The Butler weekly times., 1897-09-30
WALKING INTO DEATH.
Frightfu| Prospect for Gold
Hunters in Alaska.
Men Who Know Nothing of the Awful Arctic
Winter Continue to Rush.


Seattle, Wash, Sept. 23.-One of
the most distinguished passengers
to arrive in the city on the steamer
| Queen from Alaska was Burton F.
Bennett, who was sent north by
! Grover Cleveland to fill the office of
United State District Attorney for
Alaska.
From what can learD," he said,
"there IS not and will not be eoough
food at Dawson City this winter.
| With favorable weather the trading
companies may get more up the
river than was anticipated, but it is
not likely. 1t will be impossible,
uuder the most favorable circum
stances. to get sufficient in to supply
all those who are there. l feel sure
of that sfter careful inquiry and
from 'etters that l have received
from Dawson City.
But, as L say, if Dawson City
suffers, think of the men on White
Pass. The world may not realize it,
but there are men up north who are
walkiog right into death. The snow
is probably flying on White Pass
en- if not soon will be.
"Many propose to winter at Ska
qua, but from what / can learn hun-
dreds do not propose to stop there.
nor wall they return to civilization.
They have the gold fever as no other
body Of men ever had il. Every
time they hear of strike in the
Yukon country they get crazier than
ever. They will not stop for snow;
they will not stop for stoim.; they
will keep pushing over White Pass
all winter.
am satisfied that while the snow
is coming down in all fury on the
pass aud the wind is blowing awful
gales this winter, friehtful thing to
think tf, but is true and these men
should be stopped. I would not bs
q bit surprised to learn of many
deaths up there this winter. 1t is
the most damnable rush 1 ever heard
of or read of. These men do not
know anything about the horrors of
White Pass in the winter time, vet
they keep on, and just about the
time that winter is at its worst some
of them will be caught on White
Pass. They will never escape.
|
main at Skagua will winter all tight.
Spring will soon be with them and
they can start for the north. Once
there they will all come back rich if
they are willing to stay and work for
a few years. There is gold in every
body of water, big or lit,ls. 10 our
country. Why, the people of the
states, with all the newspaper talk,
do not know what the rush will be
the coming spring.
From letters | have r. caived from
the states there will be 10000 peo-
pie in Alaska six weeks after the
spring rush has commenced.
l think that the reports about so
much er me in the vicinity of Skagua,
have bsen exaggerated. We are
doing what we can to see that order
is preserved, and We have been fairly
successful. OF course. there are
some criminals there, but CRIME is
very small. We have officers at
Skagus- They will winter there and
1 look for no trouble
One thing certain, and that is that
the United States government will
have to take steps at once to give
Alaska new government. At present
1t is one judicial district. I favor
three. One for southeast Alaska.
one for western Alaska aud one for
the Yukon. In that way the coun.
try would be much better governed.
If a murder is mnitted IN the Yu.
kon country in the winter time the
murderer could not be brought to
the south coast until spring. This
Is not the way to conduct Alaska.
have given the matter serious cen
sideration. / think that there
should be a commission appointed
by our government to map out a
! code of laws for the country. Al
present we depend upon the revised
statutes of the United States. and
when we cannot find what we want
in them we-tu-n to the laws which
govern Oregon up to 1885. And the
land laws should be extended. AT
present one cannot get title to land
| in Alaska.