The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-06

When the two made their purchase they re-
turned to the cabin. reaching it about
o'clock in the afternoon. An hour and a
half was consumed in reading novels com
prise the bulk of the literature), when din
ner was made ready, with the following
menu: Roast moose meat, mashed potatoes,
corn bread and butter, pickles. cocoa and
fine plum pudding drought here in cans.)
After dinner came cigars, and when the
cabin was put to rights" all three went
over to the billiard hall and knocked about
some rather wabbly composition balls on
small and excessively bad table. At IL
O'Clock a return was made to the cabin, and
an hour after the night of sleep had started
in. have omitted the late lunch, generally
consisting of beef tea and cold biscuits,
with perhaps cold tongue, but this is a meal
that doesn't count for mich. 1t is a two
meal-a-day country for the average inhabi-
tant, but he generally eats at these two
meals enough to supply four good meals
in the States.
A CIRCULATING LIBRARY.
This glimpse at a typical day can convey
no idea of the deadly monotony of being
shut off from all the world never knew
what luxury the morning paper was until
l came here and was forced to be without it,
Not only that, but for weeks and weeks
here we do not get even a hint of what is
going on in the world For all we know
there may be q dozen wars raging now,
for there is no such thing as regular mails
in existence along the Yukon. If anybody
contracted to give regular mail service
he is woefully performing his contract. All
the literature we have is what we brought
with us, but we are making that go as far
possible. No one brought much reading
matter with him. 1t would take up too
much valuable space needed for food sup
plies. But such as we have has been COM
bined into sort of a circulating library,
and even few good books each makes up
a fairly good collection. Each book goes
the round of the town before it returns to
the owners cabin, and by that time it has
about outlived its usefulness. This system
of book lending has been christened THE
Circle City Circulating Library and there
is similar institution in Dawson City
Stories of distress along the trails
are not so frequent now that win
ter has settled in in earnest. The
first approach of cold weather, which
comes in this country with sudden
ness and snap. found many men en- route
somewhere between Dawson and Fort Yu-
kon, who were not prepared to be frozen in.
Some of them are found to have persisted,
while the fate of others will remain in
doubt until spring, when the first tourists
go over the trails. With the advent of win
ter everyone has taken the utmost precau-
ton and no long Journeys are attempted
without full equipment.
RIOT AT FORT YUKON.
A Ta1f 10, 70 &aIr Ala.
Yukon. He is to make the trip in sIedges
drawn by a team of six dogs. / am keep
ing him waiting now in order to add re-
port that has just come in from Fort
Yukon, brought by another Indian who
travels with the dog sledges.
He says that just before he left the fort
there was an outbreak of macontents there
which for time threatened to be ex-
tremely serious. AS I explained in a previ-
GUS letter Fort Yukon has been the dump
ing ground for all the Klondikers who
could not be taken care of at Dawson
or Circle City-that is those who come into
the country without sufficient provisions
Most of these parties come in over the
British American trails, and they were
simply moved along as fast as they reached
the headwaters of the Yukon. When they
began to crowd into Fort Yukon the pres
sure on the trading companies at that place
became so great that Captain Ray of the
United States army, was obliged to step
in and assume the direction of the supply
output, so as to insure justice to the men
and the companies 1t appears, according
to the Indians statement, that there has
been some grumbling among a certain num-
Der of what may be termed the refugees
They were not satisfied with the amount
of rations assigned to them. Finally, the
day this Indian left the fort on his trip
up the river, some of the more hot-headed
OF the grumblers led ain attack on the
storehouse armed with clubs. Captain Ray
however, stood nobly by the companies
men and sustained the shock with courage
and determination. The battle lasted for
half hour, when the captain succeeded in
securing lull long enough for him to start
a conciliatory speech, and that ended the
riot. He very soon persuaded the rioters of
the fairness of his acts, and before he fin
ished made them thoroughly ashamed of
their ill-considered violence. Too much
liquor was the chief cause of the outbreak
but it appears that it ended without any
rear OF future recurrence. 9. S. NJ