The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-08-06

ployed in the stables OF the Anheuser-
| Busch Brewing company I'm st. Louis.
| Then he wandered west. For short time
| he was janitor in the public school In
| Butte, Mont. He worked as "A rubber in
| Turkish bathhouse N Denver, and was
| cook on a COW ranch in Utah In 1892 Fin
| ally he got To San Francisco.
| Here he said he had his bitterest fight
| with poverty. lie was Ill with fever and
lay for weeks In the hospital at the coun-
/ ty almshouse lowering between life and
| death.1 Ii was at the time of.the Coxy army
| and soup-houses for the poor.
| Hundreds of ragged idle men walked
| the streets OF San Francisco every day.
and Ben Bradley says he was with them.
| He did everything honest TO get living.
| Nothing was too menial. He even worked
| for Chinese gardener at Monterey, Cal,
| for a few months.
He went in to a lumber camp in the
mountains OF Fresno county. and for a
year he never went dav from the lone
ly camp among the mountain peaks
Next he came back to San Francisco and
drove a wagon for local butcher. Later
he was helper at fish cleaning at the
city docks.
ADVENTURES IN THE KLONDIKE.
'I was wild with Klondike enthusiasm
when the first steamer load of miners
and their three tons OF gould came down
the coast in the fall of 1897" said Mr..
Bradley the other day to the writer, "but
j hadn't a cent to my name in those
days.
More than that, / was half sick and out
of work. When / saw the crowds of men
starting for new gold fields 1 resolved TO
work hard and save my money. in hope
OF going there. too, some day. In a few
weeks l got job as fish cleaner for a
firm of Italians. IL was hard, vile labor,
ana few white men would accept IL, but l
wanted IL bad. / had to meet the NOV
ing boats in from the coast fisheries at
3 o'clock every morning and work there
until noon.
'I stuck to II in any and all seasons. and
finally got a raise of 81 week. In two
months / was getting $40 a month.
slept In bunk I'm the cabin on the bay
front of San Francisco, ate vile food and
saved money like a miser. don't be-
leve spent unnecessarily 81
altogether. while l secretly hid my earn
ings. and waited for the time when
might go sailing away to the Klondike.
That one idea was with me day and
night.
''To make the long story short, I sailed
on the Portland for Skaguay Alaska. in
April. 1898. i had but about $50 left after
paying my steamer fare and buying n
cheap miners outfit for use I'm the North
''At Skaguay we encountered the worst
blizzard weather of the whole winter.
realized that my little cash and my out
fit were not adapted to ones going to live
in an arctic mining region where he had
to rustic for living and prospect over an
area of some 600 square miles for a gold
mine.
II have had whole lot Of tough exper-
fences and fierce battles with poverty in
my day, but that was the bluest situation
i ever faced. There was the the Chilkoot
pass, reaching away up some 1000 feet
high, with miles OF snow and ice, amid
temperature OF about s degrees below ze-
TO, and that was only drop in the buck
ct to the hardships and distress that
awaited Klondike traveller between that
point and Dawson City.
II stored my scanty camp outfit and
provisions In the loft of a merchandise
store. while I slept on the muddy floor
of an alleged hotel. waiting until the
weather moderated enough for me to
climb the Chilkoot pass with my burden
on my back.
"A fire broke out at Skaguay one night
and burned all my camp outfit. The loss
almost crazed me. or course could not
| go tramping $40 miles to the Klondike
/ with nothing to eat and wear. | could
| not get back to Seattle with my paltry
| few dollars. | resolved to stay In Alaska
and to do anything to live. From May
until August did anything In Skaguay
| TO get living. In August. 1898. one OF the
| deckhands on the steamer Bertha died on
the way from Seattle TO 81. Michaers
IL was on the wharf when the steamer
| put into Skaguay with the body. I got
| the vacant job. and II seemed a godsend
MY fortune dates from that moment
| The Bertha reached st. Nlchael's on Sept
| 5. and left on it's return trip to Seattle on
the 10th Winter was drawing near and
the captain feared the boat might be
caught In the early ice.
THAT FASTENED the departure. At ST.
Michaers heard two Swedish Lutheran
| missionaries talking about discoveries Of
| gold that had Just been mitie at Cape
| Nome One OF the missionaries had a
ping can OF gold nuggets that had been
| brought across Norton bay to st. Mi
chaers direct from the new diggings.
GRUBsTAKED BY A SAILOR.
'The first mate on the Bertha was ex-
| cited at the news. but he was bound by
contract TO return 20 Seattle on the
steamer lie gave me $500 as n grub stake.
| and sailed away down the coast leaving
| me in st. Michaers with instructions to
go as soon as possible TO Cape Nome and
| locate a claim for us. and then to camp
on the property until he returned on the
| Bertha when navigation In the Behring
sea opened the following spring-that is,
the spring OF lsa9
| 81 lost no time In providing myself
with tent, grub and fur clothes The
500 seemed like an incalculahle fortune.
| and II made me n little Crcesus in that
Eskimo whaling port OF ST. Michael's, on
the Alaskan coast
There were scveh In our PARTY that
sailed acress Norton sound 10 Cape Nome
In September. 1895. Four ~ the men had
been prospecting for years all over the
Yukon country and up and down the
Alaskan coast.
Two were former whalers and Asher
men who had been starved out of Daw-
son CITY. and were living NJ 81. Michaers
until they could earn enough money to
paw passage down the Skaguay.
1T was htierlv cold when we reached
Cane Nome had thought tho most deso-
late and barron regions on the globe were
those about Skaguav and 81. Mlchaels.
hut Cape Nome was hidaousiv ,lesoiate.
No ono who has ever been outside the
United States can form any idea Of. what
| HQor1affon apA atlrrro a.. -.