my favorite nephew, almost a captain of industry, gave me this book for christmas:
it details the the struggles, successes and failures of the men and women who caught gold fever in the 1890's and flocked to the yukon in search of their fortune. the hardships these men and women endured in search of wealth were extraordinarily harsh. i can't imagine today's men and women of western culture enduring and surviving that ordeal. before reading this book i was aware of the difficulties these people faced but hadn't considered the fate of dogs and horses in the gold rush. here is a excerpt from jack london's account of the gold rush:
"the horses died like mosquitoes in the first frost......and rotted in heaps. they died at the rocks, they were poisoned at the summit, and they starved at the lakes; they fell off the trail, what there was of it, or they went through it; in the river they drowned under their loads, or were smashed to pieces against the boulders; they snapped their legs in the crevices and broke their backs falling backward with their packs; in the sloughs they sank from sight or smothered in the slime, they were disemboweled in the bogs where the corduroy logs turned up in the mud; men shot them to death, worked them to death, and when they were gone, went back to the beach and bought more. some did not bother to shoot them, stripping the saddles off and the shoes and leaving them where they fell. their hearts turned to stone - those which did not break - and they became beasts, the men on the Dead Horse Trail."
this might be my favorite hoyt axton song. the son of a bitch disabled embedding so you'll have to click this:
WATER FOR MY HORSES
i love you son's of bitches.
25 comments:
I never really thought about that, I couldn't hack it, I have a soft spot in my heart for animals.
They were a tough breed, but chasing after gold wasn't the most productive use of labour.
I'm a wuss in so many ways. I've lived off the grid and had to pack water but it was nothing like what these people did. But one should remember this it was out of a choice.
Talking about gold rush. Hubby and I will go gold panning every so often just for kick and giggles.
But haven't yet hit rich.
Coffee is on.
fuck!..that was depressing..I'm going to go hug Dexter.
tex - countless humans also croaked on the trails and in the camps but they died by choice.
gb - in the height of the madness a laborer working in construction in dawson city made about 3/4 of an ounce of gold dust per day. in those days gold was sorely needed to expand the money supply to combat the depression. there were drawbacks to being on the gold standard.
peppy - i took a placer mining course and our final exam was panning for gold. as soon as i had color in my pan i left.
yellowdog - just this year a dog sled company slaughtered about 100 sled dogs rather than look after them in the summer. it was discovered when the man who did the killing tried to collect medical benefits for stress after killing all the dogs. we're still a primitive species!
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up
in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box
was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back at the bar, in a solo game,
sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-0'-love,
the lady that's know as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below,
and into the din and glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks,
dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave
and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar,
and called for drinks on the house.
There was none that could place the stranger's face,
though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank to his health, and the last to drink
was Dangerous Dan McGrew.
There's men that somehow just grip your eyes,
and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me
like a man who had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare
of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass,
and the drops fell one by one.
....
...
Hoyt Axton did well with Della And The Dealer also.
I'm pretty sure that the Alaska gold rush looked a lot like Deadwood, even the talking, I've ever heard cocksucker spoken so much. And of course the whores and killing and lawlessness.
Been a long time since I've read any of London's stuff, don't recall if he also mentioned that they also ate dogs and horses.
Of the things I have read about the Alaska gold rush I don't recall them feeding dead people to the pigs.
Keep over populating this planet and in 50 years we'll be back to days just as ugly, we never have been all that civilized.
Recently watched a Ken Burns special, The West. There was an episode devoted to California gold fever. 'Course, you have to put up with hearing the same "haunting" music at the beginning and end of each episode, but you might enjoy it.
Not being a man that chases the chance of big bucks I don't do gold rushes and stock markets.
Gold is a fools game, and so is the markets.
I did put out good money for a Black Hills gold mothers ring for the kids mother three years before she died.
It's the only gift I ever gave her that left her speechless, she just didn't know what to say, and to her death never once took it off, that I know of.
Laurel would have been a good wife if she had been a whore instead a christian before I met her.
Now I know the outcome of the talk between the Chink and Al and the two cocksuckers.
As for the weekend, some COCKSUCKER over in Forks killed a woman and there was a burglary on our street, it’s a good thing the cocksucker didn’t pick my place.
I might have to get this book. I have loved Jack London's view of Alaska and his passion for dogs. Of course this is not fiction, but it was an interesting time. Do I want to know what they did to the dogs?
Ha. This is the man's favorite song!
Those pigs have been eating pretty well the last few days.
hugh - jack london?
bill - i think evangelina is my favorite hoyt song. is deadwood the best tv show you've ever seen? having second thoughts about eating bacon?
nance - thanks, i'll put it on my list. california would seem to be a much more hospitable than the yukon to prospect. my son spent 4 summers in a yukon gold camp.
silly - sled dogs were were very valuable and well looked after. lots of other types of dogs were brought to the yukon and set free when they figured out they were useless.
I live within a few miles of place names Gold City and Gold Mine, though I don't think anyone is panning anything right now. I used to find garnets and rubies in my driveway. In fact, I embedded them in the mortar of my former fireplace. Made an interesting photo with a flash camera.
Otherwise, grisly indeed.
I removed the comment above for a correction.
having second thoughts about eating bacon?
Hell no, an omnipresent spirit has eaten everything over the course of time, even humans, whatever it takes to keep on keeping on.
Hugh deleted the comment above the one I deleted, I just discovered a way to see who removed their comments, interesting.
pilgrim-
Robert W Service
It is amazing to me the amount of deprivation man will endure in the pursuit of wealth.
In a gold town I would have been a hardware store owner. Have two Deadwood disc's to watch yet, but the last one is just about making the series and such.
bill - yup, bullock and star had the right idea opening a hardware store. bars and casinos were probably bigger money makers, ie swearengen and toliver.
robert - i think the big depression of the 1890's drove a lot of people to the klondike looking for their fortune.
I couldn't be a bar owner and I'm not on this rock to get rich, just to get by.
I'm not happy with the ending, I wanted to see Tricksie hook up with Star.
But it was nice of Al to put the minister out of his fucking misery, maybe one of the only good deeds he did.
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