Adventures in Alaska

l the social orders whose members gathered together in clubs for humane work during the epidemic of typhoid fever, the first to organize, besides being the str

e circle of earnest men, brought me to a black-haired, black-eyed, sturdil

esident. "I don't know how he got into the Odd Fellows, under rules which bar saloon-keepers and bad

n, but shook hands with Irish heartiness and looked at me wit

dent chided, "You oughtn't to giv

ukon of some poor fellows who were broken and sick, and who must go "outside" or die. I made the round of the saloons and gambling halls, and going into one of thes

id to Bill; and to the others, "I can vouch for his

y case of distress, yet its prime object was to look up and help the sick Odd Fellows. I prepared a bulletin and tacked it up in the stores and saloons, directing that

meeting, I was passing Bill'

nk he's an Odd Fellow." Then, after a pause, he added, "

Billy stayed until he made sure that the man was well cared for in the charge of friends and a good physicia

pled "outside." I marched at once to the "Beach Saloon." "Billy," I said, "this old-timer has blow

answered. "There's ten saloo

eplied, passing

t a while before going on. I'll pa

door. "They're all ready," reported Bill. "If a

ion. When a man had been impoverished or made sick through drink I went to the saloons, only, for his relief. In other cases I ma

d Fellows' Club-a rainy, blustering day-I ca

Odd Fellow in a tent almost a mile from here. He is alone and lying in a puddle of

carried the sick man to the warehouse which we had turned into a temporary hospital, visited all the stores in an attempt to find mattresses, and, failing in that, bought eight large reindeer skins and piled them on the floor

re not tired he laughed: "Never h

tioned many distressing cases, showing an alarming increase of the typhoid. Then I asked for a rotary

e. In fact I have been all my life fighting saloons and saloon-keepers, and I expect to keep on fighting

my speech by asking that he be put on the permanent relief committee with me. "

Bill, who tried his best to shrink out of s

now anything else to do when he feels good. 'That's a new one on me,' he said. 'I never had anything to do with a preacher in my life. Didn't like 'em. Kept sh

t would be far easier for Bill to start on a three-thousand-mile winter mush on s

Knights of Pythias, Elks, Eagles, and others-to a like humane work; and Bill looked up their sick members and reported to their committees. He saw that all the sick had medical attention, and guaranteed the payment of scores of doctor's bills. Each steamboat that left Nome for

e funerals. One week I had eleven-all typhoid cases. Bill attended them all, looking

ideas of morality, therefore, were very vague. He was said to have been "run out" of several towns in Montana and Idaho. He had a violent temper and, as the phrase went, was "quick on the trigger." Rumor said that he had the blood of more than one man on his hands; alt

distress, his faults faded into the background behind the light of his many good deeds. St. Peter says, "Charity covers a

ave the country or die-poor fellows whose vitality was so low that they could not combat the cold and storms of a Nome winter. I was also preparing another warehouse-hospital. So great was the demand for space for the care of the sick that I had felt compelled to take into my own ten-by-twelve tent three men sick with the disease. So crowded was the tent that I had to sleep under

veral days. I was besieged day and night by friends of sick men for places to put the stricken ones where they could be cared for. The life of a number of the

f a store with a subscription paper in my hand. He look

on. I saw him just now staggering along with his face as red

ceremony they picked up the sick man who was in my cot and carried him to another tent near by. Then, in spite

eadache. There is no time to fool away. These men must go out

a bad case of typhoid," was his verdict, "and ought to have been in bed th

and laid his cool hand on my forehead. "Don't you worry about those men, Fat

built a new cabin. I helped her with it.

ht and battened with narrow, half-inch strips. A single thickness of building-paper poorly supplemented the inch boards. But cold and uncomfortable as it was, it

sion, the Odd Fellows. That the leader should thus be laid aside seemed a greater calamity than was actually the case. For Mr. Wirt of the Congregational Church arrived with l

agh was present and made his first public speech. As my illness and the general situation was discussed he

er the other sick folks, and call on me when you need any money. But I want you to leave Father Young to me. I've

, the deadly weakness, the emaciation, the chills and nausea! I was badly handicapped in my fight. The two months of we

stowed under the cot, a solid lump of ice. He asphyxiated us with foul gases when the door was closed, and filled the room instantly with fine snow from the condensation of the moisture when it was opened. He charged constantly upon the thin shell of the house with his high October and November winds, shaking it wildly and threatening to bowl it over. He drove, in horizontal sheets, the fine, flour-like snow, shooting it through batten-crevice, door-crack and keyhole; and, finding my

logs of driftwood out of the snow, and hauling this sorry fire-wood twenty miles by hand.

of nice foods for the sick, such as malted milk, the best brands of condensed milk, tapioca, farina, and other delicac

ergencies and "ministered to mine infirmities." The Odd Fellows supplemented the efforts of the convalescent, but still shaky Perrigo, and cut the

ce sent to me. Billy came, examined, smelled at, and tasted these liquors, with the air of an expert. Then he bundled all the bottles into a gunny sack and carried them away, saying, "He

and milk from their own stores and those of others, and brought them to me. The fellowship of the wilderness, the finest in the world, had its full e

nformation about other sick people. Billy, with his soft, low voice and gentle manner, hovered over me, sitting for hours at my bedside, lifting me in his two big hands with infinite care and deft

regularly every morning at three o'clock with his high-pitched tremolo, waking every dog within a mile, until all were howling, and keeping it up till daylight. There was no sleep possible for me while this concert was in progress,

ease as long as it continued, and the doctor on his morning visit would find me exh

hought, a legio

, and howled

ies, that, with

k'd, and, for

eve but what I

shrieked his solo to the moon. He followed up the sound until he found the dog, roused the grumblin

n a block from the cabin in which I lay. Every night at eleven o'clock a bugle of remarkable sweetness and expression would blow "Taps."

ight" bugle, and when it did not sound I grew anxious and distraught. I thought my watch was wrong or the bugler must be sick. I grew excited, restless and feverish, and passed a sleepl

a

st

d there was but little of it left. Mr. Perrigo, who was a Yankee tintype-picture peddler and knew no other trade, had tried his best to be a gold-miner; but, in common with the rest of the forlorn "Kobuckers," had made nothing at all. His wife, who had been a bookkeeper in Boston, valiantly took up the trades of waitress, washerwoman and c

I placed in Mrs. Strong's hands for sale my Parker shotgun, my typewriter, my gold-scales, my extra overcoat, all gifts from friends. She got good prices for them, and for the few articles I could sp

utiful wolf robes. I was lying in the heavier one. I delivered the other to Mrs. Str

g the robe for a higher price." The crisis I had dreaded had arr

ll bring," I directed Mrs. St

on Saturday,

rs. Perrigo's assistance she counted out the money, which was mostly in silver coins. T

did you get that

the robe,

got all t

id," she

me. "Mrs. Strong!" I exclai

. "What are you go

ld not consent to a raffle, so they kept the matter quiet. Bill displayed the robe in front of his saloon. Shares were offered at fifty cents each. My lady fr

would be ungracious indeed. With brimming eyes I t

efore it broke, whereas the usual limit of fever was three weeks. I reached the extreme of emaciation and weakness. I could hardly lift my hand. When they bundled me in a blanket like a baby and h

fraid it's about over. I don't think Dr. Young can last much longer. He can retain nothing on his stomach. We've tried all the brands of condensed milk in the camp to

Bill's face "went white as chalk, and then flushed red as fire.

See here: When I had the fever at Dawson, what saved me was cow's mi

Bill knew the owner was doping the milk with condensed milk and corn-starch and water and other stuff. So he strapped on his two big guns. He's great

lyzed your milk; didn't you, Doc?' (Doc. Davy was game, and nodded.) 'He says you put tundra water and all kinds of dope in it. I'm goin' to keep tab on you, an' if yo

e "bad man" brought me every day, with his own hands, a bottle of fresh milk. When Bill and the doctor came in with that first bottle Mrs. Perrigo carefully raised my head and gave me a bri

fresh meat, the owner butchered her. One of the Odd Fellows told me. Said he, "Bill just went wild when he heard of it, and we had all we could do to keep

he ever got so far as that. This much, however, I am proud to tell. One day in the spring of 1900, when the army of gold-seek

See what it has done to lots of good fellows around here. You are too big for that

ruitless. But in a few weeks one of my friends informe

exclaimed. "Did h

plied, "Bill said

he was mining at a distance, but I heard of his pride and pleasure as he displayed the gift and talked affectionately of "Father Young." He left Alaska that summer, and I