The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-02
oUTLAWRY IN ALASKA.

from the country of the Klondike are
beset with inhuman ghouls who kill
and steal with impunity. There is
scarcely mile of the overland road on
which gold-laden miners return from
the new Eldorado that does not bear
the mark of some fiendish crime of out
lawry, and the evil has assumed such
terrifying proportions that the strong
arm of the Federal military depart
ment has been invoked to suppress 1t.
This at least is the sensational story
brought to Chicago by George f. Bar
~, #. L. Heating and others who have
lately come back from Dawson City,
and they tell it with an air of earnest
ness which forces conviction upon the
listener. In it may be found an expla-
nation of the action of the government
in hurriedly despatehing compare
lively large detachment of troops to
Alaska at a time when the food sup
plies in store there are admittedly
scarce, and the addition Of even few
more hungry men makes the situation
still more serious from the standpoint
of famine.
Conservative men assert that at least
two million dollars worth of gold dust
and food supplies have been stolen in
the Klondike country during the last
twelve months, most of it inside the
last half year, as the opportunities for
plumber of this kind have increased
with Nthe desire of miners who had
made a fortune to get back to the
States and enjoy it.
fA,, 90 he
report comes from George f. Barry,
who is now in Chicago after an expert
ence of eighteen months in the Klon-
dixie district. He says:
MY story sounds so much like a
dime novel that I am almost ashamed
to talk about it. To say that a party
of twenty miners was murdered in one
batch by bandits is coming it pretty
strong, and yet 1 believe such was
their fate. I went over the Dyea trail
with a party of six early in March, 1897.
The trail was then new and in bad
shape, and we were compelled to throw
away a lot of our supplies before we
could get through. We finally settled
in what is now known as Dead Mule
Valley and laid out our claims. We
had cleaned up nearly twelve thousand
dollars apiece. In the meantime TWEEN
ty other miners had come down from
the Klondike region and made their
homes in the valley, so we had thriv-
ing little camp all to ourselves.
Toward the last of September two
strangers, claiming to be unlucky pro-
spectors, wandered into camp and
spent week with u.s. By that time
we were all anxious to get back to
Dawson, as we had decided to start
for home from there, but had not
| made up our minds as to the best way
of reaching the town. The two stran-
gers professed to know all about the
mountains, and said they could easily
guide us through the passes to the
Dawson trail. A deal was made with
them to act as guides for the party,
their pay to be five hundred dollars
each, payable in gold dust as soon as
| Dawson was within sight.
81 don't know how it was, but in some
| manner / became suspicious of the
strangers, and at the last minute Pete
Farrell, Dutch Bauer and / dropped
out Of the party. We were all con-
WINGED the alleged guides were lying,
and we refused to trust ourselves with
them Our only fear then was that
they were making bold bluff to earn
| the one thousand dollars, and might
get us tangled up and lost in the noun
| tains. We had no idea} that they were
pilots for a band of ghouls, as they af-
| terward turned out to be- We tried to
induce the other campers to wait for a
more favorable opportunity, but the
strangers had won them over, and ear
ly in October Farrell, Bauer and myself
babe the other twenty good-by and
they struck off over the hills to the
north. Nobody has ever seen or heard
of any member of that party, except
the guides, since that day.
zone week later Farrell, Bauer and
I struck camp and took up a trail to
the west. Before the main body left ii
was agreed we would all meet in Daw-
son. After five-weeks' struggle and
great suffering our little band of three
reached Dawson, and we were sur
| prised to learn that our friends had not
/ arrived there. We waited nearly q
month for them, and then started for
home convinced it would do no good tc
wait longer. Dawson is full of ener-
getic newspaper men waiting to send
| out the news of big strikes, and the ar
rival of party of twenty men with
fully one hundred thousand dollars ir
gold dust between them could not pos
sibly have been overlooked. All three
of us made efforts to induce the Daw-
son people to get up a rescuing party
but were unsuccessful.
GAS have said we waited for nearly
month, and then got ready to start
for home. Just as we were about t
leave town ran into one of the ghoul-
ish guides in a gambling house, and al
once asked him where our friends were
The chap was drunk and ugly, and re,
piled, with an insolent leer: If you'll
go back a few hundred miles on the
trail you'll find them waiting for you.
The boldness of his answer made me
lose my head, and instead of letting
the matter drop there I started in te
| mix up with him. This was a job
got the worst of, as the room was full
of desperadoes who were plainly il
sympathy with him, and at the frs
opportunity turned tail and duckeG
out of the den, something I should have
done at the beginning, before speaking
to the bandit.
Hunting up Farrell and Bauer
told them of what had occurred, ant
we at once went to the authorities an6