The San Francisco call., 1897-10-26
ATTEMPT TO STAMPEDE MINERS
TO AMERICAN SOIL.
By Compelling Them to Cross the Line
Into Alaska Payment of Duties
on Provisions Would Be
Avoided.

SKAGUAY, Oct. 10 (by steamer City of
Seattle to Port Townsend, Wash, Oct.
25l-Reports o: plans to control the crowd
are the latest from the Klondike. Julius
Trippe of 1886 West Seventy eighth street,
New York City, is the father of the idea
that there has been all along a concerted
scheme to limit the supply OF provisions
at Dawson City tor commercial purposes.
He said:
Every steamer which comes up the river
has an Indian pilot. L had noticed that
when one steamer goes aground another
steamer belonging to the o:her company
goes aground also shortly afterward. The
two companies which control the business
in the interior Yukon country are the
Alaska Commercial Company and the
North American Trading and TraDsporta-
tion Company. L am not the only one
who thinks that these Indian pilots pur-
posely run the vessels aground l have
| heard considerable talk among old-timers
at Dawson on the same subject The In
| dian packers on the river, when ship is
| aground, have the opportunity to charge
what they like for packing the goods 10
Dawson or any other point. l would not
are party to this scheme, bus there is
| widespread suspicion among the men who
| talk less and think more that the present
shortage in provisions al Daw wson has been
| planned from start TO finish"
| | had some conversation tonight wit
Stuart Woods, prospector of three years
| experience on the Yukon. What Mr.
Woods said supports the ioea expressed
by Mr.. Trippe.
THE commercial companies at Daw-
son, which is in British territory" said
he, must pay duty on all the supplies
which are brought into the Northwest
Territory. II they could get The crowd
oown around Forty Mile, Circle City,
MinookiCreek and other tributaries of the
Yukon in American territory, they would
| do the same volume Of business and be
released from duty charges. 1t looks to
me that the whole scheme o. the shortage
of grub IN :he kiondike region is the
scheme TO get the crowd into American
territory and save the duties. The COM
mercial companies, in consideration of the
large quantity of whisky which they have
carried to Dawson, 20 the exclusion of pro-
visions, would not dare to allow the peo-
pie to suffer from starvation. There is
and Rampant City, and before the winter
| is over an exodus of several thousand peo-
pie will be engineered from Dawson down
the Yukon to the places where the grub is
As there is no reason to believe that all
the gold in the Yukon interior is deposited
| in the Kiondike and its tributaries, the
result will be that great deal of pros pect-
ing will be done this winter in American
territory, and l expect to hear of just as
good strikes within the next year as have
| been made around Dawson.
at is even said at Dawson that AIeck
Mcdonald. the Berrys, Antonio, the Ital-
ian, and other bonanza kings of the KIon-
| dixie stand in with the commercial COM
panies in scheme 10 run the crowd to
whatever locality they like. am not on
| the inside and OF course | do not know, as
a matter of TACT, whether there is any
| chicanery to control the crowd or not, but
to the man who will stop and size up the
| situation it looks as though there had
| been some scheme hatcned to limit the
grub supply and raise the price. After all.
| any job to lead the crowd to rich diggings
in American territory would be vastly
| popular one because there is a great deal
of discontent among miners at the high
and exacting percentage levied by the
Canadian Government on the output of
claims in the Northwest Territory"
Young Trippe ana Dave Thorn pson bring
out the news that "Swiftwater Bill" is on
| top again. The last reports from Dawson
| were to the effect that Bill had run up
against a faro bank and gone "broke."
Ii Bill became busted" he got on top
again playing he game.
AS before stated in these dispatches,
"Swiftwater Bill" wanted to play the roof
| for the limit one night on the queen of
hearts. The lookout" objected and Bill
got mad. He said he would have a faro
| game of his own and that the altitude OF
the amount of bets that any man wanted
| to make would be limited only by the
| perpendicular extent of the atmosphere.
| which scientists say is about forty-hve
miles. So Bill bought faro bank and
dealt the cards himself He came out
| $50 900 winner, sold his interest for $4,000
and for $25, 600 rebought an interest in
his original claim with his old partners.
''Swiftwater Bill" again throws gold mug
| gets around over the bars of Dawson with
the utter disregard OF a man throwing dice
at craps.
w. H. Gates, otherwise "Swiftwater
Bill has more diamond than any man
| in Alaska. He wears two or three dia-
mond rings on each finger of both hands.
He has made it his particular business to
| buy all the diamonds in sight at Dawson.