The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-20
BUNCoED BY THE WORLD.
lE<sKA MEN FORCED TO Par FOR
ITS WORK AT sKlGWhY.

I7S WObh 81
---
Rns,end or openisE zip tho uHpssanbio Trail
NJ FILLED ~ Fuil or Rocks. aud Auer Ns
AGENT was sent Out OF Town u Refused to
rsouor tho Drafts ne HAD Cnshed There
II WINS in the lattor part OF August Tint tho
Worlds special commissioner was cavortlnR
mn and down through the town OF SkaRway,
Alaska, whore thousands OF miners were stalled
ON their way to Dawson. and filling the air with
boasts OF what he and tho World wero going to do
20 open up tho impossible trail. The situation
at Skagway was terrible. sFour thousand men.
with their outfits. were waiting to get over
the White Pass and on down the Yukon
into tho KIondiko gold fields. Tho trail,
that had been good enough for light
travel IN tho summon. became an I'm
passablo morass under tho fall rains as soon
as heavy travel was attempted. To add to the
otherwise almost insurmountable difficulties.
four great rugged bills lifted themselves out Of
the trail and formed barriers that could not DO
broken. Skagway was at n standstill when the
Worlds commissioner got there. Miners wore
Beginning to TO over to Dyoa and tackle the
ptceysr but easier Chilkoot Pass, and nobody In
0kagwsy knew what to do.
The towering genius OF tho Worlds special
commissioner was not daunted for an instant.
He saw at fret glance what ought to DO done.
although mon OF long experience werc stumped
Morn than that, he could do It. 1t was only an
othar example OF World enterprise and push.
In other words. a chance to advertise the World
nt the expense OF other people. Nobly he
nrnsped tho situation, and details Just
received from Alaska show how nobly
no carried out his scheme. Tho World
Of Sept. @ unfoldod the scheme under q star
ing black double-column hoad which said:
Gold hunters cheer for the World on tho
Bkagway trail. Hundreds, with dynamite pro.
-td>d hy tie cnrrpanpnipnt attacR tho paaa
Barrier rocks breaking
with that Introduction tho Worlds special
commissioned at SkaRwav said:
"FIRsT HILL ON THE SKAGwAY TRAIL, Aug.
00.-Yesterday afternoon q ton of 20 per cent.
nitro-glycerine giant powder and the tools with
which to use it arrived at the foot OF this man.
killing hill, q Gift OF tho World to the struggling
mon on 1t and the other four Jagged bar.
yiers Of granite on skagway trail. Sixty hours
before I started for Juneau. Within that
time two tons of powder and tools had
been reused out of three small towns. towed
o5 miles by a special chartered steamer, packed
MP the stumpy trail, and unlonded and stored at
points Of attack. = e e The Uorld Miners
Committee sent out 400 axemen and drillers.
who worked heartily for two days.
When / passed. over the trail, unknown, ! heard
groups of workers talking OF the Worid's gift
and their appreciation Of it."
Ok Gays IaUeT Inc ScCOnu llStdllLueub IOIh IL
World special trail builders arrived and was
placarded under this double head: "World
Helps Them On-Skagway Trail Now Almost
Completely Opened by the Use Of Dynamite
and Resolution
Under that and a lot more like 1t tho Worlds
special performer OF bodybuilding miracles
modestly recounted his triumphs in this fashion:
"Skagway trail was damned in every sense Of
the word up and down its every hill. But
sturdy muscles, woodcraft. and keen axes. sys-
Dramatically used un der the Worlds superin-
tendenco and aided by the Worlds dynamite
and blasting tools. have changed all that Money
% being literally subscribed to pay for q perma-
mont maintenance of way party that shall use
the World supplies. " . " For every hitter
curse OF four days ago there are three happy
thanks to-day for a newspapers enterprise"
There the special commissioner began to I'M
mask his real scheme. Money Is being liber.
ally subscribed. " he said. and then he told the
truth. however much he lied about the improve
ment Of the Skagway trail. A little later he an
Npunced that the trail was practically open and
that the miners were already surging over II.
But that announcement had a retrospective sort
of note about 1t, rs II it were written by one
looking back over considerable distance at the
trail. And that, in truth, was the situation.
For tho World special wonderworker had been
invited 50 urgently by the %Skagway mon to Quit
their town that he had not h~esitated to accept the
Invitation. nor had he stood on tho manner OF
acceptance. The work about which he had
boasted 30 loudly was like all the Worlds great
deeds. purely a fake. Instead Of helping on the
trail ho had made it worse. And under tn
Butse Of q public benefaction no had cajoled q
miners meeting into closing the trail entirely
while he blew the only passageways full OF rocks
and blocked them up. His work 80 clogged the
pass that one Of the highest territorial officials
recently reported that not fifteen outfits all told
Aad succeeded in getting across.
Whom the miners saw what had been done
they were 30 angry that the World man was
0rsd unceremoniously out Of Skagway.
But that is not all. The " orLd's special COM
missioner had paid for his work with drafts on
Pulitzer, which he had persuaded Skagway men
70 cash. He had offered a large subscription to.
S Gssp pass Ssf @ss Changed see if to RWFo oTld Pas she n He had oi
promised that Pulitzer would build a wagon
9uinlled and how the men who cashed the drafts
Jared appears from the following letter to the
Ssiysd BY the juneau p p per- u ''.0fa' 'u'A re-
FL wrote you some tiu.e ago that Sylvester
pcoyel of the New York Worid had been invited
py the people or Skagway to clear out, and that
People had already found out that his promises
There was some money spent on tho trail, but !
vepture to say that 1T was all skagway money,
s e Ss.ioe. a ~ s soSs iIt PtIs0e ot th Hse h D..l set to bs
oolleoted. There was a great howl that this
amount had not been spent, and Mr.. Valentine
%al called names in u meeting. But Mr..
Valentine proved he was in the right,
and tho whole blame is on the World,
which tried to advertise itself at the
expense OF everybody and anybody. Mr.. Scovel.
9ver, his own signature, claimed that the World
had broken up the jam on the trail, sInoothed It's
rough places, and made 1t a boulevard, so to
Rpeak. Then Mr.. Scovel interviewed himself in
Seattle and othor. places and told of the big
thing, the Worid had done for Skagway. One
Of the biggest things the World has done, says
Mr.. soovel, is having established regular mail
communication over the trail to the Yukon.
There is no Post Office at Skagway yet, and no
mail has yet gone over. or is likely to. Inote
SAlsehoods.
Scovel did go to Juneau and buy a little
giant powder and n few drills and fiattered the
Skagway people that he was going to do some
thing. Now ~ turns out as expected; that we
are creased with our own fat, for Nh. Scoyel's
drafts which he drew here have come back pro
tested. ] don't know how many of these drafts
there are. l hear Mr.. Sylvester is the worst
loser; and George Rico has one for $3.50; with
the latter is n note from tho cashier of the
National Park RANK Nuty Enrl- that thn Man