Romancing the Klondike

by Donadlson-Yarmey, Joan;

  Then, one day there was a shrill whistle. The small sternwheeler Alice rounded the curve and pulled up to the wharf that Joseph had built as soon as the ice had left the river. Pearl, along with everyone else in the town, headed to the shore to greet her. As soon as the gangplank was down the crew hauled large, overflowing sacks down to the shore.

  This got the crowd stirred up. Some men hurried along the wharf and literally grabbed the sacks out of their hands. A path formed in the crowd as the men walked through, and then it closed behind them. The men carried the sacks to a high dry spot on the shore. They pulled open the tops and turned them upside down. Pearl saw the envelopes, magazines, and newspapers fall to the ground in heaps. The mail had come.

  Pearl was shocked at the mail delivery, but the long-time residents of the north had been through this before. She guessed that, in lieu of a post office, the shore worked quite well.

  A row of men knelt on each side of the piles. They picked up handfuls of the mail and called out the names.

  “Yo.”

  “Here”

  “I’ll take that.”

  Pearl watched as the men stepped forward, took their piece of mail, and moved out of others’ way. But they didn’t go far. Pearl saw smiles on their faces when they ripped open their envelopes. Some of their hands shook as they read and reread the letters. It had been nine months since any mail had made it to them and they were hungry for news.

  “I’m a father,” one man yelled after reading his letter. “I’ve got a new son.” Then he stopped and saddened. “Well, he would be almost a year by now. Damned, I’m glad I’m going home.”

  Often a man’s name was called more than once. The other prospectors would part so that he could step in and retrieve his mail or pass it from hand to hand to him. If it was a magazine or newspaper he stuffed it in his pocket to be read later on his claim.

  Then Pearl heard her name called. She accepted a package passed to her. She saw the return address was from the newspaper. A few minutes later her name was called again and she received a box from her parents. Her publisher and parents had been prompt in their return mail so that it got on the first boat north.

  Since she wasn’t expecting any more Pearl carried her mail to Clara’s tent. She walked around where Clara was busy sewing a shirt and sat on her rolled up mattress. She would be glad to get back to her cabin.

  “Mail is here,” Pearl told Clara.

  “I’m not expecting anything,” Clara said.

  Pearl opened the box. On top was a letter. She read it eagerly. All was well at home. One of her cousins had given birth to a boy, and her younger brother, Anthony, had turned fifteen.

  Pearl rummaged through the box. Her parents had sent the requested sketchpads, writing pads, and pencils.

  Pearl then opened the package. A letter written by the publisher told her how wonderful her articles and sketches were. Also enclosed were the newspapers with her articles in them. She glanced at them then set them aside to show Hattie and Clara later. In a separate envelope she found her payment in cash, minus the advance. She counted the money. It was more than she had expected and would certainly last her the summer and even over the winter if she stayed. More than once in her grief, she had thought about leaving, but each time she reminded herself that Joseph would be on the same boat.

  Pearl did not attend the party that lasted all night to celebrate the arrival of the boat, but she listened to the revelry. In the morning, though, she was out to sketch the loading.

  Pearl drew the shabby, bearded miners who lugged dirty canvas sacks, leather grips, packing cases, buckskin bags, and other containers onto the steamship. All of the packages were filled with gold. She had learned the stories of some of them. One was a blacksmith before he came north two years ago. Another had owned a dry goods store that was floundering. A third had lost his wife and had come north to get away from the memories. She saw the man who had been close to suicide when he found $35,000 worth of gold on his claim. He looked quite happy now. The men had come from all walks of life and many different countries and were going home rich.

  She did not sketch Joseph Ladue as he walked up the gangway.

  Pearl went to say goodbye to the Berrys. Ethel’s worn and tattered dress was held together with Clarence’s belt. She certainly didn’t look like a woman worth over $100,000. Her smiling happy face looked out of place among the grizzled male miners.

  “I’m going to miss you.” Pearl hugged Ethel.

  “Clarence and I will be returning next year,” Ethel said. “We will see you then.”

  As more men and women carried their gold aboard, the decks began to sag under the weight. Loading had to be halted while logs were brought from the sawmill to shore them up.

  Then it was time to say goodbye to Emma and Donald. Pearl couldn’t stop the tears as she embraced her cousin.

  “This has been a wonderful time,” Emma said. “It scares me sometimes to think that if I hadn’t come with you I wouldn’t have met Donald again.”

  “I’m going to miss you so much.” Pearl sniffled.

  “It’s only for a year. Once we’ve seen both our families we will return on the first boat in the spring.”

  “We’ll make sure your package gets to the newspaper,” Donald said, as he returned her hug.

  “Thank you and take care of my cousin.”

  The sternwheeler pulled away and headed downstream. Those on deck waved madly to those on shore. The ones on shore weren’t quite as exuberant about their friends leaving.

  The next day the sternwheeler Portus B. Weare arrived and the performance was repeated. The men and women remaining in the town stood on the shore and waved to those heading south with their gold.

  * * *

  Sam knocked on Pearl’s door. He was glad to see her smile when she opened it.

  “Sam, what are you doing here?”

  Sam didn’t know how to tell her he’d come in to check up on her and to have a spree. He knew she didn’t like that he thought she couldn’t look after herself, and she probably wouldn’t like that he was going to get drunk. But a spree was a high point in a miner’s life and a way to show his success as well as treat his fellow prospectors to drinks.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve been to town.”

  “And you’ve come for a spree,” Pearl said, her eyes sparkling.

  “You know about them?”

  “Heard about them in Circle City. You can stay here, if you want. Emma’s bunk is empty.”

  “And I’ll cut your wood in return.” Sam eyed the pile of logs lying beside her cabin.

  “Oh, that would be wonderful. I bought these from Paul and was going to saw them myself.”

  Sam dropped off his backpack and grabbed Pearl’s saw. Within a few hours, he had the logs cut into stove lengths.

  “Let’s quit and have supper.” Pearl threw the last length of wood on the pile. “You have a spree to get on.”

  “I’ll split them tomorrow,” Sam said.

  After eating, Sam grabbed a stick of firewood and headed to the saloon with a sack of gold. He handed the sack to the bartender and then banged the wood on the bar.

  “A round for all these good gentlemen,” he yelled.

  A cheer went up and everyone crowded to the bar. Many of the men were already well on their way to being drunk. But they recognized a spree and set their glasses on the bar. It would be an affront to Sam if they didn’t. The bartender poured the liquor. Sam picked up his glass and lifted it in the air.

  “To gold!” he shouted.

  “To gold!” the men hollered back and downed their liquor.

  They lined up their glasses again and the bartender filled them. This time they toasted the Yukon River. Then it was gold pans, shovels, trees—because they supply the wood for cabins and fires—and riverboats because they bring in the supplies.

  Drinking that much liquor so quickly set Sam’s head spinning. He looked away while the bartender measured out enough gold to pay
for the liquor and then wove his way to the doorway followed by the staggering group of men. They went to one of the other saloons in town. Sam dropped his sack on the bar and banged the firewood. This got everyone’s attention.

  “Drinks are on me!”

  The men rushed over to add their glasses to those on the bar and watched as the bartender filled them. This time the toasts were to Joseph Ladue, George Carmack, and Donald Miller. The men hesitated when Sam yelled the name, Gordon Baker, but that didn’t last long. The ones who remembered him held up their glasses and drank to his memory and the ones who didn’t just drank. As the men put their glasses on the bar again there was a scuffle at the end of the bar.

  “Get off my foot,” one man shouted.

  “I was here before you,” the other one yelled.

  The first man shoved the second man almost knocking him off balance. Thus began a pushing match which led to fists flying and then erupted into a full-room brawl. Punches were thrown and missed, men tripped over their own feet and fell, pieces of wood were flung about, and the stove was upset. The stovepipe fell from the ceiling, sending a dark cloud of soot over the room and the men in it.

  The bartender hid the bottles of liquor so they wouldn’t get broken and watched. These fights didn’t last long. It was just another way for the miners to let off steam. In a few minutes the men began to run out of energy and their punches slowed. Instead of throwing chairs, they fell on them.

  Sam pulled himself up at the bar. “Another round for the house,” he slurred.

  This effectively ended the fight. The men climbed to their feet and lurched to where the glasses were still lined up. No one cared if the glass in front of him was his or not.

  “To Dawson!” Sam almost fell over in his effort to yell the toast.

  The men mumbled in return and downed their drinks.

  Sam had heard of sprees that lasted for two or three days, but he had had enough. This was something he should be doing to celebrate with Donald and Gordon. The thought of his two friends sobered him a bit. He was lonely in the cabin by himself. Digging out the gold wasn’t as exciting alone.

  Sam nodded to the bartender and turned his back. It was impolite and a sign that you didn’t trust him if you watched him measure out the gold needed to fix the damage and for the liquor. When he finished, he handed the sack back to Sam. Sam hefted it. There wasn’t much gold left. He gave it back to the bartender and headed out the door. The men went back to their drinking.

  * * *

  Pearl dressed and stepped out from behind the curtain blocking off her bedroom. She looked at Sam snoring on the floor and smiled. He’d come back early that morning from his spree and immediately fallen asleep.

  Not wanting to disturb him, she let herself out the door and headed to the restaurant for breakfast. She was feeling happy again.

  Yes, she missed Emma and Donald, the Berrys, and even Joseph, but the northern summer was upon the land. The trees had leafed out and their branches were alive with the songs of many different birds, while others dove and wheeled in the sky. The hills along the river gleamed with dark pink fireweed, blue lupins, and yellow daisies. The water held a shimmering beauty as it flowed past the town, and she felt alive and energized by the ceaseless force of the great river.

  But what held her in wonderment was the twilight that lasted most of the night and made it possible to read and write outside at three o’clock in the morning without a candle. Like most people in town, she had lost all sense of time with the almost continuous daylight. Her sleeping patterns changed and she sometimes found herself wide awake and wandering the town at midnight. And she wasn’t the only one up at that time. Some nights she, Clara, and Hattie sat outside her cabin drinking tea and talking.

  Pearl ate her bacon and eggs and stepped outside again. The town of Dawson remained in a constant state of transition. More people arrived every day, some setting up tents and businesses and others heading to the gold fields. There were wooden buildings in various states of construction and a lot of hammering and shouting going on. In the distance, she listened to the whine of the sawmill cutting lumber.

  The town now had a hotel, three saloons, two restaurants, three bakeries, plus rows of white tents—some with short square-timbered walls, some set on the ground. All of them had stove pipes sticking out the roofs. Many had a sign propped against the front wall stating the business inside others had a table set out front with their wares on it. The place almost had a carnival air.

  Pearl liked to wander the streets of the town, meeting the new arrivals and seeing what they offered. Today, she saw a woman selling cold lemonade and stopped for a glass. She visited, learning that the woman had arrived with her husband who had a job working in one of the saloons. At another tent, she met a man with a table full of moccasins for sale.

  Pearl stopped and stared at the next table. On it was silk underwear, bolts of cotton cloth, and hot water bottles. What an odd combination. She introduced herself to the woman.

  “I’m Belinda Mulroony,” the young woman said. She was trim and a few years older than Pearl.

  “When did you get here?” Pearl asked.

  “I arrived yesterday.”

  “Where from?”

  “Alaska by way of the Chilkoot Trail.”

  “You climbed the Chilkoot Trail?” Pearl thought of Ethel Berry’s story of her trip across the pass in the winter.

  Belinda nodded nonchalantly. “I lived in Juneau and when I heard of the gold strike crossing the pass was the cheapest way I could get here.”

  “I’d like to buy two of your silk underwear,” Pearl said. The price was a little steep but she thought about how soft they would be against her skin.

  “What about a hot water bottle for the cold nights, or some cloth for a new dress?”

  “Thank you but the nights are warm and I don’t know how to sew.”

  Belinda grinned. “I don’t either, but when I decided to come I used all my money to buy these items. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’ve been selling them for six times what I paid.”

  “A tidy profit.” Pearl liked this woman.

  “I’ve got big plans and I need the money to carry them out,” Belinda explained.

  Pearl admired Belinda’s attitude and confidence she’d be another woman to write about. After passing several other tents she returned to her cabin with her purchases. She still had an ache in her heart, but she was happy. Dawson was her home and she knew she would meet new friends and maybe even find a new love.

  The End

  Life After The Trip Outside

  Joseph Ladue

  Before leaving Dawson, Joseph Ladue set up the Joseph Ladue Gold Mining and Development Company Ltd. to look after his interests. He returned to Schuyler Falls and on December 15, 1897, he married his long-time sweetheart, Anna Mason. They bought an orchard on 250 acres of land and adopted Francis Lamay, the son of a friend who had died. Joe enjoyed putting on parties and was an excellent host. He was also generous with his money, delivering food baskets to the poor at Christmas.

  But the years of hardship in the north had taken their toll on Joseph’s health. He died of tuberculosis on June 27, 1901, at the age of forty-six years.

  Anna remarried and lived until 1948.

  George and Kate Carmack

  George and Kate stayed in the north until 1898 when they, their daughter Graphie Gracie, Skookum Jim, and Tagish Charley sailed to Seattle with $100,000 in gold. While there George liked to ride around town in a carriage bearing the sign, Geo. Carmack, Discoverer of Gold in the Klondike.

  The white man’s life was hard on Kate and she missed her family and her homeland. She was arrested and fined for being drunk. George tired of Kate but, instead of letting her go home, he sent her to live with his sister, Rose, in California. The two women didn’t get along.

  George, Jim, and Charley returned to Dawson, where George made the most of his Discoverer status. He also met and fell in love with Marguerite Saftig
Laimee, the owner of a brothel. He wrote back to Rose and requested that she send Kate north to her people as he was getting married.

  Kate sued for divorce on grounds of desertion and adultery, and launched legal action for half of the couple’s more than a million dollars-worth of gold discoveries. However, they’d never filed the papers for their marriage, so the court didn’t recognize its existence. She received a government pension and lived in a cabin Skookum Jim built for her in Cariboo Crossing (Carcross). She died from influenza in 1920 at the age of sixty-three.

  George and Marguerite were married late in 1900. He died a rich man in Vancouver in 1922. Marguerite inherited his wealth and died in California in 1949.

  Tagish Charley

  Tagish Charley went to Seattle with the Carmacks then returned north. He sold his claim in 1901 and moved to Cariboo Crossing (Carcross). He married, and he and his wife had two children, a boy and a girl, but within a few years the couple separated. He bought a hotel, entertained, and bought diamond earrings for his daughter. Natives were not allowed to drink but, because Charley was treated as a white man, he was permitted to have alcohol. One evening, in 1908, after a drunken spree, he fell off a bridge on his way home and drowned.

  Skookum Jim (legally known as James Mason)

  When Skookum Jim returned north, he moved to Cariboo Crossing (Carcross). He sold his claim in 1900 and married in 1903. They had a daughter, Daisy, and when the marriage ended a short time later, he got custody of Daisy. His holdings were bringing him in almost one hundred thousand dollars a year, but he continued the life of a prospector. He wandered the north in a quest for another gold strike. Eventually the hard life began to wear on him and his powerful physique and health began to fail. He died of kidney failure in 1916.