The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-09-04


shivered minute later she was whirled away in
his arms to the dancing floor. where along with the
other three women and their partners rollicking
Virginia reel was soon in progress Men and women
danced in mOccasins and the place was a-roar,
Burning Daylight the centre Of it and the anmating
spark with qulp and Jest and rough merriment rous
ing them out Of the slough OF despond in which be
had found them.
The atmosphere OF the place changed with his COM
ing He seemed to ell it with his tremendous vitality.
Men who entered from the street felt it Immediately.
and in response their queries the barkeepers nodded
at the back room and said comprehensivey:-'B
Ing Daylight's on the tear" And the men who en-
tered remained and kept the barkeepers busy The
gamblers took heart of life and the tables
filed the click Of chips and whir Of the roulette ball
rising monotonousy and mperously above the hoarse
rumble of mems voices and their oaths and heavy
laughs
Few men knew Elan Harnish by any other name
than Burning Daylight the which had been given
him in the early days in the land because Of his habit
of routing his comrades Of their blankets with the
complaint that daylight was burning OF the pioneers
In that far Arctic wilderness where all were
pioneers he reckoned among the Oldest Men like
Jack Mayo and Jack McQuestion antedated him, but
they had entered the land by crossing the Rockies
ever had been the pioneer over the Chcoot and Chill
cat passes In the spring of 1885, twelve years before
stripping Of eighteen he had crossed over the Chill
coot with five comrades In the fall he had crossed
back with one -Four had persisted by mischance in
the bleak uncharted vasness. And for twelve years
Elan Harnish had continued to grope for gold among
the shadows of the Circle
And man had CROPPED so bbstinateiy or so en-
durngly- He had grown up with the land BE knew
no other land. Civilization was a dream Of some
previous life Camps like Forty Mile and Circle City
were to him metropolises. And not alone had he
grown up with the land, for raw it he had
helped to make 1t. He had made history and geog-
raphy and those that followed wrote of his
and charted the trails his feet had broken.
Heroes are seldom given to hero worship. but among
those Of that young land, young as he was, he was
accounted an elder hero In point of time he was be-
fore them. In point of deed he was beyond them In
point Of endurance it acknowledged that he could
kill the hardest of them. Furthermore he was ac-
counted nervy man, square man and a white
man.
In all lands where life is hazard lightly played
with and lightly flung aside men turn, almost auto
maticaly TO gambling for diversion and relaxation
In the Yukon men gambled their lives for gold and
those who won gold from the ground gambed for 1t
with one another. Nor was Elan Harnish an excep-
ton He was a mans primarily and the instinct
in him TO play the game of life was strong Environ
ment had determined what form that game should
take Born Iowa farm, his father had emigrated
TO Eastern Oregon, in which mining country Elam's
boyhood had been lived. He had known nothing but
hard knocks for big stakes. Pluck and endurance
counted IN the game and the great god Chance dealt
the cards Honest work for sure but meagre returns
did not count A man played big. he risked every
thing for everything and anything less rnan every
thing meant that be a loser. So for twelve
Yukon years, Elan Harnish had been g loser True
MOOsehide Greek the last summer he had taken out