Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-03
DEST|TUT|0N
At NOME CITY
THE NUMBER OF INDIGENTs
SAID TO BE INCREASING
HOURLY.
MISERY AND HARDSHIP
ARE BOUND TO RESULT.
Existence of the Camp Is Threatened
Government Will Be Asked
for Aid.

July II reached the Inter Mountain today.
1t contains much information. the leading
article being devoted to. the restitution at
Nome. Poverty is manifesting itself and
Captain French. who has charge Of the
local garrison, is being besieged by appli-
cants for transportation back to the
United States. The article is as follows:
"A problem Is confronting the people OF
Nome which, unless taken in hand at once
and Immediately attended to. may assume
70 threaten the very existence OF the camp.
This problem is the disposition which shall
De made Of the INDECENT ones of this COM
munity, whose numbers are daily. YES,
hourly, increasing.
Already there is a percentage of penni-
less people in the camp that is out of all
proportion to the population of the town,
and unless steps are at once taken to pro-
vide for them untold misery and hardship
will result.
Thousands have come here from the out
side. lured by the stories Of fabulous
wealth. that have been spread broadcast
on10 9 3ex the h,end land' bringing with them
the slightest idea Of the nature Of the
country into which they are venturing, or
their living after once they had arrived al
their destination.
they came expecting gold to shower Upon
them In the same miraculous manner hat
mamma fell upon the Israelites in the
desert: such a contingency as poverty never
entered into their calculations. They were
merely SOlN6 10 pass q rev months IN the
EldOrado or the north and then return to
their homes with enough to live upon the
rest Of their lives. They did not stop to
consider the small percentage Of the entire
population Of a mining country that ever
come out ahead: nor did they take time
to realize that even this relatively small
number, as 2 rule; only obtain their desire
labor and bitter disappointment. They
made no provision for failure. took no pre-
cautions caution t gains e hard winter. and the
ready destitute. and a still greater number
are rapidly drifting toward the same des-
perate straits.
Some Of the more provident or fortunate
sized up the situation before it was too
late and wisely spent their last few dol
lars IN buying passages back to their
remain lacking not only the amount neces-
sary to carry them back to their friends,
selves sufficient food and shelter on the
shore where their restitution compels them
to remain.
The question that now arises is: What
shall be lone with this great crowd Of
mendicants. which is daily growing larger?
The city itself is not financially able to go
ton Of 1000 or 5000 people back to their
homes. nor is there any reason that the
city should do SO. even were it able. It is
un~fortunates, nor is it fair that 1t should
be crushed at Its very birth by being forced
to bear a burden which would tax the
eommanity. Neither then can a1ae the an city S' permit
these people to remain without protest.
Their presence here means the establish
ment OF soup kitchens, free lodging houses
and charity hospitals, which will have to
be maintained by the rest of the citizens.
VINO are little prepared to take up such a
nival of crime which so much poverty viii
fnaugurate and which will run unrestrict-
edly as soon as darkness comes, unless
there be q vigorous enforcement Of law.
AlTedOV nun0TPnG have 2nn1inH RI Cow
tain French. the officer in charge OF the
local garrison, begging him to secure them
government transportation to the outside.
This Captain French CANNOT do. as he has
not been given the power so to act, and as
the only man who could take the initiative.
General Randall. has been for some time
past absent on official business which re-
CURED his presence at St. Michael.
Now that the general has returned, 1t
will take to care for his INDECENT.
1t has been suggested that the proper
thing to do would be to call upon the big
special rate at which they would carry
these people for the government. and then
Tor General Randall to insist upon the de-
cannot show either sufficient stores. money
winter. Wv
Dawson has achieved a Worldwide ren,.
tation as a law-abiding community. This
has not alone been achieved through the
certainty with which Justice is adminis-
the expulsion of suspicious characters from
the city has had quite as much effect from
the fact that 1t has kept the town COM
paratively clear of the vicious element.
thing for General Randall to do q ,ittja
cleaning up at Nome? There are any mum
Der of characters in Nome who only need a
little darkness and the absence OF soldier
law to turn themselves loose and make the
name of the camp a by-word for Iawless-
over the border.