The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-28
ltenss Picked Up
Here and There


a store and purchased two multi-col-
ored feather busters, paying therefor
the sum of Is cents each. He strolled
out and, Joined by two more of his
tribe, walked down the street. They all
halted in front of Commercial street
store. They had not been there long
when a clerk emerged from the in
terror. and, approaching the buck with
the feather busters. asked the price of
the Indian handiwork."
Huh. one, one dollar. Two, two
dollar"
The tenderfoot handed the red man
two silver dollars and the buck gave
him the busters. The three bucks went
around the corner, and there where the
sun strikes hardest. they filled the old
| pipe and smoked, alternately, long, ST.
lently, meditatively.
The following letter was placed on
the city editors desk. 1t is dated Cool
Point. Alaska, Dec. Is, 1897:
Friend jim: We arrived here on
the LIST of December after hard trip.
We were two months coming from Ju-
neau. We walked. We didn't take the
Skaguay-Dyea trail or the Chilcoot
Pass We went around the high noun
tains and got here ahead of the men
who left Juneau the same day that We
did l don't know where they are, but
/ guess they are somewhere on the
passes that you read about. We en-
countered several storms on the trip
and our provisions were nearly ex-
hausted when we reached this place.
We have enough grub to last another
week. not including our leather boots
and five candles. We are several miles
from the main trail into the Klondike,
| and as we are the only men in this
camp, we have seen no strangers since
| we left juneau.
when we reached Cool Point ter
| rife gale was blowing and we pitched
| camp on the leeward of an abrupt
| moss-covered hill that sloped away on
| every side into rolling snow-covered
| prairie. We thought it was an invit-
| ing field for prospectors. so Pete built
a huge bon fire which served to thaw
| the moss and at the same time cook
| meal. After dinner / raked the Goals
| and ashes aside and began to prospect
| for gold. l picked and shoveled for
| about five minutes, and in that time
| counted 361 nuggets ranging in size
| from that of a hazel nut to that of your
! two fists While ! was doing this Pete
was on the other side of the hill. where
| he had built a fire. He dug a hole three
| feet deep under the moss and didn't
| shovel anything else but nuggests.
| abandoned my claim and went with
! him. We have taken out, as near as
| can judge, about 10000 tons of gold.
| We have no facilities for handling 1t
/ and must let it remain where it is I'M
til we return next fall with sledges and
| dogs. We will take out enough to de-
| fray the expenses of our trip. | would
/ advise you to prepare to accompany
| us on our return here next fall. | think
| we have a good thing and that there
! are more diggings like ours. You can
/ have the hole that | started to work
! in when we first began operations. We
go from here to Dawson, where we will
stay for a few weeks before returning
| to Anaconda. Give my regards to the
boys. Yours truly, Tom"
Eben Colder of this city is a top
round story teller. He often furnishes
/ the amusement part of the programme
for G. A. r. post meetings, and he has
| often appeared at public entertain
ments in the role of romancer. For
/ that matter, any of the few G. A. r.
/ boys in this city is good for dozen
/ or more very entertaining stories.
| Golder's latest is laid in the alleged
rich Klondike gold fields. He relates
a story to the effect that an acquaint-
ance of his. now up somewhere near
Pelly river, made a discovery that put
everybody in the neighborhood to sleep
/ in snow drift. This young man. the
/ tale unfolds, started a tunnel in the
| side of a hill He bored through a con-
cayed vegetation and into gravelly
/ deposit until he struck white, hard,
/ flinty substance. He gadded out a few
chunks of the whitish rock and carried
them into camp. He put them into a
/ pan and then placed the pan on the
| fire, so as to roast the ore and extract
whatever base metal it might have con-
tanned The heat had the effect of re-
| ducng in size very noticeably the sam
| Piles that he wished to assay, until there
| remained in the pan only thick, yell
| low sediment This sediment proved
to be gold. Now this young man is
taking out tons of ice from the moss
covered glacier and reducing 1t to gold
in his bean pot over the camp fire.
1 49,
Some men are absent minded. and
there are others that are absent-mind-
ed. too. But the man who for one brief
period of his life had no mind at all
lives in this city. His wife has been
| absent for a few days and is still out
of town. He is a business man, takes
his meals at the restaurant while his
| wife is absent and sleeps at home. The
| other night, as usual, he set the alarm
| clock and crawled into cold bed. Next
morning, before the alarm bell had
ceased to clang, Mr. Man was hustiing
into his clothes with one hand and
lighting the kitchen fire with the other.
After he had put all buttons in their
| proper places and while the fire roared
soothingly and the tea pot sang sweet
| ly, this shrewd man of business stepped
to the bedroom door and called as only
husbands can at that particular time
of day:
Come dear. get up. ] must be off
| for the store 1t was cold last night.
I noticed it, didn't you? My feet"
tt then occurred to him. He closed
the hampers in the stove, walked to the
middle of the street and kicked himself
all the way down to his store.
They're charging this story up to j.
S. Wisner. father of the young man
who last week treated TO the cigars on
the occasion of the arrival of his first
born. Wisner. ST., had never before
been grandfather. and nowadays he's
| feeling pretty large Yesterday he was
| walking up Park avenue with friend
a