Papers of Helen Cecil Wilson, 1887 – 1919 ASL-MS 4-14-6

Identifier: ASL-MS-0004-14-006-01

Letter from: Wilson, Helen Cecil (Mrs. Edward Luzadder), 1867 – 1963

Skagway, Alaska [November, 1918]

Dear Adie;

I received letters from you and Marg and Miss Garrett

now in the University of Washington and if a second book of the

Lamentations of Jeremiah is needed I will just need the combined

description of the Flu as given by the 3 of you.

You poor girls. I can imagine what you have all been thru

I was not a whit surprised when I heard for all the time I sup-

posed that PEnnaylvania would be the worst place in the world

for we arrays all had it all the time anyway and this was just

a plague along the same lines as the old grippe I believe

I do hope evrybody escapes but its more than I have dared hope

I have been so uneasy for father and mother all alone. I have

also worried about Martha for IdahoCity would have absolutely

no quarantine and they handle so many papers from Boise.

But so far I have had no news of its being there and I take

the Boise paper.The whoel state is reeking with it.

It has been carried all along the lines of travel from Australia to

Scottland. The steamer Victoria took it to Kome and. when she

landed at Seattle, on her retun trip had a number dead and 4o

cases aboard.Haines, Juneau, every port around here has it but

thanks to our do tor (doctor) we have escaped so far.He simply the whole

outfit by the ear and made them come thru. he had alot of intelligent

cooperation from the better class here and the Territory allowed

a pest house to be created and every man high or

low who got off a boat here went into quarantine 5 days and

we have had no cases. No crews were permitted to land.The Haines

boat fromFortSeward may come for supplies but they anchor out

and it is taken out to them They have 5o cases at the fort and

I dont know how many deaths,

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A lot of them here would certainly like to spred it but they

will be locked up and heavily fined if they try any thing at all

If we keep it out that protects the interior and God knows the

poor interior has had enough.Dawson alone lost 15o people on

the Sophia;Whitehorse 5 and I dont know how many from

Fairbanks a nd Iditerod.I did write the story of the wreck to

mother I suppose she passed it on but it was the worst disaster

ever happened on the Pacific Coast.I sent Marg a letter telling

her of the dance those people gave and what a good time we had

and the most of them sailed on that boat The Canadians will

have no other.They dived for the gold bullion aboard and got

it they tell me &5,ooo but the ship has broken apart and I sp-

pose nothing else will be recoverd.

In addition to that bullion nobody-knows how

much gold wend down with the individuals as all those people

carried money and lots of diamonds.Do you remember reading in

Service of "The Lady, known as Lu".Well the original "Lady

known as Lu" went down with. 1o,ooo worth of diamonds on her

so they say.She was Mrs MurrayEads from Dawson.She has long been

identified with the aristocracy of the North and only the old

pioneers here know about her but a man named Ironsides who with

his mother went down on that boat told Mr Hahn while here that

she was "Lu" He had come in here in the 9o’s and knew.

One man who sang so much while here and whom we all liked, so

much had his wife nd five children aboard going out for the

first time in years and they too went down.The man

was found with two children strapped to him. I do not know if

the rest were found.

Everybody who has been to Juneau to help with the thing is laid out

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Yon have no idea of the com lications [complications] which have arisen Telegrams

from all over the world. It was a Canadian boat sunk in American water

with all nat onalities [nationalities] abord They told me at the bank that they

had given two drafts for 17oo each to two men from Iditerod

They with their papers went down; they cant hear from the Iditerod

bank untilnavigation opens next July and the money cannot be

paid until Estates are settled.

Well the Peace Armistice news came to us onMonday about

9 and withtrue Alaskan glory we celebrated for 3 days.The town

decided that the only way was to go toWhiteHorse onYukon Territory

wher "A man can raise a thrist" and to Whiethorse we went

We were invited and entertained believe me.Never cost a cent

outside the ticket Round trip for $5.ooThe Supt of the line

Mr Hahn is also our schoolboard chairman and he took charge

of us ,took us to dinner enroute and to the dance and sight

seing etc.We had a wonderful trip and to know we celebrated

Peace on American soil on day and then went loo miles into the

interior of Alaska to celebrate on Canadian soil next was an

experience,.---to see te AmericanFlag and the UnionJack side

by side and to feel that there was for the time at least no

boundary line was good.

They had a bonfire 25 feet high with the kiser in effigy

on top.The band came to the Hotel led by a torch light procession

Torches were brooms soaked in paraffine---and marched round

to the bonfire.Everybody stood and watched until the kiser fell

then everybody cut loose.All the Skagway men but Mr Hahn and

about 3 others got roaring ,snorting,howling yelling drunk.We

passed FatherGallant coming home as we went up and he told us

they had been making it over there for 3 weeks.One old cuss-

presented us with a bottle which we asked BillyBunting to smuggle

thru for us.He had the flag returning and he wrapped it in old

glory and we thot if we got the Flu we had aremedy but I think

its what grandfather would have called "Rotgut"

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I am sorry I bothered you about the goods for the waist

Dont mind it at all and I’ll send for samples to Seattle and

I^’ll send Louise the money for father and mother. I will do as

I said --leave evrybody else out but I want to send $5.oo

and have some one get them some nice canned things they will

like and that they will not buy for themselves.

You will note by the enclosed picture by looking to the right

that the top of the reef shows at low tide.Another boat once

ran on there and was successfully removed and nobody hurt.That

is a buoy you seeThe second storm battered to pieces and she

broke into and slipped right off into deep water .It will take

a long time for me to get over that.When we first heard it

she was on the reef and everybody she would float at HighTide

She did not and then we herad she was safely wedged in and w

woud not transfer until the Alice came up fromSeattle. Then

Saturday morning word came that she had gone down in the night

and 1 aboard perished.A man told me tonight they had found another

body along shore 15 miles below.That the man had reached shore

and was sitting against atree but he had evidently reached shore

exhausted with no matches and frozen to death. a It does seemto

me some of those boats might have helped but I suppose they

could not --at all events the lighthouse tender might have taken

chances

I should have enjoyed being in a city for the peace

news.I can imagine FofthAvenue Pittsburg or Broadway N Y

If they made as much noise in comparison as we did they weregoing

some. Tell Marg I will write her soon. Here's hoping you are all

out of the danger zone by this time. With all my love to all

of you -and a special hug and kiss for Junior and Alice ---Helen

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