The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, November 11, 1897, Image 2
! I GATE TO THE
Wonderful Growth of
Skaguay is a modern wonder. Not
many weeks ago the place practically
<li(l not exist. To-day, with ita carefully
laid out streets aud its scores of
well stocked and cosy private dwellings,
it preseuts all the appearance of
a thriving Northwestern town. Houses
are being rushed up with astonishing
rapidity, while merchants are so
nnmerons an.I enterprisiug tnateompetition
has already reduced their
wares to almost bottom prices. The
starting up of a steam laundry has
caused the "biled shirt" to be accepted
' as good form iu this out of tho way
settlement, while the establishment of
thirteen saloons plainly indicates the
prevalence of a generous atmosphere
of conviviality.
The New York Herald's special correspondent,
iu au entertaining article
published herewith, gives a graphic
description of Skaguay as he found it
entering the fourth week of its mnni1
? * _a tr
cipai existence. xie says;
Nc thing in the history of Western
boom towns will compare with the
mushroom growth of Skaguay. Ben
S \ Moore, the man who located the town
^ site, left for the Sound on August 10, at
wnich date there was his own log
cabin, the store aud the bunkhouse of
f. the Alaska aud Northwest Trading
Company aud a number of tent*.
When he returned there were whole
streets of wooden dwellings, which the
owners had themselves located and
had paid n registry fee to United
V States Commissioner Smith of fire
dollars. Not only were these newMtmAri
nermifcted to Innate on (lantain
Moore's laud on payment of the fee,
hat it is said that Mr. Smith accepted
' f the fee and gave a registration receipt
' to half a dozen different people for the
same plot of land. The neirly ap
pointed Land Commissioner and
Register, Mr. Dadley, will therefore
V, hare some difficulty iu unravelling the
conflicting real estate ownership on the
town site.
Skagnay is on a tide flat, with a tide
running over twenty feet, aad therefore
has a stretch of half a mile below
h. tidewater mark. All the passeugers
HRt v - *
f* ?, -o " . "?
~ -* ?
jp: . ssaouax eat.
j*> by big steamers are taken off in row
oarshta a wan 11 a? ah a (a f hta
WW0| wiftt m V* UVIU V?u ?V wwvr
L. $ miles, awarding to the state of the
tide, when thej era carried on the
books of the boatmen to comparatively
f . dryland. It is amusing to hear the
Xt shrieks of the women when on the
baek of the boatmeu splashing through
the water.
Only a month ago, when the Will
amette landed her ooaple of thousands
of gold seekers, all the freight and
passengers' luggage were landed in
these email boats, or small scows, and
-damped on the share pell in ell, hig;
gledy-piggledv, from which ea~h owner
Jtad to hurry to seonre his particnlar
-goods before the rapidly incoming
- tide rained them or swept thera away.
Immense eoows are now in use, big
fl ' - enough to take Hie whole of a ship's
*j\'r - cargo. These, 'when loaded, float to
s r shore on a high tide, and each owner
gets out Lis own goods as soon as he
?. * oau, and woe to liim whose belongings
| \ -chance to be near the bottom of the
phuge pile.
I watched the slearner Qneen unload
in this way. There was a good deal
v;
/' ' M B
' " THE BEGINXIKC
of hasiliug, necessarily, but I heard
| 110 complaiut of any goods being stolen J
or lost?except temporarily. In fact,
the whole community seems wonderfully
honest considering that the black
sheep of the contiueut are herding iu
this direction.
^ . Merchants in tents leave their goods
haiiging ontside all right; pilgrims
leave their camps on the trail, with all
their belongings scattered about; yet
hut few cases of pilferiug have been
v. heard of. aud only one theft of money.
^FJiis was iu the easo of a man namod
"\V. S. Dnvisou, of Seattle, who for
twelve cJays had $1400 in his kit nnder
a pile of ftvsd in his tent. He left his
tent often in perfect confidence, l?nt
oue diy he fout*d his belongings hud
b , .
GOLD FIELDS. 1
IP
* ??&
the Town of Skaguay. ^
been disturbed and that the money
was gone.
Another Seattle man at once gave
him $100 with which to take out his I
feed, for he had already gotten his
foods some distance alonf the trail
But this was only th*t beginning of ;
Davison's bad luck. He was one of the j
first on the trail, and worked beyond !
Lis strength. .Iu9t past the summit j
he had an attack of pneumonia, and, j
getting worse instead of better, had to
give up. He is now here waiting for !
BROADWAY
the next steamer, having left his outfit
with his partner, who hopes to Hell
it to some one who will pay for the
difficult journey they made with it up
the pass.
There does not appear to hare been
any pilfering of goods left on the beach
from the steamers. In a short time
thero will be no chance for this. The
two long piers are hotly competing for
the honor of being first completed
and early next month both will be in
operation. That of the Skagnay
Wharf Company is already piled to its
ocean end, a length of over fifteen hundred
feet, in a enrviug line from the
northern to the southern side of the
Kaw 4kna klnolrtnrr r\(T A1 I fiiwtkap rtrtm _
uvj) ?uuo v/ii mi iui vuvi vwu*
petition in this line. This will be
known commonly as the Juneau Pier,
its promoters being J. P. .Torgensen,
hardware merchant: E. Valentine,
jeweller and E. D. Sylvester, editor
of the Searchlight, all of Junean. The
other pier will be know n as the Seattle
Dock, as it is largely baikod by capital
from that Sound city. This starts
from the street south of Broadway and
runs straight to the completed dock
nndar the clifT. Both will have warehouses,
to which goods will be taken
direct from the ship, and there await
the proper claimants.
These two great piers are impressive
to the incoming stranger, who knows
that the town is only a month old, but
as to the rest he can see but little from
the steamer's decks. Tents dot tbe
shore the whole of its width, with here
and there a small wooden building.
The latter are rapidly taking the place
nf ??nra? linm?i inrl ulnrAS for
the reason that cold weather and heavy
rains have set in, and more especially
very high winds. Captain McKinnev,
the Chairman of the Vigilance Committee,
estimates that there are now
ouo hundred and fifty building* of
wood, and that there wonld hare been
many more bnt for the scarcity of lumber.
There is a sawmill hard at work
now, lumber is coming in by every
steamer, and nearly every one having
tho purpose to winter here is patting
np a habitation of wood. Mauy are
erecting larger and more substantial
buildings than their neods require, as
a speculation, hoping to sell at n large
profit when the rush is renewed next
^ . nX.' V
\\Xs" W
\ ' - ^
I OF TIIE TRAIL.
spring and -when they once more pack
np for the Klondike.
^ Probably as many as fifty of such
substantial dwellings are going up.
A curious phase of the situation
among those who have decided to winter
here is that nearly every one of
them believes that he has just the natural
gifts necessary to make a successful
merchant. They are all putting
their great stakes into goods, which
they hope to turn into money again,
with a large profit, by the spring, and
then sell out au established business
when the weather permits them to
leave for the gold fields. Thus is the
new city building up. There are thirteen
saloons, a majority of their proprietors
haviDg plans for getting to
k. .
tlie Klondike as soon as possible, and |
there are between three and four hundred
merchants of whom the same
thing may be said.
Not only on Broadway, but along
the intersecting streets and among the
big timbers on each side of the trail,
are these merchants' tents and stores,
little and big, and all sorts and conditions
of men are interested in them,
from the spectacled, muscleless store
clerk, clumsily handling the saw and
the axe on his new building, to the
stolid backwoodsman, to whom the
making of change is a difficult mental |
operation.
One would think that the town
would be overdone with so many merchants,
and perhaps it will be soon,
when the steamers are fewer and pas|
sengers on them not numerous enough
to be worth mentioning. But there is
a population of over five hundred still
in tents, and it is believed that there
will be contiuual coming and going
! until the beginning of December, to
5?p|
, SKAGUA^^^^8^
be then renewed the month following.
So many merchants, however, has had
the effect of bringing down prices,
which, considering the freight charges,
are now rapidly getting to the bottom,
making it noarly as cheap to winter
here as at Juneau o; any other northern
point.
But the visitor must not expect luxuries.
He must be content with a bunk
and provide his own bedding. The
bunk will cost him from seventy-five
cents a night up. Meals at cheap restaurants
are fifty cents each. He will,
however, in all probability, hire a tiny
shack and learn to cook for himself if
he is to be a gold hunter. Then, as
before stated, he will find the price of
the bore necessaries of life no higher
in proportion thau Seattle. Flour is
$1.50 per sack, potatoes $1.25, bacon
twelve to fifteen cents per ponnd.
The infant city is well laid out, and
not only on Broadway but on most of
the side streets on either side up to
where the trail turns off to the left into
the timber thero are new stores and
residences. Among the timber also
there are many merchants, in tents or |
rough shacks. t In the early history of
the city?that is, three weeks ago?boiled
shirts were publicly derided, as
were also shaven chins. Now there
arc four barber shops and two or three
signs reading "Troy Laundry." There
is also a bath house in course of construction,
and this is a luxury that
tired men coming off the trail will appreciate.
Lumber is still scarce, rough
lumber at nine dollars per thousand
feet at Seattle selling for about twentyfive
dollars here. There is little doubt
that a hundred or more buildings will
be erected during the next thirty days.
Now, what are the prospects of
Skaguay's permanency? The men who
are building the wharves and the threestory
hotel and other buildings evidently
believe in its future growth and
VaI in nnflvincr fn
i |>I . jl vt nuviV AO uvvrnug w
give it the slightest hope of permanency
except as an entrance to the
gold regions. That they do not at the
present time possess any such entrance
that is at all what a highway
for the expected crowds in the spring
should be is conceded. But the intention
now is to build a wagon road
along the Skaguay River to the foot of
the mountain. This will cost a great
I deal of money, but it will in all prob!
ability be carried out, for every one
i who has made an investment here unI
derstands the situation. It is estiI
mated that from 100,000 to 150,000
I gold seekers will flock to Alaska next
spring, and that they will begin to
come in in February. Skaguay must
be able to announce long before then
a better trail than the present one or
the trade will pass her by ar d the
town boom will be "hushed." She
will also have others besides the Dyea
trail to compete with, and, in short,
her future depends entirely upon hor
making the best inland route to the
Yukon territory that can be made.
Her citizens are remarkably public
spirited and liberal. A town meeting
two nights ago subscribed $1500 for
fire protection in a few moments. A
surveyor is now mapping out a route
for a wagon road along the river.
Money will have to be raised to meet
the cost of this road and work on it
be started immediately to insure the
permanency of Skaguay as a port and
as a town of even its present proportions.
.
American Woman Honored.
Mrs. May French Sherman, the
African explorer, recently elected a
member of the English Royal Geographical
Society, is the only woman
ever thus honored. She is an American
by birth.
Equipped Kor War.
It has always been Lord Wolseley's
boast that when starting upon a campaign
his equipage is of the lightest,
consisting of little more than a toothbrush
and a clean shirt.
Nnmerona Big Cities.
There are known to be 209 cities in
the world with populations of over one
hundred thousand persons each. ,1
ML
. *
; . - 7
AGRICULTURAL TOPICS.
Guano From Hen*.
The manure from hens, unless grainfed
in summer, is usually less valuable
than it is in winter. But it is none
the less well worth takiug care of. It
will heat very rapidly iu hot weather
if kept in piles. As it is usually deficient
in phosphates, it is a good plan
to mix eome of the commercial phosphate
with the manure, as it is heating.
It always contains enough sulphate
of lime or land plaster to absorb
the ammonia, while the phosphate
with the nitrogen, which the hen
manure abounds in, will make a fertilizer
very nearly equal to guano.
Hollyhock* on AVndte I'laoe*.
A correspondent of the Garden and
Forest tells of some hollyhocks planted
live or six vears aoro on land enriched
by aa old wood pile aud since left to
themselves. They have increased and
multiplied in the rich soil, sending up
many seedlings and grouping themselves
in beautiful colonies. All shades
of bloom are now seen from white
through pale flesh tints to deep maroon,
varied by buff aud lemon tinted
flowers. They have crowded out the
weeds that disputed territory with
them, and now own the soil. Hollyhocks
are ideal flowers for such waste
places.
Foxgloves.
Foxgloves are best planted away
from scarlet flowers, as their purplish
pink spikes do not harmonize with
that colcr. The pare white foxgloves
are effective against a background of
darl; foliage, when planted in large
clumps, having a stately effect. They
remain in flower a long time. They
can be planted in April and only ask
a thinning out if too thick and an occasional
stirring of the soil. The
dwarf, otherwise known as the Calir
fornia sunflower, is a variety which
well deserves a good word and a good
place in the garden. Its foliage is
clean and of an attractive dark green;
its blossoms of a clear bright yellow,
the hue of sunshine, and they are very
double and about the size of a wellgrown
dahlia. In fact they resemble
the old form of that flower to a considerable
degree. Aa a low hedge a
row of dwarf sunflowers is literally "a
blooming sncoess," and we incline to
give it preference over the zinnia for
the purpose. It is difficult to think of
sunflowers under this compact, clean,
bright-faced doable flower.
A Good Old Kotatlon.
The six-year rotation so long followed
in this section, the Shenandoah valley,
has some strong points in its fav:
The crops daring the six years are iu
this order: Corn, followed by wheat,
the ground being harrowed and the
wheat drilled in. Immediately after
the wheat is cut the next year, the
ground is plowed thoroughly, prepared
by harrow and roller, and sowed again
to wheat, this time accompanied with
abont a bushel of timothy to 6ix acres
and the same quantity of clover in the
early spring. Then three crops or hay
are mowed, making the six years.
Very often four crops of hay are made.
I have not counted the second crop
of clover usually cut and hulled for
seed the first season. Since western
seed generally can he bought at low
prices, many think it better to pasture,
or cub this second clover for cows. It
will be noticed that this rotation, running
six years, calls for plowing only
twice during that time, and gives three
crops of hay, which we think pays better
than other crops. Farmers who
follow this old-time way are not getting
rich, but they are probably holding
their own about as well as others
who follow newer and shorter plans.
Try all and hold fast to that which is
good, is not a bad motto.?New England
Homestead.
ltoup.
The cold fall rains will soon set in,
and with them will come the dangers
of that most dreaded disease among
poultry, the roup. Old fowls will
hardly be through the monlt and
young fowls will not be sufficiently
protected with feathers, therefore, unless
extra care l>e nsed, the disease,
which in its first stage is nothing more
than a cold, will rapidly spread and
the entire flock will soon be affected.
Ronp, when fully developed, is so
nearly incurable that no remedy has as
yet been discovered which w 11 justify
the expense and time employed n trying
to effect a cure.
It can readily be seen that under
snch conditions, a preventive is the
proper remedy to apply.
Carefully watch the fowls, and when
the first symptoms appear, check the
evil at once.
A cold can easily be detected if a
trip is^ade to the poultry honse when
tho fowls have all gone to roost,
Those that are affected will find
trouble in breathing, and will make u
rattling sound.
If such are examined, the eyes will
have a feverish appearance and be
slightly swollen and watery.
Take them gently from the roost,
bathe the head aud eyes with warm
water and eastile snap, and anoint with
vaseline: then with a small machine
pil can, inject a few drops of kerosene
into their nostrils and month, and
place them in a warm, dry place, free
from draughts and dampness. InBide
of thirty-six hours all signs of cold will
have disappeared and freedom can
again be allowed.
A few drops of kerosene added to
the drinking water will act as a preventive.
Should tho disease be so far advanced
that the eyes aud mouth become
cankered, kill the bird at once
and bury the carcass, as such fowls, if
eventually cured, will be absolutely
worthless.
Brick Houiri Moat Durable.
It is a mistake to suppose that stone
houses are the most durable. A wellconstructed
brick house will outlast
one_built of granite.
~ WILL USE NO LANCUACE."
ETow Coming; Generation* Will Look and
Aet, According to a Scientist.
This is the -way Dr. K. M. Burke,
President of the psychology section of
the British Medical Association, says
HEAD OF THE MAN* OF THE FUTURE.
the head of the man of the fntnre will
look.
The new race, he says ''ill nse no
language" because it will need none.
The interchange of thought between
jndividuals because it will be simply a
mental effort on the part of each unaccompanied
by any physical manifestation
whatever. As one person evolves
his idea the other will instantly grasp
it by means of a subtle telepathy,
which even now is the gift in a more
or less modified form of many people
who are only vaguely conscious of
tneiv strange power, nnu, in many m- i
stances, too timid and fearfnl of ridi- |
cule to publicly confess it or attempt
to develop it. With future generations
this gift will become more and
more frequent in individuals and of
greater and greater power, until this
silent interchange of thought is at last
as common as is now speech and writing.
Nor will his powers stop even
there. He not only will be able to exchange
thoughts with people thousands
of leagues away, but will be able to
see them os distinctly as though they
were physically present and even see
if he chooses what is passing anywhere
in the world. There will be an end oi
eyes and ears, the gross physical channels
through sensations now must pass
to the mind. They will all go, for they
will all be useless?as useless1 as the
mechanism of the voice, by which sensations
and ideas are now conveyed
from the mind outward. There may
be some scar or meaningless excresence
where these orgaus once were,
just as now there are physiological
suggestions of man's ape origin?humiliating
reminders of the brute ancestry
from which the godlike being
was evolved. But that will be all,and
even that will melt away and disappear
at last.
I>ocoinotlT0 Bnllt In Ten Hoars.
A locomotive was recently built in
ten honrs at the Stratford works of the
Great Eastern railway. It was a main
line goods engine with a tender. Before
the actnal construction commenced
the various component parts
were placed close at hand, ready for
fitting together. The workmen began
early in the morning, and continued
briskly till the breakfast bell sounded.
After half an hour*s rest the work*
men returned to their task, and labored
steadily until the dinner hour,
and thus the work proceeded until the
engine was at last completed, with the
exception of a coat of paint. This
was quickly laid on with a spraying
machine, and in less than half an hour
was perfectly dry. The locomotiye
was then sent on a trial journey a few
miles on the line, and all proved satisfactory,
so it was sent with a luggage
train to Peterborough. It has been in
active service ever since, and is proudly
displayed as a marvel of engineering
quickness.
Hard on Pat.
Gentleman (to an Irishman)?"Well,
Pat, I see yon have a small garden."
Pat?"Yes, sir."
"What are you going to set in it for
next season?"
"Nothing, sir. I set it with potatoes
last year aud not one of them
came up."
"That's strange; how do you explain
ur
"Well, sir, the man next door to mo
set his garden full of onions,"
"Well, had that anything to do with
your potatoes not growing?"
"Yes, sir. Bedad, them onions was
that strong that my potatoes couldn't
see to g"ow for their eyes watering."
?Answers.
Thousands of Mites A rrow-Fierccd.
Some years ago H. X. Clement, an
Indiana farmer, shot at a flock of wild
geese in the Kan Ka Mee marsh aud
bagged several of them. One of them
wore as a bre?6tpin an arrow nine
inches long. The nrro4vaS 80 unique
FLYING FROM THE YUKON PIERCED BY
AN ARROW.
in formation that it could be ascribed
to no tribe of Indians in the United
States or in any other country. Finally
Professor O. T. Mason, of the National
Museum, said the bird and arrow
could have come from uo other place
of the globe than the Yukon Valley.
Thousands of miles the goose had
flown with an arrow in its breast before
turning up its legs at the shot of
a Hoosier farmer. . -r*"
\
CURIOUS FACTS. ^ > J
Turtles and tortoises hare no teeth. >/r
The Bomau penny was valued at , .J
abont fifteen cents. . * .
More people over 100 years old are ;q
found in mild climates than in the
higher latitudes.
The greatest ocean depth ever
found by measurement was in the $
Atlantic near Puerto Bico?4651 J Jg
fathoms.
Of the 400,000 Christian hymns
that have been written it is said that
Charles Wesley alone wrote 6500 and
Isaac Watts 400.
Within the Antarctic circle there has f jt$
never been found a flowering plant; in
the Arctic regions there are 762 differ
ent species of flowers.
It has been estimated that an oak of 1
avorage size, during the five months
it is in leaf every year, sucks from the
earth about 123 tons of water.
The horse, when grazing, is guided \ \
entirely by the nostrils in the choice
of proper food, and blind horses are '-]
never known to make mistakes in their
diet.
Vegetables, suffering physical in- j
jury, are thrown into a state of fever. vB
Potatoes showed a rise o? temperataro . ^
of a little over two-tenths of a degree ?
at the. end of the socoud day, falling to \ <
the end of the fifth day.
The Kussian photographers have a -p
strange way of punishing those who, $
bavinrr received their nhoto. do not
pay their bills. They hang the pic- v*^j
tares of the delinquents upside down
at the entrance of their studies.
Rats often leave a building before
it falls down, because, it is probable - 'to
that the settling of the beams and /i
bricki' causes noises that, inaudible to
human beings, may be perfectly so,
and very alarming besides, to the rodents.
Spanning an inlet of the Yellow Sea \3
near Sangang, China, is a bridge five
and a quarter miles long, with 300
piers of masonry, and having its roadway
sixty-four feet above the water. . V j
This work is said to have been aceom- jfl
plisbed by Chinese engineers 80#
years ago. 4
One of the largest banks in New
York makes a searching examination
of each department at least thpee times
a year. It is not announced,
but begins at a minute known only to ^
the President. He summons three
Leads of departments, and they take* |
charge of a clerk's books and firm aasets
so quickly that nothing can be
changed or concealed. Yv'Jh
Tenement-Howie Fire*.
| There is an article in St. Nicholas
on "The Fire Patrol," written by ?8
Charles T. Hill, who has contribatedla
aeries of papers to that magazine on j
the New York Fire Department. Mr.
Hill says: t
At fires in the homes of the poor
these detachments of the patrol work :
just as earnestly and conscientiouslyN
to save property as they would in the
expensively furnished mansions of the /aB
rich. At tenement-house fires they flS
j are of great service. First they aid in . o ig
getting the people out; then, gather*
iug the goods together, the patrolmen
protect them from water with tarpau- ff8|
! iin covers. The majority of these fires
break out in the basemtnts or cellars; <
then, following the air and light-shafts
; to the top floor, they spr$a 1, and do
I the greatest damage in the upper
I stories. To extinguish these fires, tho .
| other floors below have to be flooded,
i and were it not lor the Fire Patrol in ^
| many cases the poor families would
lose everything tney owned.
| One of the captains of tha patrol re- . 'V
marked: "Why, it would do your
i heart rood if yon could hear how pro-x . 'v'yjj!
fuse these poor people are in their ?. -Tffi
| thanks, and the blessings they shower ^5
on us when they find we've saved their
things. They go running a'-onnd, ,a ^
wringing their hands and crying:
'Everything's lost! Everything's lost!' -V 3
and then, when the fire is out, we load
them back and show them their things, *?3
as dry as a chip under the covers, and .M
?well, say?there isn't anything they
wouldn't do f<?r ns! Half the time
they're not insured, and it isn't oar '^4
business to protect people who are not; ' 'I?
but we're not supposed to know every- ?
I thing, oad our orders are to protect
property first and find out whether it .
is insured afterwards; and it is not our , ^
fault if we save the little all of a lot of < a
poor creatures wlio half the time 1
haven't a change of clothes to their '
back. You bet, we get to work just as ^
quick in a tenement-house fire as in a ,
big house on Fifth avenue, aud we do
the same work in both places, no matter
whether it's for the rich or the
poor."
Great Ilnnter of Moose and Hears. Y
I VT*' r s >
Nathan B. Moore, of Bingham, Me., ' ^
has probably the most remarkable
record as a huuter possessed by any ... v
one in this generation. He is seventy- S3
?1 ? ? oiwl floronir.AiiA i j
I11I1U VtTiU Uiu, satata. *"4 Kj?W
I years he has hunted and been a guide 2
in the Maine woods. Two hundred . ^
and seventy-six moose, eighty-four
bears and deer unnumbered have fallen
before him. The most wonderful pert
of the matter is that until recent years y
he has carried a rifle that weighed only J
I four and a quarter pounds and using a
bullet no longer than a buckshot. He
scouts the idea that a large bullet is
necessary to bring down large game. z
A buckshot planted in the right j pot *
will, he says, bring down the toughest T
animal that ever roamed in Maine. -'-jk
His knowledge of the woods is as ?
wonderful as his skill as a marksman.
Every iucli of northern Maine up to
the Canada line is as familiar to him
as the streets of Bingham. It i3 said -.A
that he can be blindfolded and taken'
to any place in these immense Maine
forests and in less than twenty minutes
after removing the covering from his
eyes he will tell exactly where he is.
He is equal to a thirty-mile tramp any
j day and expects to he a hunter till ha
lies.
-I
d