The Indianapolis journal., 1897-11-25
PLEASURE IN KLONDIKE
NIGHT SCENES IN DAWSON CITY,
WHERE MONEY HAS NO VALUE.
Girls Make 800 "A Night in Dance
$5O-GambIing Rampant.

1
social lifeif such it may be called--of the
mining camps as you see it nowhere else.
On the Klondike gold is a common COM
modify. Much has been written of this
desolate region, but the historians have, as
a rule dwelt almost entirely on the mineral
development of the country. 1t is my in
tention to give you glimpse of the people,
their customs, their amusements and their
utter disregard of the value of money. The
principal diversions of Dawson are the
gambling saloons and the dance halls. The
most profitable industry is the sale of
liquor, the saloons paying no revenue to the
government. Beer and whisky sell for so
cents a drink. The gambling saloons are
run wide open, day and night. and the
dance halls never close until daylight. 1t
may be remarked, incidentally, that there
are two churches, one a Roman Catholic
and the other Protestant Episcopal. 1
fancy it would make some of your Fifth
avenue congregations stare to see the coll
lection plates heaped up with nuggets and
dust on Sundays.
often wonder, out in this wild spot,
what the FOUNDERS who used to think them
selves high rollers in the days of the old
Tenderloin would think of Dawson. The
winning or losing of from 81, 900 to $1,000 at
a sitting eXcites no comment here. / was
in the Golden Palace the other night (and
the Golden Palace is by no means what its
name implies) when saltwater Bill. a
young man who halls from Spokane, Wash,
came in and announced with whoop that
he was gong to ''bust the bank
saltwater Bill owns some of the richest
claims on Eldorado creek, and when he
breaks lose the dust is sure TO fly Bill took
h.
hour he had lost $500 in gold nuggets.
Things don't seem to be coming my way
tonight" he remarked as he rose from his
seat and stretched himself Let the house
have drink at my expense" There was
rush for the bar, and walters carried
drinks to the various tables where games
were in progress. That round cost Bill SIP.
Then he lighted dollar-and-a-half cigar
and Strolled out.
The gambling saloons, in external APP
pearance. are very much like all the other
buildings in Dawson, except that they are
larger. They are built of logs hewn on
three sides and soidly chinked with heavy
mess The roofs are made of poles, on
which a layer of moss fully ten inches
thick is laid, and then layer of dirt about
twelve inches deep serves to keep out the
UP against the huts on the outside serve as
additional protection against the chilling
blasts of the Arctic 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 constructed buildings are made
Quate against the severe cold weather.
LOG CABIN COSTS S4,5OO.
Last year logs sold for $1.4O apiece and
now they bring as high as $4. To build the
commonest kind of log cabin, say eighteen
by twenty-four feet, costs in the neighbor
hood of $4,000.
Games involving 5000 and $4,000 are run
nj do Hpal Of
banking games receive $40 a day. The
manner of hazarding money is unique, even
in a mining camp The player takes his
seat at a faro table, passes over his sack
of gold dust to the dealer, who drops it into
a small pigeon hole. The chance of over
playing his sack devolves upon the play
ers honor He is given full credit, and can
call for as many chips from the check rack
as he desires.
AS the checks are passed out a tab is
the play the chips on hard are credited to
the account of the sack. The dealer hands
the player slip of paper showing the con-
dition of the account, and the la1er takes
it and his sack of gold to the bar Ii he
has lost he weighs out his gold dust, or,
in the event of winning, the barkeeper does
About out o'clock one morning a miner
known as shorty left his seat at the table
where he had been playing all night, saying
than he had gone broke. The dealer handed
him his bag of dust and his slip, the latter
corresponding almost to gram with the
value of the gold. Shorty walked over 10
the bar and invited a couple of other miners
to have a drink. Then he was seized with
a fatal fit of forgetfulness.
He edged toward the door, ana was ap0ut
To push it open when the bartender called
to him: Say, Shorty, haven't you forgot
something?" cLo.+,, ord Tho
door swung out. When it rebounded 1t
stopped half way, obstructed in its inward
passage by the body of a dying man.
flash of flame and the report OF a plstoi
from somewhere in that low cellinged,
smoke laden ROOM explained the draught
of cold air that came in through the nan
open door. Shorty" was buried the next
In the effete East there is a fine distinc--
ton drawn between the society man and
the club man.; me same ne GiselhGtioll hi;ne, ca, -
loon: society is the dance hall. wish some
of the matrons who lend dignity 10 the
Patriarch's ball could have been with me
last night when l attended Solree at
the Morning Star.
I got in about midnight, although the
dancing begins as early as o'clock in the
evening The building is a large one, built
of logs but with a floor of rough heWn
boards 1t answers every purpose, however,
for the may waltz and the two-step are
not popular with these boisterous revellers.
They prefer the old-fashioned Virginia reel,
or the plain quadrille, with lots OF room
to throw their feet about.
You could cut the tobacco-laden atmos-
phere with a knife. Through the blue maze
the figures of a couple of musicians could
be family distinguished. fiddling away for
dear life and calling out, Sashay an!
s'Swing yer pardners!' Ladies through
as the occasion demanded. They received
500 a night for doing this, and they earned
every penny of it, To one side, extending
the entire length of the room, was the bar,
and the three dispensers or drinks were
kept quite as busy as the tddlers: Beer.
whisky and cigars were retalled at 5O cents:
4 moor quality of champagne sold for $50
q mint and a somewhat better brand
brought $40.
GIRLS GET 81 A DANCE
OF course, the men greatly outnumbered
the women. There were probably a dozen
of the latter. some of them young and quite
pretty. They have little or no time to rest
between the dances, and when the morning
sun peeps over the eastern mountains he
finds them a jaded and somewhat bedrag-
gled lot But they charge dollar for every
dance and Cripple Creek Carrie. the ac-
knowledged belle of the dancing set" has
been known to make as much as hundred
dollars a night tripping the light fantastic
toe.
A young fellow whom they called
s.Pinkey'' was pointed out to me as the
social leader of Dawson City He was the
only man in the room who wore boiled
shirt When he goes to dance which Is
almost every night, he carries pair OF
pun os with him. He leaves his boots be-
hint the bar dons his patent feathers and
sails in on a wild career of terpsichorean
dissipation. "Pinkey" has been known 10
buy Sl20 worth of dances in three success
siye nights.