Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-07-13
GAMBLING LOSES IN
ITS LAST GREAT
STRONGHOLD
ALASKA a4jr 1G THE YUKON
NOW MODELS OF VIRTUE
American and Canadian Gov
ernmentS Unite to Put an End
to the Frontier Dives Where
Millions Were. Won and Lost.

u the udnce ndIl ana the gambling
house a part of life in Alaska and
Yukon! Official edicts issued from
Ottawa and Washington have abol-
ished what were once the principal
wealth in the %northland. !
An era that began in the days Of
40, that has filled the pages Of lit
erature with its doings. the life that
Brete Hart immortalized in the out
casts of Poker Flat" and other tales,
came TO an end unwept, unhonored
and unsung a few days ago.
1t was pure coincidence that both
he American and Canadian govern
mcnts should almost on the same day
issue orders that dance halls, gamb-
ling, drinking in boxes, and various
other evils, but hitherto considered
necessary, elements of frontier life
must forthwith be abolished. From
the ISSUANCE Of that order, the ideal
of the laW-enforcers on both sides Of
the one hundred and forty-first
meridian has been to make the north
as safe, as sane, as quiet and as moral
as Ottawa or Washington.
No longer nay Kipling sing, Never
a law of God or man runs north of
fifty-thrce." For at the present
time not only frontier law, but the
law of the quiet east is enforced as
far as the Arctic circle, and in some
places far north of the circle.
The passing Of the dance halls and
gambling houses i'm Alaska and Yu-
kon marks another step in the polish
ing off of the northland. The people
of the north in late years have been
quietly advancing along all lines, and
the prevailing ignorance as regards
the countries will received shock of
enlightenment in the near future. The
Aeska = Yukon - Pacific exposition
which will be held at Seattle in 1909
to exploit the northland will show
Alaska and Yukon to the world in
their true light.
Although 1t will be the aim of the
exposition to give the people an idea
of what the two territories have to
offer in the way of homesteads, agri-
cultural, commercial and Industrial
opportunities, early life in the north
land will not be neglected and one Of
the most interesting displays viii be
the reproduction of frontier life as IT
used TO be. Since the dance hall and
gambling house have become things of
the past. it has been planned to give
the public an idea Of just what from
tier life was like. on the Pay streak,
the amusement thoroughfare of the
exposition, cnterprising hortherncrs
will build rcplicas Of some oftthe IA
nous old dance and gambling halls
over whose counters millions in gold
dust have passed. and between whose
log rafters five score mighty fortunes
have been FILTERED away. It is eX-
pected that some Of the famous gam
blers of the early days, many of whom
have since settled down apd become
citizens of weight and Responsibility,
will be present.
The DAYS Of the picturesque gam
bier who staked fortunes on a single
card, of tho dance hall girls whom the
miners nightly pelted with nuggets of
gold as they sang their turns, did not
end with the ctvili2ing Of California
For, when Klondike was discovered.
and half "a million people started on a
wild rush northWard. foremost in the
weary climbers of the Chilkoot, first
To build at Log Cabin city, leaders
in the crossing of Linderman, and not
the last to brave the terrors of White
horse rapids. were these gamblers and
these women who went north to prey
ON the gold winners.
I'm those DAYS when thousands were
flung about as lightly as two-btt
piece today nothing was too insig-
nificant to escape betting upon. no
AAA was wv EAhaN w. A-hH
lost six hundred thousand dollars In
"a coupIe of months. others were con-
tent 10 win or lose ten thousand dOl-
liars nightly. Professional men in
Dawson expected to win or lose from
three to five thousand dollars nightly
az the card tables. seldom was less
than a hundred dollars staked.
Much of this money went to the
dance hall women II is the FASH
a.. a. -. tNLa. frrapt4R and ia nE-
sumo that they are all bad beyond re-
dcmption. But that is far from the
truth. ,vanv of the women m the
dance halls who danced nightly with
the miners aed who shared their
drinks. ul.. as innocent Of wrong
doing as the most carefully protected
convent girl Of Paris or New YORK
Indeed. in the early days before the
mothers. wives and sisters pf the min
ers arrived in the country. many OF
these women married well. Many who
today arc taking their ulace as lead
o-s 81 socictv 80 hundreds Of towns
throughout the United States-Women
known as the wife Of the rich miner,
Mr.. BIank-first met their husbands
ON The floor of q Dawson dance nan
and charged them five dollars for the
privilege of dancing half "a dozen
rounds TO the schocch Of the cheap
V"NunnErhpn- III
"A new country gets the best 81
them" said London in Dawson. Look
there al lucille. with the faco"oi an
angel and the tongue Of a gutter
devil at Mollie who looks like one of
Gainsborough's old English beauties
Siepped from her frame Ia revel out
the century IN "a Dawson dance hall
ana Eva. what a mother that girl
would make
This is the life that the recent law
has forbidden. Gambling. That Is
omen gambling. has loug since hcen
,fopped on the Canadian side, but u
has continued in secret ON me
American side Sc has bcou open ifl
this recent order. But FOR the past
four wears both these have lost the
interest and the sensational feature 81
the early davs
Many men today bent and broken
in fortune look back to those ear-S
DAYS with "a bitter feeling with the
wonder So common 60 al humanity.
How could have been such "a fool
Fbr there were hundreds 81 men who
had worked hard 900 their lives Who
went north with the rush and in
Few days picked up @ fortune ~
wiliar AND in @ few months
later were without q dollar The
- of aaH tnlaT. rlHt-fiEfr in