The record-union., 1898-09-06
AHERN is HOME AGAIN.
TELLS OF HIS PRIVATIONS IN
THE KLONDIKE.
None OF the Sacramento Boys Have
Managed to Grow Rich
There.

William Ahern is home again. He
arrived on the Oregon express yesteI-
day morning and spent the day in
shaking hands with his many friends,
and at their solicitations, recountlnS
bits of experience gained in the Klon-
dixie country.
But the hardships encountered in the
far North, the long, dismal Arctic
might, the piercing cold, the incompat-
ability of climate and surroundings,
and the ravages of scruvy have left
their mark upon Billy Ahern, so that
fore recognizing him.
There We're scores of hardshipS in
the Klondike country" said Ahern
to Record Union reporter yester-
day, but the greatest we had to con-
tend with was the inferior quality of
the food we were obliged to eat. 1t
was rough and coarse, and utterly
Tailed to tempt the appetite AS
result, every one of our party, and
every Sacramento man up there, so
far as L know, was stricken with
scurvy. l got off lighter than most
of the others, because the Indian rem
edy for the diseaSe-hemlock tea-act-
ed more readily on me, and / got re-
lief much sooner than they.
Il met Frank Jackson this morn
ing" continued Ahern, and our i'm
provement since We separated at Daw-
son City had been so pronounced that
We could scarcely recognize one an
other. Jackson got out Of Dawson
thirty days before l did, and of course
his Improvement is the more marked of
the two, but when L tell you that since
leaving the North L have gained twen-
ty pounds, you can understand that L
was very thin
Ahern is very thin now, and to
imagine him twenty pounds lighter
would leave little but WhiSp of bones
and tendons.
However" he continued, Il am feel
ing first class now, and since l have
got back into civilization l have put
in most of my time eating and getting
fat When 1 got to the hotel at St.
Michael-and there is a good hotel
there-I ate and ate, until 1 began to
grow fat at the table, and l took on
strength at every mouthful.
We were starved this spring, and
most of those who came in with 5000
to us for the money we had made dur
ing the winter The result was that
they came back 81. 800 to the good;
they reapedl the fruit of our industry.
The claim that Jackson and l
worked on Hunker Creek was on the
will o the WiSp order. We would work
it for days when the gravel showed
no more than or 10 cents TO the pan,
and then We would strike a prospect
that showed $1.50, and we would hang
on hoping to strike it. But we never
did, and out of the twenty miles of
claims on the creek there are not over
ten good ones
Mr. Ahern stated, as have most of
the men who have had a practical
taste Of Dawson, that it is no place
for a miner The theory that there
are other creeks equally as rich as
Bonanza and FL Dorado is he said,
exploded, and there is nothing else in
the country to compare with them.
Most of the men from Sacramento,
Mr. Ahern said. had struck hard
lines. He had not seen the Harbinson
brothers, who formerly conducted the
Elmer Hotel in this city, but learned
from an Englishman who had worked
on the same creek with them, that
one of them, owing to hardship and
exposure, had become insane.
Mr.. Ahern left Ben Bullard in Daw-
son. but said he intended coming out
this fall Bullard wintered at Circle
City. and went to Dawson in prime
condition. but when he arrived there
he was attacked with dysentery, but
worried through it Scuryy and dyS-
entery We're the prevailing complaints
at Dawson, and almost every man
there was afflicted with one or both
Ahern met Varney, the photogra-
pher, at Seattle, on his way back to
Sacramento. He was i'll of typhoid
fever. and was. attended by nurse.
He expected to arrive in this city in
q few days.