The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-09-24
HE IS KING. OF
THE KL0NDIKE
ALEXANDER MDONALD ENJOYS
p. THIS DISTINCTION.

He Didn't Know He Had Brains Till
| He Quit Working One Day and
Concluded to Get Rich-Then He
| Plunged-He Is Worth Millions
and Carries His Accounts in His
Head-Prtce of u Claim Increases
If He Just Looks at History of
His "Luck.w
| Bill Conders, who had been in Alaska
| for eight years had So, 600 in gold dust in
i the spring of '96. Never had so much
BEFORE" he reasoned, IAN amt likely to
| have so much again unless I go out an
| City, and everybody-which includes the
Indians and the Malamute dogs-came
| down to the steamer to see him off. Be-
fore Bill reached Seattle the rich dig
| gu gs of the Klondike were discovered
and Bills old friends Who had staked
| claims in the first rush were worth for
| tunes. A year later, when Bill returned,
ne sat down on log in front OF Dawson
With his friends, and each one bit off
chew from Bills plug. Thus says Fred
| erick Palmer in the New York Press
"Well, Bill" said one of them. "Alec
Macdonald has got pretty near the whole
shooting match. He's king of the Klon-
| dixie now"
What! Big Alec that was down in
Circle?'
| "Yep. He was worlzin' . windlass for
frank Conrad. You remember him? So
tall he had to go down OH his knees to
get in a cabin door? Made him tired to
life up his arms and his legs used to get
| tied in a knot? Didn't drink and didn't
seem to- care damn, anyway? Well,
| that lucky cuss Is worth three millions
If he is worth cent. Fellers that come
|
and Jap cooks they call him Mister Mac
Donald"
"staxed it, suppose? Fell into it and
couldn't get out of it?''
! mop. Never staked nothin'!
! well, how in HI did he get it, them"
Drains!"
"Humph! Thought there was somethin'
unnatural about it, put in Bill
THAT explains it all. We never knew
ne had 'em, and he didn't know he had
| EN- till one day he threw up his job and
said: I amt going to work any more.
I'm going to get rich That was just
after the Bonanza strike, when we didn't
| know what was in Eldorado. Most of us
| thought there wasn't color in it. Alec
scraped three or four hundred dollars to-
gether, and he bought No. 80 Eldorado,
and everybody thought that he had only
clinched another nail in his reputation
for being lightweight. God Almighty!
But he took $25O,OOO out of No. 80 the
first season. She's good for a million If
! she's werth a cent. Besides that, you'll
| find shat wherever there's a good claim
in the country Alec's either got his hand
| ON it or is next door to it, P1unge! Why,
that long, lanky Scot that was turning a
windlass for So a day two years ago
plunges in way thatd turn you gray
headed in a night
Indisputably, big Alec is the leading
man Of the Klondike 1t is a community
l m nIyY1n and ne hn {rcr Tn,
wealth nor in power no one there ap-
| proaches him. After him there are
| score Of men, one of whom Is as rich as
another. He is six feet two inches in
height, and not particular as to the
clothes he wears. In the front room of
| the little cabin, where he rolls up in a
blanket at night when he stops at Daw-
son, are two boards propped against the
| wall. t's-.
Only of late have the two boards risen
to the dignity of three unassuming ac-
count books, in charge of man who is
| the kings secretary. But, having these
Injuries, the king continues to carry his
| accounts in his head. How would he
know that the account books were right If
| he didn't? AS a boy he learned to read
| and write, which was considered enough
| to know. If he had received an educa-
| for written language. When man goes
to him, with a. long written contract, the
| king says:
"Now, I tell you what I'm going to do
| I'll remember just what I told you and
TIL do it. If you don't like that I'll Go
business with somebody else.'
If he goes to any man In the Klondike
and says: ,"I'!l give you $500 for your
claim month from to-day the man
knows that he will SEQ the $4,000 en- that
day. He was one of the first to have
confidence in the country. When his con-
| fidence was proved wise the miner of the
| Klondlike, in turn, had confidence in him.
! The king drifted westward from Nova
| Scotia long before he was of age. In the
/ sos he accumulated much as $4,000
in mining operations in Colorado. This he
lost and then he started for Alaska.
Every cent that he got out of No 30
Eldorado the first winter he invested
in other claims, and with it all the other
capital that he could get on the strength
Of the gold still in the ground at No. 80,
| and Of the gold supposed to be under the
untouched sod of his new purchases, pay
ing as high, in some instances, as 10 per
cent a month interest. For capital was
| scarce and knew its value. go --1~
The first time that ever saw the king
he was in the cashiers Office of the
Alaska Commercial company and he need
ed a shave much as the men who were
crowding around him. The men had
packed down from his claim $2O0,OO in
dust, which was piled on the counter in
! leather bags. This amount was all going
for the grocery bills of his employees and
the payment of sums that he had bor-
rowed during the winter. "Ill pay when
cleanup conles," was the promise that
he invariably made; and he kept the
promise. Even the men who worked for
him waited for their wages until cleanup
time. When he had bought a claim on
his word he got men to work it on his
word. He bought lumber for his sluice
boxes on his word.
| It was a case Of make or break, and
the Alec Macdonald who was poor man
in the summer of 97 in the summer Of
'98 was worth 100000. His claims seem
to have been selected in the right places.
Il He had no interest on Lower Bonanza,
7 which was the disappointment of the sea-
son. The claims he owned on Upper Bo-
nanza and Eldorado happened to be the
! best there. Whereas his confidence In the
new creeks, Sulphur and Dominion,
seems to have been perfectly we'll
founded. For his claims on Dominion
and Sulphur he could have received three
times their cost last June, but he wouldn't
sell.
Il am no speculator." he said. when I
buy q claim Iswork 1t, and when l go
broke it will be because I've made mis-
takes In buying. Big Alec talks this
Il way to his intimate friends, but not to q
stranger. The giant seems as awkward
u His best friend is Capt. Hansen, the;
most popular man in the Klondike. and
the captain worked all Of his wiles fos
Il fifteen minutes to get Big Alex to pose
for the photograph for this article, which
was taken in the captains Office. There
i Is about the giant, however. certain
natural power and awkward pcliteness