The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-20
STRANDED GOLD
SEEKERS RESCUED
Empty : Handed Men
From Copper River.
BROUGHT ON THE EXCELSIOR
UNCLE SAM BEGINS THE WORK
OF RELIEF.
Fearful Hardships Encountered in
Traversing Northern Glaciers
Recounted by a Los An
geles Woman.
UNCLE SAM BEGINS THE WORK
OF RELIEF.
BY HAL HOFFMAN.
Special Correspondence of Th. Call.

JUNEAU. Alaska. Sept. II. via Seat
tie, Wash, Sept. 19.-The end OF the
line of empty-handed gold seekers from
the Copper River country is not yet in
sight, but it must soon be, owing tc
the advancing season. The steamship
Excelsior arrived at o'clock this
morning with two more hard luck sto-
ries told by as many passengers. This
voyage of the Excelsior is the first sigr
that either the Pacific Steam Whaling
Company or President Mckinley Is do
ing the charitable thing to the help
less ones who cannot help themselves
for the Excelsior has on her passenger
list some fifty men who, though they
did not have enough money to pay the
fare of $50 first class and $40 second
class from Valdez to Seattle, were new
ertheless accepted for passage. SIEVE
raj hundred more are at Valdes and
coming back over the glacier, stranded
and broke.
Advices from Captain Abercombie
commanding the United States regulars
of the Copper River country, have been
productive of results in the War and
Navy departments which will gladden.
the hearts of the several hundred men
who are unable to pay their way home
Those aboard the Excelsior tonight re-
ported that the gunboat Wheeling and
another Government ship in northern
waters were to receive orders to carry
get Sound. The Wheeling is now In
Cooks Inlet. About twenty ''refu-
gees" are in Captain Abercrombie's
camp, mostly old men. Several men
at Valdez have recently escaped hang
ing by very narrow margin.
Some letters, dated at Valdez, have
appeared in various Eastern newspa-
pers during the last summer, booming
the Copper River country, on which nc
more than a color of gold has ever
been found. One of these was charged
up against man named Holman, who
keeps a store at Valdez, and is buying
up all the provisions and other neces-
saries at cut-throat prices for the pur-
pose of future trade with the Indians.
soldiers saved Holman from the glib
bet at the eleventh hour. No further
particulars are to be had here at this
time. About 800 men out of the $500
who have landed at Valdez will spend
the winter in the Copper River Valley
a population of about 300. All the
creeks, the returning gold seekers say,
to the head of Copper River have been
prospected and no more than a few
colors found anywhere, though holes
have been sunk from five to twenty
feet. But there are many colors, and
the question is asked, whence do they
come? Doubtless from somewhere
but where no pick or spade has dis
covered. Mrs. J. o. Dodge of Los An
geles, Cal, is one of the few ladies
who have seen the Copper River. She
wrote the following tonight aboard the
Excelsior for The Call:
1.-THE Copper River is no place for a
woman, although 1 am improved in
health and like the climate. We left
Los Angeles last February. We were
seyenty-five days on the glacier and II
was perfectly awful. Wood for fires
must be taken along. Our wood soon
gave out. 1 have stayed in bed seven
days ia order to keep warm. I was
also suffering from snow blindness
Many is the time / would have given
$50 for a few minutes with a gasoline
or kerosene stove. The great trouble
has been that the people started for
Copper River without knowing what
they needed to get along with. We
found colors of gold in the ground
PANIED out under our tent in several
places. but that was all there was of II
anywhere. The wind is terrible II
makes balloons of tents. 1 think some
poor men have fallen down the Gre
vases and will never be heard OF
again. We should have known more
about the country we were going to
before we started I shall be glad to
get back to Los Angeles again, and ]
do not want to hunt for gold any more
NY husband feels the same way'