The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-12-22


lieve l shall ever forget Christmas. 1t
was Dawson City's first. Dawson was
three months and half old, and had set
tied down to be a 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 well 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 long. In winter, candles and
lamps were always lighted between 1 and
in the afternoon. The mercury ranged
from 26 degrees below zero to 65 degrees
below. So we could not make satisfactory
hea dway even in the richest of the dig
gings. All through December about half
the miners used to spend days in loafng
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 a strange scene it was. Imagine an
assemblage of men in a 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 halfcured, shay
gy, understanding fur, so that only the
face appears. Every man has a prodig-
ious growth of whiskers, sometimes foot
long. and hair that reaches below the rim
of the caps and lies across the shoulders.
"There were but 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
celebration, and, crude though it was,
we had a day that none of us will ever
| forget. 1t was 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 SIG a 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 81,
0OO,O 900, and clear prospect of increasing
| it to twice or thrice that sum in another
FIVE months. l don't believe that a 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 a 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 at that period at about / 80 p.
M, but we had become accustomed to the
20-hour nights. When it got along to
about II 30 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 a half hour, and over
800 shotguns rifles and pistols were dis
| charged, in yolleys, singly, 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 fell
in sympathy with the outside world.
/ "On Christmas morning we brushed ar
| a bit, and putting on our best rubber boots
went and called on our best friends in the
mining cabins and settlements, and re-
ceived our friends from the mining cabins
scattered up and down the frozen creeks
AT 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
Clipped in an ounce of dust toward de.
fraying the expenses. The sa wdust had
been removed from the floor and 4 score
of candles and lamps were arranged abou,
the room. Mccarthy himself wore boil
ed shirt in honor Of the occasion. On !
broad board table along one wall Of the
room iuncheon had been arranged FOL