Evening star., 1902-03-22
DIE ON ALASKA TRAILS
FATAL RESULTS OF STAMPEDES
AFTER GOLD.
Hardships Dared by Thousands Who
Know Little Of What They
Are to Encounter.

From the ST. Louis Globe Democrat.
when the snow and ice of northern Alas
ka give up their dead it will be seen at
what an awful sacrifice of human life the
treasures of that frozen land are being OBJ
tained.''
1t is with such a remark as this that Mr..
c. d. Bristol, senior member of the COM
mercial firm of Bristol & Lindhard of Nome
city, Alaska, who is spending the winter
with his wife and family at 1861 Windsor
place, prefaces any of his remarks about
the country where he has been located
since the spring of 1898. Mr. Bristol spent
year in mining along the kougarok river
after leaving ST. Louis, and during the
three years he has been located at Nome
dealing in mining outfits he has establish
ed an acquaintanship with miners and In
dams extending all over the Sumner penin-
Sula, and has a fund of information from
this source alone that makes him we'll
qualified to speak of the conditions prevail
Ing throughout the country.
Never Heard of Again.
"Over a third of those who leave the
camps and towns of the coast in splendid
physical condition are never heard of again,
and 40 per cent of those who get back to
the points of their departure die while
seeking recovery from the hardships they
have endured" Mr.. Bristol continued in
the course of an interview. The horrors
of the interior of Sumner peninsula, in
which is located Nome city, are almost
unbelievable in the United States. OF eE-
cry two men who leave. this country to
prospect up there it is safe to say only one
will return alive, and it is safe to say that
even the dead body of the other may never
be found, unless he has died on the coast
Yet that is urquestiOnably the richest
gold-bearing country in the world new
districts producing the precious metal are
new Ell Dorado has been found, even
though the thermometer may stand at -
degrees below, and certain death stare eV-
erybOdy in the face who attempts the trip
to 1t, men and women will swarm there
by the hundreds soon as they have in
formation of it. Each one is animated by
the hope that he she will be the lucky
one TO get through all right, and hardly
any suffering is great enough to deter
them from pushing on; they combat every
hardship in the belief that they will ulti-
mately triumph, and though the trail may
be lined with the dead bodies of those who
have gone before, and each corpse gives
them warning of the fate that may over
take them, still they face the biting blast
OF the arctic winter, struggle on with their
half frozen bodies growing weaker every
day, and even when the glaze of death
shuts out the trail, shuts out everything
but the mirage Of wealth from their sight
they will not confess themselves beaten,
and fight a little further along on the jour-
ney for gold, until the fiickering lamp of
life goes out and they die in a gulch that
year from today may yield a wealth of
gold to some more fortunate prOspector.
Mad Rush of People
More lives are lost in these stampedes
as We call them, than in any other way
Stampede is the proper name for it, for it
is simply a mad rush of people toward a
prospectively rich mining country without
regard for condition Of the weather or any
thing else. They go out anyway, some with
outfits, some without, many without food
enough to last them for a Week, that
it is no wonder death reapS a big harvest
from d stampede. The proSpectorS who
make their valuable discoveries always
seek to keep them quiet, but this is an i'm
possible thing in one of the northern Alas
mining camps. No matter how secretly
he endeavers to get in. the fact that new
arrival is in town from the interior is
known all over the camp before he has been
there two hours. and from that time on
there is never a moment, sleeping or walk
ing, that he is not watched.
Men take regular turns at dogging his
footsteps, and if the miner deposits any
gold at a bank or purchases goods with
dust a thrill sweeps through the whole
town. Bartenders grow absent minded at
their duties, and give the man who calls
for whisky lemonade, gamblers become ner-
vous in dealing cards; a collection is quick
ly taken up among the more anxious and
the volunteer Shadows of the miner are
replaced by men who are paid for never al
lowing him to escape their eyes. Everybody
has grown excited though the most ludi-
cTous endeavors are made to suppress it
when the man vino has caused it all is
round: outfits are priced and bought by
nose lucky enough to have the money, and
cores even hundreds, of dog sledS, are
kept on the outskirts of the camp ready to
move at moments notice. There is no
fever SO bad as this gold fever in an Alas
kan mining town. Sometimes this wat CHI
ing and state of readiness to move on the
part of half of the inhabitants are kept up
for weeks before the miner leaves town.
but no matter how he tries to get away he
will find the eager followers on his track
before he has proceeded quarter of mile
He may endeaVor to lose them in every pos
sible way, he may make long detours, but
1t is game of follow my leader that he
cannot break; the long string of dog sleds
and weary, half-starved plodders on foot
stick to him like the preverbiai leech and
If he ever succeeds in getting back to the
country of his claim he will find at least
half Of his followers in at the DEATH the
others have marked the trail with their cold
clay.