Houston Planer Company Limited

Manufacturers of

WESTERN WHITE SPRUCE and PINE

HOUSTON, B.C.

Strimbold Sawmill & Planing Co. Lid. |

TOPLEY » BRITISH COLUMBIA
TELEPHONE 3-M

MANUFACTURERS OF WESTERN WHITE SPRUCE AND LODGEPOLE PINE LUMBER, TIES AND TIMBERS

haven't the price of a meal. Shots are
exchanged on the streets in broad
daylight. At night the crash of bands
and shouts of ‘murder !’ mingle with
the cracked voices of singers in the
variety halls where wiley box-crushers
cheat tenderfeet and unwary travellers
alike, inducing them to stand treat of
which 25 percent goes into their
pockets. In the dance halls the girl
with the straw-colored hair trips the
light fantastic at a dollar a set. In
the White Pass above the town the
shellgame expert plies his game,
while frequently some poor fellow is
found lifeless on his sled where he sat
down to rest, powder marks on his
back and his pockets inside out.”

McLeod
Spruce Mills

Lumber Buying

Manufacturing
Planing - Shipping
e

P.O. PEROW, British Columbia

Houston Cash & Carry

J. T. GOOLD, Proprietor

GROCERIES - HARDWARE
DRY GOODS FLOUR and FEEDS
e
HOUSTON B.C.

President, HARRY HAGMAN

Telephone 306-M-2

TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION

Yet it was one of the peculiar quirks
in the character of “Soapy” Smith that
of the money that poured into his lap
much of it was squandered in helping
out the unfortunate or despairing, or
paying for funerals of the indigent.

Rarely did an appeal to “Soapy” go
unheeded. His accounts at the stores
for food furnished to unfortunates
assumed enormous proportions.

‘To many in that crazy city of sin
“Soapy” was looked on as benefactor
and friend and they wouldn’t hear a
word against him.

When a transient apostle appeared
penniless in Skagway, despairing of
his hope of erecting a church, it was
“Soapy” who came to his rescue.
Visiting the crips and honky-tonks
and gambling joints “Soapy’” handed
the amazed preacher $500 that evening,
with the promise of more to come!
Again the people of Skagway shook
their heads in blank amazement.

Mounted Police Face Big Job

In strange contrast to the lawless
conditions at Skagway was the peace-
ful calm that existed just across the
line amongst the ice-clad peaks and
eternal glaciers of the Yukon. ‘There
Commissioner Lawrence Herchmer
of the North West Mounted Police
had installed a handful of scarlet-
coated men under rugged Inspector
Constantine. :

Now, as Colonel Steele trudged
northward, accompanied by Superin-
tendant Aylesworth Bowen Perry, to
relieve Constantine of his onerous
command, Inspectors Belcher and
Strickland, in their frozen huts on the
blizzard-swept summit of the Chilcoot
and White Passes, impersonated the
law, collected customs dues, and saw
to it that each candidate in this race

LOGGING -

BUCK RIVER LUMBER COMPANY LTD.

MANUFACTURERS AND WHOLESALERS OF

WESTERN WHITE SPRUCE

to the Arctic Eldorado carried suffi-
cient foodstuffs for a year.
Having passed 30,000,000

pounds of food, and collected
$150,000 in customs dues, the
Mounted Police faced the prob-
lem of smuggling this gold
through Skagway, despite the fact
that word had reached them that
“Soapy” intended to lay in wait
and transfer these funds to his
own exchequer.

“The best thing to do,” Col. Steele
suggested to the enigmatic Zac Wood,
who’d been appointed to run the
gauntlet of Skagway’s hoodlums and
carry the bullion by ship to Victoria,
“is to circulate word you're on transfer

|

NEW OMINECA CAFE

“A Good Place to Eat”

a

*«
BURNS LAKE B.C.

BURNS LAKE HARDWARE
& GARAGE LTD.

J. S. BROWN, Manager
BUILDERS’ SUPPLIES

Sporting Goods - Harness
Furniture - Paints and Oils
Camp and Miners’ Supplies, etc.

*
CHEVROLET
and OLDSMOBILE DEALERS

BURNS LAKE B.C.

SAWMILLS - PLANING MILLS

P.O. Box 158, HOUSTON, B.C.

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