Category: Biographies

The True Life Story of Swiftwater Bill Gates

IT may seem odd to Alaskans, and by that I mean, the men and women who really live in the remote, yet near, northern gold country, that “Swiftwater Bill”--known to both the old Sour Doughs and the Cheechacos--should have asked me to write the real story of his life, yet this i...

Chapters

15. CHAPTER II.

IT WOULD be useless to encumber my story with a lengthy and detailed narrative of Swiftwater Bill’s experiences in the first mad rush of gold-seekers up the narrow and devious c...

17. CHAPTER IV.

IT HAS always seemed a standing wonder to me that when Swiftwater had separated himself from about $100,000 or more in gold dust with the Lamore sisters as the chief beneficiari...

21. CHAPTER VIII.

TO THE people of Dawson, in those days, starving through weary winter months for want of frequent mail communication with the civilized world, and hungering for the ebb and flow...

28. CHAPTER XV.

SWIFTWATER’S clean-up on Number 6 Cleary Creek was $75,000 in gold. The summer was come to an end and there were signs on the trees, in the crackling of the frosted grass in the...

26. CHAPTER XIII.

SOMETIMES, when I recall the stirring events in Swiftwater Bill’s career, following the time he used the money I raised by pawning my diamonds and then went to California, I am...

20. CHAPTER VII.

HYDRAULIC mining in the Klondike country, by the time that Swiftwater had assembled his big outfit on Quartz Creek was in its very infancy, yet there were plenty of wise men in...

22. CHAPTER IX.

IT WAS pitch dark when I left the cabin and made my way directly, as best I could, to the town with its dimly lighted streets. It seemed to me that I had never had a friend in a...

18. CHAPTER V.

“MAMA,” said Bera to me, “Mrs. Ainslee is not nearly so well today, and Mr. Hathaway said when he came down from the hospital this afternoon that she wanted to see you sure this...

30. CHAPTER XVII.

I AM getting to the end of my story, and as the finish draws near, it seems to me, that I have not quite done justice by Swiftwater Bill, in at least one respect--and that is th...

29. CHAPTER XVI.

AS A VERACIOUS chronicler of the events, inexplicable and unbelievable as this story may appear, of the life and exploits of Swiftwater Bill Gates, I want to begin this chapter...

19. CHAPTER VI.

A FULL thirty days after Swiftwater and Hathaway had left Seattle, following the affair on the decks of the steamer “Humboldt,” found the miner and his friend in Skagway. It was...

16. CHAPTER III.

SWIFTWATER has often told me that he never could quite understand why it was that the way to a woman’s heart, even his own way--Swiftwater’s--was so hard to travel and so deviou...

27. CHAPTER XIV.

On Number 6 Cleary Creek, in the Tanana, the man who gained his chiefest fame in the early days of Dawson by walking around the rapids of Miles Canyon, because he was afraid to...

25. CHAPTER XII.

One morning in Seattle months after Bera and I had set up a little housekeeping establishment in Seattle, I picked up the Saturday evening edition of The Times and almost droppe...

23. CHAPTER X.

AS I write this chapter, which is to interest not only the friends and acquaintances of Swiftwater Bill, but which also may throw a new light on his character, and may even arou...

24. CHAPTER XI.

AS I look back on that day in Nome and recall the sensation created in the little mining camp when the paper containing the story of Swiftwater’s perfidy was circulated abroad a...

31. CHAPTER XVIII.

AGAIN it is spring, and I sit all alone in my room in Seattle, knowing that the city is filled with miners, their faces set in the direction of the Golden North, their hearts be...

14. CHAPTER I.

A LITTLE, low-eaved, common, ordinary looking road house, built of logs, with one room for the bunks, another for a kitchen and a third for miscellaneous purposes, used to be we...

32. CHAPTER XIX.

Little Freddie Gates, Swiftwater’s youngest boy, looked up in my face with the dearest kind of a smile, and put his arm on my shoulder. The little fellow had just had his night...

13. CHAPTER XIX.--Nurse Abducts Clifford, Swiftwater’s Eldest Son, and

IT may seem odd to Alaskans, and by that I mean, the men and women who really live in the remote, yet near, northern gold country, that “Swiftwater Bill”--known to both the old...

7. CHAPTER XII.--Swiftwater Returns, a Broken Man, to Seattle--Hides

2. CHAPTER III.--Swiftwater Buys Gussie’s Love by Giving Her Virgin

11. CHAPTER XVII.--Swiftwater, Again in His Familiar Role as the Artful

8. CHAPTER XIII.--Swiftwater Gives Business Men Swell Banquet on Borrowed

6. CHAPTER X.--Swiftwater Elopes With Kitty Brandon, His Fifteen-Year-Old

4. CHAPTER VII.--First Born of Swiftwater and Bera Sees Light of Day on

10. CHAPTER XVI.--How Swiftwater Secures His First Great Miscarriage of

12. CHAPTER XVIII.--Laws of Our Country Have Large Loopholes for Criminals

3. CHAPTER V.--Love on First Sight of Bera Beebe Is Followed by an

5. CHAPTER IX.--Hard Lines for a Deserted Woman in Dawson--Driven From

1. CHAPTER II.--Lure of Great Wealth and Love of Gussie Lamore Starts

9. CHAPTER XIV.--Swiftwater Strikes It Rich on No. 6 Cleary Creek--Trip