Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-12-29
PRICES IN THIS TOWN ARE STILL
HIGH, BUT THE CITY HAS
TONED DOWN.
QUARTER is LOWEST COIN,
Gold Is Still Coming In, but the Every
day Miner Is Looking Fur
Their On.

did not exist either as a name or as n |
| settlement. Since then u new territory
with new population, new towns, a
/ political organization of its own has
| sprung up on the shores of the Yukon
| rivera civilization within 300 miles of
! the Arctic circle
| Dawson City in it's business part is in.
| deed mixture OF the New York bowery
| and the English seaport says Othou
| Guerlac in The New York Evening Post.
! The surprise of the newcomed is to find
such large mercantile establishments
| with such a complete stock and elegant
window displays. Several immense cloth
ing stores, well-kept and appetizing gro
ceries, with the little fountain running
| over the vegetables, modern and clean
meat markets, three or four big book
sellers, with all the American and many
OF the English novels and magazines
photographers, kodak supplies, dressmak-
ers and milliners, who go to Paris for
| their suppGes-so they say. Indeed.
Dawson is no longer provisional min
ing camp, but a permanent and sub
stantlal town. The sidewalks are of
wood and in many streets need repair:
the streets are swept and watered every
morning. They, too, have been neglected
| or late, the roads TO the creeks monopo
hZlng all the attention of the administrn-
ton. Around this part the general as
pect of the town is typically American.
neither beautiful nor artistic, but prac-
teal.
Cost of Living.
Living continues to be expensive. with
out being as eXtravagant as in the early
days. Small change is still unknown.
the lowest legal tender being two bits"
OF quarter. To buy ii cigar, box of
matches, the daily paper, you have to
put up quarter. 4 little American girl
OF my acquaintance went into Il drug
store to buy some chewing gunl-chew-
ing gum is widely used by women on
the Pacific coast. When it came to paw
she had only 20 cents in her purse, which
she found to her dismay ''unsufficient to
meet the BILL The Dawsonites are
proud of this feature. when nickels
and dimes come in, then I'll quit" said
a miner to me. The freight charges of
the White Pass & Yukon railway are
| SO nigh that a special commission from
Ottawa was appointed last summer to
investigate them and the excuse for some
prices which are exacted by the local
tradesmen.
Food is no longer out of reach. At
the best hotels meals are reasonable
20 cents for breakfast and lunch, 81 for
dinner. A room is only 81, eggs are 30
! cents dozen. clothes are less expensive
than in the States, but no board is 10
be had at less than $50 month LuXu-
! RES are more expensive. The patron of
the telephone pays So month"; when
! there are others on the line; from so
to so for a business house. \ thirteen
word telegram to New York state
amounted to 1919. A 10-cent magazine
costs % cents and so does a San Fran
cisco Sunday paper. a dollar novel
| goes for SO. A roll of kodak film. sold
IN Juneau for 80 cents, costs 50 in Daw-
| SON., A bottle of beer costs 81. \ pint
OF champagne is So in Grand Forks.
Salaries and Wages.
Salaries and wages keep pace fairly
Wen with the prices. The unskilled la
borer, whether he works on the placer or
on the roads, gets 81 and So. and board
a carpenter gets 81 an hour, so that he
can SEND his wife ana family outside in
the winter MY father saves 500
month" so a little carpenters son told
me on the boat. A typesetter gets $3.50
a month, clerk in a dry goods store
$500, a jeweler $500, female school
teacher in a school on the creeks with
only seven pupils gets $175. The SUI
perlntendent of the Dawson Yukon Ter
ritory school receives $780, the princi-
pal and the other teachers $4,000.
Money flows freely. The inhabitants
are accustomed and resigned to the
standard of living. They support the
local trades-jeweers and milliners and
wine merchants. The tourists. on the
contrary, are very bad purchasers. so n
| Jeweler told me. But the miner who has
made good strike, a workman who gets
III week as much as lie would in n
month outside" is generous with his
money. The jewelers. live Oil the miners.
! who all buy gold chains, or supply their
| friends with jewelry. Hundreds of
| stories are told of the acts of extrava-
gance of ignorant workmen intoxicated
with their suddenly acquired wealth.
The story of many big fortune made is
the story of a fortune lost in gambling.
drinking and the rest
Dawson and the KlOndike are passing
! through a crisis. Dawson, where streets
| in the early days were thronged with
crowds IS now relatively quiet place
under 1000 inhabitants. Many houses
are for rent, many vacant. A miner ON
the creeks need not build a cabin: there
| are plenty TO choose from that nobody
occupies. Many Dawsonites have gone
down the river Is Try their luck at Fair
| banks, the big American town founded
on the Tanana three years ago. A Daw-
son business man who has Just returned
tells me that the streets there are thick
with Dawson people, both merchants
and miners
Small Fellows Quitting.
The trouble is not that the Klondike
has not more gold. Up to June 80, 81.
CO.. ,9l4.4J worth was extracted III this
7ery year. | myself have seen gold
p'tileu III '''t ~ QUANTITIES Out the
creeks are no longer paying propositions
tor the individual miners. Companies
with big plants, gigantic dredges. water
powers, and pumping stations are com
ing in. This summer everybody was
talking about Messrs. Guggenheim from
New York. who are spending on works
OF different kinds from three to seven
millions, according to the reports So
the gold hunters are going elsewhere
Every week some stampede is started on
some creek up or down the river. and of
they 90, two or three hundred a n time