The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-09-30
THE KLONDIKE COUNTRY.
Parties are Now Organizing to Penetrate
the Frozen Gold Hills Next Spring.
1t Has Not Been Fully PrOspected. The
Indians are Very Savage and will
Not Permit the Whites to Get
Into the Interior.
TACOMA, WASH, Sept. q, 1897.

TACOMA, WASH, Sept. 21, 1897.
By the time this letter reaches you
| will be on top of the Chilzoot Pass,
and my next letter will be written il
that vicinity. This one is to be given
up principally to plain statement
of how klOndike parties are organized
and how they frequently "disorgan-
ize."
The fact is that'people seem to have
a weakness for organizing and disor-
ganizing. This is particularly true
of klondillers. The chances are that
if man starts from your locality for
hlondike he will begin organizing be
fore he is half way to Tacoma.
1t has been the history in the past
that KIondikers get acquainted on
the trains and boats and band to-
gether to do this and to do that for
mutual benefit and protection. And
history in repeating itself will record
many other Klondike parties being
organized on trains and boats only to
disOrganize later on. On the way to
the coast the gold hunters get to talk
ing over their prospects, and, all being
agreeable, they agree to work together
for various purposes. As a rule, they
agree, first to work together to secure
| good outfits. In carrying out this
plan they send men to the various
Outtitters to get prices and examine
/ goods. In this way they succeed in
| saving money, because they buy where
the Outtitters are cheapest and best.
| Many parties who have Outfitted in
/ Tacoma in this way during the past
/ summer have, with this satisfactory
/ money saving beginning, agreed to go
into the Klondike or Copper, or Ste
| wart, or Mcmillan or some other river
or district and share alike. They
would agree that if one member of
the party happened to "strike it rich"
he would divide with all. This plan
seldom works well as some members
of the average party is bound to be
unlucky, or lazy, or sick, or what-not
and then trouble begins. Disorgani-
zatiOn sets in and the best Of organ
lied parties fall TO pieces.
Again, as has been shown during
the past week, to my own personal
knowledge and observation, many
men will not endure hardships. They
will create trouble and disorganiza-
tion. Men have returned from the
Klondike passes during the past week
who would not 90 forward under any
circumstances. They qUarreled with
former bosom companions and had to
| be bought out. In cases where par
ties had paid pro rata of the cost of
party outfit the ''kicker' had to be
paid his share But that method of
securing harmony is a love feast com
pared with making a settlement where
the dissatisfied ones must have their
share of the outfit turned overtO them.
1t happens in most cases where men
go forward in parties that there is bu5
one stove and one common camp out
fit This is done to save expenses and
it is a good plan. 1t is, likewise, a
good plan for klondikers to travel III
parties of from two to a dozen, but
while | admit that it is a good scheme
to travel in parties with one common
camp outfit and, while | advocate it,
4 ac Cit,frln A
where the share and share and share
alike idea in the finds and" strikes
gives satisfaction in large parties. In
parties of two or three where one man
knows positively what another will
do under hardships and privatiOns
and failure the partnership idea, as
a rule works well. But take, for in
stance, the man who peters out and
wants his share of the outfit. There
must be a division but the camp out
fit cannot be divided and then it is
that troublesome man is big thorn
in the side. As a rule he is disposed
of by the majority agreeing what is
right and fair. From such a decision
there is no appeal at present on the
Klondike trails.
But | have been dealing only with
small parties. Now comes the big
ones. Twenty-Five, fifty and one
hundred are favorite numbers.
Twenty-Five coal miners have organ
lied a party by the election of a presi-
dent, secretary, treasurer and eXecu-
tive committee. First, however, they
enrolled their men. The miners came
from Carbonate, a coal camp near
Tacoma, and they will either go into
the Alaska country by the Chilkoot
pass, the Copper river or the Yukon.
They will leave Tacoma in February
in schooner. Aboard the schooner
they will carry in the "knock- down