Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1898-01-20
FAMINEIN DAWSON CITY
FRICHTFUL SUFFER,Ncs AMONG THE
klOkDlkE GOLD HUNTERS

Food at Fabulous Prices and the Police
Won't Arrest Lawless Loafers Because
There Il Nothing to Feed Them With A
Lucky Tinner-W Adventures.
James r. Keene, the famous Wall
street speculator, has received the fol-
lowing letter, dated Dawson City,
Northwest Territory, at his Office In
New York, from an expert mining en-
glneer who, with An assistant, was
sent to the Klondike region last fall
by capitalists to investigate and report
on the situation there:
"A more God forsaken place you
never saw. The town lies on q fiat on
the east side of the river, Immediately
back of which are hills about five hun
dred feet high. The river is about
three-eights of mile wide, and is,
should judge, quite deep. The eleya-
tion above sea level is approximately
one thousand feet. Where the town
is located must have been an old
moose swamp. During the summer
time it is undoubtedly regular quag-
mlre.
"There are fully five hundred loaf
ers in town who won't work and ex-
pect to be fed, and there is no food to
feed them with. The police won't ar
rest them, because they haven't any
food with which to feed them. Every
thing is frozen except the whlskey,
and there seems to be an unlimited
supply of that article at fifty cents a
drink, or $40 per bottle. Champagne
is $50 per bottle, and 1 suppose other
beverages are at corresponding fig
ures
Give cent cigars cost fifty cents
each, and -four, outside of the compa-
nv's contracts, 1925 for fifty pound
sack; candles, 81 apiece. Seventy
five dollars is paid for five-gallon
can of coal OIL In fac, none is for
sale. Sugar is thirty cents and tea 81
a pound. Coffee 81 pound and not
fit for dogs. Ordinary dog meat,
which means dried fish, 81 a pound.
No man works for less than $l5 for
nine hours, and confers q very great
favor upon you even at that rate
Cordwood, sawed and split, is $50 a
cord in the yard. Cant say what it
will be before this winter is over.
''Cooking stoves are not to be had
| for love or money. Some sheet iron
ones can be obtained at cost ranging
from $75 to 500. There is one timer
in town working five men, and his or
| ders are thirty days ahead. Sawed
lumber, the poorest quality, sells,
when you can get it, for $16O for a
thousand feet, and flooring is twenty
cents foot The restaurants are all
closed because they cannot buy sup
plies. Bakeries closed because there
is no flour to be obtained. There is
no hotel and there are no lodging
houses.
''What in the world these people are
going to do before the season is over
l cannot say. Every building on the
| Main street is either saloon with q
gambling outfit or dance house.
There are only two stores, which be-
long to the companies, respectively,
the Alaska Commercial company and
the North American Transportation
and Trading company They close al
five O'Clock because they have no can
dies or oil to burn. There is absolute
lv no place to 60. There will be nc
more steamers here until next July.
The people are still coming in ove1
the trail without provisions. The po
lice here are driving every one dowr
the river as he arrives, and the com
panies will assist in pushing out o
town all persons who are not supplied
with food.
THE condition Of affairs is yer.
precarious here. There is posslbilit,
of there being bloodshed on accoun
of the starving population. The store
sell nothing, and are only PARTIAL,
filling orders in rotation to the best 0
their ability do not dare to move
until / am first settled Caches. wher
individual supplies are kept, are being
nightly robbed, and people are on tn
qui vive. In several Instances thieye
have been detected and shot, and l d.
not dare to leave this place withou
some one in it, for TO lose our supple
at this stage of affairs in Dawson
would simply mean-Death. None.
can't buy food, and the actual stapl
Of life, flour, is unobtainable.