Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1898 — FLEE FROM DAWSON. [ARTICLE]

FLEE FROM DAWSON.

THE MOST SEVERE WINTER FOR YEARS’IN YUKON. Men and Women Striving to Reach Civilization in the Face of Privations—Opening of Congress Fails to Disturb Business in the Least. g Exodus for the Coast. The steamer Rosalie brings news that an exodus of men, with a large sprinkling of women, is taking place from Dawson City. John Halverson says: “There are nearly 1,000 men strung along the Yukon between Dawson and Chilkoot pass. Mixed with them are possibly seventy-five women. All are making a fight for their lives in an effort to reach the coast. I had a good dog team, plenty of grub and also a well-filled sack. Consequently 1 came along booming, passing many who had started from Dawson ten days ahead of me. Many left Dawson short of provisions, and with little or no money. It seems to me certain that many of these unfortunates will die on the trail. Some will make Skaguay all right. This winter is proving the most severe experienced in Yukon for years. Several severe storms have raged in the interior already. These fleeing Klondikers will arrive at Skaguay in squads for a month to come.” SEASONABLE WEATHER HELPS. Big November Trade but a Step Toward Something Better. R. G. Dun & Co.’s weekly review of trade says: “The most significant thing this week has been the entire absence of the customary nervous fright before or after the meeting of Congress, the President's message and the treasurer’s report. No one showed the least alarm, and nobody could find a reason for any. Money and stocks and grain markets moved on exactly as if the Government were automatic, certain to do or say no more than the people had already decided and expected, and so the gradual betterment since October continues. There is, a larger demand for products in nearly all the great industries, larger export demand for foreign needs, a more healthy domestic demand since seasonable weather arrived, and a comforting conviction that November business, the biggest ever done in this country in any month, was but a step toward something better. This week’s failures have been 248 in the United States, against 312 last year, and 22 in Canada, against 29 last year.” IN PRISON j HIS VICTIM ALIVE. John Tongass Serving a Sentence for Murder Never Committed. John Tongass. a convict in the Columbus (Ohio) penitentiary, was reported for fighting the other morning. During the investigation Assistant Deputy Wells asked him what he was sent to prison for. Tongass answered: “I was convicted for murder in the second degree, and no person knows better than you do that I am not guilty of the crime for which I was convicted.” “Why, I never saw you before in my life,” replied the deputy. “That is true, bitt you knew the boy I was convicted of killing, and you know that he is alive and well,” continued Tongass. “I was convicted for killing Albert Van Riper, of Kenton.” Young Van Riper is well known to Deputy Wells, who asserts that he is alive and working in Kenton. He recently visited Columbus. Tongass was convicted on circumstantial evidence. A boy traveling with him disappeared, and supposedly human bones were found in his campfire afterward. He has been in the prison since 1890.

Havoc in Brooklyn. With a noise resembling the explosion of tons of dynamite a forty-eight inch main of the Brooklyn (N. Y.) water works burst. In an instant over seven feet of the large conduit had broken away and the water rushed forth as from a broken dam. Over twenty blocks in the Twentyeighth Ward were covered by the rush of waters. It is almost impossible to estimate the damage done, but it is believed that not less than SBOO,OOO will cover the actual loss. Murdered by Train Robbers. Passenger train. No. 1. on the Choctaw. Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, was held up by robbers just as the train pulled into the station at McLeod. I. T. Conductor Wright and the station agent were both fatally shot in the tight which ensued. The robbers final many shots into the train, but none of the passengers was hit. The robbers secured S2OO from the station safe. The robbers were all masked. Law for indigent Immigrants. Dr. Wines, secretary of the Illinois State Board of Charities, has received a letter from the commissioner general of immigration at Washington, stating that any alien immigrant who may become a public charge within one year from the date of landing in the United States shall be returned to the country in which he belongs at the expense of the immigrant fund of the United States Government. Reciprocal Treaty with Switzerland. The governments of the United States and Switzerland have entered into n reciprocal treaty similar to that effected between this country and Erance last May. William Black la Dead. The death is announced of William Black, the novelist, at his home in Brighton. England, at the age of 57 years. Rpnninh Treaty is Sinned. The treaty of peace between the United States and Spain has been signed at Paris. Accident to a Wnrxliip. The battle ship Massachusetts, less than an hour out of her berth in the Brooklyn navy yard, struck the bottom or some obstruction off Governor's Island, and was taken back to the navy yard with her bottom stove in and three compartments tilled with water. Death of General Garcia. Gen. Calixto Garcia, the distinguished Cuban warrior nnd leader and the head of the commission elected by the Cuban Assembly to visit this country, died at Washington, of pneumonia. Largest Thcnter in the World. A contract has been made by Alexander Comstock, of New York, with the trustees of the St. Louis exposition building to turn the vast music hall into a first-class theater. The mammoth hall has the largest stage in the city and seats 3,750 people.