The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-02
LIFE in DAWSON CITY.
The Real Ell Dorado to BE Found in
the Far North--A Struggling CoiIec.
tiOn of Log Huts and Tents.-OId.
Timers Have Got Used to Seventy
Degrees Below Zero in Tents.

1.-THE River Trip to the Klondike" is
the title of an article in the March
Century, written by John Sidney Webb.
The author says: on the morning of
August II, at about four o'clock, broad
daylight, we came up to that collection
of forty large log cabins and five hum
dred tents, sprawled at the foot of
Moose-skin mountain, named Dawson
City. Helter-skelter in a marsh, lies
this collection of odds and ends of
houses and habitations, the ware
houses of the two companies cheek by
jowi with cabins and tents; a row of
bar-rooms called Front street; the side
streets deep in mud; the river bank a
mass of miners boats, Indian canoes,
and logs; the screeching of the saw
mill; the dismal, tuneless scraping of
the violin of the dance halls, still wide
open; the dogs everywhere, fighting
and snarling; the men either "Whoop-
ing it up" or working with the great
est rapidity to unload the precious
freight we had brought-all of this
rustlinS and hustling made the scene
more like the outside of circus tent
including the smell of the sawdust,
than anything else in the world.
This, then, Is the real Ell Dorado!
One wonders where they all live. One
wonders, in amazement, where they
are all going to live through the awful
winter that Is approaching. Here is
the true pinch of the situation. 1t is
not a question of food; it is question
of shelter. There are no logs fit to
make a cabin to be found on the river
within thirty miles of Dawson City.
To 60
be too late to build cabin, because
the moss which is used TO fill the
chinks between the logs by that time
will be frozen solid, and be useless un-
less thawed out over a fire, a very
wearisome Job, The old-t timers have got
used to 20 degrees below zero in tents;
and even II the robe over them freezes
solid, match is smuggled from under
the bedclothes, the fire somehow light
ed in the sheet-iron stove, and there
they lie until the stove is red-hot be-
fore they dare emerge from under the
skin rugs. But how are the newcom-
ers to survive the cruel exposure-the
lawyers, clerks, doctors and mechan-
les?
Dawson City seems like Joke. Eigh-
teen hundred and fifty miles from st.
Mlchael lsland-this Is where they have
gold, millions of gold, and nothing bet
ter than muddy swamp to live in;
gold dust and nuggets in profusion
and yet the negroes in the cabins of a
Southern plantation live better than
the richest man in the country. Our
arrival at Dawson was at a very crit
ical time. We had brought with us
nearly four hundred tons of provisions,
and this fact served to allay the anxi-
Gus fears of many who We're becoming
panic-stricken at the idea that there
would be scarcity of food during the
winter No news had come to us by
way OF the ocean OF later date than
June 10, but newspapers had been re-
ceived over the summit at Dawson of
date as late as July 26; and so the re-
port that crowds We're swarming into
the gold fields had reached them, but
was news to us. The town was thor
oughly scared, and wa Averrun With