KNEIPP 



3267 



KNIFE 



The news of his success could not long be 

 kept secret. The result was a rush of men from 

 all parts of the world. The rigors of the cli- 

 mate had no terrors for the gold seekers, who 

 represented every class of society. Clerks from 

 cities, boys from the farm, bankers, lawyers, 

 doctors and even experienced miners caught 

 the gold "fever" and rushed to the neighbor- 

 hood. Many died from privation and suffering 

 before the land of gold was reached, but such 

 experiences did not stop the rush. Juneau and 

 Skagway leaped into prominence as depots and 

 forwarding places for the mines in the interior. 

 Dawson City, the chief town of the territory, 

 had over 500 houses within less than six months 

 from the day the first hut was built; a % y ear 

 later it was a prosperous city with banks, 

 schools and churches, the center of the richest 

 mining district in the world. 



Within two months of the discovery, gold to 

 the value of $5,000,000 had been taken out of 

 the district. One miner returned to San Fran- 

 cisco, after a few weeks' absence, with $150,000. 

 In five years gold to the value of over $30,000,- 

 000 was taken out of the Klondike mines. 

 Since 1902 the quantity of gold found has 

 somewhat diminished. 



For seven months in the year the Klondike 

 is an Arctic region. The ground is frozen to a 

 depth of from three to ten feet, and the only 

 way it can be worked is by thawing it with 

 huge fires and then breaking it up with pick- 

 axes. The broken earth is kept till spring, 

 when the ice goes out of the streams. It is 

 then washed in running water, which carries 

 away the dirt and leaves the gold at the bot- 

 tom of the pan in which it is washed. The 

 Klondike region possesses little or no agricul- 

 tural value, and its prosperity depends entirely 

 on its gold supply. The summers are hot and 

 humid, but are not long enough to produce 

 crops. The Yukon district of Canada is gov- 

 erned by a commissioner, with headquarters at 

 Ottawa, but is administered by the Royal 

 Northwest Mounted Police. F.ST.A. 



Consult Lynch's Three Years in the Klondike; 

 McLain's Alaska and the Klondike. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Alaska, subhead Juneau 



Mineral Wealth Royal Northwest 



Canada, subtitle Mounted Police 



Mining Yukon 



Dawson Yukon River 



Gold 



KNEIPP, nipe, SEBASTIAN (1821-1897), a vil- 

 lage priest of Bavaria, famous throughout 



Europe as the "water doctor," because of the 

 water-cure treatment which he administered, 

 and whose book, Meine Wasserkur (My 

 Water-Cure), has reached upwards of twenty 

 editions. When he was in school in 1847 he 

 came upon a small book treating of cold-water 

 cures. One of his fellow-students became ill, 

 and in the dead of night the two young men 

 climbed out of the window of the seminary 

 and at the pump in the yard Kneipp adminis- 

 tered douches to his first patient, with happy 

 results. He lived and practiced his treatment 

 in the little town of Worishofen in Southern 

 Bavaria, near the River Wettbach, who-. 

 waters he employed in his practice. One of 

 his requirements was that patients should walk- 

 barefooted in the dewy grass in summer and 

 in the snow in winter. If the grass was not 

 wet enough a garden hose was played upon it. 

 Kneipp sanitariums have been established in 

 many cities of the world. 



KNIFE, nije, a cutting tool consisting of a 

 blade and handle. Knives, together with razors 

 and scissors, are classed by makers and traders 

 as cutlery. They are grouped into two general 

 divisions of pocket knives, which are provided 

 with a spring and the blades of which fold 

 into the handle; and table knives, including 

 carving knives, bread knives, cooks' knives, etc. 



How Knives Are Made. The best grades of 

 pocket knives are forged by hand. The blades 

 are made from strips of steel of suitable width 

 and thickness. A blade maker cuts one of 

 these strips into convenient lengths, heats a 

 portion at the end to a cherry-red, roughly 

 shapes the blade with a hammer, and cuts off 

 from the length of steel enough for the blade 

 and the part which joins it to the handle. This 

 joining section is called the tang, and the shap- 

 ing of the part is known as tanging. The 

 rough shaping of the blade at first heat is 

 known as mooding. After these two processes 

 are completed the metal is reheated, the blade 

 is worked again with a hammer, and the nail 

 mark is cut. The latter is a groove along the 

 edge of the blade, in which the thumb nail is 

 inserted to open the knife. This third process 

 is known as smithing. 



For the purpose of giving the metal lasting 

 qualities it is hardened and tempered before 

 it leaves the forge for the grinding machine. 

 Hardening is accomplished by bringing the 

 blade to a red heat and dipping it suddenly in 

 cold water. The tang, however, is left soft, 

 that it may be easily filed, drilled and fitted 

 into the handle. On it, too, is stamped the 



