The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-14
LIFE IN DAWSON CITY.
Interesting Pen Picture in Breezy
Letter from New Yorker.

Letter from a New Yorker.
ST LOUIS. Aug. 13-The Globe-Demo-
Gratis Tacoma. Wash, correspondent says:
OF all the letters that have come down from
Klondke the following extract from New
York State mans up-to-date comments on
Dawson City takes the prize:
Perhaps you would like to know what
sort OF town this is. and | will tell you.
You have heard about wide-open towns.
This is one of them. Everything goes here;
the saloons never close; gambling goes On
at all hours; in fact, nothing in the way of
dissipation IS ever checked at all. There is
no city government IN this place of tents
and shanties but we have a vigilance COM
mittee. which takes the place of both the
government and the laws. You see, this
is British country up here, and most of
us are Americans, so we do not know much
about what the law IS that governs this
part Of the country. This being the case,
we run the place think we ought to.
l don't mind telling you ! am one of the
vigilance committee.
town here and see these things for your
self. Why, 1t is nothing at all for 900 to
change hands on the turn of card. / mean
that much in gold dust, for real money is
a scarce article out here; every man has a
sack Of dust. and he buys or CANDLES by the
ounce or fraction thereof. The dance halls
are lively enough, too, for there are lot
of women up here, such as they are i
reckon there are about 1900 people here all
told but they can make noise enough for
twice that many. There is not as much
killing going on here as you would think
men up mere. we nave planted about a
dozen of those in the last two months, and
it has had the effect ofJkeeping the tough
sort quiet ! write about night, but we
don't have any night here. You see, the
sun sets about 10 p. m. and rises about 3
a. m, but it never gets dark You can
read newspaper out of doors at midnight,
so you see it don't make much difference
when you sleep. The result is that the
people don't have regular time for sleeping
or eating at ali. They just live as they
want to.
lieve that every nation that we ever heard
of in New York has got somebody here
who belongs to it. Everybody is as good as
everybody else. 1t don't make any differ
enee whatever who he is. There is one old
fellow that used to be a slave, and his wool
is gray as a sleeps pelt. He came up
here with a freighting outfit and did not
have any idea of getting TO the gold fields,
but when he did get there, old as he was.
he got the fever He staked out a claim,
and you may believe it or not. but the old
darky has cleaned up $4,000 in gold dust.
IS going to do with it. His name, he says,
is St. John Atherton, and he comes from
down in Georgia, just piece out of At
lanta, he says. He says thatsthe daughter
of the man that owned him during the war
is living there yet on the old plantation and
very poor. The old man is going back, he
says, and going to buy that plantation, and
then he is going to have this woman do
nothing but live like lady the rest of her
life. | believe the old man means just what
he says.
IF the papers printed half the queer
things / have heard here it would be better
than a book. About three mor6hs ago there
was an old man. who came from back East,
and had with him a boy fifteen years old.
He was one of the incest boys l ever saw.
He and his father staked out a claim just
east of one right on the river that the boys
call Blue Richness. / think the old man said
he came from Massachusetts. He a
quiet, peaceable man, minded his own bust
ness and paid no attention TO anybody.
After he commenced work on his claim a
few days it got around that he had struck
81 dirt That means that every pan OF dirt
that he washed out had So worth of gold
in 1t. There are some mean sons of guns
up here who, when they think a man that
Will be run off has got a good thing. they
just try to run MIN off. So one night two
or three of these fellows went to the mans
tent, showed their guns in the face of him
and the boy, and told them that if they
didn't get off the claim within twenty-four
hours they would be shot.
THE old man wouldn't say anything to
them at all, so one of them owned up aft
erwa-d, but just lay there, and the boy
kept quiet The old man. whose name was
Harry Williams. talked it over with the