Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-01-28

Knnaos and Nebraska Geld Mines.
We have observed Of late disposition
manilbatsd by some Of our western journals
to patf he so-called gold mines Of Kansas
and Nebsaska, Pixies Peak, Cherry Creek,
&C., and to publish every letter that is calcu.
lated to fan tho flame and increase the excite
mont There may be nothing wrong in this
We arc all liable to DO led by excitement, and
writers for newspapers may IS naturally go
with the current as others. We propose
briefly too look at few of the notices, which
may induce some to exaggcrate, and others to
put in circulation only such letters as will
subserve their objects. First-wc might say
that the whole west wants settlers, and every
town and city on the Mississippi and Missouri
rivers is expecting some benefit from the gold
excitement st. Louis claims to be the best
starting point on the Mississippi river, and
her papers publish regularly, every week, the
best letters from the gold region. Keokuk,
Burlington, Muscatine, Davenport, Clinton
and Dubuque each hold out inducements for
einigrants to fit out at their respective places,
and it is even whispered among the wise heads
that it would be suicidal to discourage the
excitement, even il it prove a humbug
We have before US Kansas City paper,
claiming to be 1.-THE first paper to give the in
telligence of the new gold discoveries to the
world, and as Kansas City is the starting
point for emigration, and now being the CEN
tire Of the excitement" &c. Here follows
numerous letters from the gold region, and a
map Of the country, &C., but in all these let
tiers we do not find one that would satisfy a
cool-headcd man that gold could be found
there in sufficient quantity to make it an OBJ
ject to 50 and dig for it. One letter writer
takes the ground that he saw numh,;,r Of
men working at . Certain place near the Platte
h'"ci. and inquired of them how they sue
cceded, but did not get any very satisfactory
answers hence, he concluded that they must
be getting gold in abundance and were afraid
to tell the truth for fear of inducing too many
rivals for adjoining claims. That we consider,
about as good an argument in favor Of there
being an abundance of gold there as we have
found in any letter We have perused A great
many letters state that the writer's have not
yet dug much gold, but from what they can
learn, they are satisfied that there is gold
there; that they think but little has yet been
obtained, but they have no doubt but richer
diggings will be discovered next season.
One letter writer from Omaha, the capital
of Nebraska, writes as follows. Hear him:
Hundreds will 80 from here early in the
spring, and hundreds arc writing for inform
alton from all parts. Thousands and tens of
thousands will pass and outfit here; this is
the nearest point to the mines from the Mis-
souri, by $50 to 200 miles, Ifyou have
friends who wish to invest in real estate, now,
this winter, is the time; many here are sell
ing at sacrifice to get money to go to the
mines, either to die or trade" We do not
doubt the existence of gold in that region,
but we do doubt its being found in any con-
siderable quantities. We would, therefore,
call upon the young men in this vicinity, Gf
any of their heads have been partly turned,)
to wait before they sacrifice their time, their
money, and perhaps their lives, until they
can have time to know more; wait until you
see one man, at least, come back with full
pocket, which you have not seen yet, nor
heard of; not one of all that have been there,
or that are there now, pretcnds to have made
enough even to pay him for his trouble,
much less, "a pile" as Californians used to
express it.