Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-29
| THE Alaskan SITUATION.
Starvation Threatens the Miners This
Winter.
Some Have Provisions for Months,
But Many Have None at ALA
General Exodus Of All Who Can
Get Away Down tho Yukon-A
Detailed Exposition of the Situa-
ton,

Detailed Exposition of the Situa-
ton.
Seattle. Wash, November 2S-Twen-
ty-five men arrived here to-day on the
City of Seattle, direct from Dawson
City. They were divided into two par
ties, the last one of which left Dawson
October 18th. They consisted OF
Thomas Magee, ST., Thomas Magee, Jr..
of San Francisco; "Swift Water Bill
Gales, ice Boyle, William Huskins, r.
Eckert, H. Robertson, H. Laymond,
Bert Mason, John w. Brauer, w. H.
Chambers, E. W. Pond, E. Ash, J. Gill
lespie, Thomas Wilson, P. M. Graw,
Jack Dalton, VIM. Leak, Arthur Celine,
Joseph Fairburn, ]. Smith, T. Warren
and Jim Stephenson. They came out
over the Dalton trail. They are report
ed to have between them 100000 in gold
dust.
All tell stories of a food shortage at
Dawson that is almost famine. The
last person to leave Dawson was Jack
Dalton. When he left, the steamers
Alice and Bella had reached there
loaded light 1t is said that the Bella's
cargo consisted of
WHISKY AND BILLIARD BALLS.
She brought no provisions. The Can
.adian government mounted police char
tered the Bella and gave all who wish
ed a free passage to the Yukon. The
Bella is reported to have left about Oc-
tober 18th with two hundred men.
According to the statements made by
members of the Dalton party, there is
liable to be trouble of the most serious
kind this winter in Dawson. Billy
Leak told one Of the men in the party
ahead of him whom he met at Dyea,
that all the people talk about at Daw-
son was the food famine. Men were
gathering in groups and cursing with
might and main the newcomers that
were constantly coming into Klondike
loaded with scarcely any provisions.
The mounted police were offering free
transportation to the grub placers fur
Their down the Yukon to Fort Yukon,
but to the countless hundreds who had
labored hard all through the summer
accommodating 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 that in the spring they
would not have enough left to pay
passage back to Dawson, to say nothing
of purchasing enough food to subsist on
until they could get started again. To
these poor fellows the offer of the
mounted police was no better than the
prospect at Dawson of beig compelled
prospect at Dawson of being compelled
noats could reach the diggings in the
spring.
John w. Brauer, the United States
mail carrier, who left Dawson Septem-
Der 81, said:
There is only one salvation for the
miners who are now at Dawson City,
and that is for them to undertake the
awful winter trip from Dawson to Fort
Yukon, distance of 400 miles. There
is no food at Fort Yukon, there is none
at Dawson and just as sure as the stars
shine. terrible suffering will be the fate
Of the Dawson miner unless he leaves
there before spring. l will make my
statement that when / left Dawson the
men who were there had, on an aver
age, four mtonhs food supply. Some
did not have months supply and some
had four or five. The restaurant closed
the NIGHT | left, It had heen selling
nothing but beefsteak, for which
THE HUNGRY PAID $3.50.
When the people realized that the
boats would be unable to get up tho
river, they knew that starvation
threatened them and a great stampede
began.
THE first to leave went to Fort
Yukon. l guess there were about ten
in the party that left the first day.
One boat that came up from Fort Yu-
kon with several newspaper men
aboard among them Correspondent
Samuel Wall and a Mr.. McGilvray.
They brought the news that the Ham
ilton had unloaded all 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 made The
rush toward food centres all the
greater. On September 14th Bert Mel
son. of Seattle, and myself left Circle
City and started to pole up the river
to Dawson City, a distance of three
hundred miles. At the time We start
ed from Circle City, the miners had
about taken their departure. 1t took
us eleven days and three hours 10
make the journey, arriving at Dawson
September 26th. Captain Hanson,
with two Indians, who had left Fort
Yukon, beat us into Dawson by about
one hour and a half Hanson gathered
THE DAWSON CITY MINERS
together and made short speech, in
which he advised all who did not have
provisions to last the winter to go 10
civilization or try and 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 to get
out, and nightfall saw the gold-seekers
and men who can to-day sell out for
many thousands of dollars, leaving by
thousands for down the river or up
the river points. The little steamer
Kiukuk,i 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 Kiukuk left Dawson City on the
afternoon Of September 9th, with
twelve or fifteen passengers.
"The next day. we made up a party,