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Show LXJXTJBY IN THE KLONDIKE. Hardship Is no longer a necessary ac-' ac-' t companiment tof owning and working a mine In the Klondike. Certain holders ; of rich claims on Bonanza and Eldorado Eldora-do creeks, on which were made the "strikes" that startled the world a few t years ago, have worked out a system 5f gathering their golden dividends which Involves little more than an en- I . Joyable summer outing. It is as easy as going to the races, only the Klon- . dlker brings back the gold. It is hardly more trouble than clipping coupons from gilt-edged bonds. - These owners of bonansa claims spend the winter In "the States," California Cali-fornia claiming most of them. In the spring they make up a party of friends or relatives, and by easy stages go to Dawson for the "clean-up." Large ocean steamers carry them to Skag-way, Skag-way, and. the White Pass and Yukon railway spans the gap to White Horse Rapids, where river steamers are waiting, wait-ing, and In two or three days they scurry scur-ry down the Yukon to Dawson. The cabins on the creeks have been - - cleaned and well stocked against the coming of the owner and his party. When he arrives the water is turned Into the huge sluices and the work of washing out the gravel mined during the winter begins. The women of the party spend hours alongside the sluices, for gathering the Yukon gold has a peculiar pe-culiar fascination. If they tire of this r.oveity there are stages to take them Into Dawson for a ball or an evening at the theater. "I had the time of my life," declared . . a young woman who went In for the "clean-up" last year, "and I'm going again next year. I was in Dawson Just four weeks, and I attended fourteen '" balls. Half the men I met were college graduates, and all wore evening clothes, even to the dinner parties. No dress in a woman's wardrobe is too fine for Dawson, but even a"fright of a woman . ., is sure of a good time, for the men are in such majority. , "The most striking celebration which occurred in the course- of my visit was the trip to the Dome, a great hill back of Dawson, on June 21. the longest day -rof,the year. The sun is in view for twenty-four hours from the Dome, while in the Yukon valley it disappears for a couple of hours. More than a thousand of us made the trip to bask in the midnight sunshine." The "clean-up" takes three or four weeks, and when it is over, the gold, in ' . small sacks, is hauled to Dawson. The owner pays the crown royalty to the authorities, settles with his employees and expresses the rest to his bank in San Francisco or Seattle. He has the -choice of the two routes home the way he came or down the Yukon to Bering ' sea, and thence to the States by a long ocean voyage. - Either way there is absolute ab-solute comfort. Such is the evolution of the gold camp that' once suffered famine and scurvy and to which relief was sent by dog teams over the frozen Enow fields. Dawson now boasts electric lights, automobiles au-tomobiles and no less than 1900 bicycles. It is gay socially in winter as in sum-mer, sum-mer, when the "clean-up" crowd appears ap-pears to make things lively. New York -. Tribune. |