Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-08-05
AT CAPE NOME
"A Wonderful City on Alaska S
Golden Shore.
Treasure scekcrs flushing There from All
Parts of tho World "A Sea of white
Tents Spreads up and Down the Beach
for Miles Prices of Goods Have FALLEN.
CorwIn Trading Cos. Camp.

SAFELY on Sunday morning with the
derelict Catherine Sudden in tow and
came to anchor off the beach, where 1t
could be seen already that the city had
grown wonderfully since last year.
Places that had been empty and for
lorn and seemed as if they would stay
so had become populous with tents
and sod shacks and the limits of the
city extended eastward and westward
far beyond what was considered good
Ealable property last year. But this
was only the beginning of the strangest
rush the world has ever seen. Even as
We put up our tents on dry and healthy
ground well out of town, spot l pick
ed out last year, other tents began to
rise and the rush OF homesteaders has
not ended yet.
A SEA OF WHITE TENTS.
A great sea OF white tents rises all
about Nome and spreads up and down
the beach for miles, for during ten
days forty steamers have landed fif-
teen thousand people here and a mil
lion worth of freight has been dumped
on the beach just above high tide,
where lots of 1t still lays waiting for
its owners to identify it and get it out
of the way. Horses and trucks strug-
gle through this mass of all conceiva
Bile sorts of goods piled twenty feet
UiSIl, anu lOOl puSSeISBIS SlEUSBle
back and forth with great danger and
delay. 1t is n congregation like that
of q street in n great city and coun-
try fair rolled into one. A noticeable,
feature is the presence of horses and
wagons for carting, in large numbers.
Every one heard of the high prices for
packing goods in Nome last year.
Everyone thought how much money
could be made with a good wagon and
pair of horses, SO every one, it would
BOO, ID ,xlx -. H.
stances large outfits, regular truck
stables. have come in. For n week or
SO the price of trucking was q dollar
and hour, and in some instances it is
kept up now, but much of 1t is now
done for half that price and many
teams stand idle and are for sale.
PRICES HAVE FALLEN.
Prices on other things have fallen.
too. Oranges, which were two bits, %
cents each, may now be bought five
for quarter and the price of meals
has fallen n half. So much for the re-
suits OF congestion. No doubt as the
time goes on and the people get at
some steady occupation. mining or
otherwise. things will find their level
and there will be room for all.
But If that is to be there must be far
more mining done than there Is pres
ent indications of. For one man who
has come in here to mine and set up
rocker and gone ut 1t there are hun
dred who are in some sort of business.
To be sure the miners have not stayed
in the congested district as the others
have but have spread far up and down
the beach and go by day and night
back into the hills either to prospect or
to hire out at the various creeks. Here
again the great numbers OF people
work to n disadvantage. Wages which
were eight dollars and board on the
creeks last fall are now but five and
board. with n threat OF being less very
soon. There Is plenty OF gold in the
beach sand. but 1t is as the miners say
spotted" that is occurring in pockets,
and does not pay those of the rocker
men who do not happen to strike the
pockets.
NOT VERY D1SORDERLY.
Nome is not a very disorderly COM
munity for big mining camp. The
revolver has been averaging about one
victim a day lately, however. Some of
these were mere accidents-one a wo-
man shot by n revolver falling from a
mans pocket and thus accidentally
discharged; a suicide or two, but the
most of the quarrels are over jumped
town lots. a man has no title to his
property in Nome, or in all Alaska for
that matter, except that of occupation,
squatter's right If he has house
or tent on 1t and occupies that house
or tent, we'll and good; 1T Is his. But
let him go off on q stampede or down
to Seattle to spend the Winter. or
even go down town to buy groceries,
and another man may tear down his
tent or push over his house and set up
his own domicile on the spot and
thereby a squatter's title which the
first man must combat, generally in
vain.
JUMPING TOWN LOTS.
1t is out of these combats over par
Il town lots that most
of the shooting and quarreling has
been. It will readily be seen that with
town lots of five or six thousand
square feet selling for from ten 10
thirty thousand dollars. there is a
chance for arguments to grow heated.
The Corwin Company Is meeting with
good business success here. Indeed.
customers besieged them for goods be-
fore their tents were fairly up. before
their storehouse was built or even
the goods were ashore from the ship.
las soon as this could be accomplished
the ship was sent on trading eXpe-
dition to the shores of Siberia, where
the whaling captains in the company
are familiar with the native ways of
trade. She arrived safely in port
again to-day after q successful and
interesting trip She brought u hun
dred or SO skins OF the reindeer, muck
alucks, the EsquimauX footgear worn
by all experienced miners in this coun-
try, and curios and other trading mat
ter IN profusion. Most of this stock
Will sell right here in Nome at prices
that are reasonable to the Nomeite
but are rafting good profit on the
original transaction with the natives
The company is setting UP Il sluiclng
plant over at Topkuk. point some
sixty miles to the east of Nome. Here
@ phenomenally rich strike was made
In the beach sand late last Winter.
and this Spring rocker men have taken
out from five to fifty thousand each.