The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-30
THE KLONDIKE.
John Bulls Interest in the Gold
Fields.


Comments Culled from Some of the En-
glish Papers-Predictions of a Grea
nj Future for Alaska.
London, August 28.-The Klondik,
fever has broken out in England and. al
through Europe. One hears of the golt
fields everywhere, and hundreds of voices
are heard to declare an intention of trying
to win from fortune when the coming
sping arrives.
Not even the diamond fields of Africa
or the anterior gold discoveries created
the excitement throughout Britain and
Europe that the Klondike finds have
aroused. In the first place, it is definitely
settled now that the Klondike region is
all British soil. That in itself stirs the
average Engishman to vigor, for he feels
that If he makes the journey there he is
under the protection Of his own flag, and
subject to laws which his natural preju-
dice causes him to believe are entirely
just. Say it softly, but it is true also
that the Britisher feels he will not be at
the mercy of what he terms the yankee
4 prospector", and that under the laws of
the Dominion government he will have a
distinct advantage. isti
The general impression here is that the
klondike region is bound to be developed.
1t is held. and very logically too it seems,
that where such wealth of mineral deposit
is clearly apparent, civilization will force
thick settlement. Conservative men here
believe that within the next quarter of a
century, a great city will spring up in the
Klondtke region, to which numerous
smaller cities will pay tribute, and that
here will be found what comes nearer be-
ing the tabled Eldorado than anything
else upon which the eye Of men has yet
rested. This may almost be said to be
the national opinion, and such being the
case it requires no logician to determine
how intense the national feeling on the
subject must be.
notice the general sentiment as ex-
pressed In the London newspapers
which fairly TEEN with Klondike tales
and advices. The London newspaper is
not as quick to reflect public opinion as
the newspaper of the United States, but
when any one subject attracts the atten-
ton of all, the newspapers in sufficient
degree to warrant plenty of space being
given to 1t, then it may safely be
4 reckoned that the public is as one man in
terested therein. The discussion is intel
ligent and conservative. For instance,
here is what one newspaper says:
"There seems little reason to doubt that
in the newly discovered gold fields we are
face to face with one of those unexpected
happenings. which, at least thrice already
within the present century, have suf-
feed to change the character and direct
the development of a continent. In few
years time, in all human probability,
the country that is now ice and snow
will be transformed by the magic infiu-
enoe Of gold.
"But 1t is almost certain that it will be
at the cost OF an army corps or so of human
lives. Twas ever thus. Souter's discov-
cry of gold in California in the autumn
of 1s47 was followed by the mad rush of
40, when in one single week 100, 900
people set out from the Eastern States to
cross the great plains, of whom not more
than a third ever returned to their homes.
-Four years later when gold was first
found in Australia, similar scene was
enacted; and again III South Africa, at a
comparatively recent date In each case
the discovery Of the precious metal has
resulted primarily in deplorable loss of
life, and in each case, too, it has given
birth to great cities-San Francisco, Mel
bourne, Johannesburg to wit.
"There is no reason to doubt, nay, it is
an almost absolute certainty, that the
history of the past in California, in Aus
tralia, and in South Africa, will be the
history Of the future in British Columbia.
Only, probably. there will be far greater
loss Of life. Nature is very stern in these
icy solitudes, and altogether pitiless. 1t
may well be that the year 1897, the year
of the opening up of the Klondike mines,
will be year rendered forever hideous to
all English speaking posterity by the
memory of an unparalleled tragedy.
ALREADY the authorities are viewing
with ill conceal ed dismay the influx OF
tens Of thousands of men, mad with the
: lust for gold, and reckless, because igno-
rant of the terrible vengeance Nature in
variably exacts from those rash enough
/ to venture unasked and unprepared to the
regions she has seen fit to dedicate to the
reign of the Frost King. And the worst
, of it is, nothing can apparently be done
| to save them from themselves. The gold
fever has laid hold upon these armies OF
immigrants, and they rush blindly tic
i. evils they know not of. Death is DOGGY
: that loses Its power of fright when gold
5 is to be won:
r And what sort Of a country is this, in
toawhich men are pouring at this presen,
moment at the rate of hundreds per day
1t is bleak, terribly inhospitable land
inhabitated until lately by a few semi
barbaric people, many of whom have
U long known the royal metal, yet have
despised it, except, perhaps, as a means