*

*
BURNS LAKE

ward and “Soapy” and his gang

thrived as never before.

Pursued by a Frankenstein of his
own creation, and anxious at all costs
to preserve amicable relations with
Skagway’s better element, “Soapy”
was forced notwithstanding to sup-
port those whose growing insolence
was bringing appreciably nearer an
almost certain day of reckoning.

Patriotism in Face of War

Prepared to grasp at any straw that
would help bolster up his difficult
position, he received with an osten-
tatious display of patriotism word of
the United States declaration of war
against Spain. Promptly the Com-
mittee of Three Hundred and Three
was reconvened and in a speech that
throbbed with torrid patriotism,
“Soapy” waved aloft the Star Spangled
Banner and called for volunteers. The
applause was simply deafening.

Next day he launched the Skagway
Guards, “Jeff’s Place” being beseiged
by hungry out-of-work chechakos.

With his greenhorn recruits
drilling clumsily in saloon yards,
“Soapy” wired the Secretary of
War and proudly waved before
the Committee a telegram from
Secretary Alger expressing appre-
ciation of “Soapy's ” and Skag-
way’s patriotic efforts.

Carried to greater heights on this

Tweedsmuir Hotel

Thomas Kelway, Manager

GATEWAY TO TWEEDSMUIR PARK
SPORTSMEN’S RENDEZVOUS

ULTRA MODERN ROOMS WITH BATH

BRITISH COLUMBIA

FISHING AND HUNTING
Second to None on the Continent

DECKER LAKE

DECKER LAKE
GENERAL STORE

SHIRLEY and BOB WHITE, Proprietors

Groceries - Hardware - Dry Goods

POST OFFICE

Fishing and Hunting Supplies

*
BRITISH COLUMBIA

theatrical wave of applause and patri-
otism he next promoted a vast celebra-
tion in which the whole of Skagway

was to co-operate to mark the
approach of Independence Day.
The Fourth of July, 1898, saw a

new metamorphosed Skagway draped
with countless Stars and Stripes and
hung with untold yards of blue, white
and scarlet bunting.

The streets were black with bearded
miners, businessmen and gamblers.
Dance hall harpies cheered side by
side with respectable housewives.
Children shouted with glee as they
waved tiny flags supplied by the self-
appointed Grand Marshal—‘Soapy”
Smith—while above the tumultuous
cries of excitement echoed thunderous
explosions of dynamite and the crack-
ling of six-guns fired by boisterous
revellers.

To the blare of a brass band
“Soapy” pranced on a _ milk-white
steed at the head of the procession,
his 10-gallon hat set at a rakish angle,
bowing with the showmanship of a
Buffalo Bill to the shrieking plaudits
of countless youngsters and the unre-
strained delight of the cheering
crowds.

And when, in the small hours he
was congratulated by Governor Brady
of Alaska, beguiled into being Chair-
man, and the celebration concluded

Planer Mills:

Burns Lake, B.C.

with a magnificent fireworks display,
followed by the last notes of the Star
Spangled Banner, “Soapy” Smith was
indubitably the lion of the hour. It
was “Soapy’s” hour of triumph.

Four days later John D. Stewart,
homeward-bound from the frozen
creeks of the Klondyke, with visions
of his home in the garden city of Vic-
toria in his mind, dragged his leaden
feet along the sidewalk of Skagway’s
Broadway.

A year of back-breaking toil had
netted him a meagre $3,000 worth of
gold dust. Many, haere were, who had
ost all... including their lives, and
he had a satisfied feeling as he felt the
comfortable sausage-shaped poke in
his pocket.

Prey for Vultures

Little did he think as the sancti-
monious “Bishop” Bowers cannoned
into him with profuse apologies that
he had already been marked as prey
for the vulture gang of “Soapy”
Smith.

Footweary and trail-worn Ee found
a room, cleaned off the grime of the
trail and, poke in pocket, set out to
exchange the heavy dust for bank-
notes that could be more conyeni-
ently hidden in his belt. But the
crafty Bowers was on the watch.
Anxious to help he steered the wily

Sawmills:
Teltapin Lake, B.C.

P.O. Box 339

MANUFACTURERS OF WESTERN WHITE SPRUCE * *

P.O. Box 419

TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION

Thompson Forest Products Limited

Manufacturers and Wholesalers of Western White Spruce

BURNS LAKE

ROUGH AND DRESSED LUMBER

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Page Seventeen