Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-11-19
LUCK IN THE KLONDIKE
A RETURNED MINER TELLS ABOUT
GOLD DlccsRs' PROSPECTS.
a Poor Young New Workers surprising
stroke of Good Fortane Only Expe-
rienced Miners Are Likely to DO Well In
the Future No Place for wenkiinEs.


zone OF the most surprising strokes
of luck in the Klondike," said Perry
W. Maston, n miner who has just re-
turned from the Klondike gold fields
to Los Angeles correspondent of the
New York Sun, "was that by young
man named Lawrence Brooks.
know him well. He came from little
village in Cayuga county, \. Y. He
was II cash boy in n Buffalo dry goods
house ten years ago, and came West
as tramp, riding on freight cars. Tie
learned something about mining in the
gold district in California, and more
in spirit of recklessness and adven-
ture than anything else he joined the
Yukon mining rush in 1894. he had
terrible experience with cold aud
hunger for two years, and suffered
more in that time than many men do
in lifetime of hardships. He was
| too poor to come back to the United
States, and 80 he stayed on the Yukon.
He tried gold mining in fifty different
spots, and lived on half-raw salmon
! for days at time. He says he was
about To commit suicide last Septem-
Der when he realized that another long
and dreadful winter was beginning a
friend told him to go out to klondike
and make one more trial anyhow, for
there were rumors ut Fort Yukon at
the time that the diggiugs were good
on the Klondike. He sold his rifle
for passage on the last boat on the
river before navigation closed. Well,
in two weeks Brooks had made his
claim to 500 feet along Bonanza creek,
and was working in the cold and ice
to get out the golden nuggets. He
came down on the Excelsior last
month with about $50, 900, and he has
worked but thirty feet of his claim,
His property is probably worth
$3.50, 900.
"What are the prospects of the tens
Of thousands of people who will prob
ably reach Klondike next spring?
Well, probably about n quarter OF
them will find some gold. About
every seventh or eighth man viii make
fortune. The men who have had ex-
perience in placer mining will do the
best there. The days for greenhorns
at mining TO make fortunes are past in
that region. Now that il is known
there il an abundance of gold there,
the experienced fellows will rush in
and know best how to get 1t out. /
expect there will be great droves OF
men coming back from the Klondike
. next summer and fs}l --diacantaged,
, mad aud GUESSING that they were ever
, induced TO 40 to Alaska. That's al
, ways the way. Why, it seems strange,
but know several men who were in
Fort Yukon last December, and knew
, about Klondike finds, and finally went
, to the diggings last winter to see fol-
, themselves. They fooled and talked
, and clerked in store or worked al
!. the sawmill in Dawson City, and are
still there with only $1,000 or $4,000
n each, while the tenderest kind of ten
/. derfeet about them were picking on
. $1,000 a week ut the mines for months
. ~ believe there are chances in thu
: Klondike region for several Thousand
more claims of more or less value
q Some of them are very likely ever
richer than any yet worked. BY TIT
" time / get back To Dawson City it Ii
probable that large part OF thes
q will have been taken up About al
the claims on Bonanza creek wer
taken when came away, and | hear
! of scores of men who saw several thou
N sand dollars worth of gold III sigh
y for taking out little later. One man
a q Swede, named Mathson, whom
used to know in Colorado, showed M
about $500 in gold dust and nugget
Il that he had taken out In two days be
: fore left Dawson City. There ar
some men who will get rich anywhere
~ and you know there were multitude
h of good sensible men who came ont q
the palmy days OF gold washing on tn
q American and Trinity rivers in Cal
10 fornia with only the clothes on the
7, backs, while millions of dollars wer
IN dug out all about them. Now the cl
N mate and the awful winters in Alask
ia will keep much larger percentage
m men from making money there. lac
y wise 10 one to go to the Klondik
:, mines unless he knows what the rit
10 ors of the climate are, and exactl
40 what he will do when he gets there
a. l have not the least doubt that man
+ lives will be lost in seeking richie
M there. For one not strong and robu
al and unused to hard labor it is almo
~ suicidal to 60 TO Klondike. The tal
~. about the probability of starvation
Dawson City and that region / don
,v take much stock in. The Alasl
an Navigation and Trading compani,
II have prepared well for such cond
10 ton Of affairs. and have been putlir
w In eyery honr since last Juno in ira