The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-11
EVERY MAN FoR HIMSELF.
The Selfish Old PrOverb Goes Liter
ally In the KIondike.

From the Denver Republican.
Nobody who has spent the winter In
the Klondike win ever want to try II
again" said Thomas Harmer at the min
ing bureau yesterday. THAT is, unless he
has a certainty of making enough money
to partially repay him for suffering hard
ships such az were never endured In any
mining camp on earth before"
Mr.. Harmer went into Alaska two years
ago and says that he left there last August
never to return. 81 would not go back
there and remain five years for $250, 000,"
he continued. "When i speak of suffering
/ do not mean actual bodily pain or sick
ness, because / think that if a man goes
there prepared as he should and abstains
from excesses he can keep i'm reasonably
good health, but to live during the winter
season In those close cabins and see the
horrible selfishness and cruelty of human
beings toward each other, the result of
the rush for gold, which many of them,
even after they have secured 1t, do not
hesitate to throw away, is enough to make
one lose all faith in the fitness of men
to live on the earth. When / was coming
out i saw men refuse a nail or the use
of an ak or even the use of tin cup to
men who were In need of these trihes. Ev-
cry man there seems TO be afraid of his
lhnOW1- tnhi iiltY Will kNtdi SOile-
thing or have better success IN finding
gold. ] spent last winter from September
to April with eight other men, we have
gone together to save labor in keeping
warm.
Each of us had a claim or a part of a
claim, and went out every day that the
weather was not too cold to work our
claims. In melting the frozen gravel we
nearly always found one or more nuggets
In, 1frf hut A
months that we worked together / do not
remember of a single occasion when one of
us acknowledged that he had found any
gold. Each of us had a buckskin bag
which was carried on the person, and the
ingenuity of all was taxed to the utmost to
devise some scheme whereby that bag
could be concealed from the rest. There
was no stealing in camp. man caught
stealing would have had a rough time of
1t. but every man seemed to think that ev-
cry other man wanted to steal from him,
and do not think that a single one of us
knew where any other man carried his
gold. / remember one night lying awake
and seeing five men of our company at
different times putting away the nuggets
found during the day, and i'm every case
after putting them in the little buckskin
bag they would thrust the bag under the
blankets and / cold see from the fumbling
that they were concealing IL about their
persons We always had a man sitting
up to keep the fires and the men were
afraid that he might see where they put
their gold. There was no absolute cruel
~, but the total indifference to the welfare
of others that characterized everybody
was simply horrible. / was in the cabin
one day reading, with two men, one OF
whom was sick, the rest being at work
The sick man had a terrible cold and
fever, and asked one Of US to hand him a
drink.
"The other man went over TO the bucket
in which we kept our melted snow, and
with the remark, There is no more than
want myself, drank II all. This, of course
was exceptionally brutal, but there were
many Instances almost as bad. Every
man is for himself, and many of then
are 50. constantly thinking OF their golt
that they become insane, or partially So
came out with one man who was so ex
cited over about $4,000 worth of gold tina
by the time we got TO San Francisco h,
was almost an idiot, and 1t was with dit
ticulty that we could induce him to de
post his gold In assbank and go to ,
hotel. There is plenty of gold there and
think more fields will be found, but all ;