The Klondike Millionaire Who Proposed to a Stranger

Among the passengers on the White Pass & Yukon railroad train wrecked May 1 was a bride and groom on their honeymoon trip into Alaska. Mr. and Mrs. William Liell left Seattle during the latter part of April and went to Skagway, where they took on the train for Lake Bennett.

Mrs. Liell tells of her first scare in the war: "We left Skagway about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, May 1, on the White Pass & Yukon train for the summit. About 8 miles out one coach fell off the track, and all that saved us from going over a precipice was a large rock. There were 15 passengers, two being women. We got off with a few bruises."

Mr. and Mrs. Liell have a romantic history. While Liell was in the Klondike region in 1898, he took out vast quantities of gold. A newspaper correspondent representing number of Eastern dailies wrote a newspaper of the Klondike nabob, giving some far-fetched details of his life history and his later return. One of the papers which carried the story fell into the hands of a Virginia girl who had known Liell when he was a little boy, but had lost subsequent trace of him. On the impulse of the moment she sat down and wrote a brief note of congratulation, mailing it to Dawson, N.Y. A happy accident it reached Bill in time, and called up the memories of long ago. He put the letter in his pocket, came out from the Klondike gold field, went to West Virginia, found the girl he had once known grown to woman's estate—and married her.

As Liell is rated among the wealthiest men of the Klondike, and is president of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, his romantic marriage and present honeymoon trip back to the Yukon possess all intrinsic public interest.