All sorts of characters came to the Klondike in the early days. With such types as the Lucky Swede, Swift-Water Bill, and Frank Slavin, the prize fighter, came business and professional men from all parts of the United States. Joaquin Miller came to mine gold and write poetry and newspaper articles. Rex Beach was here, and so was Jack London. Jack London was at one time a partner of Swift-Water Bill, and it is said that the two owned a claim that eventually produced more than one million dollars in gold. Jack London began the work on the property. He made a fire and thawed the muck on the top of the gravel. He left his tools in the soft mud over night. Before morning the thermometer dropped to sixty degrees below zero, and when he again started to work he found he would have to thaw out his tools, but that if he did so their handles would be burned. He left in disgust, and Swift-Water Bill got all the gold. Jack London’s wealth came from the literary material he carried away as the result of his experiences. The same may be said of Rex Beach, who has written so many good stories of Alaskan life, and of Robert Service, whose shabby cabin still stands near the Dome. [Illustration: To-day most of the Klondike gold is recovered by machinery in large-scale workings, but now and then one sees a miner washing the gravel by hand in a contrivance like this.] [Illustration: Some of the miners, instead of moving on to new scenes of action when the gold began to give out, have stayed on with their families, working a few acres of land and occasionally panning out a little gold.] [Illustration: Much of the Yukon is unexplored, and bridges and ferries are few, so the hunter and the prospector must ford the rushing streams and make their own trails through the country.] Indeed, many books might be made about the ups and downs of the Klondike in the height of the gold fever. Men came here beggars and went away millionaires, and millionaires lost fortunes and became tramps. Gold was shipped out by the ton, and in the city of Dawson it was spent by the pound. At the start, the town was what in slang phrase is known as “wide open.” The scores of gambling houses, saloons, and dance halls all made money. In one dance hall twelve women were employed at $50 a week, besides the twenty-five per cent. commission they received on the drinks and cigars sold through their blandishments. One girl stated that her bar commission for the first week amounted to $750. Another saloon had six beauties to dance at $150 a week, and in many of the halls the women were paid a dollar for a dance of five minutes. I have before me a copy of a bill of fare of one of the old restaurants. A bowl of soup cost $1 and a bowl of mush and milk $1.25. A dish of canned tomatoes cost $2, a slice of pie 75 cents, and a sandwich with coffee, $1.25. Beans, coffee, and bread were $2, a plain steak was $3.50, and a porterhouse was $5.