The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-05-06
THE PART
IN REAL THING
Miss Margaret Oswald Was An
Actual Participant in Mining
Trouble at Nome.

1t falls to the lot of few actors OF
actresses to appear in a play founded
upon incident in real life in which they
had also played their part. When such
happens, fortunate indeed are those
who have an opportunity OF watching
and hearing them in their parts. Then
there is actual realism. The actor does
not have to study his part; he knows it
from having lived it.
In 'The Spoilers, which the McRae
Stock Company presents the last three
! nights Of this week, Honolulans win
have an opportunity of seeing one who
was an active participant in the stir
ring events in Nome upon which Rex
Beach's book and, later, the play are
founded. Few who have met Miss
Oswald know that she was in the midst
of the mining scandal in the far north,
in which also figured the former private
secretary of the Governor, Claudius II.
Mcbride. Miss Oswald was not only in
Nome at the time, but was one of the
claim owners whose property the jump
ers, protected by court injunctions, az
tempted to steal away and rife of its
gold deposits
cit was my good fortune to be the
very dear friend of the wife of one of
the wealthiest miners in Seattle" she
explained yesterday. 'fHer husband
insisted on her accompanying him TO
Nome and she wired me at New York
to join the expedition. accepted her
invitation and we were among the first
to reach Cape Nome, enabling us to
witness the rise and fall of the great
boom, when $4,000 people rushed to the
gold fields.
''My friend asked me to stake a
claim with her. Accordingly we went
into a sort of partnership, and in the
stampede for the third bench along in
August, we secured good fraction,
and found pay dirt in quantities, but
our Joy was short lived. The days that
followed will never be forgotten.
"My friends husband was obliged
to return to Seattle just before the
great trouble began. There was no pos
sible way to communicate with the out
side world, consequently we were left
alone to stand by and see our glorious
prospects stolen from us or to join in
the struggle against the great plot to
rob the prospectOrs.
"We chose the latter, an6 honestly,
it makes me shudder to think of what
we went through. The second night
after the miners were awakened to the
fact that there was conspiracy to
rob them, my friend rushed into my
room, and told me to come quickly, as
a meeting of miners was to be held on
the spot. We hurried, as can be i'm
agined, and it seemed an hour before
we could get across Snake River. We
listened to the speakers, and the way
those men, every one of them mad clear
through, denounced the claim jumping
was awful. There were not many
women present, and of course tn,
speakers were not choice in their Ian
guage, but just the same we felt that
everything they said was right. 1t ex
pressed our feelings, only in different
way. Never in my life, but then, have
1 wished that I was a man.
"After hearing one old white-hairei
man, who was told was Mr.. Lane
tell of the meaning of claim jumping
1 was just as mad as any of those men
"Later we attended a big meeting
at the Standard dance hall. 1t was q
large place, holding fully a thousand
people, but it was not big enough fol-
the crowd. We only got in by going
with our lawyer, for by that time We
had joined in with others to fight.
, think the lawyers name was Nelson
At any rate he came from San Fran
cisco and was mighty nice to US. And
it is funny thing that when 1 saw
the pictures of the dance hall scene in
"The Spoilers" knew at once where
the model came from, for it was per
feet reproduction of the big Standard
"One night a lot of claimholder'
held a meeting and decided to rush the
claims and drive off the receivers men
We were not told about it, for the law
yer afterwards said that he did moi
want to get the women mixed up in il
: if there was any trouble. They fully
expected trouble, too, for there werr
soldiers there, and they would not hest
tate to carry out orders. Better coun
ell prevailed, however, and when Mr.
Knight escaped from Nome and got
to San Francisco and secured the order
of the highest court restoring oul
claims, things righted themselves. A.
we could not stay in all winter we SOLD
out, and ] understand that the claim il
now owned by Seattle banker"
PRICE ON GRACE IS
i PEHnAETkIG ApGEE