shameful stories are reaching us of the wild and lawless deeds that are
being done.

A returning messenger brought word that a party of men who had for some
reason been separated from their comrades blockaded a mountain pass, and
having barred it up with trees and rocks, guarded it with firearms,
refusing to allow any one to pass until their friends came up with them.

So lawless did they become that they threatened to shoot the first man
who ventured to approach the barrier.

Party after party arrived at the pass, until finally there was a crowd
of two thousand people waiting in the narrow gorge to be allowed to pass
the barrier.

This state of affairs continued for several days, until a party of men,
more resolute than the rest, pushed their way to the front, made a rush
for the barrier, and overcame the resistance.

The waiting crowds promptly pushed aside the barricade, and began to
file through the narrow pass; but so eager was each man to be first into
the land of gold that the travellers pushed each other aside, knocked
their fellows down, and trampled them under foot till the pass looked
like a battlefield.

It is strange how men lose all sense of humanity when they are thirsting
for gold. The stories of jealousy, hatred, robbery, and murder which
have followed the rush for riches into the Klondike are a repetition of
the lawless doings of '49 in California.