St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-09-18
Tbe Californian
A TRIP TO ALA SKA.

TRIP TO ALASKA.
He is a returned Alaskan. That is
to say, he got back three days ago
with the first Raymond party that
went from Boston to Sitka, and was
in the mood to talk What is the
finest sight / saw? Well. there were
three things, all different, three places,
all right in their way, and not to be
compared. These were the Canadian
Rockies, the Yellowstone Park and
the Alaskan glaciers. The rest of
the trip didn't amount to much,
although of course there were inter
esting things to see. There were
ninety-six of us in our party, besides
the two conductors. Mr.. Holden
was our chief conductor, and he is
the prince of conductors. No mat
ter who complains or what foolish
questions are asked him, he never
loses his temper, though have seen
his face flush sensitively when people
said disagreeable things. You know
there are some people who always
want the best of everything, and
there are times on long trip when
everybody can't have the best.
Though its wonderful what provis-
ions are made for our comfort
Think of hundred of US whizzing
off to Alaska, night and day, taking
all sorts of chances, and having only
comfort The truth is, it's about as
easy to go to Alaska as it is to stay
at home; all there is to it is the idea.
There were lots of old people on our
excursion, old fellows seventy or
eighty years old, riding off to look
at the glaciers as gay and clipper as
if they were sitting on hotel piazza
l should think fully half of our party
were people over fifty years of age.
OF course there were quite a number
of young people, and there were sew
eral children Some men, you know,
like to take their families wherever
way boys and girls are carried about
over the world nowadays, there'll be
nothing left for them to see when
they're men and women. The young
est member of our party was about
twelve years of age He and another
boy rode horseback in the National
Park. The spring wagons were
good enough for the rest of us. Yes,
those Canadian Rockies are grand,
grand, grand They re satisfactory.
You have a dreary stretch of country
approaching them and after you
leave them for day or SO, but the
days in the mountains are worth
while and there's good hotel to
stay in at Banff. They're building
up Seattle as fast as they can, but
it's a chaOs-a chaos. AS for Tacoma
it's more settled, but they've evened
the streets there to true grade up
and down the hills, so that if
house happens to be in little hol-
low, it's roof is on level with the
street, and if it happens to be on a
knoll, it is perched higher than ever.
They say out there that the only
danger of life in Tacoma is the dan
ger of getting bow-legged, going up
and down the hills Sitka is an inter
esting place. We all wanted another
day there. The remnants of the Rus
sian occupation are plenty, the gov
eminent house, and the old Greek
many seal-skins in their native
heath The scaling is almost all
farther north. Juneau is another
place we visited 1t r1Snt at the
foot of a great mountain. 1t puzzles
me to tell where they could ever get |
many supplies. Glaciers? There,
who can describe glacier? But
when they talk about those in
Switzerland-well, the Alaskan ones
outrank them. I'm glad | went to
see them. I'm glad | went to see
everything. 1t was a great trip and
worth the nine weeks. What have l
got this hand bag for? No; I'm not
starting off anywhere again, but l
want to get this lock repaired for
future use. The day l started for
Alaska my boy said, "Why, pa, my
key fits this lock- Then he told me
gOod-by and left the train. After we
got started found he'd locked my
handbag with his key and taken the
key. My key was locked into the
bag. Intelligent Yes; l had to
force it open. Good-by; this is my
corner. Good-by."-[Correspondence
of Boston Transcript.