Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

154 HISTORY OF THE BANKfortune in sight on their claim, and who had previously gonethrough many hardships and deprivations. In that environmentthen* celebration and their taste for champagne were onlynatural, and would have no disastrous effect if they did notremain too long in the "city." The next evening was spentin attending a banquet given on the spur of the moment by awell-known miner who had just enriched himself by about$1,500 in ten minutes or so at a faro lay-out. The bill of farewas moose steak, fried eggs and champagne.Log cabins and tents were the usual dwelling places of theinhabitants, but scows and boats of various sizes were mooredeight and ten deep all along the river bank, and on board mostof them the occupants slept and cooked and ate their meals.Later on some of the large scows were cut hi half and transformedinto rude winter dwellings higher up on the riverbank, while quite a number of people passed their first winter inDawson living in a tent well banked with snow and with ahole for the chimney of the stove. When the bank's partyarrived, the streets were quagmires, owing to a recent overflowof the river, and sidewalks did not exist. Daylight continuedfor twenty-four hours, and so did the crowds that filled thestreets, or moved in and out of the saloons, dance halls andgambling houses. The town was what is known as "wideopen," yet order reigned amid this apparent chaos and thelimitations were recognized and not overstepped. No one inthe surging throngs seemed to be in any particular hurry, anddoubtless many, like the bank's party, were trying to pick uptheir bearings in such novel surroundings. Dogs lay aroundeverywhere and fought up and down the streets. Garbswere, as might be expected, rough and uncouth, and few womenwere to be seen save those of the dance halls and no littlechildren. Manners were good, even if rough the fact thatone might be giving offence to Frank Slavin, ex-heavyweightchampion of international fame, or to someone else equallyundesirable as an adversary, contributing without doubt tothis happy condition of affairs. A man minding his own