Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-12-21

three months and half old and had SET
tied down to be permanent town All
the miners who had made good locations
had by this time housed themselves in
pine-board shanties. A few had built
shanty frames about tents to secure
greater warmth within. All of us who
made any strikes of gold at all had done
so by October. so we were We'll along with
our gold digging; but we could do less in
December than in any month in the year.
From the latter part of November to early
in January there is only four hours of
practical daylight in any day. Many
days, when the wind blew hardest-in
fact, it blows a gale there all the winter
long, and snow and pellets of ice were
blown along--candles were kept lighted
all day fong. In winter, candles and
lamps Were always lighted between ! and
in the afternoon. The mercury ranged
from 70 degrees below zero to So degrees
below. So we could not make satisfe Glory
Roadway even in the richest of the dig
gings. All through December about half
the miners used to spend days in loafing
about McCarthy's saloon at Dawson. The
other half puttered about their cabins,
dug little now and then, mended their
fur suits and made shoes from walrus
hide.
AT McCarthy's sometimes $50 or more
men would gather around the roaring fire
and strange scene it was. Imagine an
asSemblage of men in rough, barn-like
structure, furnished with board benches.
and illuminated by dozen Pickering can
dies. Some men are dressed in baggy gar
ments of fur, others in several coarse,
heavy overcoats over heavy wooden
clothes. All have caps of half-cured, shay
gy, understanding fur, so that only the
face appears. Every man has prodig-
ious growth of whiskers, sometimes foot
long. and hair that rea ches below the rim
of the caps and lies across the shoulders.
There were but a dozen calendars in
all that region and very few men had any
idea of dates. Some did not even know
what month it was. One day. as we sat
at McCarthy's, some one suggested that
Christmas was approaching and we
thought of observing the occasion. A
week before Christmas we all agreed upon
q celebration, and, crude though it was,
we had a day that none of us will ever
forget. twas more remarkable from the
fact that there were in and about the lit
tie hamlet of Dawson City over LOO
men. No one earned less than S16 day,
and the larger part had each risen from
poverty to possessions worth several thou
sand dollars in period of three months.
| suppose the combined wealth in actual
gold in the district then was nearly ST.
100000, and a clear prospect of increasing
it to twice or thrice that sum in another
FIVE months. don't believe that COM
munity richer per capita has existed in
this world than that was at Dawson City.
Yet we had mockery of civilization and
hardly any of the comforts of life of lot
of paupers.
Every one was informed on Dec. "a
of the fact that next day would be Christ
mas. Some 800 of us went down to Nc
Carthy's to celebrate the holiday. Dark
ness set in al that period at about l 80 p.
M, but we had become accustomed to the
2O-hour nights. When IT got along to
about II 80 p. M. we got our watches out
and waited. AT exactly II the signal was
given. The whistle at Joe Ladue's saw
mill screeched for half hour, and over
300 shotguns, rifles and pistols were dis
charged. in volleys, sngly in quartets and
in trios, for hours. Every one shook hands
Some danced about the room, and big.
burly miners Rugged one another, while
Merry Christmas was shouted again and
again. 1t was the first time in the whole
experience of the Klondike that we felt
in sympathy with the outside world.
ION Christmas morning we brushed up
a bit, and putting on our best rubber boots
went and called on our best friends in lie
mining cabins and settlements, and re-
ccived our friends from the mining cabins
scattered up and down the frozen creeks
AT 2 p. m., when the darkness was set
Ting down in the valleys, several hundred
miners met by agreement at McCarthy's
1t was the only building in Dawson that
could comfortably hold large assemblage
of people. Mac had prepared a program
of events for the day and we had each
chipped in an ounce of dust toward de-
fraying the expenses. The sawdust had
been removed from the floor and score
of candles and lamps were arranged about
the room. Mccarthy himself wore : boil
ed shirt in honor of the occasion. On a
broad board table along one wall of the
room a luncheon had been arranged for
the Christmas celcbrators. For half
hour after arriving at Macs we were busy
stamping snow from our rubber boots and
walrus hide shoes. peelng off extra cover
ings and in general Understandings and
more Merry Christmasings.'
Nov. boys, fall right in and tickle
your gizzards over there shouted Mac
urbanely to the crowd.
.tThere was room for only fifty to eat at
a time, so while one squad was standing
up and eating at the table, the rest were
sitting about on the benches. We told
stories of other Christmas days in other
camps, talked about what the People down
in the States were doing, wondered what
had trdnspired since we last heard from
there five months before), wondered who
was dead, how election had gone. and
what the people world say when we 60
back with our heaps Of gold and stories of
how rich we had truck it.
AT last the last man in the crowd of
Christmas celebrators had been to the
long table and had filed up on baked
beans fried pork and bacon, Goldfish balls,
macaroni end coffee. Then Mac read the
program and the entertainment proceeded.
A dozen men made speeches. few of
saem genuinely humorous appropriate to
ne occasion. America and God Save
she Queen were sung and resung. The
Norwcgians AID Swedes sang their ma
sonal songs and the sounds of the first
Christmas celebration in the Kiondike
were carried on the wind down among the