, 1897-11-29
FROM DAWSON
LATEST NEWS FROM THE MEN IN
THE GOLD FIELDS OF THE
FROZEN NORTH.
A Shortage of Provisions is One of the
Certainties Which Confront the
People-Many OF the Miners Have
Left Dawson City in Consequence
Wages Are Still Sis Per Day.

Seattle. Wash, Nov. 28.-Twenty-five
men arrived here to-day on the City
of Seattle direct from Dawson City.
They were divided into two parties. the
last n Of which left Dawson Oct. 1G.
The party consisted Of Thomas Magee,
ST.. Thomas Magee. Jr., of San Fran
cisco. Swift Water Bill" Gates, Joe
Boyle, William Huskins, F. Eckert, H.
Robertson. II. Raymond. Bert Nelson.
John w. Brauer, w. H. Chambers, E.
w. Pond. E. Ash, ]. ellis. Thomas
Wilson. p. McGraw, Jack Dalton,
| William Leak. Arthur Celine, Joseph
Fairburn, J. Smith, T. Warren, Jim
Sthephenson. They came out over the
Dalton trail. They are reported to
have between them 5000 in drafts
and 5000. 900 in gold dust. All tell
stories of a food shortage in Dawson
that is almost a famine. The last per-
son to leave Dawson was Jack Dalton.
When Dalton 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 Canadian government mounted
police chartered the Bella and gave all
who wished a free pass to Fort Yukon.
The Bella is reported to have left abou,
Oct. II 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 a party ahead
Of him whom he met at Dyea, tina. all
che people talk about at Dawson was
the food famine. Men were gathered
IN groups and cursing with might and
maine the newcomers that were con
stantly coming into the Klondike, load
ed with scarcely any provisions. The
mounted police were offering free
transportation to the grub piles furth-
er down the Yukon, but to countless
hundreds who had labored hard all
through the summer accommodating a
grub stake, the prospect was uninvit,
,ng to say the least. These men figur,
ed that it would take all their savings
n gold to pay their living expenses at
sort Yukon during the winter, and that
n the spring they would not even have
enough left to pay passage money back
20 Dawson, to say nothing Of purchas-
ing 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
nalf rations until the supply boats
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, a distance of $50 miles. There
is 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 conservative, and say that
when 1 left Dawson the men who were
there had on an average four months
food supply. Some did not have a
months supply, some had four or five.
The last restaurant closed the night I
left. It had been selling nothing but
beef steak for which the hungry paid
$3.50.
When the people realized that the
boats would be unable to get up the
river they knew that starvation threat
ened them, and the great stampede be-
gan.
THE first to leave vent to Fort fu-
kon. l guess there were about 10 in
the party that left the first day. One
boat came up from Fort Yukon with
several newspaper men aboard, among
them Correspondent Sam Wall and a