DAWSON
Being in the vanguard of the multitude, whose rush to the diggings in
the following year was the outstanding feature of the history of the
Klondike, the Dawson that John Berwick and his companions found was that
of the winter of '97, very different from the city of five thousand
tents it was to become two months after their arrival!
An hour before midnight, when they arrived, Hugh had pointed out a high
hill, Dawson's Dome, placed beyond the mouth of the Klondike River, or,
as it was called before usage corrupted its name, the Thron Duik. Little
did he or his companions dream of the part this Dome was to play in the
events yet to be! The Dome was to become historic.
The main portion of Dawson was built on the north side of the Klondike.
It was a scene of much movement and business. Pack-trains were passing
up and down the streets, and innumerable dogs seemed everywhere.
Few boats had yet arrived, and a group of loafers gathered to watch them
land. One fellow shouted, "I'll give you a dollar apiece for any late
papers you have!"
Now that they were at the Klondike capital, the natural impulse of the
party was to enjoy whatever amusements were available; so, in spite of
their being tired, and the hour late, they drew the boat upon the gravel
shore. Passing between tents, they came to the mire of the main
thoroughfare. The atmosphere and circumstance of the goldfields were all
about them. There were pack-horses and pack-mules waiting before the
shops. Men were hurrying in and out with pack-straps on their backs.
Even the dogs wore saddle-bags--a good dog being able to pack forty
pounds of supplies. Other dogs passed drawing a cart, on which were
half-a-dozen cans, oil-tins filled with water, dispensed at twenty-five
cents the tin.
The festive side of life was more marked than the commercial. Men in
wild attire, women in gorgeous raiment, were ever passing in and out of
the saloons and gambling-halls. The four adventurers floundered across
the mud and entered the hospitable doors of the Borealis. This was a
saloon and dance-hall combined; but a roulette-wheel and faro lay-out
invited to play. It was the interval between the dances when they
entered, and a loud voice was calling: "Come along, gentlemen, pretty
ladies here!--just in over the ice. The next dance will be a waltz."
Frank Corte--ever the squire of dames--made a dive for the rear of the
hall, and was soon leading one of the gorgeous creatures into the dizzy
whirl. The partners from the last dance were crowding the bar, ordering
drinks. As each man paid his two dollars his "lady" was handed a check.
This check was redeemable for one dollar--the girls' source of revenue!
The orchestra was good, but the male section of the dancers was
certainly grotesque; many of the men, with sombreros on their head and
cigars between their teeth, were floundering through the dance in a
half-intoxicated condition, their great hob-nailed boots almost drowning
the music with their noise.
The three others soon left Frank to his diversions, and passed out to
the street. They saw a policeman, with whom, in the way of such a
free-and-easy community, they fell into talk.
"What's the chance of getting a claim?" they asked.
"Don't know. They are having stampedes right along, and any time you may
hear of good pay being located on a creek. When news like this gets out
there is a big rush by all classes, and you're lucky if you get
anywhere near discovery. If you want work, they are paying ten dollars
per day and board on the creeks for shovelling in--so I guess you need
not starve!"
Hugh, with his mind on the immediate necessities of the party, asked,
"Where is a good place to locate?"
"Up on the bench on the north side of the Klondike over there." The
policeman pointed south-east. "You can get wood handy, and the water is
good."
"What's the matter with pitching our tent where we landed?"
"Among the outfit along the water-front? No, they are the sore heads and
general kickers. You don't want to tie to them. Most of them have lived
in these tents all winter, and had nothing to do but dream of what some
other fellow has done them out of, and how much better things would be
if they had struck it rich instead of McDonald or Carmack! No, you
fellows pole up-stream to-morrow to the Klondike, and then up that
stream half a mile. Pack your grub to the top of the hill there, where
you can live like white men."
"That sounds reasonable, but we want to sleep now."
"Well, go to Flanagan's bunk-house up the street," and the man pointed
up a turning running at right angles to the main street. "He will give
you beds at a dollar each."
"Our boat and things will be all right? Good-night--and thanks."
When the three visited the boat next morning they found a man standing
on the bank, his legs--encased in rubber boots coming up to his
hips--far apart, hands in the pockets of his overalls, a sombrero on the
back of his head. Hugh noticed the smile of good-natured cynicism on his
face as he regarded the boat, and said,
"Queer, ain't it? And they say there are thousands more coming."
"Yes, fifty thousand more coming in--and me waiting for a chance to get
out!"
"I wonder what makes them do it?"
"Same thing as made me do it."
"Didn't you git a chance to stake anything?"
"Stake anything!--how long have you been in the country? Say! is that
your boat?"
"Yes."
"Well, take my tip and just get in it, and keep right on going till you
strike St. Michael's."
"For what reason would we do that?"
"Don't you know they have a Government in this country? Well, that's the
reason: officials and graft! Stake a claim, and they rob you of it! No,
sir, no more British mining-camps for me. I'm for the good old State of
Washington. If this camp was in Alaska a fellow could hold down what
was his with a shot-gun; but here you daren't make a break. Law and
order!--hell! Grafters appointed by the law, and the law to see no
fellow interfere with the grafters! We'd shoot the whole bunch if we had
them on the other side."
"We intend to stake claims, and we intend to hold them."
"You do, eh?--well, I bet you won't. You fellows should have brought
your nurse-girls with you to teach you the A B C."
The party was then joined by Frank, the habitual smile on his face; but
his eyes were heavy.
"Cost me fifty dollars!" he said.
"You got off easy--better get in and cook breakfast to wake you up. We
haven't eaten yet, and meals up town cost two dollars and a half!"
"Say! if you fellows want to you can use my tent and things, but I have
no grub to give away."
This invitation from the new-found pessimist was accepted, and Frank
went to work cooking while their host let loose his opinions upon life.
He told them how the manager of a great trading company had the autumn
before addressed the crowd, prophesying famine through the winter and
exhorting all to leave the place by the only avenue of escape--the
river, then filling with ice. It was a dismal picture enough, but
happily worse than the reality. He spoke well of the police, and praised
the way they had rushed the mail in and out with dog-teams. "And it
ain't their fault there is so much grafting; they don't graft
themselves."
He told of the fabulous wealth of Eldorado, Bonanza, and Hunker Creeks,
and of Alec McDonald, the "Big Moose," estimated to be worth
$26,000,000. He expatiated at length upon the irregularities of the Gold
Commissioner's office; the iniquitous Orders-in-Council from Ottawa,
such as the imposition of ten per cent. royalty on the production of the
creeks, and the reserving to the Crown of every alternate claim on
Dominion Creek, of all other creeks on which new discoveries might have
been made, and of the hillside claims.
Frank, with his Yankee predilections, was ready to believe anything bad
of Canada, and chuckled at the account. John and George, though they had
had experience of official corruption in Australia, thought the accounts
fantastic, and could not believe such things possible in British
dominions. "The Gold Commissioner is not in the graft; he's honest--but
he's like a baby, and the gang play with him as they like."
Breakfast over, the party set out, and in an hour had poled and tracked
the boat half a mile up the Klondike. They passed under a crude
suspension bridge and saw two ferries and innumerable boats plying
across the river.
Hugh noticed a break or "draw" in the cliff, marked by a trail that led
to the bench on which the party was to locate, and stopped the boat.
"Get out the axes, fellows; and, Frank, you pack the tent up the hill.
It will make you think of what you have done with your last winter's
wages. John, you're the honoured guest--you're going to boss the job."
Berwick, without any load, found the climb to the top of the hill
sufficiently exhausting, as he was not yet fully recovered. After Frank
had thrown down the tent Hugh unlashed it, and spread it in the sun,
folded one end to make a pillow, and told John to lie upon it. And then
he addressed his partners,
"Look here, fellows--one thing is certain. Whatever we do as regards
prospecting and taking up claims, we want a home-camp as a sort of
headquarters; and we might as well make it here and now. We need not
bother building a cabin, but we can put up a wall of logs the size of
the tent and put the tent on top. This will do till the fall, by which
time we will all be millionaires--except Frank here, unless he quits
dancing! Now we'll pack up the rest of the outfit. Come on, boys!"
By four o'clock their new habitation was completed: two beds were built
and the little stove erected inside the tent. Frank had an early supper
and went to bed. The others built a camp-fire outside to keep away the
flies, and discussed mining far into the night.