AT JUNEAU.
Now it is a serious undertaking for any one to make a journey to the
gold regions at the headwaters of the Yukon, as every one will admit
who has been there. All know of the starvation which threatened the
people of Dawson City during the winter of 1897-98, when the whole
country was stirred with sympathy, and our Government made use of
reindeer to take food to the suffering miners.
No dangers of that kind confronted Roswell Palmer and Frank Mansley,
but their parents could not contemplate the undertaking without
anxiety. The mothers held more than one consultation, and there was a
time when both were inclined to object to the boys going at all. The
dread of that desolate, icy region in the far Northwest grew upon them,
until it is safe to say that if the departure had been postponed for
only a few days Mrs. Mansley and Mrs. Palmer would never have given
their consent. But Mr. Palmer laughed at their fears, and assured them
there was no cause for alarm. He spoke so cheeringly that they caught
his hopefulness, but neither noticed the lump he swallowed, nor with
what difficulty he kept back the tears when the hour for parting came.
He was fully as anxious as they, but he knew how to dissemble, and
would not have confessed his real emotions for the world.
After all, it was Jeff Graham who deserved the credit for the
willingness of the parents to see their sons venture upon the long and
dangerous journey. To him the trip was much the same as a visit to Los
Angeles or the Yosemite Valley. His self-confidence never faltered. He
was sure it would be only a pleasant outing, with the certainty of a
big reward at the end of it. The sly fellow dwelt on the pale
complexion and debilitated appearance of the lads. He even said that a
cough which he heard Frank try to suppress (in swallowing some fruit, a
bit of it went the "wrong way"--it was nothing more) indicated the
insidious approach of consumption. Jeff was the only one who was able
to see any paleness in the countenance of the young athletes, or
suspect them of being otherwise than fine specimens of youthful health
and vigor; but since he was as solemn as a judge when making his
declaration, the father and mother of the one and the mother of the
other could not feel quite certain there were not grounds for his
fears.
And so it being settled that the boys were to go to the Klondike gold
fields under the care of the grim old Argonaut, it only remained to
complete the preparations in the short time at their disposal.
Had the mothers been free to carry out their wishes, their sons would
have been loaded down with baggage upon leaving San Francisco. There
are so many things which seem indispensable, when an affectionate
mother is considering the comfort of her only son, that she is sure to
overwhelm him. At first the mothers insisted upon each being furnished
with a large trunk, which would have to be crowded to bursting to
contain what was needed, but Jeff put his foot down.
"Nothin' of the kind. Didn't I tell you that we'll git all that's
needed at Juneau or Dyea or some point on the road? You've forgot
that."
"But, Jeff, there are some articles which they _must_ take with them."
The old miner lit his pipe, sat down in the rocking-chair at the Palmer
home, where the mothers had met while the boys and Mr. Palmer were
down-town making a few forgotten purchases. The old fellow chuckled a
little and then became serious.
"In the fust place, not a trunk!" and he shook his head decisively.
"Do you expect them to take what they want in their pockets?"
"Umph! it would be the sensiblest thing they could do, but we can't be
bothered with any trunks, that would be sure to be lost in the first
shuffle. Each of us will have a good, big, strong carpet-bag, and
nothing more. You can cram them as full as you choose, but what you
can't git in has got to be left at home."
There could be no mistake as to Jeff's earnestness, and neither mother
attempted to gainsay his words.
"Now," said he, "jest lay out on the floor what you have in your mind
that the youngsters need, and I'll tell you what they _do_ need."
"You mustn't forget," observed Mrs. Palmer, as she started to comply,
"that the boys are now down-town buying some things which they
positively cannot get along without."
"As, for instance, what?"
"Well, tooth-brushes, soap, combs, courtplaster, handkerchiefs,
buttons, thread, quinine, and pain-killer."
"Is that all?" asked Jeff so quizzically that both ladies laughed.
"You have forgotten," added Mrs. Mansley, "the shirts, underclothing,
socks, and shoes."
"They are here," replied Mrs. Palmer, stepping briskly into the next
room and returning with her arms full.
"I've got to lay down the law," observed Jeff, just as Mr. Palmer and
the two boys came in, glowing with excitement. "Here are the young men,
and they look as if they had bought out half the town. Dump everything
on the floor, and let's sort 'em out."
When the pile was complete the miner gravely remarked:
"Nothing less than a freight-car will answer for all that stuff, and I
don't b'lieve we can charter one through to Dawson. In the first place,
I s'pose the tooth-brushes will have to go, though I never found any
use for such things, and I can crack a bull hickory-nut with my teeth.
The same may be obsarved of the soap and combs, while a roll of court
plaster don't take up much room. We'll be likely to need thread,
buttons, and some patches for our clothes, though I've got a supply in
my carpetbag. The quinine and pain-killer they may take if you can find
a corner to squeeze 'em in. As to the underclothing, extra shirts, it
depends whether there is room for 'em; but the boys mustn't think of
taking their dress suits along, 'cause _I'm_ not going to. There ain't
any room for violins, pianos, or music-boxes, and the only clothing and
shoes that can go with this party is what we wear on our bodies and
feet."
"Suppose the shoes wear out?" asked Mrs. Mansley in dismay.
"Then we'll go barefoot. Now, see here, we shan't be away more than
three months. A pair of well-made shoes will last longer than that, and
the same is true about our clothes, though we have the means of mending
them, if modesty calls for it, which ain't likely to be the case in the
diggings. Caps, coats, vests, trousers, and shoes are to sarve from the
day we start till we come back. If one of the boys casts a shoe and
loses it, we'll find some way of getting him another. What's this?"
suddenly asked Jeff, picking up a small volume from the floor and
opening it.
He looked at the fly-leaf, on which was written: "To my dear boy
Roswell, from his affectionate mother. Read a portion every day, and be
guided in your thoughts, words, and deeds by its blessed precepts. Then
it shall always be well with thee."
There were two of the small Bibles, the other being similarly inscribed
with the name of Frank Mansley. The boys and their parents were
standing around the seated miner, and no one spoke. He looked at each
precious volume in turn, and then reverently laid them among the pile
of indispensables.
"That's the mother of it," he said, as if speaking with himself; "it's
a good many years since my poor old mother done the same thing for me
when I started for Californy, and I've got the book among my things
yet, though I don't read it as often as I should. _Them_ go if we have
to leave everything else behind."
When the task was completed, every one acknowledged the excellent
judgment displayed by Jeff Graham. The three were arrayed in strong,
thick, warm clothing, and, in addition, each carried a heavy overcoat
on his arm. In the valises were crowded underclothing, shirts,
handkerchiefs, and the articles that have been already specified. It
was wonderful how skilfully the mothers did the packing. When it looked
as if every inch of space was filled, they found a crevice into which
another bottle of standard medicine, an extra bit of soap, more thread
and needles and conveniences of which no other person would think were
forced without adding to the difficulty of locking the valises.
Nothing remaining to be done, on the following day the boys kissed
their tearful mothers good-by, and warmly shook hands with Mr. Palmer,
who brokenly murmured, "God bless you! be good boys!" as he saw them
off on the steamer bound for Seattle, and thence to Juneau, where they
safely arrived one day early in April, 1897.
In making such a voyage, many people are necessarily thrown together in
more or less close companionship, with the result of forming numerous
acquaintances and sometimes lasting friendships. Following the advice
of Jeff, the cousins had little to say about their plans, though they
became interested in more than one passenger, and often speculated
between themselves as to the likelihood of certain ones meeting success
or failure in the gold regions.
There were three sturdy lumbermen all the way from Maine. A curious
fact about them was that, although they were not related at all, the
name of each was Brown. They were light-hearted and the life of the
large party. One Brown had a good tenor voice, and often sang popular
ballads with taste and great acceptability. Another played the violin
with considerable skill, and sometimes indulged in jig tunes, to which
his friends, and occasionally others, danced an accompaniment.
"They'll succeed," was the verdict of Roswell, "for they are strong,
healthy, and will toil like beavers."
"And what of the two men smoking their pipes just beyond the fiddler?"
asked Frank.
"I had a talk with them the other day; one has been a miner in
Australia, and the other spent two years in the diamond mines of
Kimberley, South Africa. Meeting for the first time in San Francisco,
they formed a partnership; they, too, are rugged and must understand
their business."
"No doubt of it. Do you remember that stoop-shouldered old man whose
room is next to ours?"
"The one who has such dreadful coughing spells in the night?"
"Yes; he is far gone with consumption, and yet he won't believe there's
anything the matter with him. He is worse than when he came on board:
but he says it is only a slight cold which will soon pass off, and he
is just as hopeful as you or I of taking a lot of nuggets home with
him."
"He never will see the other side of Chilkoot Pass."
"I doubt whether he will ever see this side."
Thus the boys speculated, sometimes amused and sometimes saddened by
what they saw. There was a big San Francisco policeman, who said he had
cracked heads so long that he thought he knew how to crack some golden
nuggets; a correspondent of a prominent New York newspaper, whose
situation was enviable, since his salary and expenses were guaranteed,
and he was free to gather gold when the opportunity offered; a voluble
insurance agent, who made a nuisance of himself by his solicitations,
in season and out; a massive football-player, who had no companion, and
did not wish any, since he was sure he could buck the line, make a
touchdown, and kick a goal; a gray-haired head of a family, who, having
lost his all, had set out to gather another fortune along the Klondike.
He walked briskly, threw back his shoulders, and tried hard to appear
young and vigorous, but the chances were strongly against him. There
were a number of bright clerks; a clergyman, pleasant and genial with
all; gamblers, with pallid faces and hair and mustaches dyed an intense
black, who expected to win the gold for which others dug; young and
middle-aged men, some with their brave wives, serene and calmly
prepared to bear their full share of privation and toil; and
adventurers, ready to go anywhere for the sake of adventure itself. In
truth, it was a motley assemblage, which to the boys was like a
continually shifting panorama of hope, ambition, honesty, dishonor,
pluck, and human enterprise and daring, that was ever present
throughout the thousand miles of salt water that stretches from Seattle
to Juneau.
Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska, was founded in 1880, and named in
honor of Joseph Juneau, the discoverer of gold on Douglas Island, two
miles distant. There is located the Treadwell quartz-mill, the largest
in the world. The city nestles at the base of a precipitous mountain,
thirty-three hundred feet high, has several thousand inhabitants, with
its wooden houses regularly laid out, good wharves, water works,
electric lights, banks, hotels, newspapers, schools, and churches.
"Here's where we get our outfit," said Jeff, as they hurried over the
plank to the landing. "But where can Tim be?"
He paused abruptly as soon as he was clear of the crowd, and looked
around for the one who was the cause of his coming to this
out-of-the-way corner of the world. He was still gazing when a man,
dressed much the same as himself, but short, stockily built, and with
the reddest hair and whiskers the boys had ever seen, his round face
aglow with pleasure stepped hastily forward from the group of
spectators and extended his hand.
"Ah, Jiff, it does me good to see your handsome silf; and how have ye
been, and how do ye expect to continue to be?"
Tim McCabe was an Irishman who, when overtaken by misfortune in San
Francisco, found Jeff Graham the good Samaritan, and he could never
show sufficient gratitude therefor. It was only one of the many kindly
deeds the old miner was always performing, but he did not meet in every
case with such honest thankfulness.
Jeff clasped his hand warmly, and then looked at the smiling boys, to
whom he introduced his friend, and who shook their hands. He eyed them
closely, and, with the quizzical expression natural to many of his
people, said:
"And these are the laddies ye wrote me about? Ye said they were likely
broths of boys; but, Jiff, ye didn't do them justice--they desarved
more."
"Tim is always full of blarney," explained Jeff, who, it was evident,
was fond of the merry Irishman; "so you mustn't mind him and his ways."
Roswell and Frank were attracted by Jeff's friend. He was one of those
persons who, despite their homeliness of face and feature, win us by
their genial nature and honest, outspoken ways. No one ever saw a finer
set of big, white teeth, nor a broader smile, which scarcely ever was
absent from the Irishman's countenance. He shook hands with each lad in
turn, giving a warm pressure and expressing his pleasure at meeting
them. "I'm glad to greet ye, me friends," he said, as the whole party
moved out of the way of the hurrying, bustling swarm who were rushing
back and forth, each intent on his own business; "not only on your own
account, but on account of me friend Jiff."
"I do not quite understand you," said Roswell with a smile.
"Well, you see, I've met Jiff before, and formed a rather fair opinion
of him; but whin a gintleman like mesilf is engaged on some important
business, them as are to be favored with me confidence must have their
credentials."
"And you accept our presence with him as proof that he is what he
should be?"
Tim gravely inclined his head.
"Do ye think I would admit Jiff as a partner if it was otherwise? Not
I."
"But," interposed Frank, "how is it with _us_? You never saw us
before."
"One look at them faces is enough," was the prompt reply; "ye carry a
certificate wid ye that no one can dispoot."
"And I should like to know," said Jeff, with assumed indignation, "what
credential _you_ have to present to us, young man."
"Mine is the same as the young gintlemen," answered Tim, removing his
thick fur cap and displaying his whole wealth of fiery red hair;
"obsarve me countenance."
His face became grave for the first time, while all the rest laughed.
"I'm satisfied and hungry," said Jeff; "take us where we can get
something to eat."
"I knew by that token that I had forgot something, and it's me
breakfast and dinner. In honor of yer coming, I've engaged the best
quarters at the leading hotel. Come wid me."
It was but a short distance up the street to a frame hotel, which was
kept by a corpulent German who had been in the country for a couple of
years. The men registered, during which Tim remarked to the landlord,
who seemed never to be without his long-stemmed meerschaum pipe between
his lips:
"This gintleman isn't the burglar that ye would think from his looks.
He belongs to a good family, or ye wouldn't obsarve him in my company.
The young gintlemen are two princes that are travelling _in cog_. In
consideration of all of them having delicate appetites like mesilf, not
forgetting the honor of their company, ye will be glad to make a
reduction in your exorbitant rates, Baron Fritz, I am sure."
The phlegmatic German smiled, and in a guttural voice announced that
his terms were three dollars a day, including rooms and meals, which,
when all the circumstances are considered, was not extravagant. The
party carried their luggage to their rooms, where they prepared
themselves for the meal, which was satisfactory in every respect and
better than they expected.
It came out during the conversation that Tim McCabe had not a dollar to
his name, and he spoke the truth when he said that he had not eaten a
mouthful that day. It would have gone hard for him but for the arrival
of Jeff Graham, though there is such a lively demand for labor in
Juneau that he must have soon found means to provide himself with food.
As for Jeff, he was glad in his heart that his old friend was in such
sore straits, inasmuch as it gave him the pleasure of providing for
him. Tim had taken out some five hundred dollars, but a companion whom
he fully trusted robbed him of it, and the small amount left barely
kept the Irishman afloat until the arrival of the old miner.
Jeff Graham showed prudence in bringing a plentiful supply of funds
with him, and since he expected to take back a hundredfold more than he
brought, he could well afford to do so. Stowed away in his safe inside
pocket was fully two thousand dollars, and inasmuch as gold is the
"coin of the realm" in California, as well as in Alaska, the funds were
in shining eagles and half eagles--rather bulky of themselves, but not
uncomfortably so.
The experience of McCabe and Jeff prevented any mistake in providing
their outfit. They had good, warm flannels, thick woollen garments,
strong shoes, and rubber boots. Those who press their mining operations
during the long and severe winter generally use the water boot of seal
and walrus, which costs from two dollars to five dollars a pair, with
trousers made from Siberian fawn-skins and the skin of the marmot and
ground squirrel, with the outer garment of marmot-skin. Blankets and
robes, of course, are indispensable. The best are of wolf-skin, and
Jeff paid one hundred dollars apiece for those furnished to himself and
each of his companions.
The matter of provisions was of the first importance. A man needs a
goodly supply of nourishing food to sustain him through the trying
journey from Juneau to Dawson City, the following being considered
necessary for an able-bodied person: Twenty pounds of flour, twelve of
bacon, twelve of beans, four of butter, five of vegetables, five of
sugar, three of coffee, five of corn-meal, one pound of tea, four cans
of condensed milk, one and one half pounds of salt, with a little
pepper and mustard.
Because of the weight and bulk, Jeff omitted from this list the tea,
the condensed milk and butter, and while the supply in other respects
was the same, respectively, for himself and McCabe, that of the boys
was cut down about one third; for besides the food, the party were
compelled to take with them a frying-pan, a water-kettle, a Yukon
stove, a bean-pot, a drinking-cup, knives and forks, and a large and
small frying-pan.
Since they would find a good raft necessary, axes, hatchets,
hunting-knives, nails, one hundred and fifty feet of rope, and two
Juneau sleds were purchased. To these were added snow-shoes, a strong
duck-tent, fishing-tackle, snow-glasses to protect themselves against
snow-blindness, rubber blankets, mosquito-netting, tobacco, and a few
minor articles.
The start from Juneau to the gold fields should not be made before the
beginning of April. Our friends had struck that date, but the headlong
rush did not begin until some time later. One of the principal routes
is from Seattle to St. Michael, on the western coast of Alaska, and
then up that mighty river whose mouth is near, for nearly two thousand
more miles to Dawson City. The river is open during the
summer--sometimes barely four months--and our friends took the shorter
route to Juneau on the southern coast, from which it is about a
thousand miles to Dawson. While this route is much shorter, it is a
hundred times more difficult and dangerous than by the Yukon.
From Juneau there are four different routes to the headwaters of the
Yukon, all crossing by separate paths the range of mountains along the
coast. They are the Dyea or Chilkoot Pass, the Chilkat, Moore's or
White Pass, and Takon. At this writing the Chilkoot is the favorite,
because it is better known than the others, but the facilities for
passing through this entrance or doorway to the new El Dorado are
certain to be greatly increased at an early day.
It was learned on inquiry that another day would have to be spent in
the town before the little steamer would leave for Dyea. While Tim and
Jeff stayed at the hotel, talking over old times and laying plans for
the future, the boys strolled through the streets, which were knee-deep
with mud.
The curio shops on Front and Seward streets were interesting, and from
the upper end of the latter street they saw a path leading to the Auk
village, whose people claim to own the flats at the mouth of Gold
Creek. On the high ground across the stream is a cemetery containing a
number of curious totemic carvings, hung with offerings to departed
spirits. It would cost a white man his life to disturb any of them.
It was early in the afternoon that the cousins were strolling aimlessly
about and had turned to retrace their steps to the hotel, when Frank
touched the arm of his companion and said, in a low voice:
"Roswell, do you know that a strange man has been following us for the
past hour?"
[Illustration: "ROSWELL, DO YOU KNOW THAT STRANGE MAN HAS BEEN
FOLLOWING US FOR THE PAST HOUR?"]
"No; where is he?"
"On the other side of the street and a little way behind us. Don't look
around just now. I don't fancy his appearance."
A minute later, Roswell managed to gain a good view.
"I don't like his looks as well as he seems to like ours. Shall we wait
for him and ask him his business?"
"No need of that, for he is walking so fast, he will soon be up with
us. Here he comes, as if in a great hurry."
A few minutes later the boys were overtaken by the suspicious stranger.