The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-09-22
LUCKY FRENCH CANADIANS.
How the Klondike Discoveries Changed
Their Prospects in Life.

How the Klondike Discoveries Changed
Their Prospects in Life
There are many characteristics about
the steady, Woodworking French Cana
dams which makes them especially fit
ted for the unparalleled hardships, Of
life on the Yukon and other Alaskan
rivers whose shores are banks of virgin
gold. Brought up from boyhood in the
woods Of eastern Canada, where the
winters are extremely cold, they can
stand the worst Alaskan winters with
out inconvenience. Their experience In
numbering on their rapid, rushing, dan
gerous rivers makes shooting the most
difficult rapids on the big Yukon childs
play. No one ever heard of French
Canadian losing his outfit or life on the
rocks of the Yukon rapids as so many
of the other miners do each year. Ac-
customed to rough manner of living
from their youth, they thrive on the
klondike on diet the sameness of
which alone would sicken an ordinary
man. AS long as they have plenty of
strong tobacco they do not think sour
dough bread, beans and bacon three
times day. and every day in the year,
any great hardship. AS only a very
few of them can read at ALL the lack of
news, one of the worst features of liv-
ing so far from the rest of the world,
does not appeal to the French Canadi-
ans. They like life of solitude, are
usually honest, and, while holding
themselves apart from other people, do
not have trouble with their neighbors
as long as their rights are not infringed
on. These are some of the things that
make the French Canadians, as class,
! the most successful of the Yukon min
ers; some of the reasons why SO many
of them are numbered among the pas
sengers of returning gold-laden steam
i ers. Every one of them who has re-
turned this year brought back enough
gold to make him comfortable for life.
About ten years ago numbering in the
woods of eastern Canada Stacked up,
and there was not enough work for all
| of the loggers. Many of them came
west, som going direct to Alaska, 9TH
ers settling in Washington, where their
experience made them valuable in the
FIR and cedar regions of the state. A
| greater portion of the French Canadi-
ans who came west at that time went
to work in the logging camps of Mason
county, which borders on the upper end
OF Puget Sound. All of them did well
In Mason county. Some, after a few
years, operated lumber camps of their
own, but the majority worked for
wages during the logging season and
spent what they made in the saloons of
Shelton, the biggest town in the county.
In 1892 letters began to arrive in Shell
ton from far off Alaska They were
sent to the French Canadian loggers by
their friends who had gone north at the
same time the loggers came to the
greatest logging county in the state.
| Those who had gone to Alaska man
aged to make living trapping, hunt
ing and mining in small way None
of them had made any rich finds but
still they all got along. When the bars
| and banks of the smaller tributaries of
the Yukon were first discovered to con-
tain gold in paying quantities, it was
these French Canadians who were
among the first on the ground. They
| had not forgotten their friends Of the
| old Canadian lumber camps, and the
letters they sent back told In quaint
| mixture of French and poor English of
the gold that could be found in the
north. They advised their friends to
quit logging for the more profitable
placer mining.
| Many of the Ioggers acted on this ad-
vice, and, taking the money they had
saved, made the long journey to Alas
ka over the snow and ice, or went
around by the Yukon in boats. Moth
ing was heard of them for two years
when few came back discouraged and
with little to show for their hard labor
A few of them died in the nora But
those who lived and stayed in tie coun-
try were amply repaid, as is shown by
the two hundred thousand dollars in
gold that has been brought back to Ma
son county within the last month and a
half Not half of them have returned
yet, and all who did own claims will re-
turn in the spring.
The luckiest of those who returned
was MERCER, heavy-set, y-going
Frenchman, with face covered with
short, stubby whiskers. He brought
back a little black pipe which he had
when he went north four years ago, and
some sixty-five thousand dollars in
dust Besides, he has property near
| Dawson City worth several times that
amount He struck lucky claim on
Bonanza Creek and cleared up his pile
| in a very short time. He was one of
the unluckiest of the crowd during the
first few years in the north, and many
times the only thing which prevented
his coming back to Mason county and
again going to work in the logging
| camps was his lack of means. He is
only out for visit, and will go back in
the spring to finish his claims to bed
| rock MERCER purchased six big shep-
herd dogs the other day from Shelton
farmers. With these he will haul in
fifteen hundred pounds next March, be-
fore the snow fields of the northwest
territory are affected by the sun. He
prefers this to the treacherous Yukon,
and will go overland the entire dis
lance The dogs are fine specimens,
not one of them weighing less than six
ty pounds, and Mercier claims he can
make the trip in very quick time. He
left last week for Wisconsin, where he
will spend the winter
Victor Lord is not a full-blooded
Frenchman, and got from his mother
the blood which made him successful in
the Yukon. He brought out forty-sev-
en- thousand dollars, and has been max
ing things interesting for his old log
ging friends around Shelton since his
return. He has not had enough of the