PATHETIC DIARY OF A STARVING KLONDYKER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11581, 13 October 1900, Page 4 (Supplement)

PATHETIC DIARY OF A STARVING KLONDYKER.

GRADUAL WANING OF VITALITY. The Los Angelas Times prints a twoolnmn story giving details of the death of Hemy Weyhrich, a motorman, who left the service of the Los Angeles Railway Company in the winter of 1898 to seek his fortune in the Klondyke, but who starved to death. H!b comrade, Al Dominy, narrowly escaped the same fate, but is now at home here in safety. The story is largely comprised in a d.'ary kept by Weyhrich, in which ho tells in pitiful language of bis fight day

by day against ovtrpowering hunger. Dominy was with Weyhrich when he died. Weyhrich was one of the •■ Sunny South" party, which left Los Angeles for the Klondyke two and a-half yeara ago. They took the Eimonton route, which carried them alon# the Pease river, by Fort Graham aad Sylvester Post. Other si^mbers all turned hack before lonp", but Weyhrich and D >miny kept oi. They found a little gold, but it was too fine. At last winter caught them, and, unab'o to travel further or go back, th»y built a cabin at the lower end of M'Pberson Lake, on the Yps<sezno River, about 500 nvles from D WAon an 1 240 miles from Fort Laird. They Unnv th^y brul not provisions pnoui*h to last the winter through, but rt"-t c d easy in the hopa of getting plenty of game. Last New Ypar's T)ay the two snowb sieged prospictors had a pathetic litt'e celebration in their ranio. They luii'W by that time that there wag small chance of either one feeintr another Now Yeni's Dy. Weyhrich tol \ofit in his diary. Soon, bow' ver, he had ru'i out of writii" paper, a".d the record of that lust fateful winter was written arross the pages of a little Spanish-English Biblf. On January 6 Weybrich writes :—: — l< Too weak to go limiting. Cooked spoonful of rich, one of flour, one Oi veg^aMe, onn leg of squirrel." •' January 7 — Very cold, I chopped wood. Mr Dominy rested so as to save his stren-.'i'i for moose to-morrow. I fpel the Lord has saved our souls, thoueh onr bodies perish by starvation or fr^rz Dg. ■ur situation is very desperate. Living on two meals of thin soup On January 8 he wrote :—": — " We are citing the buds of willows to stay the tjnawing pang 3of hunger. Ate one little white weasel for breakfast. Our soup keop3 getting thinner every day. We are getting weaker fist, and cannot hold ont many more days. If relief does not come in some shape s6on, we j must perish. On January 9 he entered :—": — " Starving to death. , On*" spoonful of evaporarpd vegetables and one of rice and one of flour per man per day, and doing ! tard worfe at that. The weather is cold, about SO to 40 below zaro, and a fine 6now, wilt wind from the north daily, which cuts through a pprsoti. We can hardly keep warm on the svood I can cut during the daytime." On January 11 he wrote :—": — " Flour all gone. No sign of moose or any other game. Not oven a bird. We are living on one spoonful of vegetables and the ti,s of willows." For tbe five days following this entry Weyhrich was too weak to write, evidently. E ich day he merely entered th» dat« and name, Cnmp, • c Winter Quatters." The sad record closes as fellows :—: — " Tuesday, January 16, 1900 — i Winter Quartsrs : Henry A. Weyhrich, 1 Los Angelep, Cal. A. L. Doroiny. — j Cold ; very cold. Abrut 3in of snow I fell last night. I have given up all • hopes of living. My legs are so weak and thin can't support my body. lam , a skeleton." ' By weird circumstances, Weyhrich's Hying message was written across the ' following verses in the Acts :—": — " And now behold, I go bound in spirit into , Jerusalem, not knowing the things that 1 shall befall mo there. i '" Save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying tnat bonds aud affections abide with me" Two days after Weyhrich went to his death with the utmost cheerfulness. He and D irninv sang songs all morning until the end came. Dominy buried hi 3 friend and Jived four months alone in the camp. Two days after Weyhrich's death a moose wag fllaiD. This saved Dominy's life. When he regained strength by food he , made a terrible journey across the snow to civilisation. Weyhrich ( tad many • friends in this city. He waa a native of Peking, 111., and came to Los Angeles in 1887.