allowed-a-percentage-of-the-take and no liquor was allowed in dance halls. Prostitutes had to have regular medical exams and post a bill of health. Theft was punished quickly and severely. If a man could receive a month's hard labour merely for being drunk, a sentence for theft might be up to five years.
And Sunday closing in Dawson was rigidly enforced. All saloons, dance halls, and theatres closed at one minute to midnight on Saturday, remaining closed until 2 a.m. Monday. No work of any kind was allowed. One man was arrested for fishing on a Sunday, another for sawing his own wood. Two men were each fined $2 plus $3 in costs for examining their fishing nets. Dawson might have been a frontier town, but Sam Steele and the NWMP made sure that it was a respectable frontier.
