Evening star., 1901-10-17
coUNTRYNoLoN
ExPERIENCE. Of lDNE VINO TRAy-
ERsEs THE YUKON VALLEY.
Road House AZ = Sivilfzfng Agency
Efforts oHProDrietors to At
tract Custom.

tThe Yukon country is no longer young"
! 1t is stated in ayletter from that far-away
| land. though the remainder of Alaska is
generally younger than the Yukon valley
has been since the first steamboat ascend
ed 1T in 1865 1t is quite four years since 1t
was the custom in winter for men along
| the Yukon to sleep in cotton tents and eat
/ dog salmon. In the winter of Is99-1g00 the
thermometer at Dawson did not once go
| farther downward than 60 degrees below
| zero.
'The road house has civilized the Yu-
kon valley. If You start in November with
the great exodus from Dawson to salt
water UP the frozen boulevard of river, you
won't take a cotton tent, and it's nuggets
TO marbles you won't even get dish of
Deans. You will spend every night in a
I good-sized log cabin, with two or three
rooms and more or less sawmill- made luua-
Der and rustic ornamentation. The fare
| VIII be somewhat more pretentious than in
| New England boarding house A bunk
will cost 81. A meal will cost 81 So and
you may get among other things, canned
oyster soup. caribou steak with cranberry
! jelly and pie. The Yankee makes the best
pioneer, and he does it on pie; and the
Yankee has now control of, Alaska
| Every ten miles or in travelling UP
| the river comes road house. On foot or
with a dog team, when you are getting a
little hungry for dinner or supper cast your
/ eyes ahead along the hills of smoky anne
thyst and there is blue spire of smoke
rising straight up, quiet and slim, into q
] sky of lacquered brass.
"An summer the cabins are empty. Tray
elers sleep on some of the stern-wheel
river boats; but many of them are too small
to serve a meal on, and travellers pile
ashore three times day with their stores
| and grub boxes, and at night with their
! cotton tent. In September and October
| the last steamboats, begin to make stops at
q mr. mil 70 fkAx.
crate of canned hash and tomatoes, this
years eggs, hams and flour. The proprie-
tor or propr1etresS, who has been running
a summer restaurant at. one of the big
camps or on one of the creeks, is on hand
and with him (or herr gang of the 'unem-
ployed to take charge Of the woodpile and
nix things UP.
"But the outfitting of a road house is an
expensive matter and a great financial
risk. One should have eggs and tomatoes;
| II you do not have them your reputation
walk right on past you. Competition among
the houses is very keen. After the ex-
penses Of Quitting and keeping a gang of
men all winter carrying your wood and
the thousands going out to stop with you.
The season is very short-November to
Apri-and the New England farmers could
get points on how to trap the city boarder
from the host OF Yukon road house.
Road House Ready.
| fore the travel Is broken. but whether the
] trail follows the right or left bank or
| keeps IN midstream, depends on whether
| the river is openior closed; whether the ice
| is rough or smoAth. rapd upon the whim of
| the first traveller, whom the rest follow like
| sheep. Suppose, the, trail passes a road
house on the ether-side: it does this to one
| out Of every four The proprietor sees his
egg and tomato, money going. SO he goes
| into the woods with his little hatchet. He
| chops down many hundred little spruces.
and going a mile or 80 back and mile or
| so forward on the trail diyerts it gently to
| his side of the river with an avenue of
Christmas trees. Then he puts up sign,
SO only the traveller approaching his house
can see it: fOae-haf mile to Smiths and
| another, so onlyntha man going away can
! see its Two miles tos Smith s. Any one
who has Travelled .muei, tn the north gets a
! fairly good idea how far he goes at his
customary gait in AN hour, and can esti-
/ mate distances fairly well.
| ' How far to the next house,? you ask
| after dinner of Smith.
Oh, it's putty good ways: Fifteen
miles, guess drawls out mine host, and
your partner adds: We can't make that to-
night Then the host ventures, Now, /
| tell you one thing, boys. you'll be doing
the wise thing IL you stay here and get a
good early start in the morning There's
| nothing like a good early start. I've trav-
t eled a bit myself up this country Then
partner remembers something some one
has told him once. and says, tHain't the
Jones boys from Hunker got place about
| eight miles on?' and mine host scratches
his head and says. I believe there was
some one camped on an island there, but
| they've only got a wood camp After be-
| lieving this once and staying at the road
| house once, when you next hear OF the
| wood camp you run for it, At the wood
camp Jones may laugh at Smiths story,
| and he may say unkind things, but de-
pend upon 1t he will treat Williams at the
next wood camp just as Smith treated
him.
The houses advertise on the timber: .Ho-
| tel Savoy. Selkirk; best horse and dog feed
On the river. Hotel Seattle, Indian river,
| spring beds, mattresses and pillow shams.'
| Il have never slept In a Bowery lodging
house, but have tried to in road house
bunk. Take this advice: If you are coming
out from Dawson in winter, start early;
you won't need to take SO much Cepedillo
powder. am not sure OF the spelling, hut
say it phonetieally to the Dawson drug
clerk; he does big business.
What Tradition Says.
Tradition says that the Yukon Indian
entertains a guest of fabulous size and
strength. When the Siwash is shivering
before his tiny camp fire and mercury
would be frozen were there any around
to freeze. his companion is often very cold,
cuddied in the Indians back, which is turn
ed away from the heat In that case the
| little friend has been known to right-about-
face the Siwash. Understand? I have not
seen this done, but have it on the authority
Of many honest Indians.
1.-THE hunks are built all around the wall
| in tiers, three high Sometimes the bot
toms are of canvas very yielding to the
body; sometimes Of striplings and very well
ventilated. It is unwritten law that no
man shall remove his boots The blankets
are always dark blankets, no matter what
| color they Were once. Not excepting the
smoking compartment Of tranScontineu-
tai limited, there are more empires over
thrown, more creeds of religion, politics,
economies solved as the Delphian tripod
solved things; more OF those funny little
anecdotes about Adam and Eve told be-
fore and after lights are out in a Yukon
road house than in fahy parliament or SEN
ate chamber onsAearth.
Then the talk drifts to something very
irving fn the-hnst A malicious Kind Of