Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-01-11
ONLY ONE TRAIN BOY
SOLE REPRESENTATIVE OF HIS
CLASS IN ALASKA.
Candy Butcher on the klondike Linn
tied Does Not Need to Dig Col -
Emo. nous Prices Given or Every
thing He Has to Sell.

The old query as to whether or not
you would like to be the iceman will
be rapidly forgotten as soon as song
writers and balladists learn about the
train boy in Alaska. There is a train
boy in Alaska. Just one. Or rather
there was few weeks ago, but by this
time he may be somewhere in the Med
iterranean on his private yacht blowing
rings from his 5O-cent cigars, and
swearing at his $5,0OO-a-year sailing
master because he cannot whistle up a
breeze
Think Of being the only train boy on
railroad that brings miners with
thousands of dollars worth of gold out
OF the greatest mining camp in the
world. There is only one railroad to
Alaska-that is the White Pass and
Yukon Railroad. On that railroad there
is train called the Klondike Limited
The Klondike Limited! Isn't the
sound of that name enough to make
common candy butcher on the run be-
tween Peoria and Lafayette, Ind, stick
his head into his basket of salted pea-
nuts and strangle himself to death? For
there is trainboy on the Klondike
Limited. On the klondike Limited,
that brings prospectors and miners and
adventurers weighted down with gold
en- nuggets back to the States civiliza-
ton, and the girls they left behind
them, there is candy butcher. And
all these prospectors and miners and
adVenturers on this Klond:ke Limited
are bubbling over with joy that the
days of their exile are over, and that
soon they will be back to their boyhood
homes again. Think of turning loose a
candy butcher in such a crowd as that
10 quote another popular song, 1T
seems like a shame to take the
money"
The trainboy on the Klondike Limit
ed, like his brothers on the Kenosha To-
cal, deals in peanuts, candy, books, pa
pers, and magazines. But more than
that, he sells shirts and collars and
bright red neckties. He also has a full
line of plug tobacco and cigars of the
finest cabbage selected leaf The train
boy does not like to sell cigars He only
gets 80 cents apiece for them, and they
cost him 75 cents a hundred He sells
the cigars to show he's a good fellow.
He didn't originally deal in shirts and
haberdashery, but he found that the
miners returning to civilization yearn
madly for a ''biled'' shirt So after he
ha6 n oh h;
with his collar and red necktie for 500
he decided to carry a stock of shirts
and ties.
There are stringent restrictions in
Alaska in regard to selling whisky, and
so the trainboy doesn't sell it. He gives
it away, and let's the man tip him for
his trouble in pulling the cork. If the
man were to give him a nugget any
smaller than the size of the cork the
trainboy would haughtily refuse to let
him buy any more cigars, and would
charge him at least S. for a two
months old newspaper, which he ordi-
narily gives away for only $1.5O.
Then the trainboy sells playing cards,
and the passengers are always wanting
a game. He puts up the table, too,
hands around the matches, and, of
course, a large and substantial, kitty
is maintained on one side of the table
for the sole support of the obliging
trainboy. If anybody was to put a
quarter or a silver half dollar into the
kitty the trainboy wouldn't be angry.
He uses those things to pay storekeep-
ers for fresh goods for his next run.
A Seattle newspaper man interviewed
the trainboy on the last trip from Alas
ka. Quoth the trainboy: Am l it?
Am L? Say, amt l naughty boy?
know it's wrong to take the money, but
l need it in my business, and, besides,
as soon as 1 get enough I'll buy the
railroad and give some other good de-
serving boy a chance to fasten on to a
little honest money. But 81 for a sack
Of peanuts. Say, that's penitentiary
offense in Illinois. But need the mon
ey."-Chicago Tribune.