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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1897)
WEITTEiNBYAWOMAN SHE DESCRIBES THF rrfat KLONDYKE GOLD REGION L Teacher of the Indians Draws a Discouraging Picture of the New ISltlcrado and Advises the Tender foot to Slay Away Till Next Spring No Dream of Ease Amon those in Klondyke tlio newly diseoveivd jM HiId in Canada just over the Alaska boundary who write back warning letters to their friends in civil ization is Miss Anna Fuleoinor a grad uate of the University of Chicago who has been in Alaska a year as a teacher among the Indians under Government auspices She has been located at Circle City Alaska but went to Klondyke in the lirst rush hoping to strike it rich She writes as follows Those now leaving the United States for Klondyke are almost as certainly com ing to hardship privation and suffering They cannot possibly get here before the closing of the mining season and they will Jind every foot of ground known to be rich in gold staked off and hold by min ers of experience They will find food and lodging so high and scarce that it will take cilLorrVEE r sm rJ ESS I UM 1 1 r ii i itr i r ur csS2a n aIaKDHliniliiIIIllLMIIJJ fe B British luiiuioii virtually abandoned their own claims owing to the craze over Klondyke hurried there and staked off their claims and are holding or working them Tin was early in the movement and consequently newcomers have to be content with the leavings of the old men in the work There are only four mining months XrMay June July and August and even then the ground never thaws out more than two or two and one half inches The reht of the yiar the soil is like a solid rock It is no unusual thing for the mer cury to tall 10 or i degrees below zero To go prospecting before May or after August is cut of the question and in the four months 1 have named it is a matter of about three hours a day The coldest we had it last winter was degrees be low zero but mild as the weather was for Alaska it mis quite cold enough to make one feel the need of good solid food Apropos of the living here it is well enough lvr them to say that there is no Jaciv of provisions Actually the na tives and miners havent the necessaries of life to say nothing of the comforts It is impossible to get fresh meat It is simply a matter of canned goods and these have to be bought from the trading posts of the Alaska Commercial Com pany or the American Transportation Company at the companies prices and they charge what they please One dol lar a pound for Hour salaratus and pota toes is the usual rate Game has been utterly driven from the mountains Fish are frozen eight months in the year Once in a while you can get fresh meat at 0 cents a pound The fresh meat used at our Christmas dinner how ever cost yu0 a pound There was gold enough in the taste even to make it lie a dead weight on the stomach You can readily ee that an experienced miner here has had to be successful in order to live What would become of a tender foot it is easy to imagine I can see little in store lor the man who gets here after or late in August but hardship and priva tion Those stricken with the gold fever keep fiocking here and the influx of would be miners will doubtless continue till ev erything fc frozen up so tight that it will be impossible to do anything but hunger look at the moon and wait till next May It is to the interest of the transportation companies to encourage this migration of the peopie north since they get the trans portation money it costs about S1H0 to go from Seattle to Klondyke and besides the gold fields will have to buy from them The transportation companies will thus of necessity reap a rich harvest A dog a dog my kingdom for a dog is the general cry here llorses have practically proved a failure here as a means of transportation They have to be housed in tents in which a lire is kept The dogs however live on next to noth ing and often make astonishing time The relative value placed on men and dogs is shown by the fact that I could get an ex perienced man for my trip to Klondyke for nothing but had to pay 50 rental for a dog and had to make a contract to pay if anything happened to the animal Miss Fulcoiner gives a good report of the manners and morals of the camps Iuring her residence of a year at Circle City she knew of no murder being commit ted and little lawlessness The miners make a law unto themselves and all tacit ly accept its unwritten mandates SWITCH PRIED OPEN The Chlcauo Express on Bi Four Wrecked by miscreants The Chicago express on the Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago and St Louis Kail way was wrecked at Thorntown Ind Friday morning Four were killed out right and several slightly injured The dead are Engineer Seth Winslow of Grccnsburg Ind Fireman B Crickmore of Indianapolis and tramps two unidentified mlmimMWW sSSAW - l - rzz s js rrrpf i 1 r v - tf A I V mSmaMslmBfW BiB saurM ii nnirmii mil m j il i 9 IUNEAU ALASKA AV1IEI1E THE T1I1P ACilOSS T11EM0UNTA1XS BEGINS a small fortune to survive until tunity to icturn offers itself in oppor There is gold in Klondyke gold in abundance dirt rich enough on some claims to yield from IU0 to oOI per pan but it is mined with difficulty mined in a small way mined slowly so that for the average experi enced digger the profits are swallowed up in the expenses Men who had been min ing in other points in Alaska and the - St MM IT AT CIIIIKOOT PASS i i There was a deliberate plot to wreck the train as a coupling pin had been driven into the switch so as to hold it open and throw the fast train off the track as it passed that point The engine and tender and the mail express and baggage cars were thrown from the track and wrecked The coaches and Wagner sleeping cars remained on the track and none of the passengers was seriously hurt although they had a lively shaking up A relief train was sent from Indianapo lis to Thorntown and as soon as the track was cleared a new train was made up for Cincinnati and the other points The train was unusually crowded with pas sengers The officials of the railroad have insti tuted a thorough investigation as to the perpetrators of the wreck No attempt was made to rob the express or other cars after the wreck and no understanding of the piot can be ascertained YACHT RACE OFF CHICAGO Most Iiitcrestinr Contest Ever Seen on Lake Michigan The Buffalo yacht Enquirer defeated the Pathfinder of Chicago in Thursdays big race on Lake Michigan The latter abandoned the contest near Waukegan and reversing her engines steamed back to Chicago The start was made at 0 oclock in the morning opposite the lighthouse in the outer harbor at Chicago and amid the tooting of whistles waving of Hags and the cheering of crowds on board the mis cellaneous iraft present the Enquirer owned by W J Connors of Buffalo and the Pathfinder owned by F W Morgan of Chicago leaped forward and began the most exciting race ever witnessed on Lake Michigan No yacht race ever excited such interest in Chicago It is the first race of the kind ever to take place on Lake Michigan It had a tlavor of sport about it that sug gests the contests that made the Missis sippi river a famous course in the old days when the Natchez and the Lee filled their fire boxes with bacon and tied down their safety valves The race was arranged after a long de bate as to course It was agreed that the owner el the losing yacht was to present the winner with a 00 silver cup Aside MILLIONS IN SAVINGS Building and Loan Association League Meets at Detroit The United States League of Building Associations held its annual convention in Detroit President Michael F Brown read his annual address ami Secretary II T Cellaris of Cincinnati reported on the condition of building association in terests generally President Brown alluded to the organ ization of the league a year previous to the Worlds Congress of Building and Loan Associations at Chicago in ISUJ and recalled the motto then suggested by Pres ident Dexter viz The American Home the Safeguard of American Liberties which motto had been adopted by all the leagues of the United States The presi dent quoted a statement of William George Jordan that Uncle Sams people have 14S331S dwelling houses which would make a double avenue reaching round the globe President Brown gave a lengthy review of the more salient features connected with the progress of building and loan associations from their inception and of the mutual benefits derived from their op eration Lie said the past year had not been a home building one but rather a mortgage creating period in which nearly all the people had had a hard struggle Wage earneis of the land had sacrificed during the last few years 3UU00000UU or ten times as much as the assets of all the building societies of the United States The executive committee presented an important table of associations member ship and assets for LVt 07 covering those States wheso laws require returns to bo made by building and loan associations States Iennsvlvania Ohio Illinois New Jersey Indiana Xew York Missouri Massachusetts California Minnesota Tennessee Nebraska Connecticut Maine Other States Totals Mem lions iito 7i T1H oj 0i t i I J It 7 11 liersliip Assets J0iO S10VW000Ti li17ii r7 I4MM rso24 fin i l 1OS00 71S TJ14i I04ir 0 Jir acioi i soio r74 4UM57rrJ4 5SOr147 ii4rjH7 177J510 4hsi 440r74 77is U7072S 0144i nVJi iaso 4771 151 05i0 71SSSJ7 GHASTLY TALES OF DEATH Starvation Awaits Many Gold Seclcera to the Klondyke Region Serious news has come from Port Town send relative to the Klondyke excitement and it forecasts a horrible situation that in the near future will confront many gold scekii s en route to the arctic El Dorado As is known Dyea which is a short distance from Juneau is the start ing point for the overland journey to the Klondyke legion and there according tc Ihe report is more freight piled up than the available force of Indian carriers can transport over Chilkoot pass in eighteen months In the twenty seven miles be tween Dyea and the head of Lake Under- t j THE KIOXDYKE man there will probably be many a tra gedy this winter The Alaska Commercial Comnanv which has already ten times as much business offered by the Yukon route as its river boats can handle is doing all in its power to check the rush by the Juneau route Many persons have already start ed by laud route lacking experience suf ficient provisions and proper clothing Even when parties were small and infre quent it was necessary for them to wait days and weeks to get out lumber at Lake Bennett for boats or for violent snow storms to cease With this sudden influx of Klondykers it will be utterly impossi ble for a fraction of the travelers to get dogs Indians or boats The delays will exhaust their supplies and they cannot secure provisions of any Iff XI A EXCITING RACE BETWEEN THE YACHTS ENQUIRER AND PATHFINDER from this it is estimated that more than r000 had been wagered on the result by the admirers of the competing yachts Both of the yachts were built last year The Enquirer was constructed in Buffalo and cost 05000 The Pathfinder was built in Racine and cost S75000 Each is i feet long The Pathfinder is lb feet at the beam and the Enquirer one foot less The Pathfinder has a ram bow on the lines of that of a battleship while the Enquirer has a clipper bow and an overhang stern The new fast train over the Santa Fe has reached Kansas City on its initial trip Wednesday It carries passengers mail and express and reduces the time be tween Chicago and Kansas City from fourteen and one half hours to eleven hours and thirty minutes The train overtakes the regular passenger train for California at Kansas City and will work a material improvement in mail and havp 2 corner on supplies All who go to J press service kind between Dyea and Dawson City Un less relief stations are speedily establish ed there will be some ghastly tales to tell of this mad rush of the calamities of the Chilkoot in blinding blizzards and of mis erable death in the hundreds of inhost pitable miles that lie between the moun tain pass and the Yukon Strewn with Skeletons The widow of Lieut Schwatkanthe Arctic explorer being interviewed at Ben ton Harbor Mich concerning the Klon dyke gold legions which country she has repeatedly visited with her husband says the Government should stop the tide oi immigrants pouring into the gold fields in Alaska She says the mountain nnssec are strewn with the skeletons of unfortu nate miners who perished from either cold near maiana or starvation while trying to reach the golden region A slight earthquake shock was felt at San Fianeisco Monday STOJM KILLS SEYEN ILLINOIS CYCLONE DOES TER RIBLE HAVOC Home of A C McDowell Is Destroyed and the Inmates Crushed Bodies Torsi and IWangleti Are Scattered Far and Wide by the Wind Destruction Near San Jose A cyclone of terrific energy swept across the region aiound San Jose 111 at 7 oclock Friday evening and left destruc tion and death in its wake At midnight seven deaths were reported and three per sons were severely injured It is prob able that there were other casualties in outlying districts After a day of terrible heat the clouds began to pile up in fantastic forms at about o oclock and the air grew thick and oppressive The heavy clouds in the north especially grew dark and darker Every one instinctively feared the coining of a cyclone About 7 oclock darkness fell suddenly upon the earth broken here and there by viid lightning Soon with a rush and a roar came a tornado from the north carrying with it boiling and tossing clouds Every one ran for a place of safety many seeking refuge in cellars San Jose escaped damage only because the storm rose north of the town and passed above it Half an hour after the passage of the storm a messenger came galloping into the town on a foaming horse He reported that terrible destruction had been wrought on the farm ol A C McDowell two and one quarter miles north and summoned the assistance of surgeons A terrible scene was that at the homo of the McDowells The cyclone had struck Ihe farm at its northern line and swept across ir cutting a pathway ot destruction The McDowell homestead was utterly demolished the house being blown irom its foundation and torn to fragments its timbers and furniture scat tered to the four winds The barn had shared the same fate and its contents blown out of sight The i von occupants of the house were killed and their man gled and toin bodies were scattered about the ruined homestead Three imioeil were taken from the ruins Crops Destroyed by Hail A destructive hailstorm passed near Sioux Falls S D early Friday morning The storm started three miles west of Dell Rapids and went in a southwesterly direction destroying absolutely every thing in its path around Garretson One branch of the storm passed over Sher mautowu and Luverne Minn Here it went in two paths one north and the other south across Rock and Nobles coun ties The path of this branch of the storm was over ten miles wide It is estimated that fully LOOOO00 acres of crops were destroyed WITH A BULLET IN HIS HEART A Chicago Ulan Bids Fair tohivetoa Good Old Aje The medical men of Chicago are amazed by a case of almost unprecedented vitality in that city Charles B Nelson was shot in Washiigton Park recently The ball lodged in some part of his anatomy the medical men could not say just where So experiments were made with the Roentgen rays and the results have been most astonishing A radiograph has been taken which shows the bullet imbedded in the heart The strangest feature of the case is that the doctors believe that he has everv DUI LKT IX NKISOVS IIEAKT reason to live to be an old man Avith a leaden souvenir imbedded in his breast that will go with him to his grave The bullet pemtrated his body to a depth ol two and a half inches from the surface Then it penetrated the pericardium oi sack which surrounds the heart and lodg ed bet ween the center and left curve o that organ sMrfcf flfipie Sir Edwin Arnold besides being a poet is a spoilsman yachtsman traveler and cyclist The Duchess of Teck spends annually SoOOO in philanthropic work one fifth the amount granted her by Parliament Prince Albert of Belgium will shortly set forth on a tour of the world He wil follow ih route adopted by the presenl cza r Mrs Charles Stewart Parnell widow ol the Irish leader is about to take up hei residence at Tretnaton castle near Ply mouth Ellen Terry sells her autographs foj 2 cents each and with the money so ob tained will endow a childs bed in an Eng lish hospital Miss Mar Rachel Dobson eldest daughter of Austin Dobson and a gradu ate of London University has joined f missionary settlement of college womec in Bombay The Horticultural Societv of shire England has taken upon itself th expense of erecting a statue to Darwir at his birthplace Shrewsbury It wil cost 0000 Queen Adelaide widow of Dom Miguel King of Portugal has taken two vows at the Convent of the Benedictines at So lemes France She is 66 years old and is the mother of seven children PLAIN OR FANCY T5 i Q NTING 0 X K X vr X H X H X f X X t X H X QUICKLY SSMMI 43 CPECIALTIES - BILL HEADS LETTER HEADS NOTE HEADS STATEMENTS ENVELOPES INVITATIONS PROGRAMMES MENUS LARGE POSTERS BUSINESS CARDSf SMALL POSTERS CALLING CARDS SALE BILLS ETC CHROMO CARDS Notary Ptjbli W E HALEY Real Estate U gsscr ai i 1 U S U 5 a Suzshi 1 fi Valentine Nebraska 1000000 ond Filed Office in P O Bxiildinm The DONOHER Has recently been refurnished and thoroughly renovated making it now more than ever worthy of the reputation it has always borne of being THE MOST COMPLETE AND COMFORTABLE HOTEL IN THE NORTHWEST Hot and Cold Water Excellent Eath Eoom Good Sample Room M JT BOAOSER Proprietor HERRY QOUNTY ANK Valentine Nebraska Every facility extended customers consistent with conservative banking Exchange bought and sold Loans upon good security solicited at reasonable rates County depository E SPARKS President CHARLES SPARKS Cashier ANK OF VALENTINE C H CORNELL President JOL V NICHOLSON Cashier Valentine Nebraska A General JBanJcinff Husiness Transacted Buys and Sells Domestic and Foreign Exchange Correopondenta Chemical National Bank Haw York First National Bank Omaba GEO G SCHWALM PROP This market always keeps a supply of In addition to a first class line of Steaks Roasts Dry Salt Meata Smoked Hams Breakfast Bacon and Ye etable3 At Btatters Old Stand on Main Street VALENTINE NEBRASKA THE PALACE SALOON HEADQUARTERS WINES LIQUORS and CIGARS Ol the Choicest Brands Valentine - - - Nebraska Remember that this office is fully prepared at all times to turn out on the shortest notice in the most artistic and workmanlike manner all kinds of Job Printing y