The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-10-04

Yesterday afternoons mail brought
to Attorney +. w. Fleitz a letter from
Hon. Alex T. Connell In the Klondike.
1t was posted at Dawson city on Au-
gust II and was post marked at Dyea,
Alaska, on September "a, and reached
Scranton yesterday at 10 a. m. The
letter is as follows.
Sixty-Mile Creek. Northwest Territory,
Tuesday, August the Something, Don
Know the Date.
Fred w. Fleitz, Esq:
Well l am here and a mighty hard time
l had in getting this far. The weather is
simply delightful. our health is good,
and our appetites raVenOus, but the coun-
try has been outrageously advertised.
The action of the Canadian government,
through its agents in Dawson, and the
transportation companies is almost Grim
inal in advertising this country as they
have. You remember how the papers
spoke of the rich finds" made on Big
Salmon, Little Salmon, Pelly, Stewart,
and other rivers-well the fact of the
matter is that there has not been find
up to the present time on any of the
rivers mentioned. OF course. there may
be gold found there sometime, and l
think 1t probable that finds" will be
made OF these rivers later on, but that
doesn't give the government the right TO
fool people by promulgating misrcpre-
sentatons. / haven't struc' '-thing
yet; neither has fifty or ST nd
other suckers, hut am goi %
It and keep on hunting for =
ors."
MONEY WILL MAKE MONEY.
1t is the same here as elsewhere; in
that money will make money. The man
with few thousand dollars in cash can
make money here. However I am here
now and it will not be my own fault If
I do not make a strike / have worked
as long as twenty hours a day and then
went to bed and tried to sleep, but l
came here to work, you know, and intend
to keep it up until / make a strike.
All the rivers and tributaries on which
the yellow metal has been found in pay
ing quantities are staked and have been
for months. Five thousand dollars Will
buy a one-half interest in an excellent
claim here. The owner is actually too
lazy to work. l worked six hours think
ing it might be "salted" and actually it
would make your mouth water to see
how we'll each pan washed out, In the
six hours I worked took out five ounces
and three pennyweights of gold. l salts
fled myself thoroughly that the shaft, or
rather hole was not "salted" and If |
had had the morey I should have invest
ed in that half interest. I also had
chance to buy a half interest in another
SIS a day for 81, 5O0 But what's the use
of talking about them? I came out here
to hunt for gold and l mean to discover
my own mine.
I have prospected the following streams
with hundreds of other fellows and i 1und
some gold but not enough to earn bread
and butter at the prices out here: Mis-
cuthin, Hudson. Hootelingua, Lewis,
Pelly Stewart Sixty-Mie, Indian. Twen-
ty-Mile and their tributaries are the
ones 1 followed and ! can say that there
has not been a single find" made on
any of them.
HAD A LONG WALK
1 have Just returned from a two weeks
trip up SiXty-Mile and am pretty tired.
We went up about forty-five miles, and
had to walk in the river more than half
of the way. The sole of one of my shoes
came loose, and sand and gravel worked
in and cut my foot IN terrible shape, so
that it bled at every step, but / am still
happy and hopeful, more hopeful than
happy. 1 saw a man drowned on the
Hootelingua river. We upset our boat
the same day and lest our entire outfit,
but fortunately we had money enough
left to replenish our stock of eataples.
Prices here are simply outrageous. When
we left Tesin lake flour was selling at
$lo6 a barrel or $50 per sack. Bacon was
Sl.25 per pound; rice, beans, sugar, were
81 pound ca ch. Hundreds and hundreds
have lost their outfits and many have lost
their lives, but if l only had a respect
able claim to settle down on, so that |
would not have to keep tramping around
this cussed country, | would be happy.
Mosquitoes and "punkes" are the curse
of this country in summer.
They are here by the millions and the
torture they cause is something terrible.
| have seen big strong men actually sit
down and cry with pain. They are
enough to drive a man insane. They get
into our mouths eyes, ears, nose and INTO
our coffee and everything we eat.
This is great country geographically
and an awful one to get over. We have
slept on snow in swamps. on sand and
gravel bars, but still have kept our nerve.
We sledged our outfit over six and one
half feet of snow and moving ice III
miles, packed" ii on our backs thirty
three miles, and then lost it in the river,
| twenty-seven hundred pounds of valuable
merchandise, but even that has not dis
couraged us.
l have heard no news from Pennsyl-
vania since I received your last letter
last April, and am anxious to know who
the Republican candidates are for the
state and local offices.
GIVES SOME ADVICE.
If you know of any of your friends
who are thinking OF coming out here,
advise them not to come unless they have
at least $1,000. There is gold here and lots
of 1t, but it is all confined to a few
streams. No new discoveries have been
made this year, the Coast newspapers
to the contrary Notwithstanding. You
cannot get a single paper on the coast to
publish the truth about the Klondke
They printed a story about the mother
lode having been found, and to give it