mber for cabins or firewood being nearer than 12
miles. Logs were cut and hauled in by horses. There were raging
blizzards and great danger constantly threatened the men, who had to be
on the alert to avoid being lost or frozen. However, on February 27 the
Union Jack flew to the breeze and collection of customs began. A strong
guard kept the trail and men were told off to examine the goods of the
stampeders. There was a tremendous rush, and Strickland, overworked and
suffering from severe bronchitis, struggled along, ably assisted by his
splendid men. An enormous amount was gathered from those who were
rushing in by thousands from the other side of the line bringing their
supplies with them.

About this time Inspector Cartwright arrived from Regina with twenty
men, and Steele, going up the White Pass with him, put him in charge,
sending Strickland to Tagish, where the dry air soon restored him to
health. It is an illuminating comment on Steele's disposition to look
after others and forget himself that he was also, as Dr. Grant said,
suffering from bronchitis which he had contracted weeks before when
wading through icy waters to a boat. But as there was no one around to
order him off duty he just kept right on, trusting that his strong
constitution would see him through.

If physical conditions were bad with storm and cold, moral conditions
from the coast to the summits were worse. The authorities on the
American side seemed to accept as a sort of axiom the statement that a
frontier had to be lawless. Anyway "Soapy Smith," a notorious gunman and
gambler, who was eventually killed by a United States Marshal who was
going to arrest him and who was killed by "Soapy" at the same time, both
firing at one moment, had, with a big gang like himself, terrorized
Skagway and the trails for months. Murders, robberies, shell games and
the rest were practised without cessation up to the Mounted Police line
on the summits, where they suddenly ceased because things of that sort
would not be tolerated for a moment. At that point the incomers put
their "guns" away and went quietly about their business. One finds it
difficult to account for this difference unless by the assumption that
immigrants into the American Republic had taken advantage of her wide
proclamation of the ideal of liberty and had abused the ideal by turning
it into licence. In this way nests of law-breakers and anarchists were
allowed too much opportunity by local offic