The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-14
Draws Dark Picture of the Flu
ture of Thousands Now
There.
LITTLE GOLD TO BE FOUND.
After IA Careful Survey of the
Place. He Returned. Convinced
That Only Il Few Men Will
Make Money.

lHh - and Pennsylvania Ave.
NasiiinSto u. July I3-hssistant Secretary
| Taylor Of the Treasury has received a let
Ter from a man who has inst returned from
the Mining camps az Cape Nome. and who
pictures the riiuation there as a dangerous
one. The writer Is q. Rudolph of Brooklyn.
y y. H. gives IN. oUtlool, in the typical
language Of miner. and apparently pre-
sents facts not heretofore made public He
says:
ON account Of the terrible reports in
the newspapers concerning the conditions
at Cape Nome. take the liberty of send
/ Ing you few lines. | left Nome on June
-. and. being an old miner. am fully
capable of sizing up n new mining camp
In a few DAYS. l arrived at Nome o. June
! II ] and my partner tried working the
bach for gold I'm several places. and I
personally others by the hundreds 90
the same. but rot in one instance did We
see "a man take ont enough gold "a pay :or
his grub. The only place where any gold
WIS being taken OUT was between the beach
and the Tundra. There they were only
making days wages of from s. to $40 "A day.
This place is only about thTee-quarters Of a
mile long. and It H. all taken up by about
.0o men. Like the beech IL Is now nearly
all worked out
Nearly Worked Out.
~. with thousan ds of others, had been lei
20 believe tina, after a winter, or after
any storm. the beach would be just az good
, as IL was originally. That IS not so. When
once worked out the beach there is done
for. While at Nome ] talked with men
who had come from, points as far .fty
miles below the camp. They told ME they
had found nothing and they were going
farther north. talked too. with men who
had come from points far up the beach.
but they declared there was nothing up
there. ard they were going down the beach.
So IL seems that the whole stretch Is near
ly all worked out
Now. concerning the creeks: Anvil
Creek is the richest. Having sprainsj my
Knee. j coud not go Up. but my partner
went the full length Of H. looking for
work OF for lay. He could get neither.
for at that time-June 1.-THE creeks were
still frozen. All that be could discover was
that the miners there were beginning to
strip-tfat s.. take of the top layer OF
MOSS and loose dirt. which Is left to dry.
while they begin again In another place
Meanwhile. the first hole would be thawed
out. BY that means they managed TO work
alternate holes. There Is no wood in Nome.
as there is In the Klondke end coal is
$40 ton on the beach. while the cost OF
rctghtng II over to Anvil. Creek IL u
cents pound. You can figure how rich the
ground must be 10 stand such cost OF
mining.
NO On. estimates that more than 10
hands are at work on Anvil Creek. with
as many more each on Snow. Glacier and
Dexter creeks-a total of perhaps l5oe men.
When left. :O0o men were In tn. dis
trict. and the only work was in unloading
boats or putting up new buildings. The for
mer task kept about so mon busy. and
the building employed about 5S. When |
left. on June ~. between 50l and 1.0)O were
arriving daily l went NJ on the San Bias
which made a trip on to 81. Michacls and
brotish, down 80 mer. The Aberdeen. on
which l came back. made two trips and
brought n few over 5tsl. and several other
boats made one or more trips TO st. Mi
chaels. and brought more
No Money and High Prices.
There ere far more destitute people at
Nome than people on the outside know Of
know that the San Bias had steerage
hunks numbered up to 80. and over 100
we;e in the cabin. while there were also
about twenty stowdways. ON the Aberdeen
they told me that they had about twenty
stowaways. and no doubt every boat had 4
great many stowaways. l spoke TO dozens
Of men. and they ted me that they had NJ
food. but expected 10 go to work when they
got to Nome.
"A meal costs from 81 to S1.J0: coffee and
pi. OF three cr-liers % cents. a bed from
81 Ia 81. or. when you furni-h your own
blankets. from 81 TO Si.50. Canned goods
are 80 cents "a can. bread p cents loaf.
fresh meats from 70 cents to 81 a pound and
other things I'm proportion. There was only
one toilet for the public. and there you had
TO pay. For water the cost was 2. cents
for four buckets. and wood was .carlr all
gone except at poiHt several miles down
the beach. Even the little To be found
there was half rotten AMI water-sualled.
Coal oil II s. a case ana l-'nb"r $50 for
dry and SIZE for green per l.o,-b feet. and Is
scarce af that.
TIN. water wells saw were from II to
IS feet deep. and sure to be contami-
mated by all of these people being huddled
together 50 close. When l left there were
tents twenty feet deep and about three
miles long. Now, you don't want to for
h-ing all of these people To Nome. TO say
EOn country. There are no Inducements
for the steamship companies to send their
vessels back again for a busted mob You
may think that ] am a cold foot miner. but
ask any miner who was I'm that country
whether he saw any gold dust In circuIa-
tion. That Is the way to tell a good camp |
In eight days I saw but one man pay for a
purchase with dust. When asked about IL |
he said that IL was from the Klondike"
GONE TO NOME.