The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-04-16
THE GuNNIsoN CRAZE.

from the ST. LOUIS Globe Democrat.
To judge from the reports which reach
us from Colorado, the mining fever is
raging with virulence unknown in the
history Of popular illusions, and owing
to the modern facilities of transporta-
ton, it is doing an amount of harm and
causing degree of suffering worse than
anything resulting from the Pixies Peak
fevel of twenty years ago, or the Cali
fornia fever of ten years earlier Then
distance and the cost of travel shut out
the great hord of needy adventures who
would naturally be attracted by the gilt
ter OF sudden and easy fortunes, and
those who succeeded in reaching the
gold fields were comparative capitalists.
But now with a railroad running direct
almost to the very heart of the new gold
discoveries, there is little expense incur
red in reaching there, and those who
have merely the means To pay their fare
are not appalled, at the prospect of land
ing peniless and helpless in place which
seems so near to civilization.
Accordingly, every man who failed to
make living in his own calling is on
his way to "the GunnisOn country" the
eagerness to get there being proportion
ed to the ignorance of those who are
joining in the mad chase. 1t is positive
ly asserted that the arrivals in Denver
average 400 per day, every mothers son
of them on the way to Gunnison, and
this is only one branch of the stream.
Half of Leadville is merely waiting for
the snow to melt before moving on; Can
yon City is becoming a real city with the
accommodations of those waiting for the
fit moment, and Buena Vista, where the
railroad ends, is crowded with a monde
script mass of fugitIves snd refugees,
with more coming. They are not only
coming in countless numbers, but they
are coming in utter recklessness of what
awaits them. A gentleman who recently
''siZed the pile" of a train load at Kan
sas City estimated that there were 500
passengers on the train, ali bound for
Gunnison, and that the wealth of the
crowd did not aggregate $500 after pay
ing for their tickets. AT Buena Vista,
where the teaming begins. the freighters
could engage 500 transfers in twenty
minutes at the market rate of "fifty cents
a day and grub" while unskilled labor,
which is abundant, would be willing to
drop the fifty cents and work for grub
alone if it could get it.
That these men are the victims of a
cruel delusion is known 10 every one ex-
cept the victims, and there is one circum-
stance which makes the delusion all the
more cruel. The SHOWS on the noun
tains have been unusually heavy this
year, and it will be two good months be-
fore the most experienced miner can do
any prospecting among the hills. While
the Mississippi valley is warming under
the sun of spring, the treasures of the
mountains are hidden under six feet of
snow in an arctic climate where the cold
marks zero every night. For man with
scanty means and scantier experience to
start for the GunnisOn country is about
as sensible a proceeding as it would be
to start skating-rink in July or a swim.
ming bath in midwinter. 1t is our duty
to warn all intending gold-seekers that
flor two months to come there is abso.
lutely nothing for them to do in the
GunnisOn country. There is no employ.
ment for labor in Colorado, and the best
thing they can do is to wait until they
hear that the SHOWS have begun to melt
If they do not, they will simply run the
risk of starving to death, or of trying
how near they can come to starvation
without dying.