Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1900-04-21
GRIM STORIES OF GOLD FIRTne
Gold-Seekers on the Verge of M.Su...
Profanity the Safety Valve

PROFANITY the soafety Valve
Here is typical illustration Of N
extreme hardships of the life in Alas,
Middleton was a young EngGsbrna"'
slight aud small, and accustomed Ia III
the retinements Of civilized life. He hal
enough money 10 buy a modest Outf-
but had never camped out or rougbed T.
before this time. He and his parrrer
went in by the ChilcoOt Pass in 1897 ana
tramped the whole way. They had
sledge and four Irish settlers. with 13A,
pounds of freight. The partner being H..
stronger. buckled himself into the har.
ness and pulled as leader of the team
Middleton's duty was to walk behind tIo
sledge and push. There are no reads
properly speaking, in Alaska. EXCEPT D.,
winter the trails are sloughs of icy uui
worked soft by the feet of the gold see
ers. The slush is always over the sho.s
and an unguarded step will plunge nh.
walker TO the waist. The Canadian gov
eminent has done nothing to better til.
| condition of the trails. This fact, coupled
with the exorbitant fees charged th,
miners by that government, have led tn.
prospectors, at more than one point an
the trails. to set up boards with this de-
riSive motto:
millions for tribute, but not one cent
for roads
The gold seeker himself carefully re.
Trains from doing anything more to The
present difficulties and to carry him On
his way.
THE first important thing Middletop
learned was TO swear. Everybody
swears in Alaska. There is belief that
nothing of moment can be accomplish
there without profanity. 1t is the safety
valve that keeps men from madness
when the pressure of the conditions be-.
comes excrueiating. Only Swedes do
not acquire the habit, and perhaps il
would be better if they did. Their natu-
raj slowness of speech keeps them quiet
under trouble, but the feeling is there
| Just the same. The stress of bitter hard
ship is on all alike, and the effect is
cumulative when it is not worked Off
4 story to illustrate the virtue Of
swearing concerns a Swede who had
struggled through a long half day of
small disasters. His patience was mar
| veous. He was wet and chilled. He
righted his sledge after upsets in grim
! silence, and with a courage worthy Of
better luck. But along in the afternoon.
where the trail skirted a hill, some sud
den freak twitched his dogs off to one
side and sent the sledge and its load
rolling down into the little valley be
meath. 1t was nothing worse than had
happened before. but somehow it snapped
| the last cord of his resistance. He stood
for n moment, his hands above his head
and his features working as it. in cor
vulSlOn, then with yell he dashed after
the team, pulled an axe from the leash
ings, killed the dogs one after another.
and smashed the sledgc and load into liz
tie pieces. Suddenly reason returned
He sat down in the snow beside his
ruined outfit and cried like child.
ITO rejoin Middleton at the time of his
learning to swear. The whole life goes
on at such high pressure that everybody
is on the verge of madness. 1t is the
strain of the thing that counts. Middle
ton had his turn with the rest. Once.
when slipping, he saved his footing by
hanging to the sledge. His partner
feeling the drag. promptly cursed him for
adding to the load. When Middleton
got down and pushed harder to make
up for lost time, his partner sulked and
his head reeled with the added effort.
When one of the dogs dropped on the
snow to rest, the sledge stopped and each
man turned furiouSly on the other. The
words came hot and fast. Middleton
noticed all at once that he was not talk
ing, but simply screaming, and that he
could not help it. Then things wen.
away from him. When he came to him
self his partners voice, as tender as a
woman's. was saying to him:
There. there. Take a brace, old
man. In a minute you'll be all right
I'm ten minutes Middleton was all
right. and they were both laughing and
plodding as before. 1t is this sort OF
thing that makes up the daily tragedy
of the trails. '-Warren Cheney in Aims
lees