The evening times., 1897-08-26
TOIiING ALONG THE PASS.
Poet-Ainer joaquin Miller De>crib
AN Irksotne Journey.

AN Irksome Journey.
New York, Aug. 26. Joaquin Miller,
in his letter to the New York Journal Gated
in Sheep Camp. Cit.ikoot Pass, says: A
great many Indian families live all aloa g
here. TIE children look much like Chinese
children, and are clean and indusi rious.
These Indians nearly all have pretty
catins, stoves, and bedstsads. Some old
women sat by the doors knitting socks. ]
boaght two pairs OF good socks, such as
mother used TO knit in Oregon. for so
cents When I paid for them ami was
picking up my pack, an Indian wanted tC
help, as the teanISters and packers, black
AID white and red and brown, had of
fered TO do all the morning, anI l de-
Clined. When | declined TO let them carry
'he pack the old women were delighted
ana cheered me as much as ever Indians
allow themselves to cheer.
This made me feel that perhaps l lou&
out O; place and eccentric with a big
pack at nay age, and maybe was over
doing The thing. ] fell to thinking, as 1
trudgcd along. Of the tea utiful and sunny
4
of tents. Indian ca bins and people people
a. plentiful low as in city. The kodak
man .: torture and impudence was all
along here. My pack got heav vier and
heavier. J took CiI my necktie and tied
it to my handkerchief, and put the two
around tie bag and the strip over my
shoulder. In a very few miles of this pleas.
ant walk In the sweet air / began to
feel all right to rest, as il seemed. under
my load. | felt that the hlOndike Ques-
tion, so far as a POOR man getting there
goes. was settled for me in the affirnsa-
tive.
And now i must record a change to
ScIle extent. / have melted into or heen
absorbed. if you please, by the special ex
pcdition that is, i go along with the
party, but on condition that / carry
pack. such as any poor man must who
gOes or comes this way. But We viii camp,
eat. sleep, 30 all things in common as
other arties and partners do all along
here. Even poor men. the poorest. are
rarely, if ever, alone along here, and 1
see no practical good ih doing that which
no poor man wants to, or will he under
anv stress. be he ever SO poor or friend
less. Don't be displeased at this or dis
appointed, as i said at setting out. j am
not doing this for fun, but having heard
and seen H. said and written SO often that
this is no place for poor man."
wanted to prove that a poor man has as
much right along here and as many op-
portuuities as any man. i shall not for,
get the purpose of my venture and shall
not be diverted from il at all by being
flfar
they should be equipped as the agents uf
a Rothscnild.
The head OF the special party turned
tack upon the ship at Dyea town and
/, after rearranging my pack and cut
ting il down from seventy-five 10 fifty
five pounds, came right along with the
packers that he had employed, three white
men, a Japanese and one Indian. He
pays 20 cents per pound TO have provisions
carried over TO the head waters of the
Yukon, twenty-four miles.
Leaving Dyea, we trampcd along in
line almost a mile through the pleas
antest of shady woods, sumnery andsweet,
with flowers as high as my head on either
hand. Pretty LOG cabins, with Indians a bout
the door. and women knitting, girls dry
ing fish. men nending nets and boats, a
brighter srene or more cheering, do not
hope To ever see.
= hundred or more of white tents, piles
of bacon aud flour and lots of little stoves
and meat cooking. Truly, if this had been
Aill Valley OF m Y own woods on the heights
the soeue wOuld not hare been more pretty
and hCmelike.
TsilcottOr wood trees moaned a nd moaned
in the rising wind; clouds gathered, aud it
began TO threaten rain. i also began 10
feel the dread mosquito as we str ack the
thick weeds. Pretty soon swift and shall
low and shifting river, exactly like the
old Platte in coloI, was reached. Two
Irishmau kept boat as the bridge had gone
down hefore the food, and into It put
nay people and packs
Hold the boat, Kelley. Let her Co.
Kelley. There. DOW I told you, Kelley, L,
hold her"
And the Irishman at the stern kept
yelling till ] told him to shut up: Kei.
ley was Going all the work, and the
boat had already twice been nearly upsrt
in the confus,on. told Kelley 10 20 ahead