General Horace Porter, president of the Grant Memorial Association, made an address, giving the history of the crowning work of the association, rendering acknowledgment to those who had given valuable help, and closing with a masterly and eloquent tribute to the great citizen whom all had gathered to honor.
THE KLONDIKE GOLD EXCITEMENT.
There was much excitement throughout the country in 1897 over the reported discoveries of rich deposits of gold in the Klondike, as the region along the Yukon River in Alaska is called. These reports were discredited at first, but they were repeated, and proof soon appeared that they were based upon truth. In the autumn of 1896, about fifty miners visited the section, led thither by the rumors that had come to them. None of the men carried more than his outfit and a few hundred dollars, but when they returned they brought gold to the value of from $5,000 to $100,000 apiece, besides leaving claims behind them that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In July, 1897, a party of miners arrived at Seattle from the Klondike, bringing with them nuggets and gold-dust weighing more than a ton and worth a million and a half of dollars. Besides this, other men continually came back with such quantities of the precious metal that it was apparent that not only were the reports justified, but, what is the exception in such cases, the whole truth had not been told.
READY FOR THE TRAIL.
The natural consequence was that a rush set in for the Klondike, which is the name of a tributary of the Yukon, and flows through the richest gold fields, where the mining days of early California were repeated. Dawson City was founded at the mouth of the Klondike, and in a short time had a population of 5,000. Before the year closed, 500 claims were located, with more taken up daily. As was inevitable, there was much suffering, for the Yukon is closed by ice during the greater part of the year, and the winter climate is of Arctic severity. The most productive fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in the British provinces known as the Northwest Territories. While many gathered fortunes in the Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and suffering, returned to their homes poorer than when they left them.
SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA.
The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account is given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to set forth some historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a proper understanding of the story of the war itself.