Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

198 HISTORY OF THE BANKunique pioneer days. Dawson in later years, shorn of itsbreezy and unruly pioneer ways, could not, despite the greatlyincreased comfort of living conditions, make up for much thatit lacked and that the "outside" gives. As is generally known,the population decreased gradually as the heyday period ofthe camp passed away, until in recent yearsit has fallen toquite low figures. On this account, and with the advent oflarge interests in the mining field, the business and importanceof the branch have lessened as time went on.In these later years the citizens of Dawson have beenfined for "neglect to clean sidewalk," just like the citizens ofany ordinary town in the east, and it is doubtful whether any ofthe pioneers who are still living could be induced to take uppermanent residence in Dawson under such horribly prosaicconditions. When Bret Harte, in the "sixties," wrote hisgood-humouredly quizzical poem, "An Arctic Vision," anentthe purchase of Alaska for the United States by SecretarySeward, and predicted gold-mining among other possibilitiesof that frozen country, he little dreamed that his chaffing andsceptical prophecy would be so strikingly fulfilled. Perhapsstill less did the old "sourdough" pioneers of 1895-97 anticipatethe radical changes which were so soon to take place. Thiscalls to mind the remark made by one of these old-timers to amember of the bank's staff hi the autumn of 1898 the yearof the bank's arrival. The speaker was "Nigger Jim," who,although pure white, had to endure this sobriquet for the solereason of his soft southern dialect. The Yukon Field Forcehad just arrived in Dawson and, accompanied by two lightfield-pieces, paraded to their barracks in heavy marching orderwith all their military trappings, led by their officers in veryswagger regulation kit, swords, pith helmets, etc. Thisspectacle proved too much for Nigger Jim, who gazed long andearnestly at them, and then remarked, "Well I guess thisplace is getting too d d civilized for me. I'd better bemoving on again to the frontier."