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Show s sssssa ' MINERS IN THE KLONDIKE. Qulst, Provident and Anxious to Get Away as 8oon as Possible. Lack of water Is the great drawback to mining In the Yukon, says Leslie's Weekly. There Is little rrtln during the summer and the miner must dc pend upon the melting snows to swell tho streams for his summer sluicing. Villages have sprung up near tho creeks and living Is a shado higher than In Dawson owing to tho extra freight. Bending souvenir post cards from these points becomes an expensive expen-sive remembrance, as the plain uncol-ored uncol-ored ones sell for $1.50 a dosen. Tho picturesque swagger miner of Cripple Creek, Creede nnd Tonopah Is not found horo. The cost of getting "In" Is heavy, money Is not always easily mado, and the winters aro bitter cold B depressing on account of the long Bjajs. So the mlper saves his Hkuntll he reaches a more con-Hlme, con-Hlme, To be sure, there aro HVhe creeks who drink whiskey and the hardest kind of whiskey and gambling goes on: yei, on the whole, tho Klondlko minor Is a quiet, provident Individual, who devoutly hopes that the gold fields are not to bo his permanent home. A man who works for a company or Individual mine owner receives from four dollars to six dollars a day and his board. Many of them do their own cooking and live tn cabins near the creeks. Flap-jacks (pan cakes), bacon and corTce are their chief diet during the winter, and In midsummer It requires a dexterous hand to turn tho flap-Jacks before the mosquitoes can settle on the unbaked side. Tho old-timer who has seen the Ice come 'and go Is known as a "sour dough," and these mon are the aristocrats of tho camp. The newcomer, or the man who sponds his winters outside, Is always al-ways known as a "cheechako." If people In the states knew how letters let-ters from home are appreciated by the cabin dwellers of the Yukon they would send somo message overy day. I havo seen miners sit In front of their cabins and read and reread old tattered tat-tered lottors. At some particular passage pas-sage their races would light up with a smile and the entire letter would bo gone over again. |