The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-21
SEATTLE IS BOOMING,
PROVIDING SUCKERS" WITH
OUTFITS TO GO TO KLoNDIKE.
Great Destitution, However, Prevails
at Skaguay and Dyea-Letter On
the Situation From J. A. Jacobs,
a Former Salt Laker.

Mr.. ]. A. Jacobs, once of this city, but
now in Seattle, possible emigrant for
the gold fields OF Alaska, writes Mr.. John
Schreimer as follows:
Il have been to Rossland and found the
place almost deserted, although different
reports had been circulated only short
time after 1 started. There are plenty OF
finely new-built stores and hotels that
give every evidence of having been oc-
cupied but a short time and many others
that have never been used at all. Spo-
kane is also as dull as ditch water. As a
the only place. 1t is the biggest town in
the world for its size, and it Is all on
taccount of the fact that 1t IS the principal
Quitting point for the Alaskan goid
fields Everything goes with such rush,
| that l feel myself TO be verltaDle nay
seed l have been in 'rushes' before in
many parts of the world, but never
saw anything to approach It. me num-
Der of schemes and lodges to work the
unwary pilgrim en- route to the Klondike
are as numerous as the waves OF the
ocean, and it is a question whether
should laugh or cry as watch the poor
! fellows being loaded up with all sorts OF
useless stuff that the fakirs have per-
suaded them that they cannot possibly
get along without. Many of them have
laid in stocks of supplies that will cost
a small fortune for the freight alone over
the pass, to say nothing of the go-as-you-
please journey of 600 miles afterwards.
| There are all kinds of useless gold saving
machines, stoves to fold up. blankets and
tents to put in the pocket, frames TO car
ry on the back, clothing outfits tor both
men and women that if ever donned would
insure the wearers from ever reaching
their destination, snow sleds that would
take ten yoke of oxen to draw when
loaded and supply outfits that are equally
as ridiculous.
.'Then there are street fakirs of every
description. mining sharks and schemers
by the hundred, gamblers, tin-horns,
bunco men, sneak thieves. hold-upS, bur-
glars. prostitutes and their inevitable at
tachments of the male sex, and all-round
toughs of every description. There are
hot times in the old town, as the song
puts it, and one does not need to wait
until evening comes to see them, either.
Stores of every description, hotels, res
taurantS and lodging houses are all do
ing an enormous business Nearly every
thing has been almost doubled in price.
There is not a vacant place to be had for
any money in any part of the city. Boats
of all kinds leave every day with pas
sengers, horses. burros, dogs, and the
scenes accompanying their departure are
worth going long way TO See
DESTITUTION AT SKAGUAY.
There are many who return from
Skaguay and Dyea who tell hard luck
stories such as one would think would
deter others from making the venture. but
these tales have little, if any, effect. Both
at SkaSuaN ana Dyed, II Is Salu there are
hundreds stranded and begging for bread,
and if a man has the price to get away
from those places ne is looked upon with
a good deal of envy. Harry Newland, an
old-time associate of mine. and who is
well known in Utah, and who viii be rec
ogniZed as an authority, tells me the out
look in the klondike is far from what the
boomers of the transportation companies
have painted it, and everything is being
overdone. There are soma men who have
made fortunes in very short time, but
as to almost counterbslance whatever
good effect this may have. There are
men who have mortgaged their homes
all over the United States with the idea
of going to KIondike and returning RICH
whose families will never see them again.
/ am constantly meeting some acquaint-
either going or returning. Yesterday l
ran across two of my dodgers in johann
nesburg, and they were dead broke.
OVERLAND TRAINS.
-Four overland trains arrive here every
day, bringing in hundreds of people. many
of whom are the queerest looking in
diyiduals you ever saw. Many of them /
have the appearance of having stepped /
from their home in the backwoods of the |
eastern states right on to the cars and |
had probably never been a hundred miles !
away from the old homestead in all their
lives. They are not all young men. /
either. They are of all ages. and it would 4
appear to a casual observer that both /
saries en- route TO Klondike.
CUR DOGS IN DEMAND.
"Outside of the dogs with two legs. the |
most numerous creature here now is the I
dog with four legs, and the latter breed |
bring such prices as would make Gal
leazzi giddy when he remembered how
many ours he had nabbed and burned at
the crematory. The man who owns a big
stable of dogs has forever eclipsed, ii
would seem, the fellow who was so
a short time ago within the pre-
cincts of his livery stable. and the man
who enters harness shop nowadays
does so. as a rule, to order an outfit for
his dogs. And queer looking little things
these dog harnesses are, too; to those
who see them in such prOfusion for the
first time. He almost instinctiVely thinks
that the city on the coast is the home of
a breed of very small Shetland ponies
There was a time when only big dogs !
were in demand, but the supply of these
soon grew out. and now almost any kind
Of brute that can pull few pounds is
pressed into service, and some of them
sold to the suckers from the east at a
fabulous price-at least for that kind of
-rash-will probably die on the hands of
ire taken reaches land-or snow Boats
ire also in good demand. and if the craze
keeps up, we may yet see Mary's little
amp pressed into the service of the
a CHILKOOT TRAMWAY.
1.-The announcement made of the OPEN
ng of the tramway over the Chilkoot
pass has brought a ray of hope to the
more timid of the pilgrims, but this has
been dampened considerably by the
received afterward by the fell
ow who has figured out that not one in a
hundred now en- route will be able to
axe advantage of the tramway because
# its limited carrying capacity and the
charges that will necessarily.
II naturally, be imposed on freight as
veil as passengers.
SEATTLE A GOOD PLACE.
''Of one thing am certain: the average
nan in business in Seattle at the present | /
ime will make more money in proportion | {
o the capital invested, the risks run and |
he work done than the average man {
Who braves the dangers of that god-for-
aiken country called the Klondike.
SAMMY REGGELL'S ESCAPADE.
Last week Sammy Reggell was ar |
ested for going through a man coming $
ut of the bank for 500. He spent a dav
n jail and was finally released. 1 was s
n the Horse Shoe saloon the next day. /
no it so happened that Sammy and the :
nan who was robbed met In minute S