The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 19, 1897, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXIL_N 0. 49, ING, J ULY 19, 1597. PRICE FIVE CENTS. SACKS 0f NUGGETS IN THE BUNKS Value of the Portland’s Freight Was Under- estimated. GOLD SMUGGLED IN BY| EKLONDYKERS. Nearly a Million Dollars in Dust Not Listed on the Register. SPREAD OF THE MINING CRAZE | ON THE SOUND. Men Resign High Salarles and Sail Northward on the Steam- ship Al-KI. WasH., July 18.—Later and uthentic news places the amount re brought down from the famed ke by the steamship Portland at 000, and there is gosd reason to be- lieve that the sum was nearer $2,000,000. | since which time we have been continu- | In this connection something in the na- | ously associated together in mining and | ture of a confidence game appears to have been worked on the North America Trad- ing and Transportation Company, or its officials in charge of the Portland; by the miners. Each man was required to place bis gold dust in the ship's safe, but this was not done, any means. Many of the mi. se ed their dust in biankets and luggage, which were taken either to their statercoms or thrown carelessly T | bas a family of sdyen children. | left Seattle for the Yukon a year azo last l March he was very poor. One of the sons | cared for the family, while another and the faiher sought fortune in the Alaskan l placers, They were successful beyond | their boldest ana most fanciful dreams. | Stanley made the statement to-day that | he would not take $1,000 000 for his pos- |.~'essmns in the Klondyke. In less than | three months he and his partners took out $112,000 from claims 25 and 26 on El | Dorado Creek. This great sum of money, | incredible as it may seem, simply repre- | sents the yield of prospect-lioies and shafts sunk here and there in order to find bedrock and ascertain something as tothe actual value of the claim. They bave actually in sight on these two properties over $1,000,000. - They are 500-foot claims, and every prospect-hole gives up dirt run- | ning over $1000 to the lineal foot. Stanley and his partners, the Worden brothers, also own claims Nos. 53 and 54 on El Dorado Creek, known to contain equally as high-paying dirt. Thev pur- chased for §40,000 spot cash a half interest in claim No. 32 on El Dorado Creek and they also own valuable ciaims in Bear | Gulch, Last Chance Gulch and on Indian | Creek. The pans on the cliims being de- veloped (Nos. 25 and 26) run from $300 to $154 Five pans taken at random yielded | $75) and now and then a single pan goes | as high as $500. When the owners first bezan sinking | prospect holes, so general was the excite- | ment and the rush to get claims that men could not be found who wouid work for wages at any price. Eight men were | finally induced to work ciaim No. 25 fora | while on shares. six weeks and Stanley said their propor- tion for the labor performed averaged §5600 to the man. Ot his trials and good fortune in the Alaskan placer fielas Stanley said: | "I wentto the Yukon a year ago last ‘Mnrcb, having never teen there before. | On the steamship Al- en route to Ju- | nean and Dyea, my sou, Samuel Stanley, and I met Charles and George Worden, | and we entered into a kind of partnership, | other business affairs. The Wordens were | formerly from Sackets Harbor, N. Y., | where their mother now lives. | fornia, where Charles lived for a number | of years, he worked for a Petaluma aairy | concern. | “We had been wandering through the | Yukon districts for several montns with little or no success, when in the ‘latter | part of September we heard of the Kion- AT FORT GUDAHY about the ship, the passengers of on this occasion were persons possess, of plenty of the precious metal. Gold was not one of the things they especially craved. Others there were who deposited small bags of gold in the ship’s treasure box and carried large amounts in their valises, tucked away in stateroom bunks. Clarence J. Berry, one of the Klondyke kings, brought down at least $84.000 in nuggets, not a cent of which the Portland had any record. This statement is made on the authority of Cavtsin William K:d- ston, the master of the vessel, who learned of the matter only to-day. Berry shipped the money by the Nerthern Pa cific Express Company from Seattle te San Francisco. Several persons saw the receipt. Frank Piscator, formerly cof Chicago and PBaroaa, Mich.,, was part owner of this vast wealth, In addition to this Berry, who, while at Klonayke took out $130.000, had several bags of gold nug:ets on deposit with the proprietors of the Butler Hotel, where he stopped while in Seattle. These he.took slong with him to-day wkhen he left for his home at Fresno, ©al., via San Fran- cisco. There were, no doubt, several amounts equally as Jarge smuggled through this way, to say ncthing of a far greater number of smaller ones. “We had an account of not less than $900,000,” Captain Kidston observea, “and how much more was hidden away in the valises and blankets, of which we had no charge, I am unprepared to say, though I do know that Berry got through the lines with almost $84,000, for I saw the receipt.” When pressed for an estimate as to the grand total of the Portland’s gold cargo, Captain Kidston saia it was no doubt nearer §$1,€00,000 than the amount ac- counted for on the ship’s records. One of the most interesting of t e many Klondyke stories is a tale told by William Stanley. Heisa man 60 years old and ARRIVAL 9F 62LD HUNTERS ) | INGHILKOOT PASS Typical Scenes T When he They stayed with it for | In Cali- | | i | | \ dl | LA | | | | RAFTING View From Dawson South Over the Western Part of the Rich K!ondyk Dawson, the base of the Kiondyke mini N\ N SO 7 7 N 7//%/// 7 V0N “ s 2\ N A\ NN NN ol ~ . &\\, 4 = i o\ i R t\\.\&\\\\\\\fi\\\\\\\\\ \ \ ~.\“\\\,\ \ \ Wy \ §\ A\ N W™ Y — S ———————— 3 DAWSON CIT = sections on the Portland’s last trip, and is now being set up. On our way out we spoke, on July 9 the San Francisco whal- ing bark Gay Head, outside of Bering Sea, going into the sea, but she had no whales,” The steamship Al Ki sailed for Alaska this afternoon. She carried the advance summer guard for the Klondyke, num- bering about eighty. The number consti- tutes those who have in consequence of the sensational news made preparations within the past seventy-two hours. They are a very small percentage of those who will depart on the Portland and the Alaska boats of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company within the next forty days. Dyea, the mountain pass and the lakes appear to be the popular summer route. Oune reason for this is that the North American Trading and Transporta- tion Company will not take freight to ex- ceed 150 pounds for passengers. It will, however, sell passengers supplies from the company’s stores in Alaska, but at very advanced rates. By the Dyea route one can take in as much in the way of supplies as he chooses, though transpor- tation at this season of the year, owing to the absence of snow, is more dificult than in the early spring. All told the AI-Ki had over 100 passen- gers and a full cargo, including 800 head of sheep, 40 head oi cattle and 60 head of horses. The sheep and beeves are being driven to the Yukoun and Klondyke, so the prospects are that the miners will have a bountiful supply of fresh meat by the 1st of September. George Miller, who is taking up the sheep, calculated that he would reach El Dorado Creeks. [From Description Furnished by Mr, F. G. H. Bowker.] In the right foreground on the eastern bank of the Yukon River is the town of ng district. Just above, coming from the left or east, into the Yukon, is Klondyke River, into which flows from the south the now famed Bonanza Creek, whose course is about parallel with the Yukon from which it is separated by a range of irregular and unnamed hills which slope rather abruptly down to the river on the west, but more gently to Bonanza Creek on the east. e Gold-Fields, Including Bonanza and Fifteen miles above the mouth of Bonanza Creek from the west enters El Do- rado Creek, along whose course every foot of ground was early taken up. Two miies further up from the same direction comes Adams Creek, and seven miles further Victoria Creek. In the distance are seen the Indian River Hills, which separate the Kiondyke River busin from that of Indian River on the south. Up in these hilis Bonanza, White Bear, Hunker, Gold Bottom ana other creeks further east flowing norti into the Klondyke River, take their rise. | oN { LAKE on the Yukon. [Reproduced by courtesy of Frank Leslic's Weekly.] | dyke discoveries. At this time we were en route along the Stewart River, being bound fir Forty-mile, and iv was at Sixty- i mile that the news of the strike first | reached us. We hastened to Klondyke, | stopping first at the mouth of the siream, | The day following our arrival the little steamer Ellis, with 150 wildly excitea miners, who had also heard of the news, arrived. There was a rush and a mad | run sor the new discoveries along Bonanza | and El Dorado creeks . | *“We brought up first on El Dorado Creek, locaung claims 25, 26, 53 and 5. | That was ahout the 1st of Qctober. We | prospecied Nos. 25 and 2 until we saiis- | fied ourseives that we had good' pay dirt | ineach. Then we set about making per- manent improvements for the winter. This done we set to work sinking prospect holes in different parts of the gulch. Good pay dirt was taken from every hole and at the énd of three months we cleaned up $112,000. 1n getting this much gold we did notdrift over 200 feet altogether up and down the stream, nor did we crosscut pay streaks. We calculated that these two, and also Nos. 53 and 54, would run upward of $1000 io the lineal foot and, in reality, I figzured that we have fully $2,- 000,000 in sight in the four claims. ““Tuere 1s “little or no difference in the fifty-five or vixty claims on Ei Dorado. In fuct there are no ‘spotted’ claims on wne creek. Itis a case of all goild and yards wile and yards deep. Anywhere you run a hole down you find a pay streak. Our pans will average $3 through- out ali of the claims, Many go as high a8 $100 and §150, and [some still better. 1 1 | took out $750 in five pans and did not pick the pans either. I took the pan against my breast and simply scooped it in off the bedrock. “To make a long story short I think El Dorado Creek is the greatest placer propo- sition in the world, There has never been | anything discovered on the face of the globe like it. “How much do I think El Dorado Creek has and will yield? Well, we have all done more or less tiguring on that and with about the same result. For my part I would not be afraid to guarantee $21.000,- 000, and it will probably reach $25,000,000.” ““Will other creeks be found in the Klon- dyke district anything like as rich as El Dorado?” was asked. *‘Certainly: and in my opinion there will ba a number of them, too. Bear Galch is almost another Ei Dorado. There ia double bedrock in Bear Gulch, though but very few know it. The bedrocks are three feet apart. The gold in the lower bedrock is as black as your shoes, and in the top bedrock it is as bright as that found in El Dorado. We own No. 10 claim, below Discovery, on Bear Gulch, and also Nos. 20 and 2! on Last Chance | Guich, above Discovery. We prospected for three miles on Last Chance, and could not tell the best place to locate a | discovery claim. The man making a dis- covery on a creek is entitled by law to stake a claim, and take, also, an adjoining one, or, in otuer words, twoclaims, so you see he wants to get in a good location on the creek or gulch. “Hunker Creek 1s highly looked to, I thinx it will prove another great district and some good strikes have also -been made or Dominion Creek. Indian Creek is becoming famous. ““Wnat are we doing with all the money we take out? Well, we paid $45000 spot cash for a nalf interest in cluim Ne. 32 on El Dorado Creek. We have also loaned §5000 each to four parties on El Dorado Creek, taking mortgages on their claims, so you see we are well secured. Idon’t want any better security for my woney than El Dorado claims. I oniy wish I had a mortgage on the whole creek. ““We had a great deal of trouble securing labor in the prospecting of our properties. Old miners would not work for any price. We could occasionally rope in a green- horn and get him to work for a few days at $15 a day. 8ix or eight miners worked on sharas for us for about six weeks,. and when we settled it developed that they earned in that time $5300 each. That was pretty good pay, wasn't it? We paid one o.d miner $12 for tbree heurs’ work and offered to continue him at that rate, but be would not have it, 50 wept out to hunt a claim of his own. . “Am I going back to the Klondyke? | Yes, in March; but not to work. I am through. When we had taken out the last of the $112,000 I threw down my shovel and said ‘Good-by, oid boy; I will never pick vou up again,” nor will L I have been very poor at times in my life, and was when I went to Alaska, and I as- sure you it is a verv comfortable feeling to know that you have a competence for life. “My son Samuel and Charles Worden are in charge of our interests in Alaska. Gage Worden and I came out, and we will zo back in March and relieve them. Then they will come out for a short time. Gage goes from here to his home in New York State to make his mother comfort- able. “I am an American by birth, but of Irish parents. I formerly lived in West- ern Kansas, but mv claim there was not as good as the one I staked out on El Do- rado Creek.” Captain Kidston is enthusiastic over the Klondyke diggings. “That country is all right,” he Legan. | “It is a poor man’s country, though he should take plenty of ‘grub’ with him in going in. The stories told of the Kion- dyke are not exaggerated. There is no telling what is in the country. There are hundreds of good creeks and many of them just as rich, I think, as the Klon- dyxe. Indeed, I think better strikes will be made by the miners who went in this spring. They are scouring the country and are liable to make some great discov- eries. The great trouble is to get food in there sufficient to keep them alive. The papers should warn men on this point. Pienty of grub should be taken in, and also money to buy more in case of neces- sity. “The two transportation companies are straining every nerve, but I fear they will not be able to carry enough provisions in for the crowd that goes in next spring. The Portland goes loaded to the gun- wales, and she will be back here in Au- gust, brobably with Kiondyke news and possibly with some gold. But the big treasure will be brought out by the vessel on her last trip. She should then bring some of the summer gold. “Think of all those miners we brought down! Nota man bas less than $5000.and many of them had §50.000 and upwards. The only amount less than §5000 brought wus by a ‘kid’, a mere boy 17 years old. He had no partner, but he gathered $4000 just the same. I don’t know his name. but I think he went on East from here. Frank Phiscator took out big money up there, but he was not saying much about it. “The steamer C. H. Hamilton, which the Morans are building for our company,’ will be put into service on the Yukon in about thirty days. She was taken up in Dawson City by August 15 atthe far- thest. ; Among the Al-Ki's passengers were Joseph Green, colonel of the National Guard of Washington, and George Gil- more, a railway ticket-broker of some prominence. Ex-Governor McGraw and E. M. Carr, ex-br.gadier-general of the State militia, sail for the Klondyke on Tuesday on the Portland. They go not as spectators, but as active miners, expecting to take their chances along with the prospectors. The dis- covery of a shortage in Governor Mec- Graw’'s accounts as Sheriff of King County led to his financial ruin, as he deeded to the county all of his property, in order to secure the payment of the de- ficiency. There are no signs of an abatement of the excitement in Seattle regarding the Klon- dyke discoveries. The affair has almost resolved itself into the situation that all thase who can are going. The assertion may seem a little far-reaching, but it is substantially true as regards the condi- tion of affairs in this City. Some of the Klondykers who returned via the Port- land are advising all who contemplate going to the new diggings to wait until spring, but the advice is not heeded. It is safe to say that from 300 to 400 will disre- gard the warning and go in during July and August. One of the very best indorsements of the Klondyke is found in the fact that nearly every one of those who came out in the Portland is going back, but will rest until spring before doing so. -Several return physical wrecks, not so much from labor as from ‘want of proper food, espe- cially nourishment of the vegetable kind. One man had been on the Yukon nine years, and he said he came out because he at last began to realize that an exchange of health for riches was a very bad in- vestment. Wilkenson of Nanaimo, one of the m'n- ers who returned from the Kiondyke with $40,000, the result of three months’ labor, says that large and exceptionally fine specimens of ivory were found last sea- son, solidly imbedded in the icy gravel. The ivory tusks of mastodons, weighing as much as 150 pounds, have been found in an excellent state of preservation. Piles and piles of bones have been taken out and there is every indication thatdur- ing some of the prehistoric period large bands of mastodons grazed over the great plains of the Yukon Valley. This was during an age, no doubt, when the coun- try was subject to tropical influences. There are indications on every hand to show that rank tropical vegetation once Continued on Second Puge N DEATH HIS MERITS ARE KNOWN Troops of Friends Pay Tribute to the Late Col. C. F. Crocker. THE FUNERAL TO BE ON TUESDAY. There Will Be Services at San Mateo and by the Ma- sons Here. THE DEAD MAN KNEW HE WAS DOOMED. W. H. Mills Tells of the Late Mil~ llonaire’s High Sense of Honor. Regret that Colonel Charles F. Crocker is no more is far reaching and the sorrow is genuine that so kind-hearted and noble a man has been cut down almost in his prime. There was little rest for the grief- stricken family and their friends at the residence at Upiands Saturday night and yesterday. All Saturday night messages of condolence from all over the United States were transmitted by telephone and telegraph to the family of the dead mil- lionaire, while scores of per-onal friends called o give what comfort they could to the bereaved in the night of their great gloom. It was decided yesterday that it wouid be inadvisable to give these private tele- grams to the press for publication. It is said that nearly 1000 messages wera re- ceived. The members of the family we:e so thoroughly exnausted by the constant pressure during the past eight days that they practically closed the house this afternoon to all but intimate friends, whose presence bad been rcquested and | sougnt repose. The heaviest weight of grief bas fallen on Mrs. Easton, and for this lady wnuch sympathy is expressed by those who have observed her suffering. Yesterday after- noon William Crocker and his wife left the house at Uplands for brief repose at their own home. Mrs. Russell J. Wilson arrived from Santa Cruz yesterday in re- sponse to a message inviting her to come fort the family at Uplands. At'a family conference at Uplands yes- terday it was decided that the interment should be in Laurel Hill Cemetery, San Francisco, where his wife was buriea eleven years ago. In this selection the desires of Mrs. Easton and Mary Crocker, the colonel’s eldest daughter, were re. spected. The funeral ceremonies at Uplands will take place at noon on Tuesday. A special train consisting of thelate vice-president’s private car and 2 funeral car will leave the depot at Third and Townsend streets at 10 A. M. Returning the train will leave San Mateo at 12:45 and will arrive in San Francisco with the remains at 2 o’clock. The services at Uplands will be private. Itis expected that only the immediate members of the family and a few invited friends will be present. Reyv. Dr. Mackenzie, who left Ogden Sat- urday night, will arrive in time to conduct the service at Uplands. Charles Green, Russell J. Wilson and Henry T. Scott, to whom the funeral arrangements here are intrusted, say that the wishes of the fam- ily in respect to the privacy of the funeral ceremonies at Uplands will be enforced. When the funeral train reaches San Francisco the coffin will be borne to the NEW TO-DAY. ‘When any part of the body isn’t doin, the work that natu: intended it to do, it puts the whole sys. tem out of tune—out of harmony. When all of the parts do not work well tor gether, none of them can work just right, Sickness in one part of the body is likely to run into all parts of the body. Itisn’t necessary to be sick all over the body, in order that you may feel sick all over. ‘When children stand a row of bricks on end, they knock the whole row down by upsetling one brick. That is exactly what happens to the health when the bowels fail to perform their prop- er function. Constipation makes trouble all along the line—puts the liver out of order, is bad for the kidneys—bad for the stomach. It holds in the body poisonous matter, and because it cannot go any place else, it gets into the blood. The blood car- ries it all over the system. That makes sluggishness, lassitude, bad breath and foul taste in the mouth, fills the stomach with gas and causes windy belching, stops digestion in the stomach, causes sour stomach, heart- bumn and flatulence. It makes pimples and blotches and causes sick and bilious headaches. Nine-tenths of all human ail- ments are due to this one seemingly trivial cause. Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets cure constipation. They really cure it. No- body becomes a slave to the use of the “Pellets.” They cause no griping and are as mild as they are efficient. At any drug store. Look out for the druggist who tries to sell you something which he says is “just as good.” There is nothing just as good. There is nothing that is nearly as good. Anybody who tells you there is is mistaken—or worse. A GREAT MEDICAL WORK FREE. We have arranged to give away absolutely free ,000 of Dr. Pierce’s great book, *Common ense Medical Adviser.” It contains 1008 pages, and more than 300 illustrations, some of them in regular price, §1.. . _The profits on T s hare Deem sl 5 vubtitiice Ul present edition, a copy of which will be sent to any address on receipt of 21 one-cent stamps to cover cost of mailing ox/v. Address World's Dis» pensary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Yo