The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-23

From the Tacoma Ledger.
In one sense every man who goes to
the. lKlondike is lucky. He. is lucky If
he reaches Dawson, and lucky if he is
able to get away alive, Iuckler If he
reaches the outside world with as much
money as he started with, and a marvel
of luck if he reaches the outside world
with more. The five luckiest men IN
the Klondike are Charley Anderson,
Dan" Saunders, Anton Stander, STA
wash" George Cornnack and Pop"
Stanley. Anderson and Saunders
bought their claims for a song without
knowing what was in them; Cormack
got his because an Indian stopped to
pull UP his muckluck (native water
proof booO, and Pop Stanley and An
ton Stander staked theirs out Of cussed-
ness because they happened to be on
the spot.
The discoverer Of French Gulch
Bench was Billy Dedering, but his
claim was worth only $50, 900, while
Saunders was worth S100, 900, which
only goes to show In another way the
ruling Importance of luck in the Klon.
dixie. Dedering was pushing some logs
down the hillside when he saw some
thing glisten, and found that he had
knocked nugget out of the ground
He dug a hole just where the nugget
came out and found about ten cents TO
the pan. Sot he concluded that the
nugget must have had tumble before
he knocked 1T out of the earth. He
squinted hiss prospector's eye and
looked up the hill, observed a little dip,
and said that he guessed that was a
good place for gold to lodge. He wash
ed $187 out Of the first pan on bed
rock. When the fact was known that
some kind of discovery on the Bench
had been made men went up this hill
on the dead run, and it was soon brist-
ling with stakes. One fellow who had
staked a claim about 200 feet from
Dedering said the next day down at
the hotel at the Forks that he would
sell out for $50 This was not sur
prising, as Dedering would not let any
one pan out of his prospect hole, and
it was bruited, as it always is, that
likely enough the whole thing was a
fake to enable Dedering to sell out his
own claim for a few hundred dollars
In fact, that was the general opinion
about French Gu1ch Bench at first
Dan Saunders had overheard the re-
mark of the man who wanted to sell
out for $50 and took him up. The man
thought that Dan" was drunk and had
shown bad judgment but he pocketed
the money. Dan" strobe out of the
hotel and said that he thought he would
go up and see his new purchase. Dur
ing the first day on bed rock he took
out 81 900 with a rocker. The next day
he came down to the Forks to spend
that $1,000, and he was not able to do
this, though whisky was 80 cents a
drink. In faGt,z Dan" was in much
the same predicament as old "Joe"
Juneau, who sold out his quartz inter-
ests or the southeastern coast Of Alas
ka for 5000, 900. I'm damned if I know
how I'll ever geti3Lid of it, said old
Joe" He was worried in this way
for at least a. week after he reached
Frisco. He is, now in the Klondike as
poor as Dan" Saunders was when
Dan" made his strike.
Dan had no )Teason except rumor to
believe that there was anything in the
claim he had bought, and he bought
it simply because he was in the humor
to buy anything. His good fortune was
due to pure, cussed luck.
Charley" Anderson, who, with his
new interests,uis probably worth be-
tween $500, 900 and LOCO, GEO. three years
ago was turning a windlass at Circle
City After the big strike on the Klon-
dixie he came up to Dawson. Ell Dorado
creek, which is probably the richest
placer creek that the world has ever
known, was then unprospected. Tt had
been staked by those who had rushed
to Bonanza creek as a second choice
when no claims were left on Bonanza.
BY the miners 1t was called 'puV'-