The Scranton Tribune

THE KLONDIKE BOOMS AGAIN
Eli Gage's Estimate of the Output of Gold Next Year.

THE UNTOUCHED MILLIONS
Fascinating Tales of Klondike's Wealth Are Related by the Son of Secretary Gage--Attempts Will Be Made to Navigate the Yukon--Mail Facilities.

Butte, Mont., Nov. 9.--Eli J. Gage, of Chicago, son of Secretary Gage, and auditor of the American Trading and Transportation company, passed through Butte today on his return from Dawson City.

He says that the reports of the wealth of the Klondike have not been exaggerated and that the first boat down in the spring will bring at least $15,000,000 in gold. Mr. Gage looks for other discoveries in Alaska equally as rich as the Klondike. He says there are at present about 7,000 persons in Dawson City, and he predicts that there will be a great deal of suffering, from the fact that many men went there without sufficient provisions to last them through the winter. The owners of two stores had stopped taking orders for provisions before he left, having sold out their entire stock. The stock in other stores was quite low.

Nanaimo, B. C., Nov. 9.--The steamer George W. Elder has arrived here. Among her passengers was Donald Nicholson, who left Dawson Sept. 23. Mr. Nicholson says the food problem was a most perplexing one when he left Dawson. Seven steamers were then overdue. Nicholson says the Skookum Gulch proved an absolute failure outside of one claim. He believes the country to be rich, but that it can never be properly developed until provisions are cheaper. Work is plenty at $1.50 per hour.

The gold commissioner and mounted police do not consider it advisable, under existing circumstances, to collect the twenty per cent. royalty and to reserve alternate claims for the government; the miners are not required to take out licenses, but have to pay $15 for staking claims, which pays for surveying and recording, and $100 for the claim the second year.