The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-07
EVERY MAN FOR HIMsELF.
The Selfish Ola rroverb Goes LITERAL
lS ia The NIondike.

AaN hNAOhhAaNNs
From the Denver Republican.
Nobody who has spent the winter In the
Klondike VIII ever want to try il again"
said Thomas Harmcr at the mining bureau
recently. That is, unless he has a GER
tainty Of making enough money to par
TALLY repay him for suffering hardships
such as were never endured in any min
ing camp on earth before"
Mr.. Harmor went into Alaska two years
ago and SAYS that he LEFT there last Au-
gust, never TO return. "r would not go
back there and remain five years for two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars" he
continued, When / speak of suffering /
do not mean actual bodily pain or sick
ness, because ! think If a man goes there
prepared as he should ana abstains from
excuses he can keep in reasonably good
health, but to live during the winter sea-
son in those close cabins aud see the hor-
rible seltishness and cruelty of human be-
ings toward 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 is enough to make one lose
all taith in the fitness of men to live on the
earth. When ! was coming out ! saw men
refuse nail or the use of an AK or even
the use of tin cup TO men who were in
need of these trihes. Every man there
seems 10 be afraid of his feioWs-afraid
that they Will steal sonnet thing or have bet
ter success in finding gold. I spent last
winter from September TO April with eight
other mon, we having gone together TO
save labor In keeping warm
Each Of us had a claim or a part of a
claim, and went out every day that the
weather was not too cold 10 work our
claims. In melting the frozen gravel we
nearly always found one of more nuggets
in the dirt. but during the entire eight
months that We worked together | do not
remember a 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 that bag
could be concealed from the rest There
was no stealing in the camp. A man
caught stealing would have had a rough
time OF 1t, but every man seemed TO think
that every other man wanted to steal
from him, aud do not think that a single
one OF us knew where any other man
carried his gold ! remember one night ly-
ing awake ana seeing five men of our
company at different times putting away
the nuggets found during the day, and
IN every case after putting them in the
buckskin bag they would thrust the bag
under the blankets and | could see from
the fumbling that they were concealing II
about their persons. We always had a
man sitting up TO keep the fires, and the
men were afraid that he might see where
they put their gold. There was no abso-
lutte cruelty, but the total indifference 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 a terrible cold and fever and
asked one of us to hand him a 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 IL all This. OF
course, was exceptionally brutal. but there
were many instances almost as bad. Ev-
cry man is for himself, and many of them
are so constantly thinking of their gold
that they become insane, or partially so.
| came out with one man who was so
excited over about ten thousand dollars
worth of gold that by the time we got to
| San Francisco he was almost an idiot, and
| 1t was with difficulty that we could in
| duce him 70 deposit his gold in bank and
go to hotel. There is plenty of gold
there, and | think more fields will be
found, but all man is likely to get win
| not pay him for the horrible experiences
he is called upon TO endure / was not
! particularly lucky, though / brought out
enough TO pay me fairly well for my two
years I'm Alaska. but If | was assured Of
fifty thousand dollars a year / would not
go back there"