The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1895-09-28
He would sooner Stay at Home
Than Make the Jour
nry Again.
CHOLERA GETTING IN ITS WORK.
Peary Performs the Difficult
Feat of Returning
Home.

w. A, Sbaules formerly of Lewis.
town, where his family now reside
returned few days ago from Alas
ka, where he has been for the last
two years. During call at the
Standard office Mr.. Shaules spoke
entertainingly and intelligently of
that distant territory, and among
other things said:
"Forty Fer cent of the people are
oldtime Montanians, and anyone
going there from this state always
receives a most cordial greeting and
generous welcome. From Juneau
our party went to Diela, a distance
of 100 miles, where we started over.
land to the head of the lakes. From
the lakes we went to Forty Mile, or
Mitchell, and from there to the great
placer mines, which extend dis
tance of hundreds of miles down
the river. The mines can ONLY be
worked about 80 days during the
entire year, but they are fabulously
rich, and in that short time fortunes
are gathered from bedrock. The
wages at the mines are SO per day
and board; fact, SO per day is
paid for all classes OF work done.
Bedrock is from two to thirty feet
deep and in the spring prospecting
is done by burning or thawing holes
down to bedrock by fires. There is
an abundance of timber everywhere
for this purpose, and while the work
of getting to bedrock is SLOW, yet it
is generally satisfactory, for gold is
found everywhere.
care expenses high: Well, yes,
but one gets used to the prices in
short time and doesn't mind that
much. Flour is IS per hundred,
beans 10 cents per pound, dried
fruit 20 cents, sugar % cents, bacon
so cents, and board cost you, when
you stay by the week, exactly $l4
Or $50 per day. If one feels like
painting the camp red, he can get
fair whiskey at 30 cents IA drink, or
if he is inclined to be economical
and buy the stuff in larger quan-
titles he can get very good quality
for S2o a gallon. Cigars cost 80
cents each, and IA small glass of
bottled beer will absorb IA half dol
lar also
The principal towns close 10 the
mines are Mitchell and Circle City
and they are rivals, containing about
4OOpeople, 30 per cent Of which are
men. A white woman up there is
regarded as white winged goddess
and can have anything she admires
or demands that is obtainable. Of
course you understand that there is
no law in these camps-no sheriff,
constables, or any thing Of that kind.
When case of crookedness comes
up or disagreements of any kind oc
cur, a miners meeting is called and
the question at issue is settled, and
there is no appeal from the decision
either While the men are rough
in their habits and conduct some
times, there is very little shooting
or killing going ON. The territor-
ial population is, | think about IA,
900 including 1000 natives. These
natives both men and women, can
punish more liquor than brigade
of old buns and they enjoy liquor
more than the whites. Otherwise
the men are quiet and inoBensiye
and the women quite moral. They
enjoy dancing and are employed by
regular dance houses, but if anyone
offers them an insult they are quick
to resent it and row is likely to
follow.
"The people of the interior of
Alaska are cooped up almost as
much as if they were in jail, and for
that reason are anxious to get out as
sooh as they secure good stake.
But if man has no family, has moth