The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-13

L WilmingtOnian Who Has Been TO
the Gold Regions and Steaked Off a
Couple Of Rich Claims-He Brought
Home Some Gold Dust. and Yellow
Nuggets.

Among the passengers who arrived
in the city yesterday evening by the
Atlantic Coast Lin was DR.. Joseph
D.. Handy and his wife and infant
daughter. Mrs. Handy with the baby
met DIR. Handy al Pittsburg, Pa, and
they left there Wednesday. spent
Thursday in Washington and come on
home from that city.
DR.. Handy left here about a year
n a half ago to try his luck in the
Klondike gold region. He spent last
winter at Lake Bennett, in Northwest
Territory, and when the ice of the fro
| zen Klondike began to break he went
to Dawson City and thence down the
Yukon river to Eagle City and Circle
City in the American territory. He
says where he spent the winter the
temperature was down to 40 and so de-
grees below zero and at Dawson City
it was about 20 degrees below.
The Yukon river flows north and
when down the river is a it means
north. He went down the Yukon to
Eagle City, 2O5 miles from Dawson
City. In going to Dawson City he had
all the experience of other Klondikers
in shooting the great rapids of the Yu-
kon, but from Dawson City the party
he was with, nine men, walked to the
gold regions. About sixteen miles from
Eagle City, in American territory, the
party staked out seven claims. DR..
Handy staked out two claims, but as
there was six feet of snow on one of
them when it was laid off, he does not
know, of course, whether it contains
| gold or not. He is pretty certain, how
ever, that the yellow stuff is there.
He says his other claim is evidently
rich in the precious metal. The first
pan full of dirt he took up showed 40
particles of gold, and he subsequently
found gold in quantities that lead him
to believe hat he has at least one
rich claim. In the British territory
around Dawson City, the laws do not
allow as large claims as are permitted
to be stake off on the American side.
1t is certain also that the American re-
gion is as rich as the British side,
hence the advantage of a large claim.
Each person on the American side is
allowed to stake a claim 1920 feet by
$50 feet.
DR.. Handy tells US there are about
80, 900 people in and around the gold
egiOn Many of them have gone there
to seek their fortunes and others are
mere Adventures. Some who start
for the gold country become appalled,
at the undertaking, become disheart-
ened and never get beyond the towns.
They stop, to run down at the heel, or
| do what every turns up. Many OF those
who stake claims find it rich, while 9TH
ers have hard luck and go busted"
The lucky fellows, some of them, have
| grown immensely rich. Some men who
| went to the region paupers are mil
! l%iOnaires. He says Joe Ledou, the
founder of Dawson City, literally has
more gold than forty mules could haul.
| He is worth untold millions. He OWnes
most of the real estate in Dawson City,
and without a house on the lot, ground
rents at SIS a front foot per month.
Renters have to build their own houses
after paying that enormous rent.
In Dawson City flour sells at Sc to
| IS a sack, but by the time it is trans
| ported into the gold regions it sells at
80 cents to $1.OO per pound. Sugar is
40 cents per pound, butter 81 a pound,
! eggs $3.50 per dozen, and a lot of or
anges shipped to Dawson City sold at
$500 a dozen, or 25 cents each Neces-
sarily, DR.. Handy says, articles Of all
kinds cost about five times as much as
they do here, but the scarcity Of up
ply frequently causes prices to jump
| away up. 1t also costs from As to IS
cents per pound for transportation
from the towns into the gold regions,
and that is what makes everything
come SO high. Everything is carried in
packs on mems backs, but when DR..
Handy left a transportation company
was starting a pack train Of buros
from Circle City.
DR.. Handy says there is an immense
| amount of gold in the Klondike, but it
is inaccessible n the miners have to
mine in such a rude way that a pOr-
tune might be in sight and not be OBJ
tanned. AS fast as possible improved
machinery is being gotten to the re-
| giOns, and the results will then be as
tOnishing. He states that quartz TAX
| en- out by some of the miners is valued
at from $50, 600 to $500, 900 a ton. Near
his claim one miner has six tons of
| rich quartz in sight, but he has only had
the use of a hammer and a horseshoe
nailed onto a tree to hammer his quartz
to powder, so the gold can be wash
| ed out. He has, however. mad enough
money to come on to New York and
is there now making arrangements to
take out a ten stamp mill. One miner,
John Johnson, a Swede, who went into
the region almost penniless, has a
1 q L col L HILL ,, 1loIl " ulSH IS
took SIG, 900 yorth of gold in four days.
He has been offered a million dollars
for his claim. but declines it. Besides
the quartz ores there are some rich
| deposits of free gold in nuggets, but
it is generally hard to reach. Some of
the claims by the crude way they are
worked are turning out from SIS to $50
per shovel a day. A shovel is an
other way Of saying a man with a
shovel.
Among the articles brought back
from Alaska by DR.. Handy is a Klon-
diker'S suit. 1t was one he wore dur-
ing the winter, and it cost him SIS for
the Goa and $50 for the pants. They
are made of the skin Of the EsquimauX
dog and are lined with furs. He also
brought home a lot of fine furs which
he traded the ndian out of.
In all the region of gold with it's
thousands of men there are few wo-
mon and tbara ic no S,,oh th;pr ~.