Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1900 — CAPE NOME MILLIONAIRES. [ARTICLE]

CAPE NOME MILLIONAIRES.

They Are Cutting Wide Swaths in California At Present. “Some of the most nmusing features of life on the Pacific coats just at present.” said a California man at one of , the hotels, “are being furnished by the Cape Nome millionaires. You can bump against them almost anywhere in 'Frisco, and their strange adventures are the theme of half the current stories about town. I ought to explain,” continued the Californian, “that anybody who conies down from Nome is immediately rated as a millionaire. He may not have the million with him, but, if not, he owns claims ‘worth at least that amount’ on the fabled tundra, where the moss is rooted in solid mineral. Most of the lucky miners who have reached the city brought along anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 apiece. With very few exceptions they are ignorant men of the laboring class, and they have tried industriously to put their Meas of high life into immediate execution. “A big Scandinavian ex-sallor, who had a bag of dust worth SIB,OOO. put up at the Palace for several days, but was so intimidated by the surrounding magnificence and haughty servants that he was afraid to ask for anything and nearly starved. At last he got desperate and rushed down to a ten-cent hashery, where he ordt. “d four plates of bam and eggs and paralyzed the tough’ waiter with a S2O tip. Still another happened to like the tune a curbstone organ grinder was inflicting on the public and promptly bought the instrument, including a very lively monkey Later on he paid a Chinaman to carry the outfit away. “Those are cases I know about myself. A really distressing affair amidst all the coinedj- of new riches was that of an old miner who had been in Alaska ever since ’BS and finally struck pay dirt at Nome. He brought back about $7,500, and, the first night in town, was lured Into a dive, where somebody picked his pocket and stole every cent he had. The poor fellow hadn't even bought a new suit of clothes. All the fruit of fifteen years of incredible hardship had vanished like a dream. -New Orleans Tlmes-Demoerat.