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12# TO BUILD A FIRE oSla
I BY JACK LONDON.
¥ OR land travel or seafaring the
world over a companion is
usually considered desirable.
In tlie Klondike, as Tom Vin¬
cent found out, such a companion is ab¬
solutely essential. But he found it out,
cot by precept, but through bitter ex¬
perience.
“Never travel alone,” is a precept of
the north. He had heard it many
times and laughed, for he was a strap¬
ping young fellow, big boned and big
muscled, with faith in himself and in
the strength of his head and hands.
It was on a bleak January day when
the experience came that taught him
respect for the frost and for the wis¬
dom of the men who had battled with it.
He had left Calumet Camp on the
Yukon with a light pack on his back,
■ to go up Paul Creek to the divide be
it and Cherry Creek, where his
party was prospecting and hunting
moose.
The frost was sixty degrees below
zero, and he had thirty miles of lonely
trail to cover, but he did not mind. In
fact he enjoyed it, swinging along
through the silence, liis blood pounding
warmly through his veins and his mind
care free and happy. For he and his
comrades were certain they had struck
“pay” up there on the Cherry Creek
Divide, and, further, he was returning
to them from Dawson with cheery
home letters from the States.
At 7 o’clock, when he turned the
heels of his moccasins toward Calumet
it was still black night. And
day broke at 9.30 he had made
four-mile cut-off across the flats
was six miles up Paul Creek. The
frail, which had seen little travel, fol¬
lowed the bed of the creek, and there
was no possibility of his getting lost.
He bad gone to Dawson by way of
Cherry Creek and Indian River, so
-Paul Creek was new and strange. By
he was at the forks, which liad
fifteen described to him, and he knew he
had covered fifteen miles, half the dis¬
tance.
He knew that in the nature of things
rfthe trail was bound to grow worse
there on, and thought that, con¬
sidering the good time he had made he
merited lunch. Casting off his pack
and taking a seat on a fallen tree he
unmittened his right hand, reached in¬
side his shirt next to the skin and
out a couple of biscuits sand
Wiched with sliced bacon and wrapped
in a handkerchief—the only way they
could be carried without freezing cold.
He had barely chewed his first
mouthful when his numbing fingers
warned him to put his mitten on again.
This he did, not without surprise at the
bitter swiftness with which the frost
bit in. Undoubtedly it was tbe coldest
snap he had ever experienced, he
thought
He spat upon the snow—a favorite
uortliland trick—and the sharp crackle
of the instantly congealed spittle star¬
tled him. The spirit thermometer at
Calumet had registered sixty below
when he left, but he was certain it had
grown much colder, how much colder,
he could not imagine.
Hajf of tlie first biscuit was yet un¬
touched, but he could feel himself be¬
ginning to chill—a thing most unusual
for him. This would never do, he de¬
cided, and slipping the pack straps
across his shoulders he leaped to his
feet and ran briskly up the trail.
A few minutes of this made him
warm again, and he settled down to a
steady stride, munching the biscuits as
lie went along. The moisture that ex¬
haled with his breath crusted his lips
:and mustache with pendant ice and
formed a miniature glacier on his chin.
Now and again sensation forsook liis
nose and cheeks, and he rubbed them
till they burned with the returning
blood.
Host men wore nose straps; liis part¬
ners did, but he scorned such “feminine
contraptions,” and till now he had
never felt tlie need of them. Now he
did feel the need, for he was rubbing
constantly.
Nevertheless he was aware of a
-thrill of joy, of exultation, He was
doing something, achieving something,
mastering the elements, Once he
laughed aloud in sheer strength of life,
and with his clenched fist defied the
frost. He was its master. What he
did he did in spite of it. It could not
stop him. He was going to the Cherry
Creek Dfvide.
*To th)M own self be tnM,and it will follow, ns night the day, thou cans’t not t.
LINCOLNTON, GA , THURSDAY, AUGU
Strong as W’ere the elements, he was
stronger. At such times animals
crawled away into their holes and re¬
mained in hiding. But he did uot hide.
He was out in it, facing it, fighting it.
He was a man, a master of things.
In such fashion, rejoicing proudly, he
tramped on. After half an hour he
rounded a bend, where the creek ran
close to the mountainside, and came
upon one of the most insignificant ap¬
pearing but most formidable dangers
in northern travel.
The creek itself was frozen solid to
its rock bottom, but from the mountain
came the outflow of several springs.
These springs never froze, and the only
effeet of the severest cold snaps was
to lessen their discharge. Protected
from the frost by tbe blanket cf snow,
the water of these springs seeped down
into the creek, and, on top of the creek
ice, formed shallow pools.
The surface of these pools, in turn,
took 011 a skin of ice which grew thick¬
er and thicker, until the water overran,
and so formed a second ice-skimmed
pool above the first.
Thus at the bottom was the solid
creek ice, then probably six to eight
inches- of water, then a thin ice skim,
then another six inches of water and
another ice skim. And on top of this
last skin was about an inch of recent
snow to make the trap complete.
To Tom Vincent’s eye the nnbrekon
snow surface gave no warning of the
lurking danger. As the crust was
thicker at the edge he was well toward
thfi middle before he broke through.
In itself it was a very insignificant
mishap—a man does not drown in
twelve inches of water—but in Its con¬
sequences as serious an accident as
could possibly befall him.
At the instant be broke through he
felt the cold water strike liis feet and
ankles, and with half a dozen lunges
he made the bank. He was quite cool
and collected. The thing to do, and the
only thing to do, was to build a fire.
For another precept of the north runs:
Travel with wet socks down to twenty
below zero; after that build a fire. And
it was three times twenty below and
-.older, and he knew it. *
He knew, further, that great care
must be exercised; that with failure
at the first attempt the chance was
made greater for failure at the second
attempt. In short, he knew that there
must be no failure. The moment be¬
fore a strong, exulting man, boastful
of his mastery of the elements, he was
now fighting for liis life against those
same elements—such was tlie difference
caused by the injection of a quart of
water into a northland traveler’s calcu¬
lations.
In a clump of pines on the rim of the
bank the spring high water had lodged
many twigs and small branches. Thor¬
oughly dried by the summer sun they
now waited the match.
It is impossible to build a fire witli
heavy Alaskan mittens on one’s bands,
so Vincent bared bis, gathered a suffi¬
cient number of twigs, and knocking
the snow from them knelt down to kin¬
dle his fire. From an inside pocket he
drew out liis matches and a strip of
thin bircli bark. The matches were of
the Klondike kind, sulphur matches,
100 in a hunch.
He noticed how quickly his fingers
had chilled as he separated one match
from the bunch and scratched it on his
trousers. The birch bark, like the dry
est of paper, burst into bright flame.
This he carefully fed with the smallest
twigs and finest debris, cherishing the
flame with the utmost care. It did not
do to hurry things, as he well know,
and although his fingers were now
quite stiff he did not hurry.
After the first quick, biting sensation
of cold his feet had ached with a
heavy, dull ache and were rapidly
growing numb. But tlie fire, although
a very young one, was now a success,
and he knew that a little snow, briskly
rubbed, would speedily cure his feet.
But at the moment lie was adding the
first thick twigs to the fire a grievous
thing happened. The pine boughs
above his head were burdened with a
four nionths’ snowfall, and so finely
adjusted were the burdens that his
slight movements in collecting the
twigs had been sufficient to disturb
the balance.
The snow from the topmost bough
was the first to fall, striking and dis¬
lodging the snow on the boughs be-
the-
neath. And all this snow, accumulate
ing as it fell, smote Tom Vincent’s
head and shoulders and blotted out his
fire.
He still kept his presence of mind,
for he knew how great his danger was.
He started at once to rebuild the Are,
but his fingers were now’ so cold that
he could not bend them, and he was
forced to pick up each twig and splint¬
er between the tips of the fingers of
either hand.
When he came to the match he en¬
countered great difficulty in separating
one from tlie bunch. This he succeed
ed in managing, however, and also, by
a great effort, in clutching the match
betw’een his thumb and forefinger. But
in scratching it ho dropped it in the
snow r and could not pick it up again.
He stood up, desperate. He could
not feel even liis weight on his feet, al
though the ankles were aching pain
fully. Putting on his mittens, he
stepped to one side so that.the snow
would not fall upon the new fire he
was to build, and beat liis hands vio
lently against a tree trunk.
This enabled him to separate and
strike a second match and to set fire to
the remaining fragment of birch bark.
But his body had now’ begun to chill,
and lie was shivering, so that when he
tried to add the first twigs his hand
shook and the tiny flame wa^ciucnched.
The frost, had beaten him. j&is hands
were worthless. But ho hud the fore¬
sight to drop the bunch of 'matches
into his wide mouthed outs.de pocket
before he slipped on his mittens in de¬
spair, and started to run up the trail.
One cannot run the frost put of wet
feet at sixty below and colder, how¬
ever, as he quickly discovered.
He came round a sharp turn -of the
creek to where Be could look ahead for
a mile. But there was nd.help, no "sign
of help, only,the white tree:? and the
white silence! hills, the If quiet.<Md onl^MftyKcomradc a jj.t.io bra¬
zen Wine’,
whose feet were lie
thought, only ytgUJ - 7
the fire that could
Then his eyes chanceu^ion another
high-water lodgment of twigs and
leaves and branches. If he could
strike a match all might yet be well.
With stiff fingers which he could not
bend he got out a hunch of matches,
but found it impossible to separate
them.
He sat down and awkwardy shuffled
the bunch about on his knees until he
got it resting on his palm with the sul¬
phur ends projecting, somew’hat in the
manner the blade of a hunting knife
would project when clutched in the fist.
But his fingers stood straight out.
They could not clutch. This he over¬
came by pressing the wrist of the other
hand against them, and so forcing them
down upon the bunch. Time and
again, holding thus by both hands, he
scratched the bunch on his leg and
finally ignited it. But the flame burned
into the fiesli of his hand, and he in¬
voluntarily relaxed his hold. The
bunch fell into the snow’, and while he
tried vainly to pick it up, sizzled and
went out.
Again he ran, by this time badly
frightened. His feet were utterly de¬
void of sensation. He stubbed his toes
once on a buried log, but beyond pitch¬
ing him into the snow’ and wrenching
liis back, it gave him no feelings.
His fingers were helpless and his
wrists were beginning to grow numb.
His nose and cheeks he knew were
freezing, but they did not count. It
was his feet and bands that were to
save him if he was to be saved.
He recollected being told of a camp
of moose hunters somewhere above the
forks of Paul Creek. He must be
somew’here near it, be thought, and if
he could find it he yet might be saved.
Five minutes later be came upon it,
lone and deserted, with drifted snow
sprinkled inside the pine bough shelter
in which the hunters had slept. He
sank down, sobbing. All was over.
In an hour at best, in that terrific tem¬
perature, he would he an icy corpse.
But the love of life was strong in
him, and he sprang to his feet. He was
thinking quickly. What if the matches
did burn his hands? Burned hands
were better than dead hands. No
hands at all were better than death.
He floundered along the trail until he
came upon another high-water lodg¬
ment. There were twigs and branches,
leaves and grasses, all dry and waiting
the fire.
Again he sat down and shuffled the
buncli of matches on his knees, got it
into a place on his palm, with the wrist
of his other hand forced the nerveless
fingers down against the bunch, and
with the wrist kept them there. At the
second scratch the bunch caught fire,
and he knew that if he could stand the
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Hotter Bargains and Better
Shoes than ever was
R. O. TAj ; :yEK, (Manage* Before. V
Our One Dollar Brogan is better. Odr One Dollar and Tw v
Cents Brogan beats the world.
Our One Dollar and Fifty Cents Shoes are simply superb. Dollar and
Our Two Dollar Yici Kid Shoes a big value. Our Two
Fifty Cents Hand-sewed Shoes are the best on the market.
We can give vou Ladles Shoes at 75c, but tbe Shoes we want to sell
roit are $1.00 and $1.25 Ladies every day Shoes and our $1.25 and $1.50
Ladies Dress Shoes. They are BED HOT BAB GAINS and don’t you
forget it. Now our $2.00 Ladies Shoes are as good as anybody’s $3.00
Shoes.
We never forget the Children and Babies and this line of Shoes this
season is better than ever before.
j HATS! HATS! HATS!
Our prices in Hats are simply Tornado Swept. We give you Boy*
Hats 10c, a real good Hat 25c. Men’s Felt Hats 65c, Men’s Extra Good
Felt Hats $1.00, and so on to the end. within mile of this in
We don’t expect any one to come a us season
Price and Quality. When i# the city be sure to Cal), and Examine and be
Convinced.
00 I
907 Broad Street, Augusta, Ga.
feet fairly away from the fire and
rubbed them with snow. He rubbed
till his hands grew numb, when lie
would cover his feet with the blanket,
warm his hands by the fire and return
to the rubbing.
For three hours he worked till the
worst effects of the freezing had been
counteracted. All that night he stayed
by the fire, and it was late the next <la,v
when he limped pitifully into the camp
on the Cherry Creek Divide.
In a month’s time he was able to be
about on his feet, although the toes
were destined always after that to be
very sensitive to frost. But the scars
on his hands he knows he will carry
to the grave. And — “Never travel
aione!” he now’ lays down the precept
of the north.—Youth's Companion.
“Johnny Bull” is Slow.
A striking example of the conserva¬
tism that still obtains in certain lines
»f business in’London, says the corres¬
pondent of the New York Herald, was
brought to my notice the other day.
A young American came to London
on his way to the Argentine Republic
for his health. He noticed how far be¬
hind advertising methods were com¬
pared to those in vogue in America,
and on inquiry learned that the cards
in omnibuses and cars are never
changed during an entire year. He
called on several of the largest adver¬
tising agents, submitted the idea of
frequent change and offered to develop
it for a percentage. The manager of
one concern looked bored and said;
“We were asked by a certain com-
NO, 12.
in the United States to Change
advertisement at least Quarterly,
when we submitted the propo
i to our directors they agreed that
s too much trouble.”
Spongos of Rubber.
kelty is shown in a sponge that
made its appearance. It is of
Jan manufacture dark and resembles
[y lit consists a chiefly brown sponge, but
of holes, what*
lolid material there is of it is rub
iThese sponges come in two sizes,
K, with rounded corners. Wheth*
ling made of rubber, they are less
I to f9rm germ repositories than,
genuine articles remains to he
■ The Genesis of Fogg.
1\ Rollo Russell has for many year*
lied the formation of fogs, and now
its his principal conclusions. Mist
jffl fog are ordinarily caused by the
cture of currents of air of different
lperatures. Fogs that do not de
id on the meeting of such current*
rare, but there are many cases
meeting currents where no fogs are
duced.
Enrlv Aei'Jcnltural Exhibitions.
The first agricultural exhibition held
within the limits of the United States
is said to have been organized and
carried to a successful conclusion at
Georgetown, in the District of Colum¬
bia, in 1810. This claim is disputed,
various towns and counties in New
Fngland asserting that agricultural
fairs or expositions were held in them
at an earlier date.
Many thousands of dollars are spent
throughout the year in the purchase
of new packs of cards to replace those
soiled by frequent rehandling. Now a'
German inventor brings forward a ma¬
chine to clean the dirt from the cards
and repolish the surface.
Ten men can oe arranged to march
in single file in 3,628,800 different ways.
Origin of "Sucker State.”
Illinois has two nicknames. It was
early called “Prairie State," from the
character of its land, which in most
quarters is a rolling prairie. It was
nicknamed the “Sucker State,” from
the fact that early travelers on the
prairies often suffered great straits
for lack of water. They soon learned
from the Indians how to satisfy their
thirst, for proceeding to a low place
in the prairie, they would search for
crawfish holes, into which they In¬
serted a long straw, and sucked up
the water beneath. Such, at least, is
the story told and explanation given
of the nickname.