This week the account of a very happy event in the life of Fred Eliason was to have appeared in this paper. On Monday evening he and Miss Winnifred Brooke, who came a short time ago from Montreal to spend a year with her sister, Mrs. James Porter, were joined in wedlock by Rev. W. H. L. West. A more happy couple would be hard to find.
They had planned going east for their honeymoon. Mr. Eliason, who for years had been in the employ of the White Pass & Yukon Railway, had applied for leave of
absence for three months, and it was their intention to get away on Friday in the hope that they might spend the Christmas holidays at the bride's home in Montreal.
After completing his work on Tuesday morning Mr. Eliason took his bride for a walk. They returned to their home between twelve and one o'clock. After chatting
for a short time Mr. Eliason went out to attend to his duties at the roundhouse. Before leaving he explained to Mrs. Eliason how to regulate the dampers in the stove, saying that he would be back in a few minutes.
Time passed by quickly as Mrs. Eliason was reading, and not being familiar with her husband's duties, she had no anxiety because of his delay. It was not until some of the railway employees had called for him that she became aware that he was missing. The police were notified and were quickly on the ground making an investigation.
Although there had been a light fall of snow during the afternoon, tracks were found going from the door of the roundhouse south a short distance on the track, down
the steep embankment of the grade, then turning downstream to the left and walking close to the shore ice for a short distance, turning to the right and crossing the ridge of shore ice on to the ice proper, turning to the left again the tracks were in a fairly straight line to a strip of glare ice within about four feet of the water's edge. No marks were found on the glare ice and no return tracks were found.
Nothing further is known. The police report Mr. Eliason missing.
No individual in Whitehorse was more highly respected than Fred Eliason. He was a man of clean habits and life. To his more intimate friends he often spoke of his mother, for whom he had the greatest love and respect, and of other relatives. He possessed a keen sense of honor.
If the tracks referred to are the tracks of Fred Eliason there can be little doubt that his body is in the river. For what purpose he went down there will never be known. When he left the house saying that he would be back in a few minutes, he fully intended to be back or he would not have said so. He had a high regard for the truth. He and his bride of a few hours were very happy and in complete accord.
Whether he saw something floating down the river, went down to effect a rescue, and slipped when touching the glare ice, for only last winter on the river he rescued a dog from a number of coyotes; whether he suddenly became temporarily deranged; or whether he had an obsession that he was going somewhere or doing something entirely different will never be known.
Of one thing those who know him best feel sure, and that is that Fred Eliason in his normal state did not deliberately walk into the river.
While the whole affair is sad beyond description some consolation is found in the firm conviction of his friends that if our worst fears are true Fred Eliason was the victim of an accident or of a sudden mental derangement.
Some of the relatives are still in Denmark, some in the United States, and the young bride here, and to them all sincerest sympathy will go out from the many friends of Fred Eliason.
