The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-09-02
DEATH The PRICE
FOR MINING GOLD
Charles HaineS So Writes From the
Northwest Gold Field.
A VERITABLE ELD0RADO
Yet no Fountain Of Youth is to be Found
In Its Confines,
SOME MEN STRIKE 1T VERY RICH
While Others Toll On YEARLY and Fall Death
Turks Round the Camp, and During
the Winter Months viii Reap
Rich Harvest.
SOME MEN STRIKE 1T VERY RICH

San Francisco, Sept. 1.-The Bulletin
has received a letter from Charles
Haines, dated Dawson City, July 26. Mr..
Haines is a WILL known newspaper writer
and his letter is the first written by
trained newspaper man to come out of
the Klondyke gold region. He says:
The rich diggings have been compara-
tivsly idle during the summer, although
the output from Eldorado and Bonanza
creeks was famous and there is plenty
of gold in sight. There is every pros
pect of an immense output of gold from
this district next spring. The total out
put this season Is as near as can b.
judged abou $7,OOO,o0o, but very little
ground has been worked and the dumps
will, like some of the tailings of old Cal
ifornia placers, pan out thousands of
uOlldTS when worked WITH improved ma
chinery. Th= placers are the most puz-
zling and deceiving have ever seen.
Imagine a man working ON good "color''
and finding the ground worth only few
dollars per day and then turning to a
waste Of mud and moss, with no surface
indications, and unearthing a bonanza.
That is the situation hsre and all over
Alaska.
The man who comes here to mine does
SO at the expense of health and happi-
ness and it is with him a question of
making fortune quickly or giving In
to death. About me are scores of men
who can count their gold by the bucket
full and value their claims at millions.
Many valuable diggings are stretched
along creeks and every digging is fab
uIous mine of gold, yet th=re are weary
men who have gone and returned to
Dawson after searching the great coun-
try hereabouts and never a nugget do
they show for their toll. their long
tramp over broken ground and into a
country whose disadvantages are ex-
ceeded by no other place on earth.
This Alaska and Northwest Territory
mining is an old prize drawing PROPOSE
tion that can liken to nothing that ad-
roits nf q bafter comma ricop than n LOT
terry. number of spots are selected
on creeks and rivers and for one year
the miner labors. The year closes the
water runs, but the seasons output bare
1y pays expenses. Not two miles away
from the one works a. man who has TAX
en- from an uninviting bit of earth sack
fullo { gold. The lucky one did not
strike the pocket because of his ability
as miner, chancs favored him and that
was all. In short the miner guesses at
It and locates anywhere and everywhere
In nineteen cases out of twenty h. misses
1t and has to wait year for a new trial.
Dawson City is merely a collection of
log huts, saloons and a ma SIS of tents,
. about 600 in numben When the long
nights come and the glass goes down to
65 degrees below zero there wfll be in
tense suffering here. and I shudder to
think of the results.
Provisions are going Ito be very scarce
and there is little reason to doubt that
the entire town will have to go on short
nations during the winter, and that
scurvy will be rampant. THE gold that
will go down the river for San Francisco
and Seattle will amount to about 81 2,000,-
900. There is a lot of gold that will re-
main in camp, for 1t is used as an equiva-
lent of money, and is legal tender at SIT
per ounce. OF The 5000 or 1000 Inhabitants
only couple of hundred at the most
have made big strikes. There is plenty of
work at from SIS to $40 per day, and many
mon have paid $3.50 or less for living and
saved the balance.
Reports of either stiuikes are constantly
received here. and many are authentic
so far ais Stewart and Polly rivers are
concerned, burt nothing like se-Tdch as the
KIondyke has been reported. Quite
number of people are preparing to leave
here for Juneau, in case The steamer cam
not get through with prov isrons, and the
outlook for good grub supply is not en-
couraging. In conclusion the Alaska and
Northwest Territory gold fields will be
developed slowly.
Ten thousand men day come here, but
D