Using array index to access HTML element grabbed by jQuery selector

Using array index to access HTML element grabbed by jQuery selector

jsfiddle here:
https://jsfiddle.net/twdLpee6/3/

HTML
<span>123</span>
<span>abc</span>

JS
var clear = $('span');
clear[0].html("");

I expect output to be:
abc

and that '123' is removed.

But output I get is:
123   abc

THX