Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-10

expect it. The fact is she went on, I'VE
have been in such rush that we had not
thought of it. But things are changing
People are coming in from the east and
now-I suppose We'll have to lock up"
She did not mean to be discourteous She
simply indicated a well-known condition.
So long as mining camp is occupied by
miners, mountaineers. pioneers and pros
pectors no one ever thinks of locks 1t is
the coming of the cultured tenderfoot, the
Cheechawko, that makes bolts necessary.
Even the Indians were reasonably honest
with each other until We began to civilize
them.
1 see nothing here marked less than a
quarter. That is the price of four-page
paper. At Seattle the penny passes out of
use, at Skagway the nickel and at Dawson
the dime. But prices are dropping rapidly
here. Fresh signs in the restaurants read:
Meals only ST." In some places they are
but 70 cents, with drinks. In one of the
best hotels in town I pay IS a day for
small room. but 1t is clean. Meals are 81 So
table dhote, but they are excellent. II you
want a spring chicken it will cost you So
1t costs 80 cents to quench at all first-cIass
bars.
ADawson Garden.
I spoke to DR.. B. enthusiastically about
the little green garden on the hill, and now
we are going up the Klondike to see the
garden. 1t costs quarter to walk across
the suspension bridge that spans the little
river. The day is delightful, but my mind
is constantly reverting to a powerful, beau
tifully worded description that 1 have been
reading of the klondike by a gifted author
who has never seen the country 1 shall
quote bits of his description as l go, setting
them side by side with the thing as l see
it.
ut is grim country. country of ex-
tremes."
Despite the recent rain the Klondike is
crystal clear, the trail is washed clean. In
picturesque cabin beside the path a woman
is singing her baby to sleep, and over the
willows is waited the sound of tinkling
man is handling crate of eggs-holding
them one by one between him and the sun.
They are worth $50 a dozen.
There Is little vegetable mold, and
plant life is sparse"
Here, in the Klondike vale find a minia-
ture field of oats. The well-filled heads come
up to my shoulders. The grain is in the
dough-it will be ripe in week. Since this
was written l have seen a news dispatch
which read as follows: Recent expert
ments with grain growing and market gar
dening in the Yukon valley, not far from
Dawson and the center of the klondike re-
gion. give promise of fresh vegetables for
the miners before long, produced in their
own neighborhood. Wheat, oats and barley,
all planted late in May and harvested about
the middle of August have reached Duluth
as sample of what has been done in the
kiOndike region. All of the grain is fully
matured and of good quality. OF course,
many vegetables can be grown still more
readily than such cereals"
''Gnats and mosquitoes move to and fro
in dense clouds during the summer and add
to the many discomforts and discourage
ments of the region
The burro the husky and the Siwash are
the only insects l have seen thus far in or
about Dawson. Not a gnat. Not so much
as one widowed, melancholy mosquito have
l seen here.
Delightful In Summer.
Life is a warfare
Sitting in the hillside garden, overlook
ing the beautiful Klondike with it's pictur-
esque ferry and trim boats gliding down
stream: the song of a brook near by the
murnlur Of the river below, the soft winds
freighted with the fragrance of flowers, the
scent of sweet peas and the perfume of the
pine, it seems to me that If man had money