Connecticut western news., 1897-12-02
HUNGER IN DAWSON
RETURNING GOLD SEEKERS SAY
 FAMINE IS LIKELY.
Great Scarcity of Food In the Upper Yukon Couutry-A Stampede From the Gold District Metropolis-An Interview With Thomas Magee, ST.


 Gold District Metropolis-An Interview
 With Thomas Magee, ST.
 Seattle, Wash, Nov 30.-The steam
 ST City of Seattle has just arrived at
 this port with 25 gold seekers direct from Dawson City. They were divided Into two parties, the last one of which left Dawson Oct. Is. Among those in
 the party were Thomas Magee, Sr.. Thomas Magee, Jr.. of San Francisco; Swift Water Bill Gales. Joe Boyle. Will liam Huskins. F. Eckert, F. Robertson, H. Raymond, Bert Mason. John w. Brauer, w. H. Chambers, E. W. Pond. B. A. J. Gillespie, Thomas Wilson, P. McGraw, Jack Dalton and William Leak. They came down over the Dal- ton trail They are reported to have between them about s6O, 900 in dust and nuggets.
 All tell stories of a food shortage in Dawson that is almost a famine. The last person to leave Dawson was Jack Dalton. When Dalton left, the steamer Bella had reached there loaded light. It
 Is said that the Bella's cargo consisted of whisky and billiard balls. She
 
 government mounted police chartered the Bella and gave all who wished free passage 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 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 Dawson is the food famine. Men were gathering in groups and cursing with might and main the newcomers that were con- stantly arriving in the Klondike loaded with scarcely any provisions. The mounted police were offering free trans portation to the grub placers farther down the Yukon to Fort Yukon, but to the countless hundreds who had la bored hard all through the summer &C., cumulating a grubstake, the prospect was uninviting to say the least.
 The men figured that 1t 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 even have enough left to pay passage money back to Dawson, to say | nothing of purchasing enough food to subsist 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 being compelled to live on half rations until the supply boats could reach the dig gings in the spring.
 Statement of Thomas Magee, ST. Thomas Magee, Sr., the well known capitalist of San Francisco, in an in- terview said:
 "The excitement over the failure of the steamers to bring food up to Daw- son continued when the Dalton party | left. The police took charge for two | days of the stores and warehouses of the Northwestern and Alaska Commer- | cial company as a precaution only. | Flour was selling at B a pound and no l sales of less than 50 pounds were made. | No plans have yet been formulated to | prevent the starvation of those who are | short of provisions. Those well sup | piled have not much sympathy with ! those who are short, because of the 1 fact that the majority of these latter went in with little food, although l abundantly warned at Lake Bennett in | advance It had not been discovered | up to Oct 16 who shot the two men in | Dawson who were caught stealing food. | One was found dead; the other. fatally | wounded died at the Catholic hospital. | It Is believed that a secret organization | exists for the purpose of shooting down | thieves. The organization of hunting | parties for the winter to hunt moose | was talked of and will be carried out" | "Dysentery and accompanying fea- | lures were general at Dawson last sum-
 mer caused by the miasma swamps on | which the town is built, poor drainage I and sewerage. The sickness will be | worse next summer. The river was
 bad, out there is one spring of water at | the Catholic hospital. Nothing was
 talked but the grub question. The so-
 lution probably will be a public com- | mittee to gather up voluntary or en- | forced contributions, the food thus | gathered to be dispensed and paid
 for by work or cash by those to whom | it Is given. The Yukon river practically | closed about Sept 30 and again about Oct. 25, but the ice ran out again and
 left the river free so that the parties . who had taken chances of being left
 out in the wilderness, most of them
 short of provisions, too. probably got to
 Dawson. or near it. This opening of the
 river twice was a phenomenon never
 known to occur before. There was no
 new mining excitement. With a per- 1 sistence heretofore unexplained many l rarties from Dawson as we'll as new | pmers went up the Stewart river.
 Nothing whatever except good claims
 have as yet been discovered there. The
 telief, however, is that rich discoveries
 will be made there. Jack Dalton and | Nr. Maloney, a lawyer of Juneau have l P7rchased of Hugh Ferguson and Alex
 ader Mcdonald, Skookum claims Nos.
 and for sS2, 800. It is reported that a | hkOn adx haan tp ha
 hyers. Skookum claims are looking
 ui because some of them have yielded
 il initial work as large returns as any | fabpd