The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 8, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 8, 1898. " was in the afternoon of the 10th 1897, that the little llfe G. Thurston, with ul gold s¢ iboard, rom Erie Basin, Brooklyn, of 2 Cooks Inlet e she must 1d she have and I her she might have desti B red. The tly in an op- track plowed s of salt point her her destina- on of t baffle the howl- Magellan; of its of the and run de from 50 as the sailor puts the warm twen- the roaring and the rag- re her final haven is ily plowed through h New York bay, 1 hope as her invigorating sea owd caught the nt and many were 1d loud were the e tisfaction now ere_actu upon our way and of shining gold, after so d bustling in prepar- Y. 1k or dream of the hips awalting us. No realize the enormity of than if our little craft t taken flight for a h the air of 5000 miles, in- e ng and tedious vc ge reat western continent. the greater part of our d we are safely land- rancisco, we are all de- ck it out until we have 1 to our undertaking to be either a or S a success; but as we talk of the dangers we passed through and the suffering we all avow that could before starting what would not have made pure gold than any of to find In Alaska, and I to be the feeling of the y of those who have gona o back to the beginning of Owing to our hur et away from New and personal belongins in promiscuous hear and on the deck of our first few days of our > occupled in identifying g our stuff and getting p shape. of our party of twelve, d one woman, v s, J. Miles P00 000 ©PO000066 0 - SAYS THIS WAR OPENS A NEW ERA IN OUR HISTORY. s e A BRIl 874/ F 04 A and Dr. J. L. Hiller, of New York; D. P. Nolan of Albany, E. 1. Conkling of i s. Alice J. Bolles Mrs. Bolles is a thy and handsome young widow, who lived in a palatial residence in Hackensack, surrounded with every y and comfort, but who was lured from her sumptuous surround- ings by the desire for nati : gold and the romantic experience of digging it herself. The rest of the party, with the exception of Dr. Hiller, who was formerly a successful ]ractitioner of Washington, D. C., and J. B. Wads- worth, who is 71 years of age and whose halr is as white as siow, are young men employed in the ordinary avocations of life, and who have gath- ered together our little “all” and have embarked upon this adventure with all our hearts, for better or worse. Our boat is a two-masted schooner, asuring 87 feet over all. with a crew Her space is divided into a , galley, and main and after n the center of the main cabin is erected a framework in which the ship's stores and our outfits are stowed. Along the two sides are arranged six- teen berths for sleeping accommoda- tion. In the center and at the end of the cargo-house is fixed our dining- table. Beneath our sleeping bunks are locke protruding so as to form bench to sit upon. Thus the main cabin serves as our sleeping-room, din- ing-room, sitting-room, smoking-room, library, drawing-room, storeroom and any other old purpese for which a room is required. When the work of chocking away our effec and making ourselves snug for the long voyage was completed, and we were left nothing to occupy our time and thoughts, we naturally began to review our undertaking and specu- late upon the future, and I believe we now did our first real sober thinking upon the subjec We had instituted a very fair lib; y by contributing each one his selection of books, and when time began to hang heavily upon us we fell to reading; but it was easy to be seen that thoughts other than the subject before our eyes were uppermost in our minds. As the weeks beg to run by and POOOOPPOPOPVPPPIVPPOPOPPVPOPODPOO O @ 0O ®e® Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard recently made a number of comments on the present war. They © can people and the future of ROFESSOR CHARLES ELIOT NORTON lives in a fine old house, situated on an eminence not fifteen minutes’ walk from Harvard. It is the house in which he was born. It stands in the midst of what are known as Corton’s Woods, and a wide driveway ds to it from the traveled road. This veway and all the grounds are Pro- ton’s private property, but them open as a park for the f the people of Cambridge. before 1 called on Professor he had attracted some public 1tion by his lecture in the fine arts 2t Harvard, in advising the stu- not to enlist for the war with What followed he described to e briefly. Let me show you a card I received to-day,” he said, with a laugh; and he brought from his study a postal- card which bore his name and address. On the reverse was written in the hand of a not illiterate man: “Professor Charles E. Norton is an un-American ass,” with other senti- ments of a like character, which were signed ‘‘Massachusetts Soldier.” This vas the missionary product of the pub- ation of a short paragraph summar- izing what Professor Norton had said to the students. He read it two or three times with evident amusement, “The occasion of my lecture to the students,” said Professor Norton, “was the reassembling after the holidays. Grave events had happened since I had spoken to them last. War had been declared and I thought it neces- sary to speak to them on the subject of enlistment. I was moved to quote to them what Benjamin Frankiin said— that there never was a good war. “I told them that in time of need every man should be re 3 ew. He 3aid {u effect that Mr. It isn't here. I cannot find where it artillery of Massachusetts was lherzieten:e sor his :ounta:;'),’ !t)?xtgzh:: Ih;‘:pee:'ap influence on the American peo- is. Our soldiers are going in from a equipped with obsolete of this was not in any sense a national ple was not for good—that he tuok sense of duty, not with any enthusi- thirt- years ago, of a type for which war, and as they owed it to the United nothing serious. asm.” i ammunition was MQlto—du 80 w Btafes to give as good en of “But he ls an $merlogn,” auld Bro- I quoted what Nikola Tesla sald to that it 2 Fanr e - S N e T S e GBI created widespread attention and discussion. Below will be found Professor Norfon’s own state- ment of why he made the comments and also what he has to say of the character of the Ameri- the country. themselves as possible, I advised them not to enlist, but to leave that for the present to men more in sympathy with the cause with which the war was con- cerned. “My remarks would have attracted no attention if one of the older men .sent had not got up and asked per- fon to speak. Then he disap- pointeé me by making a speech abus- ing Spain—rather jingoish in tone and accompanied by extravagant gesticu- lation. There were about 400 students present. They began to laugh at first, but I asked them to be quiet and after that they were as orderly as though they had been in church. “When the young man was through I simply said that the country of which he had been speaking was a strong il- lustration of the unhappy effects of ber- ligerency. Spain had lived by war ana we could see to what condition it haa brought her.” Professor Norton's eye twinkled as he narrated the incident. He looked more serious when he saigd: “In en- tering on this war we have outlined a new policy for the nation and struck a dangerous blow at the Monroe doctrins, 1 fear. We have interfered in the government of a Spanish possession which, though near us, is not a part of this continent, and which was a fors eign possession long before the United States came into existence. “BEurope may use that as an argu. ment when she wants to protect her interests in South America. I foresee grave consequences to come from this war—consequences which this nation will be reaping 200 years hence. I be- lieve that this conflict is going to bring out the very worst that is in the Amer- n people.” Im!l agkeg Profess>r Norton if he be- lleved what Mr. Depew had quoted to me from an anonymous scurce some time ago—that the war would bring out the dormant patitotism of the American people. His reply to this was a comment on @ OO0 P00008000000000P00VPOVPOOOOLBOSOGOGS fessor Norton. “It is chara the American to b2 trifling. ican people are g into ristic of The Amer- this war ht of toe rea- It sons or the consaque is not onnatural that this shou The majority of the Ame people at best can look bae! short dis- zation. h 9f civ- ed life, but the natures havs not been refined. “1Lhe American have been srofled by prosperit; cf this country it grows out of th:» most amazing expe- rience in prosperity that ths world has ever seen. The American people never really known what ¢ is to I lock forward with fsar to t when they will fac: that conditisn. “TL¢ peasant of 'op2 i3 not dis- cortented. He is occuny.ng the staii in lLife to which he (hinks prc has asesigned him, and he is vesizued to its discomforts. 13ut the Amosrican, who knows no diswomforts, is diecorn. tented because he has nat more of the comforts and luxuries of life.\ He wants a Brussels carpet on the floor and « piano. “His wife lives in a state of perma- nent dissatisfaction.” 1 asked Professor Norton if he be- lieved the American people were im- proving or retrograding. He said that he could see no signs of improve—ent and he saw with fear the development everywhere of the hoodlum element— of a class of voters who had no realiza- tion of the obligations of citizenship. GEORGE (::RANTHAM BAIN. . = i THE WAR AS VIEWED By PRESIDENT ELIOT QF HARVARD. “Where 1is it,” said President Eliot, “that the people are crying for war? me recently—that we lacked enthusi- asm because Spain was such an incon- siderable foe. Dr. Eliot said he did not believe that was the reason. Besides, he said, we were going to find the prob- lem of war difficult enough even with an opponent like Spain. “‘One reason there is no enthusiasm,” he said, “may be that the people know so little about the cause of war. I am sure I don’t know - hy we have gone to war; and none of us will know until all the notes that passed between the two countries are made public. We have no means of knowing whether the tone of the President’s last communi- cation to Spain was like those which went before, or whether it illustrated a change of sentiment. “Certainly if all his communications to Spain were like the last he could not have been trying to avoid a conflict be- cause he must have known that Spain would not give up her sovereignty in Cuba. Possibly the members of Con- gress are a3 ignorant about the real conditions as w- are. Possibly they yielded to the pressure of what they be- lieved to be public sentiment. That re- minds me of what Father Taylor of Boston said to Senator Henry Wilson at the time of the last war. “Congress had done something that Father Taylor did not approve and he - spoke to Senator Wilson about it. Sen- ator Wilson replied, saying that Father Taylor did not understand. There was great pressure from without, he said. “Where were your inside braces, then?’ said Father Taylor. “And I wonder where Congress’ in- side braces were recently.” Speaking of our lack of preparation for war Dr. Eliot sald that the light MRS. ALICE G. BOWLES, WHO SAILED WITH ELEVEN ARGONAUTS 20,000 MILES TO ALASKA IN SEARCH OF GOLD. into service. And then he quoted the official dispatch which Governor Woi- cott sent to Washington recently an- nouncing that Massachusetts was wholly without ammunition, as some- thing which the Spz1ish Minister no doubt had fourd great pleasure in send- ing to his Government. If the Massa- chusetts coast is first attacked by Spain & great many people probably will hold Governor Walcott’s telegram responsi- ble for that misfortune. Dr. Eliot said that a number of stu- dents had enlisted, but he tho:ght they were unwise. In this judgment he does not agree with some other presidents of great universities; but he speaks with greater authority because Har- vard’s enrollment is greater than that other educasional tution in 1) grow into months on our voyage we began to realize with consternation that we had an extremely long and un- pleasant trip before us from which there was no escape. The very first spell of rough weather had weakened our enthusiasm and now we were left without that wonderful buoyant ele- ment. There is nothing to break the monotony but an occasional school of porpoises giving us chasc, or a flock of flying fich rising out of the water and scudding away before the wind, resembling a “flock” of birds more than a *school” of fish. We are so eager for any kind of excitement or change that the ery of “Sail, io!” will send us all scampering up on deck with as great a hubbub as would be justifiable if we sighted the Flying Dutchman. The kind of food used to provision a vessel for so long a voyage is neces- sarily bad—consisting of salted meats and dried and canned vegetables—and we begin to grow tired a: ! sick of it. Never in all my life have I experienced such disgust and repugnance of any- thing as I did “or the eternal monotony of eating. It seemed that we did noth- ing but eat and sleep, and so soon as one meal would be cleared from the tabl anoth.r would seem to be ready. Sixty days after leaving . ew York we sighted land at Montevideo, Uru- guay, and I imagine enthusiasm and excitement-were equal to that on board the Santa Maria when Columbus first sighted the land of America. The sixty days’ voyage had seemed much longer to us, unaccustomed as we were to traveling by water, and our eagerness to set foot on land once more was unbounded. Just as we were about to enter the harbor, however, and when our anticipations were highest, a gale struck us and carried us a hundred miles out to sea again and for three days we were hove to. When we did finally reach Montevideo we were so sick of the confinement and monotony that we all went ashore and abandoned ourselves after the fashion of all good sax?{zr a stay of three days at this place we proceeded to the Straits of Magellan, whither we arrived fifteen days later. We had intended to stop and prospect for gold in Terra del Fu- ego and Patagonia, but after a general survey of the grounds and some con- B e - versation with the white settlers we abandoned the idea. Our aim was now to get through the straits and out into the Pacific Ocean. The distance through from the Atlan- tic to the Pacific is 300 miles, and it proved to be the most difficult, as well as the most eventful, part of the whole voyage. It must be understood that the tide sets strongly from the Pacific to the Atlantic_through the straits, and that the wind prevails from the southwest eleven months in the year. It is not a mild, steady breeze by any means, but it ranges from a gentle zephyr to a tornado and changes from one extreme to the other so quickly that navigation by sail is next to im- possible. From the day we entered the straits to the day we got out into the Pacific we had either a dead calm or a heavy gale. Never did we have a moderate breeze for more than three hours at any one time. ‘We were just twenty-six days mak- ing through and not a moment was lost when sailing was’ possible. There are anchorages marked by beacons at distances of about twenty-five miles apart, and it is considered a good day’s work from one to the next. The straits are so.narrow and wind- ing that sailing at night is impossible and time and again we falled, by only three or four miles, to reach our next anchorage after twelve hours’ tacking and had to put back again. While we were anchored at Punta Arenas, which is the only town on the stralts, a very severe gale came up and with both flg{ our anchors down we began to di across the channel direct for the sogky shore ou the op= posite side. ‘At this critical ] one of our anchor chains snapped away went anchor and chain. ‘We thought we were done for, buf as fortune would have it our omani anchor fouled a sunken wreck and hela on so fast that all our efforts for they next three days failed to clear it. But| it saved us from drifting ashore. The fourth day we had a calm an& somehow or other, while we were floating about, the anchor came looseoft, itself. This was New Year’s day ands we were very pleased at the manner in which the old anchor showed its pa- triotism. But this was only the beginning of our troubles. Fortescue Bay was our next anchorage, and we spent one day ashore looking for signs of gold. The next day we essayed to get out, but after beating all day against wind and tide we put back there again. We re-| peated this operation every morning for nine days before we succeeded. The eighth day we had got within one mile of our next port when a terrifio storm came down upon us dead ahead, and we were compelled to run all the way back under bare poles. We raised sail in an attempt to go around a sharp turn, but it was blown into ribbouns. These sudden storms are called by the Chileans ‘“‘williwas.” There is a remarkable thing about the winds in the straits. There is a great range of mountain peaks <n either side of the straits, completely walling them in, and as we sailed along abreast of the opening between thesa peaks the wind was so strong that we could barely carry double-reefed sails. Suddenly, as we passed the opening and came abreast of the mountain we were “blanketed” by it and would be left in a dead calm. Several times we wera left thus, helpless with the wind blow= ing a gale overhead. January is the midsummer month down here, but for all of this the moun=- tain range was completely capped with huge glaciers and snow. Right beneath this at the foot of the peaks the valleys shone with all the luxurious verdure of a tropical summer. On the 20th of January we sailed out into the open sea. A3 night approached we saw the last of those bristling rocks that had been such a menace to us and we were not a bit sorry. That night a terrific gale struck us and we expected to be blown back on the rocks. We had just passed one of the small boats of the big wrecked steamer Mataura, which lay on the rocks within a few miles of us, an ac- count of which appeared in The Call in the latter part of January. It is impossible to describe the feeling of ap- prehension and misery that pervaded our little community that night. For- tunately the wind hauled enough to al- low us to make an offing, but the fury of the gale never abated for one mo- ment until we actually ran clear out of its latitude, which was ten days afterward. After this we had clean sailing right up to the line and all was buoyancy and hope as we flew along past the fly- ing spray. On March 1, just forty days from the straits, we sighted a sail. This was absolutely the first signs of life we had seen in all this time. To be sure it was far away from us and only the hfghest sails were visible, but it was life and served to break the de- pressing monotony. By this time our provisions were all stale and barely eatable. It's well enough for sailors and old seamen to talk about salt beef | and hard tack being good enough, etc., but for we landlubbers it was worse than any picture of Klondike suffer- ing we had seen. In fact, the very subject of Klondike or our final destination in Alaska was never mentioned. We only hoped and prayed for San Franeisco. ~We expect- ed to be there within ten or fifteen days, and so great was our anxiety that it was hard to restrain ourselves from going in the rigging to look for land, though we knew it was hundreds of miles away. It was at this time that we ran into the northwest gales that kept us out so long. On March 10 we were within three days’ run of San Francisco. During the next twenty-five days we were con- tinually tossed about by gales and high seas without one moment’s rest. ‘Without exaggeration, our little boat was not far from being a lunatic asy- lum. Every conceivable thing was re- sorted to to occupy our minds and maintain our composure and fortitude, Three times we were within four hours of the harbor and were blown back before terrific gales. Had our boat been the Ieast unseaworthy she would not have survived the last gale we had. We really had very little hope for our lives and it is an experience that I would not pass through again for any conceivable price. We were now living on salt meat and bread and the water was too stale to drink. We had to drink it in the form of tea or coffee, and it was bad at that. We knew our friends at home were anxious for us, and in our poorly nourished and depressed condition it was no wonder that now and then some poor fellow would steal away into a corner ~nd have it out with himself. ‘We have tacked up a clipping of a Klondiker’s letter to a San Irancisco paper, which we have paraphrased to suit our (wn case. It 's as “Hllows: POOPPOOO0O006006006000 0 In after years, when I take my grandchildren on my knee and tell them of my experience in Alaska, ‘if they don’t get down on the floor and howl], I will lam- baste h— out of them.” 0000000 @ & © @ & & L 2 @ G900 9090006009000600009 As 1 sald before, we are going to stick it out, and we all feel sure that the worst of our experience is over, and that nothing in Alaska will be as hard to endurd as was our terrible cone finement of slx months at sea, J. B. BL¥.