The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-27


conservative estimate Of the spring
cleanup on the various gold diggings
along the Yukon and it's tributaries
places the total at s14.OOO,OOO. This is
distributed as follows:
Eldorado creek claims 81 900 900
Bonanza creek claims ........ 5000 900
klondike river claims ,. 2 600 900
Bear creek claims ............. 900 900
Skookum creek claims ......... 900 OO0
All Arber claims (many small
creeKs) ......, ...... ............ 100000
iolal ...... .......... ......... -Sl4, 200
These figures are given In round
| numbers only, and there may be va
r1at1ons when the exact totals are an
nounced. But the changes will not be
or very great extent, for this estimate
is based on the first trustworthy data.
In the course Of months, despite the
efforts at secrecy made by the mine
owners, the average daily output of
the various claims has been generally
known, together with the number Of
men at work and the other circum-
stances that determine the size of the
, final cleanup. It is safe to assert,
therefore, that the estimate given above
is accurate, and can be used with con-
fidence as a basis of speculation for the
future. 1t must be remembered, how
ever, that all these millions represent
work on only small proportion of the
mining claims located in even the rich
districts. Most of the claims have
been taken up with a view Of future
development or for speculative pur-
poses. and only enough work has been
done on them to secure the title to
the original locators. When the indus
| try becomes universal and all the
| claims are made to yield their proper
| tionate harvest this total cleanup will
| jump to $5O,O00,00O or more at once.
Land of Prevarfcators.
have laid particular stress on the
conservative element of these figures
| because conservatism Is one of the rare
virtues of this country. There seems
| to be some subtle influence in the air
| Of the Yukon valley to nourish Mum
| chausens. The average man Of unim-
peached veracity, who has been ac-
customed to hold his word as his bond,
comes here and blossoms forth a full
fiedged prevaricator in q month. And
it is all done with such consummate
frankness. A miner will come rushing
w
days and make bee line for the sa-
loon. He will be surrounded immedi-
ately by crowd and will proceed to
reel off the most astonishing pipe
dream about a $1,000,00O strike in the
mountains. Not an essential detail
will be lacking. And every mothers
son in that crowd will beam on the
narrator in admiration and interrupt
with encouraging comments, although
not single listener is in the slightest
degree deceived by the story. 1t seems
to be understood that only glowing
visions of inordinate wealth will be
tolerated. and perhaps the plan is not
bad one, for it raises a barrier
against all hard luck stories And the
condition of the people here is not such
as to make tales of woe very welcome.
K1ondike Hard Luck Story.
But there Is one hard luck
story that couldn't be suppressed, and
it is worth a permanent place in the
history Of the diggings, both because of
its own interest and the moral precept
it carries with it. Dick Benson, who
owns to a small town in New Mexico
as his native place, is the hero and
the victim. Dick came up here in the
early rush last spring and located we'll
on Bonanza creek. He had luck from
the start in finding plenty of pay dirt,
and he stuck to the ground until he
had more gold dust accumulated than
he had ever seen before at any one
time. When his pile grew to the $50, 900
figure his energy weakened, and with
the first touch Of cold weather he
struck" his camp and came up to
Dawson to take life easy during the
long winter. He had always appeared
to be a. pretty level-headed fellow, and
for a time he lived along calmly with
ftrnrr Nft to-,
the rather rapid life of the sporty
element But the long nights began to
grow heavy on his hands and he fell
to dropping into the Excelsior gam
bling joint to watch the play.
couple of squaws got hold of him
one night, and his efforts to be enter
tanning outran his discretion. He land
ed at the gambling layout at a late
hour considerably worse for bad liquor
In his condition it was easy to persuade
him to try his luck. AT first the little
ball rolled his way, but the turn came
and, excited by his early success and
frequent libations, his play became
reckless. When day dawned at about
8 o'clock the next morning there wasn't
an ounce of dust left in Benson's pos
session, and he was a ruined man. Two
days later he returned to the claim he
had lost, together with his savings, and
now he is taking out gold in rich pans
again, but it all belongs to the other
man. Benson gets $40 a day wages,
just enough to keep him.
Riot at Fort Yukon.
An Indian Is to take this letter down
the Yukon. He is to make the trip in
sledges drawn by a team of six dogs.
I am keeping him waiting now in order
to add report that has just come in
from Fort Yukon, brought by another
Indian who travels with the dog
sledges.
He says that just before he left the
fort there was an outbreak of malcon-
tents there, which for a time threaten
ed to be extremely serious. AS 1 ex-
planned in a previous letter Fort Yu-
kon has been the dumping ground for
all the Klondikers who could not be
taken care of at Dawson or Circle City
that is, those who come into the
country without sufficient provisions
Most of these parties come in over the
British America trails, and they were
simply moved along as fast as they
reached the headWaters of the Yukon.
When they began to crowd into Fort
Yukon the pressure on the trading
companies at that place became so
great that Capt. Ray, of the United
States army, was obliged to step in and
assume the direction of the supply out
put, so as to insure justice to the men
GyI