THE KLONDIKE by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1898

THE KLONDIKE.

By W. N. G.

Mr. W. C. Gates, familiarly known as “Swift-water Bill,” went into the Klondike region as an ordinary adventurer and came out last fall a millionaire. He came to San Francisco, where he now resides temporarily, but is going north again soon. The Tribune of this city gives his reply to the question, “How large a percentage of the men going north will make a fortune?”

“O, about ten per cent of them will make anywhere from $10,000 up! Any man can make $2,000 or $3,000, and some of them will probably strike it very rich. Day laborers receive high wages. The men I employ working my claims get $1.50 an hour. I wouldn’t hire a man for anything less. I employ about fifty. I can’t work all my claims because I can’t get the men or the provisions for them. There is plenty of gold in Alaska.”

No doubt this is all true, yet in the midst of it all there will be an appalling extent of poverty, of sickness, and suffering. Drinking and gambling, and their long train of attendant and consequent evils and miseries, are always prominent where money is plenty among the masses; and it is a common saying that “a fool and his money are soon parted.” An old-time Californian once told the writer that three times he had made a snug fortune in the mines, and went to San Francisco to take passage for his home in an eastern State, and three times he lost all in the mazes of the city and went back to work again. He never went home, and died in poverty.

But it is not always drink or ordinary gambling that brings men of means to want. An inordinate desire to make more money leads them to make injudicious business ventures. Even in the richest mining regions some claims do not pay expenses. Often large sums are expended which bring little or nothing in return. The man who discovered gold in California was an object of charity in his old age.

In addition to all ordinary vicissitudes of a new country where easily-gotten wealth breeds all manner of extravagance, the rigors of the Klondike climate will soon produce a harvest of invalids. None but robust people, prepared to endure hardship and privation, should undertake such a journey, or essay a prolonged residence there. Already people are going north in considerable numbers. The steamer Excelsior left San Francisco on the 18th inst., with every state-room crowded with gold-seekers, and loaded to the guards with supplies. Her departure from Main Street wharf was witnessed by a large crowd of people, and the scene was a revival of last year’s excitement, when the same steamer carried away the first crowd of special writers and artists to the new El Dorado. And yet how few seek the gold of the kingdom of God!—A sure investment to every one who seeks with all his heart.

W. N. G.