Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-16


house at Nome on that famous
~ Fourth Of July opening was an
old fellow with long whiSlsers.
Fill em up. boys he ordered. Tav-
ing his arms to include everybody IN
the house.
All drinks were so cents throw and
they could take what they liked, whisky,
gin, brandy or wine.
The price didn't bother anybody in
those days. The old man slapped his
poke-a small bag of gold dust--on The
bar and united the string.
weigh her up" he directed me, and
let's have another one"
The two rounds came to about $50.
Come to think of it, the present prices
don't look so high at that, when think
of those Klondike days.
weighed the gold-he had close to
S pounds-and 1t came to something
like 1900 We kept a pair of fine
scales back of the bar. One ounce was
Sl6 and we had the subdivisions figured
out SO exact that we could make change
in gold dust down to so cents easily. y.
Put the rest of it away for me, boy,
the old miner ordered "I'll get it when
I come back"
But that cid man never came back.
He went into the mountains or up some
creek. We never heard OF him again.
Very few piuspectors ever left name
or an address We usually knew them
by sight and that was enough.
Saloon Man Camp Banker.
The proprietor of the saloon and
gambling house, you see, was the camp
banker. Often have had as much
as 100000 slowed away In my little
safe. all in bags of gold, without Know
Ing the owners except by sight. They
trusted me implicitly. My trust IN them
was just as strong.
That first night, as / have said,
wound up with our sales showing 1895
in gold dust. Our biggest expectations
had never gone that high. The re-
ceipts fell of little the next two days
That year. though. / cleared for myself
500. 900. My profits for four years out
Of the Nome establishment were close
to $500. 0O0 That wasn't on paper,
either. II was all in virgin gold Ana
I had started on $35.
To show you how strong the pay
was the first week or two, my original
partner sold out at the end OF 10
days for $4,000.
One afternoon I was knocking about
the. place, watching the fellows play
against the faro bank, when saw an
old man, with long hair and shaggy
Sray beard, speak to the bartender and
walk away detected like. He walked
over IN A bench and sat there with
head bowed. / moved over to the bar
whats the matter with the old
mani" I asked him. What did ne
want?"
Hes broke and wanted me to give
him 3 drink"
ssx,x ha.s olroadv had tWn and i
thought maybe he'd get too much"
/ then went over to the old man.
still detected and staring blankly at
what's the matter, old-timer,
haven't you got any money!"
"Nope-fiat broke. Lost it all last
night, reckn."
Forget His Poke.
mo. you've not I told him. 1--WE
got your gold You gave 1t to me to
put in the safe"
I found his poke and handed it to
him. He had fully $1,000 worth OF
gold left In it; had forgotten all about It.
He was a very grateful old man. II
would have been all the same, though,
II It hadn't been there. He didn't know
and would never have kicked.
In few minutes he was buying for
the house again. Finally he wandered
out into the cold.
Six months later the old man came
in again, and he was worth 5000 900.
He had made one of the strikes. Yes,
and he left lot of that with me, too.
hope I haven't created the impress
sion that the men who dug out all
this gold cot away from the Yukon
with It. On the contrary, they rarely
went out with anything. The bulk of
it went into the general development
of Alaska. When man made strike,
he would usually put his profits right
back in the ground, buying other claims
that didn't pan out
/ have said that I made close to
100000 in four years. I never had
that much at once. Just like the
other prospectors / would trade in
claims, There was nothing else to do
with the gold. There was no fun In
seeing it piled up in the safe. We had
to have some kind of action.
Though made one fortune after an
other, don't believe had over 100000
when I finally came out for good to
take fly at the Nevada fields.
Gold Under Their Feet.
One rainy day up at Nome soldier
came into my place. Walking up to
the bar he handed me yellow en-
velope, wet and partly torn. He was
from a camp of regulars stationed on
the Nome beach---a tidal beach that be-
longed to the United States, public
land.
weigh that for me. WA you?" he
asked. Tell me what 1t g.
In a corner of the envelope 1 saw q
small amount of pure -four gold. 1t Il
as fine as pulverized sugar-the finest
Of all gold.
/ put it on the scales and it came tc
so cents.
Where did you get that?" I asked
Why, down on the baach," he said
81 was fooling around and saw some
of it on some clay bedrock. Just for fur
washed II out. Mount to anything?"
In about FIVE minutes dozen mer
were around looking at the -four gold.
All 1t amounted to was that in twC
days I didn't have bartender-not {
soul, even to help run the roulett,
wheel and the faro layout. was alone
That soldier had made the famous
Nome Beach strike. For months miner
had been going through the mountain
and here was a wealth of gold right a
their feet Many of them were actu
ally camued on the fortunes that the,
had been seeking. The beach wa
strewn with gold dust for 10 miles. l
had washed down from the mountain
in some past era and the tidal water
had gradually exposed 1t.
And the Bartenders Left. ~
There was a general stampede NJ
1aaV - hnr AF1t r,.a