Iditarod pioneer., 1917-02-24
DOWN THE YUKON RIVER
 WITH "PHONOGRAPH JACK

good ship uk0n, under the ComhaAu ol
 Monograph Jack. It more nearly resem- | bled the hunting of the snark than any thing had seen before, in real life or upon the stage. The steamboat was propelled 9y rear paddle wheel, and was of type which l had not seen since when boy, l ,nplauded at the Boston theater the boiler | explosion at the annual performance of "kit 1 Carson, the Arkansas Traveller"
 The captain was haunted by the recollec | ion of some unhappy experience O. the past 1T some bad habit had put his nerves into 1 ;hronic state of irrltaton; for he could not ,teer, by day or night unless phonograph ybich he kept in the wheelhouse was grlnd- ng out some ragtime music of the cheapest end most hackneyed kind. It IS not sur orising that OF other voyages It was not nusual for the boat to run aground. Why ,be bowsprit did not get mixed with the ,udder sometimes during the vessels tor uous windings I never understood, until discovered that the boat had no bowsprlt, it's place beng supplied by the barge pushed
 n front The discipline Wss like that upon re good ship Pnafore. An officer wore his 1 inform or not just as It suited hlm. ,runken lower deck passenger might wander | without interference through the quarters l f those who he'd paid for irst-class accom- mod2tions. The women had to move where 1 hey could not hear his talk. He had his 1 own way undisturbed. The stewards called ,e passengers by their first names or by 1 vch nicknames as occurred to them. l was 1 saluted as Doe" title which, as l was as 1 ,ured by the old settlers rightly or wrongly was a term of respect But a vener9bl l and distinguished physician from lndlanap ] lis, who also received from hls waiter the | anne appellatiOn. told me plaintively that Tn | his city the term was given to horse doctors
 only. The walters sat with us in the smokins ~oom, joined in the conversations and, wa f~ld, circulated scandals about the wo,nel 1 rho were travelling without protectors 1 These walters also bad their own meknameS 1 And the most efficient rejoiced In the tl.l of "The Popcorn Kid" He played at nigh; 1 on the guitar melodies which were reputeI
 Q excite jealousy in the heart of the skip,
 per. Monograph Jack. These stewards were
 mostly working in the summer to earn enough for a grubstake, so that in the win
 ter they might search for gold The com
 anv's deck hands included princes of tEe
 rovsl blood-grandchldre of the king 0;
 he Moose tribe.
 The passengers were a motley crew In l dians suuawmen, trappcrs, jail birds, pros 3ectors about to leave such little civilization
 as the river afforded for two years in the
 wilderness, where they hoped to find the
 7recious metal, and pioneers of the Yukon who had abandoned all hope of success Ill I -o+tlol JCu-D to b1Jvl7- | drum work for 8 stipend much less than
 hev would have earned had they stayed at
 1ome There were 9 few men who were l leaving tke territory with the little lett ol l what they had brought few travellers tor rleasure who grumbled at the food and ac-
 communications, and Seattle detective who
 had assumed the disguise of a short story
 writer, living in Denver. Such tales a5 were 1 told in the smoking room could not else
 where be heard The trapper described the
 habits of the lynx or other fur bearers which
 he caught. He trapped them in the way in which Izaek Walton put the wcr!n on the hook, "as though he loved them" His
 methods were not unlike those recommended
 ov StendaFl in a treatise upon the tcnder l passion He lured them, not by bait c!
 food, but by exciting their curiosity and l love of beauty The lynx has passion
 for the colcr red So the man would hang
 Diece of scarlet above the trap, and the
 animal must try to take it and then fall 1 nto the steel jaws This taught mo why
 salmon which will not eat will snap q sn 1 artificial hv. Others of the beasts gre lured 1 Y a pungent smell from some chemical l laced in little house. They cannot resist ] the temptation to enter and find what Is the ] cause.
 The squawmen told of the habits of In
 dian women Marriage by capture is still
 the rule in Alaska The gir!s are taught 1 by their mothers that their honor requires physical resistance even to an honorable 1 lover. When @ squaw runs at the sight of
 man she invites him to pursue her. We were reminded of the time-worn ''fugit ad
 salices" He did not apparently agree with 1 the trsppers whom in a canoe near Laie 1 Winnipeg l once heard discuss the respec 1 tive merits of wives of different races. They
 greed that white wife was too lazy, and 1 he squaw uninteresting because too stupid
 jealous; but that half f-breed wife va.
 their ideal.l
 The pioneer described his struggle in cross | Ing the pass before the raITOod came, carry
 rg his supplies of provisions over the snow
 in relays by short sleighs to the summit,
 building boat in which to sail across | the lake, shoot the rapids below, and de
 scend the Yukon. When the ice broke the
 lake was crowded with small craft; they
 used for sails blankets, coats, sheets, towels,
 and everything imaginable to aid their oars.
 while from one boat single bugle blew the
 note of Home Sweet Home" which seemed the best music they had ever heard.
 But the chief tellers of tales were Paddy
 Mcknight and Caribou Jack. Paddy was :vernool Irish wharf rat who had drifted Q Alaska with no capital but his Celtic wit.
 His principal vocation had been that of age driver and hackman of the class known in New York as night hawks But
 'e had also hunted for gold without suc-
 cess and smuggled whisky of which he had
 consumed more than he sold Garrulous
 and unashamed he poured out continu-
 ous stream of stories about himself, in some
 of which he disclosed matters which most