OCR Text |
Show New Gold Rush Dispatches from Ontario tell of a scramble that may val the famous days of '98. The town of Hudson, near ac Seul, is the jumping off place. Red Lake, an isolated retch of water 150 miles distant, is the goal. A monster in of rich quartz has been discovered, and enthusiasm is inning high. At this time of year it is bitter cold around Red Lake, he mercury frequently drops to 60 below zero. There are ide stretches of wilderness where an ill-equipped of luck-ss luck-ss prospector can get lost and starve to death, if he does yt freeze or encounter a wolf pack first. There are bliz-irds bliz-irds of an intensity that dwellers farther south can hardly mceive; there are discomforts and small hardships by the :ore to sandwich in between the dangers. The country in inter is another Alaska. And yet, there will be no dearth of men to make the in. At Hudson, it is said, dog teams are in so great demand lat a single good "husky" will bring from $100 to $200. ach train brings new adventurers. Now on the surface it would hardly seem as though lere were anything particularly self-sacrificing or altruistic out the men who are venturing into the northland. They e going for a perfectly tangible object to get hold and ake themselves wealthy. At first glance it seems as though was just another scramble for money. And yet the story of the gold rush makes ones heart irill, somehow. It comes as a welcome relief, this story of adventure, hese men are after gold, to be sure ,as all of us are; but ; least they are daring death ; enduring discomfort and toil, sking all they own, many of them, to get it.. They are prov-g prov-g once more for us that the spirit of man is indomitable, rangely fine, ready to risk life offhand if the right cord m be touched. And it is hardly gold in its ordinary sense that these men iek. It is not merely the prospect of becoming wealthy that :aws them to the bleak north country. It is less than that -and more. Adventure is in the air ; a chance to pioneer, to am the wilderness and fight the storms and tough hands ith death in a new land. It was so in the great rush to the California gold fields I nd the Nevada silver lodes in '49 ; it was so in the mighty j 'ek to Alaska in the closing days of the last century ; it is j dw, in Ontario. The strong men, the fearless men, the devil-lay-care men they have heard the call and they are on the ay. So we're glad to read about them. A gold rush is a wel-)me wel-)me contrast to everyday, humdrum, safe, riskless pursuits. |