The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-16
ONEY GAGAN IS ALIVE
Gossip From q New Camp in the
Frozen North.
DRIVEN OUT OF DAWSON
Deadly Rivalry of Two Enterprising
Newspaper Men - Published
His Own Obituary
Notice.

Sol Levy has received another letter
from his old friend, Oney Gagan, Of
Dawson. Sol had about given Oney up,
thinking that he must have persisted in
one of Dawson's big fires. Oney. it ap-
pears, has been for several months run
ming a dance hall in a small camp so
miles north of Dawson, known up there
as Paris. The writer, after congratu-
lating himself over the fact that he
was alive, proceeds to chronicle the
latest happenings in the new camp:
This is boom camp started by two
newspaper men, rivals. They were run
out of Dawson because they exposed
a gigantic scheme to swindle the COM
munity out of a meal ticket. They
came up here and laid out a townsite.
One of them wanted the business part
of the town for his share, offering the
other the residence portion. The other
wanted the dividing line run straight
through the site, irrespective of bust
ness or residence sections, each to hold
one-half. Settlement was effected by
one taking all above Main street and
the other that portion lying on the slope
below that street.
Il was the first business man to buy
lot, and l selected a piece of ground
below Main street. AS / was the only
landlord in Paris, the other inhabt-
tants boarded with me. I took adver-
Using for my pay from the newspaper
men. took full page in each paper.
Inside of week we had a population
of 500 all from Dawson. They had read
the Paris papers and my advertise
ments had the desired effect. / was
putting up good quality of feed,
though Everybody bought lots on my
side of the street and the uptown news
paper roasted the downtown sheet ac-
cused 1t of being an anti-expansionist
and even went so far as to call it a
liar, before the other editor could get
out his paper. Then they met in my
dining room and fought it out with
bare knuckles. The uptown editor won
and ran over to his office and got out
an extra edition, describing the fight
by rounds. ! didn't understand then
why he did that, for everybody in
Paris heard about the fight an hour
before the extra got out.
Il understood, though, afterwards
That paper went to Dawson and the
next day 500 more inhabitants took up
their residence in Paris. They all
bought lots near the uptown newspa-
per office because they said they favored
the paper that showed ENTERPRISE.
Then the war waged red hot. l
have learned all about scoops and ex-
ira editions. Inside of two months the
town had two directories, one of which
placed the population at 5000 and the
other at 5000. The discrepancy was
explained in the next issue of the paper
that had fixed the census at 5000. This
editor sent his directory TO Dawson
and the next day the proof of his LIST
c. =,
scooped.
Things grew desperate and the edi-
tors made some raw breaks. One of
them threatened to run for mayor and
the other declared that If he did he
would run for coroner, and so the war
continued. Extras came with such
rapidity that you didn't know whether
it was a daily or a weekly. We had
fresh news almost every day. One edi-
tor reported rich gold strike right
on Main street, and to mako his story
hold, he went out and sank hole and
dug up a bucketful of gold nuggets,
while the boys were reading about the
strike. The uptown editor came out
with a red hot edition telling all about
the murder of Grizzly Ike. He started
out after Ike with a gun as soon as he
got his extra out but instead of muir
dering his man old Ike turned on him
and blackened both of his eyes. That
was meat for the other paper.
'The climax came on the following
Sunday, when Canvasbaek Tom gave
pink tea. The house was crowded. The
two editors were there. Somebody put
rough on rats in the vegetable Sup,
and before the outrage was discovered
six men were trying to pull off their
boots, the editors among the number.
The downtown editor saw his finish
and he FASTENED to his shop to get out
an extra. The uptown editor also real
lied that the jig was up, but instead OF
doing as his rival had done, he sent an
Eskimo preacher over to the shop with
instructions to get out an extra as
quickly as possible. The preacher hur-
ried across lots to the shop and dug
up copy of an old extra and returned
to the dying editors side, but before
the latter could finish his denunciation
of the preacher, he rolled into the fire
place and died
1.-THE other editor won out. He print
ed a small edition, but it was the big
gest scoop on record. I have one Of
the papers in my gunny sack. The
scoop reads:
"a few minutes ago six men were
eating dinner in Canvasback Toms
shack They were poisoned. / was
also fatally poisoned. So was the other
editor. The other five men died in the
shack, but / came over here and got
in a deadly scoop on my rival and died
five minutes after the edition was run
off. I was buried at my own expense
but the other editor was in the hole 50
far before he died that it was not nee
essary to plant him any DEEPER"