The San Francisco call., 1897-09-26

SOlN-[AOs fAL~1oNf1s ~ WI
onel 0. V. Davis of Spokane, Wash,
has just arrived in Juneau from trip
down the Yukon, as far as Lake Lebarge.
There he encountered a MIR. Shepard of
Dawson City, who was on his way out
of the Klondike, coming up the river
with a party of Indians. Mr.. Shepard
told Colonel Davis a worse 5 ory of the
condition of things at Dawson City than
any that have been published. He had
been nineteen days out of Dawson at
Lake Lebarge.
Mr.. Shepard said that parties going
down the river were held up, if necessary
with guns, within 200 miles of Dawson
md their provisions taken away from
them. Often parties going down the
river showed fight, but the Dawson City
Vidette, anticipating trouble, always got
the drop" on newcomers, and that was
where the gun-play came in. The pro-
visions were always paid for in money or
gold dust. and then divided up pro rata
among the remaining population.
Mr.. Shepard says that there is as great
an exodus up the river by the overland
route to get out of Dawson for the winter
as there is down the river to St. Michael.
Hundreds are coming behind him as fast
as they could travel, but he had a great
advantage, having engaged the Indians to
help him. He says that many will beyond
doubt be caught on the trail by winter and
with insufficient provisions must perish.
Typhoid and pneumonia are raging
most furiously at Dawson. Hundreds
are i'll, many dying. A number of people
have been taken down with these afflic-
tons on the Yukon and compelled to stop.
Mr.. Shepard does not see how they can
get out of the country alive, even if they
recover from the illness.
A baby was buried last Friday at the
meadows on the Skaguay trail, and there
are several men and two women i'll with
pneumonia and fever on the Dyea trail
A woman, whose name has not Travelled
out of the afflicted region, has been buried
at Linderman. Many Klondikers on both
trails are abandoning their grub at and be-
vond the SUBMITS of the passes and COM
ing back to Dyea and Skaguay light"
They will try to get back home. A body
of Canadian police has left ten tons of
provisions on the lakes and returned to
Dyea, satisfied that they could not get to
Dawson City with it. 1t has cost the
Canadian Government about $1,000 to get
the grub in that far.
The long bridge, the first one across
the river on the Skaguay trail, has been
washed out Every departing steamer
takes down scores of returning gold
seekers, who. have hard-luck stories to
tell. Scores on the Dyea trail are suffer
ing from mountain fever" an enerva-
ton. but not necessarily fatal disease.
There have been reports here for three
DAYS that Dawson City had been burned
down five weeks ago, but this is not cor
roborated by either Colonel Davis or Mr..
Shepard, the latter having left Dawson
City since that time, and it is probably
untrue. The report came through In
dians.
George A. Taylor of Ashland, Wis,
accidentally shot himself with revolver
last Friday at Crater Lake, and it is said
fatally.
Colonel Davis calls Skaguay ''helps
half-acre." He cannot spsak bitterly
enough of what he calls the deception of
thousands as to the condition of that trail.
Mr.. Shepard is a mason. He will arrive
here tomorrow and 90 to San Francisco
on the next steamer. He says that there
is starvation at Dawson and starvation
en- the trail, which cannot be avoided.
HAL HOFFMAN.