Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-01-08
Alaska Relies OF an Old CIyilIza.
ton. ntc.

Alaska is lik ely to turn out not so bad
a speculation after all and we only won.
der that Russia, so eager for territorial
agrandizcment, should have let IL slip out
OF its grasp for love or money. So long
as Russia held II we should have always
been hapkeriug after IL, and for pretty
much the same reasons of laudable pride
and jealousy rs A. T. Stewart who owned
ninetcen.twentieths of his block, envied
Master Goupil his twentieth share OF Il.
II isau settled now, however, in spite of
the grumblers, and we have hopeful re-
ports of what has been surveyed of the
mainland and the islands, which suggests
to us that perhaps we need not despair of
better things yet behind. We had call
yesterday from Captain Ed. s. Fast, Of
The United States army, who has bean
exploring those regions during the past
twelve months, and brings TO the center
of the modern civilization upon this con-
iinent q very interesting collection of gem
uine antiquities from that despised Col
gotha of dry bones, which he dug up
nom the graves of an extinct race of
Dudalians who once lived there and -four
ished abundantly, and were adopts at
metallurgic art, Carvery, and other orna-
mental skills and devices
lie heard by n chance wind that there
were curiosities to be had in that country
for the buying aud his ambition for the
archaeological distinction induced him to
weigh anchor at Sitka and make all sail
for the promised land, He soon discov-
cred, however, that if he were to make
a good thing out of the exhibition he
must make friends with the "old families"
and study the language so that he could
understand the natives This he did, and
II 4 49, 81, 4
leCted into MS some three or four thou
sand words, by the help of the priests and
his own perseveranoe--bu chiefly to the
former, who have been at tho work some
fifty years, He describes the people as
the Pelasgi of q conquered race-or at all
events as q lamentably degenerated crowd
who, however, Notwithstanding their
ignorance, know the value of Mexican
dollars, and were willing to sell any
thing they possessed in order that
they might possess them, from dearly be-
loved wife up TO an ancient tobacco pipe
the heirloom of centuries untold and TN
known. Every article which he bought
OF them he had TO pay for in white coin.
They had learned a thing or two from
their long transactions with the Russians,
and were not to he hambooZled by paper
money, although, sooth to say the mo-
ment they got the dollars they went off to
the whisky shops and came not out thence
until they had spent their utmost farthing.
Captain Fast showed us, at his room in the
Gerard Hotel, some specimens of the
money, God wot ! which the slippery Rus
slams had pSlmed off upon these people,
their subjects, in exchange for the goods
and conmodities-ski and furs-of the
native industry. And we will venture TO
say that outside the Livingstone regions
In savage Africa, where shells are the only
small change of commerce, no Chancellor
of the ExchCquer ever issued before such
good-tor-nothing currency II consisted
Of bits Of leather, representing in figures
various sums Of money, from a cent to
three dollars and perhaps to figures of a
far higher denomination. Notwithstand-
ing this, however, they said in ST. Peters
/ burg, if bits Of leather will "go," why not
/ tinS And they forthwith set to work and
/ issued a tin currency, which the natives
were ordered TO use for the purchase OF
/ whisky only although for what reason did
not clearly appear. Years ago large cop
| per coin, equal in value to some two of
our cents, was the chief circulating medi.
um of the country. 1t was issued by
| Catharine ii. to commemorate the first
| discovery of copper in Siberia but it was
found subsequently,, that the real value
was far greater than it's nominal value,
and so the coin was recalled, to be melted
over again and reduced to its exact value
But they forgot Alaska when the order
was made, and so large quantities Of 1t have
been preserved secretely in that country
ever since, aud some specimens were pur-
chased by Captain Fast, and with various
other examples of rare Russian coin can
be seen by those who take an interest in
that kind Of old metal.
The Alaskans are on the whole he says,
y handsome people, well made, with fine
eyes and hair, but abominably dirty In
their skin, clothing, and habits. The men
are usually clothed in dingy blanket, and
the women are also covered with the same
garment, dyed blue color and trimmed
with red fringe and spsngled with large
buttons. They arc incorrigible gamblers,
and will stake their blankets if they have
no money or furs The Captain described
their gambling apparatus as consisting of
several wooden cylinders, all numbered
and often carved, which 1T one within the
other. A handful Of these articles is
taken haphAzard out Of the bag the
player then fixes upon number which he
sees is marked on one Of the cylinders he
I has in his hand he then shufiles them up
/ all together and returns them to the others
I in the bag, and If in five attempts he fails
| to draw the cylinder he has chosen for his
! prize, he loses the stakes This game has
| been handed down from immemorial time
and the old fOreiathers of whom they are
I soproud. The Captain, has some OF the gar
ments worn by these ancients, but they
were unpasked. An artist of Frank Leslie's,
however, had made drawings of them
when they were exhibited in San Fran
cisco, and those we saw They are very
I graceful, and are made either of theskins of
animals, in tuniC form, or of the skins Of
birds, with all the fathers on, in the same
form. They even wore pants, and the
sleeves of the tunic must have been IN
comfortably broad, like Bishops lawn
| sleeves.
The present race of young female savages
have abandoned the practice of wearing
nose rings, so common among Northern
I Indians The married women, however,
stick a silver needle each through her own
particular nose.
The men have fiat faces, round skulls,
and semi-almond-shaped eyes, like the
Japanese and Chinese. They are purely
a Mongolisn race The old Chiefs have
long black hair, which is worn tailed, and
/ knOtted with plumes and feathers The
4 eyes are mostly dark, ana SO are the DroWs,
but they have no whiskeTs, and very little
/ beard. They dishgure their faces with
/ various pigments, made from the burnt
bark of trees, and they set in the beauti-
I ful filth with the grease of the walrus.
! The faces OF the women are not quite 20
! black colsred as the meu's, and the Cap
tain is ecststic in his praises of their full
and rounded persons. 81
These remarks apply chiefly to the Ko-
loshians, Of whom there are about ten
/ thousand. They are not nOmadic race,
but have villages hundreds of years old,
and live by hunting and fishing, using the
Old Russian flint gun until the transfer,
aud pTsferring them to the percussion.
/ Now the.Americans have furnished them
with excellent weapons, both guns and
I reYolYerA They are very fond OF a certain
( sea.weed, which they use instead Of the Ia