Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1897-10-28
THE KLONDIKE MAN.
He Was Full of Queer Tales of the Gold
Country.


Country.
~ don't care if / do, said the man
from Klondike to the admirer who had
asked him to take drink. 1T seems
rather nice, too, he resumed, gazing
thoughtfully into the amber depths of the
glass before him. at seems nice to SEQ
the barkeep pour it out. "
why? Don't he pour it out up in
klondike?" inquired the man from Sonora.
Certainly not If you'd pause TO think
minute, you wouldn't ask such foolish
questions. How would he pour it out
when it comes in ohunks?"
In chunks?''
"Certainly-frozen, you know. Up there
man goes into saloon, and he throws
sack of gold down and says, Give me a
chunk of skee bout by inches and
take your pay outen that. Then the bar
keep takes hatchet and cuts off chunk,
and the man takes it to the liquefer and'--
"The-whatf'
"The liqueher, but prob'ly you dont
know about it. Up there the stoves in tho
s'loons have little iron wings like built all
around them, and in each wing is chinet
dish. and the customers put their chunks
of whisky in the dishes and melt them by
the fire. That's why they call the arrange
ment a liquefier, you know. Men drink
consid BILE up there, but you never hear
them bowling around like they do down
here
"Why not?" ........
"They can't, you know, because there
is so much gold"
"What difference does that maker"
III l,% l. a1f 4 tiut
silence is golden. Don't care if l do!
Thanksp'
''Is there really so much gold up there?"
"There's consid BILE. My pardner up
there had 49, year-old boy, and one day
the little cuss took his gun and went out
to shoot a cat that
ga cat? didn't know they had cats
up SO near the pole. y
"Yes, they do--pole cats, you know.
Well, the little cuss took his gun and went
to shoot this cat, and when night come he
hadn't got back, so we went to look for
him. We found him, and that's all thai
saved his life.
"How was thati'
"The poor little cuss had found gold
nugget and tried to pick it up, and it was
SO heavy that he couldn't do it, His
hands must have been sweating little
when he tackled 1t, and you know how
flesh freezes to metal. So there he was
froze tight to nugget that he couldn't
bulge. We had to take them homo to-
gether and thaw them separate The mug
| get weighed trifle more'n 31919 pounds.
Me and the other miners left all the big
nuggets up there and only brought home
he Ip tb, tbr
heavy for transportation. Talking is dry
| work. Thanks! Don care if dol
Seeing this whisky reminds me of the
trouble we had with the mosquitoes
They're bad enough anyway, but wher
they re intoxicated they re-
Intoxicated
eyes. You see, frequently we'd bring
home chunks of whisky and lay them or
the piano or center table, and the mosqui
toes would get to sharpening their bill
against the chunks, and so they'd get in
ebriated"
"That was curious.
eyes, but they learned what to do fo
themselves pretty soon. One wouldn
any more'n get how come you 50 befor,
you'd see him strike for outdoors, ant
then If you watched you'd see him sharp
ening his bill on a nugget. That woult
| fix him all right"
II don't see how"
"Don't see how Didn't you ever heal
of the gold ourep That's what he took
want itp There was one old mosquito
that broke over twice and'-
"Jabez" said the redheaded woman
who had just come into the room.
eyes, Marier."
"This is the fourth time I've had te
call you outen saloon since last spring
and If ever 1t happens again I'll yank >
"I'm comm, Marier!' said the ma,
from Klondike.
And he went.--San Francisco Examiner