Show e t k X V i i z as r y I 1 1 i as I 1 val kac ia 7 I 1 U t t t z 1 1 W 1 1 I 1 I 1 VA OF I 1 i I 1 ato N camp such j 11 a nete meteoric orle history lIU ni tory story I 1 there them never was vw another camp in I 1 the southwest wui thweat like that at tombstone j IV in 1879 and 1880 indeed there have bave 1 aberl been very few similar conditions in the world por over eter seven months the dally daily output of precious metals averaged about So sa bays ys the new york tort mall mail and express over a dozen men went there penniless and came away worth over in less than a year and six or seven men struck it rich and sold out for each pally halt the population walked hundreds of miles to get there them no railroad az ran mn through southern arizona in those days and the awful colorado and mojave deserts had to oe be crossed in wagons or on toot foot by the multitude of fortune seekers from california desert sandstorms sand storms were encountered and tor for days travelers to tombstone endured a temperature of over ever degrees I tn in n the shade many a man died on the hot sandy plains miners on their way to the new camp from the east and south toiled across the arizona alkali alkah plains through immense cactus areas and risked their lives in the then hostile land of the apache indians when tombstone was reached there were new privations and more physical distress for the greater number especially for those who bad hastened from offices stores ktores clerkships clerk derk ships and their pastors study over one third of the men in camp had very little money or none at all and knew no way of earning it except by the hardest kind of manual labor to which they were unused it cost 1 a night to sleep in a dirty rough pine bunk water sold at 20 cents a gallon a small dish of beans at 50 cents a tallow I 1 candle at two bits 25 cents common I 1 overalls at 5 each smoked hams at 12 each and cowhide boots were disposed of as fast as they could be hauled to camp across the desert from los angeles and yuma I 1 for 35 a pair in 1881 all the tombstone mines that paid well were in the hands of a few persons and the population of the place had gone down from to in 1883 the mines with two exceptions began to peter out and the population dropped to since then it has gone down slowly to less than 1000 souls klondike the cleveland plain dealer prints an interesting talk of prof henry W elliott about alaska and the klondike country we extract what he has to te say conce concerning ruing its salubriousness on the one hald and its vilest pest on the other alaska is a healthy country with no malaria or mountain fever A curious fact is that any one afflicted with neuralgia or rheumatism is completely cured of it in that climate the cear bear dry atmosphere and the rapid changes ot of the blodys tissues doubtless account for this ones appetite pe tite is tremendous there A personal incident will show you what an alaskan appetite is like I 1 was one of six men who having had bad a good breakfast sat down at noon to a dinner of roast goose six large geese none of which weighed less than eight pounds had bad been roasted and stuffed and were served with coffee bread butter and pickles at the close ol of the meal every bone was picked clean and not a vestige of goose remained we all ate a hearty supper that evening ing the talk that there is plenty ol of gime to be had there is entirely misleading A camp of two hundred men would clean out all the game in a tract twenty miles square in a few weeks food plenty of it is the one great ne cassity ces sity and a 9 man to succeed must be aa well fed the vilest pests of alaska are the mosquitoes I 1 have battled with these annoying insects in new jer jersey s ey and central america but they cannot compare with the alaska species tor for venom and numbers in may the tundra becomes a great flat swale full of bog holes slimy decayed peat innumerable lakes shallow stagnant and from all places swarm mosquitoes of malignant type every precaution ig taken to guard against them netting is tied over the head and mitten are worn on the hands bands ointments are rubbed on the flesh and attempts are made to smoke out the insects fusee ts dorsee and cattle and even dogs the die from their bites not until november do they vanish |