Evening journal., 1897-07-30
THE DARK SIDE OF 1T.

THE DARN SIDE Of II.
The rush to the Alaskan and Klon-
dyke gold regions will result in thou
sands of deaths from privation and ex-
posure, not to mention violence, which
is always a marked Characteristic of a
new country in which everyone expects
TO become fabulously rich without ex-
graordinary effort. Every day Eastern
men are departing for that inhospitable
region who have no adequate concep-
tion OF what conditions will surround
them and what they will have to en-
counter and overcome to secure even a
bare existence, to say nothing of amass-
ing wealth
From those who are going we hear
the most glowing descriptions OF the
boundess wealth of this new region.
They leave us in many instances with
light hearts and heavy pockets. A large
majority of them will returen to us
with heavy hearts and light pockets,
and many will later on succumb TO the
rgor of I5he climate and the arduous
work. and fall in the mines or by the
wayside.
IL - nbl liOin AAlJat WhO dAt hoNAh
ing the new land for speculative pur-
poses, or from those who have listened
TO the voice of the tempter who preys
upon the creduity OF mankind, that we
must look for a true idea of what the
condition there really is. From those
who are returning and who have seen
the state of the men already there we
must form our judgment The papers
are full of the successes, but It is only
occasionally that we get the reverses,
hence the following story told by Hell
multh Schaaf. OF New York, who has
just returned from Alaska, should be
read by every Eastern man who medi-
tates going into the rugged and frozen
wilds to hunt for a fortune:
Il was taken i'll at Juneau and could
so no further When / got to Juneau, in
May, the mercury was 20 degrees below
zero. In June It was 20 degrees above.
"While / was there / saw hundreds of
miners coming back empty handed, sick
land discouraged. They said the stories
OF gold for everybody were lies. Some
struck il rich but the stories OF big
finds were greatly exaggerated. Very
few that / fell in with had over $4,000,
anu Iney Sdlu lntN WOulu hol dbdih uh-
dergo the hardships they experienced
for fifty times that amount Most Of
9c them, however, were tenderfeet,' Ike
myself.
''The miners said there was a bad
state OF affairs on the Klondyke. Hun
dreds OF people, they said were suffer
ing from hunger, many dying from
starvation by the roadside | formed
the idea from what | saw that good
deal of the romance about great gold
finds was inspired for speculation pur-
poses. BloOdshed, from all l could
learn. is of common occurrence, and
lawlessness prevails in the klOndyke.
It is all right for a man who is we'll
fixed financially to go there, provided
witch The necessaries Of life, and ready
TO pay $3.50 per thousand feet for white
pine lumber and figures corresponding
ly high for everything else, but when
a man goes there with only a few hun
dred dollars in his pocket and having
to fight the miners already there, botf
in syndicate and individual form, for a
claim, he bids fair to develop into &
day laborer in somebody e,se's mine
and when the cost Of food, fuel, cloth
ing and shelter are taken into consider
alton he would be better off in the Eas
II making from 80 to $3.50 a day thai
in Alaska or the Klondyke at from 81.
TO $i4.