In many respects, the history of exploration is also a history of the pursuit of wealth. For while adventurers are invigorated by the desire to see and to make known the unknown, they are also galvanized, to press on through the darkness, the doubt and the loneliness, by their hopes for fame and fortune. Will their daring dreams be realized by overcoming the next hill, by panning the next river, by searching the next league of ocean? Or must they return, crushed, to lives they have, in every respect, rejected? While this history from Mr. Blum concerns the hunt for riches of gold, it is this human story, of triumph and failure, of motivation and determination, that animates his compelling tale.
The Floor of Heaven is a human's eye view of the last, great, North American gold rush which played out in alaska and the Yukon during the closing decade of the 19th century. Though it would endure for only a few years, the attack upon the Klondike was fierce, enticing men from all walks of life, and across the whole of the continent, to quit their lives and venture to the remote and inclement northwest in hopes of scoring for themselves riches that would elevate them out of the monotony of their dreary and difficult lives. This mad rush not only hastened the playing out of the goldstrike, it ensured that characters far more dastardly than goldminers found their way to this final, continental frontier. Mr. Blum, a prolific author of popular histories, reconstructs this frantic time through the eyes of three of its most fascinating and controversial characters.
Orphaned early in his adolescence, George Carmack was raised in northern California by his faithful sister and her difficult and much-older husband. Disinclined to devote the remainder of his life to farmwork, Carmack fled into the arms of the US Navy before deserting when the opportunity rose to prospect for gold in the Yukon. Though his would not be the greatest fortune pulled from those frozen hills and icy streams, Lying George, then known for his failures and his love of Native Indians, would be remembered as the first man to strike it big in the Klondike.
Though they would eventually come to trust one another with their lives, Charles Siringo was nothing like solitary Carmack. A strapping cowboy from Texas, Siringo was a restless soul who, prior to earning fame for his detective work with the infamous Pinkerton Agency, stole cattle and sold cigars in the heart of the lawless west. An honest cop with a quick and inventive mind, Siringo found himself in the distant Yukon, chasing down the robbers of a gold mine while trying to outrun his broken heart. However, it was the latter, and not the former, that motivated Siringo to the Klondike. For it was the death of his beloved wife that drove him to seek oblivion in a dangerous and difficult assignment, far from the comforts of home. Without her passing, siringo would have never been in a position to save George Carmack from the schemes of dark-hearted men.
A career gambler, shyster and thief, Jeff 'Soapy' Smith was one of the Wild West's most colorful characters. Known for a clever scheme in which he would grift money from unsuspecting marks by pretending to hide bills in select bars of soap which he'd then sell to his many dupes, Smith would find a lawless town in which his name was not already known and quickly set up shop, running booze, girls, and games of cards and dice, all pursuits designed to deprive his customers of their well-earned money. Though Smith was, at the height of his power, a gangleader of national disrepute who was best known for virtually running Denver in the 1880s, he was forced, with the coming of the law to the West, ever-more to the fringes of the United States, losing fortunes almost as quickly as he made them. Finding himself marooned in the Klondike, Smith would roll the dice one final time, enacting a plan to deprive George Carmack of his golden fortune. Should he succeed, Smith could retire from his gangster ways and return to his wife in St. Louis, but should he fail... Well, that might just be the last toss of the dice for Soapy Smith.
The Floor of Heaven amalgamates Carmack's determination, Siringo's cleverness and Smith's gangsterism into a riveting narrative of the Yukon Gold Rush. Mr. Blum draws upon the personal histories and boastful writings of all three flamboyant men to not only paint a picture of a goldstrike, but to demonstrate how the opportunity to acquire great wealth has the power to attract every kind of character, from the noble to the devilish, from the highest businessman to the lowest laborer. The author then ties these narrative threads into a single, dramatic knot when Carmack, Siringo and Smith all converge upon Carmack's unimaginable fortune. But as much as this tale succeeds narratively, the reader is left to wonder how much of it is true. Mr. Blum has gone to great lengths to verify the accounts of all three men, but many of the twists and turns here feel like they were re-imagined and embellished later on, told to a captive audience in a comfortable tavern long after the deeds were done. In this, one must take some of the more outlandish segments here with a substantial portion of salt.
However, while we can be skeptical of certain of the work's claims, this is not its point. The Floor of Heaven is designed to introduce its readers to the minds and the mentalities of the men who gambled on the Klondike. The extent to which it reveals how success and failure changed them is both revelatory and disheartening. For while it demonstrates how hard work and persistence can earn one great fortune, it also carefully notes how wealth invariably claims the morality of its owner, a truth we'd all be wise to remember. A gripping tale, if not one of academic rigor. (4/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment