The herald., 1898-10-21
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"Dull in Los Angeles! Why, man, where
do you live when you're at home: IL ne
had said ON the Bowery or in gay Paris l
could have believed that his accent OF sad
ness was unfeigned; but what could say
when he answered Dawson City, as II
that was conclusive. Dawson City, indeed,
ON the cutoff between the North Pole and
Nowhere, abandoned to polar bears and Es-
ouimaun or other furbearing animals, to
rival the hot times in our old town! 1t was
chilling to the warmest California enthusi-
asm.
But the story continued, and there was no
discount on the reality of the ennui that
crept in and nestled between the commas.
"Wbv. everything here is shut by Il
o'clock. and then how do you assassinate
all the rest of the time? have seen more
money spent for fun in a night at Dawson
than I have in all the two months since
loft the old town put together. Right
here it seemed wisest to shut up all opposi-
ton and begin to get pointers, Tor Los An
geles must be ready for the next fellow from
Widest Siberia that gets stranded here with
lots of money and wishes to eXcavate some
fun. if only for the honor of the town.
Seriously, though, I. Il. Berry and A. q.
Wissee, two returned miners and specula-
tors from the Yukon, are fairly surfeited
with civilization already, and anxious to
ret back to the rush and glare OF that
barbarc young life where everything Is
gold encrusted. Only on the last day. of
September, after continuous trip. OF Is
dreams, whose fiesh-pots had looked so al
Turing from distance.
o O o
As Mr.. Wissee says, IT used to think that
if ever l could get where there was some
thing good to eat, l would be perfectly
happy, and never leave it. But now l am
dead tired of it all, and just as anxious to
get back to where there is something going
on"
Mr.. Wissee is a pioneer of the peninsula,
and member of the Yukon Rivers Pioneer
association, but that is land where pioneer
is not Synonymous with white hair and rheu-
matism or a red nose and the gout-yet.
But he was UP in that country almost six
years ago, before there was any boom, al
most before there was any gold. And yet
today he looks hardly more than fresh
faced boy.
"And we folks right on the creek were the
slowest to believe the millions in it stories.
We knew that there was some gold there,
sold for $4,000 we called the buyer fool:
Then when claim 81 went at s3l, 600 we had
the cap and bells ready again. But three
days later the owner was offered $40, 900 for
a half interest, and we began to see that we
were handling bigger things than we knew"
The gentlemen were very courteous, and
told the usual wonderful stories of the gold
fields, which sounded very different, fresh
as they were from the mouths OF actual
hardy men who have tramped sore-footed
over every rod of the way that they
talked about.
eyes, here's some of it," remarked Mr..
Berry, fishing in a back pocket. It might
have been old junk by the way he handled
it, but it was formed of bright bars and
chunks Of shining gold. Pretty?..well,
some, and never 80 pretty again as in the
intricate twist that natures jewelers. put on
IL. But there wers other thing, out a h