St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-27
IN THE GOLD FIELDS.

An Eloquent Description of the People Who
I,habjt tie Golden Clutches of the COeur
d'dIene.
A correspondent, writing from Eagle City,
gives the following picture Of the population
of the gulches:
Among the 5000 people who have thus
early found their way to the CGur d'Alene
mines large proportion are business men
They are men of means, of energy, of intel
ligence who come here to obtain the first OPP
portunities of investment, which are so de-
sirabe il all new camps. They are shrewd
thoroughly informed men, who eagerly com
pete with each other for the numerous bust
ness prizes which are to be drawn in the
great mining excitement lottery.
There are hundreds of laborers here.
Hewers of wood, and men who are content
TO earn honest wages for honest work. They
are stawart, sinewy fellows, who toll early
and late, in snow and storm and sunshine
These are those who are building cities III
these desolate mountain wilds.
There are gamblers here. Of that rest as
sured There are hundreds of them. Gamb-
lers of the genuine Bret Harte style. Men Of
large hearts, of generous impulses, men tc
whom, of all that are in camp, you would &C
first to ask a dollar with which to buy meal
Men who would never refuse you so long as
they had the dollar.
Gamblers there are, too, who are not OF
this stamp. Men who are constantly begging
stakes of the better class with which to fleece
victims.
And the victims are here. Lots of them.
Some are workmen, and loose their wages
every week. Some bring a little money
with them to the Occur d. Alene, and return
home broke.
The "girls'' are here, too, and more Of
them come every few days. Some of them
dress stylishly and wear silks and diamonds
Some dress coarsely and slovenly. Quite a
number wear mems clothes, and walk the
streets in garments that would excite the
envy of Susan B. Anthony.
Boys are here, mere youths not yet out Of
their teens. 1t is a terrible school for lads
vet they have come with the rest.
There are old '49-ers here-men whose
hair and boards have been silvered in the
tireless, persistent search for gold which will
never end till life's close. They are all pros
pectors, and you find them living hermit's
life in little cabins up lonely gulches.
And the miners are here. The true,
grand-souled, old time miners, with theil
blue shirts and open-palmed hands. Theil
cabin, their fare, their blankets, will be
shared with the stranger just as it used il
be in the golden days on the American and
Yuba, Just as it always had been where
there were miners. If any class should be
monarch among men, it is these same min
ers. They laugh at hardships and privations
they never think of Sinking work or of doing
dishon orable act, and when the dust is PAM
ed out; it goes as easily as water.
Bye and bye many rough, hard charac-
ter will come, many "a bully, cutthroat, Sound
rel, but so long as the miners are in the ma
jority, the camp will be all right. The miners
are the men upon whom depends the fate of
the country, the men, of all others, who will
rule the camp.
All! yes, and another has come, the Angel
of Death. Neither the snow, nor the rugged
mountain, nor the silent forests, nor the
deep, dreary canyons could hide from him
this new born camp. He has come. and his
pinions have borne some of our number be-
yond the worry and WEAKNESS of this strug-
gle for gold. Under the hillside snow lie
four of the boys, who came eager and thirst
ing, little dreaming that their bodies ever
more would rest among the gold dust they
came to find.
Yes, the Angel of Death is here, and scores
and scores and hundreds will acknowledge
his presence ere the year closes, and next
winters snow will find them sleeping under
the snow, among the golden sands.