Klondike Hardships

KLONDIKE HARDSHIPS

PAUL R. PERRY WRITES FROM DAWSON.

The last letter received from Paul Perry, who has been for some months in the Klondike is dated Oct. 5, from Dawson, where he was located. He had built his winter cabin. He had staked several claims and got out some gold from the surface but the water had interfered with his going deeper. He was suffering from a lame back and in consequence had deferred the amassing of his fortune until later. He tells many stories of hardship. One night while out alone on a prospecting tour he staked a claim and slept in an abandoned cabin. During the night he was taken sick. The next day he felt unable to move and grew rapidly worse. His provisions were giving out and after the next night although not well enough to do so, he felt compelled to return to Dawson with his 40 pound pack on his back. So all alone he started and fainted away twice before he reached Dawson. When one goes out to prospect in that country, he has to take with him not only his tools but his tent, his store, his sleeping apparatus, his food, etc., so that he has quite a load to carry.

Since Mr. Perry wrote, Dawson was burned on Oct. 15, with the loss of half a million dollars. The fire was caused by one dissolute woman in a saloon throwing a lighted lamp at another woman of like character. The saloon was next door to the newly erected postoffice and that building went with the others.