Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE TRUE STORY OF THE EODffiE, Told by Joseph Ladue, Returned Miner. ? LON& BATTLE FOE SOLD. How tiie Hardships Hare Been Magnified. PT. A Tiff TALE OP A PBOSPECTOB. The Country, the Weather and the People. lAdue Tells the New York World of HIa Froi ties? Work-The Founding of Daw son anc. tko Busk of Prospectors to lt. Plenty of Claims I>ft-Wages of Com? mon Laborers - A Heavy Owner of ~ Claims-But Two Graves In One Larg? Settlement. A staff c<jrrespoDdeiit of the 2?ew York Wol?xEes the story of Joseph Ladne, ? returned miner, who is new in Plattsburg,^ Y., with the following preliminary information: Ladue is-a plain man, an experienced mining prospector, short and rugged in build and type, commonly intelligent, reserved in manner and picturesque in habits and language, after the manner of mea who have spent much of their time on the frontier cr in the mining camps. He is 4i? years old and fer 15 years prospected among the frozen regions cf Alaska and the Northwest Territory with only indifferent success. He knew mining before he went to the country of the limitless and anknown Yukon. He has known there hunger and "rcant and cold. There-were 15 years of it be? fore he struck it rich. Ladue frankly says that, knowing the dangers of travel in the Yukon country, he wonld not this autumn attempt to return to his/*homer'* at Dawson City, which he founded last August. He is going back in March to operate his saw? mill and develop the claims which the mir ing company of which he is presi? dent is ta operate. Ladne is not an educated man in the schoolbook sense. He is simple and homely in his speech. He is not imag? inative ; he dees not exaggerate, like, for instance, the genius who started the story that he had brought back $250, 000 in gold nuggets and was going to marry the'girl he left behind 15 years ago when he went west in search of a fortune. Ee brought back $5,000 in gold. He owns; the township cf Dawson City; his sawmill, where he gets $130 for sawing 1,000 feet cf lumber, the tariff for-which in this country is $1.50, and his mining claims, which may or may not make him a millionaire. He **xecaoitis" he is worth $?5,000. ' In his pocket he has 60 nuggets rang? ing in size from a pea to a silver dollar and worth in the aggregate probably $2,700, and he declared, with a sub? stantial 4 'damn, " that he never had any, girl and doesn't want to marry any of them. But he didn't explain the reason. He was not asked to do so, because that had nothirig to do with his story of the Klondike, which follows this introduc? tion. This Klondike story isn't a romance. It is the recital of things he actually saw and things he actually learned by living for 15 years amid hardships that would have killed most men before he "struck it rich. " It was after dinner at the Cumber? land hotel that he went over to Lawyer Botsford's office, facing the public ' square of Plattsburg, and, folding him? self up in a chair, wi tia his feet on a table, tacked the end of a cigar nader his short brown mustache, tinged with gray, and began. BEGINNING THE SEARCH. Ladne s Earl j Experiences In tko Country 'Now Called Klondike. I wa? born at Schuyler Falls in 1855. Jtf y occupation np to the time I first went west was farming. I went west in 1876, into the Black Hills of Dakota, not far from Deadwood and Central City. I remained there until 1880. I ran a quartz mill there. .When I left there, in 1880, I went to Arizona and Kew Mexico. I prospected there with nc success to speak of. I staid there until 1882 and went ? from there ! to Alaska. I started from San Francisco on the steamer State of California of the Geoda!e & Perkins line. We landed at Juneau and remained there about a ! week. In the party besides myself we-4} William Moore, John McGraw, John Bogers, H. H. Pitts and .Robert Adams. They were not from any one locality, but from all parts of the country. My object in going there was to prospect in the country now called Klondike. I had not heard of it previously, but went there to search for gold. When we left Juneau, we went to Dyea, where we remained three days getting our packs ready for the Indians. We took in a two years' outfit, which consisted of 80 pound sacks of fleur, j 1,000 pounds of beans, 1,000 pounds of rice, 1,000 pounds of ham, 1,000 pounds cf bacon, and I couldn't tell what else-some canned fruit and ether canned goods. We had the usual miner's kit blankets, picks, shovels, gold pans, rockers, rocker irons, nails, whipsaws, y>f>-?K^gclY?-g etc. Chillest Pas? Wot TJnsafo, From Dyea we went over th? Chil kat pass- -which ain't as dangerous as they say it is-30 miles to Lake Linde? man, the headwaters of ;he Yukon riv- , er. We had 82 Indians with us. There j we built our boats, two large scows. We left our Indians there and pros? pected along down the river-July 12, 1882, our boat was buiit-and we start? ed down the lake and prospected along I the river until we reached Fort Keli- j ance. That was nearly 400 miles from our starting point. We got there In I September. We had stopped from point j to point along the route, prospecting I and finding gold. We made our winter quarters at Fort Reliance. Before going into win? ter quarters, however, we crossed over from Fort Reliance to the headwaters of Sixty Mile creek, a tributary of the Yukon. That is abont 600 miles north of Juneau. It was at Silty Mile creek that Mr. Harper had discovered gold a year or two before in paying quantities. We found gold there, as we supposed, in paying quantities, nuggets worth as high as 25 or 80 cents, on the bars of the creek. We prospected around there for about ten days. Then we went back to Fort Reliance and went into winter quarters after building our houses. The fort consisted of a trading post of the Alaska Commercial Trading company and had two men stationed there-Mr. McQuesren and an Indian interpreter. Mr. McQuesten was trading agent for the Alaska Commercial Trading com? pany and went there in 1875. His life was that cf a trader and trapper. ? Good Weather In September. I can't tell why the >place was call? ed Fort Reliance. It was established by a Canadian, Francisco Mercier, a native of Montreal, for the A. C. T..company. We went into winter quarters about ?opt. 25. The weather was lovely, with not a particle of snow. The wild geese a^d ducks were just starting back south, but snow came soon, and we were shut in. It was very cold. During that, winter we hauled cur supplies with hand sleds and dogs, or by hand, over to the creek where we ex? pected to work the next summer. It f*Z5 about 50 miles away aud in Cana? dian territory. At that time this dis? trict was not known as the Klondike district It was not really known as anything at that time that I know of. Fort Reliance was the nearest point. There had not been anybody in there to discover any gold except this man Har? per. It was simply speculative that the gold did exist in this country. We went there on the presumption that there was some there. We hauled our supplies over there, and after this was done I went down to this Francisco Mercier's place, 100 mile3, tc what is known as Belle Isle Station, where he had a post THE FIRST GOOD DIGGING. Searching the Klondike For Long and Weary Years. About that t?ne u band of Indians came from Tan a na and brought in a piece of rich gold quarti That was in March, 1883, or about that time. I went out there to see where they got this rock, myself and four other men. We took Judian guides and went over there to find it. This was on the head of Forty Mile* creek. We did not find it, so we went back to the cache we had made the previous winter at the head of Sixty Mile creek, and we put in the balance- cf the summer prospecting in that locality. We staid there until falL . At the end of a year we had prospect? ed and found in different streams and various places that there was gold iu the country in paying quantities, but not having tools or sufiicient supplies we were not able to get much. We intended to go into mining the next spring on some of the creeks we had already explored, but that summer the A. C. T. Cttnrpany steamer Yukon, the o?ly steamer on the river, broke one of her engines and could not get up the river. In consequence we had to drop down to the mouth of the Tanana river, where we spent the second winter. The Tanana river is about 800 miles from Dawson City and runs through a mountainous, country, which had not been prospected. There we found some very good quartz prospecting, but no placer gold diggings. Our party were all very healthy men with the exception of two, William Moore and John McGraw, who had a severe attack of scurvy. This was be? cause they lived entirely on bacon and * 'rusty' * ham all winter. I went out and caught rabbits, so that saved us from like attacks. Outside of that we were all in good health. The second summer we went back on the steamer New Racket, belonging to Harper and McQuesten, on the Stuart river, 900 miles up from the Yukon, and there made the discovery of those rich bars which you may have heard about. They paid as high as $100 to the day. That locality is about 1,800 miles from the mouth of the Yukon and 350 miles from Juneau. I should say it was about 4,900 miles from San Francisco. Stuart river is about 75 miles above Dawson City. Paid 8100 to the Kocker. There on the Stuart river was our first mining camp. We found very good mining on the river bars. The bars paid all the way from $2 to $5 and as high as $100 a rocker. "A rocker is built something similar ! to our baby cradles, with one end out. i It has aprons in it and a blanket in | the bottom. It is set on an incline. ? The dirt is put into a hopper and dis- j charged over an apron, then back down j on the blanket and from there into the river agaiu. The gold clings to the blanket, and the dirt does not. We found gold there in paying quantities, but we inai?;tained that camp only for two summers. Those bars were only short lived. During the winter of 1885 I ran a trading post with "Harper and McQnesten at this Belle Isle 1 j Station, where Mercier was. That is about 175 miles from Stuart river. By this time the white neoj?le were getting quite thick. We had about ? 00 in the whole country, scattered all around 1,000 mile?,,that fall of 1SS5 that we were on thc: Stuart river. A. J. Franklin, J. O'Brien, Lam? bert and his partner discovered Forty Mile creek. That is about 45 miles from Dawson City. Fort 'Reliance at that time was the only post in the country and was the zero lor estimating dis? tances. We called it Forty Mile creek because it is 40 miles from Fort Reli? ance. It is 45 miles "from Dawson City, cr nearly midway between the two points. All Were Veterans There. After the discovery of Forty Mila creek the people left Stuart river. At I that time there was quite a little town there called Stuart River. There were no women there except Indian women. There were no amusements, nothing but work. Every man was an experienced miner and had all the provisions and supplies he needed. There was not a death at Stuart River that winter. We had some good digging at Forty Mile. That was really the first of the Klondike camps. The diggings consist? ed of bar diggings and bench diggings. Bar diggings are those venere the gold has been thrown up on the bars by the action of the water. It is drift gold. Where the point was just right the ed? dies would whirl the gold around and throw it upon the bars. The bench dig? gings were in deposits made by large flows of gravel in which the gold was carried along. AT FORTY MILE CREEK. Canadian Lavr as to Mining: Claims-Stak? ing and ^Blazing. From 18S5 to the fall cf 1801 and in the fall of 1891 Miller, Davis and Glacier creeks were discovered by Frank Dinszuore, James Davis and Jo? seph Gausiaw, and there they found j the first rich diggings cf the Klondike j country. These creeks are tributaries of | Sixty Mile creek, but were reached, by the way cf Forty Mile creek, being the nearest supply station. The first death at Forty Mile Creek occurred in the fall of 1SS6, which shows that a pretty good period elapsed before there were any deaths. The victim was Jack Welch, about 64 years old. When people taik about its being an unhealthy country for strong, healthy men and say that there are j 2,000 graves at Forty Mile, it is not so. ! They're lying. In the fall of 1890 I quit mining f and went into the mercantile business at the mouth cf Sixty Mile creek, 40 miles above Dawson, and 'there I staid with several men who wanted to pros? pect and . had faith in that country which I did myself-in the vicinity cf the Thron Diuck (Klondike) river. Robert Henderson put in three years there. I staid with him. He was pros? pecting on Indian creek, a tributary of the Yukon, running parallel with Bo? nanza creek. In the spring of 1886, on account of the high water, he could not work his claim, so he crossed over on to the head? waters of Gold Bottom creek. George W. Mccormack gets the credit for dis? covering that gold, which he is not en? titled to. because this Henderson went from his claim on'Indian creek and dis? covered it. After making the discovery he came back and told me about it, as I had been putting up for him for three years-I mean I had 44grub staked" him-and he wanted me to move my sawmill and everything down to the mouth of the Thron Diuck, where Daw? son City is now. I had two American horses, which I bought of Jack Dalton, who was con? nected in some way with Lieutenant Glave of the Frank Leslie expedition. The four of them went over there and made a location. In the meantime Hen? derson took his boat and drifted down the river to the mouth of the Thron Diuck, which was -the easiest way for him to reach his destination and carry his supplies.. Coaxed Mccormack to Go. At the mouth of the Thron Diuck he met this man Mccormack, who was fishing for salmon, and coaxed him to go up with him and make a location, telling him what he had discovered there. Mccormack did not want to go at first, but finally %vent and made his location, he and two Chilkat Indians. The reames of these two Indians were Skookum Jack and Dark East Charlie. Coming back, they crossed over from Gold Bottom creek, that being a cut off. On their way back they struck this Bonanza creek and found gold there in paying quantities. They went to scratching round and made the discov? ery out of which they got three claims Nos. 1 and 2, below the Discovery claim, and No. 3 above. A claim is 500 feet in length along the general course of the valley and across the creek from base to base of the mountains. It may be SOO feet wide and it may be 1,000. The claim must be staked with four stakes with your initials on each stake. Four corner stakes and the cross line must be cut from stake to stake or blazed out on the | trees so that it can "be seen. You have 60 days from the date of j the location to find gold and record ? jour claim and deposit it for record- j that is, under the Canadian law. I be lieve it has been revised lately, though. No jumping is allowed. According to Mr. Ogilvie's report, there were only two claims made up to the time he j made the survey but what were jumpa- j ble, as they were not staked according to law. There were attempts to jump a great many claims, but they were squashed. It requires three ronsecutive months of work on these claims. J. left Forty Milo creek Sept. 24, 1894, on a trip home and reached here in January. I carne back to do business in Frisco connected with my sawmill, ! etc. I had a store and sawmill, but bad . no mining claims at that time. My nine years had brought me maybe ?7, 000 or $S,000. We had no very rich ? diggings up to that tl-rrc I remained j here from Sent 24 until June 21, 1895, i when I returned to Forty Mile creek. Nothing new had occurred in the mean _ THE RUSH TO DAWSON. i Ladue's Story of Profits In Sawing Sluice I>o.-:es. j I made another trip out the nest j winter. I left there Jun. 26, with the thermometer 60 degrees below zero. I got out with dogs and a sled and had a mighty hard time. I had to sled abor.t 350 miles and connected with the ; steamer Rustier at Dy ea. ? arrived in ? Frisco along about March 1, the trip I having taken some two months. I did I not come east. My trip to ?San Francisco was to purchase machinery for a new saw mill. I had-it shipped north by the A. C. T. company to St. Michael's, on the Ber? ing sea, GO miles north of the Yukon river and then from St. Michael's up the Yukou to Dawson City by the steamer Alice. This was in the spring of 1896. I V J ( again in 1896 and went to St*. ancisco for practically the same purpose and under the same con? ditions. I left San Francisco about March 10 and went back home after purchasing this mill. Nothing Grow? There. I had no commission to buy supplies for any one but myself, but had to lake everything wanted. Nothing grows there-no provisions. I took in scrue blankets, tea and trading stuff, freight? ing over 1.000 pounds of supplies. I reached my mill on Sixty Mile creek on June 24,1 think. Nothing had occurred ncr were any new big discov? eries made until Aug. 24. Upon the discovery of Bonanza creek, which is the Klondike, people came from all directions, traveling night and day, some with dogs towing their boats and others coming across the country afoot with packs on their backs, until about 400 claims were lo? cated. Many of the people should not have come. Following the discovery of Bonanza creek, Mccormack panned cut with the help of his two Indians something like $24 or $25 to the pan. He took this geld and went down to Forty Mile and reported. Then the people began to come there like wildfire. There was no stopping them. The mouth of the Bo? nanza is 13-e miles from Dawson City. I get down from Sixty Mile creek the day Mccormack came down to For? ty Mile to report and get supplies. I lo? cated thc town site cf Dawson and went back and got a raft of lumber to put up a cabin. D. A. Robinson, S. S. Ayres, John Whitney and I put up a house in four days. It was the first house in Dawson City, a log cabin, 12 by l-l, with one room, enly one fleer, a door and two windows. The house faced the river, which was on the west. We left after we got that done and went up to the sawmill. That consisted of a 125 horsepower engine and one 48 inch circular saw and one 52 inch, car? riage, planer and matcher, which is a sawmill complete. Six days from the day we got down with the sawmill we had her running. The first job tamed out there by me was sawing lumber for sluice boxes for Bonanza creek. Robert Lowrie gol; the first one. I charged him ?130 per 1,000 feet This was fer a 12 by li box, 42 feet cf lumber to the box. We got out several sets of sluice boxes of the same size, for which I charged the same-$130 per 1,000 feet. The same boxes in Arizona or New Mexico would probably cost ?1.50. The lumber came from logs off the Thron Diuck river. It is really not the Klondike district, but the Bonanza and the Gold Bottom mining districts where the gold is. Not Called Klondike There. The popular name here, however, seems to be Klondike, which is not gen? erally known up there. At Dawson City we knew the places as Gold Bottom and Bonanza districts. When we turned out this lumber, there were hardly any people in the town, because the people .rushed up there at first with only four or five days' supplies, and after running around getting their outfits and getting them placed they were obliged to go back for more supplies and tools. Some of them were in bad shape. Yon can't get anything up there except what you take. The first dwelling house in Dawson was erected for myself by me. The sec? ond was that of Dan .Robinson. The third belonged to Robert Lowrie, the fourth to Theodore Anderson, the fifth to John Moffitt, the sixth to Charles Kimball, the seventh to A. J. Ferguson, the eighth to Charles Glsen. THE NEW CITY. Business and Domestic Matters In a Mining Town. A mouth after the establishment cf Dawson City I should judge there were probably in the vicinity of 500 people there. They had come from all quar? ters. I think there were 3? houses put up during the winter, which was last winter. Only two streets had been laid out, First avenue and Second avenue. First avenue was given up to business. On it were the stores of the A. C. T. company and N. A. T. company cf Chi? cago. There was only one saloon during the winter, and the ban ender was George Westbrook. The stGck cf the sa loon consisted of whisky, beer, ale and about everything that is in other sa? loons. It was shipped in by the mouth j of the river from St. Michael's. Every? thing was 50 cents a drink, no mixed drinks, and no water for a chaser. The geld commissioner. The commissioner j settled his funeral expenses, and I sup? pose the rest of his money will go to his people in Oregon. When a man dies there, his effects are turned over to the gold commissioner. This commissioner records claims and settles all mining disputes. WOMEN IN THE KLONDIKE. But They Are Mostly Miraged In Dorney tic Occupations. I applied to the Canadian government for 100 acres. The Canadian govern? ment did not sell town sites in the 1 saloon kept open all t ?ie time, night and : day. I guess it did pretty well, j There was nc restauran: luring ihs ; winter, as there were no supplies in the country ro run it. There was no gam ' hiing to speak of, but sometimes the , mei] played poker. The bets were small. There was no faro. The meu spent the winter on their claims, hauling sup? plies from all over the country and get? ting them there. The thermometer ran down to 54 below, which was the coldest we had. It probably averaged about 20. We had to dress warm in flannels and furs. I cannot say the people suffered. There were no deaths all this time at Dawson City. We had no theater. Second ave? nue was the residence portion. My house was put upon First avenue. Un Second avenue were the cabins of Win? field Ohler, Ed Parks, Dave Richards and Ales McDonald. They were nil one room houses. Mrs. Ferguson, wife of H. H. Fer* gusou, was the only woman there. She did her own sewing and cooking. She had no children. Mrs. Berry, from Fresno, was np on the creek with her husband on the claim he had located, No. 3 El Dorado. Mrs. Liffey and Mrs. Berry were the only women upon the claims. They picked np nuggets off the dump last winter, about $6,000 apiece as near as we could find out, besides at? tending to their household duties. The women in the country who were there with their husbands devoted themselves to their own simple house? hold duties and to looking on the dumps for stray nuggets. They did not, as has been reported, do sewing and cooking for the miners, and I don't believe any miners were given their meals at their houses, as has been stated in the news? papers. I saw these women quite often. They did not come to the town much. Mrs. Ferguson was the only one in the town. All Swarmed to Dawson. The "character cf the town was good. Every one attended to his busi? ness. There was no lawlessness. .Mr.u were on their claims working. While there were probably, when the winter closed down, 400 or 5C0 men and 3 women, at the opening of the season this spring every man in the Yukon country was there. The other camps were deserted. ? Of the 1,500 men who were in the vicinity cf Dawson City when the snow began to go off and left the country St for operations, nine-tenths were hard working, industrious miners, cf good character as far as I know, locking for i claims and intent on earning a living. They came from r?il parts of the sur? rounding country. Circle City, 300 miles ncrth from Dawson City, was al? most deserted. They came up the river with degs and sledges. From Juneau about the time I left probably 1,500 were coming in. CLAIMS AND MEN. A Practical Miner Who Is Many Times a Millionaire. Reports of the richness of the gold diggings were going out ali winter, but people did not believe them. Every mail carrier that went cut took these reports with him, but people thought it was a fake or at least greatly exagger? ated. They did not believe until people came out and showed the gold at Sel vey's smelting office at San Francisco. When they saw the gold poured cut there and miners coming in with all^ they could carry in sacks on rtheir backs, they realized that there was something back of the reports. Liffey j had, I guess. 150 pounds on his back ! I when he walked into the smelting room of Selvey & Co. I suppose that was worth $28,000. When I left Dawson City on June 23, all was excitement. If you had been ! there and seen the tents, you would have thought there were 5,000 people encamped. The tents were set as thick as they coule stand and leave barely room to walk between them. My mill was working night and day and em? ployed 15 men. I pay these men $10 and ?15 a day. Sawyers and engineers i get $15, common laborers $10. j I have no trouble in getting men, j i except that they change almost every j day. As^ scon as a man gets a little j money he wants to quit and go pros- j peering,-and we have to break in new ; men about ev?ry day. Plerty of Room Left. There are lets and lots of creeks j there not prospected cn that were not taken at the time I left. There were | about 800 claims located in the Bonanza ? j gold mining district. I think Alexander McDonald was j about the heaviest owner of claims. He j is from Nova Scotia. I suppose he may ? be worth ?4,000,000 or ?5,000,000. Be was there himself. He is a man about ! 45 years old, a practical miner, and has j had experience in that country for years, j It was reported by the Montana j man, Moss, that there were 2,000 graves in the place. I don't see how that could be, as we never had more than 1,500 ? men there. The first to die was Bert j Stickney, who died on Lake le Barge j while on his way in. The second death j was C. G. Felch cf Oregon, who died I of heart disease. They found him dead i in bed in the morning. He had *r>id out j and had his money in three sack? under j his pillow, which amounted to $12,340. These are the cn ly two graves in Dawson. He was buried by the people there, and his money was turned over to the ; : Northwest Territory. Mr. Ogilvy had i ! been sent up there on a survey. A town , : site had been applied for by a mau j j named O'Brien at Forty Mile. Mr. j ; Ogilvy told the government it would ; j not pay them to handle town sites in ; there. He was sent out to report on this boundary question. After he made the ! survey he put it in himself as a town [ site. Dawson is laid cut in a square. Out? side of it there are straggling houses around. The 160 acres have been divid- . ed into city lots. I bought 18 acres be- 1 sides this adjoining mine, between it and the government reservation. I filed on that town site along the last of Au? gust, 1896. I have not received a patent ; from the government for ifc j After the survey was made I was no? tified that the survey had been accepted and everything was O. K. so far as ? was concerned. ? was the only one in? terested in the property in the town. Among those who have bought lots from me are the Alaska Commercial com? pany, who own an eight lot block, and the North American Transportation company of Chicago, who have a 78 foot frontage on First avenue and 178 feet on Second avenue. Besides these there are individuals who own one lot. Women Who Own Property. There are women there who own property. Susie Lamar is one. She is a single woman who came from Ger? many. She has been cooking for me and my partner. I guess she has done pretty well. ? pay her $40 a month right along. She has not found any gold herself. She is a girl perhaps 20 years old. She came there with the Johnson party from Oakland, Cal. She was the only woman in the party. Lottie Barnes also owns property there. She came over the divide two years ago and settled on Second avenue. She was formerly in Circle City. That is the farthest north of the mining towns. ?he conducted a place there. I don't know whether she has made any money in mining or not. I could not say whether she kept a boarding house at Circle City. She did not at Dawson. She has bought up claims. She is a wo? man about 40 years old and came from Seattle. There is a Mrs. Yeager there who formerly conducted a boarding house at Circle City. She had two cr three young ladies who boarded with her. I cannot tell what their names were cr whether they made any money. She did not run a boarding house in Dawson. She was there with her husband, who was a packer at Dawson. They had a packing train. She is a woman about 40. She came from Colorado and had been mar? ried before she married Yeager, but her first husband died in Colorado-in Boul? der, I think. What Ztfrs. Wills Has Done. There is also a Airs. Wills, who has quite a history. She went in with my party two years ago. Ia the party were Ellis Turner from Schuyler Falls, Wil? liam Lamay, George Mulligan and my? self. She joined our party at Juneau, where she had been working in the laundry. She is about 45 years old, a blond, stout and rugged. She pulled her own sled, weighing 250 pounds, from Lake Lindeman through to Lake la Barge, about 700 miles. Before she came there she was stew? ardess on the steamer Willipaw, when I first met her. She went first to Circle City, where she started a laundry a^d bakeshop. She did pretty well. I think she got 50 cents a loaf for bread-pound loaves made from wheat flour. I believe the laundry prices were 25 cents apiece for everything. We had np coin less than a quarter. Towels and blue shirts were 25 cents apiece. She went out two years ago as nurse fer the A. C. T. company agent, James Wilson. I think she went as far as San Francisco with him. She returned the next spring. That time she brought in herself, with the aid of two dogs, about 750 pounds, including a sewing machine. That was not the first sewing ma? chine brought in. Mrs. Behan, wife of a banana trader, brought in the first ma? chine, about 20 years before. Two years ago I suppose there wer? probably 40 or 50 sewing machines in the country. There were pianos there. The pianos and organs were principally in the dancebouses and theaters at Circle City. DAWSON LUXURIES. Some Pianos, a Few Pictures, a Little Cham? pagne and Fine Bars. Before the establishment of Dawson there were 1,500 people at Circle City. Aftev that it is pretty hard to tell how many there were. It was practically deserted in a short time. All the things they had there, pianos, pictures, etc., were taken up the river this spring in the A. C. T. company's boats. We have all kinds of pictures ihere, oil, water color, etc. The saleen people have them mostly. We have nicer bars there than you have1-:e. One of the bars there cost $750 right in San Franc isco. It belongs to Leach & Ashby. Joseph Cooper has a bar, bought in San Francisco last spring, which cost about the same, $750. It is a fine thing, with mirrors and everything. I bought of a fellow there in San Francisco, two years ago last winter, 25 or 30 pictures. They were water colors. One of them took first prize at the mid? winter fair in San Francisco. It was a landscape. I don't know the painter's name. I don't know who painted any of the pictures. The dance hali was owned by Harry Ash. It is 40 by 80, a frame building covered with white drilling. They have an orchestra at the dance hall. I never was in it myself, but I have heard the music. I should think there were a horn, piano, violin, etc. There may be 15 or 20 women there. There is no admission fee. You just go in and dance and patronize the establishment. Everything is 50 cents a drink. Champagne at Trading Posts. They don't keep champagne in the saloons and dance *-.alls, only at the trading posts. The women get a per? centage of the receipts for dancing with the miners. Frequently when the miners feel flush they give the women nuggets. When I left Dawson, there were ten saloons and only three restaurants. One restaurant belonged to a barber, one to an Italian, whose name I don't recollect, and one to au ironmonger. They charge $1.50 for a meal which consists of ba? con, beans, bread, coffee, a piece of cheese and dried fruit. The restaurants Kvere well patronized. They sold' every? thing they could rake or scrape. The trouble was they couldn't get enough supplies to satisfy the demand for meals. Bacon was Si a pound. Eggs were as high as $5 a dozen in the winter. A man could get just what he was a mind to ask for his outfit when he came up in the spring. There was trouble in getting help to do anything there. You got a man and kept him a day or two and he would COSTINUED OS NEXT PAGE.