a +water-hole that had been made by some pilgrim, +they set up a howl of knowing delight.</p> + +<p>With the snow up to my waist I cut firewood +out of the abundance of dead timber, +and then cut green spruce-boughs, which, when +laid tufts upward on the snow that was packed +down as a floor for our seven-by-seven tent, +made a soft bed. Then I went for a pail of +water and brought in my sleeping-bag, and my +work was done. The air had cleared suddenly, +and the weather had turned so cold that my +parkee had frozen as stiff as a board. I pulled +it off, substituted dry moccasins and socks for +my wet ones, left the rest of my clothes to be +dried by the warmth of my body, and then, +huddling myself up with my sleeping-bag as a +seat, I watched my comrades finishing their allotted +tasks.</p> + +<p>Fritz, who had been chosen cook, was sitting +with one leg on either side of the little sheet-iron +stove, smoking a cigarette and making<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> +flapjacks. Outside, by the light of the crackling +blaze, I could see Jack stirring something +in a pan over a roaring fire with a big ladle +that he had whittled out of a sapling. Weirdly +presiding over this operation, their bodies in +shadow and their wolf-noses thrust forward +with epicurean relish, were the huskies. Jack +fed them only once a day, but then all that +they could eat of tallow, bacon, cornmeal, and +rice, thoroughly boiled in the form of a porridge. +When he took the pan off the fire he +put it, safely covered, in the snow to cool, +while the dogs mounted guard over it, glaring +at one another; and then he came to sit on his +own bed, and together we ate by the light of a +candle hanging by a piece of wire from the +top of the tent. As I had my granite-ware +plate filled with beans the second time and +took my fourth flapjack—a flapjack an inch +thick and seven inches in diameter—a twinkle +came into Jack’s eyes.</p> + +<p>“I like to see a man in earnest,” he said.</p> + +<p>Then he relighted his pipe and went back to +his dogs. Having filled a two-quart tin pan +for each of them, with the ardor of a child he +heaped more timber on the dying fire, and, +turning his back to the cheerful glow, began a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +technical conversation on the state of the trail +with sleek old Dude, the leader of the team.</p> + +<p>Later, when he returned to the tent, the dogs +were so many balls of fur, their noses snuggled +under their bushy tails. If two feet of snow +had fallen during the night it would not have +disturbed the serenity of their slumbers, and in +the morning at the call to harness they would +have dug their way out and shaken themselves +ready for duty. Jack explained, as he pulled +off his moccasins, that they had eaten only half +their usual rations. Having been treated to +beefsteak in Dyea by their generous owner, +they rather resented marching fare; but they +would come down to it as soon as they felt the +pangs of hunger, he added.</p> + +<p>“Are you tired?” I asked him.</p> + +<p>“Me? No,” he drawled.</p> + +<p>He filled up the stove—he must always +have a fire of some kind going—and, leaning +back on his robe, his hands behind his head, +he looked up at the top of the tent dreamily. +He was still in this attitude when I crawled +into my sleeping-bag and quickly fell asleep. +The sleeping-bag did well enough for that +night, but I soon repented of it. With no opportunity +for airing it properly, it soon collected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +moisture and became as uncomfortable as +a coating of ice. After I had been kept awake +for a night by the colder weather that followed +the storm, I ripped it open and used the furs as +a robe, which, with the assistance of a heavy +blanket, kept me as warm as toast, though, +when I awoke, there was a glacial path through +the space I had left open for breathing. The +wonder to me was that Jack did not freeze his +nose—it was a large nose—for he always slept +with his head completely outside of his coverings, +his beard becoming as white with ice as +that of Father Christmas.</p> + +<p>“Blister me if I want to smother!” was his +explanation.</p> + +<p>The first one to awake in the morning +crawled half-way out of his robe, and, dexterously +leaning over, put the coffee-pot on the +stove and made the fire out of the kindlings +which were always ready. To dress was to put +on your footwear, which had been drying—if it +had not been burning—before the stove. Then +the robes and blankets were rolled up and +strapped to serve as seats for breakfast, and you +stepped outside into the invigorating air and +did what you might in the way of cleanliness. +For my part, I washed my hands in the snow, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>using soap liberally, with astonishingly efficacious +results. After breakfast we had to pack +all the things that we had unpacked the night +before back on the sleds and lash them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f5"> +<img src="images/fig5.jpg" alt="team"> +<p class="caption">Guiding the Team.</p> +</div> + +<p>On the Lewes lakes, and the streams which +join them in a chain, one day was quite like +another, with the exception of a single event of +importance to ourselves. At daybreak we +were on the level trail, now trotting and then +walking, until our stomachs cried a halt. On +three occasions we had luncheon in the tents +of pilgrims who, not having been able to bring +their supplies over the pass in the rush of +the previous autumn before winter was at +hand, were making for the foot of Lake Le +Barge to take advantage of the three weeks by +which the clearing of the ice in the river +precedes the clearing of the ice in the lakes. +While his partner was dragging his sled, one of +our hosts was suffering in his tent the torture +of snow-blindness as the penalty of having +gone for a day without glasses. Another host, +an old Dane from San Francisco, had no companion, +not even a dog.</p> + +<p>“Sometime I do get mad,” he said, “when +the sled pull so hard, and I say, ‘Yohn, you +are a big fool to start for Klondyke when you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +are sixty-nine.’ But we do not like to gif up. +Nefer do we get so old we tank it too late to +make a fortune. If a man know as he would +drop dead on top of the Pass, I tank a man +go on to see the t’ing out. I make a fortune +t’ree time, and efery time I haf many pad lucks—yes, +very many pad lucks. Sometime I get +lonely, and then I say, ‘Yohn, there is your +wife, there is your shildren; it is Sunday dinner, +and you are home with a pile of gold.’”</p> + +<p>How we relished the one rapidly diminishing +ham that we had brought with us for our first +luncheons, followed by the perfect relaxation +which comes with good digestion and physical +fatigue, glorified by a pipe, before we arose +and turned our steps toward the brown line +of sled-track which stretched out over the expanse +of white until growing darkness made +it dim, and Jack began to look out for the +first favorable place for a camp!</p> + +<p>At this time it was reported that a great +“strike” of $2.50 to the pan had been made +on Walsh Creek, a tributary of the Yukon +near Big Salmon. The rumor afterwards +turned out to be an exaggeration—only thirty +cents a pan being the amount actually found, +which had grown as it travelled up the lakes.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +Many of the pilgrims, among them ourselves, +who already had their year’s supply of food +over the Pass, and some who had not but were +able to elude the police, leaving their caches +in charge of friends, put a tent, half a side of +bacon, a few quarts of flour, and a few quarts +of beans on a sled behind a lean house-dog, +and hastened toward Walsh Creek without +regard to fatigue or exposure. A sallow and +swarthy Quixote who had not made even this +provision for his stomach and none for his +back except a small blanket, called upon us +one morning when we were at breakfast. Before +he asked for something to eat he introduced +himself as a Cuban who had been a +cook in New York, but had concluded to be +a cook no more now that fortunes were to be +had for a little hard travelling.</p> + +<p>“You see, gents,” he further explained, assuming +a serene air of fellowship, “I’ve been +walking at night so’s to get past the police +stations. They won’t let a feller by when he +ain’t got any grub. If I carried grub I’d be +too late for the strike, mebbe.”</p> + +<p>“But you’ll observe, I’m thinkin’,” Jack +suggested, “that hotels are few and far between +in this region.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ll manage to get on somehow. +There’s a lot of luck in this world if you dodge +about so it’ll hit you. I didn’t know where +I’d get my breakfast, but I’ve got it, that’s +sure.”</p> + +<p>He wished us much happiness, put his +blanket on his back, and walked on as unconcernedly +as if he had a whole baggage train at +his heels. But this was not until he had suggested +with the aplomb of the Bowery that +we would do well to take him on as a “pardner.” +What became of him I do not know. +Possibly his body lies among a pile of driftwood +on some sandbar in the river. On the +other hand, I should not be surprised to see +him one day on Broadway, a huge diamond in +his shirt bosom and a blond lady on his arm, +or to read an account of him in a newspaper +under the head of “From Cook to Millionaire.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f6"> +<img src="images/fig6.jpg" alt="ice-boats"> +<p class="caption">Borrowing a Hint from Ice-Boats—Just Above White Horse Rapids.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Walsh Creek digression caused two +weeks’ delay at a time when we felt the need +of every day to complete our journey, and I +accept the awkward responsibility for it. At +White Horse Canyon we were offered the +hospitality of a large cabin with a kitchen in +one end and bunk-room in the other, occupied +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>by some workmen engaged in building a tramway +around the rapids. Jack suggested that +we stop here for a day because the dogs needed +rest, he said, but really on my account, I think. +I had contracted a bad cough, and my legs +ached like two great teeth. In the afternoon +I lay down on the cook’s bunk, and toward +evening Fritz started down the trail to a distant +camp to find a doctor who had turned pilgrim +of fortune. Meanwhile Jake, the cook, +dosed me with tea made of sage that he had +gathered on the mountain-side.</p> + +<p>“Your pulse is up to a hundred and ten,” +the doctor said; “but all that you’ve got is a +plain, old-fashioned case of measles. You +must have caught them in Dyea, and you’ve +greatly exaggerated them by physical strain.”</p> + +<p>My comrades put up a tent in another cabin +which still wanted doors and windows, thus +ensuring a soft light for the protection of my +eyes, which the doctor feared might be affected. +They nailed some saplings together +for a bedstead, and were so ingenious in many +ways, so kind in keeping the temperature the +same night and day, and in attending to my +wants generally, that I felt like a king in his +private hospital. Jake came in every day to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +make sure that I was taking the doses of sage-tea +that he sent in morning, noon, and night; +while the big workmen came in to hint that I +must not let Jake have his own way too much. +And I lay on my back and thought of two +things—strawberries and pineapples. I would +have given all my wealth for either—but not a +five-cent piece for a pear.</p> + +<p>My convalescence was not so dull as I sat on +a bench in the kitchen, learning, under Jake’s +tutelage, how to cook oatmeal properly, how +to bake bread and to make good pies out of +dried apples, and listening to him expound his +ideas of the world. He was a great cynic. If +you believed in one thing, he was sure to believe +in another. One of his favorite remarks +with which he baited me was that “everybody +is out for the stuff; there ain’t no honor nowadays; +and you don’t catch me missin’ no +dollars.” His boarders excused him by saying, +“Any cook that’s been in a minin’-camp or a +lumber-camp is always a blisterin’ crank.” On +the morning of my departure I held out a bill +to Jake in partial remuneration for what he +had done for me. He stirred the contents of +his pot this way and that, viciously, without replying. +I protested, and then he growled:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> + +<p>“Gwan! What d’ye take me for?”</p> + +<p>As I waved him a good-by he called out:</p> + +<p>“Young feller, you’re all right, but you won’t +argue.”</p> + +<p>In two days we were at the foot of Lake Le +Barge, and on the second of these we had +travelled thirty-five miles, which made the dogs +very unfit for service on the day following.</p> + +<p>So all of another two days’ hard work was +required to go from the foot of Le Barge to +the junction of the Hootalinqua over a portion +of the Yukon known from its length as +Thirty Mile River, and certainly worthy of some +distinction on account of other characteristics. +Many more boats of the pilgrims’ flotilla were +wrecked in the spring on its hidden rocks than +in the White Horse Rapids, which, I may add, +have received undue celebrity. If an average +temperature of thirty degrees below zero continues +for several weeks, the current may +freeze over, but rarely is there more than +bench ice along the shores; and this, owing +to the increasingly moderate weather and the +falling water, was fast breaking away in huge +cakes, which fell into the stream with a splash. +Over that which remained, slippery, sometimes +sloping toward the river at a considerable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> +angle, and often only a foot or two in breadth, +we must make our way. When there was no +footing below the sled, we attached one end +of a rope to it, wrapped the other end around +our waists, and if one of us slipped and fell +in the soft snow of the steep hill-side above, +luckily the others maintained their hold and +were able to prevent both sleds and dogs from +going into the river and putting an end to our +little expedition there and then.</p> + +<p>There was only one accident, and that not +alarming. Fritz thought that he did not need +our help to bring the St. Bernards over a +place that the big sled had safely crossed with +Jack’s back and mine against it and with the +heavy steel prongs strapped to the heels of our +boots dug into the ice. We heard a cry of +“Hurry up! This is cold!” and looked around +to see Fritz standing in a shallow eddy up to +his waist, his parkee blown up about his head +like a veritable balloon, while he braced himself +against the sled. “I had to jump in to +save our bedding,” he said. We hurried on +the faster so that he might keep his blood in +circulation, and he merely took the trouble to +change his socks when we made a camp on +a fairly comfortable ice-cake, after having assured +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>ourselves that it would not float away +with us during the night.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f7"> +<img src="images/fig7.jpg" alt="river"> +<p class="caption">Over the Bench Ice of Thirty-Mile River.</p> +</div> + +<p>Near the Hootalinqua the current slackens, +and we crossed where the stream was completely +frozen over. Above us was a great jam +of cakes that had floated down, some of which +rumbled under our feet, came out in an open +place below, and then went on to form another +jam. A few minutes later there was a boom +and our bridge moved downstream with the +noise of a medley of bass drums. At noon on +this day the sun had made the trail so soft that +we sank into it up to our knees. We halted a +little later, determined to start at one o’clock +in the morning and take advantage of the +crust frozen during the night; and we had +what seemed at the time the good fortune to +put up in a cabin which had been abandoned +by the mounted police. Having had an early +dinner, we were thinking of bed at six o’clock +when two ragged men, their faces blackened +by cooking over camp-fires, came in. They sat +down, and when they had eaten with the heartiness +of famished beings some things that we +had left on the table, one of them, whom his +companion called “the Doctor,” became explanatory:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> + +<p>“You mustn’t mind our appetites,” he said. +“We’ve just come from Dawson. My pardner +there, Yukon Bill, hain’t been out of the +country for eight years. Go easy there, Bill! +Your manners are bad.”</p> + +<p>“Shut up!” roared Bill, looking as wild as +a hungry lynx.</p> + +<p>“Oh, he ain’t as crazy as Jim,” continued +the Doctor. “Jim was a sight uglier ’n Bill, +an’ you can see what Bill is. He took his +share of the bacon on his back an’ started out +for himself this mornin’.”</p> + +<p>“No packin’ fer me! We kept the dogs, +you bet, by——,” put in Bill through a mouthful.</p> + +<p>Jim arrived three hours later. Without paying +any attention to the presence of other +persons, he dropped his pack as if it were of +lead, fell down on the bench, pushed back +his unkempt hair, and looked vacantly at the +stove.</p> + +<p>“Hello, Jim, you loon!” the Doctor called +out. “As long’s we’ve said quits, I ain’t goin’ +to be mean. Have one of our flapjacks!”</p> + +<p>“Eat yer own dirt,” replied Jim. “I kin +cook, an’ I’ve got just as much right in this +cabin as you have.” And Jim put a skillet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> +with a piece of dirty bacon in it on the +stove.</p> + +<p>“Don’t push my pan off there, you eight-footed +elephant!” cried the Doctor.</p> + +<p>Jim lifted his skillet and turned on the Doctor. +Then he set the skillet down again with +the action of one who is too tired for further +effort, and fell back onto his seat.</p> + +<p>“You Siawash sons of the devil,” he said between +his teeth, “if I ever git my strength on +the outside I’ll lick both on ye till ye bawl like +a calf.” And brushing back his hair again he +added, in a protesting voice, after a moment’s +pause: “I kin do it, too!”</p> + +<p>“Bully old Jim!” observed the Doctor.</p> + +<p>It was plain enough that the minds of all +three of our visitors, especially Jim, had been +affected by the hardships that they had endured +on their long tramp, with only snow, trees, +dogs, and their own quarrels for companionship. +Most of these grim travellers whom we +met coming out from Dawson—now and then +one was limping from scurvy—had neither tent +nor stove, quite inadequate robes, no dishes +except skillets and cups, and no food except +bacon, flour, and beans, and not always beans. +Earlier in the winter they put up a barrier of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +boughs against the wind, and slept between two +great fires, kept up by the member of the party +whose night it was to watch.</p> + +<p>At eleven o’clock the Doctor stopped talking, +and we slept for half an hour, only to be +awakened by the arrival of another equally +worn-out party, and almost the last one from +Dawson that we met. By the time we were +fairly asleep again these tired beings set the +cabin on fire, and Jack, in his good-natured +way, put the flames out for them.</p> + +<p>At daylight I was awakened by Fritz, who +was grumbling to himself about the audacity +and the stomachs that some people must have. +I arose to see him looking into two empty pails +which he had left full of apple-sauce and beans.</p> + +<p>“I was hungry as a dog in the night,” the +Doctor explained, a little later, “and I couldn’t +help it.”</p> + +<p>Fritz replied by looking daggers at him. +Then the Doctor offered a pair of snow-shoes +to Fritz as an olive branch.</p> + +<p>“If I thought that what you’ve eaten would +make you downright sick, I’d take ’em,” said +Fritz.</p> + +<p>“’Twon’t,” replied the Doctor, in all honesty. +“Nothin’ makes me sick.” And he gave the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +snow-shoes to Jack, whose eyes were twinkling +in appreciation of the conversation.</p> + +<p>As we started out, five or six hours later +than we had planned, we resolved to eschew +cabins hereafter. We had not done a half-day’s +work when a heavy wet snow set in, +and the condition of the dogs compelled us +to rest.</p> + +<p>“Wear ’em out,” said Jack, “and it’s all up, +anyway. We’ll boil some beans and lay up +some sleep ahead against a freeze.”</p> + +<p>Accordingly, dogs and men slept for thirteen +hours.</p> + +<p>So slight was the freeze at night that the +sun, now rising at four o’clock, soon thawed +the crust. The Big Salmon was already open, +its current destroying the trail and leaving a +field of slush with many places too deep for +passage for a distance of five or six miles, which +was as wearing on the dogs as a full day’s journey +under ordinary circumstances. We only +hoped that the Big Salmon was alone in its +enmity to our plans, for once the ice is out of +the tributaries, the ice in the Yukon cannot +last long. It seemed to be imperative that, in +order to take full advantage of the slight crust +which formed, we should travel nights. We<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +made this experiment once, starting out at +10 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, and once was quite enough.</p> + +<p>The thawing snow had fallen away from the +path, which was hardened by travel from +Dawson and therefore the better resisted the +sun’s rays; but when frozen it was as slippery +as ice. In so far as you were able to keep the +sled from slewing on this razor’s back, that +much you aided the dogs. At intervals you +walked outside the trail, plunging with every +step through the crust down to the slush +underneath, while, with body bent and arm extended +with all the rigidity at your command, +you endeavored to hold the lurching “gee-pole” +steady. Early in the evening the great +darkness seemed the more dense to visions +strained by the sun beating on the expanse of +snow by day. With their eyes bloodshot and +almost closed with snow-blindness, the St. +Bernards continually stumbled and fell as they +leaped from one side of the trail to the other, +blindly and vainly seeking a better footing. +When we rested we dug holes in the crust, and +throwing ourselves prostrate, drank our fill. +At first, I tried to use a telescope drinking-cup, +but soon I regarded it as tawdry, inefficient, +and unworthy of the occasion, and followed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>the more robust custom of Jack, who +enjoyed to the full the pleasure of having +made a convert. For one who had left White +Horse with a bad cough on the heels of the +measles, such indulgence would seem to be the +height of indiscretion. But the cough was +completely gone, no room having been left for +it in the development of every muscle of my +body by the handling of the “gee-pole.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f8"> +<img src="images/fig8.jpg" alt="brook"> +<p class="caption">Crossing a Brook.</p> +</div> + +<p>At these times we would pay our respects +with some bitterness to the man who had +made this strange and lonely trail, though in +better moments we were willing to admit that +he was a pioneer and a pathfinder. As soon +as the ice would bear him, when the wind had +drifted the snow here and there and lifted the +slush ice up to be frozen into rifts, with his +dogs and sleds he set his face toward the coast, +winding in and out between these rifts, back +and forth across the stream and along its +banks, wherever he could find the best footing; +and all who came afterward followed in +his footsteps. He was making a path for himself +and not for us, and it was to his interest, if +not to ours, to have it as crooked as the track +of a snake, and on the most crooked of rivers +at that.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> + +<p>With the falling of the water as the winter +advanced, the ice was rent with cracks. It fell +away from the shores, leaving cakes on end +and fissures. You must toil up one side of a +pyramid to slide down the other; you held +your sled up literally at an angle of forty-five +degrees, and sometimes you dropped up to +your hips into the fissures, for the thin covering +of snow often made them invisible even +in the daytime. Yet to step away from the +trail was like stepping off a bad corduroy road +into a swamp.</p> + +<p>In the darkness the trained eye of the +master had to trust to the halt and whine of +the brave little Dude when we came to a +place where the surface water was deep or the +ice had given away entirely. While the master +went ahead with a pole to make soundings, +Fritz seized the opportunity to roll a cigarette +and to say in a drawl, as he sat on his sled, +resting:</p> + +<p>“If I were in town I would call a cab.”</p> + +<p>Jack had discarded his boots with sharp pegs—the +three of us had worn boots since it became +warmer—to put on moccasins. These +were soon wet and quickly froze, giving him +a sole of ice with which to walk on ice. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> +utter exhaustion, once the big fellow threw +himself upon his “gee-pole” and gasped out +something about not caring whether he went +any farther or not. Then he added:</p> + +<p>“Well, we’ll outlast this trail, anyway. I +guess I’ll light my pipe.”</p> + +<p>Confessedly, I was rather glad of the incident. +It is good to see giants nod when you +have nodded yourself. Only on the previous +day, over a mile of sidling trail, leaning on my +sled to keep it from upsetting, and righting it +when it did upset, I had momentarily, I am +ashamed to say, turned cynic and protester.</p> + +<p>An hour before dawn a scimeter of light +shot across the heavens, followed by broadswords, +fans, daggers, waves, and streaks of +light, dancing sometimes in playful panic and +again moving in a sweep of dignity. With +the aurora borealis as our candle, we passed +around Freeman’s Point, built a fire for luncheon +in a cove, and enjoyed keenly the fact that +we were half way to Dawson.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c2">II</p> +</div> + +<h2>ON THE TRAIL</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Personalities—The Forbears of Jack and Fritz—Good Camp +Manners—Dog Individuality—Dude—The Team of +Huskies—Wayfarers at Five Fingers—Fort Selkirk +and Pelly—The Thanksgiving Turkey that Did Not +Get to Dawson—A Diet of Flapjacks—Suburbs of the +Klondyke Capital—The Passing of the Trail.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>S we moved on slowly at dawn to make a +few more miles before camping, we saw +the penalty of this savage run, which human +stubbornness had insisted upon making, in the +blood left on the trail by the wounded feet of +our dogs. Jack at once covered them with the +moccasins which he had brought for the purpose. +It was plain enough that the continuance +of night marches was unfeasible if we +desired our brave steeds to hold out as far as +Dawson. While the sled slid easier at night, +the excrescences of ice were as sharp as lances, +and though the mushy trail of mid-day made +the sled harder to pull, it was like a cushion +for a wounded foot. We compromised upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +a portion of both evils by determining to start +at dawn and travel as fast and as long as we +could, practically. This gave only seven or +eight hours on the road as against the twelve +or more that we had originally planned, and +in order to make the most of them we made +the sacrifice for the dogs’ sake of drinking ice-water +for our luncheon instead of taking the +time to boil chocolate. Fritz preferring to +handle the “gee-pole,” and I preferring to +assist in keeping the equilibrium of the big sled +by holding the handles at the rear, each settled +down to this as his definite labor.</p> + +<p>We now had more time for our camps; +more time for our pipes of relaxation as we +sat on our beds around Jack’s bonfires after +the dogs were fed and dinner was eaten. On +one of these nights we were talking of ambitions.</p> + +<p>“As a boy, I wanted to drive a street-car,” +said Fritz. “When I grew older they still +called me Freddy, and I made pictures for a +living. That is enough to ruin any man; and, +foreseeing this, I concluded that I’d live on flapjacks +and go unwashed, and be called ‘pardner,’ +or Pete, or Bill, or make baking-powder dough, +or anything, till I found a good placer mine.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +Then I’m going around the world, smoking +the best brand of Turkish cigarettes, and looking +at other people’s pictures.”</p> + +<p>Jack had run away from home at the age +of thirteen to the land of the Indians that had +been revealed to him in a dime novel secreted +in a haymow, and had earned his own living +ever since. Meagre as was his early education, +he had picked up a surprising amount of information +from reading and from association. +His eye was that of a scout; his knowledge of +birds and animals that of a naturalist; his love +of flowers that of a sentimentalist. He had +varied his life as a cowboy by many other occupations. +At one time he had been a private +coachman in Omaha, just to see how it would +seem.</p> + +<p>“I was gettin’ pretty sick of the job,” he explained, +“when the old lady I drove about +leaned over to me one day, confidentially. +‘I’m goin’ to get you a fine livery to wear,’ she +said. Then I realized how low I had fallen, +and that evening I was a free man again.”</p> + +<p>He was longer on the Government survey +than in any other employment, rising until he +filled a position of considerable responsibility. +Possibly it was then that he learned the ethics<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> +of camp-life; more likely they were innate. +He adhered to his own soap, his own towel, +and his own bedding, and was more observant +of the small niceties of life than are most of the +men who wear the high collars that he despised. +In all of his seventeen years of wandering his +greatest source of sorrow was that he had never +made enough money, according to his ideas, to +return home, though his pay had been as high +as a hundred and fifty dollars a month. He +must have a few thousands, and treat the little +Pennsylvania village that was his birthplace to +such extravagance as it had never seen before. +If he made a “stake” in the Klondyke, he +had planned to drive right up to the old folks’ +door with his team of huskies and a little red +cart, distributing candy to the children as the +procession moved forward.</p> + +<p>The dogs, which at first seemed to me to be +only so many domesticated wolves of like dispositions, +had now assumed strong individualities. +Dude, the leader, was worthy of the +name given to him, on account of his sleek coat +of thick gray fur, by the frontiersman who had +instilled into him the wisdom of the trail and +soldierly spirit and obedience. He was the +sergeant-major among Yukon dogs, far from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +being a pup in years and far from having lost +his vigor. When called to harness in the morning +he would stretch his body, arch his neck, +throw his handsome tail over his back, deliver +himself of a peculiar little wolfish whine, and +trot straight to his place. Though your old +sergeant-major may feel a little stiff when he +gets out of bed, he isn’t stiff when he has his +tunic on, especially if there are any recruits +about. From the moment that Jack called +“Mush!” until he called “Halt!” Dude pulled +steadily. All the others shirked at times and +needed the crack of the whip to remind them of +their duty, but the traces between Dude and +the dog behind him were always taut. He +had the natural dignity requisite to his position. +The other dogs attempted no familiarities with +him, such as eating out of his dish or trying to +bowl him over in sport. After an unusually +hard day’s work, before lying down to rest, he +would gambol a little with them as a relaxation +from the steady strain in harness, but not in a +manner of equality.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f9"> +<img src="images/fig9.jpg" alt="porridge"> +<p class="caption">In Camp—The Dogs’ Porridge.</p> +</div> + +<p>During their conversations while the master +was stirring the porridge he asked the sergeant-major +what he thought of the prospects +of reaching Dawson before the ice went out of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>the river, Dude replied, on the authority of +Jack’s translation:</p> + +<p>“Don’t ask me! I can make it all right. +But we ain’t certain of anything as long as we +have those house-dogs on the hind sled.”</p> + +<p>Next to Dude was Fox, a nondescript, who +remained in good flesh up to the last. He +waddled and puffed in trying to keep up when +Dude trotted. Fritz said that Fox reminded +him of a fat school-girl, her cheeks daubed with +molasses candy, and two braids down her back.</p> + +<p>Behind Fox was Jack, a pup, a mischief-maker, +a rascal, and an actor. All husky dogs +are thieves. Some will take a pot off a stove +by its handle and hide it safely out of sight in +the snow while they wait for its contents to +cool to their taste. Jack promised to become +the most accomplished of the clan. His wolf’s +nose always told him where our bacon was +stored and his wolf’s eyes told him when his +opportunity had arrived. Once he had the +meat out of his own basin of porridge eaten, +he looked up to see which dog had any left and +got it before the other dog realized what was +up. He would scent an Indian camp even +before Dude, sometimes at a distance of two +miles. In the traces he forgot to pull while he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> +looked at the ravens flying overhead or listened +for noises in the forest. Then the whip descended +upon him and he would seem very +crestfallen for a moment, only to be at his old +tricks and to have his tail in the air in the next. +The more he was punished for dereliction during +the day, the greater was his affection for his +master in camp. On the warmer nights when +Jack slept outside of the hut for the sake of +elbow room, he would put himself on guard at +the head of the master’s bed of boughs and +allow no other dog except Dude to come near.</p> + +<p>Dude was partial to him. He regarded Jack +as a wayward but clever pup who was sowing +his wild oats, and he knew, as an old sergeant-major, +that this would make the best kind of a +dog in the end. Often the master took hold +of the ne’er-do-well’s ears and shook him, saying:</p> + +<p>“I guess I like you best, after all, Jack. +That’s the way of the world. You’re a rascal, +but you’re clever.”</p> + +<p>Next in line was Tommy, Jack’s brother. +Jack enjoyed getting Tommy into scrapes and +then leaving him to get out of them the best +he could. Tommy was forever sneaking about +the tent, and he was so impolitic in his choice<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +of his moment of action that he was usually +caught red-handed and cuffed. Though he +never succeeded in stealing half as much as +Jack, he came in for a great deal more enmity +from Fritz than all the rest of the team. Jack +used to approach Fritz gayly as Fritz sat with a +leg on either side of our little stove, turn his +coyote’s head to one side, cock up his ears, and +assure Fritz of his friendship for a good cook +and his contempt for all such curs as Tommy. +He might go and come many times in this way +before Fritz’s back was turned. When it was, +however, he seized his spoil and trotted away +in the businesslike manner of a dog who is doing +an errand for his master. At a safe distance, +he neatly dodged all missiles and smiled mockingly +back at the cook. When Tommy was +licked in the traces he howled for half an hour +and his tail did not ascend for the remainder +of the day. None of the other dogs would +make friends with so sour a fellow. Perhaps +he was only oversensitive and introspective, +and I do him wrong. I fear, however, that he +will be sent to the penitentiary at Forty Mile +for a long term one of these days.</p> + +<p>Shorty, the end dog (wheel horse) of the +husky team, was born in Spitzbergen, where<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +dogs are so white that when they are on a +background of snow you know of their presence +only by the black spots for their eyes and +a bigger black spot for their noses. An +equality in breadth and length gave Shorty his +name. Like some fat old gentlemen whom +we meet at the club, he was the more comical +because he was unconsciously so. He didn’t +believe in being a martyr, and he always carried +his head so that one of his eyes was on Jack. +When the master was about to touch up Jack +and Tommy, Shorty would begin suddenly to +pull very hard. His legs were so short and his +body was so chunky that if the team turned a +sharp corner around a cake of ice he would +often roll over like a ball of fur; or, in trying +to keep up he would slip and fall down a fissure, +hanging suspended by his collar while he looked +around at Jack, saying:</p> + +<p>“Oh, I know I’m the snapper of the whip! +What next?”</p> + +<p>He blinked so oddly, there was such an expression +of disgust in the very way in which he +lolled his tongue out, that you laughed at him +as you would at the old gentleman who finds +another club member in his favorite chair and +reading his favorite paper.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p> + +<p>Tim, the larger of the two St. Bernards, +was a sober, phlegmatic dog of noble mien, +who was funny only when he ate so much porridge +after a hard day’s work that he groaned +with pain.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t look at me so reproachfully, +Tim,” Jack would say, “I know I’m to blame. +But I’d feel just as mean if I didn’t feed you +all you wanted.”</p> + +<p>The St. Bernard is too high-spirited for the +work of a draught animal. At first Patsy +seemed the better dog of the two. But Patsy +wore himself out by fidgeting, and then it was +his turn to soldier while Tim did his work. +Toward the last they were in such bad shape +that we dared to put only fifty pounds on their +sled.</p> + +<p>In the neighborhood of Five Fingers we met +a dozen stranded pilgrims whose desperate +efforts to reach Dawson in the previous autumn +had been put to naught by the summary approach +of the arctic winter when they were +within a few days of their destination. They +had built cabins on the banks of the river, +wherever their boats had been inextricably +caught in a jam of ice, and settled down to the +prospect of playing checkers and fighting off<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +scurvy for eight months, until summer came. +Of those who were unsuccessful in the battle, +the most afflicted was an old forty-niner who +accepted with better grace than any of the +others a diet of spruce tea and rice, which he +hoped would undo the work of too much +bacon. A few prospect holes had been sunk +without any reward except “colors,” because, +as they explained, they were, in keeping with +their general ill luck, just outside of the gold +belt. For selfish as well as sentimental reasons +we were glad that these unfortunate fellows +were not more numerous. We had always to +tell them some of the news, and then to leave +their hospitality rather offended despite our +explanations that we could not afford to tarry +with them for a day’s rest when the trail was +good.</p> + +<p>At one of the cabins a boy of seventeen years +hobbled out to the bank to greet us. He and +his uncle had left Dawson for the coast in +December, drawing their own sleds. Hardship +had so affected his uncle’s mind, as the story +was told to me, that to escape from the country +had become a brutal and selfish mania with +him. He forced his nephew, even at the point +of the revolver, it was said, to do all the work<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +of making and breaking camp. The boy was +so tired one night that he crawled under his +blankets without changing his moccasins, which +had become wet by the slush snow about the +fire. He awoke in the morning with his feet +frozen. When they were overtaken on the +trail by a man with a dog team, the next afternoon, +the boy, goaded on by his uncle, was +plodding along on legs which were frozen stiff +up to his knees, experiencing, he said, much inconvenience +but no pain. The fellow-traveller +gave him a ride behind the dogs to the nearest +cabin, where, later, a doctor on his way to the +coast found amputation necessary to save the +boy’s life. As for the uncle, he delayed only a +few hours, and hastened on his journey more +energetically than ever.</p> + +<p>A little hunting had been done by the +stranded pilgrims, but with no success. We +had hoped to obtain some venison from the +Indians, but though we passed many of their +deserted camps between the Hootalinqua and +the Pelly, we came to only one that was occupied. +Here two families were sitting around +a small fire with their backs protected on all +sides from the wind by a wall of brush about +waist high. We secured a few pounds of extremely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>tough steak in exchange for some corn-meal. +A small boy who looked quite like a +young Jap knew a few English words and had +the gift of making comprehensible gestures. +He explained that he had heard his father’s gun +go “boom!” far off on the mountain-side, a few +hours before. No chaffing could shake his +confidence in his father, whose name was +Chook, as a great hunter. One boom, he told +us by signs, and the moose or caribou always +tumbled over into the snow. The temptation +to wait and see if Chook would return with +fresh moose or caribou meat was great, but we +resisted it. When, however, we were at the +other end of the semicircle formed by the curve +of the river beyond the camp, a cry from the +bank showed us Chook, who had hastened +through the woods by a trail known to himself, +bearing a fine caribou steak and a piece of +liver. With him, besides the little boy we had +seen, was an elder brother who had been out +to learn the way in which Daddy crept up +quietly until he was within a few steps of his +prey. Chook wanted sugar in exchange, but +we had none to spare. Finally his obduracy +was overcome and he accepted corn-meal. +Long after we had passed on, he stood watching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> +us, and presumably he was grinning over +his bargain. We enjoyed part of the steak; +Jack, the pup, stole the rest with such finesse +that we forgave him.</p> + +<p>When we had passed one point which we +recognized as a name on the map, we looked +forward from day to day, as we lessened the +distance, until we should arrive at another. In +camp we compared our opinions of how many +miles we had made that day, and soon our +estimates became surprisingly accurate. After +leaving Five Fingers, all our thoughts were +bent on reaching Fort Selkirk, where the Pelly, +a great river of itself, joins the Yukon. The +trail for this distance was better than for the +fifty miles that had preceded it and the colder +weather made sledging better. Moreover, our +new plan of shorter hours and harder work was +succeeding admirably.</p> + +<p>Long before placer mining was thought of +in Alaska or in the British Northwest Territory, +representatives of the fur companies were +stationed at Fort Selkirk. The present post +is across the river from the upper ramparts of +the Yukon’s bank, whose towering walls of +rock resemble the walls of old-time forts, even +to the embrasures. In a break in the ramparts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +is the mouth of the Pelly, which is to the +Yukon what the Missouri is to the Mississippi.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pettit, the trader at Selkirk, had only +Indians for companions. The aspect of this +little man’s loneliness was heightened by his +slight form and his pallor, so out of place in a +country where bare existence is supposed to +demand so much vigor. In summer he busied +himself with a little garden, which was an absorbing +occupation because upon its success +there possibly depended immunity from the +dreaded scurvy. In winter he sat by his stove +smoking when he was not sleeping. Watching +the Indians go through the ritual of the Russian +Church in their original manner, or dance +around a dying fellow to keep off the evil spirit +of death, were diversions which must by this +time have lost their novelty for him. He had +had nothing to sell for more than a year. This +was a great disappointment to his customers +who were short of those great requirements of +aboriginal happiness, tobacco, sugar, and gay-colored +clothes.</p> + +<p>While we were at Pelly, the Indians became +excited over the arrival of news that one of +the tribe, Ulick, had shot ten caribou and two +moose, “one sleep”—or more than a day’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> +travel—down the river. We made careful +calculations as to how much tobacco we could +spare, and kept a sharp lookout for Ulick, +whom we met with his family dragging some +of the moose back to camp. For forty-five +cents’ worth of tobacco we secured thirty +pounds of steak for ourselves and the dogs. +To offers of as high as a dollar a pound for +more, he merely made the reply:</p> + +<p>“Got heap money! Want ‘baccy!’”</p> + +<p>Your husky dog is no vegetarian. Once we +realized how much additional pulling-power +our team could get out of a little fresh meat +we denied ourselves for them.</p> + +<p>The height and the character of the mountains +towering over our heads told us that we +were coming into the region of the Rockies. +Every turn of the river brought into view a +panorama of low wooded islands made in later +times by a change of current; of islands that +were Cyclopean masses thrown up by chaos, +and the nesting-places of eagles; of mountains +on either shore, whose strata seemed to have +been kneaded and stirred when soft as dough, +and afterward, upon solidifying, to have been +rent by convulsions of the earth’s crust.</p> + +<p>But one was too busy with the handles of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +the sled fully to enjoy scenery. You only +knew that the vista seemed to be frowning +upon the impudence of you and your sled and +dogs breaking in upon great solitudes. Thankfully, +the weather was more in our favor and +the trail was harder, as it had been between the +Big Salmon and Pelly, and not so sliding. At +times it was as smooth as a skating-rink for +a few hundred yards where it was protected +from the sun by the shadow of the mountains +and the forests; again, there was glare ice, +where we might ride for a little distance, jesting +merrily about private equipages and driving-parks; +and, again, we drove flocks of wild +ducks away from open places, making us regret +that we had only revolvers with us. Far +over our heads against the background of the +blue sky we saw great flocks of wild swans and +wild geese moving northward in stately procession, +reminding us that summer was near at +hand. At 2 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> the thermometer was at from +10 to 20 degrees below zero; at noon, 80 degrees +above, and the crust of dawn had become +like porridge. I had one ear blistered by the +frost and the other by the sun in the same day.</p> + +<p>But we little minded these extremes; for the +trail continued to be good, until one morning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> +we arrived at the cluster of cabins called +Stewart City, at the mouth of the Stewart +River, where we rested for a day. Of the inmates +of the cabins we bought enough rice to +piece out the rations of our dogs.</p> + +<p>A mile out of Stewart we met Anders, of +Bay City, Michigan, who was drawing his own +sled as he swung along in great strides in the +company of an elderly man who had one dog. +An idea for making a fortune had occurred to +him and to carry it out he had started for +Dyea at once, regardless of the season of the +year. He was “going outside” to bring in the +stock for a poultry farm which he proposed to +establish on an island near Dawson.</p> + +<p>“Fresh eggs will bring ten dollars a dozen +any time,” he said, “and a spring chicken as +much. I ain’t going to let anybody get ahead +of me, you bet. I’ve got a side of bacon and +a sack of flour. I’ll sleep by day and go without +a blanket. I’ll make it to Five Fingers +with my sled and then I’ll take what’s left of +my grub on my back and skin along the shore +till I get to the lakes, where I can get some +more grub off the boats that are coming in, +snake a canoe somewhere, and paddle up to +Linderman.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> + +<p>I saw him in Dawson two weeks after the +pilgrims’ flotilla began to arrive. The ice in +the river had broken before he reached Five +Fingers. He had climbed over mountains +and beaten his way through underbrush until +he sprained his ankle. Then he crawled to +a ledge of rock overlooking the stream and +waited until a pilgrim in a passing boat saw +the red bandanna which he waved as a signal +of distress.</p> + +<p>“And I guess Dawson won’t have turkey +for Thanksgiving this year,” he added. “You +remember the old feller that was with me? +We got separated. He couldn’t keep up with +my gait. Well, our boat passed his dog running +up and down the shore howling, but we +couldn’t find a sign of him. I guess he was +drowned.”</p> + +<p>It took us six days to make the remaining +seventy-five miles to Dawson, though now +our outfit, including bedding and kit-bags, did +not weigh more than two hundred pounds. +The weather at night had suddenly moderated, +as if the arctic winter, after a spasmodic resistance, +had given way entirely to the tropical +summer. Henceforth, it was needless to put +up our tent, and we slept and cooked entirely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>in the open, drying our wet footwear by the +heat of the sun in the late afternoon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f10"> +<img src="images/fig10.jpg" alt="boats"> +<p class="caption">The First Boats.</p> +</div> + +<p>Starting at 2 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> with the first light, we +plodded straight ahead through the snow up to +our knees, until the dogs gave out. We followed +the trail where we could; followed +it until it led us to the flowing river, and +then we made a detour around the open place. +The snow-shoes which we had brought thus +far without having once put them on, now became +invaluable in making a path by slow and +arduous tramping, as monotonous as the beating +of time, but a little more tiring, I assure +you. Without the relief of the color of the +dogs or of the man in front of you upon which +to rest your eyes, little red spots would dance +in the glare on the snow even through heavy +green glasses. Often the rest of the party +had to wait while Jack, who never tired, went +on ahead to see if, in case we should go around +this or that island, we should be obliged to retrace +our steps. Again, in little side channels +where the water was deep only in a freshet, we +hitched all the dogs to one sled at a time +and they dragged it over the sandy bottom and +up on the other side, where we were likely to +strike out on an old Indian trail bare of snow,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +and to have to lift the sleds from side to +side to avoid saplings.</p> + +<p>It was our boast that only once had we unpacked +the sleds except to make camp. This +was at Five Fingers, where we had to carry +our baggage piece by piece up an ascent of +forty feet. Even there we had sent the dogs +up with the small sled on bare ground. But +now we could lift the sleds and contents; or +if the bank or ledge of rocks which we wished +to gain was very precipitate, we could slide +them up on skids. Dude, the old leader, +would crawl up by himself without a whine, +like a true soldier. Jack threw the other +huskies up bodily, and the clumsy St. Bernards +were pushed and pulled and coaxed up.</p> + +<p>Just when we had to undergo the greatest +physical labor, and the greatest strain from +climate, our food-supply, so astonishing had +been our appetites, had dwindled to flour and +bad bacon, and we had remaining only a pipe +of tobacco apiece, which was religiously saved +for our last camp. We missed most keenly +our chocolate, of which we had eaten half a +pound apiece a day. With a slab of it for +luncheon, and only two flapjacks and a slice +of bacon, we were not hungry again for five<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +or six hours. Consume all the flapjacks and +bacon that we could without suffering from +that excess of quantity which is the foe of +exercise, in three or four hours our stomachs +would be calling for more.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the fourth day out +from Stewart, when the dogs pulled up after +one of the rushes they were never too tired to +make on scenting a camp, we looked up to see +some figures standing on a pile of logs which +they were cutting for a raft of timber for a +Dawson saw-mill.</p> + +<p>“How are ye?” they called. “Goin’ to +town?”</p> + +<p>We had reached the suburbs!</p> + +<p>“Well,” replied Jack, “we’ve been thinkin’ +some of it. How far is it?”</p> + +<p>“’Bout twenty miles. But you won’t make +it. The ice is likely to go out any minute.”</p> + +<p>On the day following we passed still another +camp of rafters, who said that the river was +open in front of Dawson. They advised us to +make camp and accompany them when navigation +opened.</p> + +<p>“We’ll be old inhabitants by that time,” said +Jack.</p> + +<p>Every creek flowing into the river was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> +torrent, eating up the ice and flooding its surface. +We could see that the river was rising, +which was a sure sign that its days were few. +However, we were confident of reaching our +destination on the morrow, though we had to +desert our sleds, put some flapjacks and slices +of bacon in our pockets, and climb over the +mountain which hid “town” from view.</p> + +<p>Our last camp was on a wooded island +where some prospector had built a brush-house. +Jack’s bonfire, especially large in +honor of the occasion, extended to this house, +and we thought it rather good fun that we had +to save our bedding from the flames. But our +jubilation was not unmixed with sadness. We +should not make another journey together, and +we had been good comrades, always venting +our anger, when it insisted upon expression, +upon our sleds, and never blaming one another.</p> + +<p>Our hair and beards were long and unkempt; +our trousers were the color of mahogany; +but we felt strong enough to go up +the side of a mountain on the run, and we had +been so near to nature that we could truly +claim her for next-door neighbor.</p> + +<p>In the future, the numerous police stations +built in the summer (1898) will furnish food<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> +for travellers and their dogs. Already, therefore, +our journey in the manner that we made +it is a thing of the past, and, accordingly, one +feels as he looks back on it a little of the pride +of the pioneer.</p> + +<p>“We can sleep as long as we want, to-morrow,” +said Fritz, pulling his robe over him, +“and we won’t care whether it is going to +freeze at night or not.”</p> + +<p>“And we won’t have wet feet,” Jack added. +“I guess it’s been twenty days since they +wasn’t sopping ’fore we’d been out two hours, +and that slush does feel rather clammy when +the sun’s blisterin’ overhead.”</p> + +<p>Ten miles in ten hours was the record of +our last day’s travel, over the worst trail we +had encountered. At dusk we rounded an +island, and to our right, on a small flat across +the river (which here had been opened by the +current of the Klondyke), we saw the cluster +of cabins which was the pilgrim’s Mecca. +There was glare ice, however, above the Klondyke +across to the little suburb of Dawson, +Klondyke City. For the first time in many +days we rode on our sleds, finishing our journey +in triumph.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you know that it’s too late to travel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +on the river?” asked the foremost man of the +little crowd that came out to meet us.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Jack, “and we’ve just made +up our minds to quit.”</p> + +<p>Four days later, as if it had broken away all +along the shores at the same moment, the ice +moved on toward the sea like a great white +procession, halted now and then by a jam, but +not for long.</p> + +<p>“It’s a pleasure to see that trail go by,” was +Jack’s comment, as he watched it from our +cabin-door. “I only wish I might pay it back +in its own kind by tripping it up a few times.”</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c3">III</p> +</div> + +<h2>DAWSON</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Social Aspects of Dawson—Cornering the Tinned Food +Market—Cheechawkos and Old-Timers in the Early +Days.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>T this season of the year the inhabitants +of Dawson were passing out of the chrysalis +of fur caps into soiled, broad-brimmed +hats resurrected from cabin-shelves; out of +winter clothing generally into what remained +of their last summer’s clothing. Along the +thawing bog called the main street, littered and +odorous from sanitary neglect, were two rows +of saloons and gambling-halls, with mining-brokers’ +offices and the stores of shrewd speculators +in food-supplies, who always had one +can of condensed milk for $2.50, one can of +butter for $5, and one pound of sugar for $1.50, +and assured you that they were the last in the +country. To look out across the flat toward +the mountains was to see scattered cabins and +piles of tin cans, which at once let one into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +culinary secrets of an isolated community composed +largely of men. At the restaurants, +bacon and beans and coffee cost $2.50.</p> + +<p>For a time in the winter in fear of famine +the well-to-do hoarded food as they hoard gold +in a financial panic, and the restaurants were +closed because supplies were not procurable at +prices that made catering profitable. Then, a +fifty-pound sack of flour sold for as high as +$100; but at the approach of spring the little +capitalists who had planned to sell their “corners” +at great profit were glad enough to dispose +of such surplus as they had beyond their +own needs at a loss. To them the departure of +hundreds of mouths which otherwise would +have been fed out of Dawson’s granary was as +great a disappointment as a report that Hungary’s +wheat crop would greatly exceed expectations +is to the bulls on the Chicago Exchange. +All of the luxuries and many of the +necessities of life were scarce; but, withal, +there was quite enough of bacon, beans, and +flour to have satisfied the appetites of the +whole community for a month after supplies +arrived. According to the philosophy of the +old-timers, there is never any danger of a man’s +starving as long as he will look ahead a little.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> +So easy is it to sleep and so little does one eat +when one is not working that he can live on a +pound of food a day, if need be, and take the +remainder of his nourishment in slumber. On +the other hand, vigorous labor in winter demands +at least three pounds a day, and it is +upon this basis that estimates have always been +made in the valley of the Yukon.</p> + +<p>With a tiny can of cocoa, which I pounced +upon in a store as if it were an Elzevir in a +junk-heap, and a few staples bought at extravagant +prices, we were able to prepare a superior +meal in the cabin that I had leased. But this +was not until we had slept gloriously for sixteen +hours. There remained the problem of a +bath, which was serious, as the one bath-house +in Dawson was closed for repairs. I solved it +legitimately, if uncomfortably, in the wooden +tub which was lent to me by a neighbor.</p> + +<p>The saloons had only a substitute for whiskey, +of home manufacture. The dance-halls +were not open. All the men whose dust and +presence would make the camp lively were at +the mines—or “up the creeks,” as the saying +goes in Dawson—preparing for the “clean-up.”</p> + +<p>In winter and in summer the trail leads up +the Klondyke to the mouth of Bonanza, three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> +miles from Dawson, and thence up Bonanza +to the working-claims, about three miles farther +on. In the spring, when the currents are +swollen, you must go over a high mountain by +a path in the soft snow. If you have a pack, +this is hard work. On the way I met a blue-faced +old fellow—by his look if not by his limp +he had the scurvy—who promptly put me in +my proper social status.</p> + +<p>“Are ye a Cheechawko?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, I’m sure.”</p> + +<p>“Well, then, ye are, and the river must ’a’ +broke. Any man’s a Cheechawko until he’s +been in the country when the ice goes out. In +the old days we could lick the Cheechawkos +into shape; larn ’em to leave their latch-strings +out fur a passin’ stranger when they was away +from hum, and larn ’em to eat what they wanted +and to use the best blanket in a cabin, but to +lug nothin’ away. Fifty thousand of ’em, they +say—clerks and farmers and dudes. They’re +too many fur us. Civilization’s here, and it’s +a case of locking up yer dust after this. But, +young man, ye can’t be an old-timer, never! +Ye can’t be an old-timer, ’less ye’ve lived in the +camps in the old days when a man was a man +and his neighbor’s brother.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> + +<p>And without giving me time to reply to his +little lecture, he hobbled on toward the hospital.</p> + +<p>Cheechawko is the Indian word for stranger, +or, more literally, tenderfoot, which has come +into general use in the Klondyke; and toward +the Cheechawko, bringing in the more penurious +ways of the outside world, along with ignorance +of mining, the old-timer feels a genuine +resentment. I was glad of the opportunity to +see the veterans ere the recruits had arrived.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c4">IV</p> +</div> + +<h2>THE FIRST DISCOVERIES</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Beginning of Mining in Alaska—Forty Mile Creek—Canadian +and American Deposits—The Largest Log-Cabin +Town in the World—Life of the First Adventurers—The +Superfluity of Six-Shooters—Leaving +the Latch-Strings Out—The Way of the Transgressors—Indian +Charley and his Nugget.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap1">A</span> LITTLE history of placer mining in the +Yukon valley, at this turn of my narrative, +will be of importance, I think, in making what +follows more comprehensible. It was early in +the eighties, if not before, that the first prospectors, +armed with Indian tales, faith, and a +“gold pan,” packed their supplies to the shores +of the Lewes lakes over the passes which were +the means of communication between the +Indians of the coast and those of the interior. +They followed the ice out of the lakes and +down the river into a practically unexplored +country, panning out of the gravel at the +mouth of each tributary.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f11"> +<img src="images/fig11.jpg" alt="boat"> +<p class="caption">A Typical Pilgrims’ Boat.</p> +</div> + +<p>At first, these and the other brave spirits who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>were encouraged to follow their example arduously +poled their boats back up-stream in +September, with the result of their summer’s +labor, to spend the winter in one of the towns +of the quartz-mining region in southeastern +Alaska or in the Pacific Coast States. Some +had three or four hundred dollars; others, who +had impatiently disregarded certain “pay” on +the bars of the tributaries and had prospected +in the hope of making a great “strike,” returned +with little or nothing.</p> + +<p>Soon they began to take in enough supplies +to last them through the winter, and to build +cabins for their protection. A little settlement +sprang up on the site of the “diggings” of +Forty Mile Creek. All of the rich deposits +thus far have been found not on the tributaries +of the Yukon but on the tributaries of the +tributaries. (The wealth of the far-famed Klondyke +is not on the Klondyke River but on +Eldorado and Bonanza, which flow into it.) +So the next progressive step was a discovery +which led to the working of the frozen ground +in the valleys of the numerous little streams +tributary to Forty Mile, by stripping off the +dirt as fast as the very hot sun of the long days +of the arctic summer thawed it. This process,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +however, was feasible only when the “pay-dirt” +was near to the surface, and the season of +activity was still restricted to four or five +months of the year.</p> + +<p>As the prospectors moved on down the +river, gradually widening the circle of their +labors and their experience, deposits considerably +richer than those of the tributaries of +Forty Mile were found on the tributaries of +Birch Creek in American territory. Here, for +the first time, an innovation, which did not +appeal to everybody, made it feasible to work +twelve months in the year. An energetic man +sank a shaft to bedrock with fires. Then he +drifted out his “pay-dirt” in the same manner +and piled it in dumps on the surface to be +sluiced out in summer. By the autumn of +1896, when the great discovery of Bonanza +Creek was made, Circle City was said to be +the largest log-cabin town in the world, and +from twenty-five hundred to three thousand +white men dwelt in the Yukon valley.</p> + +<p>Experience in placer mining counted for +little in a region where conditions were so +different from those of the Pacific Coast +States. There was no sprinkling of capitalists +or mining engineers among those robust<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +pilgrims of the early days. Many of the hardships +which they endured are already a memory. +They were cheered in their combat +with nature by no such tales as lured on the +Cheechawkos of 1897-98. The majority of +them came from the frontiers of the United +States; a smaller part, generally of French +descent, from the frontiers of Canada. All +were peculiarly the product of the Anglo-Saxon +bent for overcoming obstacles. Not infrequently +there were fugitives from justice, +who, having the inclination and the energy to +undergo great physical trials rather than serve a +term in prison, and learning a lesson in manhood +by bitter retrospection, have often become +heroic pioneers. More numerous than the inhabitants +of the old centres of civilization would +suppose were those recluses who are ever seeking +lonely refuges out of touch with the advance +posts of organized society.</p> + +<p>There was no prospect, especially when no +“big strikes” had been reported, to attract +the idle and the dissolute who infest similar +settlements in more hospitable countries. Relieved +of the parasitic class and being interdependent +in isolation from the outside world +under the most rigorous conditions for eight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +months in the year, their inhabitants, despite +the “pasts” of some of them, made Circle City +and Forty Mile the most peaceable of mining +camps. Captain Constantine, of the British +Northwest Mounted Police, with a few men, +had plenary powers at Forty Mile, while Circle +City was nominally governed by a United +States Commissioner and a United States +Marshal.</p> + +<p>All the white women in both communities +could be counted on the fingers of two hands. +Mrs. Constantine, the wives of a few missionaries +and of a few leading men, had come in +on steamers up the river in summer to join +their husbands. Half a dozen half-breed women, +with more or less of the blood of Russian +fur traders in their veins, composed the demimonde +of either camp. Full-blooded squaws +performed the household duties in some cabins +for a civilized lord and master. But the +“squaw man” was the exception. In no part +of the world where isolated white men live +among aborigines was the man who had a native +mistress held in greater disrespect than +here.</p> + +<p>As a rule, the miners did their own washing +and mending. Their amusements were card-playing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +and checker-playing. The climate +seemed to exercise a softening effect upon bellicose +natures, and even intoxication seldom +carried quarrels beyond a dispute of words. +Whoever struck the first blow had the consensus +of opinion of the camp against him.</p> + +<p>“We’ve got enough to do fighting Alaska,” +was a saying which sententiously expressed +the general feeling, “without fighting one +another.”</p> + +<p>To the new-comer it was hinted that a six-shooter, +which fiction makes the inseparable +companion of all men in a new placer mining +camp, was a superfluity that would keep him +out of trouble only when he kept it at all times +hanging on a peg in his cabin. Its weight +alone was equal to two days’ rations in a +country where the prospector had to dispense +with his helpmeet, the mule or the burro, and +carry his grub for a tour on his back. Therefore, +arms were never carried unless there was +a chance of meeting with game.</p> + +<p>The essence of the “free miners’ law” was +being on the “squar’,” which, after all, is a +rough equivalent of the brotherhood of man. +Between the disputants as to the ownership of +a claim the “miners’ meeting” decided which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +one was in the right. All offenders were +brought before the bar of their fellows. A +man accused of theft, after an examination of +witnesses, was acquitted or convicted by the +holding up of hands. If guilty, he was, according +to the circumstances, either warned +to leave the country for good—no slight penalty +in midwinter with only the hospitality of +Indians to depend upon—or else ostracism +was postponed pending good behavior. “Miners’ +meeting law” is unscientific and rarely +commendable, but here it served its purpose +well because its methods made it so seldom +required.</p> + +<p>Under the force of self-interest a universal +good-will prevailed. Whatever a miner had—perhaps +the increment of a summer’s earnings +which was to pay for another year’s supplies—he +kept in tomato cans on the table of +his cabin with impunity. When he went away +from home on a journey to some other creek +he left his latch-string out. On the very evening +of his absence, while his cabin was occupied +by another, he was, perhaps, sleeping +in someone else’s without an invitation. By +the unwritten law of the land he enjoyed +whatever luxuries of food and rest the cabin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> +afforded; but, likewise by the unwritten law +of the land, he washed any dishes that he had +used and put them and all other things that +he had disturbed back where they belonged, +folded the blankets on the bunk, cut firewood +in place of that which he had burned, and laid +kindlings by the stove ready to make warmth +and cheer for the owner when he should return, +cold and weary.</p> + +<p>Cheechawkos who came down the river in +the spring in their rough boats at first, through +ignorance, were often transgressors of the unwritten +laws. But so few arrived at a time +that the majority were soon able to convince +them of the folly of courting trouble for themselves. +Anyone with a bad record could not +obtain favors or a loan when he needed it. +After he had consumed the supplies which he +had brought into the country with him, he +must rely upon the transportation companies, +established to meet the demand of the new +settlements, whose river steamers connected +with ocean-going vessels at the island of St. +Michael in Norton Sound. When a man +had been unfortunate in his summer’s work, +a reputation for probity would secure from the +companies a year’s outfit on a simple promise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +to pay. In treating generously the real prospector +who sought new fields, they only had +an eye to their own interests in the development +of the country. Every canned and preserved +delicacy was included in a year’s supplies, +costing from $500 to $600. Canned +plum pudding was a treat for the holidays; +and more than one miner ate <i>pâté de foie gras</i> +for the first time in Circle City or Forty Mile. +These luxuries, however, were no substitutes +for fresh fruits and fresh vegetables.</p> + +<p>The flat-bottomed river steamers continued +on their course until the ice in the river led +them to seek a slough or side channel for +safety, all hands preparing to spend the winter +housed up on board. Then no more Cheechawkos’ +boats could arrive, and the camps +were as completely separated from the outside +world as a whaler caught in the ice of +Bering Sea. To all men, including the recluses, +a “pardner” was essential. For the +recluses were recluses from civilization and not +from fellow-men of their own tastes; and no +one, except a few of the most perverse, undertook +single-handed to put up a cabin or to live +in it alone.</p> + +<p>The “town” was on the river bank at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +most accessible point to the creeks whose +wealth was responsible for its existence. Its +cabins clustered around the commercial companies’ +stores and the saloons. To one side +was a camp of Indians and the mission station +which ministered to their spiritual wants and, +following the paths of diplomacy, to the spiritual +wants of the miners—upon request. Fuel +was brought from the hill-sides and food was +taken to the cabins on the creeks by teams of +husky dogs.</p> + +<p>When the winter settled down in serene +triumph in December there was not even the +falling of snow to disturb the calm atmosphere. +The fine white particles under foot, +which seemed as sharp as powdered glass to +the touch, were precipitated invisibly, like +frost. They glistened on the mountain-sides +without a breath of air to stir them. In the +few hours of gray light out of the twenty-four, +men welcomed the sound of their own voices, +or even the howl of their dogs, to break the +silence which was the fit companion of the dry, +biting cold. At night they forgave the still +and merciless panorama of the day as they +watched out of their cabin-windows the play +of the Northern Lights, in which nature has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +furnished for the eyes a greater treat than is +the breaking of surf for the ears.</p> + +<p>With the coming of spring, when the sun +mounted so rapidly in the heavens, every man +had his opinion and his reasons for it as to the +exact date when the ice should go out of the +Yukon. After this—the greatest event of the +year—had taken place, all eyes kept a lookout +up-stream for the first pine-colored boat that +should dart around the bend with the rapidity +of the current. The Cheechawko was surrounded +by a little crowd which asked him +about the result of the previous November’s +elections, or if France and Germany had gone +to war as indicated by an August paper which +the community had been reading for eight +months.</p> + +<p>As a rule, the early arrivals had been in the +country before. They knew the channels and +the currents of the river, and could resist the +temptation of stopping to pan the gravel of +the bars in search of colors, for the old-timers +had long since concluded that the travel-worn +particles of dust to be found at the mouths of +all of the tributaries of the Yukon which are +in the so-called gold belt, were vagrants and +not the advance guard of a floating pilgrimage.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +They had poled weary miles in their +long boats and carried packs for wearier ones +without finding at the head-waters of the tributaries, +which were named by them and still +await accurate mapping by geographers, any +original deposits. The shallow bedrock in the +neighborhood of Forty Mile put the original +deposits there within reach of the summer’s +sun and the superficial investigation of the +hurrying prospector, and opened the way to +the discovery of richer original deposits at +Circle City at a slightly greater depth of bedrock.</p> + +<p>So the miners had concluded that the next +great strike, following the progress of development +down the river, would be made below +Circle City. On account of an Indian’s keen +glance the contrary happened, and they retraced +their footsteps to find fortunes at a depth +of thirty feet under soil whose surface they +had trod before. The sharp-eyed Indian was +a brother-in-law of “Siawash George,” and +“Siawash George” was an outcast, whose +nickname was given to him by his fellow white +men. The Siawashes are one of the lowest +orders of the American Indians, and the old-timers, +so largely men from the Pacific Coast,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +use Siawash both as a noun and as an adjective +to signify contempt. One of the first white +pilgrims to cross the passes, Cormac, was now +the father of three or four half-breed children. +He had planned that his marriage to a princess +of the tribe would be the stepping-stone +of his ambition to become chief of the Sticks. +In the autumn of 1896 he and his family and +retainers were encamped at the mouth of the +Klondyke, gathering from the land and the +water, according to aboriginal custom but with +modern riffles and hooks, their winter supply of +provender.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f12"> +<img src="images/fig12.jpg" alt="indians"> +<p class="caption">Yukon Indians.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Klondyke is one of the best rivers in +the neighborhood for fish, much better than +the Indian River, which flows into the Yukon +between thirty and forty miles above it. At +the summit of the water-shed between the +Indian and the Klondyke is a great mountain, +which, from its shape, the miners have named +The Dome. In the snows of its sides six +creeks have their origin, three flowing into +either stream. The longest of these is sixteen +miles. They wind through beds of black +muck, ranging from fifty to two hundred and +fifty yards in breadth, which lie between steep +embankments. It is presumed that the embankments +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>are the walls of an ancient river +channel. They are indented only by the +gulches cut by tributaries which once were +mighty but now have dwindled to little torrents +which flourish only with the first warmth +of spring or after a heavy rain in summer. +The great heat of June, July, and August drew +out of the muck with a growth of tropical rapidity +a rank grass upon which the moose fed +in peace, fattening his sides, made lean by +winter’s privations.</p> + +<p>Here “Injun Sharley,” as he called himself, +came to look for moose, and here he found instead, +as he was crossing the first tributary of +the Klondyke at a point where its bending +course had dug a niche out of the side-hill, a +glistening nugget of gold. According to all of +the preconceived ideas of the placer mining +prospectors, no creeks in the region were so unpromising +as these. Those few prospectors +who had tramped up this valley, finding a few +colors in the shoals made by washing the earth +of the embankment, had passed them by with +the ever-ready expression of the country:</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, you can find colors anywhere.”</p> + +<p>If the turn of the creek had not washed one +stray nugget as well as stray colors out of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +bench which no one found worth working two +years after discovery, the moose might still be +feeding undisturbed in the valleys of Eldorado +and Bonanza creeks, which are now as expressive +of man’s handiwork as the rear of a row of +tenement houses, and certain unhappy newspaper +correspondents would not have missed +the Spanish-American War.</p> + +<p>There is no reason to believe that “Siawash +George,” personally, had any great confidence +in the “strike.” Rather—after having staked +creek claims for himself and “Injun Sharley”—he +thought it worth advertising, when advertising +was so cheap because of the expert +canoists and good pedestrians in his family. +He was further assisted in spreading the news +by Joe La Due, another “squaw man,” who +has been erroneously called Father of the Klondyke, +just as “Siawash George,” and not “Injun +Sharley,” has been called its discoverer. +La Due staked out a town-site on the flat +which had been formed in the course of time +by the alluvial deposits of the Klondyke at its +mouth. He was fond of “booms,” and as a +part of his plan of promoting his latest boom +he offered lots for five dollars apiece to all who +would stake claims on the new creeks. Neither<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> +he nor “Siawash George” had much to lose +and they might gain a great deal if shafts were +sunk to bedrock with fires after the plan that +had lately come into vogue at Circle City.</p> + +<p>When an Indian arrived at Forty Mile and +then at Circle City with a tale out of all proportion +to the actual size of the nugget that +“Injun Sharley” had found, the miners received +it with that garlic cynicism which has its +natural abiding-place in the unkempt beards of +hardened frontiersmen. They had become so +used to strikes with no foundation except an +irresponsible imagination, as nominally to believe +in nothing that a man said about any find +he had made. So they told the Indian that he +was a liar pure and simple, who had been +primed by an ambitious brother-in-law. The +Indian had been told to expect this reply and +was not the least disturbed in mind by it. But +no miner acts upon his convictions in such a +matter. He usually hurries off to the reported +scene of the find because, after all, “mebbe +there might be somethin’ in it.” But such +were the reputations of Joe La Due and Cormac +that many of the earlier pioneers refused +to budge. Their superior wisdom was as unfortunate +for them as absence from the settlements<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +was for those at work on the creeks. +The two or three hundred, lounging in the +saloons and the stores or resting in their cabins, +who made for the mouth of the Klondyke in the +mood of men who are playing a joke on themselves, +became rich.</p> + +<p>There were not enough claims on the discovery +creek, Bonanza, for all of them, so the +later arrivals, just for the sake of staking something, +contemptuously staked a tributary of +Bonanza, which they called in their phrase a +“pup.” Then there was naught to do but to +wait until a few of the more energetic fellows +sunk holes on Bonanza. No one was more +surprised at the result than “Siawash George.” +Bedrock on Bonanza showed the richest placer +dirt yet found in Alaska or the British Northwest +Territory. Those who had been in time to +stake claims on Bonanza settled down to work +at once, incidentally extending their pity to the +fellows on the “pup.” The claim-owners on +Eldorado, where no shaft had been sunk, accepted +the pity in good part and offered their +claims at various prices, ranging from one hundred +to five hundred dollars. Most of them +were so lucky as to be unable to make a sale, +and are now worth from five hundred thousand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> +to a million dollars apiece. The “pup” is +the richest placer mining creek in the world.</p> + +<p>Nine months after “Injun Sharley” had +brought home a nugget instead of a moose, the +outside world heard of the great discovery. +Such pilgrims, attracted by the news, as succeeded +in reaching Dawson in the autumn of +1897 found that all creeks rising on the slopes +of The Dome and all other creeks at that time +proven to be worth the working, had already +been staked by the old-timers who had followed +the advance guard from Circle City and Forty +Mile. Feverish stampede followed on feverish +stampede to new ground. That putting down +four stakes in a creek-bed anywhere in the region +was equal to drawing a fortune from a bank +became the gospel of the hour, which received +its authority from the original attitude toward +the “pup” of the men who had staked Eldorado. +A man needed only to come into a saloon +with a pack on his back, and, being tired, +appear silent and mysterious, to excite the suspicion +that he had made a “strike.” “Only an +affidavit” of having found “color” was necessary +to have a discovery claim recorded, and a +discovery always meant a stampede. Having +received a hint from a friend, or overheard a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> +whispered conversation in the street, a pilgrim +would rush off for a distance of more than a +day’s travel, without food or blankets, trusting +to luck to feed him and keep him warm. +Death was often the result.</p> + +<p>Having staked the remaining creeks in a radius +of from thirty to sixty miles of Dawson, +some of the new-comers rested in their cabins, +eating their winter’s supply of food. Others +found employment on the work-claims; and +still others departed over the ice to escape +starvation and to thrill their neighbors at home +with the information that they owned claims. +As the humor of the saloons went, there remained +for the oncoming host of May and +June an expanse of unexplored territory sufficient +to keep a hundred times their number +busy prospecting for a century, but no gold at +all, unless they could find it for themselves.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c5">V</p> +</div> + +<h2>MINERS AND MINING</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reaping the Gold Harvest—Thawing and Sluicing—Miners +and their Theories—The Dome—Expensive Timber—Empty +Pockets but Dollars in the Dumps—The First +Millionnaires—Color in the Pan—Once a Prospector +Always a Prospector—Figuring Fortunes—Capitalists +in Demand—The Forty Happy Kings on Eldorado.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T was just on the eve of harvest-time when +I first visited the creeks. In a day or two +the flow of water from the gulches where the +snow lay thickest would make a head sufficient +to wash the yellow grain out of the dumps. +Along the four miles of Eldorado, or its full +length, and the ten miles of working claims on +Bonanza, lines of flumes and their dependent +sluice-boxes—the lumber for which had been +drawn on sleds from Dawson by husky dogs, +or cut with whipsaws—formed a network +around the string of cabins occupied by claim-owners +and their workmen and around the +piles of clayish-colored dirt, thawed out inch +by inch during the short winter days, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +contained virgin wealth amounting to ten million +dollars. The hill-sides, once covered with +timber, were bare of all except stumps and +scarred by broad streaks from top to bottom, +showing where logs for building the cabins +and for feeding the fires in the drifts had +been slid down.</p> + +<p>If you descended by the shafts beside the +dumps to the drifts, you soon comprehended +that reaping the harvest, once you have a +claim, is not so easy as picking wild cranberries. +It is dogged work to build fires day +after day, running the risk of suffocation and +permanent injury to the eyes by the smoke, +and pulling up the dirt, bucketful after bucketful, +by means of a windlass, with the thermometer +forty below zero—and the prospect of +cooking your own dinner. The rising steam +from the thawing pay-dirt of the drifts, which +fills the valley with mist, adds the discomfort +of humidity to the biting cold. Though the +man who turns the windlass may have to beat +his hands and dance about to keep warm, he +is never in positive danger as is his partner +below, who, in returning to relight one of the +series of nicely arranged piles of wood which +have failed to ignite, is likely to be suffocated,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> +or, barring such slips as this or any consequent +accident, is sure to suffer continually from +soreness and smarting of the eyes, if not to +have them permanently injured by the smoke.</p> + +<p>In one spot of three or four square feet on +Eldorado, the nuggets are so thick that you +can pick them out by hand as a farmer’s boy +picks potatoes out of a hill. In juxtaposition +there may be as many more square feet which +are not considered worth thawing and sluicing; +and so the angles of the drifts seem like the +path of a man of vacillating mind trying to +make his way to the light in darkness. From +two to three feet above the real bedrock is the +false bedrock, a stratum of stone broken into +angular fragments, apparently by some great +force passing overhead. Between the two is +the best paying-dirt, and occasionally here is +found, perhaps with particles of gold sticking +to it, the tusk of a mammoth who was the +ruler in the valley before the days of the moose.</p> + +<p>In the angular fragments of the false bedrock +the miners who are fond of making out +the reason of things over their cabin-fires, with +diversified reading in newspapers or even a +dip in a text-book of geology at school as basic +knowledge, find support for their favorite theory<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +as to how the yellow particles came to +their resting-place. Gold had never been found +before in such incongruous surroundings. +Therefore, they contend, it must have been +borne from its point of precipitation by some +force worthy of the situation and of Alaska, +where nature has a gift for seemingly paradoxical +performances done on a Brobdingnagian +scale. What else but a glacier was equal +to the feat? It had scattered wealth in its +progress like some good Lady Bountiful, crushing +with its great weight the false bedrock +between whose fragments the dust had fallen +by force of gravity to the true bedrock.</p> + +<p>Another, a smaller and perforce a more confident +school of thought, holds that an ancient +volcano “coughed” the dust out of the bowels +of the earth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f13"> +<img src="images/fig13.jpg" alt="creeks"> +<p class="caption">On the Creeks.</p> +</div> + +<p>For my part, inasmuch as the geologists +themselves have come to no certain conclusion, +I hold that all the gold which has been +found in the Klondyke and Indian River districts +was smelted in a great pot in The Dome +and has leaked out of its cracks. Then, as a +fitting corollary, I desire that one day an old +forty-niner, as sturdy and as fine as an old +weather-beaten oak, shall discover the pot and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>find a leverage strong enough to lift the cover +off it; whereupon, a good guardian, gently +reserving enough of his millions to give him a +certain annuity for life, he may spend the rest +in ’Frisco after the manner of his own choosing +as quickly as he can. But I am certain—such +is the irony of fate—that, instead of him, +the happy man will be an Oklahoma “boomer,” +the father of several strapping daughters, who +never panned a handful of dirt before he +mortgaged his all in order to buy a Klondyker’s +outfit. He will set his daughters up in the +capitals of Europe, where they will marry +continental noblemen, while the whole family +will be miserable for life.</p> + +<p>In candor, I must say that with mine as +with most theories there are facts which go +to contradict it. The claims on the upper +reaches of the creeks, which have their origin +on the slopes of The Dome, are much richer +than those on the lower reaches, where the +dust is finer and more travel-worn as well as +more scattering. But in the head-waters nothing +has yet been found which is worth the +working. So either all the gold leaked out +some time before this force that carried it +ceased to operate, or the mythical person<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> +who has charge of the pot mended the cracks, +or, possibly—and this is my hope—the fortunes +which have already been brought to light +were only an overflow, the palpable result of +the chemist in charge of the vessel having +misjudged its capacity.</p> + +<p>By the fifteenth of May the drifts were filled +or partly filled with seepage which had frozen +below a depth of a few feet, where the temperature +is never above freezing. Work in them +was at an end by the first of May, when the +surface earth had begun to thaw a little at midday. +Then the plane, saw, and hammer took +the place of the pick and shovel. If they had +used rosewood at New York or London prices +the miners could not have built their flumes and +sluice-boxes out of more expensive material +than that they had in the warping, knotty fir +boards which were condescendingly sold at +$250 a thousand by the three saw-mills in the +country. Once the flumes were laid to the +gulches and to the dams in the creek itself, the +sluice-boxes were properly laid on the dumps +which were to be washed first and the gates +between the two were made tight, the community +was ready to reap the reward of a +winter’s toil as soon as the sun should thaw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +the drifts of snow on the mountain-sides sufficiently +to make a sluice-head of water.</p> + +<p>There followed a brief period of inactivity +like that between sowing and harvest for the +farmer. Every man had his opinion of how +much the output of all the creeks would be, +and the estimates varied from six to fifteen +millions. Within the big world of speculation +there were the small worlds of the groups of +cabins which clustered around that of the +owner of each claim on Eldorado and Bonanza. +For the laymen who had taken portions +of claims to work on shares and for the claim-owners, +especially those who had employed the +workers on their claims at daily wages, it was +an interval of some anxiety. They would +soon know in what measure the estimates that +they had made from specimens of pay-dirt +panned out in buckets of water in their cabins +during the winter would be verified. Men +who had more than a hundred thousand dollars +in their dumps possibly had not five dollars +in cash in their possession.</p> + +<p>The members of no community had ever +been submitted to a greater burden of usury. +They bore it with rare good-nature. What +else were they to do? they asked. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +needed money for wages, for food for their +men, and for lumber, and those in town who +had money knew the value of it. The regular +rate in the winter was ten per cent. a month, +and some of the so-called millionnaires who +had owned nothing except an outfit two years +before were owing as much as $25,000 on +from three to six months’ time.</p> + +<p>A spirit of optimism and good cheer prevailed. +A sun bath, lounging in a home-made +chair on the stoop of a cabin (perhaps with a +pair of moose horns forming an ornamental +back), was a luxury better appreciated in the +Klondyke than in a temperate clime. Sometimes +a breeze, with a faint odor of fir-trees +and of the many wild flowers which spring up +in tropical luxuriance in the spring, came +down the valley. Over the hills were young +birches which yielded a delicious sap for the +tapping. There was even gratitude to the +tyrant windlass of the winter days in that it +had supplied exercise, given an appetite, kept +the blood circulating, and prevented the scurvy, +which is to be dreaded only by the man who +lounges in his cabin, does not wash himself, +does not cook his food properly, and endeavors +generally to imitate the bear. Nearly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +everyone could hope, if he did not expect, that +his claim or his lay would turn out as well as +he had estimated. At all events, he would have +some spending money. He knew that the +early boats from Lake Le Barge would bring +in many luxuries just at the opportune moment +when the “clean-up” was about finished +and he might go to “town.” He smacked his +lips in anticipation of the day when he would +have all the eggs that he could eat, regardless +of their cost.</p> + +<p>One day the sun suddenly beat down with +great fierceness, which was unabated for several +days. Then the water came gushing down the +flumes in greater quantity than was needed, +and the men picked up their picks and shovels +again and began peeling off the dirt on the +dumps and tossing it into the sluice-boxes. +The warmth was prolonged through the night, +so that the dirt continued to thaw as fast as +they could strip it off, and on many claims—whose +owners had foresight or were in luck, as +one pleases to put it—there were two shifts +working all the time except when, once or +twice a day, the boxes were being “cleaned” +of the accumulation of gold and the sand which +sinks with it between the cleats. The snowdrifts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +were melting as if they were under a +blowpipe. Even the tiny streams of the gulches +become torrents, dams had to be opened, +and some sluice-boxes floated away from their +moorings. Only too soon was the loss of the +wasted energy brought home. With the snow +gone and rains and the seepage from the thawing +surface the only source of water supply, +the currents dwindled until many claims had +not a single sluice-head. The claim-owners on +the tributary Eldorado, with as much dirt to +wash as the main stream Bonanza, particularly +had cause to resent the prodigality of nature in +expending all of its ammunition at once. Instead +of having finished their washing in June +as they had confidently expected, all through +July they were measuring the head of water +from hour to hour with the care of a physician +feeling a patient’s pulse.</p> + +<p>When the “clean-up” of a day’s shovelling +was made, you might feast your eyes on the +consummation of the harvest. The water was +shut off and the cleats in the boxes were lifted +and rinsed, leaving a residue which glistened +with yellow particles. Just a small stream +was turned on by the man at the water-gates, +who was probably making the most of his rest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> +from shovelling by smoking a pipe of cut plug, +and then turned off again, or on a little more +or off a little less, while the most expert miner +on the claim pushed the speckled sand-pile +back and forth with a common brush-broom +until all the foreign particles had floated off, except +a sprinkling of the heavy black sand which +is invariably the companion of placer gold.</p> + +<p>Three or four or five thousand dollars—perhaps +ten or fifteen or twenty thousand if the +“clean-up” be on Eldorado—which is three +or four or five double handfuls, is put into +a pan with an ordinary fire-shovel. The sight +is bound to make your blood run faster and +to color your reason with an epic enthusiasm. +That little yellow pile, you know at a +glance, will stand the test of chemicals. It +must also accept the concrete responsibility +for all the disappointments, sufferings, and +deaths of the pilgrims on the trail and the +worries of their friends and relatives at home. +Once you have seen a “color” in the bottom +of a pan with the black sand following it +around like a faithful servant, you can never +again be deceived by the glitter of any false +gods. You would know it if you saw it between +cobblestones on Broadway, or if it were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +no larger than a pin-head at the bottom of a +trout-pool.</p> + +<p>It is small wonder that once a man is a prospector, +in good faith, not a child of a wild stampede, +he is always a prospector. There is an +heroic aspect, the more charming in contrast to +the complexity of civilization, in going from +creek to creek which have no place on the +maps of geographical societies, taking a pan of +dirt here and a pan of dirt there, breathing +fresh air, a zest given to your exercise by the +hope of success.</p> + +<p>For the moment, the yellow pile makes you +feel like seeking a claim of your own and harvesting +its treasure for yourself. But when +you look at the miry path along the base of the +mountain by the creek-side, and think of following +it with a pack on your back until it +is no more, and a wilderness begins; of passing +on over the mountains until you come to +what you consider a likely place, and thawing +through thirty feet of earth at a rate of a foot +a day in the hap-hazard possibility of finding +“pay-dirt,” you conclude that the poetry of the +thing can be better appreciated by sitting on +someone else’s dump.</p> + +<p>Besides, as one who did a little prospecting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> +on his own account and is proud to say that he +found a few “colors”—which is just what anyone +else can do in the Klondyke region—I +observed that the recent arrivals of Nestorian +prospectors who took a delight in quoting to +you from Emerson when their hands were +reeking with clay and their gray locks were +sticking through the crowns of old hats, do not +like Alaska, though free to admit its material +opportunities. They could not be weaned +from the temperate climate and the skies of +California, and were determined to return to +their old stamping-grounds, where any honest +prospector can get a grubstake from a speculative +city man, and needs nothing more to +make him happy and free.</p> + +<p>After a few days’ washing the hopes of most +of the laymen were shattered; and so far as +their peace of mind was concerned, the worst of +it was that they had only their own lack of foresight +to blame. They had learned that even in +the Klondyke men do not make a practice of +giving fortunes away to strangers—except to +music-hall artistes—though, as in the centres +of civilization, they often negotiated a bargain +with an air of self-sacrifice which is an assumption +of as much.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span></p> + +<p>Such was the attitude of many of the claim-owners +below the discovery claim on Bonanza +and of a few above who had prospected their +claims well enough to have some idea of what +was in them. They concluded to let out their +ground to be worked on shares, two men to +each section, which is called a lay. Many, especially +those who had come in with the little +pilgrimage that reached Dawson in the autumn +of ’97, were enraptured over the chance of getting +a portion of a claim on the original creek +and not far from “discovery,” at that.</p> + +<p>The number of applications quite exceeded +the number of lays to be let, and all through +the winter the laymen on Bonanza were the +envy of their fellows. The samples which they +washed out in their cabins had the peculiarity +of bringing promises up to original expectations, +because the laymen had the weakness +of selecting the samples from their best dirt. +When the man who was in the drift came to +one of those rare spots in the pay-streak of +Lower Bonanza where he could see the tiny +particles shining in the wall of earth like golden +hoar-frost, he gleefully called out to his +“pardner” at the windlass to take it into the +cabin so they could see how much it ran to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> +bucket. In the evening the happy children, +upon the result as a basis, quite overestimating +the amount of dirt they had in their dumps, +figured out small fortunes for themselves, spoke +of the claim-owner as a good angel, hugged +their knees fondly, as if they had materialized +into dust, and saw brilliant pictures in their +smoke rings.</p> + +<p>In their letters, detailing their success to the +folks at home, they promised their wives new +gowns and their daughters pianos. They were +doing so well that they felt that they could +afford holidays. They fell into the way of +“knocking off” by mutual consent at noon on +days when they had to bake bread. If it was +a little colder than usual in the morning they +succumbed to the temptation of making more +figures and dreaming more dreams by the fire +and postponing work until the morrow. “The +gold’s in the ground; it’s ours. All we’ve got +to do is to take it out, and we’ve got to stay +here two or three winters, anyway,” was the +argument with which they excused themselves. +The size of their dumps beside those excavated +by employees who worked by the hour was a +silent commentary on the value of discipline.</p> + +<p>Mid-July found them in Dawson in a mood<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +to afford at least one more dish of eggs, one +more dinner at the restaurant before they settled +down to the economical life which their +necessities required. Occasionally they took +out of their pockets, to amuse their friends, +clippings from the home paper, in which they +saw themselves made out millionnaires. They +reread the letters from home which had come +along with the clippings in the first mail down +the river, and confronted deep perplexities. It +was only human that they should wish that the +wife had not gone so far as actually to order the +piano and the gown. While they calculated +how much they would need for their winter’s +outfit and how much they could send home—if +that fund did not all go for eggs before the +problem was settled—they formulated the +wording of their replies by which they should +explain the situation.</p> + +<p>To the credit of the sex be it said that the +wives of some of the unfortunate laymen knew +their husbands’ weaknesses. One optimist, +who had taken only $900 out of his claim instead +of the $10,000 that he had anticipated, +received this reply from home:</p> + +<p>“God bless you, Charlie, but we’ve made too +many ten thousands without ever getting them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> +for me to count my chickens before they’re +hatched. I’m being as economical as I can, +and telling the neighbors that I hope you’ll +make a good year’s wages, but that it’s too +early to tell yet for certain.”</p> + +<p>Most of the laymen, if they had worked +steadily for eight hours a day—more are scarcely +practicable on account of the long nights—would +have had more than the equivalent of the +prevailing rate of wages. Those who had felt +themselves to be unfortunate in not getting +lays and had sought employment, because they +had someone to tell them to go to work in the +morning, were in the mood of the school-boy +who had studied during the term and passed +his examination as opposed to the boy who +had not. Their employers were better satisfied +because their claims had been worked with +more system and thoroughness than the others, +and were more than glad to pay the interest, +heavy as it was, on their borrowed capital.</p> + +<p>While the laymen were inclined to exaggerate +the amount of their earnings in order +to decrease the discrepancy between their winter +boasts and their spring returns, the claim-owners +themselves, who early in May were +serene optimists and put the total output of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> +the country at $15,000,000, by the end of +May were dour pessimists, asserting their unbounded +faith that the total output would not +be more than $6,000,000. Early in May, you +see, there was an impression that the Government +royalty of ten per cent. on the gross +product of all claims had been repealed. At +the end of May, Major Walsh, the Commissioner +of the Yukon District, arrived with the +positive information that the royalty would be +collected. Most of the claim-owners on Bonanza +had suffered the same disillusion as their +laymen; but most of them, if the Government +had not decided that they would have to pay +the royalty on the laymen’s gold as well as +on their own, would have put on a bold front, +especially as their claims were for sale.</p> + +<p>When claim-owners met on the trail, after +comparing notes as to the number of eggs +eaten at the first sitting, the invariable remark +was:</p> + +<p>“I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything +about your claim being sold!”</p> + +<p>For no one was certain whether he or +some stranger owned the wealth of his dumps. +Without any property under consideration by +the capitalists of London or New York, you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>were a kind of social outcast. Claims that +were under options were as common as mortgages +formerly were on farms in Kansas.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f14"> +<img src="images/fig14.jpg" alt="bonanza flume"> +<p class="caption">A Flume on Bonanza Creek.</p> +</div> + +<p>The prospect of famine during the winter +had been responsible for this. Some enterprising +fellows, who were among the first to +go out over the ice, made the best of their +opportunity as connecting links between an +isolated community and civilization.</p> + +<p>“Here you are,” they said to the claim-owners +on Eldorado and Bonanza, “paying a +dollar and a quarter and a dollar and a half +an hour for labor and thawing the dirt out +by inches, when capitalists, with cheaper labor +and improved appliances, can take it out for +half the money. Why, it’s a case of the old +stage coach against the lightning express. If +they can block a number of claims and work +’em together, they’ll gladly pay you on the +spot more’n you can get out of your claim +the way you’re working it, and make a +good thing out of it too. The whole outside’s +wild over the Klondyke. The capitalists +are longing for the chance. All that’s got +to be done is to lay it before ’em. You name +your price and give me six months’ option +and we’ll take ’em out and sell ’em. What<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> +we get for ’em’s our affair. We’ll make our +commission out of the difference.”</p> + +<p>The enthusiasts believed what they said. +They assured themselves and the claim-owners +that none of the arguments which held good +in other mining camps could apply in this +instance. The Klondyke was a law unto itself +in all matters of investment, they said. +They put dust from each of the claims which +they were to sell in a separate bag, and this +they were to offer to the simple-minded financiers +of London and New York as a guarantee +of the correctness of their several representations. +Each zealous miner being desirous +that his claim should show up well on the +list, some of the promoters obtained several +thousand dollars in nuggets.</p> + +<p>Such examples of success were not without +their effect upon those who went out over +the ice at later periods. The field of all the +claims on the creeks as yet demonstrated to +be valuable having been worked, they turned +their attention to those creeks which had been +staked on unfounded rumors by stampedes, +and possibly were worth no more than the +beds of so many creeks in the valley of the +Hudson River. They neglected none of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> +details. Because it looks better to the lay eye, +they chose dust from Eldorado as examples of +the product of these “wild oat prospectors.”</p> + +<p>The moral effect of the option craze was +unfortunate in more respects than one. Men +who owned claims on stampede creeks felt +that they could afford to waste their winter in +idleness in their cabins as long as they had +property in the hands of New York capitalists. +They could not escape the heresy that a claim +in the Klondyke, no matter what its location, +was regarded by the outside world as a +valuable piece of property. It was especially +hard for those who had not funds enough to +buy their winter’s outfit, as they inquired along +the river bank, day after day, as the boats came +in, to learn finally that the promoters to whom +they had intrusted their claims had arrived +on the Pacific Coast just at the time when the +Klondyke was forgotten and all public interest +was centred in another subject, and, accordingly, +had enlisted in the volunteer army.</p> + +<p>Those promoters with small ambitions fared +the best. In London they sold a few of the +cheaper claims, which, as a rule, were disappointments +to the purchasers. But sometimes +it is better to be trusting than to be wise. One<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> +young Englishman bought a claim on Sulphur +for $2,000 which would not have sold for $500 +in Dawson at the time. When he arrived to +take possession of it in June, its value had +risen so rapidly on account of the later development +of the creek that he sold it for +$20,000. The anxiety of the claim-owners on +the new creeks, as Sulphur, Dominion, and +Hunker—all having their head-waters on the +slopes of The Dome—were called, lest the promoters +had sold their claims, was as great as +that of some of the claim-owners on Bonanza +lest their claims had not been sold. Perhaps +as many as thirty claims on the new creeks +had been worked to any extent during the +past winter, with such results as to increase +their speculative value by five hundred per +cent.</p> + +<p>The forty happy kings of the forty claims +on Eldorado also preferred not to sell. That +“pup” returned good for evil. It heaped +satire upon the satirists who had given it its +name as a joke, and continued to surpass all +expectations. The optimism which over-estimated +Bonanza under-estimated Eldorado. +These forty kings, as they compared the output +with their figures, concluded, with some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> +pride, that all born mathematicians are inclined +to be too conservative.</p> + +<p>You could see the dust glistening in the +dumps of the “pup.” The water gurgling +over the cleats in the sluice-boxes seemed to +sing a merrier song than on Bonanza. Every +shovelful which it bore chuckling over the +cleats yielded up a dollar or more. It licked +twice as much off rocks that had to be lifted +out of the sluice-boxes by hand because its +current was not strong enough to carry them +on down to the waste pile. At intervals, nuggets +of some size were unearthed by the spade +and were tossed into a pan at one side. If +you were a friend of the claim-owner he would +beg you to take your pick of the lot as a +souvenir of the day. But you would not get +one worth more than ten or fifteen dollars, +even if you were greedy enough to choose it +for its size rather than for its beauty. The +giants—one was found worth $600 and those +worth from $50 to $100 were not infrequent—had +been spied in the drifts in the winter.</p> + +<p>A magnificent carelessness of details prevailed. +A scientific miner who had seen fortunes +made in California out of a cent a pan +would have regarded the forty kings in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> +light of infants making a holiday with a tack +hammer and a gold watch. They could afford +to laugh back at him in return. There is some +reason in their philosophy that one cannot +afford to pay men a dollar and a quarter an +hour to pick up stray pennies, and more in +the philosophy that when you have a fortune +you have enough.</p> + +<p>It was not yet in the old-timer’s nature, +rapidly as his character was changing, to +squeeze the last cent out of Mother Earth, +in the manner of some hard taskmaster, when +she had given to him such a bountiful harvest. +A little line of dust, like a braid of gold lace, +remaining on either side of the sluice-boxes +after a day’s clean-up was dismissed with the +remark that it would “come out in the wash” +next time. If the workman who had the uncomfortable +and unhealthy position—especially +when the sun was directly overhead—of +standing in the dump-box, took a few minutes’ +rest, he shrugged his shoulders and said that +any dust that was lost in the meantime could +be a boon to the Chinamen who, coming humbly +after the white man’s departure, would +patiently take fortunes out of the white man’s +tailings—unless the capitalist should make the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>valley resound with the toil of machinery +manned by cheap labor, thus cheating poor +John out of what he has come to regard as +the right of his race in placer mining countries.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f15"> +<img src="images/fig15.jpg" alt="pan"> +<p class="caption">Shovelling a Clean-Up into a Gold Pan.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter1" id="f16"> +<img src="images/fig16.jpg" alt="cleaning up"> +<p class="caption">Cleaning Up.</p> +</div> + +<p>There was not one strong box for the safekeeping +of the daily harvest of thousands on +all of the creeks. The bags of dust were kept +in the little cellars which the miners had excavated +under their cabins for the preservation +of their food. There was a joke which went +the round of the firesides during the food-panic +that it would be cheaper to fry the dust and +save the hams. For the bags, made of roughly +tanned moosehide, the Indians received +prices in keeping with those of other things. +They bore the owner’s name printed in ink, if +ink could be obtained; their capacity was +about $5,000 each, and they were not unlike, +in their freshness as well as in their size, the +dirty, worn, brown little bags which were +carried in lieu of purses. Three or four of +them were all that you cared to carry on your +back. When you met men on the trail bending +as under heavy packs of slight bulk, you +knew their business. If there were many bags +there might be an escort with a rifle and there +might not. Most of the claim-owners thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> +nothing of sending several thousands by their +employees, unaccompanied, to be deposited in +one of the Commercial Companies’ stores; but +once the “Cheechawkos” began to arrive, all +sought locks for their cellar-doors.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c6">VI</p> +</div> + +<h2>SOME KLONDYKE TYPES</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Fool and His Lucky Friends—More Theorizers—Joe +Staley and Billy Deddering—French Gulch Bench—Good +Fortune that was Deserved—Neighbors and +Twins—No Cure for the Gold Fever.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T was the greater world of the Klondyke +that was bounded by the creek claims. A +smaller world was bounded by the hill-sides +where there were many fresh mounds of earth, +suggesting that the population might be digging +their graves one by one. Graves of ambitions +most of these mounds were, in all truth. +A few, readily distinguished as far as you +could see the two figures hovering over them, +were the birthplaces of the fortune which +the figures were exhuming with the orthodox +rocker.</p> + +<p>The original nugget washed out of a bench +and deposited where Indian Charlie’s gaze +would light on it did not lead, even indirectly, +to the discovery of the wealth of the benches.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> +This honor belongs to a stalwart Swede, whose +race in the Klondyke is the general butt of that +fine wit of our own race which makes a mark +of a foreigner’s broken English and his efforts +to understand strange manners and a strange +language. One day in the spring of 1897 he +went up the slope above his cabin near the +mouth of Eldorado and began to strip off the +muck as fast as the sun thawed it. Directly +his neighbors saw what he was doing they began +to compose satirical remarks against the +time when he should come down.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you go looking for gold up a +tree?” they asked him.</p> + +<p>“I tank gold no grow on trees,” he replied, +in all candor.</p> + +<p>“Say, did you ever hear,” they continued, as +they held their sides, “that the weight of gold +makes it sink? I suppose you think the +glacier walked up on the hills and left a few +millions there. The millions didn’t roll down? +Oh, no! That’s why we have to sink through +thirty feet in the creek bed to pay dirt. Better +try the trees! You might find a bear up the +trees and bear meat would be worth three +pennyweights a pound in town.”</p> + +<p>“If you don’t dig some hole you no find<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> +gold. By tam! I dig a hole if I vant to,” he +replied, as he went into his cabin.</p> + +<p>“Well of all the fools,” they said, “it takes a +Swede to beat the lot.”</p> + +<p>Men passing on the trails stopped to look up +to the point where the “fool” was working, +grew friendly in despising him, and carried the +joke to the ends of the creeks and to Dawson, +where it was elaborated over the bars.</p> + +<p>One evening the “fool” quietly called on all +of his friends among his fellow Scandinavians, as +well as upon certain Anglo-Saxons who had +not made fun of his English. They followed +him up the hill and drove stakes in the neighborhood +of his prospect hole. The twinkle in +his blue eye was not unkind, though suggestive, +the next morning when he showed to the +scoffers a handful of nuggets from a claim +which was worth $50,000. But scoffers accept +nothing on faith. They would not believe +that he took the nugget out of the hill +until they had panned some of his dirt themselves.</p> + +<p>“Well, of all the lucky fools,” they said, “it +takes a Swede to beat the lot! Here’s millions +been lyin’ within ten rods of us for a year and +we never knowed it.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span></p> + +<p>Those who had sharpened their wits at the +discoverer’s expense now hastened to get a +claim as near as possible to his, until a mile of +Bonanza on both sides of the creek was taken +up, from the point where the slopes meet the +creek bed to their summit. Theories about the +habits of the glacier were qualified by the experts. +Thenceforth, it stood to reason that the +breadth of no glacier of such importance would +be limited to that of a creek. The scoffers +soon found themselves saying that this had +been their opinion all along, and eventually became +so imaginative as to hint that they had +advised the Swede to make the experiment.</p> + +<p>Poetic justice attended the immediate outcome +of the stampede. The pioneer and the +parasite got their fit rewards. There was less +than an acre of good pay dirt on Skookum +Bench, as it was called, and this mostly fell to +the discoverer and his friends. Here and there +in the neighborhood good day’s wages could be +made with a rocker, and nothing more. Enthusiasm +over bench claims languished.</p> + +<p>“It was just like a Swede to strike the only +rich bench in the whole country the first time +that he put his pick in the ground,” said the +scoffers. In their pessimistic philosophy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> +which exults over deserted prospect holes, the +latest strike is always bound to be the last. +They are the very ones who were the greatest +optimists when they left home to try their luck +in the North against the advice of their friends. +This weakness is likely to grow on Klondykers +who become too fond of a sedentary life, unless +their supply of bacon runs out and forces +action, or they awaken to a sense of their +growing degradation when they eat fresh eggs +in Dawson and then see the world in bright +colors again. But long after the cynics are +dead, strikes will be made in Alaska by the +class of real prospectors who cheerily face all +hardships and get out of them good digestions +for anything from flapjacks to moose gristle or +even boiled willow roots.</p> + +<p>Joe Staley and Billy Deddering, who discovered +French Gulch Bench, the richest of all +the benches, the spring following the discovery +of Skookum Bench, were of the order of real +prospectors. They had served their apprenticeship +in various parts of the Rockies, which +are the playground of free men from end to +end.</p> + +<p>Fond as I am of the California prospector, I +am unwilling to accept the verdict of his squint<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> +whenever he brings it to bear on a portion of +the earth’s surface, though Billy Deddering, I +admit, as he understands relative values, has +reason to believe in his. But, in one sense, I +rejoice with him in his faith, inasmuch as the +scoffers, who want to make out that all success +in the Klondyke comes from luck, and that they +have failed because they never had any, spun +the yarn that a log which he was shooting down +the hill for a cabin knocked a nugget out of the +ground and thus became the godfather of his +fortune.</p> + +<p>Some two miles above the mouth of Eldorado, +French Gulch splits the embankment +which forms the western wall of the valley of +Eldorado. Billy’s squint, when he brought it +to bear on the rounded corner of the embankment +on the lower side of the gulch in something +of the manner of an old-fashioned marine +covering a sail with his telescope, told him +that this was exactly the place where gold ought +to be found, even if it was not. The first hole +that he sunk yielded only colors. A clerk from +London or the Eastern seaboard of the United +States might have gone back down the hill with +his pick and shovel in a fit of blues and never +come up again. Billy was not in the least discouraged.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> +He merely readjusted his squint, +and concluded:</p> + +<p>“If ’tain’t here it must be farther up.”</p> + +<p>So it was. In the next hole he took $187 +out of his first pan on bedrock. Joe was with +him at the time, but at the request of Joe I +give all the credit for the discovery to Billy.</p> + +<p>“It was Billy’s idea entirely,” Joe said. “He +spotted the ground first.”</p> + +<p>“What did you do,” I asked Billy, “when +you struck it after all your years of buffeting +about from one camp to another?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” he replied, “I looked around to see +if anybody had seen us.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody did see us, so far as we could make +out,” Joe put in, “but they must have noticed +that we went down the hill as light as if we was +walkin’ on feathers, though we was tryin’ to look +very solemn, like we was at a funeral. When +somebody asked us if we had found anything I +reckon we kind o’ started, though we was careful +to say, ‘Jest a few colors.’ But durned if +the crowd wasn’t up there ’fore the few friends +we had among our neighbors had fairly got their +stakes in the ground.”</p> + +<p>“And you, Joe? What did you think of +that night before you turned in?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + +<p>“Old’s I am, and long’s I’ve been knockin’ +about the world, I’ve never been married, and +naturally I thought what a surprise it would be +to mother, when she got a letter sayin’ that her +oldest boy was comin’ back to ’hio with a pile +to pay off the mortgage and spend the rest of +his days on the old homestead.”</p> + +<p>“And you, Billy?”</p> + +<p>“I wished I was in ’Frisco with that hundred +and eighty-seven.”</p> + +<p>Many times I climbed the hill to have a talk +with Joe and Billy. They were a relief from +the loungers and speculators in the hotel at the +Forks, who seemed to think that the business +of a newspaper correspondent was to expound +the possibility of the schemes for enlisting capital +which they were promoting. It was a pleasure +to look into the good faces of Joe and +Billy, and to shake their hands, caked with +clay. I sat on a stone and smoked my pipe, +while Joe carried buckets of dirt to Billy, who +looked up with a smile on his round German +face, which was spattered with drops of mud +that had splashed out of the rocker when he +shook it, or when he ladled water on to the dirt +with a dipper made out of a butter-can. Joe +said that he didn’t mind if the fact that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> +had struck it was published in the <i>Sydney</i> (Ohio) +<i>Journal</i>, but beyond that I knew he had no +axes to grind, and my highest ambition for the +moment was that they should think me a good +fellow, while their greatest fear was that I was +starving because I would not go up to the tent +and have a cup of coffee and a “bite to eat” in +the middle of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>The sun was accommodating enough to thaw +the dirt as fast as Billy could rock it, and Joe +could bring it a little faster than either the sun +could thaw it or Billy could rock it. This allowed +Joe intervals in which to rest, to entertain +me, and to relight his pipe. I used to offer +my pouch to him, telling him that he would get +more smoke if he used tobacco.</p> + +<p>“Couldn’t think of it. There’s nothin’ so +sweet as the heel,” he would say. “It gives +me a puff, and that’s all I want.”</p> + +<p>It was not surprising that he wondered why +the supplies of tobacco which other men had +brought in with their outfits were long ago exhausted, +while he had plenty left. He protested, +notwithstanding Billy’s denials, that he +filled his pipe every morning—at least, almost +every morning.</p> + +<p>The experience of seeking with his own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> +hands wealth direct from the hands of Mother +Nature had chiselled out the lines of his face in +distinct, unqualified characteristics, without any +of the doubtful gingerbread work which we +find on faces in civilization. It was like the +weather-beaten image on some old church, +careless of the storms which make a new image +streaked and mean. He and his “pardner” +were “rocking out” five hundred dollars a +day; he was no man’s servant and no man’s +master, and more of a king than kings. I +have gathered nuggets on his claim as easily as +I have picked up white pebbles on the beach +in boyhood.</p> + +<p>The great difficulty is in developing such a +wonderful squint as Billy Deddering’s and in +finding the exact spot where such nests of nuggets +are located. If ever there was a poor +man’s claim it is the bench claim. All you +need to work it are a rocker, which costs fifteen +dollars, and your pick and shovel. A blind +ditch whose frozen walls are as tight as a porcelain +bath-tub will catch the seepage from the +pay dirt, which is thawed by the sun as it is +gradually exposed. So you have all the water +that you need, without too much. If the bedrock +be at some depth, you can work in winter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> +as well as in summer. A year at the most will +suffice to take out your fortune; and you have +no worry over borrowed money, flumes, sluices, +or dams.</p> + +<p>If Billy had not already staked his bench +claim rights for the Bonanza Creek region, he +and Joe would not have had to be content with +a single claim, and one of them would have +got the claim just above discovered, which +was even richer, two men taking as high as a +thousand dollars a day out of it. Here was +dirt richer than any on Eldorado itself, twenty +of whose forty working claims, probably containing +thirty million dollars, stretched out +in a panorama before you when you looked +either up or down the creek. If one could +have had a claim on the bench of the size of +the creek claims, instead of one only a hundred +feet square, he would have been more than a +millionaire; and by hiring labor he could have +left the country in three months after the discovery +with his money in his pocket.</p> + +<p>Sad to say, there was not room for all on +French Gulch Bench any more than on Eldorado. +The whole extent of the pay dirt was +not more than two or three acres. It was +just as large as the dip in the hill-side, which,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> +according to the theory of Billy, caught and +held the gold when it was travelling, while all +that passed over the rim went on down to the +creek bed below, leaving only an occasional +color in its track. But I disagree with Billy. +I think that all is accounted for by the giant +keeper of the pot in The Dome having thrown +out a handful of the overflow across the hills. +This makes the presence of wash-gravel, which +is absent, unnecessary, and reconciles itself to +the presence of nuggets in rotten mica shist, +which is the most inexcusable of all the paradoxes +in Alaska, the old prospectors say.</p> + +<p>Aside from Billy and Joe, I came to know +some of their fortunate neighbors. Dan Saunders +probably had the best claim of all. He +was at the hotel at the Forks one day, and in +his cups when a man offered in the bar-room +to sell a claim on French Gulch Bench for a +hundred dollars. The Forks is the Stock Exchange +of the creeks, and at that moment, on +account of some rumor, the opinion ruled that +the bench had been salted. The claim-owner +believed it. Dan said he would give fifty +down and the first fifty out of the claim, and +the offer was accepted. The morning after, +when Dan’s wit was not so brilliant, but his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> +reasoning faculties had improved, he went up +to look at his elephant. He came down a +week later and tried to spend the two or +three thousand dollars he had taken out in the +meantime. He could dispose of only part of +it, and returned to his claim in despair, somewhat +disgusted with city life.</p> + +<p>Burke, who owned the claim next to Saunders, +was a type of the runaway boys from the +East who have turned up in the Klondyke +after having served an apprenticeship in the +West. This one reaped among the harvest +of his wild oats the largest nugget that was +taken out of French Gulch Bench. It was the +shape of an oblong pancake, without any +quartz in it, and worth $210. When I met +him in Dawson one morning, he was gleeful +over the joke he had played on the old folks at +home. For the first time in five years he had +written to them. They had as good reasons to +suppose that he was dead as that he was in the +Klondyke.</p> + +<p>“Won’t their eyes pop and won’t they have +something to tell the neighbors when they find +out that their worthless Tom is comin’ home +with fifty thousand cold!”</p> + +<p>That same day I dined with Joe Staley at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> +the foremost restaurant in town. When we +had eaten fresh eggs and other luxuries which +had just been brought in from the “outside,” +as he pushed his plate away from him he shook +his head dubiously:</p> + +<p>“I dunno as I’ll be so happy as I thought, +when I settle down among the cows and +chickens,” he mused. “This grub don’t taste +the way I thought ’twould. Darned if I don’t +like the beans and bacon that I have up at +the claim better, and I’ll be glad to be back +carryin’ dirt to the rocker for Billy to-morrow. +They say once the gold fever’s in a fellow’s +bones it sticks like the rheumatiz, and I believe +it. I reckon it’s the only thing I’ll be +satisfied with in this life. But I won’t prospect +in this godless region. I’ll go back to +Californy.”</p> + +<p>On my way to see Joe and Billy I often +stopped for a chat with Ned and Fred Beck, +who were sinking a shaft to bedrock at the +base of French Gulch Bench hill. These +twin brothers had been “pardners” for forty +years. They had the vigor which comes from +living among the Rockies. Their faces, +framed in white beards, were fresh and smiling. +The archaic furnace which they had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>constructed for sharpening their tools, if not +their age and personal resemblance, would +have attracted attention.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f17"> +<img src="images/fig17.jpg" alt="bench"> +<p class="caption">The Discoverers of French Gulch Bench at Work.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter1" id="f18"> +<img src="images/fig18.jpg" alt="pardners"> +<p class="caption">Pardners and Twins for Forty Years.</p> +</div> + +<p>“Have you never quarrelled?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, lots of times,” said Fred, “and +agreed on quits lots of times, too. After +Ned’s had a drink or two he always gets +cranky and wants to start out for himself.”</p> + +<p>“Not much crankier’n you do,” Ned put in.</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” Fred assented. “But when +we’re sober we make it up again and are +ashamed of ourselves. We may be twins, but +we’re just fitted for each other.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right, too,” Fred assented.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c7">VII</p> +</div> + +<h2>GETTING ACQUAINTED</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. and Mrs. “Meenach” and their Menage—The Juvenile +Mining Company, Limited—Voss—The Arch-Deacon—A +Sour-Dough Stiff—A Dalmatian and a Turk—Siawash +George and his Steam-engine—Miss Mulrooney at +The Forks—The Price of a “Square” with Trimmings.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>NE day, if the quartz claims which have +been staked should fulfil the hopes of +their owners, the Klondyke will become a +place of managers and workmen, of stamp +mills and chemical processes. To-day, there +is very little to say about the working of the +mines, which is as simple as building a fire, +digging a well and doing the week’s wash, +but much to say about my friends and acquaintances +there, who came from the ends of +the earth and represented most of its employments. +Without knowing individuals, the +pilgrimage of the Cheechawkos would have +meant no more to me than a motley procession +seen from a balcony. Those leading +citizens and well-known characters whom I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> +met, under the guidance of Captain Hansen +in a round of the town on the evening after +my arrival, are worthy of a chapter by themselves. +If I had taken advantage of all the +letters of introduction to claim-owners that +they gave me I think that I should have +been three weeks in travelling the length of +Bonanza.</p> + +<p>In return for hospitality that did not stand +upon formality but laid its hand on my shoulder +and insisted, I could offer nothing except the +news from the “outside,” the bad news that +there was no escape from the royalty. I +registered a vow that if I were to make the +journey over the ice again I would find room +among my supplies for one more article of +luxury, or else forego the privilege of introductions. +I saw in my dreams the smiles +with which my hosts would have greeted the +offer of a good cigar, until I had the conscience +of a highway robber.</p> + +<p>“Don’t forget to call on Meenach!” said +Captain Hansen. “He’s the luckiest man in +the country without exception. He doesn’t +have to darn his own socks and cook his own +bacon and beans and you’ll know him because +he’s sleek and fat and clean-shaven. I walk up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +the creek when I can get the time just for +the privilege of poking my head in at Meenach’s +door. To a poor devil of a Klondyker +it’s a peep into paradise.”</p> + +<p>It was not enough that the fortunate Meenach +should have his wife; he had also his +little boy of six and his two little girls, one +of four and the other of two years, with him. +After he wrote to Mrs. Meenach that he had +killed his lion, she came on to him; and she +brought with her such thing as sheets, tablecloths, +and pillows, and a regulation cooking-stove. +He never dared to compute just how +much the stove had cost him, preferring not +to have his enjoyment of the luxury allayed. +The mere expense of bringing it up from +Dawson would have bought two or three good +ones at home.</p> + +<p>To the miners the most wonderful feature of +the Meenach cabin was the carpet on the floor. +Some of them wanted to take off their boots +before entering, and one suggested that if he +were younger he would walk in on his hands.</p> + +<p>“If you don’t mind,” he added, “I’ll sit +with my back to the sheets on the bed. It’s +too much at a time. I want to drift into this +easy like.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> + +<p>“Folks who live in castles may be bothered +by having too many rooms to care for,” said +Mrs. Meenach, “but not I, in my cabin. I +could put the children to bed with one hand, +stir something on the stove with the other, +and set the table with the third, if I had it. +It’s no trouble to go to the market in the +morning. All our fresh vegetables are in tin +cans in the cache just outside the door. Oh, +yes, there is much to be thankful for if I look +at it in the right light. We kept our condensed +cream, our canned asparagus and our canned +peas all winter without being frozen. Then, +please heaven, something green grows in this +country. I have a little cranberry sauce from +the poor cranberries on the hill-side, and I +agree with the children that it is ‘gooder’n’ +anything I ever tasted. If I could get a fresh +cabbage I think I should eat it all without +waiting to put salt on it. Now I live from +day to day on the hopes of the eggs which are +expected in on the first boats.”</p> + +<p>Thus she chatted while she warmed the +tinned roast mutton in the frying-pan, boiled +the evaporated potatoes and the tinned sweet +corn.</p> + +<p>“I’m not going to say that dinner, such as it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> +is, is ready,” she said, “because, in the Klondyke, +that is quite superfluous.”</p> + +<p>It is good when you have eaten beans for a +month off a tin plate balanced upon your knee, +to look upon a clean table-cloth again, to sit +by the window of a cabin in blissful certainty +that your journey is at an end, and have a +good and gentle woman pour you a cup of +tea. I remember the meal as a banquet, not a +dinner. After it was over, the lord and master +and I smoked our pipes until the little ones’ +heads began to nod, when I went into the +cabin of one of his laymen to roll up in my +blanket.</p> + +<p>The children had reason to think that they +were the only children in the world and to be +as proud as princes. But Mrs. Meenach’s +fears lest they should be spoiled by the adulation +of the miners were equally vain with her +fears about their health. The extent of their +illnesses was a day’s indisposition on the part +of the baby. Swathed in furs and scarfs until +only their noses were visible and their limbs +were as stiff as a doll baby’s, they might go out +to play with their sleds for a few moments at +a time. Listening to the cries of the dog-drivers +and the howls of their steeds, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> +had turned their mother’s nerves on edge, had +been as good as the kuh-chuk-chuk-chuk of a +railroad locomotive to them. The miners, +with frost-encrusted beards, were so many +Father Christmases who rarely forgot to bring +a present of a nugget when they came.</p> + +<p>With the coming of spring, an old Californian +took the baby in his arms while the +brother and sister followed at his heels up the +hill-side to his bench claim. He showed them +to a log, where they sat very gravely while he +unfolded to them a mighty scheme. In return +for three kisses apiece, one to be delivered +when the bargain was struck and two when +the goods were delivered, he agreed to build +for them a small rocker, so that they could +start a Mining Company (Limited) on their +own account.</p> + +<p>Their dividends were large until one of the +laymen found out that they were using the +best portions of his dumps. Then the total +income fell to a dollar a day, which the boy explained +was due to laxness on the part of the +president—his elder sister—and gross negligence +on the part of the assistant manager—the +baby—who insisted upon turning the gold pan +bottom side up at critical moments. Their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> +father played the part of the unskilled laborer, +and sometimes when he was ordered to work +he said, “In a minute!” an excuse which had +to be accepted. The time came when the old +Californian could no longer keep his joke to +himself.</p> + +<p>“Meenach, seems to me I ’member tellin’ +the youngsters that you’d carry water for ’em +to work the rocker with,” he chuckled.</p> + +<p>It was by a diversion from my programme that +I spent the next night with Voss. His name +was not on my list, and I had never heard of it +until I drifted into his cabin. I was attracted +by his speech, which sounded a little unnatural +in a community where expressions are intended +to convey a meaning and not to subserve the +rules of grammar. Despite his education, Voss +was an old-timer among old-timers, greeting +them all by their first names. The most ferocious +of them, out of whose mouths an oath +rolled with the ease and deliberation of their +tobacco smoke, regarded him as a personal +friend.</p> + +<p>“He looks stuck up, but he ain’t stuck up,” +they said. “He’s clean all the way down and +all the way through and game as a grizzly bear, +and we know. We’ve followed him on the trail.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p> + +<p>The sincere fellowship which he felt for them +in return belongs to that philosophy which +makes of the young men of old but impoverished +families, good and cheerful prospectors, +ranchers, and cowboys. Not in fancy—which +misled so many poor souls among the Cheechawkos—but +in fact, they prefer the independent +life of a mining camp to working for a salary +in a city; prefer washing their own dishes +and rising at 3 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span>, and harnessing the dogs to +start on the trail to going to an office every +morning and leaving it every afternoon at a +certain hour. By all the manners that stamp +the man, Voss was a child of civilization, and +such a child as was equal to carrying out his +determination not to return to it until he was +master in his own right of the little luxuries +that keep the taste of ashes out of the mouth. +Often he spoke of these, then ran his hands +into the pockets of his overalls, took a pull at +his pipe, and looked at his dumps with an +anticipation as keen as that of some naval captain +of Drake’s day in sight of the chalk cliffs +of England, after years in foreign countries on +rations of hard biscuit.</p> + +<p>“But even before I carry out my plans of +travel,” he said, “I shall buy a ranch, where I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> +shall have a home with no other habitations in +sight; where I shall have a good saddle-horse +waiting for me, whenever I shall grow tired of +town. Once you have become accustomed to +the silence of the plains, the mountains, and the +trail, mere country houses will not satisfy you—something +gets into the blood.”</p> + +<p>“You all catch it, I see,” I interrupted. +“Joe Staley says it’s like rheumatiz’ and it gets +not into the blood but into the bones.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, bones—blood and bones, both!” was +the reply.</p> + +<p>He had four retainers, who lived in his +cabin: the boy, the Archdeacon, Jim, and +Grouse, the fox-terrier. The boy was sixteen +or seventeen. He had gone to the Klondyke, +against his parents’ wishes, to find himself nonplussed +by the necessity of a food supply for +the winter months. Voss put him on his feet. +The Archdeacon was of the Established Church +and a graduate of Oxford. He did not seem +to be, but he must have been, older than the +boy, for he was gray and the father of three +children. Shortly after he was ordained archdeacon +the something had “got into” his blood +and bones, and he vacillated between the +church and travel until his meanderings brought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +the promise of a brilliant career to the guardianship +of a flock of Indians, halfway around +the world. He baked the best bread that I +ate in the Klondyke. Though he accepted +praise on that score as quietly as he did everything +else, I could see that it pleased him—better, +perhaps, than the praise of a bishop. +In getting breakfast, which he had taken upon +himself as one of his tasks, his slippered feet +moved about so softly that you were not awakened +until his voice called you at the right +moment.</p> + +<p>“It is good to see many kinds of men and to +do many things,” he volunteered, as he lifted a +flapjack from the skillet to my plate. “When +all the world was going to the Klondyke, I had +to join the throng. I got a lay on Bonanza +and put some men to work on it. But, unfortunately, +I had no food for myself. Mr. Voss”—the +Archdeacon never omitted the Mister—“asked +me to come and live with him through +the winter. What a pity it is that there isn’t +such a good fellow as Mr. Voss to take care of +every unfortunate fellow like me!”</p> + +<p>Jim, in the language of the Klondyke, was a +“sour-dough stiff,” and he was certainly an +unhappy man. A “sour-dough stiff” will,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> +under no circumstances, eat baking-powder +bread. This eccentricity, developed in the +later years of a prospector’s life, generates +others which are its natural companions. He +thinks that baking powder in the smallest +quantity is poisonous, and, therefore, is as +finicky and miserable as any other man who +becomes a victim of dyspepsia through forever +thinking of some means to avoid it.</p> + +<p>In addressing his employer Jim uttered the +word “Voss” in a harsh voice, as if calling attention +to its nudity and implying that he +would not subvert his rights as a free man by +using “Mister,” though he were to hang for it. +He was the first to rise in the morning and he +always prepared his own breakfast.</p> + +<p>“Some folks don’t like my cookin’, an’ I +don’t like some folks’ cookin’, either,” he explained.</p> + +<p>On some occasions, when he felt a little lazy, +he would condescend to eat at the table with +the others, but with an expression of martyrdom +on his thin, old face. Voss told me that +Jim would probably confide to me at the first +opportunity how grossly the claim was mismanaged, +and so he did. Voss forgave his eccentricities +partly because they amused him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> +and his friends, and partly because Jim was an +expert in saving fine gold from floating down +to the waste pile.</p> + +<p>Jim’s contempt for the Alaskan miner’s +knowledge of sluicing was pleasant to hear unless +you had to hear it often. He had a miniature +sluice for treating the residue which contains +the lighter particles. It were better to +step on the hem of your wife’s skirt on the way +to the theatre than to lay your hands on this +fine gold machine, as he called it. Whether or +not it was worth the time that Jim had spent +in building it, was a grave question with Voss.</p> + +<p>In making the “clean-up” Jim was the general +in charge of the field. The best-natured +men on the claim were selected to assist him, +and even their patience sometimes gave out. +Voss himself, accompanied by the fox-terrier, +who was general superintendent of the claim, +winter and summer, used to take up his station +at the water gate. He did not always interpret +Jim’s orders satisfactorily, and I overheard +this grumbling complaint:</p> + +<p>“A man can’t play with a dog an’ pay +’tention to business at the same time.”</p> + +<p>Everybody about the claim except Jim was +the slave of the fox-terrier’s moods. In New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> +York or London you could have bought +Grouse for five dollars. Voss was offered $200 +for him by another claim owner, but would as +soon have parted with his claim. I knew of +only one other terrier in the Klondyke. He +was a companion, deserving the affix of bull, of +a doggy-looking man who walked up and down +the river front of Dawson. He was usually +limping on three legs, but not infrequently on +two. He seemed to realize his position as the +sole representative of civilized dogdom among +thousands of savages, and he no more thought +of surrender than a Roman prefect. The boast +of his master that he could whip any two or +three of the huskies was well founded. Even +when he was attacked by a dozen he gave more +wounds than he received, retreating with the +dignity of one who belongs to a ruling race.</p> + +<p>Provincial as Voss’s claim was in its isolation +from the world, its surroundings were cosmopolitan +enough. Among his employees, aside +from Germans, Swedes, and French-Canadians, +were a Dalmatian and a Turk. The Turk was +a good workman. When he had made his +“stake” he was going to buy a fig orchard in +southern California.</p> + +<p>On the day that I visited the discovery claim<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> +of Siawash George, which is only a short distance +beyond Voss’s, several Cheechawkos +were panning some gravel at the very point +where Indian Charlie had found the famous +nugget. They did not wash out a single color, +and passed on in disgust to do more prospecting +on ground whose stakes—for the most part +fallen down—had been driven so long ago that +the weather had washed off the writing on +their four hewn sides. Siawash George had +expended several thousand dollars in buying +and bringing an old boiler and engine up to +his claim from Forty Mile. Owing to a fatal +defect in its pumping gear it would not supply +half a sluice-head of water or do the work +of a small dam; but the noise of its puffing +and his ability to hire an engineer to superintend +it at $15 a day greatly amused a mind +which had become aboriginal from family associations.</p> + +<p>Money playing an important part in the +politics of Alaska as well as in other countries, +poor George had acquired a fortune only to +find that it was two-edged and might be an obstacle, +as well as instrumental, in the fulfilment +of his royal ambition. On a fatal day he had +brought from Dawson to his wife some little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +brown things in a box which was lettered in +gilt. She had found them so superior to plain +brown sugar that they had opened a new world +to her. She gave over her rights to a throne +to dream of the day when she should take passage +on a Yukon steamer to the land where +shops were filled with chocolate bonbons.</p> + +<p>Joe Powers was a near neighbor of Siawash +George. As both had squaw wives there was +a bond of union between them, and they visited +back and forth a great deal. Joe could not +read or write, I was told, but his good fellowship +shone out of his ever-grinning face.</p> + +<p>“Some of the boys I knowed down in Circle +and Forty Mile that’s struck it big,” he told +me in confidence, “is going into s’ciety when +they get on the outside. But I ain’t. How I +would look in s’ciety, wouldn’t I? The rest +of the boys are about on the same pattern, too, +I guess, only they can’t see it when they look +into a pool of water. I’m thankful I know +them dodgers on the outside are too clever for +me. I’ll buy a fruit farm in Californy. Nobody +can beat me out o’ that.”</p> + +<p>However dangerous a little learning may be +to some of the old-timers, one does not envy +them their dust, spend it how they will. It is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> +fitting that they who bore the brunt of the +robust business of pioneering should occupy +the cabins of the masters on the Eldorado and +the Bonanza claims. Graduates of colleges +and universities, who work for them with pick +and shovel for a dollar an hour, arrived on the +scene after the great strikes, and must take the +consequences.</p> + +<p>It is scarcely half a mile from Siawash +George’s to the cluster of cabins at the mouth +of Eldorado; and Eldorado flows into Bonanza +about midway of its working claims, making of +The Forks, as the confluence of the two +streams is called, the hub of a wheel with three +spokes. When Miss Mulrooney came up to +The Forks in the autumn of 1897 she appreciated +the mathematical advantage of the situation +at once, and acted upon her perception +with such decision that the news of her wonderful +undertaking went up and down the +creeks that very day.</p> + +<p>“Boys,” said the heralds to the scoffers, +“there’s a new woman up to The Forks with +a bit of an Irish brogue and the tongue of a +lawyer, that’s goin’ to show us old moss-backs +how to get rich. Hanged if she ain’t got so +much money to lose that she’s goin’ to build a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> +two-story hotel bigger’n any in Dawson right +up here on the creeks.”</p> + +<p>“Strange things was to be expected from +the Cheechawkos once the news of a strike got +into the newspapers all over the States,” said +the scoffers; while the saloon-keepers, being +specialists on the subject, apprehended with +professional disdain that Miss Mulrooney +might as well start a hotel at the head of the +Stewart or at the North Pole.</p> + +<p>The next instalment of news related that +Miss Mulrooney was up on the hill-side superintending +the labors of the one lone mule surviving +of those brought down the river on +rafts in the summer, which she had hired for +$20 a day to drag logs to the site of her +building. That class of women who are too +common in the Klondyke are not given to +this sort of thing; and, moreover, they wear +bloomers, while Miss Mulrooney wore long +skirts. A new woman deserved punishment +for such folly, but a good woman who wore +long skirts was entitled to the friendly advice +which one of the leading claim-owners undertook +to supply.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f19"> +<img src="images/fig19.jpg" alt="mulrooney"> +<p class="caption">Miss Mulrooney of The Forks.</p> +</div> + +<p>“I’ve been in the country some time,” he +told Miss Mulrooney, “and I don’t mind telling +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>you for your own interest that Dawson’s +the place, not The Forks, for a hotel.”</p> + +<p>“Now, that’s kind of you,” assented Miss +Mulrooney. “And may I ask if you would +like something to drink?”</p> + +<p>“Er-r-r, well,” stuttered the Committee of +One, as he tried to get his bearings, “well, I +admit I sometimes do, like the most of the +boys—but I didn’t know as you’d be mentionin’ +that.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m not, and I’m not likely to,” with +a toss of her head, “when I know there’s no +chance of your accepting. Of course, if you +or any of the other boys was hungry or thirsty +you wouldn’t think of buying a drink or a +meal up here. You’d walk sixteen miles to +Dawson and back for it, wouldn’t you? And +the boys going over the divide to Dominion or +Sulphur when they break the journey at The +Forks would hang up in a tree over night before +they’d sleep in a hotel, wouldn’t they, now?”</p> + +<p>A light burst upon the Committee of One.</p> + +<p>“You’ll pass, Miss Mulrooney, you’ll pass,” +he said. “You kin take care o’ yourself all +right. With that head of yours, you’ll own the +Klondyke by the time you’ve been in the country +as long as I have.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span></p> + +<p>And the word that Miss Mulrooney was all +right was passed along the line. Every man +on the creeks looked forward to the date of the +opening of her hotel. A democratic community +could not confer titles, but it might call her +Miss Mulrooney of the Forks, and thus she +will be known for all time among Klondykers.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, she expected that every day +would be the lone mule’s last. There was +neither hay nor oats in the country. As the +story was told to me, he held body and soul together +on birch bark and willow sprouts until +the final log was dragged to the foundations, +and then promptly expired.</p> + +<p>“He had nothing to live on,” as Miss Mulrooney +expressed it, “and nothing to live for, +and I’m thinkin’ the poor fellow was so slow +because he just knew that his interest in the +enterprise was all that kept him up; and, like +the rest of us, he wanted to postpone the last +hour as long as he could.”</p> + +<p>The third night after the hotel was opened +the Committee of One, himself, had to sleep +on the floor because the bunks were all taken. +Nothing could have served Miss Mulrooney +better than the food-panic of midwinter. She +had bought a full supply before everyone began<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +to hoard whatever beans or flour or +whiskey he could get. All but two of the +restaurants in Dawson had to close their doors. +The two exceptions on fête days gave butter +and apple sauce along with bacon, beans, and +coffee. Their owners grew to regard Miss +Mulrooney as their animate consciences whose +voice was that of every miner who ate a meal +in Dawson when he was down from the creeks.</p> + +<p>“I don’t mind paying double,” said the Committee +of One, to a Dawson waiter, “s’long’s +I get suthin to eat. Just bring that dinner +over again. Then I’ll have only half a +square meal for $5, not to mention that no +fixin’s go with it. Miss Mulrooney charges +$3.50 for a square, but she gives you canned +beef, canned mutton, and ham, and fixin’s, and +keeps askin’ you if you won’t have more and +you keep acceptin’ till you have to send for +a drink ’fore you’re strong enough to get up +from the table. Jumpin’ John Rogers! How +you fellers must suffer when you pass out a +bean and a rind and think of what a woman +is doin’ up there to The Forks!”</p> + +<p>If you want to reach a man’s heart through +his stomach in a scurvy-stricken country, feed +him, if it is the best you have, with sauce made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> +of dried apples. Miss Mulrooney kept a great +bowlful of this on her table. The transient +ate of its contents with the ravenousness of +the thirsty traveller drinking from a spring of +cold water. No sooner was it emptied—I +know by actual observation of a quart of +apple-sauce having been eaten by two persons—than +it was filled again by the cook, rapid +if rough in his movements, who picked it up +and put it down as if it were a red-hot ingot.</p> + +<p>The ground floor of the hotel was divided +into the bar-room and the dining-room. Cards +were permitted, but no gaming-tables were +maintained. Upstairs was a tier of bunks +running along the wall, with a passageway between +them. The blankets seemed cleaner +than elsewhere—no hotel had sheets—and the +bunks had curtains. Either a nice sense of +individuality or sheer fatigue restrained the +guests from removing their socks, and I have +known miners who were over-tired by a long +tramp not to remove their boots. They had +enough respect for Miss Mulrooney to hang +the soles of them over the edge of the bunk, +however, though, if in their dreams they should +participate in a stampede to some new creek, +their good intentions were sadly belied. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +sole occupant of a lower bunk, which was supposed +to accommodate two in case of necessity, +might be awakened at any hour by a +nudge, and:</p> + +<p>“Pardner, sorry to trouble you, but I guess +you’ll have to move over a bit to make room +for me.”</p> + +<p>In winter the curse of a Klondyke cabin, +banked with snow, chinked with moss and +dirt to the last crack and knothole, is lack of +ventilation. In summer, when there is no +night and no two men quite agree on their +hours of sleep or hours for travelling, it was +as good as reading a local newspaper to try +to sleep at Miss Mulrooney’s. The widening +cracks between boards of fir (put into the +floors and partitions while yet green) never +permitted the slightest details of conversation +over the card-table or over the bar to be inaudible, +except during unavoidable and scarcely +welcome intervals when you heard the tramping +and scuffling of heavy boots. I could discern +the direction the traveller was going upon +entering the dining-room door; whether he +was coming up stairs to bed, or was going to +call out to the cook for a “squar” or “half a +dozen eggs.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p> + +<p>Andrew, a quiet, soft-voiced, obliging young +man, who wore a white shirt and was solicitous +about keeping his tie straight, had charge +of the bar. According to all the traditions of +new placer mining camps he was as much out +of place as the average bartender would be in +a chair of moral philosophy. He was so essentially +lacking in combativeness that no one +ever thought of picking a quarrel with him. +Luck and whiskey, however, despite the Northwest +Mounted Police, will generate in miners +a surplus energy which they are inclined to expend +upon furniture if not upon one another. +Miss Mulrooney did not depend for purposes +of pacification upon a huge St. Bernard who +was always at her side when he was not drawing +her upon her sled up and down the creeks +in winter, but rather upon her blarney. She +knew when, where, and just how much to +apply.</p> + +<p>“I always appeal to their best instincts,” she +said. “It’s easy to lead and hard to drive. +That’s what you men don’t understand. You +try to drive.”</p> + +<p>I saw her theory put to the test of practice. +A giant who was so well on in his cups that +he could scarcely walk, concluded, only half<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> +an hour after he had finished one, that he +wanted another meal. When it was placed +before him he seemed to think that the cook +was trying to hurt his feelings by making him +eat twice, and with an oath he threw a dish of +stew on the floor. Miss Mulrooney happened +to be passing through the room at the time. +She stepped over to him and told him in her +pleasantest tone that accidents would happen.</p> + +<p>“Accident?” he asked, dazedly.</p> + +<p>“Of course,” she said. “I know you’re too +much of a gentleman to do such a thing purposely.”</p> + +<p>“Coursh! Coursh it was!” he kept repeating, +as he dropped down on to his knees and +tried to scrape the stew up into a little pile, +despite her protests.</p> + +<p>Then out of the maze of his crippled memory +another horror presented itself suddenly +and prompted him to arise.</p> + +<p>“Miss Mulrooney,” he asked, his face very +red, “did you hear me swear?”</p> + +<p>“A little one—a slip,” she replied.</p> + +<p>He told her that it was only a real lady who +would put so liberal a construction on what he +called a breach of “ettykit.” Fearful, nevertheless, +that she might secretly think ill of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> +him, he followed her about the hotel with apologies +and dripping hands while he kept repeating +how a poor devil might be a little weak, so +rarely did a good bench claim fall to a poor +devil’s lot, until the inner workings of his conscience +culminated in a full confession that the +plate had not been broken by accident but intentionally. +She forgave him even this, and +then he went up-stairs and to sleep.</p> + +<p>“What I want to do is to make money, you +may be sure,” Miss Mulrooney would say if +you persuaded her to tell you her story. “I +was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I had +to earn my own living before I was out of +short skirts, and I kept on doing a little better +from one thing to another, till I was stewardess +of a steamer on the Pacific Coast. +There’s nothing like being a stewardess to develop +your wits when you’re just a bit too +independent for the job and you have to give +the passengers as good as they send when +they’re sassy. I remember an old Englishman +who expected me to black his boots. I told +him I wouldn’t, and I told him if he put ’em +outside his door again I’d be thinkin’ he was +wantin’ ice-water and turn a pitcherful into +’em. He went to the captain. The captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +was a Scotchman and he didn’t believe in puttin’ +on airs; and when the captain sent for me +and I went to the captain’s room I found the +old gentleman there. Before we came out I +had him laughin’, and I’d never blacked his +boots, either. But runnin’ errands doesn’t suit +me. I started for the Klondyke as soon as I +heard of it, and like the rest I’m going back +either rich or broke.”</p> + +<p>The last time I saw Miss Mulrooney she +was in Dawson searching for a good location +for a hotel which was to have sheets and be +positively palatial. Three weeks later, so I am +told, it was completed. Once her first venture +succeeded, she had begun to speculate in mining +properties. Her position at The Forks +gave her exceptional opportunities for inside +information, and she was a “pardner” of a +dozen leading citizens in as many enterprises.</p> + +<p>“If you ever go to Chicago or New York,” +I suggested to her, “the women’s clubs will be +making a heroine of you as an example of what +their sex can do.”</p> + +<p>“Not if I know it,” she replied. “They +won’t, I’m thinkin’, if they hear I sold whiskey. +Besides, there’s nothin’ new about me. I’m +old-fashioned.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> + +<p>Without abusing a much-abused word, I +think that Miss Mulrooney may be called a remarkable +woman, more particularly as her own +opinion of herself is quite the contrary.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c8">VIII</p> +</div> + +<h2>ARCTIC TRAITS</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Daily Life in Dawson—Renting a Cabin—Circumventing the +Huskies—Joey Boureau and His Restaurant—The Faro +Dealer’s Wife and Her Bakery—The Laundryman and +His Claim—Jack Beltz’s Schemes—A Pair of Dreamers.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T depends upon the season of the year +whether the town-site of Dawson is liquid, +mushy, or as flinty as frozen ground can be. +At one time in the summer of 1898 most of it +was under water. Two weeks later, the Yukon +having fallen some sixteen feet, this same town-site +was at a respectable height above the level +of the stream. The smaller sandbar on the opposite +side of the mouth of the Klondyke, which, +out of respect to the cabins which cover an area +of six or seven acres, has been called Klondyke +City, is without the surface layer of muck which +held sewage as in a sponge under the noses of +the residents of Dawson. The good nature of +the fellow, known as “Dud,” who keeps the sole +saloon and hotel at Klondyke City, was as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> +largely responsible for our choice of abode as +the healthfulness of the location. Empty cabins +were scarce. “Dud” said he had one to +rent. When I asked him the price, I offended +him.</p> + +<p>“You walk right in and stay till I tell you to +get out,” he said. “But if you go shakin’ your +dust in my face I won’t let you have it at all.”</p> + +<p>So we stood our sleds up beside the door, set +up our little Yukon stove, threw our blankets +on the floor, and were at home. The comfort +of my daily existence I felt to be great compared +with a bunk in a bunk-house for $2.50 a +night, or a room with cloth partitions over a +bar for $10 a night.</p> + +<p>Fritz, who liked movement and life, went over +to town to live in the cabin of a friend, leaving +Jack and me to do our own cooking or to eat +at the restaurant when we were of idle mind. +The dogs also patronized the restaurant without +standing on ceremony. “Jack” carried off +almost the last ham in the camp, having lifted +it from a nail with the unostentatiousness of +an expert thief. The proprietors of the restaurant +would not listen to reimbursement. +They explained that anybody who had been +in the country for six years and let a husky<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> +dog get the better of him deserved to be mulcted. +It is out of deference to the husky dog +that the miner builds little caches, set on poles, +for storing food, which make the town look +like a Bornese village, whose inhabitants have +deserted their old homes to live in cabins.</p> + +<p>The proprietors of the restaurant, in my +opinion, were well worth knowing. Joey Boureau—undeniably +French-Canadian, but forever +repeating that he was a citizen of the United +States—was almost as dark as a Moor, with the +torso of a Turkish wrestler. He yielded neither +to excess nor fatigue, blustered at times, never +cared for to-morrow, and was possessed of a +ready wit. His blague had a counterpart in the +blarney of his partner, Tim, undeniably Irish +American and proud of it. This pair had been +inseparable for the many years that they had +sought gold with the pick and in all the ways of +camp life. Upon the scales at the end of the +oilcloth-covered dining table they weighed out +$2.50 worth of dust out of your bag whenever +you ate off their board. Whichever one happened +to be in did the cooking, and if both were +in, one told stories to amuse the guests and +acted as cashier.</p> + +<p>But both were seldom there. One was usually<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> +at “Dud’s” faro table. The other, when +he grew tired of working brought his “pardner” +home on his arm, installed him in the kitchen, +and immediately went out to enjoy a little recreation +on his own account. As he took with +him whatever dust there was in the tomato-can, +which served as their cash-box, we heard frequent +excuses for the absence of moose steak +on the table because of lack of funds to purchase +it. Just as their business was beginning +to prosper they sold it for a song to a Cheechawko +whom they met on the river-front. A +week in town sufficed to spend the song, and +then they put packs on their backs and started +over the hills, whistling as they went.</p> + +<p>In one of the neighboring cabins the wife of +a faro dealer had set up a bakery. We paid her +fifty cents apiece for pies and fifty cents for +loaves of bread, and had to order them beforehand +to make sure of getting them.</p> + +<p>Our laundryman had staked a claim in which +he placed great hopes; but his invariable charge +remained seventy-five cents a garment. He related +with a realism almost tragic the details of +the processes by which he had arrived at the +original color of the khaki trousers that I had +worn on the trail. Jack Beltz, for his part, secured +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>the loan of an old tub and a washboard, +and after a day’s labor surveyed bandanna handkerchiefs +and what not hung out on the line +with the mien of a conqueror.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f20"> +<img src="images/fig20.jpg" alt="beltz"> +<p class="caption">Jack Beltz.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter1" id="f21"> +<img src="images/fig21.jpg" alt="huskies"> +<p class="caption">“The Huskies.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Economy, however, was always a matter of +necessity with him. On the first night of his return +from town he said, with some pride, that +he still had most of the dust which he had received +in conclusion of our contract. The next +night before going to bed he built a fire in the +stove out of the driftwood which he snaked out +of the river for fuel, and sat for a long time in a +reverie.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll have to earn some more,” he +said, finally, to himself, and dropped upon his +blankets.</p> + +<p>In the morning, followed by his troop of +dogs, who had regained their spirits and their +flesh, because he had fed them so bountifully, +he went up on the mountain side, where he +picked a great bouquet of the wild flowers which +spring up in such profusion in summer. He +never told me of his losses, and I tried to avoid +the appearance of suspecting the truth, at the +same time that I took practical measures to +obviate an effort to dispose of his robe for cash +and to hypothecate his year’s outfit, which was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> +to be brought down the river by his “pardner,” +Cliff.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, he revolved in his mind many +schemes for making money. The price of +moose steak, $1.50 a pound, suggested to him +that a fortune might be made in moose hunting. +Learning that Dawson had no bowling +alley, he so far arranged to start one as to find +that balls and pins could not be obtained +nearer than Seattle. This scheme was succeeded +by the more alluring prospect of taking +dogs, which are valueless in summer, as they +are valuable in winter, to an island in the river +to feed for so much a month. Always before +his dream had taken definite form he dismissed +it by saying he was no city man. He recalled +his experience in keeping the restaurant in a +British Columbia mining town, and he reverted +to a proposition that was to the liking of his +love of robust vagabondage:</p> + +<p>“I’ll get a pardner and take the dogs and go +up to the head-waters of the Porcupine and +cross over to the Mackenzie. It would be a +rattling trip!”</p> + +<p>As if in excuse of his venture he would add +that he was certain to find gold in that region.</p> + +<p>One day another dreamer, Kidd, came to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> +join us. He was a protégé of Jack, who had +found him trying to put his outfit over the +Pass. There must have been such giants as +Kidd, with such straight noses, curling black +hair and curling black beard, in the phalanxes +that confounded the Persians. But this type +of the freshness and strength of country life +was quite modern. He slouched into the +cabin with his hands in his pockets, and included +in the drawl with which he greeted us a +Missourian “Doggone it!” Like many other +unfortunate fellows, Kidd had been obliged to +spend the whole winter in the neighborhood of +the Pass. Jack and his partner had made him +a tent-mate in their camp on the banks of Linderman, +during the dreary period of waiting. +Going on to Le Barge after our departure from +Linderman, he had arrived in Dawson before +Cliff.</p> + +<p>“That boy comes from a good family,” said +Jack; “and I’ll bet they’re proud as anybody +that ever had a grand-dad who owned a lot of +niggers and went stone broke after the war. +He don’t say nothin’ about it, but it sticks out +all over him. He didn’t know how to hitch a +pack on a mule’s back when I first met him. +But though he was green, he wasn’t fresh; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> +when tenderfeet are that way they’ll learn and +you like to learn ’em. When they ain’t, you +like nothin’ better than to give ’em the worst +bronch’ on the ranch and leave ’em to find out +things for themselves.”</p> + +<p>It was not until after considerable urging +that Kidd would consent to share our cabin. +His character was in sharp contrast to that of +another young stranger who entered and threw +his blankets on the floor for the night without +any formalities. In the morning, picking up +certain articles of my kit which were lying +beside my bed, he said:</p> + +<p>“You’re goin’ out on the first steamer. +Don’t suppose you want these, do you? I’ll +take ’em along. They’ll come in handy next +winter.”</p> + +<p>“He’ll get on,” quoth Jack, “but I’m ding-donged +if he’ll get on with my help.”</p> + +<p>Jack now included Kidd in his schemes, +which became more and more attenuated. +Kidd would walk back and forth for some +time as if in deep thought, and finally drawl:</p> + +<p>“Gee-mo-nee! We must do something, +Jack!”</p> + +<p>And Jack, as he looked out upon the rapidly +flowing river, would agree, and relight his pipe.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> +Kidd admitted that he was homesick, “doggoned +homesick.” He had a right to be, for +he left home with a thousand dollars and his +mother’s blessing, instead of finishing his education +and studying for the country bar.</p> + +<p>“Gee-mo-nee!” he exclaimed. “I was +green, wasn’t I, Jack? I thought you’d just +pick the gold up once you got here. But doggoned +if I’ll go back broke. I’ll have as much +as I had when I left or stay forever. I’ve got +three hundred of that thousand and I’ll make +seven hundred and my fare out some way this +winter.”</p> + +<p>One day the dreamers found employment on +the log booms for the new saw-mill that was to +be built on the island in the Klondyke between +Dawson and Klondyke City. Jack was as +much at home on a rolling log as on the back +of a broncho. Poor Kidd fell into the water +often, but showed great persistence until the +rise in the river made work impossible and left +them idle again. So Jack sat by the cabin door +keeping a lookout for Cliff, the third giant of +the trio, who arrived one day, with a broad grin.</p> + +<p>“Gosh!” he exclaimed, as he grasped Jack’s +hand. “I was washed out of the boat when +we came through Five Finger Rapids, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> +blamed if I wasn’t washed in again! How’s +that for luck?”</p> + +<p>There was something of the New England +Yankee in him, though he had been born in +Colorado.</p> + +<p>“I’ll bet you’ve give your money all away, +ain’t you, Jack?” was his next remark. “You +wouldn’t be Jack if you hadn’t.”</p> + +<p>“Weeks ago,” was the reply.</p> + +<p>They secured a contract with one of the +saw-mills to cut rafts of logs sixty miles up the +river. Here was a chance for Jack to swing an +axe, to build bonfires, and to do what he called +an honest man’s work. With his dogs around +him on the day of his departure I said a regretful +good-by to the vagabond.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c9">IX</p> +</div> + +<h2>PILGRIMS’ TRAILS AND TRIALS</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Itineraries—Alleged Unimportance of Experience—The +Case of Father Stanley—Press Agents and Primers +of Wealth—The Secretary of the Seattle Chamber of +Commerce His own Convert—Pardners and Promoters—Outfits—Home +Comforts for an Arctic Climate—Heterogeneous +Boat Loads—The Nancy G—Tragedies +of the Passes.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span>EXT to taking part in some event chronicled +on the bulletin boards your average +pilgrim of fortune best enjoyed being near +them. Least of all he liked waiting in latitude +64 degrees for a month or more for news of +progress of the only war yet waged by his +country in his generation. When he left home +the Klondyke was the ruling general topic of +the hour in the newspapers. When he reached +his destination he was quite forgotten, and public +interest was entirely absorbed in the invasion +of Cuba.</p> + +<p>Viewed in one light, there was good reason +for the pique which he naturally felt toward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> +Shafter’s army. He might see many wars, for +instance, before he saw the like of this Dawson +pilgrimage again. Thirty-five thousand generals, +each one his own quartermaster, packing a +thousand pounds of food apiece over a rugged +coast range of mountains, building a flotilla +with axe and whipsaw out of the primeval forest, +and travelling six hundred miles into a country +having an arctic climate in winter and a tropical +climate in summer and yielding no food except +a little game, presented a spectacle more +romantic, if not so exciting, as the massing of +an army corps under one general, its extension +into a battle line, and the capture of the +enemy’s outposts.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f22"> +<img src="images/fig22.jpg" alt="pass"> +<p class="caption">On the Pass.</p> +</div> + +<p>The old prospector from California, British +Columbia, Australia, or South Africa formed +only a small percentage of those who entered, +with the enthusiasm of children, a world of +effort quite new to them. The village loafer +and the ne’er-do-well son of the banker became +partners on the trail. Mechanics who had +mortgaged homes bought with savings from +their wages to buy an outfit, rubbed elbows with +broken-down speculators and business men who +hoped to recover all that they had lost by finding +a placer mine. The farmer, the clerk, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>artisan, and the city or the provincial day +laborer of the Eastern States, Eastern Canada, +and England, were as confident of success as +their associates who had learned in the severe +school of the plains, the veldt, or the bush how +to preserve life and health in a new country. +If they had not swung a lariat or a pioneer’s +axe, they had at least beaten someone in walking +or rowing or had gone longer without eating +than any of their immediate friends.</p> + +<p>Of the eighty thousand who left their homes +for the Klondyke in the winter of 1897-98 +and the spring of 1898, some thirty-five +thousand arrived at Dawson. The battle was +not always to the strong. More important +than physical strength were determination and +cheerfulness. Those who failed were as peculiarly +Anglo-Saxon as those who succeeded; +for they had the restlessness which impels +one to seek obstacles but does not necessarily +provide the force to overcome them. Most of +those who had endeavored to reach Dawson in +the autumn of 1897 were stranded on one side +or the other of the passes, where they had to +wait through a dreary winter until the ice +which had arrested their progress should go out +of the river. But only a small proportion of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> +the whole number of pilgrims made this attempt. +The great majority planned to transport +their outfits over the passes in the early +months of 1898 and build their boats on Lakes +Linderman and Bennett in the interval between +good travelling in a snow-bound country +and the opening of navigation.</p> + +<p>All pilgrims, whatsoever their itineraries, +were grist for the mills of the towns of the +Pacific Coast States and of British Columbia, +bringing welcome relief from a period of commercial +depression. Enterprising merchants, +chambers of commerce, and steamship companies +scattered broadcast throughout the +United States (whence came seventy per cent. +of the pilgrimage, ninety per cent. of it being +Anglo-Saxon) pamphlets, well written for the +purpose, telling “How to Get to the Klondyke.”</p> + +<p>The career of “Father” Stanley, of Seattle, +was used as a stock illustration of the unimportance +of experience to the prospector. This +lame old bookseller, having the enthusiasm of +the fanatic in place of real strength, had gone +to the Klondyke in the spring of 1896. For a +time he worked on the bars of Stewart, +taking out $10 a day. If he had not been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> +deformed he would have packed more food +over the Pass. Fortunately, his supply ran out +in September, and on his way down stream to +Forty Mile, where he hoped to get more, he +happened to arrive at the mouth of the Klondyke +just as the first miners from Forty Mile +were hurrying to the scene of Indian Charlie’s +“strike.” As he could not walk as fast as the +others, they got all the claims on Bonanza, and +he had the good luck to get one of the best +claims on Eldorado.</p> + +<p>A year later, returning on the treasure ship +that brought the news of the great strike, when +he entered his house with a small portion of his +fortune—a hundred thousand dollars in cash—his +good wife, as the story goes, was at the +washboard, where she had spent a deal of her +time during her husband’s absence, earning a +living for a large family. Her customers coming +to make inquiries about their clothes were +told to take whatever was in the tub which +they could identify as their own. As for herself, +she was boarding at the hotel, sending +such of her apparel as she had not thrown away +to the laundry, and, moreover, was too busy +with the dressmaker to attend to any trifling +details which might have concerned her past life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span></p> + +<p>“In the frozen fastnesses of the far North +fortunes nestle in nuggets of glittering gold +for all”—but the press agents were too well +versed in human nature to say that these fortunes +were to be had for a pleasure trip. +They mentioned hardships which put up a +price of success, thus making the nuggets more +attractive, and, in a sense, supporting the assertion +of their existence. Anyone who would +overcome the hardships might have a competency +for the trouble of thawing it out of +the frozen ground. No pilgrim felt himself to +be less courageous and vigorous than “Father” +Stanley; and the wives of all pilgrims were +equally certain that, under similar circumstances, +they could conduct themselves with +quite as much dignity as Mrs. Stanley.</p> + +<p>As became a primer to wealth, the pamphlets +told just how much it would cost to reach +Dawson with the all-necessary year’s outfit, +going to the trouble, in a spirit of solicitude +and rectitude, of setting down opposite each +article of food and each utensil, whether spade +or gold-pan, or oakum or pitch, or nails for +boat-building, its cost in dollars and cents, +and adding up a fascinatingly small total +from a very tall column of figures. With a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> +receipted bill for this, and having paid his fare +to Dyea or Skaguay, where he would disembark +on the mainland of Alaska and begin the +transportation of his outfit over the passes, the +pilgrim, although he was supposed to have expended +only $300, needed no more money to +take him to his mine.</p> + +<p>It was not to the credit of the calculations +of the pamphlets, and not testimony, in all if it +was in some instances, to the success of the +numerous gambling establishments that sprang +up at the point of mobilization of the army of +fortune-seekers, that the Seattle post-office did +an overwhelming business in money-orders in +December, 1897, and January and February, +1898. The authors of the pamphlets were not +called to account for their errors. Rather, +they received the thanks of their employers. +Once he was on the coast, it stood to reason +that while he was yet sleeping between sheets +and eating meals cooked by someone other +than himself the pilgrim would not retreat because +he needed a few more dollars which were +obtainable from friends or relatives at home.</p> + +<p>Seattle’s success beyond all other towns in +attracting trade was due to a university graduate +and an author of works on art. Having to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> +give up journalism in the East and seek +health in the West, after some severe tests of +versatility of earning a living, he became Secretary +of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. +Such were the results of his knowledge of the +peculiarities of the Easterner, the Westerner, +the Canadian, and the Englishman, which he +incorporated in separate pamphlets, that his +employers continued to raise his salary from +week to week until the war broke out and he +relieved them of the embarrassing consequences +of their transports of generosity by resigning +and starting for the Klondyke himself (regardless +of his doctor’s advice) as a convert of his +own arguments.</p> + +<p>The camp-followers of the host of individual +quartermasters which Seattle equipped and +embarked, besides the gambler and the pickpocket, +included many men of elastic consciences +and elastic schemes, who had no capital +but were ambitious to become capitalists. +Those promising large dividends on properties +yet to be purchased or staked were common; +those proposing such grand things as running +snow and ice locomotives over the hummocks +of the Yukon in winter were in some measure +distinguished. In the corridors of the crowded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> +hotels you overheard the consultations of +“pardners” as well as the harangues of promoters.</p> + +<p>Sacks of flour, bacon, and beans, the chief +constituents of the Yukon outfit, were piled on +the sidewalks. In the windows of the stores +were samples of various improved edibles and +home comforts for an arctic climate. Fakirs +on the curbs proclaimed the merits of patent +sleds, portable boats, and devices for thawing +frozen ground. In selecting his outfit, the pilgrim +experienced the same emotion as the +young wife who furnishes a flat. When he +had settled on the kind of sled, the kind of +stove, and the kind of tent that he was going +to take, he faced the important question of +buying dogs or of drawing his own supplies +from Dyea or Skaguay to the lakes. If he +had money enough he usually fell a victim to +the speculators, who sold the house dogs that +they had shipped into Seattle, after a few days’ +training in harness, for fifty dollars apiece.</p> + +<p>The last article of his outfit bought, he +waited for his steamer to sail, while his hotel +bill grew apace. Liberal navigation laws, at all +times carelessly enforced, in these piping times +of prosperity became a dead letter. Every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> +available sailing and steam craft in the Pacific +marine, which is comparatively small and is +largely recruited from the Atlantic seaboard, +was called into service by the demands of the +pilgrimage. Fortunes were made in two or +three trips of vessels, which had been condemned +as unseaworthy years before. To get +all the passengers they could carry they had +only to offer transportation for a pilgrim and a +ton of supplies at a little less exorbitant price +than any of their rivals.</p> + +<p>Inexperienced pilots steered many vessels on +to rocks in the tortuous and narrow channels +between the barren and mountainous islands of +the Alexander Archipelago which skirt the +coast of British Columbia and the adjoining +territory of southeastern Alaska. Pilgrims not +yet embarked were too anxious about their own +departure to think of the miseries of those who +had suffered from exposure and lost their outfits, +if not their lives. Rarely did the best +steamers leave within less than a week of their +appointed sailing time. In loading them there +was little discrimination or even classification. +Quarters of beef for the restaurants of Dyea +and Skaguay, dogs in crates and in leash, mules +and bales of hay, were put on the decks after +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>the hold was filled. Considering the experiences +of a volunteer army with a single quartermaster, +better things were scarcely to be expected +of a volunteer army composed entirely +of quartermasters. The chaos had the sole +attraction of not bearing the stamp of officialdom.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f23"> +<img src="images/fig23.jpg" alt="outfits"> +<p class="caption">Caches of Pilgrims’ Outfits at the Summit.</p> +</div> + +<p>As an example of what a pilgrim might +suffer, there was the case of the Nancy G. +When I left Seattle on February 15th, on the +Nancy G.’s mast still fluttered the torn ends of +a cloth sign with fast-fading red letters: “This +fine schooner in the tow of a powerful ocean +tug, will positively sail for Dyea on January +25th.” Every day the passengers went down to +the pier to see if their outfits were still on +board and to see how repairs were getting on. +A man with a hammer in one hand and some +oakum in the other came out of the hold.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t cuss me,” he said. “A +schooner that’s been resurrected after five years +in the graveyard, ain’t what she was when she +was new, and you oughter know it. Every +minute I lose caulkin’ up the old girl’s corn +out of your own crops.”</p> + +<p>Afterward they went to see the owner, who +received their complaints with an air of disdain,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> +refused to return the amount that they had +paid in fares for the good reason that he had +their signatures to a contract for January 25th +or thereabouts, and warned them in their own +interests that “thereabouts” was a very elastic +word.</p> + +<p>“And I’ll tell you something else,” he said. +“If you talk to me in this way much more, I’ll +have you up for riot. If you want to lose a +gold mine and go to jail, that’s your business +and not mine.”</p> + +<p>The owner was a small man—a small man +who had spent his life in the new towns of the +West. The passengers were mostly hulking +Swedes from the lumber camps of Minnesota +and Wisconsin. They longed to lay their +strong hands on him for just a moment. But +it was hard to lose a gold mine, and they hadn’t +enough money to pay for passage on another +steamer. So they slouched out of the owner’s +presence more in sorrow than in anger. I +heard afterward that the Nancy G. finally +started on February 20th. Fate was so kind to +her passengers that she did not sink until the +return journey. They were more fortunate +than two hundred of their fellows, who saw +their outfits burned on the vessel which had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> +reached Skaguay just in time to have disembarked +them in safety.</p> + +<p>To meet the demands of the migration to +the interior, Dyea and Skaguay had sprung up +as quickly as a house of cards. When Indian +Charlie found his nugget there was no building +at Skaguay and only a trading-store at Dyea +for bartering with the Indians and furnishing +any supplies to an old-time prospector which +he had neglected to buy at Juneau. The two +towns are situated at the heads of either of two +arms of the Lynn Canal, which nature has cut +through the rock as man cut that of Corinth, +upon sandy deposits at the mouths of the +Dyea and Skaguay Rivers, and separated by a +distance of a mile in a straight line over a +mountain spur or of three miles around the +point of the spur by water. This spur, rising +into high peaks as it reaches the summit of the +main range, is a barrier separating the two +rivers and the two passes.</p> + +<p>Dyea is the gateway to Chilcoot Pass, which +leads to Lake Linderman, and Skaguay is the +gateway to the White Pass, which leads to +Lake Bennett. They were not, as it appeared +to the superficial observer, trying to excel each +other in wickedness, but in the amount of business<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> +that they could do. Anyone who had +been a resident of either town a single day +considered it his duty to warn you as a friend +against the rival town and the rival pass. In a +week he had become an old citizen. The small +proportion who were on hand for the rush of +the late summer and autumn of 1897 were as +proud as Lord Mayors. Then, thousands of +pack-horses, earning as high as $50 apiece +a day, died from the exertions to which they +were forced by their owners. In the winter +their bones sticking up through the snow +were snags to catch the sleds of the pilgrims. +Instead of a series of steps, the packers on Chilcoot +had to walk around bowlders, slipping on +the fragments of crumbling rock, and possibly, +after all their exertion, reaching Linderman and +building their boats only to have them blocked +by ice half way to Dawson, where they were +effectually stranded with their outfits.</p> + +<p>Perhaps every fifth or sixth house in the +main streets was not a gambling hall or a dance +hall. With these and a large idle population it +is easy to understand how men who had a few +dollars in cash when they arrived were obliged +to sell their outfits and return home. The enforcement +of law was in the hands of a United<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> +States commissioner and three or four deputy +marshals. The commissioner was a gentle optimist +who spent most of his working-hours in +an office with a window looking out on the +river and the mountain side, where he might +see no wrong-doing. “Soapy” Smith, gambler, +by self-appointment, was Mayor of Skaguay and +General-in-chief of the Army of Disorder, composed +of characters from San Francisco and +Seattle, who had no money left after their +fare to Alaska was paid and were looking for +something to turn up. When an atrocious murder +was committed by one of his followers, +“Soapy” told a body of protesting citizens that +they would better mind their own business. As +his army outnumbered theirs and was better +armed, they accepted his advice. The United +States sent out two companies of infantry, with +instructions from the authorities at Washington +that they should not interfere with the affairs +of the two towns unless there was a riot. The +Commissioner, seeming to regard their presence +as an intrusion on his rights, never asked for +their assistance. No murders or highway robberies +were committed within sight of his little +window. In time, however, “Soapy” Smith +met the death that he deserved at the hands<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> +of one of his followers, and through the efforts +of the merchants and the better element the +towns became more orderly.</p> + +<p>Not every pilgrim who returned home was +the victim of gamblers and other parasites. +For two or three days he might stop at one of +the hotels until he selected the parcels of his +outfit from the piles which had been thrown +indiscriminately on the shore by common carriers +in haste to have done with their contracts. +Then, with his tent, his stove, and a cook-book, +which was the gift of a baking-powder company, +his journey began in earnest. The novelty +of making his first flapjacks wore off by the +time he had washed his dishes the second or +third time. It was not long before he came to +the conclusion that the fellow whom he had +chosen to share all of his sorrows and joys was +lazy. He blamed his own disinclination to rise +in the morning and all his little failures upon +him, as some men do upon their wives. Whenever +he had a chance he solaced his wounded +spirits by telling a stranger that he had put up +with doing all of the work of his party about +as long as he could.</p> + +<p>Partnerships formed so gayly in Seattle by +men who thought that being a partner was being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> +a playfellow, could not be expected to last +long at pulling sleds through the slush and going +to bed in a robe or a sleeping-bag which +was cheap and inefficient, with a supper of +sandwiches made of sticky flapjacks and cold +bacon. As he grew more angry with his partner +he grew fonder of his dog. Jim might +beat his poor Newfoundland, who was too nervous +to pull even if he had ever been taught +how; he might put up with a poor dinner; but +if Tom, who was cooking, kicked the Newfoundland +for stealing the bacon off the plate +or sticking his nose in the butter, it was the +last straw. He demanded a division of goods +on the spot. But quarrels seldom resulted in +blows, because they occurred when the men +were too tired to do more than join in a contest +of forcible language.</p> + +<p>It was the man who leaves the door ajar +at home who went to bed without washing +his dishes. The Easterner now learned that, +while he might know things that the Westerner +did not, the Westerner knew better than he +how to take care of himself. The Westerner +always cooked a warm supper, and dried his +footwear before going to work in the morning; +while the self-neglect of the Easterner made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> +hundreds of doctors at Dyea and Skaguay the +busiest in the world. Spinal meningitis was +often the penalty of sitting down to rest when +dripping with perspiration without throwing a +coat over the shoulders.</p> + +<p>Even after their goods were on the summit +of the Pass and the worst of their labors were +over, many pilgrims gave up the battle. One +by one they were thinned out until only thirty-five +thousand were ready with their boats when +the ice broke in Bennett. This far I had +shared their experiences and then had gone +on ahead. Mine was the privilege of having +been a Cheechawko and at the same time +standing on the river bank as an old-timer +or among old-timers, to watch the arrival of +the pilgrimage in its unpainted, unique flotilla.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c10">X</p> +</div> + +<h2>PROFITS AND LOSSES</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Newspapers as Profit-Winners—Hearing about Dewey—A +Drop in Eggs—Market Items—Lemons against Scurvy—The +Mercury at 110 degrees—An Averted Moving Day—Industrious +Scavengers—The Klondyke Itself—Aspects +of Summer—Bandanna Hats and Pink Lemonade—A +Restaurant Trust—The Grasshoppers and the Ants—Disillusions.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T was only to be expected that the first boat +of the season to shoot around the bend +above Dawson and raise a shout which would +bring all the population to the shore would be +manned by a resident of Seattle with the name +of his beloved town painted on a huge streamer +flying from the mast. Enterprising citizens +of the far West such as he owned the stores +at Dyea and Skaguay, the pack-mules on the +trail, the restaurant tents which had sprung +up in Sheep Camp, and then, following the +pilgrimage on to Linderman and Bennett, +generally made money out of the Klondyke +without having to use a spade, because of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> +knowledge of the life and necessities of new +communities. This proud Seattleite with the +boat had two hundred dozen of nominally +“fresh” eggs to sell, for which he received +$3,600 within less than an hour after he had +landed. Those of the crowd who could afford +it hurried off to the restaurant for a “squar’” +composed entirely of “ham and”. The others, +having to bide their time until luxuries were +cheaper, found compensation in the items of +news which were passed from tongue to tongue—for +it had not occurred to the Seattleite to +bring a newspaper with him.</p> + +<p>“Thought there was more money in eggs,” +was his aggravating explanation. “’Sposed +you fellers wanted to eat, not read.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f24"> +<img src="images/fig24.jpg" alt="boat-load"> +<p class="caption">Bargaining for a Newly Arrived Boat-Load, Dawson.</p> +</div> + +<p>As he had heard it, within a week after the +declaration of war with Spain, the cruiser New +York, Captain Evans in command, had reduced +the fortifications of Havana in three +hours. The second Cheechawko to arrive +assured us that this was quite untrue, and that +two of Admiral Sampson’s squadron had been +sunk and the Spaniards were winning on every +hand. The crowd refused to believe anything +of the kind, and the second Cheechawko received +only $14 a dozen for his eggs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span></p> + +<p>With the next boat came a single newspaper, +soiled with bacon grease. A curbstone speculator +bought it for $15, stuffed it instantly into +his inside coat pocket, and a few minutes later +was posting signs to the effect that all might +hear the news of Admiral Dewey’s victory read +by paying a dollar a piece that evening. His +entertainment would have netted him twice as +much as it did if more than three hundred +and fifty people could have been packed in the +hall in which it was held. Some of the wealthy +men considered this proceeding an outrage on +personal liberty and made it a point to buy between +them any single copy of a paper later +than any others that had arrived and have it +read at once in the streets.</p> + +<p>Never did contrast better illustrate the comparative +reliability of even the most unreliable +of modern newspapers. All winter the camp +had not had so much as a small hand printing-press, +and news was carried solely by word of +mouth. Most miners have the weakness of +exaggeration. With some it is unconscious. +Others enjoy testing a hearer’s credulity. +Twice, up the creeks, I heard that the Continent +had declared war against England and the +United States; in the second instance, the detail<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> +of an Anglo-American naval victory off the +coast of Bohemia perhaps was supplied. Such +rumors were the natural fruit of the desire of +Americans and Englishmen to pay compliments +to one another at a juncture when the +Anglo-Saxon alliance of the Klondyke was +quite ready, without any assistance from London +or Washington, to stand in arms against +the whole world.</p> + +<p>Within a week some thirty boats all bringing +merchandise had arrived. In momentary +anxiety of being lodged on a sandbar, without +stopping to make camps, their crews bending +to the oars night and day, they had raced with +one another to the goal of high prices. Too +many had placed their speculative trust in eggs. +After all, there were only four hundred working +claims, and the stomachs of each of their +owners, and of the chief gamblers and business +men, were little if any larger than that of the +average human being. Eggs fell in five days +from $18 to $4 a dozen and finally to $3.</p> + +<p>A stock of fine millinery and ladies’ apparel, +sold to the women of the town, gave to +one fellow a profit of $5,000. The first condensed +milk to arrive brought $1 a can; the +first butter, $2.50 a pound; the first ham,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> +$1.25 a pound, and the first sugar, $1.50 a +pound. Lemons were more in demand in a +scurvy-ridden country than oranges and bananas +and sold for double their price, which +was seventy-five cents apiece. But the happiest +of all the newcomers was the one who had the +only boat-load of boots for a community which +was miserable in moccasins in warm weather. +He received $15 a pair for fifteen hundred pairs +which had cost him $1.75 a pair in Montreal. A +five-cent bottle of ink cost $1; a fifteen-cent +golf cap, $2.50; a pen-holder, fifty cents—the +smallest amount of dust that anyone cared to +weigh out; socks $2 a pair; a broad-brimmed +summer hat, $20 to $40; a small whisk broom, +$2.50; a ready-made suit of clothes, from $50 +to $200; canned roast beef, $2.50 a can; +canned oysters, a great luxury, $5 for a pound +or pint can, and cigars, fifty cents to $1 apiece.</p> + +<p>Against the profits which such prices represented +the speculator had to set the original +cost of the articles, the expense of transporting +them to Dyea or Skaguay and over the one +hundred and seventy-five miles to the foot of +Lake Le Barge, his own fare on a steamer out +of the country, and the loss of from three to +six months’ time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p> + +<p>During the lull between the arrivals of the +few speculators from Le Barge and the main +body of the pilgrims from Linderman and +Bennett, it seemed at one time not unlikely +that Dawson might be carried down the river +and a new town established on some sandbar. +But there was not enough snow left on the +mountain sides to allow the tropical sun, shining +eighteen hours out of the twenty-four and +raising the mercury to 110 degrees, to accomplish +its apparent purpose. Never had the old-timers +known it to be so warm so early in May, +and never had they known the river to be so +high. They held that the Lord was displeased +with the prospective defilement of the country +by an army of “clerks, farmers, and dudes.” +The Indians knew better. White man might +be very cunning in making a boat go up stream +by burning wood in an iron box, but Indian +could tell him some things besides how to kill +moose. Old Indian could count off on his +fingers some twenty years ago when the canoeing +was good on the whole town-site of Dawson. +That was why Indian never lived in +Dawson but at Klondyke City.</p> + +<p>Day by day we saw the water approaching a +few inches nearer to our door-sill. It began to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> +fall just as we were thinking of putting up our +tent on the mountain side. Only the roofs of +some cabins in Dawson were above the level +of the stream. The suspension bridge between +Dawson and Klondyke City, whose +woven wire cables were earning two or three +hundred fifty-cent tolls a day for their owners, +was carried away along with a great pile of +débris that it had collected. You paid fifty +cents for being ferried from one island to another +in the main street. Along the bank, standing +in their boats, pike poles in hand, were those +easy-going ones of the inhabitants who raised +husky dogs for sale, did a little freighting in +the winter, and took naturally to odd jobs—and +I might say to squaw wives—now, in the +heyday of importance, as they rowed out in the +strong current and brought in a tree which had +been uprooted by the flood. If the tree was +suitable only for firewood it was probably +worth a quarter of an ounce, or four dollars; +if large enough for sawing, half an ounce. +The average Klondyker’s dislike for such work +being quite as strong as that of the average +man at home for scavenging, the easy-going +had a free field and earned enough in a few +days to buy winter outfits for themselves and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> +their families. A few had even better luck. +They caught portions of rafts—in two instances +whole rafts—which had slipped their +moorings up the river, and steering the sum of +two or three months’ labor of men probably +unknown to them up to the bank, let the +owners of the saw-mill have it at a bargain.</p> + +<p>A source of amusement if not of income +was a ditch in one of the back streets, hidden +under three or four inches of water. As you +stepped into it up to your thighs you heard a +roar of laughter from several men sitting on a +prominence near by.</p> + +<p>“If you don’t tell your friends, pardner,” +said one of them, “there’s room up here for +another, and you can enjoy yourself watchin’ +the others tumble in.”</p> + +<p>With all the snow gone and no rainfall, the +Yukon fell as rapidly as it had risen. The +thawing and crumbling soft earth of the embankments +of the upper reaches made it muddier +than the Missouri at its worst. For drinking +water one had either to resort to the +rivulets on the hill-side, amber-colored from +the moss, or go to the Klondyke, which, once +sluicing was nearly finished, became so clear +that the bottom was visible at a depth of ten +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span>or twelve feet, while the eddies and rapids of +its current as seen from the mountain tops, +left a dark, comet-like streak, stretching from +its mouth for a distance of two or three miles +on the café-au-lait surface of the mother stream.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f25"> +<img src="images/fig25.jpg" alt="camps"> +<p class="caption">In the Camps of the Cheechawkos.</p> +</div> + +<p>By the fifteenth of June the river-bank was +lined with the boats of the pilgrims, two or +three deep. A city of canvas, with the old +cabins and buildings as its heart, extended +until the neighboring heights were dotted with +tents. Knowledge of boat-building had turned +out to be a misfortune, if anything, for the +scows moved just as fast with the current and +proved quite as easy to manage, I was told, as +smaller craft pointed at both ends. The bow +of each vessel bore the number which had been +put on by the Mounted Police when they +examined outfits for a second time for custom +purposes at Le Barge or Tagish. Beside it +was the name of the pilgrim’s home town, of +his sweetheart, his wife, or his daughter, put +on with coal if he had no paint. From the +mast fluttered a red bandanna, a towel, or possibly +some absurdly elaborate flag which had +been made in the idle hour between the completion +of the boat and his embarkation. If +there were three in a boat, which is the best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> +working number for a Klondyke party, one was +in the bow on the watchout for sandbars, the +second was at the oars, and the third in the +stern with a sweep. Navigation had its perils, +too. The river as well as the Pass had +claimed its victims. You heard on every +hand tales of wrecks in White Horse Rapids +and in Thirty Mile River, whose hidden rocks +had proven even more dangerous than the +White Horse Rapids. Many a scow with +merchandise which had cost its owner his last +cent was split in two, and those on board +were thankful to find themselves on shore +alive.</p> + +<p>In their camps, the pilgrims found the mosquitoes +of summer worse than the cold of +winter. Fevers and headaches upon their arrival +in Dawson were the consequences of +exposure under the sun. It was even the fate +of a few to be taken at once to the big log +hospital on the hill-side which already had +more patients than it could accommodate; +and of a part of these to be buried in the +little cemetery beyond the hospital, which gives +to relatives of the deceased the sombre satisfaction +of knowing that its inmates, lying at +a depth where the earth never thaws, are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> +preserved for all time—unless the town-site +itself one day is marked by hydraulics.</p> + +<p>Between the pilgrims when I met them in +Seattle and when I met them again in Dawson +there was all the difference of volunteers in +new uniforms going forth to war and the +dust-stained men who return. Their tents, so +white and new in Dyea, had patches where +holes had been burned by sparks or by carelessly +hung candles. Their canvas bags of +provender were the color of the Yukon. +Their cheap sheet-iron stoves were so badly +warped that the oven had ceased to bake well. +Their beards were unkempt, their faces tanned. +The knees of their trousers proved again how +helpless a man is when alone with a needle. +Many were still wearing caps. A few had +made substitutes for summer hats out of wire, +straw, fir twigs, and a bandanna. If the Seattle +and the Vancouver merchants could have seen +the outfits which they had sold after three or +four months’ usage, they themselves might have +wondered at the skill of the manufacturers in +making little seem a great deal by the use of +varnish.</p> + +<p>Very wisely the Canadian Government had +provided that every pilgrim entering Canadian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> +territory must have eleven hundred pounds, or +a year’s supply of food. Flour was the cheapest +thing to bring an outfit that lacked two or +three hundred pounds up to the requirements. +Almost without exception the pilgrims had +failed to realize the importance of luxuries in +contributing a healthful and sustaining diet in +the North. Flour sold on July 1st, after the +commercial companies began to receive supplies, +for $6 a sack, but white sugar sold +for fifty cents a pound. Everybody had enough +of staples, but many had eaten all their sugar—the +larger part of their dried fruits, soup preparations, +and canned delicacies and smoked or +chewed all of their tobacco. It was easy to +promise themselves on the trail that if they +indulged themselves in “something good” +after a hard day’s work they could buy more +of the same article in Dawson. For they were +certain that a great many of their comrades +intended to sell their outfits and leave the +country at once—so many of their comrades +did. But they, too, had eaten all their butter +and evaporated eggs and kept any tobacco they +had lest they should run out of it on the way +home.</p> + +<p>Pilgrims who had goods to sell hastened to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> +find a niche for a booth on the busy main +street, where you could buy peanuts and pink +lemonade, or the substantials of eating; patent +leather shoes, yellow-backed novels, and cheap +jewelry, or the substantials of wearing apparel. +The six restaurants formed a trust and kept the +price of a meal up to $2.50. In furnishing +them with meat, the men who had used oxen +for drawing their outfits up to the Scales and +again to draw them over the lakes, now had +reason to laugh back at the friends who had +scoffed at them for thinking that any animal +except a dog or a mule was useful in Alaska. +An ox sold for $700 or $800 and was butchered +at once before it had a chance to eat any more +hay—which was worth $100 a ton—while the +rich men stood by to see that they got the tenderloin. +Besides beefsteak, we had moose-steak. +One moose, who had possibly come +back to his old pastures out of curiosity, was +shot with a revolver only a mile out of town. +His slayer, who met him ambling along the +white man’s trail as if he were on a stampede +to some new creek, sold his carcass for $500.</p> + +<p>Carpenters got employment at $15 a day +on some one of the new dance halls, saloons, +and stores which were being built as fast as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> +green lumber for their construction could be +obtained. Pilgrims without any trade, if they +were wise, immediately secured logs and built +a cabin, which served them at once as a temporary +home, a storehouse for their supplies, +and assured them warmth and shelter when +winter should come. But the grasshoppers were +far more numerous than the ants. The debilitating +climate of summer, joined with the indecision +of whether to leave the country or +to remain, of whether to go down the river to +the American side or up the river to Stewart +if they did remain, supplied the majority with +a good excuse for idleness. Some did not +even put up tents on the shore, but kept house +in their boats which they had moored to the +bank. They sat on logs discussing their experiences +in shooting the rapids, and they kept +watch of the new arrivals for the purpose of +guying anyone who had started before themselves +but had arrived later.</p> + +<p>There was something pitiful as well as ridiculous +in the disappointment of the pilgrim +who had believed everything that he read in +the press-agents’ pamphlets, to find that a rich +claim was not to be had for working it. When +he put his new gold-pan and a pack on his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> +back and went up the trail to the creeks, where +possibly he found a few colors in a rivulet, the +old-timers laughed at him and asked him if he +liked prospecting well enough to pan ground +that was staked two years ago. If he carried a +revolver they begged him, please not to shoot +them. Wearily, and with all his visions dispelled, +he returned to Dawson. His tent was +no protection from the sun of midday. At +night the light made it difficult for him to +sleep. As he fried his fat bacon he could not +help thinking that it was just strawberry time +on the “outside.”</p> + +<p>Few pilgrims had any money and those who +had were inclined to spend it on the luxuries +which their palates craved. They walked up +and down the main street like the crowd at a +country fair; looked on at the drinking and +gambling of the successful miners and marvelled +at the amount of dust that passed over +the saloon-keeper’s scales; and slouched in and +out of the stores of the two commercial companies +to see the bulletin board, which had the +list of names of men for whom letters had +been received. If they might not visit the +new variety theatre, with gambling hall and +bar attached, where actresses from ’Frisco and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> +Seattle sang the songs of a local poet containing +spirited references to the rich claim-owners—who, +in return for the compliment, opened +champagne at $30 a bottle between the “turns,”—they +could at least enjoy the sights of the +river bank. In the absence of so great an +event as the arrival of a scow with mules or the +latest papers on board, some “pardners” were +either quarrelling or dividing their outfits preparatory +to selling them. With the first +steamer from down the river came the news +from Circle City, which meant a great deal to +the old-timers. The Cheechawkos could not +understand it, but, as became a crowd which +gets only a glimpse into the inside world, they +made the most of the peeps and simulated +intense interest.</p> + +<p>One day a midget of a steamer, the first to +shoot White Horse Rapids—her parts had +been packed over the Pass and put together on +Bennett—ran in between two scows and tied up +so quietly that not more than three or four hundred +men saw it. Their pride was no greater +than the disappointment of the multitude, who +refused to forgive the captain until they learned +that his whistle was out of gear.</p> + +<p>Next to knowing them personally, the Cheechawkos<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> +enjoyed having the leading citizens and +the foremost gamblers pointed out to them. +They knew the story of how the Eldorado kings +had made their fortunes, and how Jack Smith +had once bet $7,000 on the turn of a card. Now +and then they caught a glimpse of the tall, raw-boned +Scotchman who was the richest man in +the country. Two years before he had been a +day laborer at Circle City. When the value of +Eldorado claims was an uncertain quantity he +bought one of the best for $800. He spent +all the first year’s output in buying undeveloped +properties, and then bought still others upon +his promise to pay, which the miners accepted +without any written word. The clean-up had +vindicated his judgment. Now the fact that he +had stopped on a trail to look at a claim was supposed +to increase its speculative value.</p> + +<p>And speculation still continued in both mining +property and real estate. A French-Canadian +who had paid $5 for a front lot just after +the town-site was staked still held out persistently +for $20,000, with slight prospect of getting +it. The “bottom” was out of the “boom,” as +every man who supported himself by gambling +or speculation well knew. No new strikes were +made except on a few benches. None could be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> +made on the creeks at a season of the year when +the seepage from the thawing earth would fill a +prospect-hole as fast as it was dug. Autumn and +winter have ever been the time for prospecting +in the Klondyke, and summer the time for cabin +building or for taking provisions to the heads of +some of the tributaries in poling-boats preparatory +to prospecting.</p> + +<p>Roughly but surely the lesson was forced +home to the pilgrim that a fortune cannot be +made in the Klondyke in a hurry. If he would +have a claim he must find it. Even after he has +found it, he must spend two or three years, unless +he sells it, taking out its treasure. If it +were not for the humiliation of facing their +friends from whom they had parted with merry +good-bys, nine out of every ten of the +pilgrims would have returned home at once. +Thirty per cent. of them did, as it was. Two-thirds +would have gone if many had not loitered +on in their tents until it was too late to go except +over the ice. The tenth man developed +those characteristics of patience and nonchalance +in dealing with obstacles which the veteran +prospector possesses by experience and by nature. +For such as lacked this spirit and remained +in the country there was the prospect +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>of loitering in their cabins until their supplies +were eaten, in the hope of getting a good claim +on a stampede, or of going to work for wages.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f26"> +<img src="images/fig26.jpg" alt="steamer"> +<p class="caption">A Yukon Steamer.</p> +</div> + +<p>In all, the pilgrims must have spent $30,000,000, +or $40,000,000, on outfits and transportation. +(The output of gold in the Klondyke +for the year was $11,000,000.) But they have +paved the way with their failures for the development +of a vast expanse of country whose +abounding wealth is unquestioned. The hardships +of a journey to Dawson are of the past. +An aërial tramway, without groans or perspiration, +does the work of the packers at one-fifth +of the expense on Chilcoot, and a railroad carries +passengers as well as freight over the whole +Pass. Steamers ply on both the upper and +lower branches of the river connecting at White +Horse Rapids with others plying on the lakes. +Hereafter, the mines of the Klondyke will be +an established institution, like the mines of California, +and the prospectors who go there, better +fitted for their tasks.</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c11">XI</p> +</div> + +<h2>GOVERNMENT</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Canadian Policy in the Yukon Province—Taxes and +Fees—The Gold Commissioner’s Office—Conflicts between +Territorial and Dominion Governments—Timber +Grants—The Value of the Mounted Police—The Newly +Rich at Dawson—The Order of the Yukon Pioneers—Mrs. +Constantine.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N its policy the Dominion Government, +which took matters out of the hands of +the Territorial Government after the Klondyke +“boom” began, has apparently been largely +influenced by the predominance of aliens in +the Klondyke. At least three-fourths of the +2,000 men in and around Dawson in the +winter of 1897-98 and of the 35,000 pilgrims +of the spring of 1898, were citizens of the +United States. Naturally, the members of +the Canadian Parliament regarded with dismay +the prospect that the new-found wealth +of a portion of their domain hitherto considered +valueless was going to American mints, +and that their constituents would be paying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> +the expenses of administration, which, owing +to the isolation of the region to be governed, +must be comparatively expensive, for the benefit +of another country.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the placer regions of the Yukon +Valley lying in British territory were created +a special province called the Yukon District, +under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Parliament. +A Commissioner, with the powers of +a dictator, was appointed for the District, the +Judge of the district alone being responsible +to Ottawa and not subject to the Commissioner’s +orders. The other civil officials were +a Gold Commissioner, who had charge of the +recording of claims, a Crown Attorney, and +two Mining Inspectors for collecting the royalties. +The opportunities of the officials for +their own aggrandizement were exceptional +by reason of the system of taxation devised. +On the output of all claims a royalty of ten +per cent. was collected. Every pilgrim had +to take out a mining license at a cost of $10. +For having a claim recorded a fee of $15 was +charged. Every alternate claim on all new +discoveries was reserved to the Crown, thus +depriving the community of half the reward +of enterprise. These restrictions drove a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> +many experienced American prospectors to the +other side of the boundary line and at the +same time served the inexperienced as an excuse +for returning home.</p> + +<p>Major J. M. Walsh, who was chosen Commissioner, +did not go to Dawson in the autumn +of 1897. His corps of civil officials preceded +him while he remained behind in camp on the +Lewes Lakes, with a considerable force of +police, in order to escort to Dawson the United +States Relief Expedition.</p> + +<p>Among the foremost charges of maladministration +made against the civil officials was the +one in connection with the water front, data +of which were given to me by several leading +men. The Canadian law provides that the +main street of a new town shall be at all points +a certain distance from the bank of the river. +In order not to have a crooked main street, +the men who staked the town-site of Dawson +agreed to follow this measurement, from the +greatest indentation of the bank, in a straight +line. Those who bought lots on the main +street supposed that they were securing river +frontage, which is invaluable. The spring of +1898 however, saw a long row of buildings +whose back-doors were toward the river and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> +which faced the original row. The officials +had let the water-front to an individual for a +nominal sum in the name of the Government. +The sub-lessees said, with a shrug of their +shoulders, that they did not care to say to +whom they paid their heavy rents, and that +they were satisfied as long as they were left +undisturbed.</p> + +<p>Captain Constantine, who had been transferred +from the charge of the police at Forty +Mile to the same position at Dawson, was an +old fashioned executive. His departure in the +summer of 1898 was agreeable to him as well +as to the other officials, because he was alone +among uncongenial company. He understood +the miners; and they knew that, though gruff, +he was honest and incorruptible. Even the +lawless ones admitted this much; for in no +community is simple integrity enforced by a +strong will better appreciated than in a mining-camp. +Had he been retained as administrator +of the whole district, with the power to choose +his own assistants, Dawson would have been +a phenomenally well-governed settlement from +the start, and the development of the great +wealth of the region would have been less retarded. +Instead of men who had spent their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> +lives among pioneers, the Dominion Government +sent, as the reward for party service, men +whose experience was limited to local politics +at home. With hundreds of experts to choose +from in British Columbia, an ex-captain of a +whaler and an ex-livery-stable-keeper were +made inspectors to collect the royalty of 10 per +cent. on an output of eleven millions of gold.</p> + +<p>Considering the expense of recording a +claim, the owners of claims and the prospectors +had at least the right to expect from the +Gold Commissioner’s Office reasonable attention +to duty. To have posted in a public place +a detailed map of the district, with all claims +and the names of their owners recorded, would +have required little labor and no expense; but +it would have ruined the business of the clerks +in furnishing information. Considering the +number of policemen with idle hands, mail received +in the summer might have been sorted +with dispatch and distributed at different windows +under different heads. But a delay of +two or three days, and the prospect of waiting +in line for several hours before one could even +ask if there was a letter for him, were strong +incentives, to miners who wished to hurry back to +their claims, to put a few dollars into an itching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> +palm, and in return to receive immediate attention +at the side-door of the Post-Office.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the arrival of Major Walsh in +Dawson in the spring was not productive of +the reforms which an oppressed population had +hoped for. The acts of the officials, except +that of a representative of the Northwest +Territory in placing a tax of $2,000 each on +saloons and gambling-halls, seemed to meet +with the favor of the Commissioner. He maintained +that the Territorial Government was infringing +on the special powers granted to him +by the Dominion Government; and he issued an +order that anyone who chose might sell liquor +without any form of license.</p> + +<p>The buildings on the water-front stood in +the way of even a primitive system of sewerage. +Simple sanitary rules were not promulgated, +much less enforced. Absolutely no precautions +were taken against the epidemic of +fever, which was responsible for so many +deaths. Private beneficence built the two hospitals, +and it now maintains them and carries +on all charitable undertakings. Whatever has +been done in the way of improvements has +been paid for by public subscriptions. The +full measure of the Government’s public spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> +was the construction of the barracks and stockade +for the Police on the Government Reserve. +Had some of the money collected from the +claim-owners and the prospectors been expended +on constructing trails and on a system of +sanitation, there would have been less ground +for complaint. Doing nothing itself, the Government +often took the position of the dog in +the manger. The exorbitant price demanded +for a charter forced capitalists to give up the +plan of building a railroad from Dawson to the +mines, which would have been invaluable in +cheapening the cost of mining. After paying +for timber privileges in their licenses, the pilgrims +found, to their dismay, that the Government, +or the officials, had given enormous timber +grants in the neighborhood of Dawson to +individuals, thus putting an artificial value on +logs for firewood and building purposes.</p> + +<p>Very properly the loudest complaints arose +from Englishmen, Australians, and South Africans. +If the new laws were directed against +Americans, they injured Canadians and other +British subjects equally as much, if not more. +From the first, London regarded the Klondyke +as a great field for exploration, and most of the +capital represented there last spring was British.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> +The royalty of 10 per cent. and the failure to use +the money so collected in constructing trails have +been, however, more injurious to capitalistic enterprise, +which is largely British, than to individual +enterprise, which is largely American. A +poor man who takes from $5,000 to $50,000 out +of a bench-claim with his own hands will not +be deterred from his labors by the royalty. +But 10 per cent. on the gross output makes +a majority of company propositions impracticable. +Often it will wipe out a goodly profit, +and put a balance on the wrong side of the ledger. +As soon as it was known that the Dominion +Government would not heed the appeals for the +abolition of the royalty, the reaction from the +“boom” was complete. The appointment of +Mr. Ogilvie, the new Commissioner, who has a +reputation for probity, was as welcome to the +aliens as to the other residents. He at once +set about the work of making reforms.</p> + +<p>Too much cannot be said in praise of the +personnel of the Northwest Mounted Police—mounted +only in name, for they have not a +single horse in the Klondyke—which is largely +drawn from the ranks of the young Englishmen +who enjoy “roughing it.” In preserving +order they are good-natured but severe. Malefactors<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> +are punished with the commendable +promptness of British justice; and no murderer +in Dawson can snap his fingers in the face of +the law as one did at Skaguay. At Skaguay +there was no order; at Dawson too much civil +government.</p> + +<p>For the first winter, being populated entirely +by men from the old camps, Dawson was, of +course, largely a sociological counterpart of +Forty Mile and Circle City, except that the excitement +and the feverish optimism, which increased +as the new discoveries continued to +surpass expectations, had hitherto been unknown +in the valley. The contamination of +the old customs began with the arrival of the +fifteen hundred madly hastening pilgrims who +succeeded in reaching Dawson before navigation +was closed in the autumn of 1897. It was +complete with the arrival of the great pilgrimage +with its element of toughs, gamblers, and +other parasites. The time had passed when +every man nodded to whomsoever he met. +Dawson had become a settlement not of neighbors, +but, like Mecca, of strangers. The old-timers +were developing those human weaknesses +which are brought out in sharp relief by +the sometimes doubtful blessing of great and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span>unexpected success. Practical communism +was easier for a man when he and his comrade +were equally poor than after chance had +made him the owner of a plot of creek bed +worth from $500,000 to $1,000,000, while his +comrade, who had been too late in the stampede +to stake a claim on Eldorado, was among +his employees.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f27"> +<img src="images/fig27.jpg" alt="dawson"> +<p class="caption">The Main Street of Dawson.</p> +</div> + +<p>There sprang up as a consequence an aristocratic +social circle called the Eldorado Kings, +suffering, in a measure, from the affliction of +the <i>nouveaux riches</i> of old communities who +live miserably under the suspicion that whoever +approaches them has an axe to grind. Yet they +did not forget their duties to their less fortunate +fellows. They gave bountifully to the +churches, to the hospitals, and for the care of +those poor Cheechawkos who lay ill in their +tents. Upon a special occasion, the Order of +the Yukon Pioneers—perhaps the death of a +comrade or perhaps a church sociable, where +you bought ice-cream made from condensed +milk for $2.50 a plate—appeared together +wearing broad blue ribands. Foremost among +them was Jack McQuestion. He was keeping +a trading post when the first prospectors entered +the Yukon Valley. The old miners came to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> +him to settle disputes, and the poorest of them +asked him for the loan of an ounce of dust.</p> + +<p>On the day before the departure of our +steamer for the outside, attired in their best +clothes and wearing their ribands, the old-timers +presented to Captain Constantine an +address of appreciation and a peck of nuggets. +Then Jack McQuestion went over to the barracks +and asked that Mrs. Constantine should +share with her husband the central position in +a photographic group of all the pioneers. She +consented.</p> + +<p>The Captain’s wife had been her husband’s +companion during his service on the Yukon. +When she was quite ill one winter and had +to remain in her cabin from one short day’s +end to another—with long, dark, monotonous +nights between them—the kindnesses shown +to her were not limited to the devotion of her +stalwart husband or the attention of ruddy-faced +privates, whose Cockney accent told +how far they were from the motherland of +commonplaces and restraints. The miners who +came to the door to inquire how she was getting +on, devised means of entertaining her over +their pipes and cabin fires, and then were sometimes +too bashful to put them into execution.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> +For one thing they learned by heart the contents +of some old humorous journals in camp. +Though she had been the first person to +receive the journals when they had been +brought down the river the preceding summer, +she did not say so, and listened with +gentle patience to their jokes being retold +again and again.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Constantine,” said one old-timer, as +he bade her good-by, “we ain’t much on +manners, but we do know a lady when we +see one.”</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span></p> + +<p class="c xlarge" id="c12">XII</p> +</div> + +<h2>DOWN THE YUKON AND HOME.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good-by to Dawson—The Extinction of the Unfit—Steamboating +to St. Michaels—Mosquitoes and Sandbars—Pilgrims +by the All-Water Route—Behring Sea—Civilization +Once More.</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span>ESPITE the diet, the isolation, and the +inhospitable nature of the country, many +of the old-timers who had now realized the +material ambition which had brought them to +Alaska and were going home, saw the great +crowd which gathered on the river bank to bid +our steamer a pleasant voyage, disappear in the +distance with a feeling of regret amounting to +more than a momentary pang. From two to +ten years had passed since many of them had +seen a paved street.</p> + +<p>“You’ll wish you’re back,” and, “You won’t +feel natcheral,” their departing friends called +out to them.</p> + +<p>Out of deference to civilization everyone +had bought certain of its habiliments. New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> +red ties stood out on the background of black +sweaters, and crumpled overalls drooped over +patent leather shoes. Some had taken whatever +they could find to fit them, regardless of +cost and incongruity. Others had halted half +way in making out a wardrobe because they +feared that they might not be getting the right +styles or because they got indignant at the +prices charged by the Dawson speculators compared +with those on the outside.</p> + +<p>The dying woman who was the mother of +the first white baby born in Dawson, the sallow +men who had limped down from the hospital +just before the steamer sailed, and the +Cheechawkos who had sold their outfits for +just enough to pay for passage to Seattle, +where they would have to telegraph home for +railway fare—these had no regrets. We buried +the woman half way down the river, two +of the men before we reached St. Michaels, +and a third at sea when only two days from +Seattle.</p> + +<p>With good accommodations, the journey of +eighteen hundred miles from Dawson to St. +Michaels would have been a pleasure trip. It +was far from that with us, owing to the Spanish-American +war and certain other reasons.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> +The commercial company which charged us +$300 for transportation had two steamers at +Dawson. It held them there long enough to +give us the questionable satisfaction of seeing +the steamer of the rival company, which had +been delayed in coming up the river from its +winter quarters, arrive and cut prices before +our steamer, having room for seventy-five passengers, +and one hundred and seventy-five on +board, started on ahead of her sister steamer. +We were to act as a reconnoitering force or +a buffer, or whatever you choose, for the sister +steamer, which had a dozen lonely, armed +passengers and $2,500,000 in dust on board, +with a view to saving her treasure from a +Spanish privateer if one were waiting for us +at the mouth of the river, as rumor from the +outside said. Therefore, one hundred passengers +had to sleep on the floor of the dining-room +or on the lower deck among the Indians +and the piles of firewood.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="f28"> +<img src="images/fig28.jpg" alt="dawson good-by"> +<p class="caption">A Dawson Good-by.</p> +</div> + +<p>Except when we ate, and when the steamer +poked its bow into the sand in front of some +piles of fire-wood on the bank, we could be +fairly comfortable lounging on the decks. For +the eleven days which the journey occupied, +we had one tablecloth for three sittings at each +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span>meal. As the miners had a general disregard +for the utility of dishes for holding things, the +cloth did not preserve its original color, even +in spots, for more than two days. Our food +was bad rice, bad bacon and bread, and old +canned roast beef, which, however, did not +count, as we could not eat it. If the company +had only allowed us to use our fingers instead +of forks and knives which men who were +“working their fare” out as waiters washed +indifferently, I should have been much happier. +By July, moreover, the little mosquitoes were +out. They, and not the big ones which come +early in the season, understand flying straight +to the mark with rigid lance. They bit the +Indians as well as the white men, but to no +purpose so far as making them hurry in bringing +on the wood. As soon as the steamer was +in midstream, the buzzing mists, which could +be resisted only by the finest netting drawn +over the head, disappeared.</p> + +<p>Our principal stops in the eighteen hundred +miles were at Forty Mile and Circle City, +where the deserted cabins were being once +more occupied and there was a chance that +the old claims, which were good for their day, +would be worked again, and of a recrudescence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> +of the boom; and at Minook, where important +discoveries had been made in the past +winter. But we stopped also at every little +Indian village—to please the Indians, one presumed—where +the inhabitants came out to +meet us in their light canoes and wanted to +sell furs and trinkets. At many of these villages +there were mission houses. We had on +board a Russian priest, who had come up on +the steamer from Anvik and was now returning. +He was bold enough to say that he +thought he needed this little recreation after +having been two years alone among the +Indians.</p> + +<p>We had left behind the great mountains +below Dawson, we had seen the midnight sun +across the vast stretches of flats below Circle +City, and were just congratulating ourselves +that our Indian pilot had led us through the +last of the many shallow channels in the flats, +when we ran on a sandbar. Our mate and his +Indian crew labored for twenty-four hours before +we were off. The next day a hog chain +broke and our engines were helpless. For the +rest of the distance to St. Michaels we were +towed by the steamer which carried the treasure +and had the misery of seeing the fellows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> +who had started two days after us and paid +less fare pass us on the steamer of the rival +company.</p> + +<p>At St. Michaels we met three or four +thousand pilgrims who were going into the +Klondyke by the all-water route. They had +bought transportation for themselves and outfits +of new companies which had attempted to +tow flotillas of river steamers built in Seattle +to St. Michaels. Almost invariably the river +steamers had been lost at sea between Seattle +and Unalaska, and those who depended upon +them for transportation to Dawson were only +better off than others who had attempted the +journey on decrepit sailing vessels that had +gone to the bottom. It was a little unkind of +our passengers, while we waited for transfer to +an ocean steamer, to enjoy setting before them +in the bluntest phrase an exaggerated account +of the desperate condition of all the newcomers +in Dawson.</p> + +<p>Behring Sea was placid as a lake when we +crossed it. After two days for coaling at Unalaska +and after five days on the Pacific, we +entered Puget Sound on the morning of July +19th. Everyone on board was thinking of the +steaks and the fruit that he would eat that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> +evening for dinner. The old-timers, who had +heretofore resented the steward’s requests that +they should not expectorate on the decks, were +a little ill at ease at the prospect of the social +restraint of civilization. Civilization offers +many advantages over Dawson or Circle City +for spending a fortune, to be sure, but such of +the old-timers as were destined to become poor +again—and the majority were, I think—would +no doubt return to the pick and the pan as a +wanderer returns home.</p> + + +<p class="c xlarge">THE END.</p> + + + + +<div class="bbox"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="c large sp"><i>BOOKS ON OUR NEW POSSESSIONS</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="c xlarge sp">COMMERCIAL CUBA</p> + +<p class="c">A Book for Business Men</p> + +<p class="c sp">By WILLIAM J. CLARK</p> + +<p>With 8 maps, 7 plans of cities, and 40 full-page illustrations, +and a Commercial Directory of Cuba. Large 8vo, $4.00</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap1">“A</span> THOROUGHLY good and useful book. We should +not know where to find within another pair of +covers so much and so carefully sifted information +bearing on this subject. Mr. Clark’s painstaking account +of the railway and telegraph systems; of highways and +harbors; of rivers and water supplies, and lighthouses; +of sugar and tobacco growing; and his detailed description +of each province and of every city of any size, together +with a ‘business directory’ for the whole island, +make his book one of great value for reference as well as +for practical guidance. In the present situation of Cuban +affairs it should command a wide sale. Its accuracy is +certainly of a high order.”—New York <i>Evening Post</i>.</p> + + +<p class="c xlarge sp p2">YESTERDAYS IN<br> +THE PHILIPPINES</p> + +<p class="c sp">By JOSEPH EARLE STEVENS</p> + +<p class="pad2">With 32 full-page illustrations from photographs +by the author. <i>Seventh thousand.</i> 12mo, $1.50</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span>ITH the observant and indulgent eye of an old +traveller, Mr. Stevens has seen everything in +the islands worth seeing, and has described +what he has seen in a most interesting manner.... All +is set forth by the narrator in a breezy, chatty way that +would be entertaining under any circumstances.”</p> + +<p class="r"> +—Philadelphia <i>Evening Telegraph</i>.<br> +</p> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="c large">CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, NEW YORK</p></div> + +<div class="bbox2"> +<p class="c large sp"><i>THE WAR ON SEA AND LAND</i></p> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="c xlarge sp">THE CUBAN<br> +AND PORTO RICAN CAMPAIGNS</p> + +<p class="c sp">By RICHARD HARDING DAVIS</p> + +<p class="pad2">With 117 illustrations from photographs and with +4 maps. <i>Twentieth thousand.</i> 12mo, $1.50</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“N</span>EVER has a war been reported as this has been, +and never has a history been written like this, +by one who saw it all—while the blood was hot +and the memory vivid.”—New York <i>World</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span>HIS is much the most vivid and readable of all +the books on the war that have appeared so far, +and it is full of life and color and incidents that +show the sort of stuff of which our soldiers were made. +The book is written with a keenness, a vivacity, a skill +and a power to thrill and to leave an impression which +mark a decided advance over anything that even Mr. +Davis has written heretofore.”—Boston <i>Herald</i>.</p> + + +<p class="c xlarge sp p2">OUR NAVY IN THE<br> +WAR WITH SPAIN</p> + +<p class="c sp">By JOHN R. SPEARS</p> + +<p class="c less sp"><i>Author of “The History of Our Navy”</i></p> + +<p class="pad2">With 125 illustrations from photographs and +with charts and diagrams. 12mo, $2.00</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“M</span>R. SPEARS has plainly put his best efforts into +that mighty combat, the sea-Gettysburg of the +war, the death-grapple of Cervera’s ships and +Sampson’s. His story of the action of July 3d is superb. +It is the most lucid and comprehensive description which +has yet been laid before the American people, and it is +made all the more valuable by the official chart of the +ships’ courses which accompanies it. As a whole, Mr. +Spears’s book is not only true to technical details, but it +is a spirited and admirable piece of literary workmanship. +It is one of the few volumes out of the many hurriedly +issued in the wake of the war which will endure the test +of time and stand as a faithful, competent picture to +future generations.”—Boston <i>Journal</i>.</p> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<p class="c large">CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, NEW YORK +</p></div> + +<div class="transnote"> + +<p class="c">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> + +<p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.</p> + +<p>Perceived typographical errors have been changed.</p> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79395 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/79395-h/images/cover.jpg b/79395-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..79c37d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/79395-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/79395-h/images/fig1.jpg b/79395-h/images/fig1.jpg Binary files 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been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15afc33 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +[Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook [#79395](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79395) |
