Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-04-08
LETTER FROM sKAouAy.

VIC ettifeu aJ tnls pleasant littl
town on the 10Th and had the mos
pleasant voyage that has ever beer
made TO this country. that is accord
ing to the pilo,'s testimony. However
none Of US got sick.
The weather has been -ery pleasant
here, 'ft freezes little every night
but thaws during the day. There /:
no snow here now. / understand tina,
it is about seven OF eight miles up the
canyon to the sleighing. The people
here claim population Of from 5000
to 1000, and the population will Ger
tainly be twice as large before the
summer is over. There are four
wharfs here and they are all doing
business to Their full capacity. The
harbor was full of vessels today.
They are doing almost as much bust
ness AS Seattl, or Portland.
We Ind the town very quite, al.
though gambling goes on freely.
There is no sign OF the lawless ele-
ments here now, and no attempts at
hold-uns E5erything seems to be as
streight as 10 any ordinary western
town, although they say "Soapy
Smith" is here, vet We havu't run up
against him
The custom house seems to be the
center OF attrIctio Now We thought
we could bond our outfit the day we
arri ed an -et out on the trail the
next day, but we have put in three
days winding and unw nding red tape.
Wntn we got here we found we had
to get broker to bond us to the
Canadian line; the custom collector
refused TO accept cash bond or any
bond that we could make. He said
there were but :two men In town that
could make bond, but he kindly in
formed US that one OF them was all
right Ia Mr.. E: o, Sylvester) and that
If We employed him to fix us up
it would be all right, but II we en-
ployed the other man we might run
against a sna :, so we took the COL
lector's tip and employed Mr.. S. who
only charged us per cent OF the in
voice price OF our outfit for his ser
vices, and as the government requires
a convey to accompany foreigners
across the strip, at the cost OF SO a
day, but Mr.. 5. kindly agreed to go
the conveys bond II each OF our
party would deposit IN cash one
fourth of the value Of the outfit and
have one of the party appointed 10
convoy, the cash deposit to be re-
turned when the party reached Lake
Bennett, thus saving the cost of a
wages. 1t is all steal game,
and there is no doubt that the COL
lector stands IN with Mr.. S., at any
rate the indications are such, as all
other brokers haYe been barred out.
There is a great deal of complaint
here about the way business is con-
1ucted by the citizens as well as the
Youkoners. Mr., Sylvester has a
Klondike, and is certainly working 1t.
We are all sorry that we outtitted
at Victoria, We found out that all
outfits go free of duty except
his provisions and as all our provi-
sions were bought at Victoria with
,he exception of coffee and sugar,
'ame from the states, so we paid the
duty there, besides all the best cloth
ing we bought, came from America
Ind we paid the duty on them, so to
sum it all up we have paid duty on
everything and have bonding expense
besides.
don't advise anybody to go TO the
ukon country, but If they do come |
hould advise them to outfit In Ju-
Ieau, as the goods are almost as cheap
IS at Seattle, and you save the freight
md get just what you need, also the
oss In shipping, as nearly everyone
oses something In shipping, for the
steamship Co.'S are so careless about
heir business they simply take your
reight without giving receipt, aud
'hen they get here, they dump IL of
u the warf aud that is the end OF IL.
You have no recourse for the lost
ackages. l los all my blankets and
which will cost me.s5O TO
eplace. II you outfit at Juneau you
hip here on a small boat, everything [
looked after, you take your goods, 40
D Canadian line, pay your duty and
0 along about your business without
ny delay or trouble.
BENTON.