National Republican., 1883-08-22

for this is new lumber camp, and the prep.
arations are almost completed for q short
run this fall TO supply lumber and shingles
for the contemplated buildings and improve
monts at Junction The sun is almost out Of
sight now, although 1t is not yet o'clock,
for the mountains are high and Deer Creek
canon is not more than 100 yards wide,
consequently days arc short. The merry
tinkle of the old COW bell, which Is being
manipulated by the cook, Billy, summons us
TO supper and without a sigh we desert the
glories of the setting sun and unanimously
repair to the tent, where ample justice is
done to n meal cooked in Billys best STYLE
And such bread 'Twould excite the envy
of many woman who imagines that her
bread cannot be beaten.
After supper comes long chat with our
host ON politics and old friends in faraway
Washington, tho city VIC both love so well,
and which we would never have left had not
the "demon of gold" taken possession of us.
We have no money to loan yet. My old bunk
is called into requisition, and "sleep, balmy
sleep " is now in order.
Daylight finds us all out of bed, for we
have many an hours work before us to-day,
and as there arc indications of its being
warm, we endeavor TO finish our tramping OK
cursion before old "Sol" makes pedestrian
iZing uncomfortably oppressive. Fifteen
minutes walk from camp and we are stand
ing on the dump of the "Ortie," and for tho
next five hours we have ore in sight, as pros
pect after prospect is met with, some chunks
very low grade, some promising, and a few first
class, but in one respect all stand on level,
| for, until the prospectors fully understand
the difference that exists between tho value
of newly opened prospect and that of o
well developed mine, this camp will be prac-
tically dead. There is continuous grumble
| in the camp, "No capital coming in" and as
/ Of m "a
kept up to such ridiculously high figures, tho
| capital will not come in. This error on tho
| part of the miners has retarded the progress
of tho camp in o very marked degree. IL has
! done more, for to-day the financial condition
is worse than it was the summer after its dis
covery Every man who finds little vein of
galena imagines that nothingiless than for
tune ought to reward a weeks work at pick
and shovel never thinking for a moment of
the risk purchaser runs, or the
largo sum he would have to expend
before his prospect would become mine.
Similar inconsdcrate action on Wood river
| this summer has held back the developments
that are so necessary to the success of new
camp. Not only do tho present owners dam
age their own interests by their refusal to sell
for reasonable sums, but thousands of honest
struggling men, who came to the territory to
obtain employment suffer untold miserics
for where there is no capital there can be but
|
day, there are hundreds of men who would
work merely for their bare subsistence, but
who cannot get 1t even on those terms. More
than one Washington boy has tramped wearily
over the Yankee Fork, Kinnik- -Kinnik and
Challis districts, seeking for work and finding
it not, until, sick at heart, from the long do
| ferred hope, with no money and in strange
land, he manages to crawl to the railway
and by "hook or crook" make his way Il
something like the civilization he has beer
accustomed to, and where he has a chance tt
live.
Do not let any one suspect that am en-
deavoring to cry down Idaho, for my inter
ests in this territory are too extensive for any
such procedure. / am only trying to place
clearly before the young men of Washington
the risks they run in leaving, as many Of
them do, good positions and comfortable home!
for the uncertainty that exists at present in
Idaho. l regret exceedingly the hasty, but
not in all instances, unprincipled action o.
several members of the journalistic fraternity
one man especially (whose every interest i:
served by extensive immigration), who has
done more than ALL besides to damage the repu.
| tation Wood river has been endeavorfnf
to build up, and he did it by writing of its
many camps in such glowing terms that
thousands of staid men deserted everything
like regular labor to make instantaneous for
tunes in such q land of mineral us he described
IL to be, where all who came might find valua
BILE leads awaiting their arrival, requiring bu
a few weeks work to prepare them for thu
market, and then-millionaires for life Sucl
conduct on the part of any one is nnprinci
pied in the highest degree, and know q scor
of men who would, by the 'laying on o
hands" seriously damage the personal ap
pearance of the aforesaid writer if they coul,
only meet him.
What we want in this territory are men o
energy, ability, and capital. For them Their
are opportunities innumerable and they cal
do well, but for those without means to COM
to a country already overcrowded with per
sons similarly circumstanced is almost folly
They may succeed; many have who started
without dollar to spin, but they ar,
u very small minority. This is
new country and our poor laws" are a!
yet crude, so we are unable to properl,
care for the hundreds of helpless poverty
stricken men now in our territory brough
here by the Misrepresentation of n few shorI
sighted but verbose individuals who imagine
that "boom" of any kind is preferable to nj
boom at all, and through this mistaken no
tion thousands are deceived. They COM
here, and very short stay sufiicies to shov
them the reality of their position, and to clea
away the mist that, unknown to them, hat
cloudod their senses. They leave us, and, i
possible, return to their homes, cursng will
one common curse the country and the mel
who enticed them thither, thus doing an in
justice to a striving annd soon-to-be prosper
ouS territory. G.. III. III.