Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-07
AN ALASKAN STORY
Trials of the Pioneer Publisher in
the Land of Gold.
FROM THE PEN OF JOHN l. REEFS
His Experience with the Klondlke
Miner, a Paper Formerly Published
BY Mr.. G. A. Walsh, OF
0ttumwa.

BY Mr.. G. A. Walsha Of
0ttumwa.
The June issue OF Success"
monthly magazine published at New
York, contains an interesting story
entitled "How I Failed in the Klon-
dixie" The article was written by
John L. Rees, formerly publisher of
the KlondilSe Miner, of which c. A.
Walsh, of this city, was editor and
manager and Neal Boyd, of Sanborn,
Iowa, reporter during the winter OF
1s9S-99. The stony deals with the
many trials and perpleNities which be-
set the editor in country like Alas-
ka where newspapers sell at 25 cents
per copy and printers ink is handled
in frozen chunks. The article is accom-
panied by half-tone cut of the build
ing in which the Miner was publish
ed. and also shows a group Of men
standing in front, among whom is
plainly discernible the Hon. Charles
Walsh, secretary of the national DEM
ocratic central committee, completely
mufhed up in his long ulster. Mr.. Rees
says:
81 have hidden long farewell to
newspaper work in the frozen north.
1t was pleasant enough while nov
city and while the sale OF the paper at
Is cents per copy seemed like coming
money. But when the only warm cor
ner of the shanty with rent two hun
dred and fifty dollars per monthly
was monopolized by the printers; when
the editor was obliged to indite Chin
ese heiroglyphics on wrapping paper
with a chunk of frozen ink, or else
scurry across the country on dog Sled
to pay twenty-five dollars for the new
est New York, Chicago and San Francis
co paper, the novelty began to wear
off. remember getting copy of
Success at the same price from a sharp
traveller up the Yukon, and then try
ing to instill into my avaricious readers
some of its good points-among others,
that gold is not the only thing worth
trying for, but the miners only yrowl-
ed and called for more "gulch" news
and the latest Ego between Sharkey
and Jeffries.
SWELL, here am in a land Of civil
ization again, with a few photographs
and vivid recollection of some eleven
CAouSGbAd AolluAS i usS0 10 (JOSSCSSs
II started with an outfit capable of
and paper, ink etc, to last for nine
months. 1t is impossible to get cut
side news thru the long winter. Che
first newspaper was printed in Dawson
City, the, latter part of October, 1890.
and in less than one month two other
offices were opened. All thru last win
ter three papers were published. and
each sold for % cents per copy, with
plenty Of advertising space at fourteen
dollars per inch. The greatest diff
Guilty to contend with was the scarcity
of news. There We're plenty Of min
ers located on different creeks willing
to contribute mining news gratis, but
in nine cases out of ten it was not reli-
able, and found its way into the afore-
said stove. The miner" had the hest
appearing Office of the three papers,
but the editor, compositors and press
men were all packed together and de-
ing business in one room. For the
privilege Of this Office the proprietors
had to part with two hundred and fifty
dollars per month. Subscribers prefer
red outside news to local items, and to
crafty this preference we paid hand
somely for papers of fairly recent
dates, brought over the ice. Thus, for
a comparatively late New York paper,
we would willingly pay as high astHen-
ty-five dollars to get a scoop on our riv-
al papers. Poets, and there were many
of them among us, in the mines and
out of them, were most generous with
their contributions. 1t is safe to say
that fifty compositors could easily
have been picked out of the crowds of
men thronging the streets, but the ma
jority of them preferred the chance of
sudden wealth to claim to steady c,r-
ployment at their trade at a salary of
sixty dollars per week. There was only
one woman reporter in Dawson, apd
She was employed at a salary of eighty
dollars week, not a very large sum
when living expenses are considered.
1t was common occurrence Cor any
one of the three papers to, change the
day of publication to get lead on the
Others their dog teams being faster.
Some OF the carriers had rounds that
took them fully sixty miles from Daw-
son with dog teams.
Dawson City recently established its
first soup kitchen. In it's early days
crimes were few, and poverty almost
unknown. These came with the ;nvas-
ion of the past year. You meet all
manner of men in the Klondile now,
from the gold-crazed enthusiast to the
persons who come, not expecting to
find Tom Tiddler's ground where
gold can be picked up promiscuous-
ly, but hoping and believing that
there is a better chance to make money
than in tho Stafay
'The newspaper business in Dawson
City is not success, financially, and /
am certain that any one of the present
proprietors would be well pleased il
he were as well off as he was at the
time of the discovery of gold. Five
thousand copies weekly is the largest
circulation of any Dawson City paper,
and it costs as much to produce paper
as it would a paper in New York with
circulation Of fifty thousand.
"The men whe were the most suc-
cessful in Dawson City were the ones
who rushed their claims to London
and floated companies, not the business
men or the ordinary miners, OF course