Iditarod pioneer., 1916-07-08

did during all his travels on the Northern trails. Early in December the word came from Idtarod that there wasn't anything but reindeer and caribou meat in the camp. King decided to speculate, take iicr in poultry enc might call it, and capitalize his ability as a "rlusher" to his own profit He bought about 400 pounds Of chickens, 400 pounds of turkeys and some porl; bins and little beef. He took half hundred letters that were offered for lIitarot and way points. lie bought 6 number of mGra- zines in Fairbanks, paying the Eaws Gea CTS the regulation price of DO cents each He also paid this price for q few Sunday papers from Seattle and San Francl~cu.
 It was the morning of December i that "Tommy" started from Fairbanks alang the down-riycr trail towards the i,itarod lie had to get there before tle in,iniug of the 24th in order to realize on lis merchan- Gie. The cold weather started in The snow became mere powGery than ever and the dogs couldn't travel far without fatigue
 1t was 40 below when we left Fort Gibbon. at the mouth of the Panama" King related yesterday at the Frye. T had fig u.ed out that had to make a roaGhouse day in order to reach Iditarod in time It was harder going every day, partiou- larly because it didn't get bit warner.
 'It didn't moderate q bit Instead it go; a little colder. When we struck Mouse point, about half way between Fcrt G;b- bon and the Lewis cutoff, 1t was about 70 below"
 Near Mouse point is the colIe>. spot on the whole Yukon river, where the win" sweeps through draw and whsIs the ice clean of every veStige of snow, leaving it just a vast pane of slippery glass. When King struck this spot he saw tEc Egh. of the roaChouse in the distance Through the murk of the Arctic afternoon be cyui ] catch the glaam from the roadhouse win dow, though it WAS two miles away.
 'I thought it was my last triD,' continued "Tommy." "Ihe distance didn't seem to become smaller and the cold bit deeper every minute The dogs fiinched little in the face of the wind which swept through the draw, but they kept on. Often gusts of wind nearly swept them off their feet. Ii was tough hanging onto the handle bars f under these conditions and trying to urge the dogs Cn at the same time"
 Finally he reached the roadhouse yard. In the shtIter of the buildings he felt bet ter The r0adhOuse man heard him com in and opened the front door of his store, Tommy drove his team straight through the open door The string of seventeen dogs was SO long that the leader had to be directed around q counter before the sled fraly squeezed into the warm building. King was a mass of ice and frost The front cf bis parka was made of icicIes. His face was frozen and his fingers had to be rubbed for more than an hour before the blood started to Circulste freely again.
 Ititarod came into view on December 9. The miners fought for the supplies that King brought in The chickens scli fer S25O a pound The pork and turkeys brought g. a pound The magazines soI1 for g each. The letters brought 50 cents apiece. A copy of the -In>eiligencer brought $2.
 On another of the trips to Iditarod King took down from Fairbanks two traveling men who wanted to get orders from the Itjitar0d merchants before the break up They paid him S75O each for the round tro besides paying all his expenses for the whole journey.
 One day in Fairbanks he was called to take a doctor to Nenena where a mission ary was sick and about to die. Another time he was called from bed to take a doc tor to Tolovana, where a roadhouse had burned down with several people in it. Several of them died, so he had to make another trip to Fairbanks for the collins.
 "The North is the only place where can get along" Tommy" said yesterday going back"