Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-31
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF.
The Selfish Old Proverb Goes Literally
In the klOndike.

The Selfish Old Proverb Goes Literally
In the klOndike.
From the Denver Republican
Nobody who has spent the winter in the
klondike will ever want to try it again. :"
said Thomas Harmer at the mining bureau
recently. THAT is, unless he has a GER
tainty of making enough money to partially
repay him for suffering hardships such as
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. Il would not go back
there and remain five years for two hun
dred and fifty thousand dollars" he con-
tlnued when l speak of suffering 1. do
not mean actual bodily pain or sickness.
because l think If man goes there pre-
pared as he should and abstains from ex-
S pc can Keep in reasonably good
health, but to live during the winter sea-
son IN those close cabins and see the hor-
r1bie selfishness and cruelty of human be-
lngs toward each other, the result of the
rush for gold. which many of them even
after they have secured it, 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 l was coming out l saw men
refuse nail or the use of an or even
the use of a tin cup to men who were in
need of these trifles. Every man there
seems to be afraid of his fellows-afraid
that they will steal something or have bet
ter success in finding gold. / spent last
winter from September to April with eight
other men. we having gone together to save
labor In keeping warm.
Each of us had claim or a part of a
claim, and went out every day that tie
weather was not too cold to work our
claims. In melting the frozen gravel we
nearly always found one or more nuggets
in the dirt, but during the entire eight
months that we worked together l do not
remember single occasion when one of lis
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 con-
cealed from the rest. There was no steal
ing in the camp. A man caught stealing
would nave had a rough time of it, but
every man seemed to think that every other
man wanted to steal from him, and 1 do
not think that single one of us knew
where any other man carried his gold.
remember one night lying awake and see
ing 1--WE men of our company at different
tunes putting away the nuggets found dur
ing the day, and in every case after put
ting them in the buckskin bag they would
thrust the bag under the blankets and l
could see from the fumbling that they were
concealing 1t about their persons. We al
ways had man sitting up to keep the
hres, and the men were afraid that he
might see where they put their gold. There
was no absolute cruelty. but the total in
difference of others that characterized
everybody was simply horrible. l was in
the cabin one day reading. with two men,
one or 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
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 it all. This. of course,
was exceptionally brutal, but there were
many instances almost as bad. Every man
is for himself, and many of them are so
constantly thinking of their gold that they
become insane, or partially SO. / came out
with one man who was so excited over
about ten thousand dollars worth of gold
that by the time we got to San Francisco
he was almost an idiot. and it was with
difficulty that we could induce him to de-
post his gold in bank and go to a hotel
There is plenty of gold there and i think
more fields will be found. but all a man is
likely to get will not pay him for the hor-
ribe experiences he is called upon to en-
dure. | was not particularly lucky. though
L brought out enough to pay me fairly well
for my two years in Alaska. but if | was
assured of fifty thousand dollars Il year l
would not go back there