The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-10-23

rather lower. Nobody, seller or buyer,
minds about enough gold dust to be
worth a dollar or So. Nearly every
man carries pair of scales.
Gambling is the great passion of the
miner everywhere. easy come, easy
co." says the philosophical miner who
loses at the table the dust he got by
aching toll with the pick or at the
sluice.
There are children in Nondike now,
and school is to be ready for next
season. There has been a school al
Circle City and another at Forty Mile.
With all its faults, with all the dirt
and privation and the sordid strife for
gold, there is something simple and
fine about this mining society. There
are no snobs in it, no liveries except
the livery of toll; no very rich men
and few extremely poor; no thieves
except those who practice the permit
ted theft of the gaming table. One
man is in literal truth as good as an.
other; there is chivalrous regard for
women, kindness for misfortune and
ready courage for emergencies. It is
primitive society with its faults and its
virtues, which are not the faults and
virtues of the fostering towns. There
is manliness, at any rate; and there
are genuine human women, with the
charm that comes of open air living
and plenty Of exercise.
The curse Of the country-as of any
gold region-is its instability. There
is no use making pleasant homes in a
mining camp. If it succeeds, theresa
dents all expect to ''make their pile"
and ''mosey for the States" If il
fails, every one will be off for fresh
diggings and leave the shacks pathet.
ically deserted. At one time the finest
house in all Alaska was in Circle City.
It cost $4,000 to build, but its owner
was probably as ready as any one else
to desert the place when the news Of
Klondlke came.
There can be almost no books OF
pictures in the Klondike, or the Yukon
fields generally. Freight charges are
high on the St. Michael's route, and
weight is eliminated as far as possible
from a mans pack when he tackles the
dread Chilkoot pass. The dreary land.
scape, the almost perpetual sunshine
OF winter, which compels the resident
to use snow glasses, if he would moi
be blinded, makes life weary and lack.
ing in variety. There is some RELIEF
when the magic summer brings out the
scanty vegetation at o bound, furthe,
up the Yukon, but in its middle
stretches the forms Of flower and tree
are monotonous, indeed, almost be.
ginning and ending with moss and
scrubby little trees. Natures poor
attempts at landscape painting are, al
the best, soon married by man. There
is no occupation that spoils country
faster than mining. The great heaps
Of "slickens'' or tailings disfgure
every stream, and the face of nature
is all cut and gashed and hacked With
prospect holes.
Mosquitoes are the plague of life
throughout Alaska and the Northwest
Territory. Schwatka says they sting
the bears so as to drive them crazy.
When the poor animals are driven by
hunger down to the river in mosquito
time they are so bitten about the eyes
as to become blinded, when they die
Of starvation.
The late E. J. Glave wrote of the
pests: "A liberal daubing Of bacon fat
and pitch around the eyes and ears Of
our animals kept those sensitive parts
free from the pests, and when my own
head grew SO bumpy I could not get
my hat on I applied the remedy to my
own anatomy with a good deal of sue
cess. When not feeding, our horses
would leave the sheltered places and
seek the open stone to avail themselves
OF whatever breeze was blowing; they
would then stand in couples, so that
each would have the benefit of the
others tail as switch"
Cattle are so maddened by the mos. |
quitoes that they will gallop half a |
mile at top speed against the wind in
an endeavor to shake them off, and |
then Craze until the mosquitoes force
them to make another dash for life.
AS the miners camps are necessarily
alwayssin lowlands along the creek bot.
toms the suffering from these pests is
Slavery and human sacrifice were
common among the Chilkoot Indians
generation ago. These people remain
; savage, brutal race, and the average
miner has more direct dealings with
them going in or out over the pass than
he is apt to have afterwards with the
Yukon tribes.
:. These coast Indians are the fellows
'hat pack miners outfits over the Chill.
koot Pass at twenty cents q pound.
They are tricky and dishonest, and
make use Of oil sorts of devices to
cheat the traveller. md thew ]ord =