The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-08-05
ZONE VERY FINE READING
MAIL CARRIER JACK CARR TELLS
OF THE KLONDYKE.
Stories That Sound Like the Arabian
Nights" but Are Much Better
Nouched For Some Suggestions.

When Jack Carr. the Klondyke car
rier was lately i'm Seattle, he gave
an interview on the new mining camp
of the North. which is very interest
ing. Carr owns some claims in the
district and when he went to Seattle
he took with him enough gold dust
and nuggets to furnish man with a
nice home in that city, ground and
all.
According to Carr, the residents of
Circle City and Forty Mile have emf
grated en- masse to the creeks tribu-
tary to the Klondyke, and that camp,
which last wear numbered 1900 people,
now has nearly 1000.
But while the incentives to a man
to go into the country and dig out II
fortune in few weeks are great,
there are drawbacks to the country,
and it is not all roses and honey there.
Provisions are very scarce and high.
| There has been an advance of 80 per
cent on the price of staples. and as
the fleet of river steamers, which last
year was insufficient to keep the camp
supplied with provisions, has not been
| augmented, the the outlook for this
winter is not encouraging
"There'll be suffering enough" said
Carr, speaking of this phase of life
on the klondyl<e. II would not advise
any man to go there with less than a
years provisions. \ man with $500
or 500 in that country is strapped
Wages are high, though. Think of
paying a man S1j a day to dig and
shovel sand and gravel. Carr is au-
/ thority for the statement that a man
can live on 81 per day if he is economi-
cal and "baches.'
Here are some of the stories Carr
tells:
One piece of ground on Eldorado
! creek, forty-five feet wide, yielded
/ 100000.
\ bookkeepr named Beecher, for
merly from Chicago, but lately pur-
ser on the steamer Weir worked sixty
days ION the lay" with Conroy, his
partner. In the cleanup this spring
| they had $1,000 each, after paying the
! owner of the claim an equal amount
| Nearly $4,000 a month beats keeping
books.
Some of those claims up there will
/ yield million dollars said Carr
They have only gotten nine miles
from the mouth of the Klondyke, and
there ought to be plenty of paying
ground in the other streams in the
vicinity"
Clarence Berry bought out his two
partners in claim on Bonanza creek
paying one 100000 and the other $50,
600 ION the strength of the dump
At the end of the cleanup Berry haC
$4,000 and the claim left.
On another claim the dirt ran ar
ounce of gold to the shovel per min
ute.
AS showing the great exodus OF
people into the klondyke country
Carr says that when he came out last
December there were 600 people al
Forty Mile and 100 at Circle City
Going in the last trip there were only
twenty people at Forty Mile, and two
thirds of the population of Circle City
had gone. Every man who could raise
5000 for an outfit left for the Klon-
dyke. An outfit consisting of an
empty sled and two dogs readily
brought $500.
Freighting between Circle City and
the Klondyke was 81 per pound by
| dog teams.
Before the arrival of the steamers
this spring." said Carr, provisions be,
came extremely scarce. Flour sold as
high as $62 per sack. 1t is now worth
So per sack. If the river steamers do
not do better this winter than last
there will be great scarcity of food
in the camp. Prices have lately adj
vanced until the staples sold at these
figures:
Sugar, so cents per pound; rolled
oats, 25 cents per pound; corn meal
at the same figure, and dried fruits
from 35 to 40 cents per pound; canned
fruit, 60 to IS cents per can"
Nuggets are found ranging from
5000 to $500 in value, while the kind
that are worth 500 are seen kicking
about in most any old place.