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Chapter 5 SOCIETY IN ALASKA

Word Count: 1608    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

ains, their peaks dazzling white against the sky. Behind them, to the south, was the Lynn Canal, walled with mountains. Before them were mountains, and yet more mountains. The cluster of

them. "Is this Skagway?" It

hn; "better ask the p

those mountains to

es

is the Wh

mouth of a valley, which soon app

is the W

t

r the trip down again? If not, save it for

, was suddenly possessed of "cold feet." The great uplifting mountains with thei

passed by the United States Customs, and the officers seemed few. There was a method of overcoming the Customs-by employing a "convoy," an official of the United State

t no credit to the United States, I can tell you. Yes, pay duty, and hand an of

ade an effort to get his goods passed, but without success-till he paid the ten-doll

ite cloth sign painted on it-"Restaurant, meals 50 cents"-met their gaze from the head of the wharf. Other

with white oilcloth. Behind the counter stood a woman and a girl; a range, where the chef was operating, at their back. A board partition divided off a s

nished two other tin plates were handed them, laden with cubical chunks of beef and gravy. Dishes of potatoes and boiled beans, with bread and butter in tin bowls, were lin

osperity, and looked communicative, so John

a mo

ng w

hundred people a day. Don't ca

here without the troub

es the saloons and gambling-halls pay him royalty now, besides running s

a prohibition territor

p town you'll find every second place a saloon with all

they get t

bond; but when it is landed here they drill a hole in the barrel and take out t

nts a pound to put the

th whisky fifty cents

icers know thi

hey 'stand in. There is no

e terms, but they had yet to grasp how deep the meaning of "standing in" and

ate their pie, and depa

ever-persistent wind from the north having generally swept the gravel clean. Sleighs, drawn by dogs or horses, passed smoothly over the ice, but shrieked in protest against the stone. Dogs and

stant; after which dog-teams alone, or pack-animals, or the labour of the human animal, were necessary. Some pac

s, with hoods attached, and rings of fur around the wrists and the face of the hood. Some of the peculiar garme

the frontier custom affords but one field of diversion, which each may enjoy to the full extent of his purse and inclination. As muscle and endurance alone give eminence on the trail, so only money and extravagance command attention in the bar-r

ing at the tables the money received in payment of that work. The thought struck John that probably not a man of them, wasting his money there, but had some one dependent to whom that money would be as a gift from heaven. Alas, for the recklessness of frontier life, where it so often happens that men regard a show of contempt for money as t

raded, or woman fallen? Man, the noblest being in all creation; upbuilt, evolved through the ages; practically perfect in his parts: his body complex yet true; delicate and confident, enriched with a mind ca

ding to their supplies such necessities as were recommended by Hugh Spencer. Their purchases completed, they turned before

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