Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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153923 THE LINCOLNIAN -Tun' scarce. Peterson knew quite a lit- tle about the world outside of Alaska, and he feared that the Amalgamated interests would swallow up their own claim. He was none too sure of Mr. Maxwell. We'll hope for the best, Mark: but we can't do a thing until the winter's over. He pointed to the snow-covered windows. We might go to Dawson and get a crew hireri to help us up the Yukon. l hope Maxwell gets into Bering sea before the break comes. l'd feel a little better, wouldn't you, Mark? l told him to start as early as he could possibly could from Seattle, and he said he'd look to a good start and keep a lookout for other machinery -coming that way also, said Peter- son. lf we get the works before they do, MacFarlane said, we'll be in a position to hire labor, and as Nthere's bound to be a shortage of hands, the Amalgamated outfit will be left in the lurch. But they've got more money than we have, and they might be able to pay better wages than we will, and we might lose all our men. We have to start early and get a bunch we can rely on. We might send Maxwell word to bring a bunch from the States when he comes up in the spring, Peterson suggested. That wouldn't do, MacFarlane returned. They would all be green: they might cut their contracts and go over to the Amalgamated. Green men are worse than a short crew. The two men fell silent for some time, each thinking. MacFarlane gazed into the fire: his pipe went out un- noticed. Finally he said, more to himself than to his partner: l don't like this fighting with the Amalga- mated outfit. lt would be better to sell out if we can get a fair price. l'd like to go back to the States: even now, at the first touch of win- ter, l've got shudders running down my back. l've got a hunch that if l stay up here much longer I'll lose all l've got. Peterson did not share this feeling. l'll be switched, Mac, he said. lf l hadn't known you so long, l'd say you was a quitter, but 1 know you ain't. lt's the pan and cradle that's got you. lt's too hard on a man. l'd quit Alaska myself if l had to go thru what we have in the past summer again. But you'd better stick till we see the thing thru. MacFarlane did not answer, but kept on staring into the fire. What do you think, Mac? Pe- terson asked. Hadn't you better stick awhile? Yes, l'll stick-stick until we bring the Amalgamated outfit to the paystreak--l'm off for the States. can terms. But as soon as we hit Wouldn't mind seeing Minnesota myself, Peterson reflected. But we'll Fight if we have to, won't we, Mac? There was the ring of grim determination in his voice. MacFarlane relighted, and they both finished their pipes in silence: then rolled in their blankets for the night. WINTER .was drawing to a close when Peterson received a letter from Maxwell saying that he was in 'the straits waiting for the Yukon to start moving, as he worded it. Looks like he was with us strong, remarked MacFarlane. i He says, Peterson said, referring to the letter. that the Amalgamated Fishing 6: Mining Company's ship- ment of machinery was delayed thru the inability of the company to hll it, and that shipment will be retarded from twenty to thirty days. Well, we at least have beat them to the Yukon, and if she'd hurry and

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The N orth Calls OR twenty-four hours the blizzard raged, piling the snow so high that it' covered the two small windows, and cast a duskiness over the cabin. MacFarlane and his part- ner, Peterson, sat in silence before the fire on the crude hearth, and smoked. l reckon this about finishes our work for this year, Mac, said Peter- son, questioning his partner rather than stating a fact. Well, l'm glad in a way. Next summer we'll have in some modern machinery, and we won't have to stoop over the pans or the cradle, and we won't have to quit so early in the fall, MacFarlane answered thotfully. Both lapsed into silence. MacFar- lane thot of his many years in the North Country and he wondered how much longer he would stay. He had gone into the Klondike region when men said it was foolhardy to go be- yond the less rich Yukon. He had come with the first rush of miners from the States. He was in Dawson in the winter of '97-'98, when that town was full of prospectors there to spend their summer piles or try their luck at the roulette wheel and the card tables. Some were jubilant over a rich summer, and the less lucky were downhearted. MacFarlane was in the main saloon one night in the midst of a crowd of ignorant, un- fortunate prospectors whose motto and god was gold, when he met Pe- terson. There had been a fight- and both of the men had helped to end it. Both Mark Peterson and Robert MacFarlane had prospected alone in the vicinity of Dawson. They dis- cussed the chances of a paystreak in the country northeast of Dawson, and later did stake a claim which was worth mining on a larger scale. With the aid of a San Francisco man they were able to man, Maxwell, atrle with the lowing spring, bring it, and a get machinery. This was to start from Se- machinery in the fol- and later they would shipment of lumber for building sluices, up the Yukon on dog-drawn sledges. AFTER a long period, Peterson broke the silence: What do you think that Frisco guy is financing this thing for when he knows we have to buck agin that New York company? Does he know they staked claims next to us? asked MacFarlane. Sure. Didn't he ask as to which had the best claim, and if it would pay him to stake with us when l got him in down in the States last year? Peterson answered quickly. Well, l couldn't say what his mo- tive is, but maybe he sees more in the diggin's than we do. That may be, too, began Peter- son. l only hope that they'll be ready to come up the Yukon as soon as she breaks. We don't want to lose any time at all. The Amalga- mated outfit will have us backed off the Klondike if we don't beat them up with the machinery: but I hope we beat them, and if we don't, it'll be Maxwell's fault. He don't know much about mining, of course. By all the hemlocks in Alaska! l wish we had that lumber and the screens up here, and we could begin makin' the sluice troughs and set in the screens, and it would be a big start on the Amalgamated outfit. We could get our crew picked before they got up here, and they'd find hands

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-Time THE LINCOLNIAN P08027 thaw. out we'd be in a position to do something, said MacFarlane, with a sigh of relief. We'll prepare the sledges and gather up every available dog in Dawson, and we'll get the machinery in if we have to take it in piece by piece, said Peterson. Both Peterson and MacFarlane were staying in Dawson now, and ready with a crew to transport the new equipment to the claim. When the Yukon opened up with a roar and a rush of water, MacFarlane, who had been watching for signs of the break, hunted out .Peterson and ex- claimed, She's opening! She's open- ing! Now for the trail. Three weeks later, MacFarlane and Peterson, with twelve men, twelve sledges and seventy-three dogs, left Dawson on their journey down the river to meet the ship. ln eight weeks the men were busy building new sluice-boxes, installing crushers and washers and other machinery. Word reached them that the steam- er with the cargo of machinery for the Amalgamated outfit had run aground near the mouth of the Yu- kon, and that some had been lost overboard when it had been shifted to barges. There had been a little trouble with the -crew on the MacFarlane and Pe- terson claim, for some of the officials of the Amalgamated had enticed a few of the laborers away with prom- ises of higher wages. Peterson, MacFarlane said one evening, we have to do something to stop the men from going over to the Amalgamated. Suppose we split a part of the profits among them? If the men think the claim is part theirs, they will stick with us and work harder. 1 Good idea, Mac, Peterson agreed. Maxwell was of the same opinion. The plan worked fine, and the help worked with increased vigor, and vowed they d stick with MacFarlane thru thick and thin. With the continued success of Mac- Farlane and Peterson, the men added dignity to their enterprise by incor- porating under the name of the Daw- son Mining ACompany. They were rivals worthy of the Amalgamated outht now, and the latter company recognized the power of the new com- pany by repeated offers to buy. But MacFarlane and his two partners re- fused. l guess we'll hold onto the works for a while, Mac told the Amalga- mated officials. Everything's work- ing out nicely, and our men are sat- isfied with the deal we're givin' 'em. SO the mining went on with cease- less rumbling, and the swish of the slag and water rushing over the sluice-boards and the gurgle of the water thru the screens went on night and day, never stopping a shift ex-T cept for the holidays. The three part- ners each supervised a shift, and for additional safety against treachery on the part of the Amalgamated Fishing 6: Mining Company, watchmen were kept guarding the works, while the men toiled ceaselessly on for the yellow metal which had become their god. Winter came, and with it the in- tense cold which froze the water in the sluice-troughs and prevented the screening and washing of the slag, but still the men worked on, piling up the slag in a high pile surrounded by a fence of barbed wire. The Amal- gamated Fishing 6: Mining Company had not yet received their machinery, and there was no their claim. To all appearances, the Amalgamated outfit existed. But in the middle of the winter, development on might have not