The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 30, 1897, Page 3

'THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1897. OISONED | FOO0D FOR EXPLORERS How the Men of the Jeannette Were | Duped. ‘F Suffering Caused by Food | Purchased in Chicago and New York. Government Now Patronizes the Same Cities for Its Klondike Expedition. DEADLY ACIDS IN MEATS. Commodore Melville Tells of the | Distress of His Party in the Frozen North. Special Dispatch to The Call. Call Office, Riggs House, WASHINGTON, Dec. 29. The expedition for the relief of Klon- dike miners being now under tull way, it has been determined by the.War Department to procure the greater | part of the provisions in Chicago. in- | stead of San Francisco, I saw Cofa- | modore George W. Melville of the Navy to-night and asked him whether the report was true that much of the | provisions furnished for the Jeannette xpedition were worthless. t is true,” he said, “and as I recol- t the circumstances of that expe- most of the provisions were ased {n Chicago and New York. ber we had a lot of canned which was purchased in Chicago New York. It was not old, ut after we had sailed and had par- aken of the stuff several of our men were sick. At fi we could not dis- ver the cause, but when the symp- | of lead poisoning developed we an investtgation on foot, and we d that the meat was not only lv acidolated on account of being but that it was put up in cans de of ‘terne’ plate, instead of pure | tin plate. ‘Of course you know that reputable | dealers will not can any kind of food in terne plate, for it is poisonous. The pure tin, in which most pure fruit and vegetables are canned, is suttable for | the purpose, but when a mixture of lead and tin is used to plate the exte- | rior or interfor surface of these cans the food thus preserved becomes high- 1y deleterious and often times poison- | ous. Especially is this the case when | the food preserved has rematned seal- | ed in the cans for any length of time. This was the character of the so-call- ed ‘tinned beef’ which we purchased | {n Chicago and New York. It was old stuff, and, by reason of a long con- tact with the lead and tin coating on | the iInterfor of the cans, had become impregnated with the lead and poison- ed our men. True, no fatalfties result- ed from this cause, but some of our men were made very stck. “The stuff was not only improperly canned, but was of an inferfor quality to 'begin with. Instead of betng the best quality of beef it was taken from the jowls and gullets—that is to say, from the jaws of beef heads—and was stringy and altogether worthless. “Now, as far as the Klondike relief | expedition is concermed, I want to say, since The Call has asked me the question, that ft will be unwise for the expedition to {ncumber Iits pack trains with a lot of stuff that is not entirely necessary. I mean to say that cannmed vegetables, fruit and truck are not omy weighty but capacious, and do not contain as much nutriment as the same quantity of fat pork and hard bread and white beans I speak from practical experfence I need not repeat here what the people already know of the hardships that our relief party experienced, and how we Ilved for days, weeks and months upon meager dlets, hardly sufficient to keep a bird alive. I do not presume to advise the War Department offi- cials, nor any officers thereof, regard- ing this expedition. 1 know that I will not be considered presumptious, however, in giving some friendly ad- vice based upon practical experience in the Alaskan and Arctic regions. “I have found that of all meat pork is the best for such expeditions. It contains more nourishment to the pound than beef or any other kind of and preserved gmeat. Not only this, but | fat pork 1Is heating, and this, of | course, {8 a desideratum in that climate. But this is too well known to need comment here. Let the pork be fat. A slice of it sandwiched between two layers of hard bread Is not so bad fare, and is full of nourishment. Of course, you can get more hard bis- cuits out of a barrel of flour, but it | would be impossible to pack flour. Therefore, a lot of hard bread, closely packed, would be more to the pur- pose. “White beans are excellent. They are not only very nourishing, but can be compactly carried. With a diet of fat pork, hard bread and white beans | one eannot only sustain life for a long | period, but subsist comfortably. - After | a man has lived in that Arctic region a2s I have, and the poor fellows who were with me, on refuse of all kinds, | on dead horses and dogs, the entrails | of wild fowl which the otter and seal | wourld kill, and finally upon our furE and skin clothing, a diet of fat ‘pork, | 4 bread and white beans would | have been a Thanksgiving feast. Some of the poor fellows in De Long’s party were finally limited to a diet of a tablespoonful of sweet oll or so much glycerine per man per day. “You have asked me about coffee. I have said that it is best not to lumber up the pack train with any sort of unnecessary food supplies. At the same time some such stimulant as this need not be regarded as a luxury. And if they have space for it they might take along some tea. It §s much petter than coffee for such &n i are much better than either deer | ful. than a pound of coffee. “Now, as to the means of transporta- tion, for an ounce of tea is worth more | tion: ' I think that ponies and horses or dogs. The deer cannot travel far with- out plenty of deer moss, and it is likely to be scarce in that country at | this season of the year. Dogs eat too much. Our party started with forty- three dogs. They ate too much and we killed all but eleven, which were kept to draw the hospital sled. We after- ward shot all but two, which we kept for pets on board ship. One of these died and we finally ate the last one. Horses are by all odds the best, and I would recommend Canadian or Shet- land ponies, which are accustomed to a cold climate and all kings of hard- ships incident to life in that country. “A Canadian horse or pony ought to carry about 200 pounds of provisions —100 pounds on each side of the pack saddle, which is placed well up on its shoulders. A barrel of pork, for in- stance, would weigh about 200 pounds —100 pounds on each side of the ani- mal: It is much better to pack the provisions than to haul them. I should think that it would be wise to estab- lsh provision depots at intervals of about every 100 miles and leave at each depot two men in charge. I do not know the distance from Chilkoot or White Pass to Dawson, but, roughly estimating it to be 2000 miles, this would require forty men alone for the purpose of policing these depots. I calculate that the horse train, hitched in a long Mne, halter tied to tafl, ought to travel about three miles an hour. ‘Working twetve hours it would make thirty-six miles a day. The travel should not be continuous for the twelve hours, but with perfods of rest in the daytime as well as at night. “You ask how the horses may sub- sist if the reindeer cannot. My an- swer is that the horse is hardier than the deer and can travel farther on a smaller quantity of food. These horses you see every day In the streets of Washington can, and many of them do, subsist on a small quantity of oats. Some of them never taste oats, but live on hay. It would be inadvisabte to take hay on such an expedition on account of its bulk; besides, there is | nearly as much nourishment in a halt peck of oats as in a bale of hay.” “But talk as you will about the en- during qualities, and the drawing or packing capacity of dogs, or horses, or deer, I tell you that a man beats them all. Our party traveled from the Okhotsk Sea to Yaktueh. On a bee line, it is about 500 miles, but the way we went was about 2800 miles and each man drew about 290 pounds on his sled. We traversed this distance in about 110 days. Talk about cold! why, It was often 72 degrees below zero. The toes and finger nalls of some of the men were froezn off. When a man's toes were frozen we had to re- sort to heroic treatment. We had no regular surgeon, as he was with the DeLong party, so the best we could do was to put the patient’s foot on a hard block or surface of some kind, then use a case or other knife as a chisel, amputating the members by striking the knife with a hammer. “But all of this is an old story. Most people know that of the party of thirty-three officers and men over 60 per cent perished, and to-day only six | of the party survive, of which I am | one. Several of them returned alive, | but soon died as a result of the exp sure. Some of them went insane and years afterward committed suicide. | “Tt has been said that a thin, wiry mean can stand hardship better than the hardier end more vigorous person, but this is, of course, not true. Your fat man can live on the fat of his own bones when he can get nothing to eat, and he stands the rigors of such a cli- mate better than the thin, wiry, blood- less individual. It is true that the big- | gest and fattest man of our party (Erickson) was one of the first to suc- cumb, but he @led of lockjaw as a re- sult of frozen feet. “Now, you ask me whether I think the Bear's expedition will be success- My answer is that you can never tell what you can do until you make the attempt. My opinifon is that both of these expeditions are doubtful, but the Government is quite right in mak- ing the endeavor. If the Bear had started a little sooner with a store of fat pork, hard bread and white beans, | she might have passed Bering straits in Kotzebue sound, whence the party could have proceeded with more or less facility along the coast, which is not mountainous. Messengers could have speedily traveled the 600 miles to Point | Barrow to apprise the whalers that a | reltef ship was near at hand. “But let us hope for the best, and godspeed both expeditions.” C. C. CARLETON. SRt | DIFFICULTIES BESET THE TRAIL FOLLOWED IN THE FLIGHT FROM DAWSON. Adventures of Several Parties Which Left the Klondike Since the Winter ‘V Storms Began. | SEATTLE, Dec. 29.—Scarcely a bet- ter illustration of the difficulties to be met and overcome on the winter trail in or out of Dawson is afforded than the variation of time made by the sev- eral small parties which composed the large party of returning Klondikers who arrived on the Al-Ki yesterday. E. L. Renaud and Joseph Hanberry of Deer Lodge, Mont.,, Walter Cook of Dawson and Frank Scott of Juneau left Dawson on October 28 last. They had a feam of six as fine Malamute | dogs as ever pulled a sled. The best | dogs in the Yukon are so called after | a tribe of Indians who live in that sec- tion' and breed them. They sell at from $100 to $140, or from $1 50 to $2 | per pound of degflesh, alive in the skin. | There is no better illustration of “dog | eat dog” than with these animals, for if one gets sick or incurs the ill will of his fellow-dogs the others pounce upon him, and, if starving, they eat him. The Renaud party was fifty-six days | on the trail. The Mackay party, which left Dawson on November 24, was only twenty-five and a half days making the trip. This the latter was able to | do simply from the fact that it met with favorable conditions and better | luck. | Renaud and his companions had not | been out of Dawson forty-eight hours before the edge ice melted and some‘ of them had to put back te the town for boats. This caused a delay of five days. Later the edge fce formed, the boats were abandoned and they took to the sleds on the bank again. Then the ice packed and jammed on them, but it did not have sufficient strength | to hold their weight. In the meantime | they had to camp and their supply of | provisions was steadily becoming shorter. Many of those who came out in the last party paid as high as $2 a pound for food to last them to salt water, bt the most of them paid from.| 3. O | the coal was carried down by the water | vein. | it by was that the stream is shallow, | pense. | was sorry he did not try to find the | vein, a5 coal In Dawson would be a | | counted for by two reasons. NEW TO-DAY. +THE WINNING CARD.+ As the day draws toward the close of our high-class sale of Gentlemen’s Suwits and Overcoats the orowds grow thicke:r, the plawlits louder, and the emphasis of approval by Frisco's most fash- ionable dressers attest to the fact that this sale has proved to the buying public a Winning Card. HEREPEFRRURXRAEERRRELLEERRERH s FF A F KKK K RAKR What do you say to own- ing a fine Black Cheviot Overcoat, lined through- out with the best quality of silk, sleeve linin3s of satin. To all appearances and intrinsio worth a $50 to ord-r Overcoat. This garment isincluded among those offered to you ' $0.85. s S 2 S S T S R B e R e e S e e S * s * * * * * * * = * * * * * * 3* ¥ ‘i * * * * x * HHEEEHRFERAAREEAALERRERERERDD 4 sale of clever garments both as to Swits and Over- coats. That's what these are, at $9.85. ol e S e 2 B e S e e S e : | i | FREREERRER AR EETRRRRERRREAR S Price Jugglery Or the printing of false statements. finds no place in owr advertisements, or misstatements are never allowed to creep imto our advertisements—hence we enjoy the public's confi- dence. ;*}%M*“’**I!*'l"i‘&‘*i.* FKF KK IR L TP TR R E P * (000 0000000000000 00000000 (000 0000000000] O (00000000 0000000000000 000!} $9.85. O 0000000000000 0000000000000000, ”'/ "'lm'.ll-,\_ e ||. O000000000000000000000I00000000CC00000000000000 The fashion leaders about town have taken advantage of this offer. It is one of rare occurrence and embraces some of the handsomest silk-lined Overcoats that yow have ever laid your eyes upon. Nothing in town at $20 will compare with 'em, and a selection from a floor of high-class Overcoats for a few days for The above picture brings to your notice a few of these fashionable garments—that are on special sale—at $9.85. OPEN EVENINGS. *****—::*************H*Qfl: TR e e R KRR KK Worn by the fashionable folles — those natty Box Overcoats made from those English Covert Cloths, with strap seams, French facing, satin sleeve lin- ings. This kind of wup-to- date Overcoats are with a lot of others equally as choice at $9.85. R S e B L Y 2R R R Ry a2 e R s e 2R 2 D s s e R e e 2 2 One of the pleasing feat- wres of this sale is the pro- digiows assortment yow have to select from. The very dressiest of swits— nothing in town at 818 can compare with them. Yow'll find these with others at $9.85. R e e 2 2 P R AR R A2 22 B2 R B2 2 R R R vy S R e R e L e s e S S s L/ * 3 » * % * * * * * * * * * * * % H The New Year Should find yow wearing a new Swit or a new Over- coat. The opportunily of Zetting fashionable clothes such as we present now is one not ocourring every day. Will yow embrace the opportunity ? R e S S T TR T R s e R 22 R S R ] $1 to $1 50 & pound. | About the middle of November Re- | naud and Hanberry crossed the river | to see what they could find in the way of grub. The ice broke while they were on the other shore and they were | held there nearly three days without a | bite to eat, nefther themselves nor | Cook and Scott being able to cross on the floating mush and cakes of ice. On the third day they found two boats full of provisions in an eddy two miles up the river, just in time to save them from starvation. The boats had broken away from a party some miles up the river. The owners of the lost boats were subsequently encountered and the Renaud party was rewarded by the presentation of considerable grub for saving the boats. Renaud bears the distinction of be- ing the only man who has found coal in the Klondike region. He says he saw an exoellent quality of hard bitu- minous coal, almost semi-anthracite, in large chunks along the bank of a stream he declined to name. He thinks and deposited there. He said he was looking for gold and not coal and that he did not locate or even try to find the Another reason why he passed very rapld &nd full of rocks and falls, and he saw no way that the coal could be got to Dawson except at great ex- After he came out, he said, he littie Klondike in itself, as wood for | fuel and lumber is becoming steadfly | scarcer. The fact that the last two large par- tles from Dawsom have brought a small amount of gold dust is ac- | The prin- | cipal one is that money is at a high | premium in the Klondike region. This | is because there is much speculation in | claims and dust is worth 10 per cent a month and is sald to be snapped up at once. Thus money commands more money in Dawson than it does in Wall or Lombard streets. “Why,” asked a Klondiker, “should | I bring out gold to cities in the States | when I can get much more interest for it in Dawson? That is the way every- body feels in there who has money. They leave it where it can earn more.” The other reason is that gold is heavy and greenbacks are scarce in the Yukon country. When parties come out in the winter season they use sleds and dog teams to carry provisions and camp utensils, and take only what Is necessary to get them through. “If one’s sleds or backs were loaded with gold instead of grub we could never get through. We can’t eat gold. That no more gold has' been carried out lately does not argue that it is not in there. I have seen clalms that sold for 33000 per lineal foot, and I bought one myself on El Dorado, below Dis-~ covery, for Portland people who are in- erested less t th me for something than that figure.” The HAL MEADE GIVEN ANOTHER POST Goes to Take Charge of the Marine Force at Portsmouth. Cause of His Detachment From the Boston Station a Mystery. Disagreed With Assistant Secretary Roosevelt as to the Post Exchange Innovation. Special Dispatch to The Call. BOSTON, Dec. 20.—Major Robert L. Meade, U. 8. M. C,, an officer of distin- guished family and record, who has for several years commanded the Marine Barracks at the Boston Navy-yard, left the city to-day to take command of the marine force at the Portsmouth Navy-yard. He was detached on De- cember 20. Major P. C. Pope, who has been stationed at the Mare Island Yard, will succeed him probably with- in two months. There seems to be some mystery, po- | litical or purely departmental ard offi- cial, about this detachment of Major | Meade. It has stirred up a good deal of conjecture in and out of the yard at Charleston, and only one solution | of It has been presented—that is, the Navy Department at Washington has not seen fit to revoke the order of de- tachment. The mystery involves, as far as can be scen, filve persons—Sec- retary of the Navy Long, Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, Colonel Heywood, colonel commandant of marines, sta- tioned at Washington; Captain A. C. Kelton, U. 8. M. C., who has been sta- tioned at the Boston Yard about a year, and Richard O. Wylle, who was nominated by the Prohibition party for some notable office on its State election platform. It involves also, it is said, the post exchange at the Bos- ton Yard, which was established on December 1, and the publication of an article in the Voilce. And since inci- and run and out of the there has been a great deal of of dents in the mystery began to leak out around Ml and personal letter-writing. There have been intimations of ‘backbiting in the service” and ‘“personal abuse” and “political meddling.” As a matter of fact herein set forth the first time publicly this detachment of Major Robert L. Meade from the Boston Yard has caused more offtcial | and private talk in and out of the | navy than any detachment has caused for many years. It has moved the de- partment at Washington to consider- able concern and has called out pro- tests from many influential people all over the country. The beginning of | the navy-yard element of the mystery was, It appears, the institution of the | is a pet scheme of Assistant Secretary | Roosevelt. Major Meade had one per- sonal objection to the post exchange, | and that was, In his opinion, that it | would encourage drinking among the marines and might discourage discip- line. ¥y report that the | Meade was due to a belief that he had inspired certain criticisms of Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, which appeared in the New York Voice, is denied with emphasis at the Navy Department, and | thus the mystery deepens. The case of | Major Meade has been a rather prom- | inent one in the department on account | of the great pressure which has been brocught to bear, but both Secretary Long and Assistant Secretary Roose- | velt are convinced that no mistake has | been made. The change is believed to | be decidedly for the good of the ser- vice. admit it, it js said at the department | that there had been frequent clashes between Major Meade and his superior | officers in the marine corps, and that the recent commander of the yard had not got along well with him. CYCLISTS MATCHED FOR ICE SKATING CONTESTS. Arthur Chase and Ernest Reynolds, English and American Champions, Are Pitted | Against Each Other. NEW YORK, Dec. 20.—W. T. Walton, | manager of Arthur Chase, the Eng- lish champlion middle distance cyclist, and Ernest Reynolds to-day signed ar- ticles of agreement for a series of ice skating races between Chase and Rey- nolds. The series, it is announced, will be for a purse of $500 and a side stake of $500. The first race will, in all prob- ability, be held at Silver Lake, S. I, where the national championships were held last year, or in New York City; the second at Buffalo or Toronto, and the third at Montreal, all early in the new year. The men deposited $250 each to bind the match. Reynolds was the winner of the na- tional champlionship of America last | post exchange. The exchange system | | A Washington speclal says that the | transfer of Mafjor | Although Mr. Roosevelt does not | DIN OF BATTLE [N THEIR CLUB Boston’s Society Soldiers Engage in a Mild Clash. Criticism of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Colonel Joseph O. Burdett Attacks Its Time-Honored Custom of Drinking Beer. Spectal Dispatch to The Call. BOSTON, Dec. 20.—It was not a peace pipe the Anclents smoked last evening; rather it was one of war—a war of revolution. Hon. Joseph O. Burdett poured hot shot and withering volleys of sarcasm into the ranks of the Ancient and (always) Homnorable Artillery Company. Colonel Walker re- plied with a heavy cannonading and both sides rested on their arms—also the tables when necessary—each claiming the victory. This sharp fight, one of the flercest though short in which the Ancients ever have been engaged in their long military career, took place at the Quincy House last evening. The num- ber of “‘dead soldiers” left on the fleld, which were cared for by the camp fol- lowers, testified to this. It may be that this indecisive engagement may be the first battle of a revolutionary war which will send the shades of the revolutionary heroes scurrying farther than ever into the shade on the other side of the Styx. The wars of nations will be but sham battles to the war of the Ancients, and the Duke of Marl- borough’s campaigns will be lost for- ever in the champagne of the Ancients. For has not Hon. Joseph O. Burdett of Hingham attacked the traditions of the Ancients—traditions unto which the laws of the Medes and Persians were as brittle as a hasty promise? Even so. Hon. Joseph O. Burdett said last night that the Anclent and Honorable year. Chase holds & number of skating | Artillery Company could not be a mili- records. tary company as long. as a new com- i mander was elected each year. Fur- ther, he said that in soctal matters, a matter of drinking beer and wine, the Anclents were not carrying out the idea of the colonial incorporators. The idea! Who else would think for a moment of accusing the Ancients of being any- thing but a military organization? ‘Who other than Hon. Joseph O. Bur- dett of Hingham would ocouse the An- clents of drinking beer and wine—in- sinuating excesses? Who ever saw an Ancient intoxicat- ed? Is the wine or beer made or brewed that could overcome the An- clent ard Honorable Artillery Com- pany, collectively or individually? Avaunt. It did not need the gallant defense of Colonel Walker. He need not have rushed into the breach. The members of the Ancient and Honora- ble Artillery Company ever were capa- ble of standing on their own feet ana pointing not wildly nor incoherenmtly, but with just pride to their proud deeds and prodigious valor in drown- ing everything that came their way without faltering. KENNETH DUNCAN STEALS A BICYCLE Latest Exploit of the Former Pastor of Howard Pres- byterian Church. Special Dispatch to The Call. SAN JOSE, Dec. 29.—The ex-Rev. Kenneth Duncan, who was formerly pastor of Howard Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and one of the most eloquent ministers on the coast, was arrested in this city last evening for stealing a bicycle. For a number of months Duncan has been conflned at Agnews Asylum, but of late he has shown such improvement that yester- day the authorities at the institution gave him permission to come to this city. The destre for drink took pos- session of him, and he stole a bicycle belonging to 8. H. Wheeler and sold it at a pawn shop for $3 in order to sat- isfy his craving. He gave the name of Charles Ru: , and it was not untfl this morning that he was recognized as the ex-dtvine. He was returned to the asylum. About a year ago Duncan stole $50 from a restaurant in Francisco and came to this city, where ke was caught while on a debauch with the money. He was charged with grand larceny, but it was subsequently de- veloped he was insane and he was oonitnftted %o Agnews Asylnm.