The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-09-17
FATE OF GOLD HUNTERS.


Driven Insane by Thirst While Seeking
Fortunes on the Colorado Desert.
Misfortunes that have overtalen so
many wretched desert gold hunters
seems to have no effect on other seek
ers after fortune, says the Palm Springs
(Col.) correspondent of the New York
Telegram. Perhaps no fate has been
so sad as that of the unknown pros
pector who was carried into Yuma re-
Gently insane for the want of water
and food. The unhappy man put in
an appearance with his nurse at the
romantic village of Durmid on the
Southern Pacific track. Durmid is in
the heart of the desert, and few miles
from Salton. This and Volcano are the
dreariest spots in the world. For many
nothing grows. The ground is treach-
erous, for under its seemingly firm ex-
terror are boiling mud wells. There
is shelter for neither beast nor bird.
Even the miserable sage brush gets no
hospitality from the lean soil. A pitt
iless sun by day and a hot wind by
night greet the travellers who cross the
desert in their hunt for gold deposits.
Here the prospector first brought him
self to notice by asking for shovel.
I've got dead burro out yonder, " he
remarked, gazing to the west, ''and
want to bury it.
The shovel was given him and away
he started. He came back some time
after and said he had buried the car
cass some six feet under the ground. It
..-as considered strange at the time,
IS no one here ever thinks of burying
an animal. The dry air desicates the
body as completely as if it had been
subjected to the heat of an oven. He
hung about the section house for a few
hours and then left for DurEnid, where
he mentioned his loss. There he stayed,
refusing all offers of food, bat picking
up his subsistence from such food as he
could find about the place-dry bits of
bread, which even coyote would have
sc0rned, he ate greedily. Then he
asked for shovel and announced his
intention to dig up his donkey, as he
had found 4 sovereign remedy against
death. The shovel was given him, and,
though the beast had been inferred
three or four days, the crazy man dis
inferred the remains. He came back
saying that the donkey refused to get
up and live. The section men sent
word that they had an insane man on
their hands and feared he would die,
as he refused food. The conductor OF
a freight train was ordered to take him
into Yuma, and cssaycd the task. The
wretched man would run like deer
from his captors, offering violence to
anyone who came near him. Finally
one man more astute than the rest said:
Look here, the superintendent
wants to see you in Los Angeles and
pay you for the donkey you lost"
If that is what you want me for I'll
come" he answered, ''and if you prom
Use not to'tie me up I'll be quiet"
He was taken into Yuma, but all eff
forts to discover his identity proved un-
availing. A short time previously
another man came into Durmid raving
mad. His tongue was black, his eyes
rolled and glittered and he was in the
direst extremity. Water and food iu-
diciously administered saved his life
Though his new found friends begged
him not to follow the fascinations of
gold hunting he refused TO listen to
reason, scOrned the kindness of section
men, upbraided them for being slaves
and working for wages, and continued
his hopeless quest of Elusive gold
fields.