New-York tribune., 1905-08-20
I 6

peas, naSturt1umS, that IN their blooming
isolation reminded one of Celia ThaXter' S
garden on the Isle of Shoals.
Balls. concerts, church. going, theatri-
Gals. all were here as elsewhere; but
daily conversation was likely to turn on
samples, values, claims, silver, bOanite;
bat above all, gold, gold, goldl The men
down on the creeks with their primitive
gold-pans and cradles, the huge monitors
day and night storming Natures earth
works at the hydraulic stands, the huge
stamp-mills, crushing and pounding-all
We're gold-seekers.
The show nugget of Atlin found on
Boulder Creek, was put into our hands.
1t was as big as ones two fists put together.
Every mans undevelopcd prospect is,
of course, the finest thing that ever was; ;
the only difficulty is to find a financial
hacker to believe in it. Companies are
formed daily Gn conversation); financed
heavily Gn conversation by Eastern
capitalists who would laugh to hear how
blithely their names are used to float
these conversational enterprises. When
it was rumOred. that a quiet man looking
about him, apparently at the scenery,
was representative of Clark of Mon
tana, Atlin doomed itself feroCiously. The
impecunious man who had been stalled
in the camp from its inception went out
magnifcently (in conversation ito keep
Christmas in Gods country with the folks
at home" Even the dreamer whose
ambition had narrowed down to the
desire of possessing pair of pink-sllk
pajamas, went about lin conversation
thus adorned.
Here as elsewhere the men who make
a living are those who work steadily,
whether for wages or in independent
venture, on assured ground. The men
who lose are those who dream or drink
and don't work. The large prizes that
seem the result of accident, but that
demand faith and imagination as well
as experience, go to those who dream
and work.
But alasl progress has been woefully
retarded by litigation. When court is in
session the whole population crowds into
Government Building, with grievances
involving ditch, flume or dredging rights,
"your tailings on my claim,'' and the like
An agreeable neighbor called on us
every evening that he was let out of jail
on parole, or by mistake. Technically, his
ofense consisted in having Jumped a
ditch" We rejoiccd when he finally was
acquitted, as all along he tearfully pro-
tested his spotless innocence.
a difference in nationality up there
seems to be a bond of brotherhood
Dominion Day and Independence Day
are kept, in beautiful paradox, on the
same date the sister flags lovingly inter
tWined.
1t was late September. The wild
roses were dead the yellow sage-blossom
withered on the bough; the hills no
longer knew forget-me-nOt and colum-
bine. On the dark evergreen slopes We're
mustard-cOlOr patches where beech and
birch had turned. There were no more
long twilights. When the sun fell be-
hind the mountains, shortening the daily
path by enormous strides, darkness
rose like the tide. Though the stars We're
radiant overhead it was impossible to dis
tinguish the trail on which ones feet We're
set. One walked neck-high in Erebus.
We had to go. Soon the boats would
be laid by, and al communication with
the O1lter world he C11t of fill the lakes