News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-04-17
IMPATIENT GOLD HUNTERS
A MOTLEY THRONG WAITING FOR
THE SNOW TO MELT IN IDAHO.

| IMPATIENT GOLD HUNTERS
A MOTLEY THRONG WAITING FOR
THE SNOW TO MELT IN IDAHO.
| Dreams of Fortune that Make Men Face
Every Hardship- Overlapping Claims that
May Lead to BIOOdshed in the Spring.
A letter from the reported newly dis
covered gold fields of Idaho says: Such
| a motley procession as has been pouring
into this and neighboring camps all win
ter was never seen before in all the long
history of mining excitements. The
hungry, half-naked, and ragged, as well
as the we'll TODD, have been coming in a
steady stream, enduring hardships which
never can be adequately described, and
surmounting obstacles which might well
be regarded as insuperabIe.
Nothing but prospective riches could
have induced these men to undergo the
fortunes which they have experienced
and must still experience in this most
uninviting of all climes. The dreary
days and nights passed on the foot trail
over mountains and through narrow de-
files and gorges are hardly more terrible
than the everyday experience of the adj
venturers who have already reached the
goal. There are thirty or forty rude
cabins here, each containing but one big
room, with no windows, holes in the sides
serving for purposes of light and venti-
lation, and on the floors of these struc-
lures the population, wrapped in blank
cts, sleeps and dreams of wealth.
The visions the dreamers behold in
their uneasy slumbers may best be
judged from the air castles which they
build in their waking hours. Packed in
these huts like sardines, shoulder to
shoulder, sometimes thirty or forty or
fifty of them on one floor, the men,
whom neither Arctic SHOWS or Alpine
terrors could dismay. sleep nightly as
uncomplainingly as though supplied
with all the comforts of the completest
home. 1t is dreary thing waiting for
the SHOWS to melt, revealing what every
man believes will prove the richest gold
deposit on the continent. Every few
days there is fresh fall of two or three
inches, which is not much when it is
considered that the old snow is from five
to seven feet deep on the level, and in
some places three times as deep, but
which is discouraging, nevertheless.
| When the sun shines and warm wind
| blows, every one is confident that the
| thaw is about to begin, but all know that
there can be no thaw in this country be-
fore May. Men grown weary of waiting
set out early in the morning determined
to overcome the obstacles which winter
has thrown in their way, but, after hours
of labor with pick and shovel have
demonstrated that the ramparts of ice
and snow are practically impregnable,
they beat sulien retreat.
There are men here with money, and
it is a fortunate thing for many poor
| fellow that there are. Scores of played
out refugees, some of them hard men,
some Fmerely unfortunate, and many
| luckless, half crazed, INSTRUMENTATION
adventures, who have made the rounds
of all the camps only to be forced by
starvation to keep on the move, are
here. They have no money, and most
of them have no clothing suitable for
this climate. How they managed to get
here at all is mystery. Nothing so
clearly shows the minimizing and unrea-
soning nature of these great mining ex-
elements as the blind faulty of such
characters. The thought that after all
the hardships on the trail they might
reach the promised land only to starve
or freeze to death never seems to have
entered their heads. They come stray
Cling in with no more baggage than
Tennessee tramp carries in midsummer,
out at knees and elbows, suspiciously
thin at the waist, and with features
pinched and blistered by the cold. There
may be future United States Senators
and millionaires among them, but it
does not look so now. Some of them
have been rich once, twice, or three
times, and most of them have friends
and relatives at the East who know in a
vague sort of way that they are ''out
West" They are after fortunes of fabu-
lous proportions, and expect to find
them some day all in lump without
much exertion.
There are no stopping places on the
terrible Trout Creek foot TRAIL and when
men with no supplies except the few
crusts they carry in their pockets start
out on that well-beaten path they must
keep moving day and night until their
destination has been reached. One i'm
pecunious but ingenious fellow with a
fondness for warming himself, and with
a large stock of matches on hand,
stopped every few miles and built him
self a fire. Others coming after him
found the embers, and, putting fresh
fuel on, renewed the blaze. These fires
have now been burning along the trail
for weeks, no understanding having been
arrived at in the matter, but every man
consulting his own interest. This fact
better than anything else will show the
incessant nature of the movement to-
ward the Coeur d'Alenes. The fires
guide the procession by day, and at
night they illuminate the lonely noun
tains for miles around.
These impecunious fortune hunters
must work or starve, and as there is
plenty of money here for the develop
ment of the camp, they find remunera-
tive employment as wood choppers and
builders. Many of them are weak and
sickly, and the axes which they swing
seem in their bony hands instruments
with which they are unfamiliar; but
they toll on uncomplainingly. They
would regard such employment at the
East as humiliating beyond measure; but |
here it is merely incidental to the extern
sive mining operations which they are all
carrying on in their minds. More than
one of these half-clad pioneers will re-
ceive miners burial before the SHOWS
disappear.
The saloons, all with gambling attach
ments, are running full blast day and |
night. Utilized. like the rest of the |
buildings here for sleeping purposes at
night, the men who stretch their weary |
frames on the boards of the saloons do
so in utter disregard of the presence of
drinkers and gamblers. As the night
wanes. and the crowds at the bar or the
board tables diminish, the sleepers
gradually encroach upon the remaining
space, until finally the restless spirits,
who are never ready to quit. are COM
PEELED to continue their carousals or
games over the bodies of the sleepers on
the floor. Any place which has a roof !
to shelter it from the inclemency of the !
night is good enough to sleep in, and
fortunate is he who finds plank not al
ready occupied, no matter where it may
be situated.
This entire section has been staked off |
into claims time and again during the
winter, and when the snow goes off |
there is going to be the hveliest kind of
fighting over the various locations. In |
numerous cases claims are held by |
armed men, and any attempt at en-
croachment would result in hostilities at |
once; but all over the supposed gold
country one claim has been entered on
the top of another until ineXtricable con-