p. 11 | BABY PEARY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 38.

BABY PEARY.

LITTLE Miss Peary, the daughter of the great Arctic explorer, has the distinction of having been born at a higher degree of northern latitude than any other white child living or dead. Her first toilet, given by an Eskimo nurse, consisted of a layer of superfine seal-oil, after which she was slipped into a double sealskin bag, with fur inside and out. After forty-eight hours of hibernation she announced that she was hungry, and the nurse said she was the sweetest baby that ever lived. There was no other woman about to improve on this remark, so the Innuit nurse became godmother, and bestowed her own unpronounceable name on the little white stranger. That is the reason we refrain from spelling it. The proud nurse assured the mother that, protected by that name, which has special powers within the Arctic Circle, it would be safe for the baby to take an airing.

“But it is forty degrees below zero!” said Mrs. Peary.

“Yes, so nice and mild! It will soon be noon of the year,” replied the nurse.

So little Miss Peary, who had been promoted from the bag to a garment of fur, was gently lowered into another bag of reindeer skin that was tied around the neck. Over the head was slipped a sealskin hood that enveloped the face and neck. Little holes were left to admit air. She was then put on a sledge, with a polar bear rug under her and an eider feather blanket over her, and the whole was drawn by a splendid pair of Eskimo dogs, decorated with bells, the nurse trotting along beside her charge.

The baby came back as pink as a rose, and afterwards, unless the weather was really severe, she had an airing every day. When the hour came, if she saw no preparations being made, she demanded to go “ta ta,” and the whole exploration party had to see that she got it, too.—Anon.