Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1909-12-30
OLD PROSPECTOR
FACES STARVATION
HORROR ALONE

A tale of intense suffering ex
perienced by prospector, who af-
ter being felled by paralytic
stroke, managed to regain his cab
in and for several days was forced
to remain in his bed, without food,
and all the time with provisions in
view on a table in the room is told
in the following from the Salt Lake
Heard:
After suffering for six days from
cold without food in a little cabin
of the Clifton mining district in
Toele county, where he had been
rendered helpless by stroke of
paralytic rheumatism, Arthur Mar
tin, an aged prospector, was taken
to police headquarters last night
and given cot in the medical
ward of the city Jail, more dead
than alive.
Almost too weak to talk, Martin
mumbled his terrible experiences to
the emergency surgeon, DR.. Frank
3. Steele. He said that he was
about to give up his fight for life,
when distant fellow prospectors
learned that he had been i'll in his
lonely cabin and was starving to
death. They rushed to hip cabin
and then took him over 90 miles
through the cold desert to "a rail
road crossing. Then, penniless, he
was sent to Salt Lake to throw
himself on the mercy of charities.
My food supply had been run
ming very low, said the aged pros
pector. There was but couple of
slices of bacon in my lardef when
I was preparing to take i, long
journey to my nearest neighbor. l
had been sparing in my daily ra-
tions, and l had become weak. But
I knew that | would have to take
that long walk over the cold des-
ert and against a driving wind
Il had but barely started out
when I was almost felled by a
stroke Of paralysis. Alone out on
the desert l dragged myself back
to my cabin. 1t was only short
way, but it took the entire day to
reach the cabin door. | became eX-
hausted and then insensible and
when ! woke it was dark and |
had almost frozen stiff
1.-THE brief rest gave me enough
strength to reach my bed in the
cabin. And there | lay, without
food and suffering from the cold.
The paralytic stroke increased. I
found it impossible to leave my
bed The hunger became terrible.
/ could look over at the two little
strips of bacon on shelf in the
cabin, but it was impossible to
reach them. They tantalized me
nearly into insanity and | gnawed
and gnawed at the tips of my blan-
kets and at the wood in my bunk
Day and night / could almost feel
the last of my rations, but they
We're beyond my reach.
Once, when the hunger nearly
drove me into desperation, | gath
cred all my strength and tried to
fall out of my bunk. But l could
only move a part of the way. I
gave up all hope and began count
ing my days, gazing at my lean
fingers as I could almost see the
skin draw tighter over them and the
finger nails fade yellow"
AS he continued his story he said
he had become too weak when his
friends came to his cabin to res
cue him that he could hardly rec
ognize them.
He said that his friend, Hank
Johnson, for years a fellow pros
pector, drove him over the desert
a distance of sixty miles to the
nearest railroad point, where a
train was stopped. This was yes
terday and when Martin arrived in
Salt Lake he was taken to the po-
lice station in the patrol wagon.