Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-10-29
A DIARY OF STARVATION
KEPT BY WcYHRicH UNTIL TWO
DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH.

the Terrible Suffering Gamely Endured
by Goldseekers in the British Northwest
Henry Weyhrich, a motorman, who
left the service of the Los Angeles
(Cal) Railroad company in the winter
of 1898 to seek his fortune in the
Klondlke, has starved to death. His
comrade, A. L. Dominy, who narrowly
escaped the same fate, returned in
safety to his home at Adams and
Hoover streets in Los Angeles, says
the Times, bringing the news of Weyh-
rich's death. Mr.. Dominy was with
Weyhrich when he died, and brought
back to a brave little mother and sis
ter, who live out on Ninth street, just
beyond Park View avenue, a 100 lov-
ing messages and diary in which the
young prospector told of his little
daily adventures and at last how he
was dying by inches of hunger. 1t is
a piteous book, that diary; for he
writes heroically, trying to see hope
where there was no hope.
Weybrich was one of the Sunny
South party which left Los Angeles
for the Klondike two and one-half
years ago. They took the Edmonton
route, which carried them along Peace
river, by Fort Graham and along Syl-
vester Post. The other members all
turned back before long, but Weyhrich
and Dominy kept on into the interior
of Northwest Territory. They had
bad luck. They found little gold,
but it was too fine and not in paying
quantities. They had come so far for
it that they could not bear to turn
about empty-handed, and stayed on
and on in the threat of the coming
winter.
AT last it caught them, and un-
able to travel further or go back, they
built a cabin at the lower end of the
Mcpherson lake on the YesseZoo river,
about 500 miles from Dawson and 240
miles from Fort Lizard, where were
probably the nearest human beings.
They knew they had not provisions
enough to last the winter through, but
rested easy in the hope in getting
plenty of game.
Mr.. Weyhrich writes merrly in his
diary of their search for good place
for the cabin home and later tells
how they built it. Their axes got very
dull and nicked, and it was fearfully
cold, the thermometer sometimes going
down to 40 and even 65 degrees be-
low zero. Still they seemed to be
having a not unpleasant experience.
Small game like pine martin and
squirrel appeared to be plenty enough.
But as winter settled down the game
became very scarce and the provisions
began to run low. The men kept liv
ing in the hope of getting a moose.
Sometimes they found tracks; some
times saw the game, but when the
moose came 1t was too late for poor
Weyhrich. Last New Years day the
two snow-seiged prospectors had a
pathetic little celebration in their
cabin. They knew by that time that
there was small chance of either one
seeing another New Years day. Weyh-
rich told of it in his diary. He made
this entry:
Jan, 1, 1900. Camp Winter Quar-
ters.
Gold and clear.
1--WE had two good meals today.
Dominy baked pancakes, using the
last of our critic acid. He creased the
spider with a bit of steric acid candle.
| cooked dried apples, which we ate
with the pancakes and flour gravy.
For dinner we had vegetables, flour
mush and n spoonful of peameal our
last-and dried apples for supper.
81 remained in camp and cut up n
big log of firewood. Mr.. Dominy
went moose hunting-Saw fresh signs,
but could not get to them-They were
travelling. He caught one martin and
one weasel IN n trap
The wood had to be gathered in en-
ormous quantities. Sometimes they
burned as much as a cord in a night
to keep from freezing. Weyhrich had
run out of writing paper and the rec
ord of the doings of that last fate
full winter was written across the
pages of little Spanish English Bible,
which had the sacred words printed
in parallel columns in the two Ian
guages. 1t seemed as though hope
had left them that New Years day,
for there is not a CLEAN of anyth,;ig
but despair in the record of the days
Internationally a cool, manly resig
nation. On January Weyhlich
writes:
TOO weak to go hunting. Cooked
spoonful of rice, one of flour, one Of
vegetable, one leg of squirrel"
Ian. Very cold. | chopped
wood. Mr.. Dominy rested so as to
save his strength for moose tomor-
row.
81 feel that the Lord has saved our
souls, though our bodies perish by
starvation or freezing Our situation
is very desperate. Living on two
meals of thin soup.
Jan. S-Mr. Dominy went moose
| hunting three miles uD to the left