Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-11

one place an engine jumped over the
cliffs, but the men raised it with block
and tackle, and it is still doing its
work. At another place now marked
by an iron cross perhaps two feet in
height rock weighing more than 100
tons fell from the side of the noun
tain and crushed two workmen who
were blasting the way for the track
The rock was SO heavy that it could
not be moved. and the monument has
been sunk in its center.
The builder of the road was Michael
j. Heney. who afterward constructed
the Copper River railway for the Gug
genheim syndicate. Heney was an ex-
pert engineer and a master in the ham
ding of men. He had an iron nerve
and would not allow liquor or gambling
inside his camp. At one time a des-
perado belonging to Soapy Smiths
gang set up a gambling saloon in a
tent close to the route. When Heney
ordered him to go away he refused.
Heney then turned to his camp fore
man. and, pointing to a rock half as
big as house that hung over the tent
of the saloonist, told him in the hear
ing of the gambler to blast that rock
out of the way by 5 o'clock the next
morning. The gambler thought that
this was only bluff to make him move
and he did nothing. That night he
slept in the tent At five minutes to 5
o'clock the next morning the foreman
came and told him he must get up and
leave or he would be killed by the
rock. The gambler replied that the
the latter said:
Il am too busy to go there this morn
ing, but If you are not out of this tent
within two minutes by this watch, you
Sl, I'D
my men to touch off the time fuse
within sixty seconds. The fuse will
burn one minute only when that rock
will rise and crush you to death in this
tent"
The foreman then ordered fire" and
sought the shelter of rock. Ten sec
onds later the gambler rushed after
him with his shirt tapping against his
bare legs. He continued to go and
when last seen was on the dead run
down the trail, cursing the road at
every step.
But come with me and take a ride
over this, the first railroad of Alaska
The cars are comfortable and we shall
have moving pictures of magnificent
scenery all the way up the mountains
We shoot out of Skagway into a can
river flows. We skirt this for a mile
before climbing the hills and pass on
the way some log cabins which this
old-timers tell US belonged to a town
who lived there could tell the truth
a little beyond we can see where the
river breaks through the rocks and
further up the mountains we find it
tumbling down over the rocks, splash
ing like the falls of LAHORE.
Great beds of red flowers line the
railway. and these are to be found all
the way to the top. Now and then
bed of such howers covers the hillside.
There are trees on the lowland. and
everywhere the vegeta ton is green.
Passing onward. the road climbs up the
sides Of the cliffs. 1t winds about in
horseshoe curves, and its steepness is
such that it climbs 1900 feet before
reaching the top. This is 400 feet more
than will be the highest altitude on
the new road to Fairbanks. The White
Pass makes its great climb within
twenty miles, and it has only one tun-
mel along it's whole route.
AS you go UP the mountains the eli
mate rapidly changes. You have half
dozen climates within twenty miles
Now and then you get breeze from
glacier. and as Jack Frost travels on