EARLY ALASKA DAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1930, Page 7

EARLY ALASKA DAYS

HUMAN DRIFTWOOD. "WHEN THE LAW OF THE GUN HELD SWAY. , A story of the breathless haste of life in a new land, of wild days and nights in towns crazily. built of canvas, and rough boards, of queer customs and queer men, is told by Mr PI. H. Bootes, of Devoiiport, who was away up in the then outpost of Nome, Alaska, in the .early days, says the .“Auckland Star.” 'y* '^ es 1 they were wild days, when N human life was among the cheapest of commodities Bought and sold,” he said. “I saw >two events come to pass, the effects of which, .though as far apart as the poles, were far-reaching indeed. One was the introduction of one of the first pianos into the region, and the other was the landing of the first representative of the law. “What, a wild night followed the landing of the piano,” recalled Mr Bootes. “It was bound eventually for a bush settlement, but it. stayed m Nome for at least one evening. It was . put in a saloon there and the whole town turned out to hear and see the .‘stranger,’ and the sight-seeing lasted _/> all night: The trouble was to get a A pianist. Some women who were there ' offered to fill, the post, but they evidently had forgotton most of what they knew. Eventually we found what we wanted . in . a lad who- had drifted up that way. He was a college man who had-—well, he had left college.” Great difficulty had been experienced in landing , the instrument, he said. iWhnrfmg - facilities were nq-t of the best, and goods, had to be landed by means of .a block and tackle from the vessel to the shore., To keep the rope taut the. ship was kept at half steam, find the piano was hoisted out of the ‘ .hold to begin its precarious .journey to the top; of the cliffs, its passage witnessed by, a breathless hand on the shore. The people, wanted the piano. NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE. “They warned him not to.go ashore,” said Mr Bcote3 i ,. ; ,;speaking of the .com- ■ ing.-of ihc/itrst-.policeman tot-hat part of the land:' When he. showed up on.. , deck i 11" b uni was a: the -North' West . Mounted Police—jb'hpse whir hade. ajssgnityled on the wharf >i : to greet,hiim merely-. took ‘pot’' shots>. at < him. He ‘ventured t> ; dry land,' hut didn’t stay there long. ; He becam-p 'a general target,'and a,s'he' had a regard for his skin, he decided t&it.'for a time at least, discretion was the better part of valour. In those days, Mr Bootes remarked, everybody carried a gun, and what law was there depended on the quickness of the eye and the"-accuracy of the shot/ ' The demeanour of the group on the wharf, and the spick and span appearance of “law” was the precise contrast bethe old life and the new. But the officer in his turn could shoot, as one ma« who found his hat suddenly fly into the air, found out. Afterwards he showed them for fun. He would take a series of rapid shots and the hat /

of each man near him would suddenly he lifted as though there were a sudned wind.

THE GOLD RUSH OF '96

Mr Bootes was not in Alaska at the time of the great gold rushes of ’96 and ’9B, but ho. remembered the. famous Henderson brothers. “One of them, joe Henderson, was a sailor who ran away from a whaler. He hid back from civilisation, and was there until

he thought he was safe. One day a party of trappers and prospectors passed the door of his little cabin, and told him that he had been living, within fifteen miles of the River Yukon. Until then he had been ignorant ot its existence. He went with the party and it was on that expedition that the famous gold strike was made. When the news leaked out the whole world went ,mad. Clerks went from Spain, England and California and many lands. Few-of them knew what they were going to face.

“The 'fabulous wealth of the find needs no mention,” said Mr Bootes, “but it’s a curious thing that when I was running the- mail sleigh I used to pass through that same valley each trip.”

Though the news of the.gold caused a great inflood to Alaska, Mr Bootes said that the actual find, as proof of the existance of gold, did not cause any -surprise among the “old timers.” They knew it was there. They had themselves panned it, and they had learned of it from the Indians. It was no secret to the Russians, who had formerly owned the territory. “But,” he remarked, “it is not the custom of the land to talk. Those who braved the rigours of the Arctic winter from choice usually had some good reason. Each man had secrets enough of his own without prying into the affairs of another or inviting investigation hy /treading on dangerous ground/ Thus though bands might discuss among t-heihselves small finds of gold, over jprfely camp fires away hack in the .hills, they kept the knowledge to themselves.” HUMAN FLOTSAM. /'■' “Talk about human flotsam and jetsam. All the human driftwood thatpy£r was seemed to find its way /fckifough queer channels up there. Lum-kpermen-ahd college men, seekers for gold and seekers for truth, hunters of men and hunters of animals, all rubbey shoulders together. It was a very real democracy. Some of the old hands Iliad spent most of their life there, and every year they would say they would leave; hut when the last boat sailed before the Arctic -night closed down the winter froze everything solid, including the harbours, thev would contrive to he left behind. Most of them died there.”

When his time of service with one of the firms there expired, Mi* Bootes did not succumb to the spell of the land. He left and has not been back. “If I had stayed,” said Mr Bootes, “I might have found the golcj in the vallevj but on the other hand, as did many others, T might have frozen to death in some of the icy wastes that many though led to gold.”