Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-09-06
4 POOR COUNTRY.
NO COUNTRY FOR HUMAN BEINGS
TO lNHABIT.
Says a Seattle Visitor 10 Alaska
steady Diet of Bacon and Beans =
The Country Vast Frozen


Is not enamored with the country.
friend in this city has received a lette
from him dated at Deadwood Greek
Alaska, in which he says:
Here l am laying in my tent
July 18th, chewing spruce gum. Ba
con and beans always did give me the
heart burn; and gum acts as an anti
dote. Well, God hates a coward, so
am going to tell you the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the
truth, so help me God. In the first
place, Alaska is the most barren, God
forsaken spot that the sun ever shon c
on, and if there ever was place on
this earth that was not intended for
habitation, this is it. Words utterly
fail to express ones contempt for this
country, who has had the misfortune
to see it.
The work that one must perform
to exist at all is the work of animals
rather than men; it is one vast swamp,
thousands of miles in extent, covered
with moss, and frozen to unknown
depths. The only resources of the
country has are the fur-bearing ami.
mails, and the natives are the ones al.
lowed to trap them. Five dollars of
gold has been brought in here to every
dollar taken out of the mines. There
are only two sections to-day that are
being worked, one is Forty Mile creek
and very few tributaries OF it, such
as Miller and Glacier creeks, and Mas
todon, Independence and Deadwood
creeks, near Circle City, the two Sec
tons being 2jO miles apart. Now,
there were about ten of them that
paid more than wages, and about five
men went out with from $4,000 to
$4,000; twenty-five men went out
with from $1,000 to $1,000; 100 made
enough to buy grub for the winter
and 500 men went broke.
Now this section is so new, only
struck last fall, that it is hard TO say
just what it will turn out, but every
claim is opened up some. So far they
are only grubstake" and far poorer
than Forty Mile. Now that is the
extend of all the mining in this part
of Alaska, with the exception of work.
ing bars on the rivers, paying 81 to S.
per day, which is only half wages.
"The working season is about sixty
| or seventy days, and one is lucky if he
gets in half of them. The wages are
$40 per day, and one can save more
outside, at $3.50 per day than here at
$40. Bacon is 80 cents per pound,
beans 80 cents, flour $24 per sack, salt
$3.50 for 10.pound sack, and so on
40 cents per pound OF this is for freight
from Circle City to the mines, about
100 miles. You will see that it don't
take long to eat up hundred dollars
worth OF grub. We are still eating
Seattle groceries, and have enough to
last us till we get out, about the middle
of August We are out OF
sugar, and it costs GO cents per pound.
don't know how much we shall order
guess about one pound. Ihate beans
and bacon worse than ever
CAS- to the weather. 1 never saw
finer, no rain, scarcely, and sun all the
time twenty-five hours of the day
You can hardly believe that for two
months we have had broad daylight
twenty-four hours every day. We
work night here as much as days; in
fact, we have no nights; the moor
does not have a chance to get in its
work; by and by the moon will have
it all to do. Oh, the country is &C
strange aud wild; now the heavens art
all right in the summer, but the earth
oh, my! The trails are through disma
swamps, with water foot deep, ant
mosquitoes! it means that one has to
be covered with cheese cloth and lont
gloves. You can form no conception
OF this terrible plague; to sleep is ou
OF the question. They disappear abou
the first of August, then the blacl
gnat comes-ten times worse than tn
mosquitoes, and then the cold weathe
comes-6O to 70 degrees below zero
As one OF the boys who came in with u
said. If God would forgive him TO
coming in here this time he woul,
never do so again. Oh, it is terrible
country for human being TO stay in
and if space would permit would tel
you more about it. The chance
OF making a raise here are about on
in hundred.
"Most every one here keeps from
one to five dogs, which are used 70
hauling sleds in winter. In summe
they are not used nor fed, because foo
costs too much, and they 60 aroun
every ones tent and steal anythin
J they see; they will grab pot and ru
off with it, tip it over and eat the cor
tents; they will eat boots and glove
I. and socks and dish rags. Oh, ho'