Incidentally, he ran
across numerous old acquaintances. Jacob Welse he had met at St.
Michael's in the fall of '88, just prior to his crossing Bering Straits
on the ice. A month or so later, Father Barnum (who had come up from
the Lower River to take charge of the hospital) had met him a couple of
hundred miles on his way north of St. Michael's. Captain Alexander, of
the Police, had rubbed shoulders with him in the British Legation at
Peking. And Bettles, another old-timer of standing, had met him at
Fort o' Yukon nine years before.
So Dawson, ever prone to look askance at the casual comer, received him
with open arms. Especially was he a favorite with the women. As a
promoter of pleasures and an organizer of amusements he took the lead,
and it quickly came to pass that no function was complete without him.
Not only did he come to help in the theatricals, but insensibly, and as
a matter of course, he took charge. Frona, as her friends charged, was
suffering from a stroke of Ibsen, so they hit upon the "Doll's House,"
and she was cast for Nora. Corliss, who was responsible, by the way,
for the theatricals, having first suggested them, was to take Torvald's
part; but his interest seemed to have died out, or at any rate he
begged off on the plea of business rush. So St. Vincent, without
friction, took Torvald's lines.
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