The Flagstaff sun-democrat., 1897-11-18
The Prices Paid For Work in Daw-
 son City are up in e."
G.mblers and saloons Draw Hcav- fly On the Miners-Pieasuro and Excitement Comes
 Hieh.

inally located by Joe Lauue anu Harper as a townsite. The latter is q trader and owns several stores in the northwest. They were the first to get "tip" of the great strike and lost no time in securing 160 acres of land as townsite for $l.25 an acre. Lots 50 by 100 feet are now selling for amounts varying from $S,000 to $14.- GOO, and an ordinary building lot on the edge of town at the base of the mountain is sold for $250 and upward. Last year logs sold for $1. 40 apiece; now they command 6 and $4. Most of the buildings are constructed of logs hewn on three sides and solidly chinbed with heavy moss. The roofs are made of poles. on which layer of moss fully ten inches thick is laid; then layer of dirt twelve inches deep serves to keep out the cold. If green logs or logs that are not properly dried are used they crack with re- port like pistol shot when the heavy frosts come, and for the remainder of the winter frost will gather op the inside of the cabin so that it is im- possible to get enough heat out of the stoves to thaw the ice. Heavy em- bankments of earth piled up against the huts on the outside serve an ad- ditional protection against the chill ing blasts of the artic winter gales. A few saloons are built of lumber with double walls, between which sawdust and moss are tightly packed, but old Yukoners tell me that such construct ion avails nothing against the severe cold weather.
 About 80 log cabins and some 800 or 600 tents constitute the improve ments of Dawson City, The buildings are on the streets and wide avenue separates the city from the river bank. The two commercial companies have built fine, large two-story stores and warehouses. The improvements made by the Alaskan Commercial company must have cost nearly 100000 and those of the North American Trading and Transportation company were not much less expensive. To build the commonest kind of log cabin Is by "A feet costs from $S,00O to 5000, and the buildings erected by the for mer company cover an entire block and are of the most substantial character that money and labor can build.
 Selling Glacier at Retail.
 Front street is the throughfare on which nearly all of the business is transacted. It is on the east side, facing the river. The street is full of hewn timber and chips, and carpen- ters are working from early dawn till late at night building cabins. Me chanics are paid an ounce for nine hours work, and many of them are earning from $20 to s25 day. Iu another month the river probably will freeze. navigation will cease. and cold
 
 weather will be in order until the middlo of next May. Consequently all buildings must be finished by the middle of October, and on account of the great demand for cabins carpen. ters practically are naming their own wages. The streets are full of tents. but the Canadian officials are com. polling builders to erect cabins on the lines of their property. and in short time Dawson City will bear the semblance of we'll laid out frontier town. Aside from the two stores three or four barber shops, half-dozer laundries, five or six restaurants, secondhand store or two. two saw mills, three butcher shops. two jewel ry stores. dozen physicians and dent ists and couple of real-estate offices the principal business is the sale o intoxicants. Compared with prices in the states the charges at first glance seem exorbitant, but when the pre- vailing rate of wages of from $l0 ( $l5 day is taken into consideration the charges appear reasonable. Mea is sold for 70 cents pound, and al one time during the summer ice solt for $l.50 pound. Some enterpris ss.0 Ho1t Al. <