The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 11, 1897, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1897. 3 STRUGGLE - FOR GRUB, NOT GOLD Mrs. Henderson Worites of Threatened Famine in the Klondike. STARVATION IN STORE FOR MANY AT DAWSON. Desperate, Lawless Characters Are Now Invading the Gold Regions and Honest Miners Will Require Protection During Winter. One of the most noted passengers who arrived at Seattle on the steamer Cleve- land was Mrs. Palmer Henderson, wife of one of the heads of a department of the Chicago Tribuns. Mrs. Henderson has spent the greater part of the summer on the Yukon and in the Klondike, and went nor.h as the guest of Mr. Weare of the North American Trading and Transportation Company. She went north early in the summer and has made the round trip up the Yukon to Dawson. Mrs. Hender- son speaks in glowing terms of her exciting and, to her, extraordinary experience in the extreme Northwest Territory, and returns to join her family in Chicago after a few weeks on the Coast. Mrs. Henderson says that she has seen all that is worth seeing in the gold detailed data for a series of letters, one of which is appended. ct health and seems proud of the distinction of being the first Eastern woman of note to have passed through the thrilling adventures afforded by from the mouth of the Yukon to Dawson City, through the mines, and back by the same route. She will make a short stay in Seattle and may visit California before returning to her home. The following letter from the talented woman will be read with great interest: SEATTLE, WasH., Sept. 10.—One of the ! atesi ar sat St. Michael is a Syrian rom Washington, D. C., until recently connected With a large artware establish- ment there. He caught the gold fever, threw up h's gcod position and started for the promised land—Klondike. He said he had 500 letters to write tc aristocrats that they will not go hunting, and of course whites can’t spare the time. So when any one kills a moose, the fact is postea up conspicuously outside the lucky restaurant and in other places calling at- tention to the fact, “Moose meat at the Palace, come and gorge.”” They were sell- ing it at a booth in a butchershop the day I left for 75 cents a pound. They have no wrapping paper, so each man jabbed a pened stick through the meat and in the capital advising them as to whether they would better follow. who b An old miner the half remark ard e on 560 postals 3 1 it home; so 2 meal in Dawson is foilowin ar, don’t. Yours, Ras This mea ans and bread, or heed Beshee Then the open messages n, simply tbis and nothing more. wili do mission work on the way.” The game status is unfortunate. But people will only accuse the miner | It has been driven back from the river of beinz a hog, whereas the fact is that no | by steamooats, and would be any way by one better than one of the pioneers realizes that there is gold enough in Alaska forall. He cannot work more claims than he has probably, but wou ke to be sure that neither you nor he will starve. It is not a question of gold, but of grub. e situation is already serious and is v growinz: more so. The older of the two companies in the fieid is doing abso- lutely notting toward alleviating the con- | dition, and aitbough the North American Trading and Transportation Company is making heroic efforts in building large river boats and barzes 1n quite an unpre- cedented mauner, it is now so late in the season that if people don’t quit going there won’t be enough grub in the coun- the mosauitoes, which are simply fero- cious in the summer. You may think that the t abont mosquitoes is a joke, iike that of their szs in Jersey, but the subject is not a funny one in Alaska. The majority of the people with whom I talked about the climate there asserted that they much preferrel the winter, long, terrible and dark a, is, to the sum- mer with itsswarms of mosquitces. I met a miner who was prospecting and who had to shoot hisdogs. The mos- quitoes had bitten them in the eyes until the poor animals were blind and went ‘mad. Mosquitoes are a real factor of Alaska its settlement. The pest can scarcely be overestimated. ThHE game is T try atany price to prevent actual starva- | driven very far back to the higblands 1 g where the wind prevents mosquitoes. The Portous B. Weare, the biggest car-| Grub has, therefore, to be taken if one rying boat on the Yukon, ran on a sand bar July 26, after having made but one | round trip, and was there high and dry when we leit. This is litile short of a| calamity, not to be realized in the States | unless cne had heard the miners calling | out as every boat pa was near, “'[s the W Then the Bella ran aground in that| silly old Yukon which is so ambitions to | be a great stream that it spreads itself | over so much ground in many places that a toy steamer would almost stick. These disasters occurring justin the middle of s0 short a sesson as the Yukon affords fairly | frizhtened the old-timers. One man who | has been ten years in the country and is | for sugar is too scarce and preserving cans now on his way to Germany said to me: | cannot be had. *I'm glad I'm going to be out of it all| “Up to this summer perfect honesty has this winter. It will be worse than when | been universal in Alaska and the Klon- we were reduced to bad bacon and flour. | dike country and valuables of all kinds We used to cook the bacon, then mix the | were cached with perfect safety anywhere. grease with flour, then thin with water | But this summer things began to change and fry it,” and added in hisqueerspeech, | as the written piacard nailed to the door “It was a very small tastelike omeletiee.” | of the custom-house at Circle City attests. ‘W rat, no milk nor tea, nor —?" As showing articles and prices it will be of “Not a taste of milk, and spruce needles | interest: or rose leaves stewed for tea. Lots of) “Siolen at Dawson City: Six caches people got down to beans; just nothing | were robbed at Dawson of the following but beans last spring in the Kiondike | articles: One buffalo robe, one reindeer country, and a fellow’s got to be Bostonese | robe, brown and white with border on each to like that. I'm German.” side one foot wide and three diamona- Yes; if this thing does not stop at once | shaped pieces sewed in the border. There there will be actual starvation. Nuggets | were no linings in either of these robes. cannot be fried, stewed nor bak-d so as | The reindeer’s robe is six by seven feet. to make them palatable, not to say di- | One cracked bone-bandied razor and gestible. A man told me he was eating his | nickel case magnifving glass. The total breakfast on the trail, where he saw a amount stolen from the six cacbes, in- man watching greedily, and said: “Have , cluding grub, clothes, etc,, is estimated at some grub?’” “Betcher life. 1 have $3000 | about $1000. As these thieves are sup- in dust, but it ain’t good eating, and I'm | posed to have been stealing all the way out of grub.” down the river their arrest will benefit But if things continue men are not go- | the whole community. ing to wait till they are asked. The min-| While we were in Alaska up the Yukon ers with the outfit will be cbliged to|no one ever locked up nor watched divvy. The day before the Healy last|things. This was not because human reached Dawson both stores had shut| nature changes at the extreme nortb, but down on selling any more outfits. It was | because there is no coin, and gold is too “No” to everybody. heavy to get away with. There’s no way Miners anticipating an immediate short- | to cet out of the country without every- 2ge had been rushing in to get their year’s | body knowing 1t, and everybody there- outfit. One of the men in the North|abouts has monev. But the people now American Trading and Transportation | going in, especially the load left at St Company's stores at Dawson told me that { Michael by the Cieveland three weeks ago, their daily sales haa never fallen below [ will change all that. Captain C. P. Hall, $800 10 tbe last month, and had averaged | jolly and good-tempered as he is, admitted $1200 a day. * He said he believed, absurd | that there were about twenty-five vicious as it seemed, that they could sell a million | and quarrelsome kickers, and at least a dollars’ worth of goods it they had them | dozen thieves. 3 in ashort time. People there neverask | They stole thirteen of the ship’s tlan- the price of anything. Itisoften simply | kets, some pillows, etc., and all sorts of a question of how much they may be al- | things, from one another. It was un- lowed to buy at your own prices. Oue | doubtedly some of thesechoice spirits who can readily see thai this is no place for | entered the yprivate office of the North zoes hunting for moose or caribou or bear. Stewart River and Indian River both have game, but both are too far from the ouly town left on the Yukon—Dawson, You remember, a crow fiving over the country after Sherman had to carry bis provieions with him: this is certainly true of Alaska. There is absolutely nota- ing to be gathered in any of the region; adjacent to the mines anywhere, with the | exception of berries, which grow in great profusion everywhere—strawberries, buckleberries, moose, bear, black, saimon- berries,:low and high cranberries, raspber- ries, black and rea currants. But even these cannot be pathered and preserved, L e M MRS. PALMER HENDERSON, the Well-Known Chicago Lady, Who Returns From Dawson City and Writes for “The Cali” a Vivid Description of Atfairs in the Klondike Country. don’t know, but it’s chape, whativir river. They also attempted to steal freight | for up the river, and this by the whole- |i sale. Only the constant watchfulness of Captain John C. Barr, master of transpor- | tation, prevented a heavy loss to the com- | pany and the Healy’s being able to carry up its quota of other freizht. All tnis is new to Alaska, and it is strange if the Healy, badly overcrowded as she is, escapes serious trouble from these turbulents. They are armed, and on two occasions aboard the Cleveland, despite Captain Hall's tact and watchf ness, they grew quarrelsome under liquor | and whipped out revolvers. Oa both oc- casions Captain Hall had to siep rightin and settle matters summarily at once to the damage of his trusty right band. | Captain Hall carried his first woman stowaway on this trip, and the men so admired her pluck they made up a purse to send her up the river. The majority of the people who came in sterday on the Cleveland were tha stranded passengers of the Weare. They ! have been just forty-six days on the way | | from Dawson, having started from there on the 26th of July. The wrip was pleasant and uncventful. At Dutch Harbor several queer crafts were sighted, all headed for St. Michael, | among them the Politofsky, which was condemned years ago, they say, and the Merwin. When the Cleveland entered the siip this afternoon a crowd of Seattle’s best citizens jammed the docks and every available fence and roof eminence and | a!most fought to pass the gates. The ex- citement was intense. | “What are they waiting for?” queried one of the ladies aboard. “Just a sight of the boxes containing Some of the passengers aboard the Healy were rather fearful as to the out- come of the long trip up the Yukon, but there is no doub: they will be kept within bounds. Captain J. C. Barr of the Healy is suave and jolly and tactfal. He was an officer ib the United States | navy during the rebellion, and is alert and utterly without fear. Captain Ray and Lieutenant Richardson of the regular army are aboard, specially commissioned by the Government to investigate the state of affairs in Alaska and its necessi- ties. Their record is well known, and Captain Ray’s presence is assurance itself. ‘Then Frank Canton, the newly appointed United States Marshal from Oklahoma, with Bill Painter and Frank Kress, all noted ‘“‘outlawists,”” as some one ex- pressed 1t, have invaluable experience in handling such cattle. Besides these there are aboard the Healy a large number of men of importance and standing—men going to represent large syndicates. These will siand by to see the ruffians cease their troubling. One old miner going out locked over some of this crowd as they were holding a meeting to decide when and how they would have meals served, and, generally, bow the boat should be run, and re-| marked: “They’re something new up here; be-i fore they get very far up the Yukon, or | are long in the mines, about all the outfit some of these fellows will require will be a good stout rope. That's the last noose you'll bear of them. “You see,” he went on, *‘they’re new to these parts. Anything goes on the Yukon.' You're lucky to be allowed to live and move. These companies own us. It'sa first-class coun'ry for kickers to get over it. You'll get over i1, sonny,’” he said, nodding his head toward a callow youth, with a sombrero and a revolver, who was informing the crowd be wanted to eat. This revolver business is very amusing to the old miners. The absence of real lawlessness, especially the infrequency of shooting scrapes, is really wonderful and probably unprecedented in any other mining camp in the world. Of course the vresence of the mounted volice at Dawson and thereabouts is highly salutary, but it was largely so at C rcle City. The country is so remote and the winter so terrible that there is absc- | lutely no chance for a fugitive. It isdeath by exposure and starvation even if sum- mary justice were zot meted out to him. But the riffraff is pouring in and some- thing ought to be done at once. The Canadians have been wiser than we. Troops should be forwarded at once 10 protect our people and their interests. Congressional aciion istoo slow. Think of a Governor in Sitka, many hundred miles away, with no means of communi- cation even. z = It seems as if some temporary pro- visional government, semi-military, per- haps, should be established at once. This | seems to be what most people think would I be most effectual 1f it could be brought about at once, but everything is probably even now too late. Captain Ray seems to have been a very wise choice. He has seen Western service, has lived in Alaska, was stationed two years in the extreme north and knows the country and climate. He has none of the airs so common to the army men among civilians, but is used to sizing up all sorts of men and erasping a situation, and his report will be thorough and conclusive. The situation at 8t. Michael is grave. I am told the Excelsior was delayed to talk over the advisability of requesting troops by return steamer to guard the company’s warehouses tnis winter. By the way, the Excelsior started two days ahead of the Cleveland (which sailed from St Michael August 29), but attempted too close a land route and ran aground in Bering Sca, breaking two blades of her propelier, so reached Dutch Harbor a couple of hours after the Cleveland and is laid up there for repairs. Several of the passengers were among those on the sandbar on the Weare for eizhteen days, and had gone down on the other company’'s boat, hop- ing to saveu little time. If they had been anvthing but relurned Yukoners they would have been furious, but as more than one has remarked to me the army who are marching toward it, | American Trading and Transportation anxious to get there, and arriving, in|Company and broke into their safe the many cases, without a dollar. night of tbe 27th of August. They forced You can’t think in Dawson without | the outer door, but were evidently scared paying. Fresh meat is almost unheard of | off, for the inner door was not opened. ithere for the Indians are beginning to lust | They stole blankets and a spyelass while after gold and work on the river boats soon the Healy waiting to go up tae on the Yukon: “This country trains patience and acquiescence.”” Pat was watching an Indian pack over the summit. *“‘’Dade,” said he, ‘‘but he’s aoing that fine.” “How much is he charging you?”’ the gold,”” answered a man, but there was | no great amount of gold aboard, some- thing over $350,000. Most of the men were some who went up in the spring to see what they could get. The oldest miner on the Cleveland was Fritz Kloke, who has b-en ten years in Alaska, He has en- dured every bhardship and worked hard enough to kill a hundred men, has suf- fered scurvy, gone hungry and cold. To be sure, fortune has favored him at last, but not to the extent of others. He has but $8000. The miners will not tell what they have, as a general thing, for former men have been so ridiculed at the mines because their piles have been so overestimated. The Berrys, for instance, had not half what they were credited with, and the wild reports current when the Portland came in with the party have been the source of considerable amusement at Kiondike. Tue fact remains, however, that Alaska is a country rich beyond beiief. There is scarcely a gulch or a cresk that does not bear ‘‘color’” from one end of it to another, but with present facilities for transporta- tion nothing under two ounces a shovel pays to work. It wili not pay grub and expenses. Why, sluice-lumber anywhere back from the river, with freight added, costs from $300 to $500 a thousand. A man can do nothing by Limself, and he has to pay wages from §15 to $20 a day, 50 wages are not to be despised; buta man cannot be hired unless he has his outfit and he cannot be sure of getting one up the river, nor having it carried if he pbuys it down here. Many people who are at St. Michael and can go no farther this winter would do well to prospect there- abouts, where there is much quariz and some which promises well. Fritz Kloke, the experienced miner befors spoken of, is particularly interested in quartz, and has a number of specimens with him to be assayed at Denver—part from his own mines, some from others. At Golovin Bay is a silver, lead, etc., mine, in which a friend of his was inter- ested. They dug through between 90 and 100 feet of frozen ground. ¥rom all re- ports there is gold across Norton Sound. The trouble with many of the men is, however, that they have no idea of the herdships to be endured. In talking with i them I was astonished to find that they even had no idea of the great distances, and thought that nu -gets were picked up along the Yukon River instead of being dug for deep in the ground back in the mountains, to be reached only by frightful trails, knee deep in mud and moss and all but impassable. But gold is there, everywhere. I have a nugget that came from 26, Bonanza. It is shaped like a small key. It is pure goid. I have bent it double and back without breaking it. Upon one claim at Klondike they work very little, because they can’t do anytbing with the gold when they get it out; but wnen they want a thousand dollars they simply go out and get it. Rothschild has a repres:nta- | tive at Dawson, but 8o far he has obtained nothing. The end of August the biggest nugget ever found in the Yukon was picked up at 36, El Dorado, and is coming on the Excelsior with the man who picked it up—a man named Knutson. It 1s worth $583 25, and isas big as your hand, wedge or hatchet-shaped and seemingly pure gold. No wonder people, despite the difficulties, the dangers and the hardships, brave Alaska. Parmer HENDERSON. —_— DISASTERS AND GREAT DISTRESS Among the Vessels Damaged Is the Excelsior, Delayed by a Broken Propeller. Gold Cannot Buy Food at Dawson City and Fever Adds to the Horror of the Situation. that warning from the frigid northl The steamer Cleveland plowed her way up the strait of San Juan de Fuca filled with miners frem the Klondike who have tem- porarily abandoned fabulousiy rich claims to escape starvation. The two stores at Dawson City have been closed for six weeks, neither of them having a pound of provisions left in stock. Each day brings scores of anxious gold-seekers to the camp, most of them illy provided with clothing and scarcely any of them with sufficient food to sustain themselves a month. Those who were there before, men who have passed a year or more in that region, are forestalling the terrible suffering that is bound to ensue and are hastening back to their former homes laden with golden dust. The Cleveland was sighted off Cape Flattery at 5 o’clock this morning. A thick fog hung over the enirance of the straits and the tug Sea Lioa, which had been patrolling the entrance since Sunday with a corps of correspondents on board, nad some. difficuity in locating her. Finally Captain Sprague caught the loca- tion of her siren and in a few minutes her lights loomed scarce thirty yards away. Three sharp blasts of the Sea Lon’s whistle brought the steamer toa balt. A small boat wasswung over the side of the tug and into it tumbled the reporters. A few strokes and the boat was alongside and up the steel sides clambered tbe news-gatherers. Captain Charles Hall was on the bridge of the Cleveland, but resigning his post to his chief officer led the way to his stateroom, and to one of the reporters narrated the incidents of his voyage from St. Michael and the facts he had gleaned of the great gold region. The Cleveland sailed from San Fran- cisco for St. Michael by way of Puget Sound July 24. Leaving Seattle August 5 she arrived at St. Michael on the 18th, and was there eleven days, being detained some time by rough weather, which great- ly retarded the work of discharging her cargo. Every berth on the steamer was occupied on her passage north and a more motley gathering never came under his notice on board ship. Full a tbird of the adventurers were gamblers or worse, and with these Captain Hall had considerable trouble. One of them named Sigel under- took to assume command of the vessel the day after her arrival at St. Michael. He was backed by a number of his fellows and Captain Hall was forced to take prompt measures to suppress him. This he did with such effect that Sigel had to be helped to his berth for repairs. Captain Hall found the little settlement at St. Michael overrun with gold-seekers. Hundreds had got that far on their jour- ney, but were unable to proceed on up the river. The steamer Weare, of whose fate the steamer Portland brought indetinite tidings, was known to have gone aground on the flats thirty-five miles below Circle City. Her passengers had been picked up by the steamer Healy and taken to the mouth of the Yukon, but they were un- able to say what her fate would be. It was believed, however, that she would be a total loss. The disaster to the Weare had prevented those who had securea passage on her from goinz up to Dawson, and to these were added the passengers of the steamer Excelsior, which left San Francisco July 28, and the expeditions that went out on the steamers National City and South Coast soon aiter. A very few of the Excelsior’s passengers, includ- ing 8. W. Wall, Tue CALu's spec.al corre- spondent, secured passage on the new river steamer. Charles H. Hamilton, which started up the Yukon the day the Cleveland reached St. Michael. Many of the Excelsior’s passengers were preparing to turn back, being thoroughly discouraged by the gloomy reports brought out by returning miners. The passengers on the National City and South Coast were encamped along the banks ot the Yukon near St. Michael, and during the stay of the Cleveland in that port held indignation meetings daily, They were careful to conceal their intentions from all but a few who had broken away from the main bodies, and it was evident that the greatest discontent prevailed. One day when Captain Hall walked up to their camp he was requested not to loiter, as a special meeting was to be held at once at which matters of importance were to be acted upon. What these important matters were he did not learn, nor could anybody at 8t. Michael enlighten him. A few members had succeeded in securing passage up the river to Dawson on the steamer Bella. Others arranged to come back on the National City. Twenty were booked for return passage on the South Coast, while others were anxious to re- turn home on the Cleveland, but were un- able to secure passage. While at St. Michael the steamer Ex- celsior ran on the mudflats and was tied up for eighteen honrs, breaking two blades of her propelier, After being hauled out of the mud the Excelsior started back to Unalaska on August 26, and was there when the Cleveland stopped on her return trip, having arrived September 1. Fortu- nately the Excelsior carried an extra pro- peller and this was being shipped when the Cleveland left there. It wasexpected that she would be able to continue her voyvage by September 6. Before the Cleveland left St. Michael some of her passengers had combined with a party of the Exceisior’s passengers, forming a company of sixty men. These, under the presidency of a Mr. Gleason of New York, had purchased the steamer St. Michsael and a barge, paying $12,000 in cash for them. They also had 60,000 pounds of provisions, and it was their in- tention to follow the Healy up the river to Dawson. If the Healy succeeds in run- ning the ice gauntlet and shailow water they, too, will probably get through this fall, Another of the many expeditions which have started north within the past two months, and which bhad failed to fina smooth sailing to the land of vromise, was that which sailed from San Francisco and Seatule on the steamer Humboldt in charge of Mayor Wood of the latter city. The Cleveland passed the Humbolat thirty-five miles out from 8t. Michael on Sunday, August 29. Before the departure of the Humboldt {rom Seattie rumors of strife among the members of the party were frequent. When the Cleveland put into Dutch Harbor for coal on her down trip Captain Hall was informed that the dissensions had reached such an acute stage that open threatsof lynching Meyor Wood were made. Before the Humboldt left there, however, a truce was patched up and she proceedvd on her voyage fo St. Michael. But those at Dutch Harbor who knew of the trouble on board the vessel seid they would not be surprised at any- thing that might happen. Perhaps the most serious disaster which has befallen any of the expeditions is that which has overtaken the 61d side- whee! steamer KEliza Anderson, whic:, in company with the stern-wbeel steamer W. K. Merwin, the schooner W. J. Bryant and the tug J. B. Holyoke, the latter 1ow- SEATTLE, WasH., 3ept. 10.-Again ing a barge, sailed from Puget Sound for St. Michael a month ago. ' ——————————————————— s The fac-simile signature of Bt T is on every wrapper _of CASTOKRIA. The captain of the Cleveland says that on August 24 a heavy eale sprung up off Kodiac, and the Eliza Anderson became separated from the rest of the flotilla, A short time previous she had signaled to the Holvoke that she was short of coal, and asked the tug to come to her assist- ance. Before the latier could doso the barge she was towing broke away and she was forced to go in search of it. While she was absent the Eliza Anderson was down out of sight of the other two vessels and her fate is unknown. It is possible that she managad to reach Kodiac, but the best posted men along the Alaskan coast consider it most unlikely. Every sign points to an unususlly early winter in northern latitudes this year. Natives and white men, who have passed many vears in that region, say it will be one of the earliest winters ever known. | Already ice is forming along the banks of the Yukon, and when the last boat came down the river before the departure of the Cleveland, it was slowly but surely spread- ing out over the broad surface to the cen- The first of October will find it impas- sable for boats, and navigation may be closed after the 15th of September. If the Weare should get off the mudflats below Circle City she, with the Bella, Healy and Allce, may get through to Dawson. The Hamilton is now weil up the river and will in all probability get through. The Hamilton carried a cons:derable quantiiy of provisions, but ‘notenough to last a month in the constantly growing town of | Dawson. Miners who started down the river on the Weare and finished the journey to St, Michael on the Healy after the wreck of the former vessel say that the stores of the Alaska Commercial Company and the North America Transportation and Trad- ing Company had exhausted their stocks by July 20, and not a pound of food of any description remained on sale at either stere. A month before they had taken the precaution to limit the sale to each customer, and all the gold a miner could carry on his shoulder would not have pur- chased for himself two sacks of flour. One sack was the limit, so were fifty ‘pounds of bacon and twenty-five pounds of beans all that one man could purchase. Should the Hamilton be the only boat to reach Dawson this fall one can easily picture the frightful suffering there is sure to follow. Even if all the steamers get through which by any possibility can make the ¢rip, the stores they will carry will not be sufficient to feed the inhabi- tants until Christmas. Added to those already on the ground, people are pouring into camp by way of the trail and lakes at the rate of twenty to one hundred a day. The great majority of these have insufficient clothing, and are even worse off in the matter of pro- visions. Thaese are now scattering in all directions seeking the precious metal, but upon tons of flour, bacon, sugar, coftee, beans and canned goois into the turbid stream, and in the space thus created eighty tons of liquor, including casks of whisky, brandy and gin, cases of beer and baskets of champagne, were transferred from the barge, and the steamer pros ceeded on her way. These miners declare their intention of calling an indignation meeting immedi- ately upon their arrival at Seattle, and say they will let the people of the United States know just how their iriends in far off Kiondike are treated. In addition to the total lack of food the equally serious problem of securing shel- ter for the winter stares these people in the face. Fully half of the 6000 people in Dawson at present are living in tents. They can do so during the hot summer months, but with the thermometer 40 to 60 degrees below zero living in a canvas house is impossible. Lumber commands fabulous prices. Logs which in that re- gion mean poles four to six inches in di- ameter sell from $4 10 §8 a piece in Daw- son. So a poor man might as well return to civilization and undertake the construc= tion of a brownstone mansion as to think of putting up a cabin in Dawson. He cannot go out and cut the material for a home, for it has to be hauled or floated fifteen to twenty miles. The hotels now open and two others that will soon be completed will accommodate but an in- significant fraction of those who will de- mand shelter. As though famine and frost were not sufficient evils to heap upon those poor fellows dread typhoid has beer breaking outin Dawson, and at last accounts from there it was raging with appalling viru- lence. Hundreds of cases have been re- ported, a number of which have proven fatal. To battle with this scourge there is but ular practicing physician in the —_——— To Build a Rallroad. VANCOUVER, B. C., Sept. 10.—R. Mar- pole of the Canadian Pacific Railway, su- perintendent of the Pacitic division, gives out the official announcement to-night that his company will build as soon as possible a line of railroad from a point called Glenora on the Stickeen River to the head of navigation on the Yukon. Engineers will leave as soon as outfitting can be arranged, and will have the ser- vices of the Hudson Bay Company’s trap- pers and voyagers, who are acquainted with the country. - PROVISIONS FOR DAWSON, Transportation Companies Figure That They Can Feed Eight Thousand Miners. It is not possible at this time to make an accurate estimate of the number of min- ers and the quantity of provisons at Daw- son. When the steamer Excelsior arrives the Alaska Commercial Company will be able to closely estimate the number of tons of supplies that will be got to Daw- son before the ice closed the navigation of the Yukon. The quantity of supplies at St. Michael when the season opened, together with the amount forwarded since, is estimated at 6000 tons. It is conjectured that the other trans- portation company had a similar quan- tity, but there is no way of ascertaining at present as to how much has gone up the river or whether all the steamers carrying goods can get to Dawson before thae river closes. There is a fair prospact that the Alaska Commercial Company’s boats will get 14000 tons to Dawson, and the other line may do as well. This would make 8000 tons, or supplies sufficient to sustain 8000 miners until the opening of the river next season. It is calculated that many of the gold- seekers going across Chilcoot Pass and others going through White Pass will get to the Klondike before winter sets in, but they will rely on purchasing supplies in Dawson to carry them through until next spring. While many have been going in, others are coming out by way of the Yukon to St. Michael, so the addition to the populacion at Dawson may not be as great as apprehended with the coming of snow they will be driven into Dawson to add to the suffer- ing of those already there. With this dreadful situation staring them in the face, people of Dawson and the Klondike region are intensely wrought up over the action of the two companies that have ex- clusive control of the navigation of the Yukon as well as trading stations. Though the food supply has been ex- hausted for six weeks the supply of liquor is limitless. The stores are closed, but the doors of the saloons, the dance halls and the gambling hells are open day and night, Sundays as well. Open charges are made that both com- panies have placed their transports at the service of the liquor-dealers In preference to conveying sufficient provisions to nour- ish honest miners, their wives and chil- dren during the terrible months of winter. This seems to be borne out by the state- ments of passengers on the Cleveland who bave come down the river within a few weeks. They tell that the steamer Alice on her last trip up the river had in tow the large barge Marguerite. On the decks of the Alice were piles of provisions in large quantities, while a large part of the cargo of the barge was liquors of every description. Off Old Fort Yukon the Marguerite was caught by the swift cur- rent and swung high up on the mud banks, a great hole being stove in her bot- ton. Her career was at an end, but not her spirituous cargd. Hastily the crew of the Alice set to work and dumped tons SINGLE tax and labor articles by the best writers in the country, Read Tne Star. - NEW TO-DAY. “Cures While You Sleep.” Dr. Sanden has reached the highest point of scientific perfection in this now world-famous Electric Belt. The best from the day of its invention, he has added improvements to if until it seems now im- possible to improve further. 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