The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-07-24

| ~ aver btipulaLlnE that his
name should not be published. He
opened drawer to his desk and-out
Of a number Of specimens OF ore Sc
lected chunk as big mans thumb
II was as heavy as a bullet.
This" he said as he laid it away in
the drawer again, was picked up on
the surface soil six years ago. An.
other piece as big as my fist was
picked UP at the same place, we have
been offered $3.50 for. Now, when
there is gold like that lying about
open to the air, there is just one in.
ference to be drawn. 1t comes from
some place. The man who finds the
place is rich. The man who tells the
world in general what he is looking
for and why under such circnmstan.
ces is fool. BY the same token he
usually dies poor and complains of
hard times, signs for the return of the
good old days of 49,. Why, man, '49
was nothing to thisi johannesburg is
no such center of Of gold fields as is
juneau.
But there is this difference be.
tween California in 40 and Alaska in
81. Alaska is all staked out. The
news has not gone abroad until the
people near at hand. the people who
have spent money, time, and their very
lives IN developing the country, the peo-
pie, in short, who deserved the reward
had seized on everything in sight.
Down along the coast in the quartz
lodes the stamp mills have been estab-
lished one by one, twenty stamps here
forty there They have not any of them
begun to be worked yet as hard as the
available area of ore will permit. With
mills running all together $40 stamps,
more than half the stamps working on
" half year, the product of the quartz
mines Of Alaska in 1897 yielded $2.355,
600. | say to you earnestly, honestly,
that it is only pin scratch Work in
Alaska can not be said to have begun.
There was never anywhere anything
like it. Today received this dispatch
from man who is going over "a collec-
ton of twenty or more mines ali be-
longing to the company in which am
interested. Changing the names of the
mines, the dispatch reads thus:
" Have just examined Pup and Kit
ten. Pup has ten -foot vein and Kitten
thirty; grand showing.
" That staggers me, used as l am to
big quantities and queer developments
in Alaska veins. Still, there have been
thirty-foot veins before, ard there may
be lots more of them. The beauty of
it all is that these veins grow richer as
you work down into them. TO sum the
whole thing up, believe that right in
the Alasks gold deposits is the mother
vein of the gold of North America.
The placer deposits in the Yukon
country are the washings from those
same rich sources. Years ogo, in 1888,
as nearly as can remember, the plac.
er miners began working over Chilkat
Pass and into the Yukon district. Poor
ly clad, badly provisioned, they went
out year after year. Some of them
went half crazy. But they found gold.
They came back and brought their
friends in with them next time. The
verv immensely of what they found
worked in their favor. They told the
truth, the exact truth. Itsounded like
the boastful inventions of men who
were trying to conceal their disappoint.
ment. Now, when the gold dust itself
is beginning to come out of the mount
aims, people believe them. But it is to
late now to go up there with the idea of
making money out of the mines. Every
thing is gobbled up.
"a few weeks ago two young men
came to me with letters. They were
wild win enthusiasm and confidence.
They were going to Alaska they said.
| told them to stay at home. Then one
of them said he had had lots of expert
ence in hard knocks. You'll get lot
more out there L said There is more
experience out there than there is gold,
and that is saying heaps. But 1 con
troll $4,000 he said by glory said 1,
'you'll need it. And they will. It's no
poor mans country. A man might as
wellstart out from Janeau, after all his
kit and outfit are bought, without
cent as without $500 or 5000. But it is
country every American who can aft
ord TO travel ought to see. 1t is a beau
tiful country to visit, and there is no
pleasanteF trim auvwhere"