Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-20

a few hundred men and dozen women,
scattered throughout the United States re-
member with me the first celebration OF
Christmas in the Klondike. Many veteran
gold prospectors and miners. who have
spent 1.-THE best day IN all the year amid
strange environments and under primitive
conditions have told me that the Christmas
observance in Dawson, 1896, was the most
memorable of all. AS for the pioneer
American women in the new gold fields I'M
der the aurora borealis, why, If any of us
live to twice Methuseleh's age we shall
always have that memory clear and dis
tinct.
The first gold in the Klondike was found
In August, 1896. Three weeks later SIAM
pede of some 800 gold-crazy men from all
of the desolate mining camps along the
Yukon set in for Klondke creek. A settle
ment was made amid the black mud at
what is now Dawson City, where klondike
creek emptie9 into the Yukon. 1t was
wild. frantic rush OF battered. tattered from
tiersmen. who had been cut off from the
world for years, to gain possession OF
placer claims on the benches along the lit
tie water courses in the newly found gold
region. Every one was as poor as Jobs
proverbal turkey when he got to Dawson
While the men scrambled over hills and
wales in quest of placer locations the few
women, who, with their husbands, had fol
lowed fortune : Dt GhpllllSS tD lilt iN4OIUlhSt
set about making habitable places at Daw-
son.
BY December there were over 700 men
and twelve women in the new camp.
Out on the creeks there We're about 300
more men, who lived in crazy cabins and
the crudest sort Of shacks, while they dug
gold dust and nuggets of a value of $40 to
even $50 day Dawson City sprang up
like magic with it's log cabins, heaped about
with earth. its pine plank saloons and
storehouses. A ruder. more urcouth-lock-
ing community probably was never known.
But the enormous wealth that was sudden
ly found roundabout made us all mirthful
in spite of the dreadful life one had to en-
dure. The cold weather settled down on
Klondike at the close of November. We
had ice a foot thick and Temperatures be
low zero. The days were practically FIVE
hours lorg. We lit candles al pm, ard
1t was pitch dark at 4. The awful winds of
the Arctic set in early in December and
blew steadily for four months. One day the
temperature dropped to thirty below zero
and then until March 1t ranged between
that and sixty-four degrees below zero.
The intense loneliness of our cabin life in
klondike on long black winter night is in
descTihable. The roof and walls shook as if
in palsy, from the hurricane without. 4
f1ckering candle costing S1.25) furnished
the sole illumination. The temperature out
side the cabin was so low that the Their
mometer would not register it. Snow lay
banked all about, and there was not a
thing TO give evidence but that you were
the sole remnant of the human race. The
consciousness that you are in tiny
munity OF strangers living amid vast
oceans of snow and ice, absolutely cut off
from participation in the things that make
modern living joy, is overwhelming.
Notwithstanding there were shot sacks
tull OF gold nuggets, and tomato cans, fish
cans, beer bottles and pouches of walrus
skin Mild with gold dust in almost every
miners cabin in Dawson in those days Sc
vereSt economy had to be exercised in our
domestic supplies. We were somewhat like
Robinson Crusoe with his key of gold on
desolate island. The navigation companies
were unprepared for the sudden rush of
people 10 the klondike. The Yukon was
frozen from mouth TO source and $40 miles
of snow and ice lay between us and the
Pacific ocean. The freshest newspaper in
camp was four months Old and there were
not ten books in aft Dawson Three of
these were Bibles and the rest cheap novels
All were worn threadbare by asSduous
reading before spring came.
The few Dawson women used to meet
together and mend clothing for an hour or
two twhen the light was clear) at midday
Seated on boxes, hunks and barrels about
plank table, we really had a jolly time
amid crude surroundings. On special occa-
dried apples, dried peach tartS and corn
meal cake. Twice John i. Lewis who
made a fortune of $3.50 900 during the first
year in kIondike, invited all the Dawson
women to his cabin for a feast. And what
n glorious time it was, Deeply muffied in
blankets and scarfs. we arrived upon the
scene. We sang old-time songs. recited bits
of prose and poetry from memory. and sat
down on little benches to dine on roast
bear meat, stewed prunes and canned
ounces, served on tin plates and in tin
cups.
Christmas drew near. Half the men in
Klondike kept no track of the dates they
passed monotonously by. Here and there