Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1916 — GOLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOLD

By STEWART EDWARD WHITE

SYNOPSIS Talbot Ward’s challenge to Frank Munroe to a personal encounter to determine whether Munroe is fit to make a trip to California In search of gold is accepted. Munroe gets a hammerlock on Ward and wins the bout. They choose the Panama route. Ward, it develops, Is an old campaigner. On board ship they meet Johnny Fairfax and Tank Rogers. The four become partners. Arriving at Chagres, Talbot Ward’s knowledge of Spanish and his firm treatment of the native boatmen help wonderfully. The party enters a tropical forest. They reach Gatun, and. after passing through several villages where Ward always diplomatically handles the natives, they arrive in Panama. CHAPTER VII. The Golden City. WE stood in between the hills that guarded the bay of San Francisco about 10 o’clock of an early spring day. A fresh cold wind pursued us, and the sky above us was bluer than I had ever seen it before, even on the isthmus. To our right some great rocks were covered with seals and sea lions, and back of them were hills of yellow sand. A beautiful great mountain rose green to our left, and the water beneath us swirled and eddied in numerous whirlpools made by the tide. Everybody was on deck and close to the rail. We strained our eyes ahead and saw two Islands and beyond a shore of green hills. None of us knew where San Francisco was located, nor could we find out. The ship’s company were much too busy to pay attention to our questions. The great opening out of the bay beyond the long narrows was therefore a surprise to us. It seemed as vast as an inland sea. We hauled to the wind, turning sharp to the south, glided past the bold point of rocks. Then we saw the city Concealed in a bend of the cove. It was mainly of canvas, hundreds, perhaps thousands of tents and canvas houses scattered about the sides of hills. The flat was covered with them, too, and they extended for some distance along the shore of the cove. A great dust borne by the wind that had brought us in jswept across the city like a cloud of smoke. Hundreds and hundreds of vessels lay at anchor in the harbor, a vast fleet We were immediately surrounded by small boats and our decks filled with men. We had our first sight of the genuine miners. They proved to be aS various as the points of the compass. Big men, little men, clean men, dirty men, shaggy pen. shaven men, but all instinct with an eager life and energy I have never seen equaled. They addressed us eagerly, asking a thousand questions concerning the news of the outside world. We could hardly answer them in our desire to question in return. Were the gold stories really true? Were the diggings very far away? Were the diggings holding out? What were the chances for newcomers? And so on without end, and the burden always of gold, gold, gold! We were answered with the enthusiasm of an old timer welcoming a newcomer to any country. Gold, plenty of it. They told us in breathless snatches the most marvelous tales. One sailor had dug $17,000 in a week Another man, a farmer from New

England, was taking out $5,000 to $6,000 daily. They mentioned names and places. The/ pointed to the harbor full of shipping. “Four hundred ships,” said they, “and hardly a dozen men aboard the lot! All gone to the mines!” And one man, snatching a long narrow buckskin bag from his

' r'- I pocket, shook out of its mouth to the palm of ..his hqnd n tiny puyadp of glittering yellow particles—the dust J We shoved and pushed, crowding around him to see this marvelous sight. He laughed in a sort of excited triumph and tossed the stuff into the air The breeze caught it and scattered it wide. A number of the little glittering particles clung to my rough coat, where they flashed like spangles. “Plenty more where that came from!” cried the man and turned away with a reckless laugh.

Filled with the wine of this new excitement, we finally succeeded in getting ashore in one of the ship’s boats. We landed on a flat beach of deep black sand. It was strewn from one end to the other by the most extraordinary wreckage. There were levers, cogwheels, cranks, fans, twisted bar and angle iron in all stages of rust and disintegration. Some of these machines were half buried in the sand. Others were tidily laid up on stones as though just landed. They were of copper, iron, zinc, brass, tin, wood. We recognized the genus at a glance. They were, one and all, patent labor gold washing machines, of which we had seen so many samples aboard ship. At this sight vanished the last remains of the envy I had ev # er felt for the owners of similar contraptions. We looked about for some sort of conveyance into which to dump our belongings. Apparently none existed. Therefore we piled most of our effects neatly above high tide, shouldered our bundles and started off up the single street.

The street was, I think, the worst I have ever seen anywhere. It was a morass of mud—sticky, greasy mud—of some consistency, but full of water holes and rivulets. It looked ten feet deep, and I should certainly have ventured out on it with misgivings. And yet, incongruously enough, the surface ridges of it had dried and were lifting into the air in the form of dust. This was of course my first experience with that common California phenomenon, and I was greatly astonished. An attempt had been made to supply footing for pedestrians. Bags of sand had been thrown down, some rocks, a very few boxes and boards. Then our feet struck something soft and yielding, and we found we were walking over hundred pound sacks of flour marked as from Chile. There must have been many hundred of them. A man going in the opposite direction sidled past us. “Cheaper than lumber,” said he briefly, seeing our astonishment. “I’d hate to ask the price of lumber,” remarked one of our ship’s companions, with whom and a number of others we were penetrating the town. We walked on flour for a hundred feet or so and then came to cook stoves. 1 mean it A battalion of heavy iron cook stoves had been laid side by side to form a causeway. Their weight combined with the traffic over them had gradually pressed them down into the mud until their tops were Pearly level with the surface. Naturally the first merry and drunken joker had shied the lids into space. The pedestrians had now either to step in and out of fire boxes or try his skill on narrow ledges. Next we came to a double row of boxes of tobacco, then to some baled goods and so off on to solid ground. When we had gained the dry ground near the head of the street we threw down our burdens for a rest. “I’ll give you $lO for those pineapples.” offered a passerby, stopping short. Our companion quickly closed the bargain. “What do you think of that” he demanded of us wide eyed and in the hearing of the purchaser. The latter grinned a little and hailed a man across the street. “Charley.” he yelled, “come over here!” The individual addressed offered some demur, but finally picked his way across to us.

“How do you like these?” demanded the pineapple purchaser, showing his fruit. “Jerusalem!” cried Charley admiringly. “Where did you get them? Want to sell ’em?” “I want some myself, but I’ll sell you three of them.” “How much?! „ “Fifteen dollars.” “Give ’em to me.” The first purchaser grinned openly at our companion.

The latter followed into the nearest store to get his share of the dust weighed out. His face wore a very thoughtful expression. We came shortly to the Plaza, since called Portsmouth square. At that time it was a wind swept, grass grown, scrubby enough plot of ground. On all sides were permanent buildings. The most important of these were a low picturesque house of the sun dried bricks known as adobes, in which, as it proved, the customs were levied; a frame tvyo story structure known as the Parker House and a similar building Libeled “City Hotel.” Tbe spaces between these larger edifices were occupied by a dozen or so of smaller shacks. Next door to the Parker House stood a huge flapping tent. The words El Dorado were painted on its side. The square itself was crowded with people moving to and fro. The solid majority of the crowd consisted of red or blue shirted miners, but a great many nations and frames of minds seemed to be represented. We saw the wildest Incongruities of demeanor and costume beside which the silk hat, red shirted combination was nothing. They struck us open mouthed and gasping, but seemed to attract not the slightest attention from anybody else. We encountered a number of men dressed alike in suits of the finest broadcloth, the coats of which were lined with red silk and the

vests of emoroiaerea Time. Tnese men walked with a sort of arrogant Importance Welaterfoundtbatthey were members of that dreaded organization known as the Hounds, whose ostensible purpose was to perform volunteer police duty, but whose real effort was toward the increase of their own power. These people all surged back and forth good naturedly and shouted at each other and disappeared with great importance up the side streets or darted out with equal business from all points of the compass. We tacked across to the doors of the Parker House. There after some search was made we found the proprietor. He. too, seemed very busy, but be spared time to trudge ahead of us up two rickety flights of raw wooden stairs to a loft, where he indicated four canvas bunks on which lay as many coarse blue blankets. Perhaps a hundred similar bunks occupied every available inch in the little loft.

“How long you going to stay?” he asked us. “Don’t know; a few days.” “Well, $6 “For how long?” “For tonight.” “Hold on!” expostulated Talbot. “Wt can’t stand that, especially for these accommodations. At that price we ought to have something better. Haven’t you anything in the second story?” The proprietor’s busy air fell from him, and he sat down on the edge of one of the canvas bunks. “I thought you boys were from the mines,” asaid he. “Your friend hpre fooled me.” He pointed his thumb at Yank. “He looks like an old timer. But now I look at you I see you’re greenhorns. Just get here today? Have a smoke?” He produced a handful of cigars, of which he lit one. “We just arrived,” said Talbot, somewhat amused at this change. “How about that second story?” “I want to tell you boys a few things,” said the proprietor. “I get $60,000/8, year rent for that second story jusu as she stands. That tent next door belongs to my brother-in-law. It is Just 15 by 25 feet, and he rents it for $40,000.” “Gamblers?” inquired Talbot. “You’ve guessed it. So you see I ain’t got any beds to speak of down there. In fact, here’s the whole layout.” “But we can’t stand $6 a night for these things,” expostulated Johnny. “Let's try over at the other place.” “Try ahead, boys,” said the* proprietor quite good naturedly. “You’ll find her the same over there and everywhere else?’ He arose. “Best leave your plunder here until you find out. Come down and have a drink?”

(To be continued.)

“Plenty more where they camo from!" cried the man.