Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-12-28
DAWSON AFTER TEN YEARS
PRICES IN THIS TOWN ARE sT71J
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.

I I
dld not exist either as name or as a
settlement. Since then new territory
with a new population, new towns. Il
political organization of its own. has
sprung up oa the shores of the Yukon
rivera clYlllzatlon within 300 miles of
the Arctic circle.
Dawson City in it's business part is in
deed a mixture of the New York bowery
ana the English seaport. saws Othon
Guerlac In The New York Evening Post
Inc surprise of the newcomed is to find
sucn large mercantile establishments
Win such complete stock and elegant
window displays. Several immense cloth
ing stores, Well-kept and appetizing gro
ceres, 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
Inelr suppAes-so they say. Indeed,
lawson IS no longer a provisional min
ing camp, but permanent and sub.
stantlal town. The sidewalks are of
wood and in many streets need renal.
tne streets are swept and watered every
morning. They, too, have been neglected
OF late, the roads to the creeks monopo-
i!zlng all the attention of the administers
tlon. Around this part, the general as
pect OF the town is typicaily American.
t beautiful nor artistic, but prac,
Cost of Living.
LIVING continues to be expensive. with
OUT oelng as eXtravagant as in the early
days. Small change is still unknown,
the lowest legal tender being two hits, >
or quarter. To buy a Ct gar box of
matches, the daily paper, you have to
put up quarter. A little American Girl
OF my acquaintance went into a drug
store to buy some chewing gum-chew-
ing gum is widely used by women on
the Pacific coast. When it came to pay
she had only 20 cents in her purse, which
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 high 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
70 cents for breakfast and lunch, 81 for
dinner A room is only 81, eggs are so
cents dozen. clothes are less expensive
be had at less than $50 a month. Luxl-
ries are more expensive. The patron of
the telephone pays S. a month, when
there are others on the line; from $40
to $40 for business house. A thirteen,
word telegram to New York state
amounted to 1913. A 1O-cent magazine
costs % cents and so does a San Fran
goes for So. A roll of kodak film, sold
in Juneau for 80 cents, costs 81 in Daw-
son. A bottle of beer costs 81. A pint
of champagne is So in Grand Forks.
Salaries and Wages.
Salaries and wages keep pace fairly
we'll with the prices. The unskilled Ia
borer, whether he works on the placer OF
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 i'll
the winter. "My father saves $1OO a
me on the boat. A typesetter gets syst
a month, a clerk in dry goods store
5000, a jeweler $500, a female school
teacher in a school on the creeks with
only seven pupils gets $175. The SUI
perintendent of the Dawson Yukon Ter
ritory school receives $1,000, the princi
pal and the other teachers $4,000.
Money flows freely. The inhabitants
are accustomed and resigned to the
local trades and milliners and
wine merchants. The tourists. on the
contrary, are very bad purchasers, so a
jeweler told me. But the miner who has
made a good strike, workman who gets
in week as much as he would in a
month outside" is generous with his
money. The jewelers. live on the miners
who all buy gold chains, or supply theil
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 5000 inhabitants. Many houses
are for rent many vacant. A miner on
the creeks need not build a cabin; there
arc plenty to choose from that nobody
occupies. Many Dawsonites have gone
down the river to 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 kIondlke
has not more gold. Up to June 80, s.
O67 .914.45 worth was extracted III this
gerry wear. | myself have seen gold
manned in large quantities, but the
creeks are no longer paying propositions
for the individual miners. Companies
With big plants, gigantic dredges, water
movers. and pumping stations are com
Ing in. This summer, everybody was
talking about Messrs. Guggenhelm from rom
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 OIL
they go. two or three hundred at tlme'