The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-19
Disappointed Gold Seekers Want to
Return Home.
MANY MINES "SALTED"
TRICKS RESoRTED TO BY THE
TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES
Nearly All the Big Strikes Have
Been Made By Few People and
Thousands Are Penniless and I'm
able to Get Work-Great Suffering
Prevails.

San Francisco, July 1S.-The steamer
Portland arrived here today fourteen
days from st. Michaels. with $50 pas
sengers and S1,0O0.OOO in gold on board
Most Of the returned people are with
OUT means and about $500, 900 of the gold
is owned by a few lucky people, the bal
ance being the property of the Alaska
Commercial company.
The miners speak Indignantly of the
treatment accorded prospectors who
went TO the Cape Nome district, at the
sollcltauon of the transportation COM
panies. The reports arriving today by
the Portland fully confirm the Asso-
c1ated Press adviceS received from DIR.
Stone, formerly of this city, who went
north during the first rush to the Cane
Nome district. The Portland paSseng-
ers say unqualifiedly that the district
has been Sailed in the interests of the
transportation companies, and that
great suffering prevails in the district,
food, fuel and clothing being scarce.
Reports of a similar nature come
from passengers who went as far north
as Rampant City. A few rich pockets
nave been struck here, and there are
few important finds reported AS
soon as some prospector makes a strike
his joy gets the better of him and he
tells others. This causes a rush, and
among the great numbers who join
these PUSHES, possibly a dozen or even
less may take out a few hundred or
possibly a few thousand dollars. They
generally make their way to the settle
ments, followed by a large number of
the lucklesS ones, and these arrivals of
so many miners at one time at set
tlement, accompanied by a few who
spend their money lavishly, give rise to
the rumors of the great richness of a
particular district, and the transporta-
ton companies are not slow to take ad-
vantage of the opportunity to delude
prospectors into going into these dis
tricts.
Spent Their Last Dollar.
Many of the miners who returned on
the Portland spent their last dollar to
obtain transportation to this city, and
some had to sell their possessions to get
enough money to pay the transporta-
ton charges. r. Z. Edgar. sne of the
passengers of the Portland, takes a
very gloomy view of the state of affairs
in Dawson.
There is nothing doing there" he
said. 1T is frightfully dull. The place
is so overrun with unemployed men
that there are at least ten men for
every job. No, there is no suffering.
There seems to be food for ALL but
there are a great many. men who are
without money and who will undouht-
edly suffer l have no doubt that the
government Will have to step in and
take care of these men. There are
hundreds anxious to leave Dawson and
would leave if they had the means, but
they have not, and there is an end
of it,
How many men have left within the
last month";"
Fully 1000. A great many have
worked their way out and others are
now on the road south. A great many
worked their way down on the Port
land. No, there have been no new
strikes. There are certainly men up
there who have made a good thing, and
they are pleased, but the majority are
heartsick of the Klondike."