The San Francisco call., 1897-12-26

NEW YORK, Dec. 25.-The Call told
about the golden Christmas tree at the
Hotel Lafayette, in this city, Of the
Clements family, around and on which
were piles of yellow coin and clusters
Of nuggets amounting to nearly $50 900,
with nuggets mounted as scarfpins by
the dozen and distributed to friends as
literally as though they were popcorn
balls. Clements, suddenly risen from
poverty to riches that he knows not
the full extent of, told a story of
Christmas of one year ago, far diff
ferent from the one he was enjoying,
and happy in the knowledge that all
the future Christmases will be likely
to be golden ones for the wife and lit
tie ones.
James Clements a year ago to-day
spent the day in a hut on the banks of
EI Dorado Creek, in the KIondike.
while his wife and children were in
want in the home he had left months
before to seek fortune swifter than
the savings Of a brakesman's salary
on the Southern Pacific Railroad. He
had made his strike, but. surrounded
by boundless wealth, he could do
nothing for those far away in the Cali
fornia home, where his thoughts were.
1t made it a sad day for him, but he
arranged a celebration to drive away
home thoughts as much as possible
and invited his companions along the
creek to join him.
"Te give you a good understanding
of just what the Klondike Christmas
is like let me go back a few months to
the time landed in Alaska" he said.
Il left my family all the money 1
| could and took S125 with me for an
I Ho1 7 ha6
not g. cent to my name. l had lacked
$3.50 Of enough to buy my ticket for the
trip down the river and tried to ex-
plain to the captain so he would let
me take passage anyway. A man l
never had seen before overheard me
talking to the captain and said. TIL
lend you $3.50, stranger That got me
10 Dawson City, but from April until
| September I had not a cent nor any
thing of value representing cent.
Then I made my strike. I tried to find
| the man who gave me the $3.50, but
| could not. / heard, though, his luck
| had not been as good as mine, so l
weighed out $3.50 in nuggets and left
! them at the Postoffice in Circle City as
a Christmas gift for him to call for.
"We1l, as to my Christmas day in
/ Klondike, we were gathered there, ten
of US in a hut with low ceiling, and
! it was hot enough with the big fire in
| the fireplace. I worked from o'clock
in the morning until at night getting
| the dinner ready and that kept my
! thoughts fairly well occupied. To get
! the minds of the boys away from sad
| thoughts of home I filed four boxes
with dirt that 1 knew was rich. They
| thawed the dirt by the fire and then
! they melted ice to get water to wash
| 1t with and took turns pounding it.
! There was a contest to see who could
| get the most gold out of his pan, and
/ the others stood around and made
| guesses on the amount for prizes of $25
and $50. Well, four boxes of dirt, al
| together about twelve shOvelfuls,
panned out $4,000 and a little more.
| The luckiest guesser carried away $500
| In prizes, and all the boys had a pretty
| good time. After we had our dinner of
| roast caribou, bearsteak, foolhen and
moose we washed the two lard pail
covers that had served as plates, and
| put them away, and then sat around
! and told stories. I got to thinking of
! home again and 1 sneaked away from
the other boys and went over in the
corner and laid down on the bed and
| cried.
''I am going back to Klondike in the
spring." Clements said. ito collect the
gold that has been dug out of my
claims since left by those working on
shares and employed by the day. ]
expect there will be from 100000 to
| cam n00 waiting for me-