The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-16
TRAVELLING ROUGH
ROAD To GOLDF|ELD
People Are Sleeping Three in a
Bed There
TRIP TO GREAT GOLD CAMP
Touohs, Seamen and Salvation Army
Lass on the Traln--No Pleasure
Excursion-TaIk of Gold,
Gold, Gold.

| 0OtdJ WIFI
0oldfield. Nev.-When you set out for
Goldheld leave your finer sensibilties If
YOU have any, at home with your good
clothes. There is no demand for either in
mining camp
If you come from the east you may
travel in comparative comfort as far as
Reno, at least. But If you come from
San Francisco you rought it from the
very start.
It makes no difference that you travel
in on whose side is stamped the
word pullman" You rough it just the
same The Pullman company has re-
| serve of $32,000,0O0 upon which it is in
deadly fear it will be taxed. Yet travel
ers from San Francisco to Goldfed must
put up with cars not fit for cattle of the
vintage of 1886, for a berth in which they
pay $3.50.
There is only one train a day into Gold
field from anywhere, and only one train
day from Goldheld anywhither. Though
you spend anywhere from twenty-seven
to thrty-six hours making q 4S5 mile
Journey there is no dining car attached,
ana ellleI YOU pay TulllOuS pllC6 lOE VII
famous meals served by an insolent
waiter out OF three by four buffet
kitchen or you make wild dashes for fif-
teen minute bites at water tank station
every hundred miles or so.
From a point just east of Reno you
strike straight up into southern Nevada
at the dizzy rate of perhaps twenty miles
an hour over the very worst railroad in
f1,1 &c all s-fn Ia rnpt1
Most of it is owned and msmanaged by
the Tonopah and Goldfeld.
1t is the easiest country in the world
through which to build a railroad and
the railroad over which YOU travel has
been built i'm the easiest of all ways. The
road has been piled up perhaps a foot
in height, ties have been laid. rails spiked
on the ties and that is absolutely all.
And they charge you something like ten
cents a mile.
Well. treasure seekers do not appear
to mind any of these little things. There
is only one thing about Goldfeld that is
worse than the railroad service and that
Is the service of the Western Union Tel
egraph company. The Sun correspondent
sent a wire from San Francisco to a
Godield hotel and it was dead heat be-
tween him and his telegram.
The fact that he got clean, warm cot
in cold room full of other cots is due
neither to any merits of his own nor to
the telegraph company. but to the fact
that a United States senator interceded
for him with the hotel proprietor
Trains Packed.
Every train coming to Goldfield is
acked to the roof. Ours was no excep
ton. The passengers included all the
kinds of passengers there are.
There was a Salvation army lassie COM
ing down to join the armys Goldfed
branch. In the section next to her was
| g.. II f,r1 From
who thought he could make bigger money
here and get a chance to pike along with
his wages in Goldfed stock speculation.
They had luncheon together yesterday
and the last 1 saw of them as we pulled
| out of the starlt desert into the am
bilious electric lights of Goldfield the las
sic was shaking the gambler by the hand
and urging him to come around to head
quarters and get the grace"
At Reno Ex-Governor Thomas of Colo
RADIO got aboard. He was coming down
| to supervise the final legal formalities for
the Nixon Wingfeld $50, 600, 600 merger of
the Mohawk. Red Top Jumbo. Loguna
and Combination mines. Governor Thorn
ass arrival filled Goldfeld pretty nearly
full of governors Governor Sparks OF
Nevada, Ex-Governor Mitchell of the
same state and ex-governor Hunt of
Idaho were here when he came in.
, Not far from Ex-Governor Monroe's
| stateroom was a section occupied by
group of three promoters hacker and
an inventor. They had pinned their hopes
on a gold divininG machine.
The promoter. of course. was the mid
die man. He had persuaded the hacker
to put up $1,000. which to be refunded
if the machine didn't find gold. The in
ventor explained his device to me. 1t is
a variation of the oft exploited divining
wands which are so sure to locate mil
lions that their proprietors are willing to
sell them for a song or two.
Only this chap, who says he is a met
allurgist, claims a scientific basis for his
invention. 1t employs he says. a combi-
nation of metals which are sure to be at
tracted by gold. What this combination
is, of course. is his secret. He drew a.
picture of his machine for me on the
margin of a newspaper. 1t looked most
formidable.
1.-THE North Pole attracts the magnetic
needle" said he; why shouldn't gold at
tract my metallic discs?"
Obviously, there was nothing to be said
to this argument So / said it,
Backer Was SiIenced.
This remark on my part met with the
undisguised approval of the promoter, a
middle aged, narrow shouldered, kindly
chap, plainly an unsuccessful soldier of
fortune As for this hacker, huge. bull
necked red faced fellow of So or so, with
the fercest blacklist mustache ever seen
in a melodrama, he merely pulled that
mustache and said nothing.
He is to get his $1,000 back if the ma
chine doesn't locate gold. But there is
gold almost anywhere hereabouts. The
thing is to find that it will pay to
work.
Eagerness sat upon every brow and
spoke from every mouth. Scarcely a per- |
son on the train but expected to make I
his fortune at Goldfield, and many of the !
passengers wore the costumes of the |
mining camp. Some of them were gen. |
tlemen and some were thugs, and all of |
them thought and talked exclusively of |
gold.
There were two extraordinarily often |
sive ruffians who talked more loudly than |
anybody else of deeds of violence in all |
the mining camps of history. They wore |
curduroys. flannel shirts sombreros, can |
vas leggins and hobnailed boots, and |
their conversation was incredible Also
they spat frequently and cheerfuly upon |
the carpet
There was a little young fiat chested |
chap who sat next to me who took much |
offence at this pair He was going to |
Cioldfed he said, to take a place as |
boolkeeper al $500 month for one of the |
brokers'
After the biggest OF the two louis had |
ended A long winded and notably pro-
fame account of how he once terrorized |