Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-19
MINERS FROM FAR NORTH.
Gold From Alaska-Demand for Ice
Cream and Watermelons.

Gold from tie candle-lit clefts of placer
claims in the Tanana and Nazna dis
| tricts. from Gold Bar creek in the Klon-
dixie, and from the thousands of lays
on winter diggings in the Nome district
dug out by hand and cleaned up at the
end of the sluice boxes in the good old
fashioned ''sour dough" way. has not
been brought to Seattle this spring, bu,
is coming by the $4,000 pokeful when the
first steamships arrive from Nome.
Later vessels arriving from Valdez will
bring the first dust from the new gold
finds In the upper Copper river country
and by fall ii Is estimated between $50,
100000 and $4OOOO.OOO will be added tc
this years Seattle gold receipts from the
north.
Eleven years ago July II next there
| landed from the old steamer Portland at
a Seattle dock less than a hundred rough
coated. bearded miners from the Klon-
dixie, and in the outfit" there was more
| than million dollars in the yellow dust
The man with the big poke was in COM
mand Of the squad Of lucky ones who
came down the Portland's gangplank and
quietly chased away in carriages to the
fashionable downtown cafes, to order
great thick beefsteaks and all the trim
mings.
ITS little earl.- yet for the big influx
Of miners from the north, bringing the
gold from the gulches just as they found
it," said Jack Burton Of the Diller Hotel
Monday night. Burton arrived Monday
on the ste amship Jefferson, which brought
upward of a million dollars in gold from
the north.
I'VE had three men aboard that l knew
brought more than 100000 each, but the
money was in drafts and currency. The
purser's strong box carried more gold
than half dozen men could carry, and
in the mail shipments. under the protec-
ton Of Uncle Sam. there was enough to
pay the salary of John D. Rockefeller
for year or more"
Old-time Alaskans say that the day of
the individual miners poke is about gone.
Time was. they say when all the gold
that came out OF the Yukon valley was
brought to Seattle in the leather bags of
| the miners and sold to the melting shops.
Then a United States assay office was es-
| tablished. and the miners found 1t neces-
| sary to "mush" up the hill to 9th avenue.
| But even these improvements over the
old-time way of handling the golden
product Of the creeks and gulches of Cir
Gle, Birch and Eldorado were forced to
the background when the miners began
shipping their gold to Seattle by mail
When the first steamers reach here
from Nome it is expected that the price
of ice cream and Watermelons will be
doomed considerably This is the state
ment of old-time "sour doughs." who as
sert, backed by evidence. that men who
have lived all winter on bacon and beans
in the north have a laundering for ice
cream and watermelons that nothing else
can satisfy.
Next to ice cream and watermelons the
| miners demand fresh green vegetables,
young onions preferred, and then later on
| perhaps they become learned in the mys-
! teries OF caulifower au gratin. Rich and
J Juicy beefsteaks stand at the top of the
| list and clam chawder is not far be-
| hind
| bound gulches become acclimated they
turn from these enjoyments, carefully
| examine their bank accounts and then
| buy a ticket on railroad to visit 1.-The
| old folks at home"