INCIDENTS IN ALASKA LIFE.
By Editor
THE American Missionary Association established a mission at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, some time ago under the charge of Mr. H. R. Thornton. On the night of August 19 last Mr. Thornton was cruelly murdered by native desperadoes. Two of these the natives afterward killed, while the supposed instigator of the affair escaped to the mountains. The last named had been expelled from the school taught by Mr. Thornton. The following article from Mr. Thornton to the American Missionary will be of interest to those studying Alaskan life:— The year has passed tolerably well for us, notwithstanding some drawbacks that we hope will not affect us so much in future years. We had a new house in a new situation to get accustomed to. It was built of lumber that had been lying on the beach a year, and was thoroughly wet, consequently it shrunk so that before Christmas we could thrust a knife between the boards. We suffered very much with cold, used to sit up with all our furs on as if we were in a blizzard, but we soon retreated to the innermost room, which we managed to make quite comfortable by papering with newspaper and manilla paper.43You may imagine how trying it was to a very particular little New England housekeeper like Mrs. Thornton. At first I tied an old sack around the south side of the open work under the chimney cap, but it would persist in catching fire. An old five-gallon oil can with bottom and one side cut out clapped over the cap succeeded better, but I have to run up on the roof and turn it around every time the wind changes. Our natives are improving, but we find it a much slower and more laborious business than we expected to turn a savage Eskimo into a comparatively civilized Christian. Think how long it would take to make the very lowest class of people in your neighborhood clean, truthful, self-reliant, economical, virtuous, and God fearing. Meanwhile, we are sowing the seed with what patience we may, encouraged by seeing gradual improvement among the natives in intelligence, cleanliness, self-help, truthfulness, and other virtues that make toward godliness. After Mr. and Mrs. Lopp were married, we agreed to divide the house, they taking three rooms and we three,—a conclusion that all who know anything about attempts at combining two families in one domestic establishment will agree to have been wise and prudent. The kitchen and storeroom, already furnished with cupboards and shelves, fell to the Lopps' share, so I had to turn myself into a carpenter. Imagine my numerous works of art in that direction. I point with pride to a door cut in the attic, steps leading up to it; some fifty or sixty square feet of cupboard; numerous shelves; a cooler on the outside of the house communicating by a half door with the kitchen, where we keep our frozen meats in winter and fresh meats in summer; two bookcases made out of a redwood packing case; two lockers, with compartments for flour, meals, canned meats, fruits, and vegetables, as well as dried crackers, coffee, and other groceries; a closet for powder, lead, cloth, and other goods we have to barter our meats and fur clothes with; and a storm-house—not to speak of my efforts as a painter, solderer, locksmith, stove mender, etc. Housekeeping in the Arctic has its peculiar difficulties. Every drop of water must be melted from snow for seven months of the year, and we must thaw out our canned goods in winter before cooking. We ate our last potato January 31. We should not have had any after October if we had not obtained some from a wrecked vessel. On the other hand, there is no trouble about keeping meats fresh; after dressing ptarmagan we have them frozen and piled up like so many chips, in which condition they keep perfectly well for the whole winter, and we cut our bear or reindeer meat with a hatchet. If you think about these things carefully, you will see that mission work is not always easy and pleasant. We have not only the difficulties attending such work among the most ignorant and degraded whites, but also other difficulties due to our necessarily imperfect understanding of the language, habits, and character of the natives, and to their imperfect understanding of us. They demand unreasonable things of us, are sometimes offended if we do not comply, as, for instance, to furnish the whole community with matches, nails, boards, etc., when their lack of such things is generally due to their own lack of industry and forethought, or to interrupt us at our meals or in our sleep (if we would allow it) to trade with them for food, clothes, etc. However, we are training them to more civilized ways. March 25, as Mrs. Thornton and I were coming out of school about dark, we found a man trying to carry off by force one of our schoolgirls about sixteen years old, who had been sold to him by an older sister as a wife. I was strongly tempted to take her away by force, but desisted, as a crowd of men and women standing around had said the man was only asserting his legal rights according to native customs. The man dragged the weeping and struggling girl across the snow, took her up bodily, and dropped her down the entrance to his underground house. Finally it occurred to me to ransom her. In an hour Mr. Lopp and I had done this, and she was installed as Mr. Lopp's servant. Such occurrences are rare, but illustrate the need of our example and precepts. Mrs. Thornton has the honor of being probably the first American woman to drive behind a pair of half wild reindeer from the government herd fifty miles south of us. The deer are doing finely, and the enterprise should be encouraged in every way as the only means of saving the Eskimos from not improbable starvation.—American Missionary.