The Republican journal., 1898-03-17
The Klondikers in Vancouver.
Col. II. +. McDonali's Interesting Letter t.
the Editor of The journal.

write and let you know how / found
things on the west coast. | will first state
that on reaching Boston our party was
joined by Mr.. John Stephenson of Ban
goi, Me-, and Otis Goodwin of Boston.
We left Boston at Q p. m, Thursday
reached Montreal in the morning and left
there at = p. M. by the C. P, K. r. We
were promised tourist car from Mon
treal, but did not get one until nearly $50
miles west of there, at about 10 p. N.
y GU can Judge of our surprise on entering
the car to find children enough to start
good school. They ranged in age from
ten months up to seven years. The next
morning on counting them up | found
twenty-five only. 1t must be a prosper
Gus section OF Canada. Our car was ar
ranged the same as the Pullmans, only not
fitted up So nicely. We managed to pass
the time pleasantly by playing whist I'M
I'll we reached the Rocky Noun ains Here
We found the scenery SO grand that card
playing was out of the question. There
were mountains on either side of the road,
towering in many places above the clouds.
We were much disappointed in not hav-
ing clear weather while passing through
this region. We followed the Thomp-
son river nearly seventy miles, winding in
and around The mountains. At a small
mining town called Linton, the Thomp
son river emptes into the famous Frazier
river, where placer mining has been car
Iied on for years by Cinnamon by the use
of the rocker. Y, lille passing along this
saw many of the Chinese at work. We
were delayed about ten hours in the rock
les by snowslides and reached Vancouver
Wednesday night, Feb. 10th, about
o'clock On alighting from the cars we
were besieged by swarm of hotel run
nels, all crying at the top of their voices
and each one proclaiming their house the
best. We settled upon the Badminton
House and We're soon comfortably quar-
tered there. Thursday and Friday fore
noon were spent in procuring prices for
outfits. At 1.30 p. m. Friday We took
the steamer for Victoria, arriving there
about S i'll the evening. Here we found
it almost impossible to get housed for the
night, and the next.day we left by steamer
foT Seattle, arriving in the evening.
i
soon had fine quarters at Hotel Northern.
The office of this house is capable of ac-
commodating one hundred people, and to
say the Klondike craze is on here is put
ting it mildly. No matter where you 90
You Will hear nothing else talked Of The
hotels are crowded to vertiowing and
you are besieged by runners from bust
ness houses on every hand. Whether in
the hotel, on the streets, in the eating
houses, or in your room, you are not safe
from them. They are worse than the
everlasting mosquito of Alaska. You are
Hooded with circulars offering for sale
everything that a live Yankee could sug-
gest. There are wildcat schemes of every
kind offered, and almost every day some
quite sharp men are taken in. The first
day in Seattle we had the good fortune to
met three of our townsmen, Mr.. Ben Haz-
eltine, MI Town and our old friend Alb
ner Gilmore, who was delighted to met
the Belfast boys. Nh Hazeltine gave his
whole attention to our party while there,
Introducing us 20 all the leading business
men in tne outftting line. The writer
had the pleasure of dining with Mr.. and
Mrs. Hazeirine, enjoying very pleasant
evening. Mr.. Hazeltine still has the
hlondike fever, but has not fully made up
his mind whether he will go or not
We spent nearly week getting prices
on our outfits. A few things, such as
boots, shoes and tobacco, we could buy
much cheaperin the States, and so bought
what we needed in that line, packed them
in our trunks, put them in bond and left for
Vancouver. We had no trouble in getting
our trunks through. The custom house
officer asked US a few questions. My trunk
being the first one. contained nothing but
wearing apparel so | told a straight story.
The rest OF the boys trembled in their
boots as their turn came, as all of them
had more or less of dutiable articles.
However, none of our trunks were open
ed, everything went smooth. The Canadian
officials here are all working in con-
junction with the dealers for the trade.
Seattle and Vancouver are two of the
largest Quitting cities on the coast, and
each city is using all the strategy it can
command to Guido the other
The great advantage the Canadians
have over Our people in the States is the
thirty per cent. duty all have to pay on
their outfits who 90 into the Canadian
territory. Were it not for that everything
would be about equal We are buying
our outfits Of the Hudson Bay Co., one of
the oldest ard most reliable firms here.
The outfit complete for our party of nine
men will weigh about six tons and will
cost in round sum about 81, 600 We save
by buying here just the duties, nearly
$500. The freight from here to Skaguay