Klondike gold rushers face danger in murderous Skagway

Friday, 19 February 2010 00:00

Clippings from the newspapers of February 19, 1898.

Victoria Colonist. Violent crime at Skagway, Alaska makes this a dangerous stopover for Klondikers headed for the gold fields of the Yukon. Alaska Governor Brady has written to U.S. interior secretary Bliss, seeking federal help. “News from Skagway by the steamer now in port [in Anchorage] is serious,” Brady writes. “The United States deputy marshal has been shot dead in the discharge of his duties. Another man was killed at the same time and at the same place. Recently the steamers have been carrying great lists of passengers; many of them are gamblers, thugs and lewd women from the western centres and from the cities of the Coast.”

Calgary rustlers
Calgary Herald. There is “too much cattle stealing going on in this district and a stop should be put to it, and the only way of stopping it is to impose a severe penalty on those who are found guilty,” Justice Scott tells Arthur Collins, on sentencing him a jail term of two years and nine months.

Irish kings
Toronto Telegram. A new American women’s organization, the Order of the Crown, is a slight upon Ireland, opines the Telegram in an editorial. The Order has “opened its royal doors to all American ladies who can prove that they are descended from the royal families of England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Why not Ireland? When it comes to kings, Ireland can show a full hand. Ireland has known the potato crop to fail, but the crop of kings has always been abundant.” The Order should open its doors “to all the children of Irish kings now domiciled in the U.S.A.”

Crowded streetcars
Toronto World. Serious overcrowding of Toronto’s streetcars is “a wrong” that “demands a remedy,” but deputizing conductors and motormen as special constables is not the answer, Judge Falconbridge rules in rejecting an application for an injunction. The problem occurs, noted the judge, “when an enormously congested district in the central and business part of the city is being suddenly drained off to the residential part.” The conductors and motormen already have “sufficiently onerous and responsible duties,” and empowering them to prevent people entering cars filled to capacity would result in “serious complications and possibly breaches of the peace.” The judge found that there was a violation of terms under which the city granted the franchise to the railway company, but held that only the city, not ratepayers, have the standing to institute legal action.

Railway war
Winnipeg Tribune. The Canadian Pacific Railway and its American competitors are engaged in a price war for passengers. Rates have been cut by as much as 75 per cent. Northern Pacific Railway offers first class travel from Tacoma, Washington to Montreal for $80, and second class for $40. The Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Soo railways offer travel from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the west coast for $10. CPR, apparently, started the price war, and vows to match any new prices offered by its competitors.