The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-29
NE IS 4 DISCUSSED MAN
A MOST GIGANTIC FRAUD
Thousands Have Died on the Trail and
Occupy Namslsss Graves The
Crook Supreme and Omni-
present at Dyea.

Great Falls. May ga. e. McCor-
mack is the name Of a young man who
has been to Dawson and has returned
disguised. He is now engaged in the
repair shops of the Montana Central
in this city. Early last fall he left the
East with $1,000 in his pocket. the saw
ings Of years; now he is working for a
very modest compensation and is glad
to get that.
According to his story Alaska is the
most gigantic fraud ever perpetrated
upon the people Of either OF both hemi-
spheres. The South Sea island craze
was but as an idle word beside 1t and
the Kaffir mine deal a neighborhood
scandal. Even the greedy nickle-in-
the-slot machine Is a less certain meth
cd of losing money than taking a trip
to the Yukon. Thousands who have
gone there will lose not only their
money but their health and even their
lives. They die on the trail, are
found stiff in novels. too poor to shell
ter a Montana cur. The comment of
the crow is, well, let's bury him and
have done" 1t is often impossible to
find out the name or the former home
of the unfortunate. and a woode slab
hat will be buried in the SHOWS Of next
winter or the landslides OF this season
marks his grave for the time. McCor-
mack lays he saw repeated instances
of the kind and that was not the worst.
He arrived in Dyea in the middle of
October and proceeded at once to Daw-
son by way Of the Chilkoot pass. There
were then at Dyea 10000 men ready to
go in and probably not one-tenth of
them succeeded in making it. Prices
for food were at that time high in
Dyea, but nave since fallen to a rea-
sonable standard. Meals were 81
apiece; a bare bunk was worth 81 for
the night. Flour was SIS per sack. SUI
gar 81 per pound in places on the trail.
Few of those who tried succeeded in
getting over the pass. Mccormack
met one dc man from Walla Wa
who had attempted the thing twice and
had failed a time. He sold his out
At for what he could get n went
back home. Thousands of others did
the same thing. until the Quitting
shops at Dyea and Sheep Camp practi-
cally became pawnshops. where dis
gusted ~argonauts soaked their provi-
ions and stores, and were fortunate
IL they realized enough from the sale
to taxi them back to Seattle.
Those who returned from Dawson
brought just enough of gold to whet the
appetites of those who had not yet gone
in. but not enough to represent anything
on the amount of money which they
had invested in the trip. Mccormack
deems the luckiest man whom he met
was the one who two years G went in
with 81, 900 and returned with 81, 800 and
small nugget, worth perhaps IS. He
dug the nugget; the money he won on
the faro table. At Dyea the possession
Of even a small amount of money was
a menace to the life of the man who
had 1t. The crook was supreme and
If he could not win the
tenderfoot's money on a shell game he
laid for him in the pass or on the dark
of the town. The officials at Dyea
seem to be practically helpless to aid the
robbed. There are plenty of hurdy
gurdy houses and other places to trap
the unwary. but h business, like all
is being overdone. One man who
put up a bunk GUS at a cost of $4,000
sold 1t recently for a long.
Mr.. McCormack's experience at Daw-
son was on a line with the rest of the
trip, Just a continual expense without
returns. He says that some gold is be-
Ing taken out, out every dollar mined
costs 81 net, and the shipments will not
be nearly what a been reported. He
met men who had owned claims there
for the past two years n they were
broke. Many Of them would gladly
but they had not enough dust to
buy provisions for the homeward trip.
One man had as the result of three years
Of hard work and an investment OF
80, 900 a small nugget, the size one hangs
his watch chain for a charm.
He says he returned by the Edmonton
QUITE, which he considers the best
known al present, but even on this trip
the hardships are incalculable.
4