The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-09-20
Dawson Celebrates the Ami
Eersary of Gold Discovery
At a Grand Ball Given in Louise
town Addition.
JOAQUIN MILLER GOES
Dances With a Hungry Look
ing Girl From Portland,
Who Hires Out to Dance at $50
a Night.

follows:
Dawson City, Aug 17.-Via San Fran
cisco Sept. 2O.-Yesterday was the ami
versary of the discovery of this bonanza.
The story told at San Francisco has not
only been repeated. but dupl cated, and this
is going to last, even though nothing new
is discovered; but there will be discov-
cries, and great ones. 1t is in the air.
You are conscious all the time of a
strong undercurrent that flows from
somewhere straight and steadily. yet you
can't quite lay hands the date and
place and name as yet, but from what
we have seen the last few hours on this
deep, level and muddy gulch, the last
place on earth that I, old miner of 40
years experience and adventure would
look for gold, it seems evident that it
will take at least ten years to work out
these mines. So. you see, this new city
will continue to build and build for years.
Yesterday 1 went to the new Catholic
hospital-the Sisters hospital of ST. AIMS
it is called-and had a long talk with the
the wise and serene little Father Image.
He is building spacious and substantial
structure-hospital. residence and church
the best building in Dawson as yet. He
is at the extreme down the river end of
wv A-tACS u SluulpS, InuOs malaria, Iy-
phoid fever, dogs, squaws and sawlogs,
lumber barges and boats of every shape
color and kind.
From the good fathers front window
you can see little farms little fields. with a
tent in the middle of a little clearing; the
brush heaps blazing and the log heaps
smoking, and. as 1 said before, this place
is not terribly cold, and men can come
and will make the ground bring forth
its yield all the way up and down the
great Yukon.
Last night grand ball was given in
commemOration of the discovery of gold
here. 1t was given at Lousetown. This
is at the extreme up-the-river end of
Dawson. I attended the ball with Cap
tain Hansen, the head of the Alaskan
company. "a man must see what is
going on-) Alex Mcdonald, the John
SIackay of Klondike, danced with a beau
tiful Alaska squaw, who had a small gold
ring in her nose and several rings in her
ears. I should say she had a dozen gold
rings in each ear She is a great belle
here. I danced-or rather hobbIed about
with a slim and hungry looking girl
from Portland, who maintains, she says.
her mother and helps her sister at school
And how do you make your money!
Il hire out to dance. 1 get $40 tonight.
get $40 a week and a quarter for every
dollar the boys spend with me at the bar
Sometimes 1 make more than 1 get
night. No. I don't drink whisky; only
berry juice. I am off tonight because
their business got SO big they had to tear
down their house and fix it bigger. They
start in fresh tomorrow night, and 1 ex-
pect to do right smart business"
A scribe here must be one of the boys
if he wants to know things. I had to
pull this up, this story of hers, in pieces,
interrupted by "Au hands forward"
har-
women are not necessarily bad. I know,
or. at least, I am told by man who has
been here long enough to know, one place
where mother and daughter dance the
long night through. They came here to
make money and are doing it. They each
have mining claim. Women take up
claims here the same as men, my inform
ant says. and employ several men to dig
at SIS a day each, while they dance.
Such boundless good nature as at this
Lousetown dance never saw. and have
been in all the new mining camps that
have been built within the last many,
many years.
1 dined with the collector of customs
yesterday and he said that the good order
here is due in part to the vigilance of the
public officers and the prompt enforce
ment of the Canadian laws, but mostly
to the high class of people who came here
from the states. They have a calaboose
here, but it has never been used. There
has not thus far been single disturb
ance.
This morning about o'clock we were
delighted with the shriIl call of COM
ing steamer. We all sprang from our
beds and the thousands of dogs stood on
the high river bank and simply made
Rome howl. Men shouted and swung
their hats. The congestion was broken.
The question of famine or no famine was
settled. Here were 400 tons of food and
supplies, and only 80 coming in with
them. Another steamer was reported to
be only Is hours behind. so who cares to
come can come.
Yet the honest farmer. as a rule. will
get more money, and with less work by
sticking to his farm than by coming here.
So will almost anyone who is established
in some good pursuit at home
Let all remember that we hear only of
the hundred fortunate miners, while moth
ing at all is said of the thousand and one
failures. Talking with man on a hill
side working all alone, we find that he
is working only for wages. He said
many more were earning less than the
standard-S15 per day-above and below
him on the hillside.
But TO go with the fortunate ones.
An agent of the Rothschilds told me that
he offered one million and a quarter for
10 claims together, but did not get them.
think he is going out without making
any purchases. The most of the ten
claims have not had pick in them as
yet. and so, as far as I can see, they
look a marsh. with mud and moss. You
sink at least six inches in the soft and
sloppy marsh a you walk over it. This
marsh is a muck. as you can see by
claims that are partly opened up. and be-
Low this muck of three or four feet is