Evening star., 1898-05-20
ACROSS PANAMA IN 81.
Lewiston Mans WnriiIe Beminis-
cences of Going to the Pnciic.

Lewiston Mans WnriiLe Bemfnis-
cences of Going to the Pacific
From the Lewiston Journal.
TT is rather odd that the war of 1861
should have been preceded by gold fever
lust as this war of 1898 has BEEN" said
Mr. Nelson A. Dodge Of Whipple street,
Lewiston, today.
1--WE were divided between the call TO
the front and the desire to go to California
10 dig gold. Some of US went to both
places. Lots of us have our ideas OF Cuban
people and Spanish Americans from our
trip across the Isthmus of Panama in the
sixties. We had enough of the Spanish
blood in that short trip over the isthmus
The climate also gave us all we wanted
We went over by the railroad, but it was
hot And really, L don't think that many
of US would have lived to get across if We
had depended on our legs. l knew man
who went from our town who walked
across with q party. Ec had an old cav
airy sword which he sIarpened and used
to cut the underbruSh with. The bushes
grow thick there, and weave themselves
together so that one could not get through h
half as easy as he could If it was a big
blackberry bramble all the way. One Of
the parties would take the sword and cut
away at the path till he got tired, and
then another would try his hand until he
gave out. In that way they worked their
way across.
I'VE went out in 1868, and you should
have seen the conglCmerate mass of hu-
manity that there was there then. Along
at the last of our stay there were old
miners who worked on worn-out claims
and dumps for seventy-five cents day.
They had all made their pile and spent ii
and were looking for a haul to go home
on. They were old men, most of them,
and were proud, too. They would not go
hcme unless they could go with fortune.
Some of them had made their ounce OF
gold a day, and they had spent it gambling
and drinking. But now that the gold was
exhausted they kept on hoping for lucky
strike. In the early days every one said
that the gold would never be exhausted in
California, the people out there believing
it. 1t would make you cry to see those old
fellows going about their work every day
and hoping against hope. They had left
wives and mothers in the east years before
and now would not write because they
were too proud to tell them the truth. They
preferred to be thought dead. There were
Cinnamon, and, alas, China women, too,
Spaniards, Italians, Americans, Irishmen,
Englishmen and Indians. Every bill was
paid in gold. During the war many men
made money speeulating in gold and paper
money. When the Union forces won bat
tie they would go around and buy gold
with United States money of paper, and
when the rebels won battle and United
States paper money was cheap they would
go around and buy all the paper money
tEat lney cOulQ Nnu, paying GOlu lOr IL at
the rate of one gold dollar for many paper
dollars.
.The day that Richmond was taken
met a man who was in this business who
had not heard of il. / told him about IL
and he started off at once to find broker
who had not heard of it. He hunted all
day and at last found one. He bought all
the paper money the fellow had. paying
gold for 1t. He made eight hundred dol
lars that day, for the next day a gold dol
lar was not worth any more than a paper
dollar.
speaking of the many men who went
out there and did not make their salt re-
minds me of man who was making an
ounce Of gold in Australia every day. He
heard that Americans were making five
ounces, and he sold out and came to Call
fornia. He bought . claim and paid his