The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-05
Recede as They Are Approach
ed, Says Poet of the Sierras.
DREADED CHILKOOT.
The Pass Is Not So Terrible ,
After All, He Says.
There Has Been a Systematic
Effort to Keep People Out.

Ter, en- route to the KlOndike:
On Board the City of Mexico, Gulf
of Georgia, July %, via San Francisco
Aug. 5.-We have come to the first half
of the second thousand miles by way of
the short OF land route from San Fran
cisco to the Klondike mines of Alaska,
and as we near the gold fields the stor-
les of unfavorable weather grow larger
and the signs of peril and tales of hard
ship less.
I will not here waste the time on the
big stories about strikes, for you have
or will have heard them by the time
this reaches you, and, besides, I have
no means of confirming them at hand,
and do not care to take the RESPONSE
bility that attends the recital, but as to
the route and all that attends the mines
and means of reaching the mines,
shall set down all the little things that
have come to me through those that
nave boarded our steamer at the sever
al places since leaving Seattle.
Briefly, then, the formidable and fear
full Chilkoot Pass, or glaciers, of so
many slippery miles in the clouds of
frost and snow, has dwindled to "a
miles of reasonable rough mountain
trail by the old route to the headwaters
of the river, where we take to the boats
and RATS and canoes and make our
way by water down the klondike
mines.
What is most important, we find they
have opened new route on, or rath-
OuIiu ILLS pass, that IL Is Only
from 80 to 40 miles by this new route
to the canoes and boats, and, what is
more important than all, this route is
possible for horses, in testimony of
Which we have many horses on Board
to be used on this route. These horses
are mostly owned by the best equipped
as well as the best, informed men on
board.
1t would seem that those on the out
side as we'll as those on the inside"
have been most willing if not eager to
keep all new corners in the dark. The
men VINO nave horses and all sorts or
comfortab BILE equipment are those who
live along here-Seatt1e. Port Townsend
and so On-and are more nearly in
touch with the inside. Frankly and
truly, each day I come on some sort of
evidence that, those who know the
most are playing the same old game
that we of the Idaho and Montana
mines played a third of a century ago.
However, there is a wide difference,
both in bearing and dress, between the
gold hunters of old and those on this
boat. -----
For example, I have not seen a sin
gle pistol yet. I have counted some 20
rifles and shot guns, and, speaking to
friend about the absence of guns,
think from What can gather that most
of the gold seekers aboard have no
more arms than myself, although my
friend hints darkly that 'al may be
armed to the teeth" All can say is
that you do not see any display of arms
as of old. A miner of today looks more
like a bicyclist than a booted and GRIM
sen -shirted Argonaut.
And there seems to be no drinking.
1 have not yet heard an oath or bad
language of any sort; not even bad
grammar.
But the adventures are all young
men, as of old. L, in the middle fifties,
am perhaps the Oldest man by some
years in all our "400.
We need notSbe surprised at all to
know that there has as yet been no
1awlessness in the new mines.
As to a few of the more than 300 men
on the City of Mexico, as I write, bound
for the KlOndike, Judge Osborn will do
to begin with as a sample. He is a
stout, hale man, of middle age. He
is an author, ex-judge and prominent
attorney and he leaves behind him. 1
am told, one of the finest houses in Sc
attic. His son is with him and the
youth is still in his university uniform
You see, they, like most of US, started
at short notice.
Their equipment consists Of 5000
pounds of supplies. They expect to
stay. They have two strong horses on
board, costing $50 each, besides $22
each for transportation, and as much
more for food and freight on the same
They have a skeleton of a boat. They
expect to drag the boat over the SO
called terrible" Chilkoot Pass as an
Indian squaw drags the poles of a skin
tent
A prominent Californian with us has
everything everything-from a
His list of medicines is a marvel, match
ed only by his variety of canned goods
and the generous. supply of bed clothes
and clothes of all sorts.
A Differentiated or Predetermined
lot of men could not be-found. Among
them is the son of a congressman, q.
legislator, "a big lawyer and a professor
Some of those who first set out from
Seattle, we'll equipped with all things
but health have stopped off at one
landing and another. There is a host
of vIlcr the STORAGE They
are there-Some of them, at leaSt-be-
cause they could not get into the cabin
for love or money. They are peers of
the cabin passengers, as a rule.
We have with US several who are re-
turning to the Klondike. One of them
is counted a millionaire in mines and
gold in hand. He is in the steerage.
AS a rule, each man going into the
mines has at least 500 pounds of sup
plies; some have four times that
amount These, of course, will travel
slowly, as they will have to pack their
stuff on their backs at the many Por-
tageS to be met on the way down the
headwaters of the great river to Daw-
son.
We have several sled dogs with US.
down in the hold along with the horses.
They look like coyotes, only they are
larger and don't have q1ite such hang
dog" eountenances. The women have
mostly melted away, as the Alaskan
ice fields cropped out above the clouds
and black forests on either hand. Those
now with Us, with a single exception,
think, are either going along Just for
fun and will land at Juneau, or the
last landing, one hundred miles above
that.
Come to think, we still have one of
the rag and bone and hank of hair
sort. She is too miserable to mention,
but she broke the harmony of. the
perfect whole a moment ago, when
was going down to lunch, I am going
to put her in the papers, as she
OueSted when we first set sail. She