New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-04
IN QUEST OF Ell DORADO.
rRIBuLATIoYs AT THE cGUR DALENE.
A LIrE or FNPosURE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INCIDENTS or THE CAMP AND TRAIL.
frn0u \ srrCfAL coRI1.sPOSDENT ~ rHE fRlnCNEI


EAGLE CRY, CUur PAicne. Idaho, April lit IS
a strange life, this Of a new mining country, and a
rough one. Even here III Eagle, which, on the
strength of Its twelve or fifteen hundred ihh'OF
tants already calls itself metropolis there ~ u
metropolis 10 every hundred miles Throughout the
! Northwest. life is the cIulest kind of camp exist
! cucc, while IN the scattered shacks ~ through the
outly lying country and on the trails the amount ot
| hardship endured Is terrible. There alc scores OF
men who came in here last fall and have lived
through the bitter winter in isolated little log huts
| winch they built themselves or in small c.ght-ioot
! tents. pcgcbcd away up at the heads Of hc noun
! tam streams with fifteen or twenty feet ot sno"
around them and miles of dense pinclorest bctwe"r
! them ana the nearest human being The character
stics of the region being utterly unknown, none
| of the adventure knew what they were going 10
| face None made adequate preparations Tor the
trial. One man told me that he lived Tor two
months on bacon alone-uo flour nor beans nor
coffee to relieve it, and without any means of shoot
ing the deer Of which he saw plenty almost every
day Another on pcriloUs journey for new sup
ply of food was rorccdto struggle ON for ten days
without provisions OF any kind and only kept him
self alive by eating the pine moss and sucking snow
Now the siege has been raised, the ferccuesS OF I'll"
winter has passed, and food Of a certain kind is
always near enough to make the fear Of ab>olut"
starvation very Slight; but in two weeks IN the
mining region and on the trails have seen suffer
ings and heard tales Of hardship which, II they
could be brought before the attention Of the East
would go a long way TO check many young en-
thusast from throwing up his present comfortable
situation to come aud pick bis fortune ont Of the
dirt of gold diggings.
THE GENEROSITY OF MINERS.
Even come into the city almost every
day nearly starved and broken down with then
To-, ~
yaluables, and have to throw themselves upon tie
charity of the first stranger they meet to grt
meal. And this gives ample scope for the display Of
the one virtue which all miners pride themSelve,
their generosity to fellowmincrs in distress. And
this is no myth. the generosity Of miners. Never
to let white man want for food 50 long as You
have half meal ahead" is the standing maxim OF
camp life Most miners have learned from stern eX-
pericnce what the miserics of starvation are, and
every prospector knows that if he is hungry and can
strike fellow miner with dollar IN his pocket he
is sure of fifty cents at least. One of the evils OF
this is that there is always a large class of shftlcss
ncer-do- wells hanging round camp who refuse t"
work and live on the generosity OF their fellows H.
Eagle City to day probably not one-half Of the
population are making their own living. Two
weeks ago it was worse, for then money was more
plentiful and charity easier to. find. Now pro
fessonal bcggars are beginning to be well known.
Every day therefore some OF them leave the city
and start OIL over tho trails to the railway lines ana
the camp is not sorry to lose them
Ii would not be OF much use to give any man less
than dollar for nothing except drinks, which are
% cents costs less than that; and if beggaT con
deScends to name any particular sum as suitable to
his needs 1t is always dollar OF TIVE" that he asks
for. nights lodging costs always dollar-the
accommodation consisting generally Of share Of
l.,,r,.< Il nrrp.. fi
blankets sometimes OF a small canvas cot and
blankets sometimes only of a corner of floor and
few cedar bougLs A sheet is a thug have not
seen for three weeks while the arrival of bedstead
in camp would be Il thing to chronicle in the news
paper, and the bedstead itself would probably be
put on exhibition at one of the saloons.
POTATOES, BACON AND BEANS.
Meals. too. cost from a dollar upward. There are
two kinds OF meals the ordinary meal Of bacon,
pork chop sometimes on Monday beetsteahl.
beans and coffee, which is dollar, and the extra
meal which has two eggs added and costs 80 cents
more. Hitherto ! have never regarded the potato
as a thing deserving Of much respect, but two weeks
in camp have altered my feelings with regard to it,
and will never speak slichtingv OF potatoes again
In civilization the vegetable is ill-used-acceptcd rs
a necessary and matter-0f-cOurSe accessory 20 all
meats bat meyer allowed the dignity OF making
Dish in itself But here where potatoes are almost
unknown everybody longs for Them One restau-
rant has Just protcd enormously by this universal
ycarnng. Last fall the proprieto" had a few sacks
of potatoes on hand when everybody else ran out
so he stored them quietly away. y few days ago 1t
was blarcd abroad thar the Bell - restaurant had
fried POTATOES its bill of fare and that they were
included in the dollar 50 for day two, until the
UotatuPS cave out. the Bell mad nearly the Wnule
Another vegetable OF which one learns 10 think
well OUT here Is the bean-ot the Boston baked va,
rcty.-but for very different reasons. FORK and
beans are the quail and mama of this wilderness;
and the mamma is of distinctly more Importance
than the qualls for no man ever pretended that he
ate pork and beans for the sake OF the former
It is pathetic to the little shifts and devices 10
which the lonely Prospe,ctors resort to introduce
some variety into their diet. But 1t Is not easy TO
obtain much variety with only pork and beans and
coffee and flour 20 work upon. Sometimes they VIII
contriye with -four and water ana Ga t lat 70
or they will labor for half day to produce broth
Of crushed beans and odds dends OF bone. OF with
some sugar and whiskey and water concoct a
species of wine sauce which they lavish mpartally
over beans and pork alike.
THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSELY.
But the life of a prOspector tends to develop a
mans powers of shifting for himself. and many of
thc old hands very strong In resource. Half
wav between Eagle City and ThompsonS Falls, on
one of the worst parts OF the whole trail some ten
miles from anywhere, a wagon conveying man
and his household gods into the mines broke down.
1t was the first wagon that attempted the trail and
none has tried il since. But the most concerned
in the mishap was not distressed Having unloaded
his belongings he piled them IN the snow on one
side of the track and overturned the wreck of the
wagon on the other. He sent his horse back to
Thompson's Falls by the first man who passed.
Then looking through his properties he.uncarthed
barrel of whiskey and three boxes of cigars; so,
taking a white sheet of pine wood, he wrote on il
with the end of a burnt stick the word "Saloon,"
and nailed it TO a tree. stump of Il tree with the
blackboard of his wagon and blanket spread over
il made n table on which the whlskey, cigars, a
bucket of water and two tin cups were displayed 10