The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 8, 1897, Page 1

LXXXIL—NO, SAN FRANCISC VOLUME 0, WEDNESDAY N MORNIN( NING, Call SEPTEMBER 8, 1897. PRICE FIVE CENTS. BRINGS THE LATEST TIDINGS FROM THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS ARRIVAL OF THE STEAMER NATIONAL CITY AT EUREKA | | { Returning Miners From the Klondike Tell of the Bad Condition of Affairs | at Dawson City. OVER FIFTY MEN READY TO RETURN WITH| FORTUNES DIE FROM SCURVY. ‘ Provisions Are Getting Very Scarce and Many Will Return to| Escape Starvation—The Steamer Weare Stranded on \ a Sand Bar and Her Cargo of Over $1,500,000 in Gold Transferred to the Healy. ith three passengers and the latest news from the northern gold fields the steam-schooner National E ureka yesterday afternoon. The steamer- Cleveland was expected to sail from St. ional City’s departure from that port. The Excelsior left twelve hours before | dreason of the steamer National, City, | | CALL correspondent this evening. | trip. Captain Anderson reports hav- ing passed the stecamer Humboldt August 28 at 8 A. M. fifty miles south-southeast of St. Lawrence land, making her duec at St. Michael on the following morning. Every one on board the National City thinks Humboldt’s chances of getting up the river this year are decidedly slim. R i HOW THE WEARE WENT AGROUND Passengers Say the Accident Was Due to the Captain’s Incompetency. Those Who Returned on the Na- | tional City Tell of the Gold on the Way From Dawson. the EUREKA, CaL, Sept. 7.—Captain An- which made the quickest trip to Alaska and return yet recorded, was seen by a He was very proud of his ship, but says he | always knew it was in her. Thirty days is remarkable time ana people here did not think the National City capable of the The river steamer P. B. Weare has been located, and is apt to stay where she was found until she breaks up and falls to pieces. She is stuck fast to a sandbar below Circle City. Her gold and passen- | cle City. on board, according to Lamb and Leouard, about $1,500,000 of gold. The passengers were very reticent on reaching St. Michael, but their gold was seen and it spoke more eloquently than words. The Cleveland was leit at St. Michael by Captain Andreason. She was waitin: for more passengers returning to civilization with their hoards of precious gold. Over fifty had spoken for berths on her, and it was expected on the 27th of Au ust, when the Nationai City sailed, that the Cleve- land would departin a few days. The Excelsior leit twelve hours before the National City. She had on board over 100 passengers. The Bella, another river boat, arrived on Wednesday, August 25, within two hours of the Healy, which was fourteen days coming aown from Cir- The Bella came down in seven days from Dawson. The Healy was de- layed twodays with a broken crankpin a quarter of a mile from where the Weare struck. Passengers Lamb and Leonard, who | were on board the Weare when she struck, sty 1t was due to nothing but in- competency. Captain Thielen of the Weare did not understand the channel. The Indian pilot who was on board at the time protested with Captain Thielen for taking the course that he did, put to no avail. The Indian left the pilot-house and Cap- tain Thielen ran ber ashore with his own hands. The North American Trading and Transportation Company showed the passengers on the Weare no favors after they struck. President Weare of the North American Trading and Transportation Company was on board the ill-futed boat. He showed the passengers whom his incompetent oaptain ran ashore no favors. Frank Dunsmuir, the veteran prospect- or, is among the passengers on the Excel- sior. He has been there for sixteen years and has not been out foreleven years. He bought a claim on the E! Dorado. Mr. Ralston, one of the National City’s passengers, says there must’ b: fully 50,000 tons of gold in the Klondike mines, but it is impossible to tell how much of this can be taken out. On one of the claims he said it was not an uncommon thing to take out §40 in a pan. PROVISIONS ARE VERY SCARCE All the S;c;; i_n Dawson City Reported Practically Closed. If Food Could Be Taken In There Would Be Work for Thousands on the Klondike, EUREKA, Cav, Sept.7.—The relurning miners think that the steamers will be more than overcrowded with men coming | from the Klondike. Some will have stakes, but a greater number will have litile dust, and it will winter without suffering untold hard- ships, | Provisions cannot be bought for love | nor money, and the stores at Dawson City are practically closed now. Pay in aa- | vance from $5000 to $30,000 cannot secure | provisions, " Frank Dunsmuir calculated on working | be impossible for most to stay there this | Of a great trip down the Yukon On a steaming, floating jail. We started in good spirits, Some with and some without gold, To go down the Yukon in six days, So most of us were told. We steamed along quite beautifully— On down the muddy stream; When we struck in the night a sandbar= Shattering many & happy dream. Dreaming of home and quick transit, We sent up many a wail To find as day grew into weeks, We were fast in the floating jail At length after seventeen weary days The Healy she came near To relieve from present troubles, And took us from the Weare. We started once more on the Healy, On a Sunday clear and bright, To resume our broken journey, Thinking the Healy was all right. But lo} our hopes were shattered, For very soon we found That at every fisn camp and woodyard We had to go aground. We had reporters and photographers, And missionaries, too; And stowaways and preachers, A cosmopolitan crew. mS e TERRORS OF THE PASS, Recent Heavy Rains Have Made the Chilcoot Pass Im- 1 passable. | PORT TOWNEEND, Wasm., Sept. 7.— | From a letter received here last night | from John James, who left here six weeks ago for the Alas| goldtields, an idea of tbe present condition at Dyea may be ob- | tained. James and his partner, Lawrence, | succeeded in packing 1200 pounds of pro- | visions over the Chilcoot Pass to Lake | Linderman.” While building a boat at the | latter place Lawrence cut one of his feet | nearly off with an ax, and will not be able | to continue the journey before spring. | James is staying with Lawrence as narse. | The letter says that recent beavy rains ] have made the trail impassable, and the = National City. Interesting information was brought concerning the Yukon River steamer P. B. Weare, long overdue e dis aster. pposed to have met with som While going down the river the steamer Healy found the Weare fast on a sand bar, sixty miles below Circle City. All the gold aboard the Weare, which is re- This isure is the property of 150 returning miners, who were expected to depart from St. Michael on the to amount to nearly $2,000,000, was transferred to the Healy and taken to St. Michael. Cleveland or Excelsior. Perhaps the most startling news brought down by the National City is the statement that over fifty men have already died from scurvy in ths gold fields this summer. Many of these had acquired con” able wealth. EUREKA, Cal., Sept. 7.—The|claim valued in a conservative es- | provisions in the party, steam schooner tional City ar- timate at $25,000. it afternoon from St. has a half interest in a diggings however, to winter it out, and proceed up the river when spring opens. The Ralston also rived here thi Michael, Alaska, with three pas- for which he would not take| Cleveland was expected to sail on sengers from the goldfields aboard. | $10,000. the day after the National City’s They are G. Raiston of San Fran- cisco, F. Lamb of Portland and F. Leonard of Nanaimo, B. C. All went into Dawson City last spring over the Chilcoot Pass. The National City made the trip in ¢leven days from St. Michacl, Alaska, where she left sixty-fiv It very | Two of doubtful whether any of the pas- | The departure. The Excelsior left St. Michael twelve hours before the National City. 4 ! eager gold-seekers. is | Miner Leonard came down the Yukon on the river boat Healy, which, on the way, found the miss- ing steamer P. B. Weare fast on a |sand bar about sixty mil:s below of the passengers had taken up on | Circle City. All of the Weare’s | the deck of the steamer has proved | gold, which is said to amount to a disappointment. over §1,500,000, was transferred to the Healy and taken to St. [ Michael. It is in charge of about {150 men, who are expected to take passage with their gold on either | the Excelsior or the Cleveland. | When asked why he returned, Leonard said: “I found T had to get out or |starve. There are about 400) |men in Dawson, and not more | than a third of them have work. have done well. who went up on the Na-/| v will get through this Thesmall boat which some the t hird, F. Lamb, does not care to talk of his experiences in the El Fortune has probably not smiled on him to the same ex- tent that it did on his more loqua- men seng tional vear. Dorado. Her machin- cious fellow-voyagers. ery has gone wrong and she draws Leonard has a halfintercst in a | too much water. There is enough llf vou have not a stock of grub you can’t get work at any price. I had provisions for three months and no one wanted me. I hadn’t enough to work my own claim until spring, so I sold my stock at | a good figure, and will wait until spring. Jim Dunsmuir, the El Do- ,% l i S rado King, has had $30,000 worth so of provisions % ScatecfMiles ordered for some months, but has not been able to obtain more than a fifth of it, even with the cash put up in advance.” Lamb is authority for the state- ment that over fifty men have already died of scurvy this sum- mer. Many of them were return- ing with enough gold to give them many years of the joys of civiliza- tion when stricken down. The National City came into | port without a foremast, having | lost it at St. Michael by the rig- Al Folsom-Street Whart for St. Michael With More Than 100 Gold-Seekers. With the Latest News From the Klondike Gold Fields, the Vessel Arrived at Eu eka Yesterday Alternoon. THE STEAM SCHOONER NATIONAL CITY as She Appeated on the Night of August 7 While Leaving Returning From St. Michael Healy, and will be brought down on the | Cleveland and other steamers when that ship arrives, The Weare were discovered on the flats by the Healy on ber trip down the river from Dawson City to St. Michael. She passed her and then re- turned for her goid and passengers, For seventeen days the Weare remained on the sandbar before being relievsd by the Healy. The passengers with all their shining gold aboard employed almost su- perhuman efforts (o get their craft afloat, but a1l to no avail. The last heard of the Weare before the Healy arrived was on July 20, when the Aluskr Commercial Company’s steam- er Bella passed her at Circle. City. She shonld have reached St. Michaei on Au- gust 1, and contributed her share of nass- engers to the Portland’s list, but did not arr.ve in time 10 catch her sailing day, August 16. It was thought at St. Michael that the | ging parting while provisions were | being hoisted from the vessel’s J deck. MAP SH(;)WING the Location of the New Klondike, as Reporied ty Captain Beader in Last Monday’s “Cail” Weare had had the misfortune to bréak her machinery, and for days she was ex- pected hourly at St. Michael. She had | dollar. gers were transferred to the river steamer He would not allow them a light. An Indian stole a candle and sold 1t for a sideways, says Miner Lamb, and if Mate Phil of the boat had been able to impress Captain Thielen with the practicability of his plans for getiing her off she would have been making her trips to-dav. After seventeen days of futile work the passengers on the Weare were glad to for- sake her for the Healy. The steamers Cleveland, South Coast and Bertha and the schooner Volante and brig Courtney Ford are waiting at St. Michael. The Novelty was met in Uni- mak Pass by the National City on her re- turn trip. The South Coast had secured about twenty passengers before the Na- tional City left. The Bertha had quite a few and the Vo lante bhad eight berths spoken for. The Cleveland had already sold abéut fifty tickets. Tie St. Michael fleet, all told, will prob- ably brine down about $1,500,000, pro- vided the gold that the Bella and Healy arrived with at St. Michael is all shipped this year., The Weare went on to the bar | seventy men during the winter. He put up $30,000 in advance as payment for his goods, but later received his money back with the information that only twenty men could be fed with certainty. 1f food could be got into the Klondike there is work, say the home-comers, for 10,000 laborers this winter. A mistake which all newcomers into Alaska make is' to wear winter clothing during the spring and summer. The discomforts from excessive heat is as great as the bardships from the terrible cold of winter. The thermometer varies from 60 to 70 below zero 1n winter and to 100 above in summer. The summer 1s short, but excessive. The population of Dawson City in July was about 5700. About as many more are on the trail, Not more than a third of the incomers can secure work. The claims are all staked out on all creeks within fifty miles of {Dawson. The appended was written on ‘Weare by one of her passengers: Come all you fellow pissengers, And listen to my tale, the result is that horses which two weeks pre- vious were selling ai $150 a head are now adrugon the marketat $10. Horse feed is sellini at $70 a ton and is hard to get at any price. James says it will be cheaper for those who cannot cross the pass this | fall to kill their horses nowand shipin ! othersin the sprine. He says language is | inadequate to describe the terrors of the' pass since the rainy season began. T e Ay HUNDREDS WILL PERISH. Predictions Made by a Govern- ment Official Who Writes to the Treasury Department. WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 7.—The Treasury Department to-day made public the following letter from a Government official now on his way to the goid fields, stating at the same time that the writer, whose name is withheld, had been tweive years in the service and was thoroughly reliable: DYEA, ALaska, Aug. 22.—1 deem it my duty to write you on a subject that does not come strictly within my line of duty, as it trenches somewhat on the functions of the Treasury. Department. Ihave had a long talk with Mr. Ivey, Collector of Customs for Alaska, who is at present at Skaguay, three miles below here. The Skaguay trail is the most largely used