Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

194 HISTORY OF THE BANKthe bank's office at Skagway was wrecked by a desperado inbroad daylight, as told in chapter V. 1Here, too, Soapy Smithand his gang had reigned, and old-timers stillenjoy the storyof how he once took under his wing for a day a parson whowas trying to raise money to erect a small church at LakeBennett. Soapy heard of this and the first time that theclergyman was in Skagway he accosted him, and aftercertain bluff admissions that he wasn't a good man himself,succeeded in conveying the idea that he had respect andadmiration for those who were and who lived up to theirconvictions. He concluded by heading the list with a subscriptionof $200 for such a laudable purpose, and then thetwo went around Skagway on a canvass. In those days no manwith property and sense would refuse a request of Soaj>so the two quickly raised a sufficient sum, about two thousanddollars.Later on, as the money was being carried over thepass to Lake Bennett, Soapy 's gang held up the parson.Of course, Soapy himself was not in evidence.The branch at Whitehorse was opened in April, 1900.In addition to being the terminus of the White Pass and Yukonrailway, this place is the point of transhipment to riversteamers. It was here that Robert Service, at one time anofficer of The Canadian Bank of Commerce, acquired fame as apoet by writing his Songs of a Sourdough. It was here that hemust have learned to love this strange country, its life, peopleand customs, for old-timers are all agreed that no one who hadnot done so could have written as he did. A bank can soseldom boast of harbouring a poet that the opportunitycannot be allowed to pass of quoting his poem, "The Spell ofthe Yukon," which describes so vividly the evolution of thenew-comer in that far north country, the grandeurof itsscenery and its strong grip upon the imagination, conveyingat the same time, as it does, just a hint of those "high-spots"no old-timer ever missed on a trip to the "outside."ISee page 285.