The state herald., 1897-12-03
DAWSON CITY'S PERIL
4 PROSPECT OF STARVATION.
Evident That There Is Not Food Enough
for all and Many Miners Are Trying to
Get Awny,


Get Away.
Seattle, WASH, Nov. 2D.-Twenty-fivc
men arrived here yesterday on the City
OF Seattle direct from Dawson City
They We're divided into two parties, the
Inst one of which left DnwSon October
4 10Th. The pnrty consisted of Thomas
Magec, ST., Thomas Mngee, .Ir., of San
Francisco; Swift Water Bill" Gates,
Joe Boyle, William Huskins. f. Eckert,
fH. Robertson. II. Raymond, Bert Mel
son. John w. Brauer, w, II. Chambers,
Il. W. Pond. Il. Ash, ]. Gillis, Thomas
Wilson, II. McGraw, lack Dalton, Will
inm Leack, Arthur Celine. Joseph Fair
burn, j. Smith, r. Warren. Jim Steph-
cnson. They came out over the Dalton
trail. They are reported to have he
tween them 100000 In drafts and $500
600 In gold dust. All tell stories of II
food shortage In Dawson that Is almost
Il famine. The last person to leave
Dawson was Jack Dalton. When Dal-
ton left the steamers Alice and Bella
had reached there loaded light. II Is
\ said that the Belln's cargo consisted Of
fwhlsky and billiard balls. She brought
no provisions.
The Canadian government mounted
police chartered the. Bella and gave all
who wished Il free pass to Fort Yukon.
The Bella is reported to have left about
October 18th with 300 men.
| According To the statements made by
members of the Dalton party there is
liable to he trouble of The most seri-
Gus kinl this winter In Dawson. Billy
| Leak told one of the men In n party
| ahead of him whom he met at Dyea
that all the people talk about mt Daw-
son was the food famine. Men We're
gathered In groups and curslng with
might and main the newcomers that
We're constantly coming into tlt klon-
dixie. lOahcd with scarcely any pr0vis-
ions. The mounted police We're offer
ing free Transportation to the grub
| piles further down the Yukon. but TO
countless hundreds who had labored
hard all through the summer accumu-
latlng II grub stake. the prospect was
nnnviting 10 say the least. These men
| figured that IL would tnkc all their
savings In gold To pay their living OK
penscs at Fort Yukon during the Win
ter. aud that In the spring they would
not even have enough left TO pay pas
sage money back to Dawson. 10 say
nothing of purchasing enough food 10
subsist until they could get started
again. To these poor fellows the offer
of the mounted police was no better
than the prospcct NJ Dawson OF being
compelled la live ON half rations until
the supply boats could reach the dig
gings in the spring.
John w. Brniicr, the United States
mail carrier. who left Dawson Scptcm-
her 9th. said:
There Is only one salvation for the
miners who are now M Dawson CITY.
and that is for them to undertake the
awful winter trip from Dawson to
Fort Yukon. n distance of $50 miles.
There Is food at Fort Yukon: there Is
none nj Dawson, and Just ns sure ms
the stars shine terrible suffering will
he the fate of the Dawson miner nm
less he leaves there before spring ]
will make my statement conservative.
and snv that when | left Dawson the
men who We're there had on an average
four months food supply. Some did
not have n months supply. some had
four or five. The last restaurant closed
the night I left II had been selling
nothing hut beef steak. for which the
hungry paid $3.50
When the people realized that the
boats would he unable to get uD the
river they knew that starvation threat
cncd them. and the great stampede he
gan.
''The first Ia leave went 10 Fort Yu-
Eon. l GUESS there were nbout ten In
the party that left the first day. Ono
boat came M from Fort Yukon with
several newspaper men aboard. among
them Correspondent Sam Wall and n
Mr. Msl.tlvpnt frhA,. l,t
that the Hamilton had unloatled all OF
her cargo AMI tried to get over the bar
light and failed In her efforts. though
she drew bnt two feet OF water. This
news increased the excitement and
made the rush toward food crnicrs all
the greater. On September 1Ith Bert
Nelson of Seattle and myself left Cir
cle City and started Ia pole M the
river 10 Dawson City. n distance of 800
miles. Al the time we started from
Circle city the miners had about all
taken their departure. II took us cley-
on days and three hours To make the
Journey. arriving nj Dawson Septem-
Der 26ih. Captain Hanson. with two
Indians, who had left Fort Yukon. beat
us Into Dawson by about nn hour and
u half Hanson gathered the Dawson
specch In which he advised all who
lid not have provisions 10 Inst them all
winter To either get out of the country
10 civilization or Try aud reach points
In the Yukon country where II WAS
known that food- conld he secured.
That night was The greatest onr In the
history of Dawson City. The miners ns
soon nS they heard the news made
lsaltA la. sat Il
nlphifnll saw these gold seekers and
men wlio can to-day soil ant for uany
thousands leaving 10y the hundreds for
dawn III" river or M Tho river points
''fhe little steamer kiuknk. which
WIS 10 make the trims from Dawson Ia
pclly. where Jnck bnlton'a trail starts.
WIS brought Int" nlnv. She was ic.
s.ivcd hy woul,i-i,a nassrnrcrs, who
offered ns higl, ~ $3.50. lin, ihcv. might
hn aboard wliil" s'n ir"'lr her Journey
~ II5 miles io p"llv The Eiulsuk left
pnwson "n The afternoon of Scniemlor
.I'h with twelve of fifteen pnsscngcrs
''rle next dny "" made M n party,
hcln,i'ng lIcrlrri Hnvinonl Of Seattle,
Bert Nelson ot Seattle. Harry Itnbert.
son of Snn frnn'lsco ni,l n,s"lf. We
started nj the river IN . Ymnli river
hont. the snmc one we had used In
going from Circle CITY Ia Dawson We
frfi Dawson about . ~. ~. md were
soon a. or wnv IN the river.
"While Jack Dalton lcft Dawson n
couple Of dnys later the situation there
then WINS the sam" ns n was when we
left. and cnn tell vou that IN n very
few words. The only ihIpg ,ou could
nossil,lv luy wnH sugar. lnLing now.
der. si,lccr and sem" dried fruit. No
forr. 'rcon or nnril'lnr of that kind
could l~ nii'"hn-,d from nny ~ the
stores. simple because they did not
have them so Ion" M the stores had
any provisions prices remained the
snmr. 7 want io snv Tint the stores
treated tho men NIL rlrli ard novor al.
vnnnnJ tl,. ,,,l,,n. ,,a,,.t,I.,,..,,.it...., a.. g..