| Summary: | 6 tifs. A letter written by George A. Barrows to Lewis (perhaps Coleman) in Seattle, Washington dated June 16, 1901. The letter details the sea voyages and travels of Barrows at the turn of the century. Five images are the letter, and the sixth image states "Martin Fallers, Laura MacDonald, Mary Hines, Cummings, said to --- back Tuesday WEEK." The letter reads: Dear Lewis: Many thanks for your long and very interesting letter. I am very glad the news personal to yourself is so good. A man of family, of position and of aldermanic proportions, you are certainly in luck. May all sorts of good fortune continue. I hardly know how to start to tell you of my very eventful career during the last few years. I have not time now to write a book, so will send you my diaries of `98 and `99 wherein you will see among other things how I was twice [2] wrecked at sea, on one occasion being cast away on an island in Behring [sic] Sea. As soon as I stopped keeping a diary I stopped getting ship wrecked. Least summer I was Ship Surgeon on a large Steamship--the "Oregon"--running between Seattle and Cape Nome. A great deal happened then but I have no record of it and it would take too long to tell. Since last Fall I have been teaching Obstetrics and Diagnosis of diseases in an Institute here; but this job is now over - for the summer vacation - and we are "up against it" again almost as badly as when we struck Seattle. I hoped to get the "Oregon" again [3] this summer - but a doctor who is a great friend of the owner has thus far euchered [sic] me out of it. You see I am as far off as ever from my "Four Million," although the experience I have had may sometime help me to get it. I know Alaska pretty well and how they work the ropes there, very well. The country is full of gold and if we are ever so fixed that we could get there - with the means to stay a year or two - I believe the "Four" would be on the way. One must winter there in order to get a chance at new diggings before news of them reaches the States. Before [4] the rush of people to Nome got there every valuable claim had been taken up by men who had wintered up the Yukon. People who are not Capitalists who go in for the summer, invariably, are sorry -- others too, for that matter, who lack necessary knowledge and judgment. This is a great country out here. You ought to take a long vacation sometime and come out and see what God`s country really is like. Magnificent scenery and climate, living cheap, things civilized and a bracing move and get-up to affairs that would make the effete East [5] hold its breath. Let me hear from you soon. No hurry about returning the diaries. Your sincere friend Geo. A. Barrows. 16 June 1901. The University of Tennessee Libraries (Knoxville, Tennessee) is the digital publisher.
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