The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 12, 1897, Page 1

) ) e VOLUME LXX X7, SAN CISCO, SUN FRAN DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1897—THIRTY PAGES. ‘Y - 57 . - PRICE " FIVE CENTS. L.YNCHED | AT LAKE ] BENNETT Determined Gold-SeekersGive Short Shrift to a Man | Who Stole Food. AN EXAMPLE MADE OF WILLIAM G. MARTIN OF MISSOURIL Hal Hoffmann, a Correspondent of * The Call,” Sends a Vivid Description of the Swift Trial and Execution of the Unfortunate Fellow. UNEAU, ALASKA, Sept. 6 (by steamship City of Topeka to Seattle, Sept. 11).— ‘ J The fatal results of going into the Klondike “light” with insuffici ions | e already seen. William G. Martin hanged last Friday by an infuriated mob of fellow-K'ondikers at 1 of Missouri issemz first was e Bennett. No more mercy was meted out to him than the midnizht garroter shows his victim in a ley, and the gold-hunters jumped on Martin with the fierceness and grim de: | termination that a Soutt guilty negro to the place of execution. This occasion, ho It was done ern mob drags divested of the slightest cloak of secrecy. wa { ver, I | 1 broad da Provisions have been very scarce at the lake ever since the season for going to | opened. same size, Flapjacks hot or cold have been worth more than platters th the hardest imagin 7. No money, ex cept uy even a sack of flour there, and in camp a sack of flour is the last thing that The is one not so much of an actual scarcity of food in most in- 1ces as it is that when a man gets his provisions in to the point where navigation =gins its valu= has increased a thousandfold. gives out. case Martin had sold what he could of his provisions at Skaguay, abandoned the remainder and started in for the Klondike with less than a sixty-pound pack on his back. Being light” his arrival attracted particular attention from the camps of he boat-builders. His pack was secretly examined to see how much “grub” he It was noticed that he had about twenty pounds of bacon among other things, n camped back on the side of the hill in the brush alone, so that the brush rotect him trom the wind. He must have heard how scarce provisions )awson City next winter. He was suspected and watched, but it e had to buy provisions. The second day it was seen that e, and that night his pack was uncovered and a side of | e private marx of one of the campers found. A poor attempt The investigators reported the facts to a few | i are tried made to obl! ate the m. mpers who had not yet turned in, and although it was late the entire camp was and a miners’ held around the fire. It was the general example be made of the thief. etly aroused meeting ment of all that ar ‘I move we hang this man, and do it quic said one. The question was not put. The reply to the motion was an instantaneous rising to the feet of every miner, and the crowd of about sixty determined men moved off 1to the brush in the direction of where Martin’s dying campfire could be seen dimly lick Martin asleep. He was unrolled roughly from his blankets and tood blinking on his feet. “We stand no stealing in this camp ; your time has come,”” Martin was told. He started to speak, but said nothing, and stood trembling from head to foot. “Do you want to leave a message to your friends ?”’ he was asked. *“No,’” said the man on the brink of the grave. “‘Do you want to pray?”’ “No,’” said Martin. “If there is anything you want to say, sav it quick,” said the spokesman. A slipknot had been made at the end of the long painter of a boat and the noose was put over Martin’s head. ““Boys,” said Martin, with faltering voice, “you know how it is when a man has mortgaged his all, starts for the Klondike and sees that he can’t get there. If | am not hung my life is not worth much to me any hop. [I’ve got a thousand pounds of stuff at Skaguay, and I'll promise on my life to carry it in here for you.” ““Enough of that. It would not save you if the stuff were here.” Martin half ran and was half dragged down to the shore of the lake. It took less than a minute to iash two slender pines dressed for masts in a forked upright and drop another mast from a rock on the biuff over between the forks. “May | write a message, boys?’’ asked Martin. “‘Be quick about it,” Poor Martin took a letter from his pocket and kissed it. Then he tore It up, saving only the back of the envelope, which is in my possession, stopped, pulled off his rubber boots, and placing the paper on the sole of one, wrote in the darkness the lowing in a dim and trembling hand: Hoping that with the money I might make in the Klondike, sac- rifice would go out the door and love return through the window, I jeft you. Kiss Ted, but never tell him. GID. He held the note out to the crowd, saying, “Give this to the newspapers.” ““Hurrv up. Now, all together,” spoke the leader of the crowd. In the morning Martin’s bodv was seen turning first one way and then back like ttle dangling before the fire, his hands tied behind him with a packstrap. The second mound of a graveyard s'arted on the shore between Lakes Lindeman and Bennett has been heaped up. The other grave is that of young J. W. Mathes of Seattle, who, having lost his outfit in the rapids, committed suicide. On the other half of the envelope which Martin tore in two were his name and the postmark St. The news of the hanging was brought to Juueau to-day by Captain Martin | HAL HOFFMAN. <ering. was was the answer. ) th 1 th Louis. of the steamer Sealion and Stephen A. Hall of Seattle, Linnse, William Winn, John Anderson, | R. Wigg, W. Stoilt, G. Woond, H. H. | Schmidt, L. Tarssen, J. F. Hower, U. . : | Chaquette, H. S. Hanfield, J. P. Light, J. S.. Michae’, R turning Miners Braithwide, F. Rankell, J. Bailey, 5’.‘}{; | and Some Gold. | ¥. Gassbar, 0. Bouer, L. Clark, J. T. Lea, | SEATTLE, Wask., Sept. llr—Twanlw*m. G. Howard 4 four hours wrouzht a decided change for | Of these all but Lea and Howard came | the better in the situation at St. Michael, | threugh from the Klondike, and wonder- | and the prospects sre that a considerable | ful tales thev tell of solid gold-lined c.aims quantity of provisions will get up tbe|and buckeisful of nuggets and dust they river to Dawson before the winter sels in. | brought down with them. As a matter of The South Coast, one of the numerous | fact most of them were day laborers at vessels that have sailed from San Fran- | Dawson, and have returned with little cisco this summer freighted with treas- | more than enough gold to last them ure-seekers, arrived from St. Michael to- | through the winter. day, having sailed on August 30, or one J. T. Lea of San Francisco, who went to FOOD WILL BE SENT. The South Coast Brings News From ble toil pacised his grub in that far on the route to Dawson | it were equal in value to 4 claim on Bonanza Creek, can | of and b=ans more precious than nuggets to the man who had | day later than the Cleveland. Sg. Mic_hael on the steamer National The South Coast brougzht the following | City, said to-day to a CALL correspondent: prssengersi W. Levi, W. Davis, W. G “It seems sirange that exaggeration 7% i (s 7 THOMAS BRACKETT REED of Maine, Who Writes Pointedly on the Return of Prosperity and the Firances of the Nation. should be the order of the day in such a | ceed §60.000. vet when I reached Iere I|From $300 to $1000 is the amount with a serious matier as this. Now I am more or less acquainted with every man on the boat, saw them every day on our trip down and have a general knowledge ol what they bring back with them. I very much doubt if there are four men aboard who bave $5000 each., Iam quite certain the total gold on the steamer will not ex- L.heard people talkizn:: of there being $300,000 | or more among the miners aboard. “The fact is it is only the poorer class who took nassage on the schooner. They y made up of Izboring men who . Michael for a chance to get {down at cheap rates of transportation. | . Very few of them Lave much money. largs majority of them. A very few moy have a little more than $2000, but none are what you wouid call penniless. They all nave been working, and as I have said, have a little money. This talk about there being more than a quarter of a mil- e it o, STEAM SCHOONER SOUTH COAST, Which Arrived at Seattle From St. Michael, Bringing Miners and Gold From the Klondike. | | T. B. REED WRITES TO “PHE CALLE, An Exclusive Article on the Return of Prosperity to the Nation. EVENTS THAT EDUCATE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Fallacies of Bryan’s Views on “High Wheat and Low Silver” Are Duly Ex- pounded— Good Times Not an Accident. PEAKER THOMAS BRACKETT REED of the Houss of Representatives addresses the people of the West, through the medium of THE CALL, on the causes of hard times and of prosperity in the Nation. Paving his respects to the Bryanites, the Maine statesman observes that an encouraging symptom of the time is that “‘the financial medicine men are now explaining in a low tone of voice why what they said in such loud tones last year was not so.” While the basic causes may be different in every instance, and perhaps incomprehensible, hard times and prosperity are both, on the surface, simpiy the results of states of mind. When public confidence has been profoundly shaken it must re-establish itself. It has been shaken by causes and those causes must be removed. With confidznce among all its people and all its people at work, there is prosperity for the Nation. In all the country’s financial affairs, as in the stock market, fear increases the fall; hope increases the rise. Every historic period of revival has be=n like this. After depres- sion, some event at a ripe moment happens, like the resumption of speciz payments, the setting of money in motion by areduction of the interest on a partof the National debt or the passage of the tariff bill, which, rightly or wrongly, people believe in. Human nature and human affairs, made ready for the change, have always done the rest. ORTLAND, Mg, Sept. 1].—Civiliza- Puun is education, but it 1s something more. It1s notorly the bringing out of human faculties and powers, but it is also a successful application of them to problems of life. Laws of animate na- ture we can easily undersiand to be in- flexible. If we are once sure that we have taken observations enough we are equally sure that inanimate nature wil! work the same way under what se-m to us the same circumsiances. Of course, we never get perlect knowledge, and are always finding out exceptions. Butin a general way we are always right about matter and always feel satisfied that we can pre- diet what it will do. It was not so in the beginninz. We | used to be very much in the dark and felt out way to all these things. But while we have come to the simple truth that in- animate nature can be fathomed we are as | much in the dark as 1o the action of great | bodies of men. Nevertheless, ther: is| reason to believe that mankind, as a ma: acts by determinate laws, the courses and directions of which we are every day find- ing out more and more. i This nation nas had to have special edu- cation in finance because its circum- stances ard surroundings were, and are, different from those of any other nation in the history of the world. It is true that before our day vast empires have been peopled oy immigration and have flourished. But our empire has been peopied, not long ago, but in our day, in which ther2 has beer invented every ap- pliance to enable men to exploit the riches of the earth. Moreover, beyond any other period in the world’s history, | capital has been essential to the utiliza- | tion of the riches of lands such as ours. We in the East are very much prone to blame the West for its attitude in finan- cial struggles, but Western people are under strong temptations always. They can see the wealth of their country, and all 1ts great possibilities, and, becoming impatient at the slow approach of confi- dence and capital, are tempted beyond measure to use all those appliances of the art of financiering which seem so easy and are in the long run so ruinous. We had our periods, we in the East, when we ran to paper money as a savior and found | it a satan, Our very. constitution, in its taking away from States theright to issue paper money, is the result of the suffer- ings undergone by our ancestors in ti.e East, which sufferings are depicted in Sumner's ‘“History of American Cur- rency.” ‘We have learned the lesson, but ought not to be too imapatient with those who bave not. We have learned, and others will have to learn, that in theend it capital which cos's and that it makes wealth which lasts. It is true that we | may make a capital which does not cost, | but it is a dangerous demon, and barness is expensive and breakups frequent. With our new country we are undergoing education which older nations have at- tained for themselves in their own sur- roundings already. We have to learn for | ourselves, not because we are not bright | enough to learn as quickly as anybody or to learn from anyb._dy.but because our circumstances are different and our temptations greater, We think our coun- try must be an exception and hurt ous- selves much in finding that it is not. What the Nation finds out for itself, however, stays longer than what some one else finds out for it. Ihe last few months bave been full of education jor the whole American people. There has | been nothing really new about it, bat there has been one more repetition to make the lesson solid. In time no one will dispute the sure succession of events, and thereaiter patent remedies for hard times and patent elixirs for prosperity wiil have had their day. What a str.king resemblance there is between 1896 and 1897 and the years of our Lord 1878 and 1879. These years are with- in the personal memories of every man in middle life. 1n 1878 the air was resonant with denunciatlions of the wicked men who would not issue all the gresnbacks which the suffering people demanded. Here was a sure remedy for the great ills, and yet remorseless rulers would not stir a finger or print a single bit of paper. Jobn Sherman was denonnced on all bands. Samuel J. Tilden declared that only a vast central reservoir of coin could protect us against the failure of the pro- posed return to specie payments in 1879, | The farmer was at his worst—ruined, de- stroyed, eaten up by taxes and usury. Down almost to the very day of resump- tion the croaking came with dismal and damnableiteration. Some capitalistseven proclaimed their readiness to give thou- sanas and thousands of dollars to stand at the treasury, the first in a row oi a vast multitude that would surely assemble on the first day of resumuption. That very au- tumn, at the September ele n, the State of Maine—Mr. Blaine’s own State—in the campaigh under his able and skillful lead- ership went over to the fiat enemy, horse, f:ot and dragoons, changing the majority of 14,000 for sound money to a majority of 14,000 in favor of the wildest carnival of unreason that ever overwhe'med thein- telligent people. When the 1stof january came no crowd thronged the Sub-Treasury ccrridors, Hardiy a greenback was pre- | sented, and we got back to the currency of tbe worl | without movement or jur. From that moment prosperily began, NEW TO-DAT. SKINS ONFIRE Sking on fire with torturing, disfiguring, itching, burning, bleeding, scaly, and pimply bumors, instantly relicved by a warm bath with CUTICURA SOAP, a single application of CUTIOURA (ointment), the great skin cure, and a full dose of CUTICURA RESOLVENT. (uticura le ‘free. TER .4 C. CoE: Issold throughont the world. 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