The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-08-11
The Great Gold Epidemic.

DltS OF SOlQ near OuLLcT 5 L OrG, III CGl-
ifornia, set the country afre with cx-
element and changed the destiny Of
all that Western region, and since
that time there have been periodical
returns of the gold fever, now in one
part of the country, 0 in another,
but none of them has quite cquallcd
in violence the epidemic now raging
under the name of "Klondyke." If
any one had been asked a month ago
where Klondykc was he would proba-
bly, have been at a loss to know In
what part of the world to locate it,
and would have felt doubtful whether
lis questioner referred to a region of
country, a lake or a mountain. To-
day the name is in every ones mouth,
the newspapers print columns about
it, railroad offices arc besieged by men
wanting to know tie shortest and fast
est way of getting there, and hun
dreds, who have never done q days
hard work in their lives, are possess
ed with the idea that they can 60
there and make enough money in a
few months to keep them in luxury
all the rest of their days. Vessels
leaving Seattle and ports in that vicin-
ity are crowded to their utmost CO.
pacity; and anxiety to secure passage
is all the greater because the season
for Alaskan travel has almost closed,
and everyone fears that all the gold
may be exhausted before the opening
of another season.
If half the stories told of the enor-
nous finds Of gold are true it is quite
enough to justify the cagcrness Of
miners to reach the Klondyke. One
Michigan farmer, after a few weeks
work, returns home with a hundred
thousand dollars and a half share in
the richest of all the Klondyke
mines; a steamer comes in with acou-
pie Of millions worth of gold sent home
for security; another story relates
that men ''take a tub of water into
their cabins and pan out $4,000 of
gold in less than a day and several
have found nuggets "as large as a
man. hand" In short, all the old
stories, that have done duty over and
~overscain with every new discovery
of gold fields IN any part Of the world,
are being resurrected and toId;@and,
what is worse, believed, with the re-
suit that those who are tired Of the
slow and laborious methods of getting
a living are selling all they have to
buy an outfit, and are taking passage
for Alaska.
If a man is young and strong and
willin g to work, and leaves nc one de,
pendent upon him to suffer during his
absence, there is nothing to be urged
against his going. Every city has a
number of just such men, who are
willing to work, but find it impossible
to get employment at what they re-
gard as Giving wages and if they
can find means of purchasing what is
necessary to take along and to pay for
transportation they are doing we'll to
make the effort to retrieve their for
tunes in this way. They may not be-
come millionaires, and they may even
come back as empty-handed as they
went, but they will have had excite
ment, an object in life, plenty Of ex-
pcrience and a lesson in hard work
and endurance that will probably be
of use for the rest of their lives in re-
conciling them to employments and
wages they now regard with disdain.
Their going will also give those who
remain behind another chance by de-
creasing the number Of applicants for
every situation that offers.
It is very natural that those who
are thinking of going to the Klondyke
mines should be eager to get there as
soon as possible, on the supposition
that the first to arrive on the ground
will have the best chance to make a
fortune; but experience during past
gold epidemics teaches US that this is
not always the case. Thousands of
"thc Forty-niners," as they love to
call themselves, are in very moderate
circumstances to-day, and the mar who
discovered gold at Suffers Fort is no
richer to-day than he was on that
eyentful morning nearly fifty years
ago. On the other hand, those who
went to California many years later,
when roads were opened up, the means
of transportation cheaper and more
comfortable, and the whole country
under the rule of law and order, are
generally better off and better able to
enjoy their wealth than those who
were first to arrive there. AS to
Klondyke; there is no doubt that the
coming winter will be the very hardest
in that Arctic region, and that by the
opening Of another season it will be
much easier to reach the mines and to
support life while working them than
it is at present. It will be remember
ed that Circle City takes it's name
from the fact that it is situated al
most at the Arctic Circle, and that
Klondyke is but a little south Of that
point. In this region the thcrmomc-
ter has a range of $50 degrees, from
ITO above zero in the summer to 10
below in winter; so that the difficulty
of guarding against a climate so vari-
able is no small part of the hardships
to BE- overcome. To be sure, if one is
to be frozen to death it does not mat
ter much the exact range of the Their
mometer at the time, but in a country
almost destitute of wood for making
fires, and with no means of transport
ing any kind of fuel for warmth and
culinary purposes, the problem of how
to keep from freezing is all the more
difficult. To make it more dismal
there are only four hours Of daylight
during midwintcr.
If it were only a question how to
keep warm and to cook food the OBJ
%staclcs to be overcome would by no
means be insurmountablc, since some
missionaries and whole tribes of In
dams have been doing that for years,
but the miner must work out Of doors
and in soil that is frozen many feet
in depth, and with water that will not
remain a moment liquid when exposed
to the air, and how is this to be done
without quantities of fuel? Taking
these difficulties into consideration.
along with the fact that travel by e.
Their Of the two routes, that via Dutch
Harbor, St. Michacl's S, and up the
Yukon TO Circle CITY: or that from