Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-01-28
EACH MAN FOR HIMSELF.
THE OLD pRoVERe IS LITERALLY
FOLLOWED IN THE klONDlkE.

A Returned Miner Declares That Mems
Greed for Gold Leads Them tn Become
Suspicious of Each other and selfish to
the Verge of Cruclty-A Brutal Case.
Nobody who has spent the winter
IN the Klondike will ever want to try
it again, said Thomas Harmer ut the
Denver Col Mining Bureau. THAT
il, unless he has II certainty of max
ing 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. II
would not go back there aud remain
Ave years for $3.50, 900" he con-
tinued. "When speak of suffering
do not mean actual bodily pain or
sickness, because think il man
goes there prepared as he should and
abstains from excuses he can keep i'll
reasonable good health, but to live
duri lg the winter season in those
close cabins and see the horrible sell
iishness and cruelty of human beings
towards 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, liz enough
TO make one lose all faith in the tit
ness of men TO live on the earth.
When | was coming out | saw men re-
fuse nail or the use Of an axe. or
even the use Of q tin cup to men who
were in need of these trihes Every
man there seems to be afraid of his
fellows-afraid that they will steal
something or have better 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 u claim or n part
Of claim, and went out every day
that the 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 do not remem-
Der of single occasion when one Of
us acknowledged that he had found
any gold. Each of us had buckskin
bag, which was carried on the person,
and the ingenuity of all was taxed to
the utmost to devise some scheme
whereby the bag could he concealed
from the rest. There was no stealing
in the camp. A man caught stealing
would have had rough time of it,
but every man seemed to think that
every other man wanted TO steal from
him, and L do not think that single
one of us knew where any other man
carried his gold. remember one
night lying awake and seeing five men
Of our company at different times put
ting away nuggets found during the
day, and in every case after putting
them in the little buckskin bag they
would thrust the bag under the blan-
kets, and / could see from the FUN
bling that they were concealing it
about their persons. We always had
u man sitting up to keep the fires, and
the men were afraid that he might see
where they put their gold There was
no absolute cruelty, but the total in
difference TO the welfare OF Others that
characterized everybody was simply
horrible. was in the cabin one day
reading with two men, one of whom
was sick, the rest being at work. The
sick man had terrible cold and fever
and asked one Of us to hand him q
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 excep-
tionally 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
30. came out with one man who was
30 excited over about $4,000 worth
Of gold that by the time we got to San
Francisco he was almost an idiot, and
II was with difficulty that we could
induce him to deposit his gold in q
bank and go TO hotel. There is plen-
ty OF gold there, aud / think more
fields will be found, but oil q man is
likely to get will not pay him for the
horrible experiences he is called upon
TO endure. / was not particularly
lucky, though 1 brought out enough
to pay me fairly we'll for my two years
In Alaska, but il l was assured Of
$50. 900 a year would not go back
there"
ElIt.a n..d.a