The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-03-05
PROGRESS OF DAWSON CITY.
1t Is Becoming Less of Mining Camp and
More Of a Civilized Town.

IL 40 DCSO1uiuS AcSS VI d ululUS Sdmp duu
More Of a Civilized Town.
According to the latest official Informal
ton Dawson City is being transformed
into a town with a good deal of general
business beside gold mining and is acquir-
ing settled and civilized aspect
There are now five miles of macadam-
lied streets in the city. The settled popu-
lation is about 1900, nearly half of the
total population of the Klondike mining
district. Two hundred of the Canadian
Mounted Police maintain order.
The Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyte-
rians, Niethodists and Salvation Army all
have well-built places of worship. Five
small hospitals are maintained for the sick.
Three daily newspapers are published, So
lawyers practice i'll the courts, three thea
tiers afford amusement, and there are four
mutual benefit societies.
Three companies with % steamers give
facilities for freight and passengers ON the
upper Yukon, and eight other steamboat
companies with Al steamers handle the
traffic of the river between Dawson and
the sea.
There has been large drop in the
prices OF many commodities as the facIll-
ties for transportation between Dawson
and the ocean have improved. Coffee is
now sold at 80 cents pound, canned
meats at 80 cents can. fresh beef (he
cattle being driven into tine country at the
very low price of % cents a pound. pork
and fish at 80 cents a pound, butter 30
cents Il pound, eggs at 80 cents a dozen,
potatoes at $3.50 bushel, and oranges at
80 cents dozen. On the whole, however,
living judged by our standards. is still
very dear. Many cigars sell as high as
dollar apiece.
The wages of miners is IS day, and
even at this rate their savings are not very
large. 1t WAS estimated that in 1901 the
average purchasing power of 81 in eastern
Canada was equal to that of Sc at Daw-
son. The ratio in 1902 was estimated at
81 TO $3.50. showing that the high Issices
at Dawson are gradually decreasing.
The smallest piece of money that has
currency in the Klondike is 70 cents. The
daily papers are smaller than the 0ne-cent
papers of eastern Canada, but they sell
for u cents number, 81 by the month
and $40 by the year. payable i'll advance.
A well-known person in Dawson, who re-
Gently said that the period of fancy prices
had now passed away forever was COM
PEELED to admit that he had just paid
quarter of dollar for a pair of ordinary
shOestrings.
Rents are still very high. An office
which in eastern Canada would be rented
for S3G Il month costs $50 on the KlOn-
dixie. A table waitress receives 500
month and maid of all work earns from
$40 to S125 Il month.
Hotel charges are high, but not eNor-
bitant for this Out-Of-the-way part OF the
world. A small room costs 500 a day.
breakfast and lunch are served at 10 cents
each. dinner at 81. and the meals are bet
ter than might be expected so far away i'll
the wilderness.
1t is probable that for many years the
Klondike region will be very important
in the gold industry, though it may never
again equal its past annual record. The
placers of the Klondike yielded according
to official figures in 1897 S2.2oO.O00 with
no machinery and no roads. so that trans
portation was very difficult. The output
in 1898 was $10,O0O,00O and in 1899 Sl6,-
100000.
In 1900, thanks to the employment of
machinery and to the facilities given by
many well built roads, the placers turned
out So, 275.GO0. All the other gold centers
of Canada i'll that year yielded only S.
0OO. O00
The gold product of the Klondike in
1901 amounted TO S24,0OO,O00. which was |
81 100000 more than the output from all |
our goa Hines Ill EAfiShst tuc SailiC
year. 1t is not expected that the klOn- |
dixie production in 1902 will equal that of |
1901, for no new discovery of gold was |
made during the year.
1t was due entirely to the wonderful de-
velopment of gold mining in the ElOndike |
that Canada attained in 1901 the third |
place among the gold producing countries.
1t was surpassed only by the United |
States with S7S,65S. 100 and Australia
with 5,2S3.20O, and took its place in adj
vance of Russia, which mined 500, O00, 800.
The KlOndike in the first three years
after its discovery yielded one hundred
times more gold than tile Witwatersrand
in the first three years after gold was
found in that remarkable region. and moth
ing is more certain than that we have
not yet begun to fathom the wonderful
mineral wealth of Alaska and the other
northern parts Of North America.