The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-12-13

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main until tho weather moderatcs
Men long exposed 10 the awful coli
may survive for time, only 70 di'
with lung disease later on. The in
tense cold brcathed in the open freezes
or chills the lung lining, and later Oh
the victim will contract bronchitis
pneumonia or quick consumption.
4 One prospector told me he wal
caught in a blizzard and remained fol
FIVE days In an abandoned mining
cabin. He said evidently a white wo-
man or squaw had once resided there
for the interior had been clothed and
papered with newspapers. And he
spent the most Of his time reading
those walls. He would read up as far
as he could see, then stand on the table
and read up TO the roof, read ncwG-
papers that were printed ten years
before. He told me that one morning
he opened the slide window and threw
the dishwater out and when it struck
the ground it was ice. This Is a
whoppcr for man who has never ex-
perienced winter up around the
arctic circle, but / will believe any
story told in Alaska, when told the
first time.
Another miner told men that the ex-
treme cold had forced he and his
partner to abandon their thawing
fires and wait for warmer weather
One morning he thought to fix dog
sled that was standing just outside the
cabin. He reached out to get it and
his hand came in contact with the sled
shoe. 1t was frozen to the metal in
an instant. The sled was brought in
side and his hand released by warm
ing the metal, but he said he had
dangerous sore from the burn.
When the thermometer is far below
zero and there is no wind it is aston
ishing how far sound will carry. The
howl Of cog can be heard further
than the eye can see, and men can
converse more than mile apart.
Sometimes there is game to be had
in the prospecting camps, and some
times man might hunt for a month
and never see sign of bear, caribo
or any other animal. Like gold, game
is where you find it in Alaska, and it
is fully as uncertain as gold.
Every year large number of crazy
men are brought out of Alaska and
taken to Portland. Orepon There is
not a town on the Yukon that has not
sent out one or many ''bugs." Two
things are given as the causes for the
brain storms, brooding and solitude.
And it is rather remarkable that about
90 per cent Of these men recover in
from six months to two years treat
mcnt in the "bug" sanitorium in Port
land.
Many men buy Indian women and
marry them, to prevent insanity. eve |
play cards to hold our brains together |
until we hate the sight Of each other,
then we buy wives and separate" ex-
planned one miner to me.
Let two men work together and live
together day after day, or rather night |
after night of the long dayless winter,
and after time they become sullen,
quarrelsome. They will go
for days without hardly a SPOKEN
word. The darkness, solitude and cold
have peculiar influence on men. The
firmest of friends will quarrel over a
trine and be sullen for days. One will
get mad If his partner talks too much
and will fly into passion if he is
pouty and does not talk. They will
quarrel over the most unimportant de-
tails and often separate over trifing
argument. Anywhere else but in this
solitude these men would fight to the
last for each other.
And with ice and snow everywhere,
the miners Of Alaska really suffer for
want of water. The only water they
have during the winter is snow water,
and this is too often too much
trouble for men who work from Is to
Is hours per day. 1t is too often too
much trouble for men who sit idly in
heir cabins day after day. Hence it
S fact that men do not drink enough
water to be healthy during the long
and for having enough to
seep their bodies and their dishes in
icalthy condition---forget it. There
src men in Alaska who haven't had a
,ath in years.
When pair first starts on pros
,ccting hole their one topic Of con-
'ersation, day and night, is what they
viii strike and what they will do when /
hey strike it. After a time neither
will dare speak the word gold" or
mention his hopes. II is peculiar how
he hard grind and the u1onotony go