The Penn's Grove record., 1897-07-23
KLONDYKE GOLD Craze.
Country Fabulously Rich With the
Yellow Metal.
THE 49 EXCITEMENT OUTCOME.

Commander futile, of the United States
Revenue Cutter Bear, Tells of the
Scenes ut st. Observation-Disclosures Had
s15O,ooO-Made 1t All In Seven Months
SEATTLE, Wash. (S~peciaD.-The popula-
tIon of Alaska and the northwestern Sec
tion of the Northwestern Territories will be
multiplied tenfold inside OF the next six
months. The exodus Of excited gold
hunters from all owe the Pacific coast has
begun, and trains, arriving twice daily from
tho south, bring hundreds of eager and
anxious men, who would gladly pay the
transportation companies double for berths
on the three outgoing steamers.
One OF the most significant u~tterances In
corroboration OF the stories of immense
gold finds in the Northwest Territory Is
found In a letter received from Captain
Francis futile, commander OF the United
States revenue cutter Bear. who was at the
time Of writing at st. Michnefs on the
Yukon River. Captain futile cannot. by
those who know him, be accused of being a
dreamer. 1t Is the first communication sent
down from the far north by q United States
OulCtT ItlHbLNt III Lub ROtuG AChboblthts lO
letter was mailed July l, and is graphic In
Its description.
Captain futile says: "The days OF 40 in
California are q mere side show compared
with the excitement In the Yukon country.
Imagine my establishment on reaching here
yesterday to run across o man who, last
September, was discharged as a deck hand
from a steamer on Puget Sound. The fell
low made his way into Alaska, worked
seven months on the Klondyke and has
now reached st. Michaels with $50 900 In
gold. l could hardly believe my senses,
but there was his gold, sure enough.
"As I write st. Michael's Is full Of miners
awaiting an opportunity to get down to
Puget Sound and to California. Nearly
every other man OF them has $50 900 worth
OF dust, and there is not a man here with
less than eli, 900. The latter are referred
to as poor fellows who have been hard hit
with bad luck, and 1t seems to be real sym
pathy that the more fortunate ones show
for these els, 900 fellows.
"The deck-hand, with his $3.50, 900, had
the largest amount Of gold of any one in
the crowd. The whole business is almost
Incredible, yet one must believe what he
sees.
'It is enough to turn the mind of any
person, and particularly when one learns
with what comparative ease this gold is
mined"
Captain futile adds that he cannot af-
ford to lay long in st. Michael's or his
whole crew will become daft, and he con-
tinues.
ri almost feel as II would like to go up
the river myself, and 1 certainly would do
SO were 1 twenty years younger"
The thermometer at st. Michaels regis
tered eighty-seven degrees at the time Cap
tain Tuttle penned his letter.
At st. Michael's Captain futile received
Instructions from the Government to assist
In the transportation of reindeer from ST.
IBERIA into the Yukon country.
r. G.. II. Bowker, N OF the returned
Yukoners, who brings back nearly $40, 900
in gold dust, the result Of six months
work. is authority for the statement that
on the American side of the international
boundary placer fields have been found
which even put those on the Klondyke into
tho shade.