The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-04
TRUTHFUL JAMES AND THE
KLoNDIKER.

"
Bret Harte in The independently
We woz sittin' free-like ez you and me
in our camp on the Stanisiow,
Round q roarin' fire of bresh and briar
stirred up by a pitch-pine bough.
And Jones of Yelo had hnlshed ms SOLO on
Bilson's prospectin' pan,
And we all woz gay until Jefferson Clay
ken in with a Klondike a
Now I most despise low language and lies,
as 1 used to remark to Nye,
But the soul of Tr~uth-though he was but
a youth-looked out of that strang-
And the things he said I had frequent
read in the papers down on the
And the words he choosed woz the kind
wot's used in the best theayter play.
He talked of SHOWS, and of whisky wot
froze in the solidest kind of a chunk,
Which it took Just a pound to go Niriy
around when the boys had a first
class drunk.
And of pork that was drilled and with
dynamite filled before it would yield
to . blow,
For things viii be strange when ther-
mometers range to 60 degrees below.
How they made soup of boots-which the
Oldest best suits-and a FRY" from a
How in Yukon Hrlley a corpse de bally
might get up 4 fine "menoo."
DuI LAACAl 1CE ulcil a " NAA0g u ACNA-
in to spare had finished their
final mule
Was the harness leather which with hides
went together, though the last didn't
count as a rule.
Now all this seemed true, and quite
material, too, and then he spoke OF the
And We all sot up, and reflled his cup,
and this the yarn he told:
There was gold in heaps-but it's there it
keeps, and will keep till the judg-
For it's very rare that a man gets there
and the nan that is there must stayi
It's a thousand miles by them Russian
isles till you come onto Fort Get
There"
(Which the same you are not if you'll
look at the spot on the map-that Of
Then a river begins that the Amazon
skins and the big Mississippi knocks
For It's seventy miles cross its mouth
when it smiles, and-you'ye only be-
gun your route.
Here Bilson arose with a.keerless-like
pose n he gazed on that Nondike
And he says: Fair Sir. do not think I
infer that your words are not words
OF truth,
But I simply ask why-since that all men
must die-your sperrit is wanderin'
here,
When at Dawson City-the more's the
~pity-you've been frozen up nigh a
year"
"You need not care, for 1 never was
there" said the simple Klondike
man.
I'm a company f1oater and business pro-
mOter, and this is my little plan;
! show you the dangers to which you are
strangers, n now for a sum you'll
What price you expect us-as per this
prospectus-to insure your safe re-
turn"
Then Bilson stared, and he almost r'ared,
but he spoke in q calm-like tone:
you'll Excuse me for sayin' you're rather
delayin' YOU chance to insure your
own!
For we're wayworn and weary, you style
isn't CHEEKY, we've quite enough of
your game"
But-what did affect us-he took that
prospectus and chtcked it right in
to the flannel
Then our roarin' fire of bresh and brier
flashed up on the Stanislow,
And Jefferson Clay went softly away with
that youth with a downcast brow,
And Jones of Yolo repeated his solo on
that still, calm evening air,
And we thought with q SILVER Of Yukon
River and the fort that was called
"Get There!''