The San Francisco call., 1898-03-24
Two Companies Alone Prepare to Supply
 3O,OOO People.
The Alaska Commercial Com pany Will Send in 15,OOO
 Tons.
No Famine Next Winter Tho St Paul Will Marry the Sea on
 April 6.

The Alaska Commercial Company proposes to get into the Yukon country
 this summer and fall enough merchan-
 disc to supply 15,000 people for one year
 with the necessaries of life and labor
 in that awful land of gold and some of the luxuries of home thrown in.
 This will be one good starter toward
 warding a Yukon famine away from
 the hordes that are expected to popu-
 late the Yukon Valley next winter, and ! in whose behalf a warning cry of "an- other famine in '9S-99" is already start
 ing from the tongues of wise men.
 The Northwestern Trading and Trans portation Company - the Cudahy- Weare- Gage corporation-is expected | to fully keep up with it's older rival and undoubtedly will do so. This will make the number fully supplied for one year 30,0 900, and with that figure reached the Yukon Valley already be-
 gins to appear land Of cold plenty at war prices.
 Louis Sloss ST. said yesterday that
 the Alaska Commercial Company's
 plans for the coming season included 1 getting 15,000 tons of supplies Of all sorts up the river and distributed along it's trading posts from Bering Sea to | Dawson. Last year 1000 tons were for
  started late in the season after the klondille excitement began and some | thousands of tons got no farther than
 St. Michael. This year the company will have thirteen river steamers nov l ing with heavy loads at the earliest
 possible hour. Five will be new ones and four of these will be of 1000 tons ca paclty, the peer in power, convenience and elegance of any first-class steamer on the Mississippi. They were built on the Ohio River and have been shipped to Unalaska. They are expected to make four river trips between June 1 and freezing time.
 The company thus has confidence that with 15000 tons it has not bitten off more than it can chew in four months or more than the Yukon popu- lation will want to chew later This amount is resolved according to popu- lation at the average rate of one ton of food, clothing, hardware, whisky, etc, per capita per year. As not everybody will buy ton the company is evidently banking on a good many more than 15000 customers
 The coming season will see a great change in the character of the mer- chandise that rolls up the mighty Yu- kon. Heretofore beanS bacon, flour and few such staples along with a small assortment of hardware, dry goods, etc., have been all that the h. dians and griZZled prospectors have created a demand for. But SWiftwater Bill is going back this summer, there
 will be lots of the newly rich" and
 many with cultured wants and some money, so the invoices have broadened upward and taken in about everything that fool with nuggets might take
 notion to buy. The big log trading posts will be baZaars displaying figured silks from Indian looms, besides aborig- inal parkies, pressed capon and canned truffles above the smoked ham, and sapphires and diamonds in the show case not far from the picks and ten penny nails. These crazy Klondikers are whooping civilization and luxury up the mighty river thousand miles beyond the promised moose ranges of the Panama.
 Beyond the 3O,000 tons of merchandise that the two established companies are prepared to hustle into the interior, there is a big field for conjecture to sport in, but the distant prospect at first glance suggests "clearance" and fire" sales next January instead of famine riots. Several companies with large capital and wealthy directors of business standing, along with host of doubtful corporations, have announced large trading as we'll as transportation plans, and are lost somewhere in the Klondike hurlyburly. How many of them will answer roll-call on the Yukon and with what stocks of supplies when the river is running free no man may now say, but that a great number of men and companies will get stocks of merchandise, little and big, into the Yukon region this summer is quite cer- tain. What will go in oyer the passes is utterly beyond prophecy. Whether the railway from the Stickeen River to the head of navigation in Canadian ter ritory will be ready when the ice goes is wholly problematical.
 q expect that there will be between fifty and sixty boats of all sizes and l conditions running on the Yukon next | summer, said Louis SloSs yesterday, l l but it is impossible now to even guess | what all these new companies will do 1 or amount to"
 The Alaska Commercial Company will dispatch three steamers, the Bella, | Portland and St. Paul, from here to St. Michael about June l, and although the sailing time is so far ahead fifty have already paid for their tickets. Both this | comDany and it's big rival have douhIed the fare to Dawson this year This season it will be $500, with 150 nol1nds of baggage allowed. We found we were losing money at last years | rate" says MT. Sloss.
 The company's fine new 2500 ton | ocean steamer, the St. Paul, now being | huilt bv the Union Iron Works, and which will sail to the land of the mid night sun. is to be launched at Il a. m. on April 6. Suitable arrangements have been made for a gala time at the launching, and a little daughter of Leon SIoss will baptize with champagne the new brow that shall with wave and