The Alaska citizen., 1911-08-21
BY JEFF MUTT.
p esident Of the ornery and
Worthless Mems Club Of
the World.
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lican wants to butt into our order
of the Ornery and Worthless Men of
the World. 1t knows-or should
know our constitution and by
laws. To fagrantly violate bylaw 3
of cur order right in our home town
seems to me sufficient to have the
press as well as these militant trusts
restrained. as has been suggested
by Colonel Delano. president of the
Wabash railroad. For the Republi
can to undertake to ursurp our orr
ginal jurisdiction in handling the
prospcCtors of the world by raising
a fund for them without even con-
sulting our walking delegate is be-
yond the limits of endurance.
II was a cold January morning in
Nome during the winter of 1900-l901
that the Ornery and Worthless Men
of the World was conceived by
bunch Ct as fine a lot of prospectors
as ever was in any vanguard OF
mining camp boom. Shortly after the
hegira that swept down on the tun-
ra bordering on Boring sea. in the
spring of 1900. Billy Mizener con-
ceived the forming of this immortal
club and he nominated Pete Cham
bers, deputy nited States mar
shall. for president; jeff Mutt for
secretary. and Mizener was elected
walking delegate of the order. with
jurisdiction from the Kuskoquim to
Valdez Alaska A constitution was
promulgated and every Sour Dough
p'ospector should go into the uni
formed rank of the order, while the
CheChako prospector was simply
elected as a plain charter member
A Sour-Dough is one who has spent
one or more winters on the Yukon,
while a Chechako is the prospectOr
who is a new conner to the territory.
but with noodle full of stringers,
infiltration and contacts.
In July 1900 a stampede was on
to Candle creek and every tenderfoot
in Nome was bent on stalking a
prOspector, The grub-stake lawyer
was busy night and day on these
grub-stake contracts. 1t was Gus
tom for prCspectors of the uniformed
rank of our order to show placer
gold and splendid quartz specimens
TO the get-rich-quick population that
was strung along the beach at Nome
Thousands of dollars was dealt out
by this population with lavish
hand to the prospectors who knew
where there was mountain of gold
covered with quartz, while another
just returned from creek that went
three shovels to the pan, got even
bigger returns.
AS secretary of the order | was
sought for advice by those who had
staked prospectors and the really
funniest case was that of the colored
porter in Joe Jordan's saloon This
porter had one of these angel pros
pectors cut who had told him of the
wonderful formation near Candle
creek. that the contact was a lime
porphyry that the eruptive rocks
had fused the country rock and that
secondary enrichment had set in as
a result of the erosion. etc, until
the porter could actually see pure
gold falling out of the rock-ribbed
vein.
There is no use taking up the time
OF the reader to explain that this
porter promptly drew his salary two
weeks ahead and sent this prospector
out to the new FL Dorado There is
roadhOuse on the Nome river about
five miles up the Berng sea from
Nome an on the main sled road to
Candle creek. Now. roadhouse Is
a caravansary where booze. hootch,
the Alaska brew of whisky, is sold
to thirsty and tired prospectors
to, ~
detail to the reader that the pros
pector the porter sent out never
got farther than this caravansary on
his road to Candle creek In about
the time it would have taken dog
team to make Candle creek and
letter could be returned from the new
diggings, the prospector wrote an
Aladdin story of the richness of
the claims he had just discovered
and that he had struck it rich Every
pan of dirt went $50 in gold. He
had located six claims in the richest
places on the creek he wrote. The
letter ended requesting the porter
to send $40 more. This letter was
given to an incoming dog team at the
road house above mentioned. The
porter visited my office wild-eyed,
his hat awry, and rushing to my
desk. asked me to read it quick He
asked for my advice and that |
write the answer. | wrote as fol-
lows:
Your letter just received with the
splendid news of your rich discovery.
| will not send you the $40. but here
with give you permission to pan out
two pans and keep the $40, thus re-
lieving me from sending you the
$40
This letter was sent back with
the dog team and reached the pros
pectOr at the roadhouse where the
hOOtch was still flowing
Nothing more was ever heard by
the porter CT the rich strike of his
prospector.
There are many honest grubstake
prospectors. Don't get it that there
is not, but | have never had the
pleasure of running across a regi-
ment of them on the trail in Alaska.
The kind | talked with were hard
rock miners in a placer camp and
| mean by this that in Nome, which
was placer camp, l listened to
the grubstake prospector as follows:
Give me hard-rock country;
don't know anything about this plac
or diggings."
In Juneau, which is handbook
country, you would hear him say: 81
know nothing IF hard-rOck mining