The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-08-16

Jake Halterman I4,0OO w. L. Ricotte. $4,000
johnson 81 Olson 10000 G. Worden..... 1900
"Smaller amounts" adds The Rec
ord. deposited by ID men with the
purser of the Portland aggregated $l78,-
900. Besides these there was hardly
passenger whose sack did not contain
from $5, 900 to $4,000. to say nothing
of specimen nuggets and expense sacks
brought by those who shipped their
dust in bulk. And this Is the product
mostly of about five months drifting" I"
A letter written by q resident Of Seat
tie to a friend in juneau is printed in
The Record. A portion of this letter
reads:
1.-THE town is absolutely crazy. Every
thing in the way Of transportation is
spoken for weeks ahead. All business is
nearly paralyzed. The only topic to be
heard is the Klondike. Men are desert
ing and resigning all kinds Of positions,
and the town is nearly depleted of pro-
visions. Men and women Of high and
low degree are going to the Yukon"
In describing the condition Of things
In juneau and the immediate vicinity
The Record says:
1.-THE excitement is spreading, and
by the time this is before our readers
the great army of gold seekers will
have fairly started northward. In our
own locality the news was not entirely
unexpected, and many were ready to
start for the interior the day following
its receipt, having prepared for the trip
in anticipation of the reports Others
hustled their business affairs into shape
and started as soon as possible after
hearing the news, while there remains
scarcely man in Juneau or its neigh
boring towns or mining camps who is
not tied down by circumstances but will
start within the next month or in the
early spring.
"Not only has the fever reached the
ambitious young men, but the sturdy
old timer who packed his blankets to
the Fraser and the Cassiar country, and
who long ago supposed himself COM
fortably settled in business for life on
the stake gathered there, is himself as
eager for the hardships and wealth of
the Yukon. He who cannot for any
reason make the start bemoans his fate
and regards himself a particularly luck
less mortal. There is nothing to won
der at in all this when it is remembered
that the great bulk of this vast amount
of precious metal was dug out of its
native pay streak in less than six months,
and that far greater sum remains
upon the dumps to be washed out,
while the claims themselves are barely
touched"
Notwithstanding the fact" con-
tinues The Record, "that the country
in the immediate vicinity Of the Klon-
dixie may be all taken up, with no
chance to squeeze another claim into
that district, the fact that there are
many other rich placers awaiting only
discovery and development Is enough
to rouse the ambition and make the
average man forsake his business, how
ever ordinarily profitable, for the more
Turing attractions of the glistening mug
gets.
The paper calls attention to the fact
that among those who have already
come out of the goldfelds those who
have been the most successful. are the
tenderfeet--men who knew nothing
about mining when they started out.
Only very few of the pioneers Of the
Klondike valley have been heard from.
An explanation of this somewhat re-
markable fact IL furnished by veteran
who has made no less than eight round
trips TO the Yukon.
This man says that the first discov-
cries along the Klondike were made at
time when tho old miners were at
work burning and drifting on their
claims. far from the settlements. The
tenderfoot, on the other hand, was toast-
ing his shins before the barroom stoves
In Circle City and Forty Mile. Then
the first news came of tho great strike.
Mastering up sufficient courage to face
Che cold, they started out and were the
llrst ON the ground. Further than this.
the old miner, once he strikes pay dirt,
isn't leaving IL, so long az IL pays, for
the pleasures Of civilization. He digs
and washes while he may. II is for this
reason that few old miners have como
out of the mines this summer.
Tho folloviDg editorial frQm The