The Washington herald., 1910-10-23

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matter or business. He needed speed In his travel
ing and stampeding. And, by the same token he
hlred cook He was too busy to cook for himself
that was all 1t was poor business playing for mill
IONS to spend time building fires and boiling water
Dawson grew rapidly that winter in 1896. Money
poured in on him from the sale OF town lots IA
promptly invested 1t where it would gather more
In fact he played the dangerous game Of pyramid.
ing, and no more perilOus pyramiding than In
placer camp could be imagined But be played with
his eyes wide open.
You-a JUST wait till the news of this strike reacbe.
the Outside he told his old time cronies in the Moose
horn saloon. The won't get till next spring
Then there's going 10 be three rushes. summer
rush Of men coming in light fall rush of men with
outfits and spring rush the next year after that OF
nifty thousand You-al won't be able to see the land
scape for chechaquOs. Well there's the summer and
fali rush or 1897 TO commence with. What you-an
going 10 do about il?
What you going to do about itY' friend de-
manded
Nothing" he answered 1--WE sure already dons
1t. I've got dozen gangs strung out up the Yukon
getting out logs Youalll their RATS cOminf
down after the river breaks Cabinsi They sure vii
be worth what man can pay for them next fall
Lumber! 1t will sure 20 TO tOpnOtch I've got tw
sawmils freightng In over the passes. They'll CONF
down the lakes open up. And if you-aI
thinking of needing lumber I'll make you-aH
tracts right now-three hundred dollars q thousand,
undressed."
Corner lots in desirable locations sold that winter
for from ten 70 thirty thousand dollars Daylight
word out the trails and passes for the new.
corners to bring down log RATS and, result, ths
summer Of 1891 saw his sawmlls working day and
night on three shifts and still he had logs left over
with which 20 build cabins. These cabins land In
GUIDED sold at from several thousand dollars
Two story log buildings In the business part Of the
town brought him from forty TO fifty thousand dol.
lars apiece. These fresh accretOns Of capital were
Immediately invested in other ventures. He turned
gold and over until everything that he touched
seemed 10 turn 10 gold
But that first wild winter Of Carmacks strike
taught Daylight many things. Despite the prod-
gality Of his nature. he had poise He watched the
lavish waste OF the mushroom millionnaires and
failed quite to understand IT, According TO his ma
ture and outlook IL was all very well 20 toss an ante
away IN a nights frolic. That was what he had
done the night Of the poker game in Circle City
when he lost fifty thousand-au that he possessed,
But he had looked on that fifty thousand as a mere
ante. When It came to millions II was different
Such a fortune was stake, and was not 70 be sOwn
on baroom floors literally sown, flung broadcast out
Of the moOsehide sacks by drunken mionnaires
who had lost all Of proportion. There was
McMann who up a single barrOom bill Of thirty
eight thousand dollars, and Jimmie the Rough whd
spent one hundred thousand month for four months
IN riOtOus living and then fell down drunk In the
snow one March night and frozen 10 death, and
saltwater Bill. who after spending three valuable
claims in an extravaganza OF debauchery borrowed
three thousand dollars with which 10 leave the coun
try and who, OF this sum- because the lady love
that had Tilted him liked eggs, cornered the hun
bred and ten dozen eggs on the Dawson market pay
ing twentyf dollars dozen for them, and promptly
fed them 10 the wolf dogs
Champagne sold at from forty to fifty dollars
quart and canned oyster stew at fifteen dollars Dav
light INDUCED in no such Injuries He did not mind
treating barrOom OF men 10 Whskey at fifty cents
drink, but there somewhere In his own extrava-
CANT nature Of fitness and arithmetic that re-
VOTED against paying fifteen dollars for the contents
Of oyster can On the other hand, he possibly
spent more money in relieving hard luck cases than
did the widest Of the miIlionnaireS insane
debauchery. Father Judge, II the hospital, could
have told Of far important donations than that
first ten sacks of -four. And Odtmers who came I'd
Daylight invariably away relieved according 70
their need But fifty dollars for a quart OF fzzy
champagne That was appalling.
And yet he still, occasion made one OF his old
time he'll roaring nights. But he did for different
reasons. First expected of him because it had
been his way IN the old days. And second, he could
afford it. But be no longer cared quite so much for
that form of diversion. He had developed. in a new
way, the taste fer power. II had become lust with
him. BY far 4 e wealthiest miner in Alaska he
wanted to be still Weather. 1t was a big game he
playing in and he liked it better than any other
game. IN a way the part he played was creative He
doing something. And at time striking an
other chord of his nature could he take the 10y In
million dollar Eldorado dump that was at all eQuiva.
lent TO the joy he took in watching his two sawmis
working and the big down river log RATS swinging
IN 10 the bank in the big eddy Just above MOoSehide
Mountain Gold even on the scales was after all an
abstraction. 1t represented things and the power 10
do. But the saWmillS were tie things themselves
concrete and tangible and they things that were
means 10 the doing of more things. They were
dreams come true, hard and indubitabe reaIizatons
Of fairy goSSamerS.
With the summer rush from the outside came sna
cial correspondents for the big newspapers and maya
zines, and Ose and all, using unlimited space they
wrote Daylish up thai, far as the world was
concerned, Daylight DJmed the largest figure i'm
Alaska. OF course, after several months the world
became interested in the Spanish War and forgot all
about him, but j the KIondike itself Daylight stU
remained the IN st ointment figure. Passing alon,
the streets of naVs all heads turned to follow him
and in the saloons chechaquOs watched him awesone
y, scarcely tdGg their eyes from him as long as ba
remained il heir range Of vision Not alone was he
the richest man IN the country, but he was Burnina
Daylight the pioneer, the who almost In the
miStS OF antiquity Of that young land. had crossed
the ChcoOt and drifed down the Yukon 10 meet
those elder giants, Jack Mayo and Jack McOuestIon
lie was the Burning Daylight OF scores of wild adven
lures, the man who carried word TO the icebouDf
whaling feet across the tundra wilderness 10 the
Arctic sea, who raced the mail from Circle 10 Sail
Water and back again in sixty days who saved m.
whole Tanana tribe from perishng in the winter nj
'91-in short the man who Smote the cbecbaouos,
imaginatons more violently than any other dozen
men rolled into
He had the fatal facility for selfadvertisernrt
Things he did, no matter how adyentitious or sron
taneOus struck the popular Imagination as remark
able. And the latest thing he had done was always
on mems lips whether it being first in the heart
breaking stampede TO Danish Creek In killing ths
record baldface grizzly Sulphur Greek or in
winning the single paddle canoe race on the OUpen's
Birthday after being forced participate at the Iost
moment by the failure OF the SOurdough representa-.