The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1905-09-01
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 a 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
end to end Death valley is strewn with
bleaching. sun-dried 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 to
one against them, and stOrming Flu
neral mountains in hope to struggle
into Death valley to despair because
gold has been found 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 superfluous
fat and flesh appear to melt away from
him. He has to take up several holes
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 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 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 a mesquite bush and to
wait un.il the sun goes down. Then
he must hit the trail and reach a well
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 1S49
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.
Cr,nd Cs,lIoCfjnn