The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1898-04-06
LIFE IN DAWSON CITY.
THE REAL EL DORADO TO BE FOUND
IN THE FAR NORTH.

Wv NV '"Nttfh
A Struggling Collection of Log Huts and
Tents on a Swamp-Old-Timers Have
Got Used to Seventy Degrees Below
Zero in Tents-A Gold Miners Outfit.
"The River-Trip to the Klondike''
is the title of an article in the 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 hundred
tents, sprawled at the foot OF Moose
skin Mountain, named Dawson City.
Helter-skelter, in q marsh, lies this
collection ofodds and ends of houses
aud habitations, the warehouses of
the two companies cheek by jowl with
cabins and tents; 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 sawmill; the dis
NAL, tuneless scraping of the violin of
the dance-halls, still wide open; the
dogs everywhere, fighting and snarl-
ing; the men either "whooping it up"
or working with the greatest rapidity
to unload the precious freight we had
brought-all Of this rustling and hust-
lilg made the scene more like the out
side 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 question of food; it is question
of shelter. There arc no logs fit to
make cabin to be found on tho river
within thirty miles Of Dawson City.
To wait for winter means that it will
be too late to build a cabin, because
the moss which is used to fill the
chinks between the logs by that time
will be frozen solid, and be useless
unless thawed out over fire, very
wearisome job. The old-timers have
got used to seventy degrees below
zero in tents; and even if the robe over
them freezes solid, n match is Snug
gled from under the bedclothes, the
fire somehow lighted in the sheet-iron
stove, and there they lie until the
stove is red-hot before they dare
emerge frcm under the skin rugs.
But how are the newcomers to survive
the cruel exposure-the lawyers,
clerks, doctors and mechanics?
Dawson City seems like q joke.
Eighteen hundred and fifty miles from
st. Michael Island this is where they
have gold, millions of gold, and moth
ing better than muddy swamp to live
in; gold-dust and nuggets in profusion,
and yet the negroes in the cabins of o.
Southern plantation live better than
the richest man in the country. Our
arrival at Dawson was at very criti-
cal time. We had brought with us
nearly four hundred tons of provisions,
and this fact served to allay the anxious
fears Of many who were 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
thoroughly scared, and was overrun
with men who had come down from
the diggings, often twenty and twenty
five miles, to make sure of their out
fits for the winter: and so determined
were they to procure them that they
sat themselves down cslmly in line,
like men waiting to buy seats at
first-night performance, determined to
wait until the goods were put up and
set aside in their names.
An outfit for q miner means every
thing that he uses during the winter,
and this, being reduced to its lowest
terms, means bacon and beans. There
are other things, Of course, in tins and
in y-sacks-four, sugar, salt,
pickles, dried fruits, desiccated pota-
toes-to suit the taste; but the work
is done, and the gold is found and
cleaned up, and miles and miles Of the
Wilderness conquered, and cold weather
and wintry winds withstood, on bacon
and beans. 1t is the easiest food to
pack, the quickest to prepare, and the
most lasting and sustaining. The
miner usually reckons ON getting his
outfit in November, because he can
carry on a sledge, after the snow has
set in, four times as much as he can
pack on his back, and il he is fortunate
enough to have dogs he can draw much
more.
The Supreme Hymn.