1903] Rush for the Klondike 



Caribou Crossing, Siwash George deserted the woman 

 who had made his fortune, to philander with a vam- 

 pire actress. 



When Ogilvie told his story in Juneau the whole 

 town broke loose, for it lies on the very frontier of 

 adventure. So gamblers and gold seekers, clerks and 

 lawyers, threw up their jobs and in one way or another 

 got to the head of navigation at Skagway, and there 

 struck the White Pass Trail. Now followed for two or 

 more years one of the most astounding migrations in 

 American history. 



Southward from Juneau went out the word. Ciga- Argonauts 

 rette youths, "dissolute, damned, and despairful," f th f 

 crowded the smoking rooms in Pullman cars from San 

 Francisco and Los Angeles. Pampered St. Bernard, 

 Great Dane, and mastiff dogs, many of them stolen, 

 were dragged along to do the work of the half-wild 

 Siberian "huskies." Women came too, both young 

 and old, of many types and varied nationalities 

 elderly boarding-house keepers with iron hand and 

 brazen jaw, adventuresses painted and plausible, 

 dainty Mercedes willful and whimsical, demanding 

 the impossible. All were loaded with clothing and 

 provision designed for an Arctic winter; few had ever 

 met hardship; none knew anything of "mushing' 'over 

 blind trails through uncharted mountains, or the 

 dodging of endless chains of impassable tarns. 



Moreover, at Lake Bennett their troubles were far Breaking 

 from ended, for of boats and the breaking up of the *' ?* 

 ice they were also ignorant. Many who risked the 

 frozen surface a little too late in the season lost their 

 lives through optimistic temerity. Farther on, the 

 perilous White Horse Rapids took large toll of those 

 who preferred to chance it on boat or raft rather than 



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