The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1905-08-19
(1'o be continued.I
RUSH INTO DEATH VALLEY.

The Hunt for Pots of Gold at the Foot
of the Rainbow.
The moral Of the old Persian prov
erb, The cheapest thing in the king
dom Is what men hold most DEAR" is
called to mind by the story which
comes from San Francisco OF the daily
sacrifice Of human lives in the mad
search for gold In the Death valley.
Past Funeral mountains, which stand
Warder at the gate, men are struggling,
lured by the lust of lucre.
Men have strayed into Death valley
many time before, says the Des
Moines Register, but it was when they
were crazed with thirst and knew that
no torment Of the unknown could sur
pass the agony of the known. From
end to end Death valley Is strewn with
bleaching, sun-drled and vulture-
picked skeletons. 1t Is the most bar
rem and forsaken place in North Amer
lea.
Death turks on every hand, but men
are giving up comfortable homes by
the hundreds, with chances a million 10
one against them, and storming Fu-
neral mountains in hope to struggle
into Death valley to despair because
gold has been found a little further
on. The tortures awaiting them have
been heralded widely, but cannot daunt
the adventurous spirit of the argo-
nauts.
Al Through Death valley, as well
as along the fringe of both the Mojave
and the Colorado desert, the atmos-
phere is so devoid of moisture that ev-
erything is as dry as a bone. The
new arrival finds that all superfuous
fat and flesh appear to melt away from
in his belt and he has to drink gal
Ions of water every day where he Or
dinarily drank several glasses.
In fact, the system Graves so much
water that when it cannot be procured
the mans strength fails rapidly, and
to be without it, even In the shade,
is sure death after a day or two. To
run out of water on the trail and to be
forced to travel over the desert in
the fierce glare Of the sun means in
sanity in a few minutes and death in
a few hours.
Not even the seasoned resident can
resist this heat for long. The only re-
course Of the old resident who loses
his water supply in any way is to seek
shelter under mesquite bush and "
wait until the sun goes down. Then
he must hit the trail and reach a we'll
before sunrise, or unless he has won
derful vitality his skeleton will be add
ed to the large collection that lines all
the roads through Death valley.
The old Persian proverb has been
proved over and over again, but never
more conclusively than In this case.
The hunt for gold has always been the
hunt for death. The Western plains,
over which the argonauts Of 1949
struggled toward California and gold,
the silent places along the Chilkoot
pass. the great steppes of Siberia, the
great wastes of South Africa, wher-
ever gold. has been found, men have
offered in bounteous measure that
which they hold most dear and yet
that which is cheapest in kingdom or
republic.
Men by the thousands have left
riches at home to tempt fate and that
will-o'-the- wisp, gold, and have added
their bones to the funeral pyres that
mark every such struggle. The Death
valley rush is only another in the long
list since men sought to find the pots
of gold at the foot of the rainbow.