Article January 25, 1900 Issue

A Plucky Newsboy

New York Sun

All Dawson is interested in a one-legged newsboy, and when, after a year's stay there, he started on his return to the States, all the men of the town and the miners from the creeks formed a procession and marched to the landing to wish him godspeed and a quick return. Ring, the hero of this occasion, has accomplished what means as much to the miners as the yellow metal they are digging from the bowels of the earth. The boy has established an independent and, storm permitting, a regular newspaper service for Dawson and the creeks beyond. He has founded the nucleus of a circulating library, and with his own ten-dog teams will send to his customers every week a library book, a newspaper, a magazine, and mail. The papers are twenty-five cents each, magazines two dollars each, and books two dollars a month. Mail he carries merely as an accommodation, but never receives less than twenty-five cents a letter, and often in addition any loose dust the miner may have handy.

He has received as much as sixteen dollars in dust for a letter, and the man was "so glad to see a human being and have something to read" that he thought he had the best of the bargain. Uncle Sam and Canada carry the under a prescribed weight, but refuse all second-class matter, including newspapers, magazines, or books. The expressage is three dollars a pound.

In and about Dawson are men of education from every country, and every one of them wants something to read. When the lights must be lighted for the long night as early as three o'clock, it means a good many idle hours till the twilight begins at nine next morning.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"End of the Century."