Middletown transcript., 1897-11-27


knocked without response. He has
been classed failure. There are two of
these Hender- ons-R,bert and Henry
and what has been said of the ones
has been also told of the other. Yet
deep in the quiet eyes of those two men
is look which tells that they, at least,
do not consider their lives failure.
This is the story told by Henry Hender-
son himself. He is now in New York,
on his way from his Nova Scotia home
to the Klondike. lie leaves Sat urday.
Tucked into little bay in the mid
die of Nova Scotia, where the winters
are long and the summers short, and
where hardship is condition, not a
theory, is an island which goes by the
name of Big island. The people living
in the neigborhood are mostly Scotch,
which perhaps accounts for the name
IF the bit of land, for that island is ex-
actly three miles long by one mile wide.
On that island the Henderson boys were
born. The first instruction they got
from their mother was: "Always hold
the sheet in your hand" The main
land was mile away; squalls were fire.
quent. "The mothers law was the
local precaution, for III those days a
lashed ma nsail meant a capsized boat
at the very least.
Around the Hendersons the neigh
bors was nearly all wanderers. Salmon
fishing, boat building and the coasting
trade had carried them into many
places, and the boys grew up amid an
atmosphere of legend and stories of
foreign riches. Both the brothers de-
clare that as long ago as they can re-
member tales of the riches of Alaska
were told in Nova Scotia. Sane of the
men had been there, and they had
brought back legends of gold to fire
boys Imagination. Tie, - irrnIy
determined to go to Alaska as soon as
they were big enough.
In the meantime Henry was working
on pilot boat and r ,bsrt had pulled
loose and taken trip in coasting
schooner to New Zealand and Austria
liza. The gold fever, always present,
attacked him, and when he returned it
was to tell Henry of the riches hidden
in the earth and to plan way to find
them. One other thing he did, how
ever, and that was to fall in love with
one of the ruddy-cheeked, wholesome
girls Of his own Nova Scotia. The
brothers seem to have gone about their
love. making in the thorough-going spir-
it which characterized most of their un-
dertakings. They plighted their trottr
to the girls OF their choice and-what
is somewhat rarer-they kept it through
years of absence. Robert wandered
away again to explore the wilds Of Pa
tagonia in search of the ever elusive
gold. His companion in that trip was
one Jim Feeling. As Robert himself
puts il:
'He wasn't just the sort of man 10
have along, and the Indians werepretty
bad. We found gold, and in payiug
quantities, too, but our grub gave out
and we had to get. S'me 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
Robert was on his way home there was
family council to see if the wanderer
could not be kept ON Big island. 1t was
argued that if Robert found Henri y
away he would stop and look after the
old folks. Henry, therefore, shipped
on Norwegian bark 10 st. John, and
worked his way to New York.
The plan did not work. Robert
reached home, empted his pockets aud
his sea chest, and then pulled straight
out for the west. He had served an
apprenticeship as carriage builder,
and thought he could find both work
and time TO follow his prospecting.
Henry had struck hard luck. He land-
ed in New York without cent, but
after few days secured work embank.
ing the Hudson al Sixty-seventh street,
He was lonely, and he wrote constantly
to the girl be had left behind inl Nova
Scotia. Way out in Colorado, hidden
in tile Black Canyon. Robert was lone
some, too. He also wrote long and Of
ten to the little girl in Nnvia Scotia.
She naturally told he news in the LETT
tiers 10 her prospective sister-in-laW,
ard SO the brothers, hardly knowisS
one another's addresses, heard frequent
ly of one anotlleI's welfare.
BY and by Henry decided that the
Hudson river would have TO keep in
bounds without his assistance, and 50
he pulled stakes" aud joined his
brother in the Black Canyon of Colora-
do.
81 found him helping build the Den=
yer q Rio Grande railway, ''says Henry,
'.and the pay was pretty good, but we
soon made more money building cofins.
The way they killed men in the canyon
was somtbing never saw the like Of.
They were in . hurry to finish the road
and they cared nothing for human life.
They shipped men in there by The car
load. just as if they we're beeves. I
tell you, pretty nearly every tie In that