The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 29, 1897, Page 1

COCO0OCOOCO0COCO0CIOCCOCICIOCOCOOCOVCOOOCO000K VOLUME 24 =9. SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER o = 9, PRICE FLEETS OF JAPAN ARE LINING UP Warships of the Mikado at Nagasaki Ready for Action. Germany, England and Russia Are Preparing to Grab Celestial Territory, and China Has Become Alarmed. JAPAN IS PREPARED FOR WAR 200000 O LONDON, Dec. 29.—A special dispatch from Shanghai, dated Tuesday, says: It is reported that a Jar fleet of war ps is wa to Is- land, outs fully equ war and only ng instructions. is in- the Yashima and the two of the flnest vessels of in the Jar the ptured that el en Yuen, was Japanes is in with t British Vice-Admiral comman- acting ron under ~chief the China sta- Japan will certainly oppose a permanent Russian of Port Arth dissolution of t was ng to the war spirit It is expected that the Japan- ese feet will attempt to prevent the of reinforcements from Odessa for the protection of the trans-Asiatic Railway in Manchuria. 1pation The sudden Japanese Diet landing Russian L LONDON, Dec. 28.—The Globe this afternoon says a private telegram reached London lest evening an- nouncing that o r twenty British wa- hee Foo to the effect that the Japanese fleet has also arrived at Port Hamilton. Port Hamilton is a small island south of Korea, and not far from Quelpart Island. JAPAN IS Now CONSIGERED IN MOST WARLIKE WO00D. While - itary Party Eager for Action, Statesmen Are Trying to Form a New Cabinet. YOKOHAMA, Dec. 28.—-Owing to the fatlure of the Premier, Marquis Saigo, reconstruct the Cabinet, all the that body have resigned. s demand the forma- 1 ry strong Ministry, capable of cop with the situation in the East A dispatch to the Times from Kobe, Japan, says the dissolution of the Dtet has greatly angered the political par- ties. It is probable that the Marquis Ito, former Premier, and Count Oku- a former Forelgn Minister, will form a coalition ministr; with a vig- orous foreign policy. militar; party is eager for action, extraordi- ary activity prevalls at the military d naval depots an hips are as- Minister has not d of the resignation inet, and he that while the | signations may have been tendered the Emperor will not accept them un- less it becomes apparent that an en- abinet under Marquis Ito d. Tto has been in private much -of the time since his nota- achievements r, and it is not believed he ble Japanese w is ready to return to the Cabinet. is strong with all parties, and has the people behind him, so that he may again assume the Premier- ship if the emergencies demand it. The Yokohama dispatch refers to Marquis Saigo as the present Premier, which is d at the Legation to be an inac- curac, as Minister Matsugata has been Premier up to. this time, with Marquis Saigo as Minister of Marine. The reference in the dispatch to the public sentiment in Japan for a strong iinistry capable of coping with the {tuation in the East is one of the first ntimations direct from Japan that she may take a hand in the controversy centering in China. While he has re- ved no officlal advices as to the pur- pose of his Government, Mr. Hoshi ex- however, presses the personal conviction that Japan will not be quick to enter the controversy, but will maintain an in- dependent attitude for the present. LONDON, Dec. 20.—According to a during the China- | He | | question is | DO0COCO00000O0 0000000000 | letter which the Times publishes this | morning from a correspondent at To- | kio a Cabinet crisis occurred in No- vember, due to the refusal of the Pro- | gressists to vote an increase in the land tax, which is necessary, owing to | the deficits caused by the late war. Parlia nt would have expired next | June, and the Progresists, with a gen- eral election in sight, did not desire to | risk unpopularity by voting to increase | taxation. However, Count Okuma, the leader of the Progressists, left the foreign of- fice, s the correspondent, with an enhanced reputation, and next to Mar- pies the largest space nation’s vision. commenting editorially quis Tto occ in the field of th TO THE TERRORS OF F AMONG THE MIN IS AD AMINE ERS OF DAWSON DED THE FIRE HORROR The Times, ipon this letter and dispatches, says: The advent of a Cabinet led by two such statesmen as Marquis Tto | and Count Okuma may be regarded as an event of great other powers. | CHINA BECOMING ALARMED AT THE PRESENT SITUATION. Promise of the Fulfillment of the Forebodings Connected With the Sun's Eclipse on Chinese New Year’'s Day. PEKING, Dec. 28.—The German | unsettied. - China's “atm | culty is increased owing to the unce tainty of the attitude of the powers. Germany's withdrawal from Kiao Chau bay is said to be conditional upon | her finding a suitable naval station elsewhere. China is becoming alarmed at the present situation. The Govern- | ment appears to be utterly powerless. No answer has been received frem Russia concerning the proposed loan. There are calamitous forebodings con- nected with the sun's eclipse on the Chinese new year’s day. LONDON, Dec. 20.—The Paris corre- | its spondent of the Morning Post says: Russia has been long negotiating to raise a Chinese loan of £6,000,000 in France, to pay the indemnity and se- cure the Japanese evacuation of Wei- Hai-Wel. The negotiations were broken off owing to France insisting that the Bank of France should issue the loan and Russia desiring that the Russo-Chinese Bank should take the lead. A certain coolness now exists be- | tween France and Russla. | - RUSSIA IS CERTAINLY THE DOMINANT POWER “IN GREAT KOREA.” | it Is Now Idmifl;d by Japanese Papers That the Czar Has Distanced Japan in the Struggle for Supremacy There. TACOMA, Dec. 28.—Russia has be- | come the dominant power in Korea. Her recent operations in that kingdom, as detailed in the mail advices receiv- ed here to-day, leave no room to doubt that Russia intends eventually to ex- ercise sovereignty over what the Ko- rean King is pleased to call “Great Korea.” | Japanese papers, which maintain | the liveliest Interest in everything re- | lating to Korea, admit that Russia has | completely distanced Japan in the struggle for supremacy. The Japan Times, Japan's great na- | tional paper, says this struggle was | brought to a culminating point last February, when Russia caused to be | published in the Official Messenger at St. Petersburg the text of the secret | Russo-Japanese convention. News of this treaty greatly surprised Korea, | but the Japanese Minister at Seoul se- red a temporary advantage by rep- resenting that the treaty was a suc- cessful attempt by Japan to maintain the balance of power in Korea and thus preserve from new dangers the independence of the kingdom for which Japan had so recently poured out her treasure and blood in war against | China. This representation caused a tem- | porary reaction against Russian as- cendancy, of which the King’s removal | to his palace from the Russian legation was the outward sign. The Russo-Japanese convention left | the reorganization of Korea's army to | her own Government, but in July Japan was completely checkmated, the Times admits, by the arrival from Vladivostok of thirteen Russian army | officers, who at once proceeded to drill the Korean army. Three years ago China, Japan and Russia coveted | Korea. Japan maintained her right egalnst China by war. The Russian bear now stretches out his paw and, through diplomacy and the strength of the Russian empire, takes the prize from from Japan. England had a slight influence in Korea. but Russia intended to nullify this when McLeavy | Brown was dismissed as adviser to the imperial customs and M. Alexieff, a Russian, installed as his successor. Alexieff was preparing three weeks Continued on Third Page. significance by the | | that had been w! { ing the night. | who knew of the Yukon only what | Wednesday | of the boats, feeding from those that | and ground to pieces as the ice jammed | BY SAM W. WALL. DAWSON CITY (N. W. T.), Novem- ber 22.—(Via steamer Al-Ki to Seattle, 28).—The face of the great river that has so much to do with the d tiny of 10,000 people camped along {ts banks is fixed and still. The ice stopped running in the Yukon on Sunday night, the 7th inst. It was a consummation hed by hundreds for many days. To those who wished most devoutly for it its coming was a trag- edy. It ran like havoe, like devasta- tion, and there is something of both in the grim and rugged face the frozen viver hae taken on, and which it will wear until the warmth of spring soft- ens it. The hundreds who have planned to g0 out over the ice only discovered what the undertaking meant when the tardy sun of Monday morning enabled them to see whet had taken place dur- To go out over the ice meant, on Sunday evening, to the man | he had seen of it since the beginning of this stampede, a sledding excursion 600 miles long. On Monday morning he saw | the wide channel of the river piled | from rim to rim with jagged heaps of ice that seemed planned to form an obstruction, and if he had an imagina- tion he saw this desolate wreckage stretch southward 600 miles between himself and the outer world. On Sund evening he had talked glibly of the date at which he expected | to arrive at Juneau, and ran easily | over the calendar at twenty to thirty | miles a day. On Monday morning he | stood, sickened and helpless, on the | bank of the Yukon in the presence of a { barrier that seemed impassable. He | would have given a year of his life and double the selling price to be able to buy back again the incomplete outfit 4 he had sold the day before. | But over this jagged track a thou- sand men wiil toil back to the sourh this winter. What havoc the ice jam may have caused along the length of the river may only now be judged from what it did here, as no individual arrived from up or down the river since then. Here it crushed and carried away the hundreds of boats with which the banks were lined. The shore ice gave away in the crush, and in its place im- mense plateaus, ten feet in thickness, were lifted from the current and set out upon the banks in that sturdy majesty with which nature does these things. With the floe that went| afternoon, after the first jam, for the river made tremendous ef- forts to free itself, I counted thirty-one boats. Many of them contained parts of outfits that the owners had been un- able to save. From one of these an American flag waved—its bright bit of color above the white sweep of ice, and over them all hovered a flock of croak- ing ravens, the black omnipresent bird of this frost-bitten land. . They rose and dipped and rested on the gunwales as contained grain. Then came the crash and the crush again, and the brave little boats that had weathered the Canyon and the White Horse were rolled over and over d fixed itself finally to bind the great river for the long winter. | I said it was a tragedy, but it was really a climax to the deadly play, and whatever devastation it has done it is well that it is done and over with. While the river ran there were those who would dare whatever dangers it presented in their desire to get here. A boat with five men In it was at- | tempting a landing at the mouth of the | Klondlke at the very moment of the | first jam. They were held in the ice all | night, were carried down to the lower | edge of Dawson on a floe in the early | morning, and their escape or rescue by | a party from the shore was like a | miracle. | Scarcely a day since the ice began running but has seen some sign of dis- aster and death pass down in the cur- rent with it. Once it was the frozen body of a man. Time and agaln men | of the dance THE BURNING CHURCH AT DAWSON CITY. From a description of the fire by Sam W. Wall. get through the whirling mass of | ice to make a landing and have passed on down not so far to be heard of again. Fragments of broken boats be- came so common in the stream that they were no longer remarked. What or who may have gone down this wide dark stream during the long nights past the shrouded face of the city to which they had set out and saw only a brief glimmer of her lights as they were hurried by God alone knows. Certainly they do not who were engaged in the drunken revelry 16, nor do they who were crowded “wdout the tables where “the game never closes” any more than do they who were asleep in the log huts on the hiliside. And what- ever cry may have come up from the blackness of the river must have been drowned in the sob and shriek of half- starved wolf dogs that skulk back and forth from end to end of the city all through the night. After the brief in- terval of open river the ice began to flow again on the 20th of October. Prior to the 8th of October the ice had come from the smaller streams that empty into the big river. The tribu- taries closed and the river cleared. Then there came a night or two when the mercury registered 13 degrees be- low zero, and the ice that began flow- | ing then was of the Yukon's own mak- ing. Next to a free river one that is tightly closed is to the well-equipped old-timer most to be desired, and his praying for it set the others praying also. The other day, since freezing THE DAY. NEWS OF eather forecast for San Fran- cisco: Falr on Wednesday; fresh northerly winds. Maximum temperature for the past twenty-four hours: San Francisco 60 degrees Portland 52 degrees Los Angele: 86 degrees San Diego .78 degrees FIRST PAGE. Japan Ready for War. Fire and Famine at Dawson. SECOND PAGE. Rich Quartz Strike at Dawson. THIRD PAGE. Canada Will Help Klondikers. Secretary Gage Has Not Resigned. Law After Uber's Lynchers. Annexation Plots Hitch. FOURTH PAGE. Bold San Jose Thieves. Napa ‘Catches a Burglar. Water War at Sausalito. Los Angeles School Scandmy. Slain by a Coward. Big Sloggers Talk Some More. FIFTH PAGH. Soctety Leaders Fall Out. Secretary Wilson on His Dignity, News Along the Water Front. Christmas at_the Churches. SIXTH PAGE. Editorial. Government for Hawatl. An Alphabetical Question. Prospects for Rain. The Tariff and Business. The Golden Jubilee. The New Submarine Boat. Personals and Queries. EEVENTH PAGE Meeting of Traveling Men. Resulta of the Charter Election. Who Shot Baldwin Gardner? EIGHTH PAGE. Teachers in Sesston. NINTH PAGH. Durrant’s Latest Straw. TENTH PAGE. Commerelal Intelligence. ELEVENTH PAGB. News From Across the Bay. TWELFTH PAGE. Racing at Ingleside. Real Estate News. THIRTEENTH PAGB. Births, Deaths, Marriages. FOURTEENTH PAGE. Footpads Worsted by Sallors. Police Judges at War. Death of Dr. Stanton. Preparations for the Jubllee. | | | | | | iIng more to be said. | In boats and on rafts have failed to| weather set in, the channel narrowed | B—l as the shore ice crept outward from the bank: Thus a constantly widen- ing roadway was formed, over which the commerce of the city was carried on. It was level and smooth, and logs and lumber and merchandise were | transported over it by horses and men and sleds and dog teams. Upon this the *techarco” based his conception of what it was to “go out over the ict The “techarco” is the “new comer” or “tenderfoot,” and the word is Indian. It seemed a simple matter to him to travel this wide boulevard back to the land of plenty, and in face of the desperate chances that go with staying here the reso- lution was easlly formed, even by | those who had. suffered most in the | long struggle to get here. That is the bitterest feature of this experience. The toil and suffering and time and money that it costs to get here, and then, immediately upon arrival, when the trials were supposed to be at an end, to find no alternative but to turn back again over the long road just traveled, to tramp it this time through the bleak bewilderment of the Arctic winter, forsaken by the hope that helped to get here and accompanied instead by disappointment, and this, | not because there is not all they had a right to expect when they left home to come here, but because, having ar- | rived, they lack a few sacks of flour | and a few measures of beans. The closing of the river, therefore, does not check the exodus from the | city. It changes its direction. Fort | Yukon, with the river open, was two | weeks distant, drifting down stream. | Now it Is almost as far away as Dyea, and not so desirable. Dyea s ‘“out,” and to most of these tired and disap- pointed people that word leaves noth- At Fort Yukon the man with no money is simply ac- cumulating a debt, and the spring will find him in a more helpless position | than he is now. ‘With these considerations, the tents of the “techarcos,” which have R]\\'a}'s' formed a deep fringe along the water line of the city, have been a market place for the barter of odds and ends | of outfits. The men who determined | to go out reserved of what they had | only what they might need for a| thirty days’ journey. With the pro- | ceeds of their sales they bought what essentials for this they did not have, such as dogs and sleds. Hundreds had sold out. Very many even sneered | at the necessity of dogs, and declared | an intention to walk out and hau|i their own sleds. A hundred had already started, In- tending to get as far as possible on this side of the river. A dozen of 'these found difficulties they had not counted on when only out a few days, and came back. Not all of these by any means are techarcos. Many are old-timers here, who _have excellent claims, by the working of which this winter they | might become rich. They have been | crowded out of their allotment of pro- visions by this year's multitude, and are so crowded out of the country. Their stories are iInteresting. but in the crush of misfortune that has set upon new-comers and old-timers alike individuals and their instances are lost. 1 know of many cases of men who had a full equipment and could live very comfortably and enjoy advan- tages they had not dreamed of when they started for here—the advantages that always come to the fortunate few through the misfortunes of the many— but who have sold out and will under- take this trying journey over the ice. They are afraid to stay here. They know very many who ought to go out because they have not got any provi- sions will not go out. They anticipate robbery and violence at the hands of these, and they prefer the outer world. Their fears are well founded, of course. Jim Keery’s saloon was broken open and robbed of $22,000'in dust on the night of November 14, a few days or nights ago. Keery has run out of lamp oll, and so closes his saloom at R N - BRI R | thousand dollars | nanza. | pated later on. with this mail at 5 o’cl burning. tered 38 degrees below zero. been completed and was a large therest of the town. * THE SWEEP OF FIRE ABOVE THE SNOWS DAWSON CITY, Nov. 22.—As the carrier leaves the town clock Sunday morning Church—the people’s ‘church—in the center of the town, is There is a lodging-house on the second floor of the building, and a drunken man, going to bed and trying to revive the fire at 4 o’clock this morning, overturned the stove. filled with lodgers and they were compelled to rush out of the burning building, half-clothed, into a temperature that regis- back from the line of Frontstreet. let it burn, as fires cannot be extinguished with blocks of ice, Fortunately, there is an area of open space about the building, and at this writing thére seems to be no immediate danger to the Klondike The place was The church building had just log structure, setting a little There is nothing to do but SaM W. WALL. 256808 Eue | dark. The money stolen belonged in | | part to other people, and had been left | | with him for safe keeping. Several of it belonged to | women of the town, and $3000 to “Nig- | ger” Jim Doughty, who had just sold | his interest in certain claims on Bo- The Alaska Commercial Com- | pany is said to have cached in the barracks of the mounted police a | quantity of goods held for reserve as | against starvation conditions antici- The trall is also made dangerous or given an added danger through like cause. Itis well known that gold gath- | ered last spring and summer was not taken out by the transportation com- panles, ag was intended it should be. It has bzen presumed that the owners | of the gold would attempt to have it taken out over the trail, and a great | Invitation to highwaymen is therefora | offered, and they have already gone to work. Since the arrival here of Captain Constantine, commander of the mount- ed police, the city has been trained down under regulations that threaten to take from it much of its woolly character. The gambling and dance- houses have been closed—that is, they have been compelled to retire some- what from under the public eye. They were ordered to close up on the 15th, and by that date had bullt partitions around the games and considered they | had obeyed orders. Above several of | the tables that had worn them before | still hang the signs, “This game never | closes.” = There are eleven saloons in | the city, all of which run games and | two of them public dances every night. One of these latter is the “Opera- house,” and the dances go on there only when there is no show on the | stage The dances run on as long as anybody will dance. The price of | dancing is the purchase of drinks. The | saloons are comparatively deserted | during the day, but at night they are crowded. The two company stores close at 4| o’'clock in the afternoon. Nearly all| others engaged in business quit with | the daylight. The three sawmills have | closed down for the winter, because | they can no longer get logs. Three of the eleven saloons close at night for | lack of light, so that in the evening | everything and everybody converges toward the saloons that are open and their games and dance halls. The lamps and candles are not lighted in these until darkness compels and busi- ness justifies, but although they hang | about the big log barracks at such dis- tances apart as to barely relleve the | gloom, their flames and smoke weight the air and lend a halo of indistinct- ness, | three dealers One searches for famillar faces in this atmosphere as he would through a heavy fog. All the places of business are along the water front and are com- prised in distance of about six blocks, exclusive of the sawmills in the upper end of town. The two company stores and warehouses occupy two blocks and between there on the north, and the pelice barracks on the south, a dis- tance of four blocks or more, strictly speaking, within two of these four blocks is concentrated what is called “life” in this town. Aside from the saloons, sawmills, sash factory and company stores, the business of the place embraces three real ate and mining brokerage of- fices, one law and mining concern, two watchmakers, one shoemaker, two or in second-hand goods, a cabinetmaker, half-dozen places where fur caps and mittens and moccasins are made, two dentists, two barber- shops with baths, several doctors’ of- fices, two blacksmith shops and a tin- shop, where the demand for sheet-iron stoves is partially satisfied. There is also a small brewery, a man, having brought in a few tons of hops, the doing of which cost him a fortune, and out of which he is making the most. The street along the edge of the river bank is still lined with tents the entire length of the town,and in those, and. in some down-river boats and barges that have been hauled up there and covered over either with boards .or canvas, people are living, and some are doing business. Front street is a busy place both night and day. There, dur- ing the day, the dog teams are cursed and beaten and kept moving, as men transport their belongings from place to place, and freighters haul merchan- dise and firewood. Fur-enveloped men and women move about with the rapid step of the dogtrot the temperature enforces, and the steam from the bod- fes of the men and animals arises like a mist and turns each hair of whisker and fur into an icicle. With the sunset this scene changes | here as it does in every city on earth. The dogs are released to forage and fight and howl the night through; men and women crouch for a little while over their tin stoves as they cook their bacon and beans in their cabins, and then most of them blow out thelr can- dles, thus saving them, and go back to Front street. The seats at the gaming tables are filled up, the smoke of to- bacco mingles with that of the saloon lamps, little pools of water are formed by the pressure of boots about® the stove. Out of that row of houses on the back street, the windows of which are shrouded day and night in red blinds.