Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-07-19
THOUSANDS DESTITUTE.
A Miner Who was There Tells
of His Experience.
MEALS COST $3.50 APIECE.
The Price Of IA Nights Lodging Ranges
from 81 TO So, Bread Is % Cents a
Loaf, Meat 81 Pound and other
Articles in Proportion.

Washington, July 14.-The secre-
tary of the treasury has received a
letter from Mr.. G. Rudolph, living at
$50 broadway, Brooklyn, \. y, ON
the situation at Cape Nome, Alaska.
The department sees no reason ID
doubt the trustworthiness of the
story told by Mr.. Rudolph and sug-
gests its publication. 1t is becoming
daily more apparent to the officials
that the conditions in the new gold
fields are certain to result in great
suffering during the coming winter,
especially as epidemics of smallpox
and typhoid fever are threatened.
The letter is as follows:
"On accounts of the terrible re-
ports in the newspapers concerning
the conditions at Cape Nome, | take
the liberty of sending you a few
lines. | left Nome on June 90 and,
being an old miner, [ am fully capa-
BILE of sizing up new mining camp
in few days. | arrived at Nome on
June -. [ and my partner tried
working the beach for gold in sew
eral places, and l personally saw 9TH
ers by the hundreds do the same, but
not in one instance did we see man
take out enough gold to pay for his
grub. The only place where any gold
was being taken out was between the
beach and the tundra. There they
were only making days wages OF
from 81 to $40 day.
This place is only about three
| quarters of q mile long, and it is all
taken up by about 500 men. Like the
| beach, it is now nearly all worked
out. !, with thousands of others. had
| been led to believe that after win
| ter, or after any storm, the beach
would be Just as good as it was orig
| inally. 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 so
miles below the camp. They told me
they had found nothing and they
were going further north. ] talked.
too, with men who had come from
points far up the beach, but they de-
clared there was nothing up there,
and they were going down the beach.
SO it seems that the whole stretc ch is
nearly all worked out.
"Now concerning the creeks: An
vii creek is the richest. Having sprain-
ed my knee | could not go up, but my
partner went the full length OF it
looking for work or for law He
could get neither. for at that time
June 15-the creeks were frozen. All
they could discover was five miners
there who were beginning to strip
that is. to take off the top layer of
moss-which is left to dry while they
begin 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 KIondike and
coal is 500 ton on the beach. while
the cost of refreighting it over to
Anvil creek is II cents pound. You
can figure how rich the ground must
be to stand such costs of mining.
NO one estimates that more than
500 hands are at work on Anvil creek,
with as many more each on Snow,
Glacier and Dexter creeks-a total of
perhaps LOO men. When I left 10000
men were destitute and the only
work was in unloading or putting up
new buildings. The former task kept
about 800 men busy and the building
employed about 300. When | left on
June 20, between 500 and 1000 were
arriving daily. ] went up on the San
Rlas, which made Il trip on TO st.
Michaels and brought down 300 men.
The Aberdeen, on which ] came back,
made two trips. and brought few
over 500. Several other boats made
one or more trips to st. Michaels and
brought more.
"There are far more destitute peo-
pie at Nome than people on the out
side know of. I know that the San
L.,
up to 300 and over 100 were in the
cabin, while there were also about
% stowaways On the Aberdeen they
told ME that they had about 20 stow
aways. and no doubt every boat had
a great many stOwaways. | spoke to
dozens of men and they told me that
they had no food. but expected to go
to work when they reached Nome
A meal costs from 81 TO $50. coffee
and pie or three cruIcrs 25 cents; IL
bed from - to 20, or when You fur
nish your own blankets from 81 to
$50. Canned goods are 80 cents a
can; bread 25 cents n loaf; fresh
meats from IS cents TO 81 a pound
and other things in proportion.
There was only one toilet room
for the public and there YOU had to
pay FOR water the cost was % cents
for four buckets, and wood was near
ly all gone except at Il point several
niles down the beach. Even the lit
tie 10 be found there was half rotten
and water-soaked Coal oil is 81 n
case and lumber $50 for dry and $125
for green. per Thousand; and is
scarce at that. The water wells I
saw were from - to Is feet deep and
are Siirc to be contaminated by all of
these people being huGdled together.
When ! left there were tents 20 deep
and about three miles long"
VIII Return and Stand Trial