The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-02-24
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
w. S. Keene Writes of His Experiences
in the KlOndike.


! DIR. J. S. Holbrook has received an in
teresting letter from w S Keene da
ted at Dawson City, N. w. T., and
written on Christmas day, from which.
we take the following:
L have been here in the Klondike
district about two months, and but
very few times have | been in Dawson
City. so cannot tell you much about
that famous city. About the country
in general, however, I can Say this of it,
that it has been great disappointment
to the majority of people who come
here. There is not the general distribu-
ton of gold that people were led to be.
lieve that there was. 1t is true that
Eldorado and a few other creeks are
very rich in placer gold deposits, but
outside of these few creeks there has
been nothing found of any value. l
firmly believe that the discovery of gold
in the Klondike district was the means
of more distress and disaster than it's
good results can ever repay. Iestimate
from what know of the rush last
spring into this country that not less
than $50, O0o, 900 was spent by the peo-
pie who came in, most of which was
spent uselessly, for the majority of
them have gone out or are now going
out over the ice, and will have nothing
but experie ce to show for their money
and time IL may be that the future
developments will prove the country to
be success, but it looks at present as
though it were good country to stay
away from.
There are me other things about
the country more favorable than l ex
pected to find. The weather is not as
severe as l expected to find it, and if a
person is well employed and takes prop
er care of himself, it is not an unhealthy
country This is not country of
homes, and the home influence is some
thing quite essential to a mans good
health, especially the we'll cooked meals.
The average man is a very poor cook,
and if he is obliged to cook for himself
he does it in such slack way that it
soon tells upon his health. and he be-
comes prey to some prevelant disease,
scurvy or typhoid fever, both of which
are prevelant here at Dawson.
"On the whole, the person who decides
to come to this country to make for
tune has hard proposition before him.
He must make up his mind to exile him
self from the home. society and the
church, to undergo hardships and pri-
vations that seem beyond human endu-
rance. and for all that he must realize
that there are about ninety-nine chances
in hundred against him, and that he
may be obliged to walk 500 or 800 miles
on short rations to get out of the coun-
| try. This, l assure you, is the exper-
fence of thousands of fellows who have
come into this country fellows full of
strength and endurance and ready to
work The race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong" seems to
be true here
-'Let me give you a few instances of
men who have struck it rich here. Be
fore the value of Eldorado was known,
there was a man by the name of Ander-
son, who was known to have several
hundred dollars. Some sharp fellows
decided to relieve him of his cash, SO
they tried to sell him claim on Eldor-
ado. He couldn't buy, so they got him
drunk and took the money away from
him and gave him the bill of sale of the
Eldorado property. When he sobered
up, he felt very badly about it and went
around town trying to sell it, but could
not get bid. He finally decided to go
out and work it himself. as he could
not dispose of it. 1 do not know what
the claim will produce, but probably a
million dollars
Mr.. Lippy, who owns claims No. 16,
on Eldorado. was in the country when
gold was discovered, and came up here
with the stampede from Forty Mile
Creek. He is Y M. G.. A. man and
and while trainer in the institute had
crippled himself, so that he was not able
to keep up with the crowd, and when
he got here he found that everything
had been staked on the creek is bon
anza', so he was obliged to take chances
with other tardy ones on Eldorado.
Mr. Lippy's claim is one of the richest
in the district
j "Slnce left Sheep Camp and passed
the summit l have been in Canadian
territory and have seen something of
the Canadian laws and have come in
contact more or less with the Canadians
themselves. l wish to say right here
that am proud of the fact that am
a citizen of the United States, 1t is the
Americans who have been the pioneers