The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1897-11-09
LIFE IN THE KLONDIKE.
HOW THE PEOPLE KEEP HOUSE IN
THE GREAT GOLD FIELD.

'n'' the hlohdlke region Is sort of
earthly paradise; no fighting no shoot
ing. no lynching. no theft.
It's curious, too, for there are in
Forty Mile Post, Dawson. Circle CITY
and other mining towns. saloons by
dozen. gambling hells. few women and
plenty OF men jus. like those who used
To die with their boots on in California
No one ever locks cabin door You
can leave few thousands i'm gold dust
lying nrount loose, and no one will
steal II. This forbcarance is not 50
remarkable as 1t seems. If thief did
steal when there is nothing to break
through he couldn't spend his money
or leave the country unsuspected.
The upper circles of the Yuko, Val
ley usually dwell in commodious homes
of boards well banked ND with tail.
lnSs to keep the cold out. and measur-
ing some twelve feet 10y fourteen. A
common household ornament is a hole
IN the floor, through which the owner
can descend AMI dig pay dirt in the
frosty bowels of the earth when he has
time. Cooking is done on sheet iron
stoves, very light aud small, mgred
over the Chilkoot with other belong
lngs. There isn't generally much To
cook on the stove except the three
"Bs''-bacon, beans AMI b, al. In
summer there is fresh fish: in winter
also, If man cares to brave cold feet
by standing on the ice to fish through
hole chopped in it. Besides. the
hole has way of freezing up again
rapidly.
The cold is not so terrible bugbear
ms many imagine. The mir is very dry.
and 1t causes no discomfort to work
out of doors with the thermometer Mt
thirty below. General humidity makes
the cold as well as the heat worse TO
bear
Miners generally wear in winter the
native dress of skin trousers aud
parka, with boots of seal or wolrus
skin, made by the coast Indians. Tho
skin trousers are made of woodchurcb
pelts or fawn-skin trimmed with white
wolfsklns Women wear the parka or
skin coat tilched from the fawn or
wolverine, but they have to deny them
selves the pleasures of dress reform so
far as TO wear light short skirts over
their leather breeches and boots. Tn
summer one can dress rs in New
York
Housekeeping is most primitive
Men are IN vast majority, and it is
customary, as 1t was in California. for
them TO select partners and live two in
shack, or cabin, to save house
work and divide expense. In winter
there are no means of bathing without
extraordinary trouble. The snow
seldom lies more than three feet deem
there are no thaws to make crust on
ITS surface, and all winter travelling is
done on shceshoes.
Prices are extraordinarily high. and
vary according to circumstances. so
that one can hardly tell what they will
be next spring, when the new crowd
gets INTO the diggings. Beef at fifty
or seventy-iiyc cents pound is per
haps afair example. Last winter. be-
cause the preceding summer Ind been
bad one for salmon. bacon had 70
be fed to the sled dogs Mt cost Of
twenty live or forty cents pound.
ANA there have been times when n
dog was worth $500 to kill to keep
some miner with plenty of dust
but no grub from starving.
There are physicians in the Klon-
dixie and there will be hospitals at
several points, established by the Sis
ters OF Mercy from Montreal. Inst
winter there was benefit perform
ance in Circle City, when quarter Of
beef ''snaked into the country on n
dog sled, was ratified off for 500 for
the hospital Now Circle CITY 10
pretty well deserted. and the hospital
VIII be needed more somewhere else.
There IS still post-oflice Mt Circle
Cry, and mails come and 90 every
month In winter, by carrier TO Juneau.
In summer what n change there isl
The thermometer rises freouentIv
above ninety. Men work sixteen and
eighteen hours day, slucing out the
dirt they have been digging out all
winter and drop dog tired into their
hunks at night 10 dreamless sleep
They can vary their fool only n little.
Fresh salmon are usually plentv. but
game Is not. Hence the great baue of
the country IS scurvy. IL is avoided
by drinking a great deal Of lime Juice
a better way would he to get fresh
vegetables into the country and there
is no doubt that they could be grown
Win perfect success, not perhaps nt
Circle City or Dawson. but four or five
hundred miles farther south. on tho
Iaeish or Teslin Lake. and boated
easily down stream towards autumn.
True, the season is short, but growth
is very rapid while it lasts. Many
vegetable crops require but short
time to mature The Danish settle
ments in Greenland, quite as far north
as these lakes, have pretty fair vege-
table gardens. The men who first get
into business as market gardeners, sup
plying the Yukon basin with fresh
vegetables, will need no gold mines.
Surveyor Ogilvie thinks that there
may be room in the upper Yukon re-
gion for 2OOO fairly good farms. Cen
eral farming will never thrive i'm this
region, in his opinion, but the special
industry Of supplying fresh vegetables
and meat. under admitted difficulties
compensated for by high prices that's
not the same thing 1T all. The day
hasn't come yet when you can get n
lice Georgia watermelon in Dawson
Tor twenty cents. Indeed. water
melons can't be raised on the Yukon.