The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-12
GOLD ON VIEW At CAPRNOME
1T LII rs ING UARDED IN MINERS.
TENTS.

Many Curious Receptacles for Great
! William j. Quinn, a Yukon river
4 miner for seven years and one of the
first two dozen men who located claims
at Cape Nome, IL visiting relatives In
town. He Is investing some OF his sud-
denly made money in real estate ana
preparing to return to his placer mines
on Anvil Creek at Cape Nome by the
first steamer to Alaska from San Fran
cisco. zone Of the most notable things
about the new placer gold fields at Cape
Nome" said he the other day, "wa9 the
careless way that the gold was stored
and cared for last summer. 1t was
common to find five-galon kerosene oil
cans half or wholly filled with gold.
standing on the floor of an unguarded
tent or in the corner OF cabin. l be-
lieve that just before the steamer Ber-
tina sailed from Nome last October with
a big shipment of gold dust and mug
gest to the San Francisco mint, there
was about half ton of gold stored IN
! all manner of primitive receptacles and
odd ways in the tents on the beach.
Beside, there was fully fifteen hundred
pounds of gold similarly saved In the
| tents and cabins of the miners along the
creeks and in the gravelly gulches back
of Nome. Any hollow thing was used
soup tureens, tin cans, glass bottles,
boots, gas pipe, paint buckets, fur
| garments and even stockings and go
loshes Very few of the miners failed
to get some gold the first day they
PANIED and rocked for it, Their hoard
grew fast and they had no strong box,
no pouch, in which to store it. In some
instances the makeshifts were amusing,
One man made great pouch for hia
gold out Of an enormous chest and back
protector-a sort Of waistcoat made of
sealskin, which he had cured, dressed
and made himself. Another miner
utilized Joint of stoveplpe. He didn't
have even a tent when he went to
Nome. Some one threw away rusty
stovepipe Joint and the miner got 1t,
He cut round piece of board and fitted
1t in one end Of the pipe. Then he stood
the pipe up on end on his claim and
dumped into it each day the gold dust
as fast as he washed and dried it, | be-
ieve he got about ninety pounds Of gold
for his seasons work last year,
"A lot Of the gold washers on the
beach used worn out rubber boots az re-
ceptacles for gold dust. A Swede on
Snow creek bad three rubber boots
nearly fill of gold last September. He
kept the boots standing behind his
bunk of blankets. A loaded rifle hung
an n no of
warning that any thief of the treasure
wauld be shot with that particular
weapon. Beer bottles full of gold dust
were common about the Nomers' habi-
tations, and some used old coffee pots
A man on Anvil Creek, near my claim
made his walrus-skin cap god-dust
bag. Tin tomato-cans and fruit jars
standing under miners hunks and full
of gold were common all over Cape
Nome last year.
1.-THE abundance of gold at Cape
Nome is without precedent. We
thought Klondike rich, but Cape Nome
is far richer. My brother wrote me |
from Dawson City last January that |
four thousand people were then making |
ready to leave the Klondike and get to |
Cape Nome as fast as possible. There |
are eleven claims being developed at |
Nome that are all richer than any sin
gle claim ever known in the Klondike, |
and the Cape Nome field has only been I
eursorily prospected 80 far. The gold |
output from Nome last summer was
"a, 200 900 greater than that from the
Kondike during Its first season of ope-
rations. l have seen greater individual
ever saw in the Klondlke. | know
camp of dozen miners, all natives Of
who had lot Of fine
claims on Snow creek, i saw at their
camp one Sunday last September pile !
Of gold that was sold to the Alaskan
company few days later
for $79,350. That represented about
fourteen weel<T' work. Besdee, the
men had spent some six thousand dol
lars in fumes for sluices and had lost
time from gold washing by doing car
penter work about their sluiees When
happened to go strolling into the COM
pany camp tent the men had almost
finished a careful Weighing of the gold
en- heap. The gold lay heaped up in
he middle of a canvas sheet. Come
lere, Quinn, and look at this said one
If the miners to me as l entered.
There's the biggest gold sight you ever
saw. How's that for few lonely cuss-
IS out of luck, who have been chasing
over Alaska for a bare living these five
1ears?'
II have seen in a walk about the
amps at Cape Nome on Sunday after
noon many five-gallon kerosene oil
AN full Of dust and worth about four
cen thousand dollars, Out on Nome
'reek four miners had q washtub half
ull of gold dust. BY the way there
vas a tragedy over that gold. Two
weeks after was there one of the part (
,ers was shot dead by an unknown
nan, but it has always been believed s
hat one of his partners killed him be-
ause he had stolen some of the firms
sold. One Norwegian miner, who can't i
cad or write, and has a claim on Will I
lam creek, showed me a pair of heavy !
anvas overalls that were his treasury. $
1e had sewed and overlapped the legs
( the garment so as to make two great, s
beavy bags. ] think he must have had I
ne hundred pounds avoirdupoits of the {
elbow metal on hand when was at his :
abin. / have seen several times in one
ay In the tents along such creeks as {
>nvil Snake and Gear one hundred {
dollars worth of gold, and / | i