miles above Dawson, on Klondike River. Lately sixteen of the Guides passed the Tenderfoot Test, and are now wearing trefoil pins.
They are being drilled too. Major Knight, the Commandant of the Royal North-West Mounted Police in Dawson is drilling the Girl Guides, the Boy Scouts, and two hundred Dawson Men who are ineligible for active service overseas, yet feel they want to be ready in case Canada calls for men for home defence.40
If there was an event honouring the new volunteers, the children were there to help with the celebrations. As Christmas approached, the Daughters of the Eastern Star put on a fundraising event to a full house at the DAAA (one hundred people had to be turned away). One of the features of the evening was a series of tableaux involving young schoolboys. For years to come, both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides played a significant role in any event that was sponsored in the communities of Dawson City and Whitehorse.41
Just before Christmas 1914, Mrs. Black stated in an article in the Dawson Daily News, “Dawson, the most northerly capital of the British Empire, realizes that, though far from the motherland, she, too, must do her duty, nor will the Yukon be found lacking for her people are united in their determination that their portion shall be One Flag, One Throne, One Empire, and that the British.”42 It was quite a pronouncement for an American who first came to the Yukon during the gold rush!
Mrs. Black concluded: “Yukon is proud of the fact that sixty-five of her stalwart sons have given themselves for the defense of the Empire, fifty of whom are yet in training with the second Canadian contingent at Hastings Park, Vancouver.”43
Fundraising activities continued at a hectic pace in 1915. The women of the Yukon found countless opportunities to open purses and wallets. One of the most powerful tools at their disposal was the publication of donors’ lists in the newspaper, which were aimed at shaming those unwilling to contribute to the war effort. Social pressure was a powerful tool to loosen purse strings. The civil servants of the territory were subject to special scrutiny, as they were in salaried positions of privilege. Later in the year, the Whitehorse chapter of the IODE received one hundred copies of the pamphlet Why Don’t You Wear a Uniform? for local distribution.
The theatres of Dawson became common venues for patriotic events. Included in the nightly film screenings were newsreels with war content carefully edited to produce patriotic stirrings while concealing the tragic horror of the battlefields. The DAAA announced that viewers would be treated to scenes like the Russian bombardment of Turkish coastal towns, and “marvellous realism depicting scenes of the battlefields” were advertised, promising that the weekly Pathé newsreels were “brought directly from the front and are well worth seeing.”
In Whitehorse in February, five reels were shown as part of a program sponsored by the IODE, supplementing an evening that featured singing by both children and adults. Several compositions had been specially prepared for the event (people were regularly penning patriotic songs, whose lyrics were often published in the newspapers).44 The films included a two-reel Italian love story, the weekly Pathé newsreel, a reel with four comedies and the film titled High Tide. The program was followed by dancing, and the management charged admission for all the men who tried to slip into the dance after the films were shown.45
In April 1915, Martha Black received a package containing battlefield souvenirs from Walter Greenaway, a former Mountie who served in the Dawson detachment, now stationed overseas with the Coldstream Guards. The noses from a couple of German artillery shells and a spiked German helmet, which contained inside it the name of the soldier and the unit he belonged to, were placed on display in the front window of Charles Jeanneret’s jewelry store.46 Mrs. Black could be counted on to give a wholehearted contribution to any event she attended. In July, she gave a speech at the annual session of the Anglican Church women’s auxiliary. “There are but few of us in this most northerly bit of British territory possessing large means,” she said, “ but what we can afford we can give cheerfully and regularly.”47 One of these ladies, Marie Joussaye Fotheringham, published a book of poetry titled Anglo-Saxon Songs, and the proceeds were donated to various causes, including the local war veterans association.48
In the past year, Mrs. Black noted, they had raised more than $20,000 for various causes. And the fundraising would continue apace in Dawson City. A couple of days later, at the Discovery Day event at Minto Park beside the administration building, the IODE sold refreshments for the patriotic cause. Money from a fundraiser at the Auditorium Theatre on Labour Day was contributed to the machine gun fund. The ladies achieved their goal, and the money was sent off; Sam Hughes, the minister of militia and defence sent a letter of thanks to Commissioner Black, acknowledging their contribution.49 Another event sponsored by the IODE in late November at the DAAA included Pathé newsreels and other films. Everybody joined in with songs or recitals; Charlie MacPherson sang “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” and Mrs. Frank (Laura) Berton sang Kipling’s immortal “Recessional.” This event raised another $250.50
America may not yet have entered the war, but in Dawson City, the American Women’s Club threw themselves wholeheartedly into fundraising. The club held a Fourth of July picnic in 1916, and the White Pass Company provided them with the steamer Casca and a barge for the purpose. Lunch was served on the Casca, and ice cream on the barge. Lemonade and cigars were sold to the revellers. They also organized a patriotic fundraising ball at the Arctic Brotherhood Hall. The event was a grand affair attended by the acting commissioner George Williams and his wife, as well as Judge Macaulay. Their Fourth of July picnic alone brought in $1,100, and other events raising thousands more dollars followed over the course of the war.51
The most high-profile IODE event of 1916, Alexandra Rose Day, was sponsored by the George M. Dawson chapter at Government House on July 20. Charming matrons circulated on the grounds selling roses handmade by children with disabilities in England. No one could say no to them. People played bridge in the drawing rooms and circulated throughout the main floor rooms, smoking and talking. The rooms were filled with a profusion of cut flowers taken from the government greenhouse. Ice cream, cake, sandwiches and coffee were served on the lawn, while people played various games, the most popular being “Swat the Kaiser.” Likenesses of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the crown prince were placed on hinged boards in front of a canvas backstop, and three tennis balls could be thrown at them for twenty-five cents. Winners received a fancy cigar or other gift. Meanwhile, an orchestra played on the verandah, where there was also enough room for dancing the waltzes and one-steps.52
One of the most creative money-raising schemes for the patriotic fund came from the Duchess of Connaught. Mrs. Black got her to knit six pairs of socks on her knitting machine. When she received them, Mrs. Black raffled three pairs for $25 and sold the other three pairs for the same amount. The winner of the raffle returned the socks, and the IODE raffled them a second time, making $100 more.53
By the end of 1915, the total amount paid out to various funds and societies in the Yukon for war purposes was more than $53,000.54 By March 1916, that amount had risen to $62,000. An article in the Dawson Daily News estimated that Yukoners had donated often and generously at a rate of $12 per capita, compared with $1 per person in the rest of the country. “It is doubtful,” the article concluded, “if anywhere in the world a larger per capita contribution is given any war fund.”55 This was a recurring theme in newspaper articles and speeches until the end of the war.
Fifty Brave Men
The Yukon’s exceptional support for the war was not limited to fundraising. Yukon men volunteered to serve in numbers that dwarfed the rates of enlistment in other parts of Canada. Nearly one thousand men, from a population of four to five thousand, enlisted before the end of the war. Most notable among the first to step forward was a group of men who joined a machine gun unit sponsored by local mining millionaire Joe Boyle.
If
