Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE YUKON ADVENTURE 169secure anything they had for sale. In most cases the scowmen were so surprised at the prices offered that they soldreadily and without haggling. The few apples obtainable inDawson retailed at a dollar each. If a scow had aboard a fewquart bottles of whiskey or gin, the owners would invariablylet them go when offered twenty dollars a quart, and nonegrumbled save those who had arrived too late to obtain any.The new-comer was staggered at first in an environment wheremoney seemed to be relatively the cheapest commodity.In the earliest days the cost of protesting a bill or cheque wasten dollars, and all legal and medical fees were on a correspondingscale. There were numerous American practitionersboth in law and medicine, all more or less qualified accordingto accepted standards on one or the other side of the internationalboundary; but when steps were subsequently takento regulate the practice of these professions, few of themsubmitted themselves for examination.All payments were made in gold dust until the adventof the banks took place. From that time on the use of golddust lessened year by year until the community at lastreached a currency basis. All the coin and currency in thecountry were at first almost entirely in the hands of the gamblinghalls. Everyone carried a "poke," and no shop, howeverhumble, was complete without scales. A miner would orderdrinks at a box in a dance hall, and toss his poke to the waiter;it may be taken for granted that the official weigher of thehouse did not run any chances of cheating himself, in additionto which, unless the appearanceof the waiters did them rareinjustice, these gentry kept a pinch of dust for themselves,both in going to and coming from the scales in the bar. Whenit is considered that the spenders of the dust were intelligentmen and quite alive to what was going on, it is surprising howlong these conditions prevailed. It was generally concededthat a sack of, say, $100 in gold dust would be empty afterpurchases had been made to the extent of about seventydollars. Of course, the majorityof the men who thus found