The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-19
THE STORY OF HENDERSON.
THE MAN WHO UNCOVERED THk
WEALTH OF THE IXLONDIKE.


Robert Henderson and His BrotI, er
We're the First TO Penetrate the
Frozen Wilderness, nnd Henry
Was the First Man Who Ever
Crossed the Chflkoot Pass In the
Middle of Winter.
From the Tacoma Ledger.
once in awhile amid the mass Of Klon-
dixie information, there has been passing
reference to one Robert Henderson. The
discoverer of the Klondike." He has not
been "a Spectator figure, he has not been
interviewed at great length, he has not
come to New York to organize a Klondike
company. What his gains have been no one
knows, concerning his losses nobody cares.
He has been looked upon Sometimes as a
man at whose door fortune fingered and
knocked without response. he has been
classed as a failure. There are Two Of thesa
mathematician and Henrt-and what
has been said of the one has ben also told
Of the other. Yet deep in the qiiet eyes of
those two men is look whica tells that
they, at least. do not consider their lives
a failure THIS is The story told by Henry
Henderson himself.
Tucked into a little bay in the middle Of
Nova Scotia where the winters are long
and the summers short, and where hard
ship is a condition, not a theory. is an is
land which goes by the name Of Big Is
land. The people living in the neighbor-
hood are mostly Scotch, which perhaps ac-
for na no 2 e. 1,st
that island is exactly three miles long by
one mile wide. on that island the Hender-
son boys were born. The first introduction
they got from their mother was. Always
hold the sheet in your hand" The main
land was a mile away; squalls were fire.
Quent The mothers law was the local pre-
caution, for in those days a dashed main
sail meant capsized boat at the very
best.
Around the Hendersons the neighbors
were nearly all wanderers. Salmon-hshing,
bcat-building and the coasting trade had
carried them into many places, and the
boys grew up amid an atmosphere of le-
gend and stories of foreign riches Both
the brothers declare that as long ago as
they can remember tales of the riches of
Alaska were told in Nova Scotia. Some of
the men had been there and they had
brought back legends OF gold to fire the
boys imagination. The brothers firmly de-
termlned to go to Alaska as soon as they
were big enough.
IN the meantime Henry was working on
pilotboat and Robert had pulled loose
ana taken a trip on a coastng schooner
10 New Zealand and Australia. The gold
IeVer, always present, attacked him, and
when he returned it was to tell Henry of
the rlches hidden In the earth and TO plan
a way to find them. One other thing he
dld however, and that was to fall in love
with one of the ruddy-cheeked. wholesome
Slr's OF his own Nova Scotia. The broth
ers seem TO have gone about their love
making in the thorough-going spirit
Whlch characterized most of their under
70 kings They plighted their troth to the
girls OF their choice and-what is some
what rarer-they kept it through years of
absence. Robert wandered away again
to explore the wilds of Patagonia in
search Of the ever-elusive gold His com
panion in That trip was one Jim" Zeal
ing As Robert himself puts it:
lie wasn't just the sort of man to have
along, and the Indians were pretty bad
We found gold. and in paying quantities
too, but our grub gave out and we had TO
get, Some time am going back there
with an outfit. l know what's there"
The old folks did not like their boys to
be away. and when they heard that Rob
ert was on his way home there was a fam
lily council to see If the wanderer could
not be kept on Big Island. 1t was argued
that If Robert found Henry away, he
would stop and look after the old folks
Henry, therefore. shipped on a Norwegian
bark to st. John, and thence worked his
way to New York
The plan did not work. Robert reached
home, empted his pockets and his sea
chest and then pulled straight out for the
west He had served an apprentice as a
Il. A.
both work and time to follow his beloved
prospecting. Henry had struck hard luck
He landed in New York without a cent
but after a few days secured work en-
banking the Hudson at Sixty-seventh
street He was lonely and he wrote con-
sgantly to the girl he had left behind in
Nova Scotia. Way out in Colorado, hid
den in the Black canyon, Robert was lone
some, too. He also wrote long and often
to the little girl in Nova Scotia! She nat
urally told the news in the letters to her
prospective sister-in-law, and so the broth
crs, hardly knowing one auother's adj
dresses, heard frequently of one another's
welfare.
BY and by Henry decided that the Hud-
son river would have to keep in bounds
without his assistance, and so he pulled
stakes and joined his brother in the
Black canyon of Colorado.
Il found him building the Denver and
MO GfduQE railway, says 1cuIy, ara
the pay was pretty good, but we soon made
more money building collins. The way
they killed men in the canyon was some
thing l never saw the like of. They We're
in hurry to finish the road, and they car
ed nothing for human life. They shipped
men in there by the caroad.jus as if they
were beeves. 1 tell you, pretty nearly ev-
cry tie in that part of the road is laid atop
of a mans body"
Then the brothers decided to make an
other attempt to get to Alaska. Their
plan was to build boat at Grand Junction,
go down Grand river, and so through
Green river canyon to the coast of Lower
California. No man had ever made that
trip alive but the brothers meant to try
it, They packed their food and supplies
as far as Grand Junction and went up into
the hills 10 whipsaw timber for that boat
There came along a man who wanted a
ferryboat built.
He had lots of money, so the brothers
put off the trip until they had somewhat
depleted his pocketbook. For three years
there were good times in Colorado Com
fort is a killer of enterprise; high hopes
faint on a warm hearthstone, and so the
trip to Alaska had to wait while the broth