The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-10
KANSAS NEWS.
Wellington Gold Seekers Reach
Cape Nome Safely.
Several Letters Are Received
by "HOme FOlks.'
IN HARBOR JUNE 90.
Meal of Beans, Bread and Coffee
Cost a Dollar.
IN HARBOR JUNE 2
Wages Are $40 Per Day and
With Team $40 Hourly.
Flour is So Per Hundred and
Bread 25 Cents Loaf.

| wellington, July 10.-The wives of the
Cape Nome gold hunters received letters
| last night which were mailed from cape
Nome June q. The Centennial, on
| which the party sailed, discharged her
| cargo of passengers the 10Th She was
still engaged in unloading her freight
when the letters to Wellington relatives
| were mailed.
Elmer Layne, writing to his wife says
he is camped near the beach at Nome,
| and is enjoying good health. He says
that A Murphy is suffering with chills
and fever and looks bad, and that Joe
Piatt is not well and has a bad case of
| blues. The health of the rest of the
Wellington crowd is not spoken of, but
they are all supposed to be well.
The Centennial left Dutch Harbor the
18th and reached Nome the goth, con-
Stunning seven days in making the trip
The voyage was much pleaSanter than
they expected, the sea above the Aleu-
ian islands being quite calm. Lots Of ice
was encountered above Dutch Harbor.
There were % vessels in the harbOr at
Nome when the Centennial arrived.
At Nome, bread sells for rs cents
loaf. Meals cost 81 each. Lumber enough
to make a tent pole cost him so. Nome
is a larger place than they expected to
find, and the number of people there is
surprising. The beach are all taken up,
and the wellington people will have to
go good ways inland to get claims.
gradually back from the sea to the
mountains Lawlessness is rampant at
Nome The night the Centennial pulled
into the harbor, two men got to quarrel
ing over a lot and both were shot and
killed. The next night another man was
killed in a quarrel. The government
boat had not arrived and little law was
enforced except by common consent.
The sun is still above the horizon at
1890 p. m . AT 1870 a. M, it is as light
at Nome as at II o'clock at Wellington
on a cloudy day. Wages are about $40
per day, and a man and team gets SO
per hour and has all the work he wants
at that rate. We found a good many
vessels here that succeeded in getting
through the ice and lots of people, many
of them from the Klondike, that came
over the ice and beat US in here two
weeks.
Prices of everything are high; flour
So per hundred pounds; coffee so cents
to s1.25 per pound; butter so cents per
pound; bread Is cents a loaf, and Ium-
Der too high to look at.
One writer says:
There are now on the ground 20 600
human beings and probably as many
more five or six miles out of town. This
is city of tents and there are many
hundred thousand dollars worth of rner-
chandise and machinery piled for miles
along the beach. Seems as though the
whole world has gone crazy and 1 am
sure that we will have to go at least
three miles to find room to put up our
tents. The country is over estimated in
my opinion and the whole tract for
miles is taken up but has not been
worked to any extent on account OF the
cold weather.
We can only expect to work here
about 80 days at best. It is still frozen
and only thaws out about three to four
feet in what is known as the summer
season.
One night about ten days ago we were
within "a miles of Cape Nome but were
driven back by the ice almost to the
Arctic ocean.