The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-01
GOLD "srRIKEs" OF 80 YEARS.
Hardships Undergone by Fortune
Hunters in search of the Yellow
Maf

FROM the New ork Evening Telegram
The gold craze has been with humanity
from time immemorlal. Periodically the re-
port of some new discovery of the preci-
GUS metal has caused the widest excite
ment, and the scramble TO get rich quick
ly has been productive of many such SEN
sations as that created by the recent re-
ports from the Klondike region. The hard
ships endured by gold-seelIing pioneers
have also been an important factor in the
opening up and civilization of hitherto
comparatively unknown regions of the
globe. To gold the entire Pacific coast
owes its present prosperity. The exist
ence of gold had long been known in Cal
ifornias and washings had been carried on
in the southern part, near the San Fer
nando mission, as early as 1871. No dis
coyery had been made, however, which at
tracted much attention or Caused excite
ment previous to the occupation of the
country by the Americans.
A piece Of native geld was picked up in
an excavation made for a mill-race on the
south fork of the American river, at
place now called Colona. BY the end OF
December, 1S4S, washing for gold was
going on all along the foothills of the
Sierra, from the Tuolumne river to the
Feather, a distance of $50 niles, The first
Adventures came from Mexico, the South
witch Islands, The excitement eventually
spread east and in the spring of 1919 the
rush of emigrants across the plains and
by way of the isthmus of Panama com
menced 1t was estimated that 100000 men
reached California during that year, IN
GLIDING representatives of every state of
the union. The emigration to the land OF
gold continued with but little abatement
for three years, but the excitement fell of
in a marked degree in 1854.
California discov cries had given rise to a
general search. for precious deposits in the
Atlantic states and this had been followed
by wild specuations A great deal of
money had been sunk in opening new
mines and in attempting to develop old
ones which had never yielded anything of
value Fifty thousand men were engaged
in mining for gold in this country at the
close of 1850, and during 1852 and 1853 fully
100000 were at work. AT this time the
California gold washings reached about
S65, 0C0, 600 in value year. At this period
the diggings for gold were chiefly along the
rivers. These were "f1umed'-that is,
the water was diverted from its natural
channel by means of wooden f1ues-and the
accumulation of sand and gravel in the
former beds was washed
The first and richest "placers," such as
the bars on the American, Yuba, Feather,
Stanislaus and othe smaller streams in
the heart of the gold region yielded each
miner as much as $1,000 20 $1,000 day. The
miners were eXcitable and frequently left
valuable localities in search of something
better Occasionally a kind of frenzy
would seize on them and thousands would
flock TO some very distant locality on the
strength of newspaper and other reports.
Many would then perish from disease and
starva ton, the rest returning in poverty
and rags. The Kern river fever ragged
through the states in 1856, and at least
5000 miners went to that distant region of
the Sierra, only to find that the gold de-
posts were already worked out. The Fraser
river rush occurred In 1858 and caused more
suffering to the men of California than
pestileace might have done. Twenty
thousands persons left the states for that
remote region, where all suffered great
privations. Many died and the survivors
went back in a state of restitution.
About the same time that the gold fever
was at it's hight on the western coast of
North America, just two years after the
rush of the "forty-ninerS," the great. gold
boom in Australia began. 1t was at sum
MERRILL creek, twenty miles south of Ba-
thurst, in the Macquarie plains, that Aus
tralian gold was first mined by f. Har-
ereaves, a gold miner from California.
The intelligence was made known in April
or May, 1851, and then began a rush of
thousands. Men left their former employ
ments in the bush or in the towns to
SGarcn Tor the precious ore, which mas
ranked almost as an idol in all ages.
Gold was found at Andersons creek near
Melbourne, the following August, and
few weeks later the great Ballarat gold
fields, eighty miles west Of the city, were
opened, and after that Bendigo now call
ed Sandhurst to the north.
Then came gold fever which surpass-
ed that of California in intensity. Not
only in New South Wales and Victoria,
where the auriferous deposits had been
revealed but in every British colony OF
Austria all ordinary industry was aban-
doned for the one exciting pursuit. The
disturbance of social, industrial and COM
mercial affairs during the first two or
three years of the gold craze was very
great. immigration from Europe North
America and China poured into Melbourne
at the rate of 5000 each week.
While there has never been a year when
the gold fever has not ragged with more or
less intensity in some quarter of the globe,
the next great era Of intense excitement,
which attracted the attention of the whole
world, was In the early SOS, when the ex
traordluary gold fields of the Transvaal.
or South African republic, were discover
ed. The quartz formation Of the famous
Witwatersrand reef differed entirely from
any hitherto known gold-bearing ore. and
at first many were skeptical of its value.
But when it became known that the reef
extended In an unbroken half-circle for
forty miles and formed one of the richest
fields in the world. the rush across the
"veldt' began. Thousands traversed the
thousand miles which separated "the
Rand" from the English colonies. and the
peaceful little Dutch republic was invad-
ed with wild greedy, excited mob of all
nationalties. The town of johannesburg
rose from single hut to a city Of nearly
10000 inhabitants in less than two years.
Fabulous fortunes were made In a few
months. These were acquired, however,
not by hard work at the mines. but by
floating bogus companies when the fever
was at its hight. There was no placer
mining, and before the reef could be made
profitable immense machinery had to be
carried over hundreds of miles OF rough
country But the gold waa there. and the
output last year edualed that Of any other
country Of the world
The United States had its next great cpl
demic Of gold mining fever early In 1859
when the discoveries in Lower California
created intense excitement along the Pa
cihc coast The Santa Clara district. 70
which the crowds rushed, was about 120
miles south OF San Diego and 20 west Of
Resanaga. During March. 1889 an average