The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-21
TIN CANS FULL OF GOLD.
THE KLoNDIKE'S REMARKABLE
RECORD FOR HONESTY.

Tents and Cabins With Precious
Hoards In Them Left Unguarded
without LOss-ReaI Estate Specu-
IatiOn at Dawson City-LucIxy Men
From brooklyn and Jersey.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Pasadena, Cal, June 3.-Lyman A
Gregory. a native of Poughkeepsie, N. Y,
and for ten years a resident of Trenton
N j., returned from Dawson City this
week and has much to say of the richness
of the Klondike gold fields.
What do 1 base my opinion upon?" he
said in reply to a question on the subject
when, in travelling from cabin to cabin,
one sees fve-gallon coal oil cans filed with
gold dust and nuggets under the miners
bunks and sees loads of 500 and GOO pounds
of the precious yellow stuff brought in by
parties of miners from remote camps and
deposited with one of the two rich CONNER
clal and transportation companies that
have quarters at Dawson, one very nat
urally comes to believe that there Is some
thing in the stories Of the richness Of the
Klondike diggings.
"Out on FL Dorado Creek-twenty miles
southeast rom Dawson-there Is set
tlement or miners who came from Seattle
and Spokane. They have among them
about fourteen claims and 1 have seen
out there literally galvanized washtub
two-thlrd full of gold dust and flakes.
A number of the log cabins of miners out
there in that natural storehouse of gold
have in them dozens of tomato and fruit
cans hidden under the hunks and buried
in the dirt floors of the cabins and filleG
with gold. One Norwegian miner, who
can't read or write and has claim
on Hunter creek, showed me last fall
pair of heavy canvas overalls that were
his treasury. He had sewed and overlap
ped the legs of the garment so as to make
two great heavy bags. 1 think he must
have had 100 pounds avoirdupois of the
yellow metal on hand when l was at his
cabin. That was worth about $4,000. Min
ers on the Klondil<e creeks have utilized
rubber boots, kerosene oil cans, coffee
cans, fruit jars, salt sacks and buckskin
and Walcus hide bags for the keeping or
their golden wealth. Edward Mason,
sistant register of mines for the Canadian
government in the Klondike region, told
me recently that he had seen ton of
gold In his travels among the claims along
the richest creeks in one week. l have
seen several times in one day in the
cabins along such creeks as Bonanza, %
Dorado and Gold Bottom, 100000 worth
of gold, and / was not out trying to see
the stuff, either. Mr. Mason told me that
in ono day last summer he saw George
Miller Zone of the first half dozen white
men In the KlOndike diggings) and five
helpers sluice nearly 200 ounces of golc
from Milier's claim (NO. 81 on Ell Dorado
creek. That makes the Yield worth about
s., 1000. Bill Emory, who came down the
coast from Dawson on the Portland last
August ana sold his gold at the San Fran
cisco mint for $S7, 600 and was hero about
California for few weeks, had about $4O,-
coo more in gold saved up when 1 lasI
saw him and he expected to run the
amount up to $4,000 by his annual clean
up or sluicing this season,
You probably wonder why such land
of gold would not make a thieves para
disc. Three men have been put 10 death up
in the Klondike for attempted robbery
among the mining cabins during the last
seven months. Two were shot to death by
the miners on Dominion Creek and anoth-
er was hanged one man had got ten miles
away from the scene of his theft, when the
fearful cold caused him to stop for the
night with miner The latter suspected
that there was something wrong about the
man. who did not look like a genuine
klondlke, and had so much gold in buck
skin pouches, and was not able TO talk in
diligently about the spot where he had
dug the metal. SO the miners kept the
stranger there in the cabin, while he secret
ly spread information concerning the sus-
pected man. The thief was tried by fifteen
men a a cabin. The trial lasted two hours
after which the man was stood up and
shot because the weathe? was unfavorable
for an execution by hanging, and there
was no available tree or telegraph pole
anywhere in that region of snow and ice. u
Il never knew such honesty as there is
among the Klondike miners in their cab
ins-mark you, / am not speaking now of
affairs in Dawson. 1t is common for a min
er to so on a visit of day in winter a
few miles from home and leave his cabin
unbarred and unbolted to any one who
comes that way. You hear true stories in
Dawson all the time of men who, travel
ing among the gold dlggers, enter cabins
and tents left open while the owners have
gone miles away on business or a visit, and
see jars and cans standing on the shelves of
the place with pounds of pure gold in
them A friend of mine was out prospect
ing on Bear Creek last summer when he
stopped at the cabin of an acquaintance.
The owner had gone fifteen miles to Daw-
son to grub up, after the weeks of sluic-
ing, and had left notice TO that effect pinn-
ed 10 the door. My friend went in and saw
two wooden mackerel kills in one corner Of
the cabin well flied with gold dust. A
! grimy. tattored old blanket had been care
lessly thrown over the treasure. which was
| probably worth about $4,000 Up in the
Kloudike q thief cannot get out of the
country without risk Of his life, and it Is
Impossible for him to stay there and not
! be appreheuded for his crime"
rs Dawson City growlng?"
AT the rate of 1900 a week. now that
the thousands of people who braved jour
hey over the mountain passes and 800
miles across the most desolate and sulien
! country man ever looked upon have be-
! gun to reach It. Dawson will have fully
| 5C.Cc) population before the summer is
over. Two years ago 1t had a total popu-
| lotion Of five white men and eleven half
breed Innuits. The whole site of Dawson
might have been had for 500 or $500. To-
day the same nrea is worth about g. co.,
coo. one cannot find a spot in all Dawson
where the moss and earth may not be
cleared away to a depth of u or 10
inches and cake of frozen ground or ice
he found. The real estate market at Dnw-
son is as fruitful of specula ton as gold
mining Is. No town in the United States
ever knew such marvellous leaps in val
ues as these in Dawson during the last
two yenrs, especially in the last ten
months. | have seen more people crazy
q hout real pstDtp than 9bolt gold mining