The Rush That Wouldn't Quit

There may not be one hundred dollars' worth of gold in the Coeur d'Alene mountains, yet the faith of many old experts is not shaken and should the digging fail no one will be so disappointed and surprised as those who may be considered the very best judges of mining districts, their possibilities and richness. Yet no shadow of failure throws a cloud of discouragement athwart the paths of hundreds of men who are bent upon trying their luck in the new district. Every day fresh crowds take up their journey to the El Dorado of promise and toil into Eagle City, and cargoes of goods are constantly being transported toward the diggings. Hardly a day passes that some trader does not fit out at the Falls for the mines, drawing supplies from our wholesale houses, that prove by actual figures that goods can be purchased cheaper here than at any point on the line of railroad. Saturday Sheehan Bros. sold a stock large enough to supply a large establishment, and every box, barrel, bale and bundle bore the plainest directions, "Eagle City." Monday morning Orchard & Sayre, our Second Street harness men, furnished twenty-five horses with pack saddles and the necessary harness. The outfit belonged to a man named Evans, who has a contract for packing goods into the mines from Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene, for a merchant named Fineberg, who represents a large company in San Francisco. Under these thousands of dollars' worth of goods go out of the city by every imaginable conveyance, weekly, and the throng of strangers on the streets is an indication of the greatly increased travel. The rush is unprecedented in the history of the country, and the present travel is but the beginning of the flood, and the question is how many will it lead on to fortune.