Idaho semi-weekly world. (Idaho City, Boise County, Idaho Territory) 1867-1868, 1867-06-08
THE LEnrH1 EXCITEMENT.

always cause rush to the locality Indicated
Men will sell out or abandon really good ant
Tasting claims, from which they have regularly
extracted from good wages to big pay, and, re
gardIess of the advice of friends. or the state
ments of persOns whose information is founded
upon facts, they will rush to the newly heralded
digoings. In the face of reason, of facts, Of
their own past doleful and costly experience
many will repeat the folly of rushing, at every
sacrifce-of money, health and life itself-to
the next excitement which is started. We re-
member the "Trinidad excitement, of 1850
then the "Gold Bluff" the "Gold Lake, the
q Kern River" the "Okanagan, the "Frazer
River the "Goose Lake" [well named, and
last though not least-skipping mention of sew
eral others-that of the "Wind River'' [also
appropriately termed of last year. Now, let
US ask miners who know the history of any Of
these 'excitements," what has been the con-
sequence in nearly every instance Were not
the poor dupes who chased after them wretch
edly, fearfully, most painfully deluded, and did
| it not take many of them years of hard labor
to recover the losses they sustained in their
! idle pursuit, while many more have not ac-
quired what they lost
Let men reckon over the whole list of these
"excitements," and then reflect upon how
many of the number have had anything like
fair or actual foundation. We venture the as
sertion that in every ten cases there has been
nine absolute failures, and the tenth has not in
each instance been success. Who now hears
of Trinidad, of Gold Bluff, of Kern River, of
Okanagan, or of Frazer River as attractive or
extensive, or profitable gold placers? True,
there is still gold found in and about each
named locality, but they are barely Chinese
diggngs in the aggregate. And Gold Lake
and Goose Lake, and Wind River, were all so
many egregious humbugs.
Lemhi is the present +" excitement" and from
Montana, Washington, and parts of Idaho,
from Oregon and California, the people are
fiocking there. Let us ask those WHO have not
gone, but who propose to go, upon what do they
base their reasons for leaving diggings known
to be good, aye, and rich and enduring. to rush
off to Lemhi! We have as good opportunities
of learning the real condition of things in that
region as any of them enjoy, and much better
than most of them, because we are weekly, al
most daily, shown private letters from persons
there to friends here, and in these letters the
belief or actual information of the writers is
impaired mot for the public eye, not for pop
ular effect, not to deceive; but to inform the
person addressed exactly of the condition of
affairs which exists there Besides these, we
see letters published in the papers of Montana,
Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada,
and by our Idaho contemporaries From this
mass of information. which flows to us through
so many and distinctive channels, it is reason
able to believe that our information is as good
as that of any person here with regard to the
character of the Lemhi region. And, upon the
information we have, we believe there is very
frail basis for the excitement That gold is
found there we do not doubt; but we do not
believe the diggings will average wages or that
they are enduring
We hear of persons who are there, engaged
in merchandising, saloon keeping, in restaur-
ants, and similar occupations which are the
better maintained as the population increases,
who write to friends and advise them to hasten
to Leesburg This is no indication, however,
that the mines are rich. Leesburg is not the
mines. People must have food and they will
drink, they need clothes and they will indulge
in extravagant habits, and especially will they
do so in new camps. They all take in more or
less money with them, and so long as the rush
continues and the money lasts, even though not
a dollar be dug from the earth, the trader, the
saloon or restaurant keeper, and others who
live by trade, will prosper. If The mines fail
the few who have received the money brought
in by the miners will have done we'll, notwith4
standing; but the many miners whose means
have been exhausted in getting there, and in
subsistence and expenses while there, will sDr-
roWfnly and repiningly, but all too late, have
the memorable fact presented to them that
worthless claims and empty pockets in Lenh
are not comfortable concomitants in life.
All this may not prove true of Lemhi. but
late news from there confirms us in the belief
that the mines will not average wages Letters
from persons there to dear friends here have
been shown to us, but which we are not per-
mitted to publish, and in them the writers tell
Of working claims which they had early taken
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