The record-union., 1898-03-02
THE JOURNEY TO SKAGUAY.
SCENES AND INCIDENTS ON
THE WAY.
A Graphic Description of Trip
Up the Coast, by DR..
III. H. Look.

]. B. Stocker has received the follow
ing letter from DR.. H. H Look, dated at
Skaguay, February 18th, giving an in
teresting description of the journey up
the coast from Seattle to Alaska:
j. Is. Stocker. Sacramento, Cal.-Dear
Friend: On February 9th at 9 O'Clock
in the evening we boarded the steamship
City of Seattle at Tacoma. 1t was rain
ing, as it always does rain in the Sound
country soft, silent, deceitful rain that
vets you through and through before
you are aware that anything is wrong.
We were late, but Mr. Hamilton, the
President Of the company, had at
tended personally to our baggage, and
in fifteen minutes mid tears of women
and bark of dogs, we steamed away on
our voyage north.
We arrived at Seattle in two hours,
where we remained till far in the night.
I had visited the place one day prevl-
ously, but We went ashore and at once
met quite a delegation of the Sacra-
mento colony. 1t seemed that every
sure-thing gambler, thug or rounder
that had ever infested the Capital City
had come to Seattle. The people should
be proud of their acquisition, and Sac
SuOQlQ pray llldl tIltS HCNCI IS-
turn.
in Seattle we took on much freight,
many passengers and more dogs. The
jam of people was great, and the howl OF
the canine contingent terrific. Inc
wall was heart-rending as crate after
crate of the faithful animals was piled
one upon another on the bow, until II
seemed mountain high, but no sooner
had our trouble ceased than new sorrows
came. Inspectors came aboard and
found us overloaded, and the first OBJ
ject of his displeasure was the dog heap
Off they went in a jiffy, with tons OF
other freight, and when we left the poor
brutes sat Gagged and disconsolate on
the wharf without food and without q
master.
AS | stood on the deck watching the
sailors hoist the dogs in mid-air anC
hurl them ashore. could not help think
ing of the significance of the scene. II
is the first time in the history of civili-
cation that dogs figured as means OF
locomotion; it is the first time civil
cation went forth to conquer the icy re-
gions of the north. This movement
northward is perhaps equal in import
ance to the exodus and the passagt
of the Mayflower. The two latter had 8
religious significance-an escape from
bondage and persecution; but is not this
movement northward an escape from
the compression and bondage of a glut-
ted population? Have not the task mas
tiers long ago compelled the poor tC
make brick with straw gathered witt
difficulty by their own hands? Have no.
q crystallized civilization compelled al
to believe in new gospel of hard con
ditions? The law of survival of the fit
test operates to the extreme where peo'
pie outnumber positions and no one mar
or set of men, as the socialist would have
it, is to blame for it. The employer anC
the employe alike are subjected to- the
hard conditions which neither car
ameliorate.
The features Of those on this boat
imagine are not unlike the features o.
those who followed Moses out of Egyp
and those that sailed on the Mayfiowe
to the inhospitable shores of savag'
wor1d-features that betray a purpos'
as strong as death and a determination
as cruel as the grave. Their stoical ex
pressions reveal as deep a resolution a.
the trip will be hard. The bridges ar
down behind; there is no return. Thes
people go to form an empire in tn
north They will found a city in TIL
frozen zones-a capital as splendid a