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In The News
The Klondike Nugget
Dawson, Y.T.
Vol. 1, No. 44
Saturday, November 19, 1898.
Page 3.
ST. MARY'S.
St. Mary's hospital is not getting very many vacant beds as the report
for the week ending November 16 will show. In the seven days there were
26 new patients admitted to the institution and 25 discharged.
The deaths were: Henry Marsh, of Glastonbury, England; Walter Launchbury,
of Ohamainus, B.C.; and Leonard St. Onge, of St. Philip, Quebec. Marsh
was 35 years of age, Launchbury, 25, and St. Onge, 21.
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LARCENY INCREASING.
Complaints of petty larceny are coming in with rather monotonous
regularity. Goods are being stolen from in front of stores, caches are
being robbed and even wood-piles are suffering at the hands of the small
thief.
E. M. Andrews, whose cabin is located on top of the hill in rear of
town, lost a large job lot of goods including twine, sack of sugar, an
axe and several other articles. The articles had been stored with the
remainder of his outfit in the cache near his cabin. The theft was not
discovered until sometime after it had been committed and hence no clue
to the perpetrators is yet in evidence.
James Saunders had a sleigh load of wood stolen from in front of his
cabin last Friday night.
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SAVED HIS BACON.
Frank Howard, ex-comedian and vocalist, has a custom of keeping his dogs
in a back kitchen on cold nights and that custom saved his bacon one
night last week. His cache is back of the kitchen and Frank was awakened
in the middle of the night by a terrific barking of his canine friends.
Jumping hurriedly from his bed the householder opened the door between
the kitchen and cache and the dogs rushed out into the darkness. There
was a hurried scampering of strange feet and then all was still. An
examination revealed his own sled taken from the hook and loaded down
with provisions as if for a house-moving. Frank secured his nearly lost
provisions and fed his dogs an extra allowance of his saved bacon,
thankful to have it left to feed to them.
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Page 4.
THE MAN WHO SHOT COWIE.
Interviewed by the "Nugget" for the Benefit of its Readers.
The Case of the Prisoner and History of the his Life - Cowie, a
200-Pound Man of Great Strength.
Thursday afternoon a Nugget representative called upon P.C. Burnett at
the jail to see how he stands his long confinement awaiting his trial
for the murder of Jim Cowie on board the Ora at the foot of White Horse
rapids last August. The prisoner was pleased to meet the scribe and
under advice from his attorneys' Pattullo & Ridley, was most circumspect
in his conversation whenever it veered towards the fatal day which cost
Cowie his life. It will be remembered that Burnett was purser of the
Nora and Cowie steward of the Ora.
The general impression of the passengers and crew who brought the news
to Dawson and whose story was published in lieu of anything more
substantial was that Cowie was a very inoffensive old man and Burnett a
quarrelsome young one who carried a gun habitually. From various persons
who knew Cowie and who are now in Dawson we learn that the deceased was
a perfect Hercules for strength and a terror to all with whom he came
into fistic encounter which at one time occurred very frequently.
Fifteen years ago he owned a saloon in Victoria, B.C. and was a heavy
drinker. Under the influence of liquor he would fight like one possessed
of a demon, and, with his athletic build and enormous strength, it was
not infrequently that he would "clean out" a whole crowd of fellows in
short order. A few years ago he quit drinking and acquired a reputation
for big heartedness and good fellowship. Nevertheless, the men who
occasionally met him
in encounter all had good reasons afterwards to remember Cowie's
fighting qualities.
The case for the defense is not known as the prisoner and his attorneys
believe it unwise for the man on trial to talk. From other sources it
would appear that there are circumstances in the case which do not show
Burnett in as bad a light as popularly conceived. The revolver with
which Cowie was killed was the property of the boat on which Burnett was
purser and is one of the kind furnished by the company to each of its
pursers and is usually kept in the office. One of Burnett's duties was
to visit the boat below the rapids and assume charge of whatever dust or
other valuables were going south and it is supposed that the revolver
was carried merely to protect the valuables and gold he expected to
carry back with him over the trail to the head of the canyon. On this
occasion the company had an office tent on the bank and there the two
men met. The story is that Cowie accused Burnett of telling certain
things about him and proceeded to punish him most severely. Burnett is a
small man, badly ruptured and had the purser's revolver with him yet
refrained from using it though his eyes were almost ruined in the
unequal fray.
Burnett had still to sign receipts, etc., and is supposed to have gone
aboard the boat for that purpose. Cowie had preceded him and in a second
assault was shot and died next day.
Burnett wanted a trial at once while witnesses off the altercation were
plenty, but there was no court in the territory and so he was bound over
to the first sitting of a criminal court which should have jurisdiction.
His attorneys have applied to be heard at once, but at the request of
the prosecution the case has been held over until December.
Burnett is 46 years of age and weighs about 140 or 150 pounds when in
good flesh. He talks freely of his past which has been a life of active
employment. He has been married 21 years and his wife accompanied him as
far as Tagish but returned to the outside just after the calamity which
confines him behind the bars. Born in Louisiana he followed steam
boating, merchandising and live stock dealing until 1890, when he came
west to the state of Washington. Real estate dealing and ranching
occupied his time until he ran for sheriff of Whatcom county on the
Democratic ticket in '93 and was defeated. Until he started for Dawson
last fall he has been the postmaster of Sumas and general manager and
bookkeeper of the Puget Sound Sawmill and Shingle Co. From the day he
landed in Skaguay until the day of his arrest he was in active
employment, except when sickness prevented.
Long confinement is not conducive to either good health nor good looks
and though the prisoner by his own statement has received the very best
of treatment he complains of a considerable degree of ill-health.
Naturally, he complains at the long delay in getting a trial, for he
fears his last witnesses may follow the balance up the river to the
outside.
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CALLED IT OFF.
The race to the coast by Messrs. Acklin and Woods to commence next
Monday is off. Each man already had up a forfeit of $250, but Woods has
been losing health for some days and had to abandon all thoughts of a
race. Mr. Acklin was entitled to the forfeit money but generously
returned it to the sick man.
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Mr. Geo G. Cantwell, late of Juneau, Alaska, is doing the outside
photographic work for E. A. Hegg.
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MAIL FOR FORTY-MILE.
Private mail for Forty-Mile and Eagle City will leave Thursday morning,
November 17. Leave letters with Nugget Express in the Phoenix.
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