The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-10
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wished to preserve the natural and
accustomed order Of things, with as
little dislocation as possible, provided
himself with daily paper for each OF
his long winter evenings. lie was
1900 miles from any daily newspaper
office and the winter mails carried
no newspapers, yet he had his daily
paper and kept posted In way on
all the important news of the world.
The way he managed that was simple
enough, as you will admit. He knew
that there was no paper mail dellV-
cred at Rampant from Oct. Is to the
following Fourth of July, so he SUBJ
scribed in the fall for daily paper
published in the states and had 1t sent
In by freight the next spring. When
the papers arrived he stacked them up
in regular order, the one of earliest
date on top and when he sat down
with his pipe by his cabin fire In the
evening he took up the first paper on
the pile and read up the news of the
day. OF course, he knew that what
he read was nearly year old to the
people in the states, but what was that
to him? His daily paper was just as
new to him then as it ever had been
to the folks at home.
IT HIS story, whether strictly true
or not, throws some light upon
what life in the heart Of Alaska
near being in the heart of Alaska. 1t
is about half way down the Yukon
from Dawson to Boring sea. Imagine
a turgid stream half a mile wide,
flowing between sloping hillsides, ra-
Their sparsely wooded with an inferior
mat of tangled vines and moss cover
ing the ground with a soft, wet,
spongy carpet eight or ten inches
thick, shielding the frozen earth from
the rays of the sun, and on the high
left bank of this stream locate a some
what irregular line of one and two
story log houses fronting the river
for over half mile, with a few scat
tered cabins on the hillside above;
fill these river-front houses with mer-
chandise, dry and wet, throw in a
small frame telegraph station of a To-
cal line, little white building fol
the accommodation of the federal
court. tack up a lawyers sign or two
and hang out a single doctors sign
write the initials Of the Northern
Commercial and the North American
Transportation and Trading companies
on the biggest buildings in town, take
no special pains to preserve a regular
sidewalk conform to the sinuosities
Of the building fronts, sprinkle the
sidewalk and the sloping river bank
literally with sleeping dogs, fill up the
town with 800 or 400 people from
everywhere, living in peace and har'
Rampant, which was the hospitable
tarrying place of the senatorial com
mittee from July 20 to July %.
It was the same old story Of moth
ing-too-good for the senatorial party
and whatever we have is yours.
Men vacated their beds and changed
their boarding places and abandoned
their business that they might con
tribute to the comfort and pleasure o
the senatorial visitors and their party
You may be at a loss to account TO
this town, and for the considerabl
stores of the big trading and transpor
tation companies, but down on tn
river bank you may see several thous
and feet of iron piping waiting til
the ground freezes up to be taken bac!
into the interior together with 10
Of other mining machinery and yo
will find that there are several more O
less important mining districts sup
piled from this point, among then
some comparatively rich diggings o
Minook creek. E
Rampant is pretty lively when W
arrive. Court Is about to sit, and law
yers and litigants, witnesses an
prisoners are here in such numbe,
that beds in severalty, so to speal
are hard to get. They come for hur
dreds of miles and spend weeks
getting here, and we know of som
who would be glad to be here but car
not come because the sandbars Of tn
Yukon hold fast the boats in whic
they must ride. They are also waitin
for Sarah"
IF you ask any Alaskan what til
i people of that district want mo-
IT,. at the hands of congress you wi
rct