The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-03-23


the mosquitoes are eating you up and
you are eating up your winter supply
OF provisions, yon sit down here and
wait for the country to freeze up and
and have three months for meditation
and rejection.
The following winter you start to
prospect and by February your years
supply of provisions will be gone and
you are lucky il you can buy more for
sl.5o per pound. Your 800 for Incl
dental expenses will also be gone. and
the country is full Of men out Of mon
ey and looking for work, but you
might be one of the lucky STEW and
have good claim.
OF the thousands now rushing here
nine-tenths are grossly deceived and
misled and not one in fifty have even
$1,000 to get through on. The trans
portation companies and the coast
papers keep up the deception and are
reaping the harvest both ways here
and back You see many outfits alb
andoned all along the trail between
Tagish and Dyea, and many more are
sold for song. Few will get through
very few. land none before the river
opens, and of that number still fewer,
in my judgement) wills get good
claims. None but young. healthy,
vigorous chaps should attempt tue
trip and can assure them that they
will wish thousand times they were
back to "Home, Sweet Home"
To those who have the money and
are prepared to undergo such a trip.
and risk their lives and fortune to
succeed, to those who have constitute
! ions of iron and the tenacity. energy,
perseverance and staying qualities OF
the hardest pioneers. tos those who
are never disheartened at difficulties,
never tired, never sleepy and willing
to 60 several days when necessary
which will be often) without eating,
to those who can smile at any disap-
pointment without losing their sunny
disposition. to men with these quail
tiles l would say there are opportun-
tiles for them in Alaska.
You may perhaps imagine that |
have exaggerated matters. Time
will verify my statement, that the
hardships OF Alaska and the innumer-
able difficulties to be overcome and
the obstacles met with at every turn
of the road, winter or summer, es-
pecially with the primitive facilities
now at hand, cannot be exaggerated
and "not half can ever be told" In
one walk on the Chilcoot and White
passes [ have seen four men lose their
feet, three men and one woman freeze
to death and over fifty sick with
pneumonia, feyers and other COM
plants, now living in tents on the
snow and no facilities to treat them.
Many of them well clothed and
strong, hardy men. l wish to i'm
press you with these facts. that you
must have money. at least $1,000 and
from that UP, that there are hundreds
of idle men here "broke" and hungry,
many of them good tradesmen. and
there will soon be many, many more.
No matter how much money you have
you must work like a horse yourself.
Be as careful as you may and have all
| the best Of all kinds of clothing and
facilities, and yet you are apt to
! freeze. ] have seen men brought into
Sheep Camp from the summit with
all kinds OF furs and clothing on that
money would buy and they had their
hands, feet and cheeks frozen. In a
storm that might come up in few
minutes you cannot follow the trail
on the pass fifty feet, and even the
| Indians sometimes are lost al freeze
to death. You would not come if
you could only see the hundreds
camped on this trail who are half pre-
pared for this trip, although many
we'll QUILTED, sick and hardly able to
live, let alone go on; almost all are
out Of money or have very little be-
sides their outfit, and they need at
least 500 to get in from here. Men
who all, or nearly all, have pitiful
stories to relate of mortgaging their
homes or leaving good positions,
| friends and families in the states and