THE KING OF KLONDIKF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 18, 4 May 1899, Page 28

THE KING OF KLONDIKF.

Mr. Alexander Macdonald. ' The King of Klondike,' and the reputed possessor of twenty-seven millions sterling, was married at the Catholic Church, Brixton, to Miss Margaret Chisholm, eldest daughter of Superintendent Chisholm, of the River Police. The adventurous career of the bridegroom, and the almost equally romantic circumstances under which he first met Mi«s Chisholm, attracted many to the ceremony besides the friends of the contracting parties. Mr. Macdonald and bis bride afterwards journeyed to Bournemouth for their honeymoon. Thence they will depait shortly for Klondike. Born thirry-i me year* n»o, in the town of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, of Scot'.ifh parents M"r. Macdonald is described by a correspondent as having lei lor twenty years the bturdy life cf a settler. It wa3 when in his twentieth year that be first turned his attention to mining. Hearing of the success of the silver mines of Mexico, at that time the most productive in the world, he first bent his steps in that direction, and there, by dint of hard labour and steady perseverance, he soon succeeded in acquiring a fortune. The very richness of his mines, however, proved his ruin. The immense quantities of silver put forth annually by the minea of the world gradually led to such a depreciation in its value that he was finally compelled to realise at a loss. It was at this time, early in 1895, that he resolved to go to the goldfields of Alaska. Dawson City at that time was nothing more than a collection of huts. Far from being a city, as it js now, of over thirty thousand inhabitants, it was a place where meat sold at 4s a pound and eggs cost 2s ea ;h, and vegetables were unprocurable. At the end of barely three years Mr. Macdonald found himself the owner of no less than seventy-eight mines, including those of the famous Eldorado and Shookum groups, with a yearly output of above a million pounds, and valued by the Government assessors at £27,000,000. Instead of allowing his good fortune to elate hirr, and lead him into foolish extravagances, Mr. Macdonali is reported to have become still more abstemious, and displayed in greater prominence hi 9 benevolent disposition. One of his first acts was to rebuild, at the cost of ;?o,Ooodol, the Catholic Church at Dawson City, of which he had been » staunch member. About this time, also, he resolved to leave the cold climate of Alaska and visit England. Armed with an introduction to a Scotchman resident in London, given him ry one of his companions, he arrived in the metropolis early in December last, taking up his quarters at the Hotel Cecil. After visiting his parents in Scotland, and placing i them far beyond the reach of poverty, he decided to find out j Superintendent Chisholm, of the River Police, to whom the letter lof introduction was addressed. He visited Mr. Chisholm's house 1 at Brixton, fell in love with his eldest daughter, and married her.