The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-24
TALES OF THE KLONDIKE
LOUIS WOODS TELLS OF HIS FIX
 PERIENCES THERE.
Declares That He Has Seen the Thermometer Register 75 Degrees Below Zero-He Likes
 the Country.
Advertiser Bureau,


 Selma, Dec. 23.
 Mir. Louis Woods of Selma. who left here some years ago, has returned home and has been most cordially received by his friends He has been away from Sel- ma six years and spent four years of that time in the Klondike. He talks very interestingly of his experience and is the center of large circle of inter ested listeners wherever he Is. He was seen by your representative yesterday and what he had to say about the Klon- dike will not only be interesting to his Selma friends, but to the people through out the State.
 My health has been excellent" he said, "and | have been in the Klondike. There is no reason why man should not enjoy good health there. At first there was a great deal of sickness and many deaths, but since the people have learned to take care of themselves there is no occasion for sickness and death any more than there is here. I have seen as many as twenty burials day in Dawson City. That was when the town was first start cd and surface water was used. l don't know why it should be so, but if you drink water made from melted snow you will be certain to be sick, while that from melted ice is all right. Dawson now has a system of water works .and good drinking water. The water s pumped from a deep hole in the Youkon River. The pipe is run down deep in the hole. below where the water freezes and it can be pumped up, 1t matters not how many feet deep the surface water of the river may freeze. The pipe is sunk in the ground just like our water pipes are. but is in a wooden box eighteen inches square and all around the pipe in this enclosure the box is fitted with saw dust to keep the water from freezing. Every half mile from the pumping station to the city the water is warmed by heat ing arrangement. There are little sta tions or houses along the principal streets of the city where the people go to get their drinking water, paying 9 cents per bucket for 1t. For washing and other purposes snow is melted and the water thus obtained is used.
 Speaking of water, I am reminded of a plan that we got onto that saved us a great deal of hard labor in obtaining water when the river was frozen. Say the river was frozen to a depth Of six or eight feet A pick would be used to dig hole half the distance. A rifle, something like our army rifles, would then be procured and the steel pointed bullet shot down into the bottom of this hole It would go through the remain ing three or four feet of ice and in a few minutes the hole that had been dug with the pick would fill with water through the hole that the bullet had made in the ice. Of course the iIttie DuI- let hole would not remain open long for the water that filled the excavation at the surface would soon turn to solid ice again and the same process would have to be repeated next morning when a fresh supply of water for the day was wanted You can readily see how the rifle balls would pentrate the ice, when you remember that these steel pointed bullets will shoot through tree a foot in diameter. When we would pack up our things to move, the handle of the axe would be thrown away. Instead of working a half hour to burn a handle out of an axe and thus ruin its temper, the ax would be stuck in stump the handle sawed off and two balls from one of these rifles shot through the eye of the ax and it would be clear for re- handling again when camp was pitched and 1t was needed.
 q have been to both Nome City and Dawson. I think that Nome has about played out. There was a great deal of gold there on the beech and many picked up fortunes, but it soon gave out. Then, again, during the winter months you cannot do a thing at Nome. It is built on a perfectly level plateau overlooking Behering Sea, and everything is frozen so stiff that all the inhabitants have to do is to stay in doors and enjoy them selves as best they can. And those peo- pie in the Klondike know how to have fun. There are as elegant ladies and gentlemen living in Dawson City as there are in Selma. Many men have carried their families there and balls and sleigh ing parties and other social functions are indulged in. There is more life and bus tie in Dawson City. with it's 5000 in- habitants, than there is here in Selma. The fact is, things look so dead and tame to me down here that I am going to stay here until about March and then l am going to turn my face toward the Klon- dike and will either plant my bones there or come away with a fortune.
 "At first living was expensive up there, but wages were good. have paid as high as 45 cents a pound for bacon in Dawson City, but when l was at Nome l got all the breakfast bacon I wanted at IS cents per pound, which is about what it Is selling at down here now. l be- leve. But everything has gone down about half. Fifty cents a drink was the price in saloons at first but now you can get what you want for B cents a drink. You can get a good meal at the hotels for one dollar. There are a good many negroes up there but they act as walters in the restaurants and hotels and hug the warm corners just like they do here. l know of a negro woman in Nome who is a great speculator. She goes by the name of Stampede Jennie and she has about seventy claims and is worth considerable money. These claims are let JSut to anybody who will work them on shares. Stampede Jennie, | (called by that name on account of the manner in which she hustles for a new place when gold Is struck) let one of her claims to a man on the share system. He struck it rich and went to work to beat Jennie out it. He did not have any money himself, so he walked into bar room and told the barkeeper what he had found and informed him that he thought | he could buy the claim from Jennie for $1 GOO and if he would put up that amount of money that they would go halves | The barkeeper readily agreed and the |