Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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P12228 THE LINCOLNIAN -Tulle when all the crew except Maxwell and two of the men had gone to Dawson, Mr. Wingarten, head of the Amalgamated Company, came with four other officials to the claim. Max- well calculated that there would be action. Then the two, Maxwell and Wingarten, had a conference. Win- garten appeared two days later in Dawson and looked up MacFarlane and Peterson. A week later, the Dawson Nug- get reported that the Dawson Min- ing Company had sold their interests to the Amalgamated Fishing 6: Mining Company of Alaska, and that in the following spring the two claims would be run together. lmmediately after the sale, Mac- Farlane and Peterson left by dog- sledge for Southern 'Alaska, on their way to the States. Maxwell re- mained as manager for the Amalga- mated interests. Funny, said Peterson, after they had taken the boat from Juneau, how we were so suspicions of that Max- well fellow. Maxwell can stay in Alaska if he wants to, MacFarlane replied. As for me, l'm going to settle down when l get back in the States. l've seen the last of Alaska. Me too, Peterson replied. l'm going to take life easy in my old age. The two stood by the rail, taking a last look at the shores of Alaska, slowly fading in the distance. Mac- Farlane was sobered at the sightg a tear glistened in his eye, and he felt a lump rise in his- throat. He felt as though he were leaving his home. Every one had treated him squarely. He recalled all the years he had spent there: the years of unsuccessful prospecting: the find: the paystreak it developed into: the success over the Amalgamated interests. Alaska had been good to him. She had given him wealth, and now he was going back to the States to spend it. He dreaded going, now, while a day before he had been eager to get back to the States. Peterson stopped in Minnesota. which had formerly been his home. but MacFarlane, having no home but the land of the North, went to New York. l-le had planned a quiet life, but the old spirit of chance, the gambling with fate, was still in his blood. l-le experimented in the stock market. At first there was pleasure in the game. A loss there meant nothing to him, but his gains were not infrequent. A streak of ill-luck struck him, and he suffered loss after loss. Then he decided to play the market to win. FIVE years passed, and MacFar- lane's hair was streaked with white. Five years in New York had left a larger mark on his face than ten years in Alaska had. He knew of the change also, and he felt im- measurably older. He longed for the open trail. Traveling did not help much, but only impressed upon him his longing for the North. He tired of gambling with stocks. For him there was only one game, and that the life of a prospector in the wilds of Alaska. There was but one thing that he desired to do, and that was to go back to Alaska and hit the trail for the open places. That was his home, and he felt it deeply. Money is a small factor in a man's life, MacFarlane told himself lt cannot bring him those things for which he is longing. l must go back. So MacFarlane decided to return, not to prospect for gold, but to find happiness: to find that which is the greatest factor in life. He had all the money he wanted, and

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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

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would lead his June THE LINCOLNIAN Pazezs more: but he did not have that which he wanted most, happiness. He be- lieved that if he returned to the North he could find it as he had found gold. The North called to him, and he went. The source of my wealth, he said, shall be, also, the source Of my mirth. The journey was long, and Mac' Farlane was impatient. He stood anxiously at the rail of the steamer, watching for a sight of the North- land. l have come back, heisaifl to himself, as if calling out to Alas- kag will you give me happiness? His heart beat faster as he neared the shores. He was a hunter again: not of gold, but of happiness. He should have itl He should have itl MacFarlane felt that the country had promised him that. But this quest would be different. lt would be doubly hard to find happiness where he had found gold before. He found himself again in Daw- son. But now it was different. How the human race changes things! Here was Dawson-once home to Mac- Farlane-now as New York, with gambling houses, dance halls, thea- ters and cafes. Everything. in Mac- Farlane's eye, looked different now. It could not be Dawson-his hap- piness: he must look to the wilds. lt was the wilds which called him. THE next spring, MacFarlane sta rt- ed northward. With a dog-sledge and grub for a year, he mushed toward the McKenzie river. Along the route he cached a part of his food for his return. The first of the feathered fowl found MacFarlane ahead of them in their summer home. Northward he went, as did the birds. Like the birds, he was getting away from the warmer climate and from men. To the north he would find quiet, free from the cares of everyday. On and on and on Maclrarland mushed, far northward. He saved his rations by shooting wild fowl and venison for himself and the dogs. ln places he prospected for gold, but not with the same lust -as before. He had convinced himself that gold was not what he wanted: it was not what had called him back to Alaska. No, it was happiness which he now sought, and he should have it. He felt that the wild promised him that. She seemed to speak to him, to be near him, a spirit in embers of the camp-fire dying in the night. ' One night he was awakened 'by an early fall of snow drifting in on him thru the flap of his tent. Far away he could hear. the howling of a wolf- pack, and a fear came over him such as he had never known before. There seemed to be an unearthly note in their weird howl. It was a bold leader, MacFarlane decided, that pack so close to the own malamutes just again the fear crept Were the sledge dogs not hear them howl- tent, with his outside. Then into his heart. there? He did ing, as they surely would have with the wolves so near. No, they had left him: they had been called by the Northland. With the coming of the first snow, the feathered fowl flew southward, but MacFarlane did not go. He was held enchanted. The feathered fowl might come and go, but MacFarlane was to remain. Now he ate sparingly, for he planned to winter right where he was, and move with the coming of spring. But the monotony of places, of the unbroken wore on him. He had not happiness. He felt that he crazy if he did not break dullness of that life. He remained until the worst of the winter was over, then, strapping as much of his the open whiteness, yet found would go out of the