The San Francisco call., 1898-05-07
SCURVY FINDS MANY VICTIMS The Dawson Hospital Is Filled With Afflicted
 Miners. Pneumonia Also Epidemic in the Metropolis of the
 Klondike. Disappearance of the Snow Reveals Shocking Condition of
 the Streets
Special Dispatch to The Call.

TACOMA, May 6.-Two Dawson let ters, dated March 29 and 30, have been received from John Williams and c. c. Pagett- Williams writes that scurvy is epidemic at Dawson, the hospital and several cabins being full of pa tients. Pneumonia is also prevalent. There have been a number of deaths from each disease. Many more deaths from scurvy are considered certain be- fore the miners are able to escape down the river in June.
 The rapid spread of scurvy is not thought strange at Dawson, consider ing the utter lack ofvariety of food that has prevailed In many cabins for months, together with the poor cooking, which results from the hurry and in conveniences of a miners life. Some miners who were short of provisions last fall but determined to remain, had, when Williams wrote, been living for several weeks on bacon, beans and flour, fried in fat. The little cemetery laid out a year ago Is being enlarged to meet increased demands upon its space
 Fine. clear weather prevailed dur ing March, causing the snow to d1sap- pear rapidly, and revealing the unsan- itary condition of Dawson, which is expected to result in typhoid fever and other diseases when the hot sun or May and June beats down upon the filthy streets and by-WayS Of the hlon- dike metropolis. If the warm weather continues, Pagett writes, the ground would be bare by April 15 or 20. Pagett says further:
 The food scare is pretty well over, but prices are high. Flour is $50 sack, ana all other provisions range from Sl to Sl & Zo a pound excepting butter and lard, both being scarce. Lard is $5 pound and butter s.
 miners harvest The days are lengthen- ing very rapidly, giving nearly twelye hours daylight. Dawson has already begun to. awaken. New buildings py the score are going up as rapidly as men and material will permit. The main draWpack in this line is the scarcity of nails As high as $4 or $5 a pound is pa1d Tor eIght tt and ten penny nails, and very few can be had at those figures; Two lots on flrs9 s avenue, near the old opera-house, sold last week for s4O,0O0. A woman owning a wenty-five-foot lot almost back of these on Second avenue sold for $45O0 It cost her $500 about a year ago.
 Harper & Ladue, owners or Dawson townsite, have advanced prices on all of their property from $100 to 5000 lot, ac- cording to location Harper & Ladue' s mill is being moved from its old location,
  Der is $50 a thousand feet. Flooring and dressed material are $250.
 There are two other mills, one at the mouth of Bonanza and the other near the mouth of Bear Creek. They moved up the river last fall, in order to be near the timber. They have been running all winter using dog teams to log with. They have not been able to satisfy the demand made on them for lumber for sluiceboxes and building purposes, but now that the days are getting longer they will be en- abled to double their output. The lumber is hauled principally with dog teams al- though there are about fifteen horses here and, owing to the mild winter, they have done great work and made fortunes for their owners.
 Dogs are very scarce and high priced S250 being paid for a fair-siZed dog from the outside. Interior dogs (malmoots and huskies) are worth from $500 to $500 each.
 From 300 to 400 miners have recently left for American territory, chiefly Forty-Mile and Seventy-Mile creeks. More will go because of the stringent Canadian mining rules