The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-27

bacon, or he may he so hungry that even
! beans and bacon appeal to him, but he
has none.
In either case the claim agent is on
hand TO examine his hole and make him
| an offer. A hungry man is easy" for
the claim broker, The hungrier the
miner Is the less bargaining about the
price. a hungry miner viii offer his
claim at such a low figure that even an
Armenian rug dealer would be ashamed
! to offer less
And 10 the advantage of the claim
buyer there are always hungry miners
men who, in spite of repeated warnings,
| have gone into the klondike and other
gold districts insufic.enuy supplied both
as TO food ana clothing
So the prospector, with the fever buzz
zing In his brain and hunger buzzing in
his stomach. sells his right for a mess
OF pottage, and having recouped goes
out again. while the new owner Of the
claim records the transfer and hires men
TO dig out the pay streak and make ready
for The summer slulcing.
As a rule, the value Of a claim can be
estimated with fair degree OF ac-
curacy. and the agents and brokers
have not shown n disposition to take
advantage OF the necessity of the min
ers Dealings have been frank and just,
and the Klondlke has been the most hon
est community in the world. But with the
tremendous influx of the coming summer
Of prospectors, investors and spectators,
conditions may so alter that the hungry
miner-and there viii be many more of
him next winter than this winter-will
have a hard time of IT,
Competition viii be all against him.
II viii force the spectators, fighting
,f...t 1,f4r .el l,ar
gains with the hungry miner while he,
If his supplies are gone. will have no
power to hold out for the better price
III health has forced many a man 10
give up for a nominal sum what since
has proved TO be a claim of great value
Such is the result Of another warning that
men In the mad rush for gold have read,
but needed not Now these men are wiser
and vastly sadder
Again IL may be inconsistencies that
forces miner to give up. Homesickness
is no laughing matter and nothing Is bet
ter suited to develop any lurking tendency
toward this ailment than winter In
Alaska.
When the broker goes over claim he
nscertains the direction OF the pay
streak" which is along the ancient bed
of the creek, where likely instead Of water
it was a stream Of ice moving and grind
ing slowly down and toward the location
of which the present course, Of the flow
ing water is of no help whatever
lie studies the claim above and the
claim below, then he measures the width
and depth OF the streak. which Will be
pretty constant on the average for the
length of the claim, running from four
to seven feet deep and perhaps twenty
feet wide, depending on the formation OF
the bed rock. Having thus ascertained APP
proxImaiely the cubic contents of the pay
streak he pans few shovelsful repre-.
senting five or six cubic feet of dirt. and
simple arithmetical process Will give him
the figures on which to base his offer.
For instance, If FIVE cubic feet pan out
$40 or Sl2 per cubic foot and II the pay
streak runs 5x20x10O feet equals
10000 cubic feet. the full value
of the claim should be $780,
Ooo On this suppostion he might offer
$4,000 for the claim as II stands. There
would be stll $4,000 to be got out after
the claim was paid for TO reimburse the
buyer for the necessary expenditure OF
time and labor in securing 1t.