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In The News
The Daily Alaskan.
Skagway, Alaska.
Friday Morning, March 17, 1899.
Vol. II, No. 144.
Page 1.
CALLING CARDS.
G. F. Parker, U. S. Deputy Surveyor. City and country surveying promptly
attended to. Office - Broadway and 12th Street.
J. G. Price; Morton E. Stevens. Price & Stevens. Attorneys and Counselors. Fifth
Ave., next to courthouse. Notary and stenographer in office. Skagway, Alaska.
Lovell and Jennings, Attorneys-at-Law. Corner State and Bond, Skagway.
Mahlon F. Hall, M. D. Kelly Block, Broadway.
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GOOD PROSPECTS FOR PORCUPINE COUNTRY.
Many Good Creeks to be Opened in Spring.
ALL RICH IN GOLD DUST.
Five Hundred Miners Already Reported in the District - Haines Mission Becoming a
Lively Town.
"Long Shorty," who prefers that distinctive name to that of Mr. William Bigelow,
has been, in town for a few days looking after his business affairs here and
buying goods for his new place at Haines. When asked his opinion of the future
of Haines, and as to Porcupine mining district, before he left for Haines
yesterday morning, Mr. Bigelow became oracular and enthusiastic. He said:
"The town, as you know, is very prettily situated, commanding a beautiful view
of Lynn canal and sloping gradually down to the finest and safest harbor there
is in Alaska. The town has been laid out by a competent surveyor, and you can
sit in your home and see the passing steamers every hour. Haines is the starting
point for the new Porcupine mining district, and miners are landed from the big
steamers on to Bigelow & Cox's lighter ad by it brought to the foot of the
trail, where they can at once start their sleds with three to four hundred
pounds to a sled. The Porcupine can be reached in two or three days.
"Eight miles from Haines you come to what is known as Kicking Horse, which is
believed to be quite rich in placer as well as quartz. This is a tributary of
the main Chilkat river and drains a vast area of country. The mountains at the
head of Kicking Horse are the highest of any we have on the coast, the altitude
of some of the more prominent peaks being from 8000 to 9000 feet.
"Next comes the Salmon river, also on the southwest side of the Chilkat and
emptying into it. This is twenty-two miles above Kicking Horse, which makes it
thirty miles from Haines. This creek is, of late, proving to contain rich placer
ground in abundance. Considerable development work, quartz as well as placer, is
now going on, and the prospects are excellent. Tim Vogel, who owns the Haines
hotel, has a tunnel in about thirty feet, and Jack Bigelow and yours truly and
several others are pushing development in that neighborhood. Lots of cabins are
going up.
"Porcupine, the most famous of these creeks, comes next. It was here the first
discovery of placer gold was made in the fall of last year by Mrs. Maxon.
Porcupine is a tributary of what they natives call the Kleehena river, which is
also a tributary of the Chilkat, emptying into it, as the other two, from the
west. There are about five hundred miners now there, prospecting and building
cabins. The snow is about five feet deep so the work has to go slowly.
"From the mouth of the Chilkat to its headwaters is 125 miles and no white man,
except myself, has been up to the extreme head. It runs in a northwesterly
direction from Pyramid Harbor, and in the summer you can go from its headwaters
to the headwaters of the Dyea river in a day and a half. The country between the
two has never been explored. I made the trip last summer, carrying my blankets,
gun, pick, shovel and grub and brought out with me many beautiful specimens of
quartz float, and I am satisfied that the good ledges in there are numerous. I
would advise any miner who is figuring on going in there to prospect to get in
his supplies over the snow, for when the Chilkat river breaks up it is rather
difficult and dangerous to get up. The Chilkat is quite a large and swift
stream, as well as are all of its tributaries."
"And how is Haines, Shorty?"
"Haines is all right, and all these miners going in make it lively, but
unfortunately the townsite is in litigation. Colonel Sol Ripinsky bought a small
turnip patch and two partly tumbled down houses from a native woman for two
pounds of sheep dipped tobacco and a box of crackers. Then he laid claim to
fifteen acres or thereabouts of brush land and timber. The citizens have cleared
this land and built their homes on it, and now Ripinsky wants to deprive them of
it. On this disputed land there are now ten or twelve business houses. The
mission ground adjoins the townsite and is one miles square. Adjoining this the
government has reserved four miles square for military purposes. Neither of
these conflict with the townsite. Yes, Haines will be something of a place in a
few months."
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SOLDIERS HAVE RETURNED TO DYEA.
Embargo Removed From Skagway's Business.
STRIKE DECLARED OFF.
Two Hundred of the Men Return to Work on the Railroad and Others Leave Town.
United States troops are gone; the saloons are open again; business after a
dullness of a few days, has started in again with a rush. The recent vessels
have brought big loads of passengers. This has filled the hotels. More than ever
of these passengers are buying outfits here. Skagway's fame as an outfitting
point is spreading slowly but surely.
The strike, as was stated in these columns yesterday, is over. The few railroad
men left on the streets cannot be distinguished from the rest of the loungers.
Two hundred of them returned to work on the railroad yesterday morning. Among
these were about 35 of the destitute. So far as can be learned not a single
meeting was held by the strikers yesterday. There is not a quorum left. This
small residue will easily find work in town or will manage to return to their
homes below.
Commissioner Sehlbrede and Captain Yeatman of the United States army conferred
together yesterday morning, and concluded there was no more any call to keep the
troops here. Captain Yeatman called up his men and returned with them to the
Dyea barracks. Shortly before he left he remarked to a friend that he had been
on pins and needles from the time he heard of the strike, and that the telephone
message to come over was a relief to his nerves.
And so the first labor strike in Alaska faded away, leaving only one evidence to
recall it to memory, the prisoner in the city jail who is to be sent to Sitka on
the next boat touching thee. Even in his case, now that the matter is all over
and settled, there is talk of a petition to lighten his sentence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HENRY BROTHERS HERE.
On Their Way to Their Rich Claims on the Klondike.
Frank and Clarence Berry (H. F. and C. J.) among the most noted of the
Klondikers who went in early and came out with a big stake, came up on the
Topeka yesterday and pay up at the Mondamin last night. This morning they start
for Dawson. There are four of the Berry brothers who have become rich and are
growing richer on their Eldorado placers. One of them, Henry, is in there now.
It was he who recently turned up the $1400 nugget, and the first news that
Clarence met with when he landed here was in regard to this nugget. He
immediately started for the Daily Alaskan office to get a copy of the issue of
March 10, containing a full account of it. When Clarence and Frank get in to
Dawson they will relieve Henry, and he will come out for a good time among his
old friends in Fresno county, Cal.
Fred, the other brother, is still having a good time there, at the home of the
boys in Selma. Fred was only married on March 5, so he was allowed a little
period for the honeymoon. It was a splendid time the brothers had at their old
home. It was more to them, the adulations of the friends and neighbors they had
grown up among, than all the adulations and flattery of the great newspapers,
who published their portraits and made them heroes. All the time Fred spent in
the Klondike he had been thinking of a pretty girl at Selma that he used to go
to school with. She was a Miss Pearl Albaugh. When he had made his pile he
hastened to lay it and himself at her feet. The wedding on March 5 was the most
eventful occurrence in the history of Fresno county. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Berry
will be here in about two weeks.
All the brothers have made considerable investments in Fresno county, Clarence
having gone largely into Selma town property and in farms and mortgages so that
the result of one year in the Klondike will make the Berrys the landed
aristocrats of Fresno county.
G. T. Edgar goes in with the Berrys and also C. W. Livermore. The latter has
invented a gasoline sled in which the Berrys have a financial interest. He tried
it on Lake Bennett day before yesterday and believes he can haul three tons at
the rate of three miles an hour. The engine is of four horse power and runs an
endless chain in the runner of the sled that has grouters to catch hold of the
ice and propel the sled. The front end of the runners is solid metal and beats
down the snow. To this propelling machine, the sleds are attached in single
file.
Livermore says it works first rate, but Clarence Berry says he is in a hurry to
get in and relieve Henry,, so he will go ahead with a clipping dog team.
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Page 2.
THE CHARGE NOT PROVEN.
William Wright was before Commissioner Sehlbrede and a jury yesterday, charged
with assault and battery on the information of Charles E. Frank. Attorney
Wilcoxen appeared for the prosecution and Attorney Price for the defendant. Mr.
Frank is the agent of a company that owns the house at the corner of Johnson and
Main streets. He went there to collect the rent. Wright was about to pay it when
Mrs. Wright said she had been insulted by the many inquiries sent by the
complainant to ask when they were going to vacate. Then Wright reused to pay the
rent and an altercation ensued, in which Frank was put out of the house. The
jury return a verdict of not guilty.
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NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.
We hereby notify the public that we will not responsible for any debts
contracted in our names or any of our several properties in Skagway unless
specially contracted by either one or both of the undersigned. C. B. Sperry. A.
J. Stoel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADVERTISEMENTS.
California Restaurant. Open 24 hours! Peter Stell, Prop. Holly Street, west of
State.
Camp Rescue Hotel and Restaurant (Head of Middle Lake.) Best of mattress beds
and free storage and stabling. E. McWeste, Manager.
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Page 4.
A DONNYBROOK OF FUN AND FROLIC.
The Fire Laddies' Offering to Their Patron Saint.
FINE MASQUERADE BALL.
Green-Coated Irishmen With Alaska Shillalies Will Dance Around a Big Blarney
Stone With Chinese Dudes and Other Aliens.
Knots of men stood on the side walks of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and Holly Street
yesterday afternoon, watching men scaling the mountain slopes up near the snow
line. There were guesses as to whether these men were the railroad strikers
taking to the woods or whether they were the aristocrats of Skagway on a royal
hunt for large game such as bear and mountain goat. The latter surmise was
partly correct. They were aristocrats on a hunt, but not for live game. They
were Irishmen or make believe Irishmen, on a hunt for the wherewithal to
celebrate the birthday of St. Patrick. They were going to the masquerade ball
tonight and they were looking for shillalies that were green enough to make a
Comemaugh bog trotter blush.
Wolf the tailor was the cause of all the trouble and excitement. Hook and Ladder
company No. 1 simply projected a masquerade ball at Clancy's hall on March 17th,
a few of them having lived long enough in Alaska to know that the date was a
memorable one -- a red one in Irish history. Wolf, who is an Irishman from away
back -- as far back as the banks of the Jordan -- seized the opportunity for a
patriotic demonstration. His sewing machines rattled night and day until he had
filled his window with green coats of a Donnybrook cut, and he wore himself an
insulting smile which seemed to say:
"And will ye dare tread on the tail of a coast like o'that?"
Isadore Kaufman, who prides himself on his classical knowledge of ancient
Celtic, was a co--conspirator of Wolf, and so was Cheney the next door neighbor
to Kaufman. That is how it comes that a private bail for public purpose is made
to partake of an international character, and a gathering of all the aliens
excluded from Atlin under the recent law. The Hon. C. W. Clifford who fought for
the alien act will be there disguised as J--e M-e--n, the Dictator, and
Commodore Irving thinks he will go as the bum-boat woman, because he is of the
English Navy and wants to sing the old song, "I'm little Pinafore." Wolf the
tailor will go in sheep's clothing, and he has a little red riding hood picked
out that -- well we shall see her this evening.
Everybody will enter the hall masked. Those who are not provided with a proper
degree of hideousness by nature must purchase masks as they enter. Everybody is
going; that is, everybody who is anybody and who has obtained signed credentials
from the following committee. No others need apply:
Ladies' reception committee -- Mrs. J. S. Sperry, Mrs. M. L. Sherpy, Mrs. W.
Mattock.
Reception committee -- Captain Moore, John Kalem, E. Korach, Ed. Drew.
Committee on arrangements -- F. Lowe, I. Kaufman, H. Friedenthal, E. Korach, H.
Fraser.
That no colleen may pass under false colors, every mask will have to be raised
on entrance, that she may be scrutinized by the ladies' committee and proved to
be the person to whom the credentials were accorded. In fact, every one, will
have to prove their identity just as if they were dead and trying to get their
insurance money.
When properly identified you will be given a ticket with a number on it. Later
on all these tickets will be shaken up in a long-sleeved hat, and the prettiest
colleen in the ball room will draw one. If that one is your number you will be
given a ticket to get out of town.
Max Adler's full orchestra will make sweet music until 11:30, when the suspended
blarney stone will fall with a dull thud and all the masks will be taken off.
Then the score or more of beautiful prizes will be awarded and there will be a
merry supper.
It is bound to be a gay sight and an enjoyable affair because all the leading
people in town will be there, and no others will be admitted on any account.
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