The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 5, 1897, Page 1

{ vor < & 1897—THIRTY PAGES. L5) = PRICE FIVE CENTS. NEW STRIKES RIVAL THE KLONDIKE Discovery of Streams Which Seem to Run Over Beds of Gold. ONLY FOUR AT JUNEAU WHO KNOW THE SECRET. y Prominent Mining Men Declare That the Finding of Wonderful Placer Beds in Alaska and the Northwest Has Only Begun. INEAU, ALASKA, Sept. 4.—Another fabulously ct strike has been made close to the on’s headwaters of A new Kiondike has been dis- vered, a new EI Dorado, the streams of ich seem to run over beds yellow with precious metal. The gold-seekers bound for the head creeks of the Stewart River or for the Klondike neighborhood will not 1 these new discoveries, but those who head up the ift and beautiful Hoota- inqua or the Pelly rivers and prospect among tne many creeks which compose headwaters may strike it. A small number of prospectors went nto that particular section of the country lv in the summer unaware of the rich ike that has been made. They went in belief that there ought to be diggings . the country, and there are. Only four men have been let into the secret here. ‘They are keeping it quiet and makine extensive preparations to go into the ter- ritory as early next spring as possibie. It isa le too late to try to get there this season. The original discoverer, with a friend, e Indiaus and packhorses, dogs, sleds and a two years’ supply of provisions, B went over the Takn Pass, south of bere, | $150; | this is ons of these Alaska tips it has | two weeks ago bound for the place. The new discoveries are about 300 miles from Aug. 30 (by |beenin thereall winter and was trying to amship Queen), via Victoria, B. | find his wav out. His provisions ran out, and he was on the verze of starvation, when he ran across an Indian. The In- dian gave bim his bearings. In coming along a creek on his way out he picked up eleven pounds of gold in large nuggets. | Washed down the creek with the gravel | the nuggets had caunght in riffles near the places where the bedrock was exposed. The high water having gone down, left the gold exposed along the banks. He no- ticed the peculiar gravel beds, and stoop- |ing down took up a handful. It was | heavy with gold. The nuggets he brought | out were picked from several handfuls of gravel taken up from different places on the edges of the bed. This man came to Juneau, but never said a word to any one till he got to Seattle, There he told a friend | who is a merchant. I won’l give hisname, | for the reason that I know that he will be | bothered todeath by people. He has been | here several days, and went to Skaguay | to-day to teke alook atthe town before | returning home. He 1s an old friend of mine. We are going in there next spring. I have already sent to Cooks Inlet for eighteen Copper River dogs, the big black ones, the finest there are i1 Alaska. They are worth about five ounces apiece, about they will make three teams. If aght me. I am going next spring if [ Dawson City in a beeline, and probably | live.” twice that distance by Vhen the place is located and made n there will be an exodus from Daw- City and another rush of excited peo- ple from the thickly populated States. It seems thet discoveries of rich placer beds Alaska and the British Northwest tory have only just begun. The thou- or and the thousands now swarmin on the border of the land of gold will doubtless stumble upon as good gravel as has ever been washed in pan or sluice- box. The story of the new bonanza-bed old arnd vouched for by J. A. Becker, a ning engineer and cne of the best- ¥nown men in Alaska. He has made a study of the geography and topography of the Territory. He is superintendent of P. 1. ana Lucky thance mines at Sitka. Mr. Becker is said to be a conser- vative m: Late last night in the lobby of the Occidental Hotel he called me aside and said placidly: “Tuere has been a new strike. the Klondike. Iam in on it.” “Room for any more?” I inquired. “P.enty,” he said. “T'll not tell you it where it is located. I want to get there myself pefore the rush, but I will say this much: Eariy last spring a tray per and prospector named rolk or Foik got lost beyond Lake Teslin. He had m It beats the watercourses. | ds that have already gone into the in- The others here who know of the new discovery are Arthur C. Bates, manager | of the San Francisco house at 30 and 32 | Fremont sireet of the Gutta Percha and Rubber Manufacturing Company of New York, who is here, but will return to San Francisco in a few day:, and Major Mor- ris Orton, one of the proprietors of the Occidental Hotel. Major Orion is an old | Yukon prospector. After nearly twenty years’ prospecting he mace a rich strike in the noted Cassiar district. A few years ago, Major Orton tells, there was a time in the Cassiar when he patched the ample portion of his trousers with flour sacks, but he came out all right. In regard to the new El Dorado he said: “1 have not seen these new diggings, but I think they are possible. I have never been in the country beyond Lake Teslin, "uux I have been in the country on the other side, the Cassiar. We always be- | lieved that there was gold, and plenty of ) it, over there, and at one time I did intena |to go in there, I am tco old now and I must let the young fellows go and find I kave no doubt that there are rich placer deposits in that section.” near as Mr. Becker would Jocate the where the eleven pounds of nuggets > picked up in a few minutes was that | it is between the head of Lake Teslin and | the headwaters of the Mackenzie River, | | plac J. A. BECKER, the Well-Kncwn Mining Engineer, Who Vouches for the Discovery of a New Klondike, 8 h""\nu 72 4 W W / % 74 / WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, the Apostle of Free Silver, Who Declares That the Parting Company of Wheat and Silver Will Aid the Cause of Bimetallism. vening range of mountains. He would not say whether the creek is ‘on the coast or the tarther side of the mountain range, but beyond Lake Teslin is an expanse of country not only never prospected, bui never trodden by the foot of a white man, There are oid prospectors by the score who this ground. Lake Teslin is perbaps the largest of all the bodies of water lying in the great basin between the Coast Range and the Rocky Mountaine. It is naviga- ble, and the Hootalinqua River is naviga- ble. Small steamboats, such as now ply on the Yukon, can go trom St. Micbael up to the Hootalinqua to the heaa of Lake Teslin. The bars in the Hootalinqua River bave been worked tosome extent and found to pay well. . It is the general understanding in Juneau that a line of small steamboats will be run on Lake Teslin next season, but nobody seems to know who is going to put them on. bility of the Taku and Stickeen passes, south of here, and the indications are that they will be popular gateways to the Yukon and Hootalingua next year. A steamboat now rups on the Stickeen which comes out near Fort Vrangel. News of another rich strike in placer ground has resched Juneau from the Unuck River, which runs out of the mountains near Dixons Entrance. In- dians are reported to have taken out $20 to $50 per day. They came out after a few weeks' work, and when they returned, broke, could not fina the place again. The Tndians believe that a glacier has slid down and covered it up. A number of white men have gone from Fort Wrangel and Juneaa to try to find it. The Indians are poor gold miners. The white men promise themselves they will take out $10 where the Indian took out $1. Heedless of the rush and excitement, the thousands of stamps in the many mills around Juneau keep up their deafening racket night and day crushing gold out of quarz. There is haraly a miil in Alaska_that has not annually increased its capacity out of its surplus earnings. HaL HorrMax., Fortune-Seekers Disheartened and Desperate Over the Impossi- billty of Reaching Klondike. JUNEAU, AnAsKA, Aug, 30—(By steam- ship Queen, via Victoria, B. C., Sept. 4).— The situation at Skaguay is critical. De- ceived by stories of the condition of the trail, halted and unable to move on, see- ing the Klondike further away than whe_n they siaried and an impossibility this year, the crowd is in an angry, impatient, dangerous state of mind. Tke slightest disagreement provokes a quarrel. The first murder nearly bappened yes- terday. D. F. Johnson, better known to the camp as “‘Pegleg,” who has been run- ning a rowboat be.ween ship and shore, shot at a restaurateur atter a quarrel over a bill of $7 50 for lumver. He winged him in the suoulder. Johnson then used the gun as a club and knocked his man sense- less. "At the same time the weapon exploded, missing Jonnson by a few inches. United S:ates Com:aissioner John U. Smith and Judse C. H. Hannum of Juneau rusned in and stopped the row. Johnson was fined $150 by the commissioner. He retused to pay. and in default, is now lock d up -in ihe Federal prison at Sitka. He has been in three other rows at Skaguay. No unanimity prevails in thecamp. The have always believed 1n the richness of | Much talk is heard here about the availa- | which flow on the further side of an inter-, desire to get the trail in pascable shape is general, but there is no concert in action. The frequent meetings are not well attended or harmonious. Indifference is spreading. All express willingness to go | to work on the trail, but comparatively | few actually do so. The New York World’s | expenditure of money for the purpose of putting the trail into condition was ac- cepted with general enthusiasm. Even if the trail is in good shape iuside of a week, it will not be possible for more than a very Dawson before the river freezes. For nine-tenths oi the people on the ground the situation is a puzzle with only one solution. That is to winter on the eground or return to Juneau or home. Golden dreams have changed into a night- mare of the bitterest disappointment. To leave Skaguay means to abandon expen- s.ve outfits to be either stolen or ruined by the winter storms. To remain is about as expensive as to go away and re- turn in the spring. Teuts are unsuitable to live in there during_the winter. The rains are furious and the wind sweeps | down the canyon with enough velocity to | almost blow the bark off the trees. It is | much colder and stormier at the bead of lLvnn Canal than at Junean. To build | board cabins is beyond the means of many; lumber is very expensive here. Many of those at Skaguay are already running short of money. Five hundred transients are now lodged in Juneau, and the limit is 300 more at the outside. Men are coming in daily from Dyeaand Skaguay. Probably 250 might be accom- modated across the channel at Douglass City and Treadwell. What will finally be done the arrival of winter will reveal. The Klondike has ruined hundreds finan- cially before they have got fairly started on the journey. The Kiondike is now men- tioned in the same breath with curses. This is not pleasant reading; the plain truth is not always pleasant. It is now “every fellow for himvelf and the aevil take the hindermost.”’ Ifthe devil assumes small percentage of the crowd to reach | the form of winter he will overtake thousands. The flat is black with horses, moving with' “for sale’’ sizns upon them. Fully 1000 beasts'of burdens are here, idle, use- less and ‘eating their heads off, They can be bought now for $20 each. Under the circomstances it will cost more than the beasts are worth to feed them through- out the winter. Far from imag ination is it to say that before the coming of spring the fluts and the tide that laps the front of the city of tents’ will run red with the blood of slaughter. These voor beasts are already subject to horrible crueity. They return from an attempted trip over the trail with backs sore, raw, torn by the packs and pack saddles, with rivulets of blood trick- ling down' their 'legs from wounds re- ceived on jagged rocks and roots. In New York, Chicago or San Francisco their piti- ful'.condition would excite public indigna- fion and the drivers would be instantly arrested. No man has really heard pro- fanity until he hears the driver of a pack train swear on a mountain trail. The Skaguans have already had a taste of winter. Yesterday a chill and howling wind, carrying sheets of rain, swept down the canyon. It lashed the bay into fury. Ships had to heave anchor and to pull out into the canal for room to ride the storm. One hundred horses had been unloaded from the steamship Bristol upon two scows lashed together. A small steam- boat, making a great deal of fuss and splurge in its effort to be a tug, was try- ing to tow the barges to Dyea. The lash- ings parted, owing to the high wind, and the scow drifted ashore on therocky point which juts out into the canal between the rival camps. The scows bumped against the rocks in imminent danger of going to pieces. Neither man nor beast could have lived in such a sea. The horses shivered in the relentless storm forty-eight hours, with notbing to eat or drink. Up .the trail outfits and supplies were Continued on Second Page. arrived here to-night. less trail. make the trail passable. work. years ago. the Yukon. Alaska. his visit to Skaguay, Dyea and Muir Glacier. ‘| went ashore at Skaguay and want several miles up the trail. the poorest trail | ever saw, and | have seen many in my life, They are laying.corduroy up the hills. slippery corduroy ladder for a horse to climb? ~He will fall and break his legs or neck or both. An experienced packer will lead a horse over these ridges without a trail to better advantage and easier than horses are now being taken over the Skaguay trail. * It will require much blasting and filling in with broken rock to They are moving over it, but it is very hard and slow JOHN ‘MUIR’S VIEWS ON ALASKA’S WEALTH. JUNEAU, ALASKA, Sept. 1—(By Steamship Queen, via Victoria, B. C,, Sept. 4).—Professor John Muir, homeward bound, was aboard the Queen when she He freely consented to gsve THE CALL his impressions of He said : It is about Itis a wild, a reck- What is the use of building a ‘At Dyea I did not go ashore, but | was told by a passenger who went up the trail to Sheep Camp that gold-seekers are moving right along cverit. Asto gold mining in Alaska, I think now about as | did when | wrote on the subject eighteen Gold and other development has only just begun. believe that the Kiondike is the only rich gold-bearing stream in th: Yukon basin. Gold can be found in nearly every stream in Alaska. followed by commercial developments. Alaska is very rich in .quartz. may bea wagon and railroad from British Columbia up into the Cassiar country and to The rush to the Yukon has, in my judgnr>nt, only just begun. sands of prospect.rs will go next year,and | anticipate that other unusually rich olacers will be uncovered. . Uncle Sam made not a poor beginning when he bought The glacier is there and attending to business. further back than it was when 1 last saw it a year ago, so that our ship sailed that distance. through water .that was once covered by the glacier. | glaciers is to become smaller. In time the Muir glacier may entirely disappear.”. There is nqreason to The finding of gold will be I'think there Thou- It is one mile and a half The tendency of HAL HOFFMAN. HIGH WHEAT, - LOW SILVER, TH William Jennings E THEME Bryan Writes About the Law of Supply and Demand. SAYS THE PRESENT CONDITIONS WILL AID BIMETALLISM. “If Republicans Desire to Claim Credit for the High Price of Wheat They Must As- sume the Responsibility for the Famine in India.” HE rise in wheat will aid rather than injure the cause of bimatal- lism. While a few people may be inclined to give an administra- tion credit or blame, as the case may be, for everyihing that happens dur- ing its existence, every intelligent person reasons from cause to eftect. Wheat has risen because the foreign crop has been exceedingly short. Bimet- allists contend that the law of supply and | demand is universal. They apply it not only to money bat to buliion, both gold and silver, 10 wheat and to every other article of value. They contend that the exchapgeable value of both money and merchandise will be affected by anything which affects either the demand or the supply. The American wheat-grower is just now profiting by the almost unprecedented disaster which has overtaken wheat- growers of India, Europe and South America. When wheat reached 75 cents a bushel a Republican, in Western Ne- braska, pointed out that the rise was just about equal to the tariff on wheat, and at- ributed the rise to the Dingley law, but it would be an insult to the intelligence of the average Republican to suppose him capable of cherishing such a delusion. While wheat is higher in Liverpool than it is in New York—and it always, or nearly always, is—a tariff on wheat has no influ- ence upon the price in the United States. In an interview given out August 22 President McKinley said: “The cause of the present boom in the West is un- doubtedly due, in a great measure, to large crops and high prices caused by the failure of crops in other countries.” If Republicans desire to claim credif for the nigh price of wheat they must assume the responsibility for the famine in India. Will any Republican convention “point with pride’’ to the famine as an evidence that the Republican party is redeeming its campaign pledzes? Will the Republi- can party pledge itself to use its best efforts to continue the famine abroad, as it pledged itself last year to promote in- ternational bimetallism ? The most significant thing about Re- publicans rejoicing over the rise in wheat is that in admitting the rise to be benefi- ficial they answer the arguments made last fall by leading advocates of the gold standard, and plant themselves on sround heretofore occupied by bimetallists. We were told last fall that an appreciating dollar was a National blessing, and vet within a year the entire Republican press is in ecstasy, because the purchusing power of a dollar has been to some exient decreased. Wage-earners were told last fall that a rise in the price of commodities would be a detriment to them, and yet, behold how happy Republican spellbinders are be- cause one great, staple—flour—has risen. Laboring men were told that their wages would be virtully reduced when it re- quired more dollars to buy a given amount of food and clothing. Can it be that our opponents have forgotten the “Rail- way Sound-money clubs’’? As soon as employes ask for their share of the prom- ised prosperity the large employers will be compelled to raise wages or cease boasting that prosperity has returned. ‘While Republicans seem to have come over to our position there is an essential difference between them and bimetallists. The latter desire to raise all prices to a bi- metallic level and then keep them there by a financial system which will furnisb a standard of money sulficient in volume to keep pace with the demand for money. The former praise the dear dollar, but grow happy over the cheapening of 1he dolfar in its relation to a few articles. The general rise qu.ckens enterprise for the | time-being and maintaining the level, | when reached, protects business in gen- eral, and producers of wealth in particu- lar, trom disasirous effects of falling | prices; a rise 1n a few articles may bring an advantage to those who produce such | articles, and yet be a detriment to those who are engaged in the production of | articles which do not enjoy a correspond- ing rise. A few instances mav be given: is high the grower will be benefited, but | the manufacturer oi woolen goods will ! suffer unless there is a corresponding ad- | vance in the price of woolen goods. But an advance in the price of woolen goods | s an injury to those who wear woolen zoods unless they enjoy a corresponding | increase in their incomes. If sugar rises the sugar trust reaps the profit, but it must be at the expense of those who coa- | sume sugar, unless consumers of sugar can make enough money to cover the in- creased price<. So when wheat rises the wheat-grower is benefited, but he profits at the expense of those who use flour unless the latter in some way secure a corre pponding increase in their incomes. If wool | A general rise in prices should be fol~ lowed by a rise in wages. Mr. Carlisle in his speec! of 1878, commenting upon the advantages to be secured through the Bland act, said: ‘Instead of constant aud relentless contraction, instead of con- stant appreciation of money and depre- ciation of propertv, we will have expan- sion to the extent of at least $2,000,000 per month, and under its influznce the ex- changeable value of commodities, includ- ing labor, will soon begin to rise, thas in- viting investment, infusing life into dead industries of the country and quickening the puisations of trade in all its depart- ments.’” The farmer and manufacturer would each receive a higher price for his produc- tion. Laborers, on the other hand, would at once realize the advantage enjoyea by employers and tueir own disadvantage and demand an increase in wages. Labor or- ganizations, aided by increased demand for labor, would obtain this increa e and | thus secure protection from harm. The good effect of a general rise and a subse- | quent level of prices would be widespread | and permanent. The owners of money | and holders of fixed investments are the only ones to whom rising prices bring real injury and this injury is partly remedied by the greater secarity given to invest- ments. If it could be said that rising prices do injustice to the owners of money and those enjoying fixed incomes let it be re- membered ‘ that the restoration of bi- metallism can only take away the advan- tage which the gold standard gave. Itisa choice between falling prices indefinitely continued and a return (o the bimetallic level. The gold standard gives a perpetual advantage to the money-owning class and works perpetual injustice to producers of wealth, while bimetallism gives a tem- porary advantage to producers of wealth at the expense of money-owners, and then establisues justice between all classes by preserving stability in the purchasing power of a dollar. Those who understand the cause of the recent rise in wheat know tuat the price will fall when the foreign crops again be- come normal; in fact, wheat has already receded twice owing to a fear that the first reports of the foreign crop failure were exaggerated. The export price of wheat for the year ending June 30, 1892, was $103; for the year following it was 80 cents, and by the 1st of November, 1883, the price had fallen below 70 cents. 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