The San Francisco call., 1898-01-11

candle fell and the building was burned. There were twelve men lodging in the house. They all had their caches there. and there were besides two other caches. All the men were in bed and the fire de- veloped so fast that they had no time even to save their clothes. Many of them left their gold Ssacks in their trou- ser pockets and escaped into a tempera- ture of 32 degrees below zero in their stocking feet. The building and its con tents were completely destroyed and the adjoining building, occupied by Trett, Crawford X Dupras, was badly scorched.
 Those who were burned out took refuge in this building and Crawford and Colo nel Trett supplied them with clothes for the time being. These twelve men, all of them previously well supplied. were rendered wholly destitute by the fire. Eleven thousand pounds of provisions were destroyed. which at the current rate of s1 a pound means a loss to them of Sll 900, exclusive of clothes, guns and other equipments and the money that was burned. Later in the day the Chamber of Commerce and Mining held a meeting to take action for their relief A com mittee was appointed composed of Colonel Trett and Falcon Joslyn of Seattle and Edgar MiZner of San Francisco, to secure subscriptions of food and clothing for l4Itiil. iltlI IIdHitS dlt JOStpAl IlciA ilSs Frank Walstons, McAfee and his part ner, Captain Green of Seattle. and Messrs. Berry Lloyd. Davidson, King. Jones and partner of the last named.
 The building destroyed was owned by Napoleon DupraS of Seattle, as is also the adjoining building. The burned build ing had only been completed about a month, and had been temporarily rented by Rev. Wells Young as d Presbyterian mission, and services had been held in it only two or three times. MT. Young was also about to start a public library in the building. MT. Dupras had planned to connect this and the adjoining build ing and open a large hotel there next spring. He was going out over the ice to bring in certain things needful to this purpose
 The fire has changed his plans some what, but he still contempiates the jour ney cut. There was at the time of the fire stored in one of the rooms sixty-five pounds of dynamite. together with a quantity of caps and giant powder The dynamite and powder burned before the caps began to explode, it is presumed, or otherwise there would have been still an- other story. The caps kept exploding at intervals for hours after they began.
 At o'clock this morning, I started "out" with the Barnes party. I travelled
 
 tical idea of the trip that so many are taking. Half the days travel was over and through ice piled in such confusion as to keep the sled bottom up much of the time. 4 large part of the days jour ney was through a slough of the river one of those horrors to the men polling up stream, but where the ice was com paratively smooth. We made camp at 4 o'clock, as it was then too dark to travel. The temperature was 45 below.
 We camped in the woods on a high bank, up which we carried the tent and camping outfit and left the sled on the trail. The snow was a foot deep. We felled a fir tree to get feathers for a bed, found plenty of dry wood and the inside of the tent was made warm and comfortable in a few minutes. The dogs. upon being released from harness, played in the snow and then disappeared for so long a time we thought they had gone back to town. They were probably after a caribou, the tracks of which we had passed an hour before, for they came back about o'clock showing signs of a long chase. They were fed and all of them taken into the tent. for the night was very cold. and Dobson got up along toward morning and built a fire, which he kept going.
 November 22-Broke camp at o'clock, though still dark, and I started back. while Barnes and Dobson went on to- gether on their long tramp toward Dyea. I passed two camps of men who had been caught in the ice and who are mak- ing their way toward Dawson. I also passed three men, each dragging a sled, going out. They were Dr. E. w. Group and R. H. Johnson of Walla Walla and Henry Pierce of Arizona. They were when I met them in the slough on the level ice, five miles south of Dawson, and were leaning in their traces, like men working hard. I talked with them. They said they realized the difficulties of their undertaking, but there was nothing left for them to do. They had plenty of pro- visions for the trip. and although they would be compelled to travel slowly, ex- pected to get out all right.
 November 2i-A meeting was held this evening at Pioneer Hall called by the Pioneers and the Chamber of Commerce and Mining for the purpose of taking steps toward the establishment of a pub lie library. A committee was appointed to secure the loan or subscription of books from those who have them.
 Thursday, Nov. 25-The cries of men rendered faint by distance awakened sme early this morning. I heard what seemed to be the crash of timbers also. 1 turned toward the window. faint red glow tinged the frosted pane, and I knew that dnOlneI was III pIOSTSSS. My CdDln IS on the hillside, just enough above the level to command complete view of the town, that from this point extends under the line of the river. The white roofs of the little city were glistening in the light of a blaze that it seemed must certainly carry it out of existence this Thanks giving morning. The flame rose from the very center of the town, rolling from side to side, like a fleeing snake. The cries that announced the fire ceased and the red blaze waved in the sky, silently. Smoke, rendered dark and dense out of proportion to the blaze by the low tenn perature, rose in immense circles, spread ing and remaining above the city. From back of the hills eastward, beyond the Klondike to the white hills on the fur ther side of the Yukon, across the hori- zon, the shimmering fingers of the aurora reached up to the zenith. On the slopes of the hill to my right and left the little cabins of the newcomers were half bur jed in snow and no sound or light from