The Klondike.

Hastings Standard, Issue 454, 19 October 1897, Page 4

The Klondike.

Writing cf the Klondike goldfields the San Fr.mci-co correspondent of the Ota go Daily Times says : —The rush for gold is about over, and the cry has already been raised that a relief expedition should be sent to the rescue of the poor fools who so recklessly and wilfully threw up everything and cast reason to the winds just for the sake of the remote chance of being able to obtain a few thousand dollars of gold in a brief space. Those who stayed behind had the same evidence to guide them as these who went, and that evidence proclaimed unmistakably that the chance of getting through to Dawson City and obtaining a rich workable claim when there, was as one in a million. But common sense and ordinary reason were cast aside in favor of the sensational yarns of our doily papers and the alluring advertisements of our shipping agents. The question therefore is not will the 6000 odd fools iu the Dawson City and the regions round about find gold, but how can supplies be got there to keep them from starving during the ensuing weary five months of arctic night ? Every competent authority says there is not sufficient food to last the winter, and most others aver it is not possible to get supplies in. We can hardly wonder relief expeditions are seriously discussed. The pictures presented to the mind's eye of 6000 beings, shut in as completely as though entombed in the bolwes of the earth from the outside world, slowly starving, or driven mad with despair and the vile whisky sent in such quantities to the exclusion of food, is a picture not pleasant to dwell upon. Unfortunately it may be more real than imaginary, and men will learn once again that all the yellow metal in the world is valueless in itself, and the love of it a curse rather than a blessing.