It ain't
a prospector's proposition any more. Instead of faro banks we've got
savings banks. The wide-open dance hall has quit business in favor
of moving pictures. And, as I said before, we've got Society."
"All frontier countries have to come to it."
"Hmp! In the days I'm telling you about that crowd there couldn't 'a'
hustled meat to fill their bellies three meals. Parasites, that's what
they are. They're living off that bunch of roughnecks down there and
folks like 'em."
With a wave of his hand Strong pointed to a group of miners who had
boarded the boat with them at Pierre's Portage. There were about a dozen
of the men, for the most part husky, heavy-set foreigners. They had been
drinking, and were in a sullen humor. Elliot gathered from their talk
that they had lost their jobs because they had tried to organize an
incipient strike in the Frozen Gulch district.
"Roughnecks and booze-fighters--that's all they are. But they earn their
way. Not that I blame Macdonald for firing them, mind you," continued
the miner.
"Were they working for Macdonald?"
"Yep. His superintendent up there was too soft. These here Swedes got
gay. Mac hit the trail for Frozen Gulch.
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