The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-29
STARVATION IN THE SNOW.
GLOOMY PROSPECTS FOR THE
KLONDIKE GOLD SEEKERS.

Dust-AH Tell stories oil an Alarm
ing Shortage of Food at Dawson
City-TrOuble of the Most Serious
Kind Looked For This winter.
Seattle, Wash, Nov. 2S.-Twenty five
men arrived here to-day on the City of
Seattle, direct from Dawson City. They
came out over the Dawson trail. They
are reported TO have between them $780,
900 in drafts and 100000 in gold dust.
All tell stories of a food shortage in
Dawson that is almost famine. The last
person to leave Dawson was Jack Dalton.
When Dalton left the steamers Alice aud
Bella had reached there loaded light, 1t
is said that the Bellas cargo consisted of
whisky and billiard balls. She brought
no provisions. The Canadian government
mounted police chartered the Bella and
gave all who wished a free pass to the
Yukon. The Bella is reported to have
left about Oct. 12 with 200 men.
According to the statements made by
members of the Dalton party there is La
be to be trouble of the most serious kind
this winter in Dawson. Billy Leak told
one of the men in a party ahead of him,
whom he met at Dyea, that all the people
talk about at Dawson was the food fam
inc. Men were gathering in groups and
cursing with might and main the newcom-
ers that were constantly coming into the
Klondike loaded with scarcely any pro-
visions.
The mounted police were Offering Tree
transportation to the grub piles further
down the Yukon, but to countless hundreds
who had labored hard all through the
summer accumulating a grub stake, the
prospect was uninviting to say the least.
The men figured that it would take all
their earnings in gold to pay their living
expenses at Fort Yukon during the winter,
and in the spring they would have not
even enough money to pay passage back
to Dawson, to say nothing of food TO sub
sist on after their arrival there.
John W. Brauer, the United States mail
carrier, who left Dawson Sept. q. said;
There is only one salvation for the min
ers who are now at Dawson CITY, and that
is for them to undertake the awful winter
trip from Dawson to Yukon, distance OF
400 miles. There is no food at Fort Yu-
kon, there is none at Dawson, and just as
sure as the stars shine terrible suffering
will be the lot of the Dawson miner un-
less he leaves there before spring When
l left there, some did not have a months
supply Some had four or five months
supply. The restaurant closed the night
/ left. 1t had been selling nothing but
beefsteaks, for which the hungry paid
$3.50 When the people realized that the
boats would be unable to go up the river,
they knew that starvation threatened
tI. -fa do
'The first to leave went to Fort Yukon.
1 guess there was about ten in the party
that left the first day. One boat that
came up from Fort Yukon with several
newspaper men aboard, brought the news
that the Hamilton had unloaded all of her
cargo and tried to get over the bar light,
and failed in her efforts, though she drew
but two feet of water. This news in
creased the excitement, and the rush to-
ward the food centers became all the
greater.
"On Oct. IA Bert Nelson of Seattle and
myself left Circle City and started to pole
up the river to Dawson City, a distance of
800 miles. AT the time we started from
Circle City the miners had about taken
their departure. 1t took us eleven days
and three hours to make the journey, ar
irving at Dawson City Sept. 26. Capt
Hanson, with two Indians, who had left
for the Yukon, beat us into Dawson about
an hour and a half. Hanson gathered the
Dawson City miners together and made a
short speech, in which he advised all who
did not have provisions to last them all
winter to either get out of the country to
civilization or to try to reach points in
the Yukon river country where it was
known food could be secured. That night
was the greatest one in the history of
Dawson City. The miners, as soon as they
heard the news, made hasty preparations
= ec,1I ~, IL
ers and men who can to-day sell out for
many thousands leaving by thousands for
down the river, or up the river points.
1.-THE little steamer Keokuk, which was
to make the trip from Dawson to Pelly,
where the Jack Dalton trail starts, was
brought into play. She was besieged by
would-be passengers who offered as high
as $3.50 that they might be aboard while
she made her journey of 175 miles to Pelly.
The Keokuk left Dawson on the afternoon
of Sept. q with twelve or fifteen passen-
gers.
THE next day we made up a party, in
cluding Herbert Raymond of Seattle, Bert
Nelson of Seattle, Herry Robertson of San
Francisco, and myself. We started UP
the river in a small river boat, the same
one we had used in going from Circle City
to Dawson. We left Dawson about 2 D.
m. and were soon on our way UP the river.
"When Jack Dalton left Dawson a cou-
pie of days later. the situation there was
the same as when we left, and can tell
you in a few words. The only thing YOU
could possibly buy was sugar baking DOW
der, spices and some dried fruit No -four.
bacon or anything of that kind couId be
purchased from any of the stores; simply
because they did not have them. So long
as the stores had any provisions. prices
remained the same. l want to saw that
the stores treated the men all right and
never advanced the prices, knowing that
they were aware of the shortage. and
knew that they had but to ask for high
prices and receive them. knew of an in
stance where a private party sold to a
miner sack of -four for $75 and bacon at
81 per pound"
II. A. Ferguson, another of the return
ing miners, said: THE situation at Daw-
son was relieved by the exodus to Fort
Yukon. 1 doubt if there win be any ac-
tual starvation there, but there will be a
shortage The old-timers have provisions
enough to carry them through. The stores
are practically closed out. All they would
coll WAS five mounds of sugar 10 rho ~, =,