The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-08


have been Very few similar communities
in the world. For over seven months the
daily output Of precious metal averaged
about $0,0J0. Over dozen men went there
penuiless and came away worth over $500
900 in less than a year, and six or seven
men struck il rich and sold out for oyer
100000 each. Fully half of the popula-
ton walked hundreds of miles to get there.
No railroads ran through Southern Ari-
iona in those days, ana the awful Colo
RADIO and Moiave deserts had to be crossed
in wagons or on foot by the muldtudes of
fortune-seekers from California. Desert
sand storms were encountered, and for
days travellers TO Tombstone endured
temperature of over $50 degrees in the
shade.
Many a man died on the hot, sandy
plains. Miners on their way to the new
camp from the east and south tOiled
across the Arizona alkali plains,
through immense cactus areas, and risk
ed their lives in the then hostile land of
the Apache Indians. But hardship, pain,
suffering and risk of life were all second
airy TO an early arrival in Tombstone and
the location of a mining claim. When
Tombstone was reached there were new
prvations and more physical distress for
the greater number, especially for those
who had FASTENED from offices, stores,
shops, clerkships and the pastors study.
over ONe-lu4Tu Oh the men Ill camp Hdu
very little money, or none at all, and
knew no way of earning it except by the
hardest kind of manual labor, to which
they We're unused. 1t cost 81 a night to
sleep in dirty, rough pine bunk Water
sold a t zoe a gallon, a small dish of beans
at soc, tallow candles at two bits Us cents),
common overalls at So each, smoked hams
at $l2 each, and cowhide boots were dis
posed of as fast as they could be hauled
TO camp across the desert from Los An
geles and Yuma for $50 a pair 1t was a
ground-hOg case vita these commodities
for the first ten months at Tombstone
take them at the price asked or go with
out. In 1881 all the Tombstone mines that
paid well were in the hands of a few per-
sons, and the population of the place had
gone down to 5000. ] , 1888 the mines, with
two exceptions, began to peter out, and
the population dropped to 5000. Since then
il has gone Gown slowly to less than 1000
souls.
in the last ten years there have been
four or five stampedes to mining camps
in the southwest In the middle of the
winter of 1880 California, as far north
as San Francisco, and Arizona, as far
east as Prescott and Phoenix, were stir
red as they had not been for several years
by the news that rich placer mines had
been found by MeNicans in Lower Cali
fOrnia, seventy miles south of san Diego.
That was one Of the most spontaneous
stampcdes known in that region. Samples
of the pay dirt were sent to San Diego
to be assayed one Sunday afternoon. The
assayer found it would run over 500 to
the ton. Somehow the secret got out, and
was telegraphed up the Pacific coast. The
telegraph operators in San Diego spent
the next two days and nights in sending
and receiving messages about the new
diggings Before Thursday morning 6O0O
= nd d ~
way by cars, wagons, horses, cOasting
vessels and foot TO San Diego and Lower
California. The hardware stores in Los
Angeles and San Diego and in every vii
lage for 100 miles around sold every pick
ak, shovel, tin dripping pan, washdish
and milk and bread pan they had on hand
to persons who equipped themselves for
placer mining and started in day for
the mines. For a week little but the dis
covery of gold i'm Lower California and
the prospect OF another 1919 gold boom on
the Pacific coast was talked of in good
part of California Then, when the week
was over, and the first persons who had
been down to the mines returned to San
Diego, declaring the stories of wealth
to be lies and the excitement over the
discoveries to have been manufactured
for purpose, the old miners went home
and Dhilosophicauy said, 81 might have
told you so all the time"
Thousands of people will never forget
the rush for the Harqua Hala diggings
in the spring of 1892. The mines were
found in the northwestern part OF Ari-
iona, close to the Colorado river and the
boundary lines between Arizona, Califor-
MIA and Nevada. For several months i'm
the winter of 1912 there came almost ev-
cry week news of the big prospects that
a half dozen miners, who had been NOV
ing from one camp to another in the ter
ia
Grafton, had at last come across at Har-
qua Hala. Along in March and April
quantities of gold dust and nuggets from
the mines came into the hands of bankers
in San Bernardino and Los Angeles. The
newspapers published reports as to the
prospects at Harqua Hala, and in week
or two there was another general rush for
the digginRs. The railroads did a land Of
flee business for several weeks in carrying
men as far as the Colorado river. From
there the travellers to Harqua Hala pack
ed themselves on little river steamboats,
al eXhOrbitant rates of travel. Hundreds
of miners who had hardly dollar tram
pied over the mountains $50 and 200 miles
to the mines. Some men in their anxiety
to get to Harqua Hala with their camp
outfits and personal belongings, packed
them in barrels and rolled the barrels
over 100 miles TO the camp. Even school
boys caught the infection from their eld-
ers and ran away from school and
home. Several persons starved to death
in the stampede. In forty days the pop
ulation of Harqua Hala grew from fifty
to over 200. As Is generally the case the
few good mines there were taken up be-
fore the news of the find went abroad,
and there was nothing for the deluded
miners TO do when they got to Harqua
TIala but sit about camp and watch their
more lucky associates dig out the rock.
Prices for all kinds of food went to the
top mark with rapidly. After a few
weeks ideness the mining population at
Harqua Hala dwindled away at the rate
of 100 or more a day. A large part Of
them are now searching among the noun
tains, through the canyons, on the desert
and in the foothill for prospects OF their
own. A good, active miner will locate a
half dozen mining claims IN a year, but
less than 10 per cent OF these are ever
worked.
DRAGON Fly Dimes ON MOSQUITO.
Biting Pest Would Not Bc So Numer-