The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-06-02
sTORIE THE COLD FIELDs.
GOld-sea ON the Verge OF Mad
nea 1anity the safety
WkIve.

nee afanity the safety
valve.
Here typical illustration OF
the extr hardships ef the life in
Alaska. adleton was a young Eng
lshman 3ht and small, and ac.
custome all the refinements Of
civilized He had enough money
to buy odest outfit, but had never
campea On roughed it before this
time. and his partner went in
by the leoot pass in 1897 and
trampea whole way. They had a
sledge four Irish settlers, with
1900 as of freight The part.
ner ben The stronger buckled him
self "a he harness and pulled as
leader he team AIiddleton's duty
was to behind the sledge and
push here are no roads, properly
speak in Alaska. Except in win
ter, th rails are sloughs Of icy mud
wor by the feet of the gold
seeker he slush is always over the
Shoes an ungUarded step win
plung walker TO the waist. The
Canaa government has done moth.
ing better the condition, of the
trail. fact coupled with the ex.
orhita fees charged the miners by
that efnment, have led the pros.
peeto4 at more than one point on
the to set up boards with this
deris motto;
"AE ems for tribute, but not one
cent roads.
Ths gold seeker himself carefully
refra from doing anything more to
the rs than viii serve to help him
out present difficulties and to carry
him on his way.
Th first important thing Middle.
ton earned was to swear. Every.
body wears in Alaska. There is be.
lief hat nothing of moment can be
acca plished there without profan,
ity q IS the safety valve that keeps
men from madness when the pressure
Of lie conditions becomes excruciat.
ing Only Swedes do not acquire the
bat and perhaps it would be bet,
ter they did. Their natural slow.
mes 0f speech keeps them quiet un.
der rpuble, but the feeling is there
Jus tile same. The stress Of bitter
htaship is on all alike, and the ef-
4ect is cumulative when it is not
worked off. A story to illustrate the
virtue of swearing concerns a Swede
had struggled through q long
day of small disasters. His pa.
Ience Es,s marvellous He was wet
and chilled. He righted his sledge
after upsets in grim silence, and with
a courage worthy of better luck. Bu3
along in the afternoon, where the
trail sBirted hill, some sudden freak
twitched his dogs off to one side
and sent the sledge and it's load roll,
ing down into the little valley be.
meath. 1t was nothing worse than had
happened before, but somehow ii
snapped the last cord of his resist.
ance. He stood for a moment, his
hands above his head and his features
working as if in a convulsion, then
with yell he dashed after the team.
pulled an ak from the Iashings, killed
the dogs one after another, and
smashed the sledge and load into
little pieces. Suddenly reason re.
turned. He sat down in the snow be.
side his ruined outfit and cried like
a child
To 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 mad
ness. 1T is the strain Of the thing that
counts. Middleton had his turn with
the rest. Once, when slipping, he
saved his footing by hanging to the
-sleIige. His partner, feeling the drag
promptly cursed him for adding ia
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 talking, but simply scream.
ing, and that he could not help it
Then things went away from him
When he came to himself his part.
ner's arms were around him, and his
partners voice, as tender as WON.
ans, was saying to him:
There! there! Take a brace, old
man. In a minute you'll be all right"
In 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 Warren Che.
ney, in Ainslee's.
RetOrt Courteous.
At a dinner party recently a dnda