White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-06-18
CALL OF GOLD
REACHES AFFAIR
wur GATHERING METAL HAS
BEEN A DOMINATING FACTOR
WITH MEN AND NATIONS IN
ALL AGES.

While steel mas Decome n lndls-
nensible metal of the civilized nations
vold is now and always has been
tbe one most precious thing that men
crave or covet. 1t is more than a
metal. II is a fetish-a mystic spell
"a deity, almost. No reasoning can
exnlain It's amazing influence upon
the actions of men. In fact, the love
of gold-that glittering yellow stuff
that nature flung away SO carelessly
under rocks and mud, is the most
powerfuI passion of the human heart.
The call of gold 1t has swayed
more men, for better or worse, than
any other motive. 1t has built up
empires and threw them down. 1t
has opened the way TO prosperity and
to decay. II has led men to new
continents, and lured them into In
Vulnerable dangers. II has brought
carnivals of pleasure, and the most
intolerable hardships. IL has hurled
nations at one another's Threats, and
held them back when they were
elamoring for war.
The Gold Rushes of History.
II was the call of gold that drew
Hannibal to Spain, Caesar to Gaul.
Scipio to Africa. Darius to Asia Minor
Xerxes TO Greece, and Antony to
Egypt. The confess of Carthage by
the Romans, the invasion of Rome by
the Goths and Vandals, the subjuga-
ton of Asia by Alexander-all of
these were gold rushes. In the search
for gold, great cities have been flung
to the ground and whole races have
been wiped out. In fact. If the story
OF gold were written In full. IL would
come close to being a history of man
kind.
Who knows when America would
have been discovered had not Column
bus heard the call OF gold in Japan?
A shorter road to the mines of the
east-that was the aim of the worlds
greatest ~gold-seeker. His first ques-
ton to the wondering natives was:
Have you any gold2"
From first to last this was the one
demand that Spain made upon her
new possessions. Get gold" wrote
King Ferdinand. Get IL humane
ly, If you can but, at all hazards. get
gold" II was TO get gold that Cor
tez dared TO capture Mexico
with a handful of soldiers. Il and
my companions" he said. have a
disease of the heart, which is cured
by gold" Ii was to get gold that
Pizarro depopulated Peru-that Bal
boa cut a crimson path to the Pacific
and that the Portuguese seized the
wild empire of Brazil.
The other nations of Europe took
little interest In America until they
discovered the golden secret of the
Spanish g~alleons. Then came the
battle of the seas. The Dutch and
English. who had always eiung to the
land like trees, suddenly built ships
and became ~sea-royers. How Mon
tezuma gave Cortez more treasure
than his men could earry-how the
Inca filled a room roof-high with gold
and silver to satiate PiZarro-such
stories passed from man to man until
all western Europe awoke from its
sleep, and began the search for
wealth that has created the financial
civilization of today. 1t was the call
of gold that did 1t.
More than ever, since the voyage
OF Columbus, gold and silver have
been the sun and moor oil mankind.
II was the shipment of the precious
metals from America to Europe that
NNNhioytu itudaiiahB iADNAhANA ~
serfs, weakened the power of the
nobility, and laid the foundations OF
democracy. We can follow the chain
of cause and effect from the gold
mines of Mexico and Peru to the
block where King Charles of Eng
land lost his head. Had 1t not been
for the thrush of gold into his king
dom, prices would not have risen,
and he would not have been driven
to quarrel with his Parliament.
For the last four centuries there
has never been any wilderness so re-
mote or so full OF perils that the gold
cry could not colonize ii and make II
a province of the habitable globe.
Nothing can stop the furious rush OF
the human race II II sees ahead of IL