The Alaska citizen., 1917-01-29

hours and several day1; such events and the amount of cargo on the barges afford other explanations Of these delays l heard 8 sad tale Of two school teachers who had saved for two years or more in order to see Alaska. but. when buying their steamship tickets in advance, had taken no money to provide for food and lodging during such intermi5. sionz, and suffered priyatlon and anxiety in consequence.
 Spell of the Yukon.
 For those however, who are stroni and do not mind coarse food. rouL Il, necks and rough treatment, whe. counterbalanced by beautiful scrI cry and interesting men. a voyage upon the river Yukon is an eXperi- ence not to be regretted. He who has not seen the Yukon, the Klondike which empties into it, and those who live near their banks has not seen Alaska. The Yukon flows 2,000 miles or more outmeandering the Meander river, in it. coils and twists, near one point passing the same hill five times-through a wilderness almost
 l, ,E1I Il, +ar- prt of the way has remained unchanged since the discovery of America. The primeval forest on it's banks has in most places no inhabitants except moose caribou, bear, lynx and other wild animals Some of these can be seen from the boat, upon the shores or swimming in the waters. Here and there are a few Indian cabins. or the lodge of a wood chopper who supplies the steamers with fuel. and a few mining camps now almost empty and owing their present limited existence principally to the fur trade One of these. the town of Circle, was so named be cause it was enormously thought to be upon the Arctic circle; whi' parallel, as has been since discover ed. cuts the river at point near the mission and trading post of Fort Yukon, many miles further north and is indicated by white globe painted upon sgnboard on the shore Circle was once the largest tent-city in the world, but it's white inhabitants are now hardly a score It is said that in its we'll populated cemetery are the graves of only two persons who have died nat ural deaths; the others buried there have been shot or committed suicide. Another town, Eagle, the nearest to the border of Canada has now less than 10 white families. It contains a wireless station which is one of the wonders of the world. It is said to intercept, at times, messages from the Eiffel tower in Paris.
 The climate in summer is ideal. warm by day and cool at night, with little rain. The mosquitoes which are the plague of the country, rarely molest the boats. The beauty of the Arctic sunsets and sunrises, with an interval of scarce an hour between the afterglow and the dawn. the clearness of the twilights, the north ern lights. amply make up for all the discomforts of the journey. The men and women who are met upon the river are of sort which can nowhere else be found.
 Never shall I forget my voyage upon the good ship Yukon. under the command of Monograph Jack. It more nearly resembled the hunting of the shark than anything l had seen before, in real life or upon the stage. The steamboat was propelled by a rear paddle wheel and was a type which I had not seen since, when a boy, I applauded at the Boston theater the boiler explosion at the annual performance of Kit Carson, the Arkansas Traveller"
 Psychopathic Ragtime.
 The captain was haunted by the recollection of some unhappy expert ence of the past, or some bad habi, had put his nerves into chronic state of irritation; for he could not steer, by day or night, unless a |, phonograph which he kept in the wheel house was grinding out somt ragtime music of the cheapest and most hackneyed kind It is no- sur , prising that on other voyages II was rot unusual for the boat to run , aground. Why the bowsprit diG uot get mixed with the rudder sometimes , d,r;no tho vaccepS tortuOlls windingS