The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-12-31
AN ARCTIC CHRISTMAS.
A Leaf From the Diary of Lieutesant
Lockwood of the ll-Fated Greedy
Arctic Colony.
Describing the Manner In which the starv
ing Party Spent Chrlstmas OF 1888 at
Cape Sablne--TheIr Thoughts
OF Homo.
STARVING FOR WEEKS TO FEAST FOR A


STARVING FOR WEEKS TO FEAST FOR A
| DAY.
WASHINGTON, December 26.-The Ma,
tiondl Republican printed yesterday ex.
tracts from the diary OF Lieutenant Lock
wood, of the Greedy Arctic colony, describ-
Ing the manner in which the starving party
spent their last Christmas at Cape Sabine
in the Arctic region. Lieutenant Lockwood
kept diary IN shorthand which has been
transcribed by member of his family, and
he appears TO have made full record of
everything Of importance which happened
In the daily life of the party. The extracts
relate how, as Christmas drew near, the
officers and men joined in the talk Of home
and planned grand feasts for the time when
they should reach the civilized world, and
how they made preparations for the feast
on approaching Christmas by setting apart
small portions of their daily rations.
On December 81 Lockwood writes: "By
great effort was able to save one ounce of
| my bread and about two ounces Of butter
for Christmas; shall make vigorous effort
to abstain from eating it before then" He
adds that he put 1t in charge Of Blnderdeck
as an additional safeguard.
On December 22 he writes: 1--WE look
forward to tomorrow and Christmas" and
II offered TO give any one roast turkey on
reaching home for a single d0gbiscut now,
but found no takers" He says on the next
day: II saved nearly all my hard bread for
Christmas, though | need 1t sorely," and
that to make Christmas dinner grander he
made tremendous effort and went with
out his rum In order to have 1t for Christ
mas TO add to the punch.
On Christmas Eve he added to his scanty
savings for next days feast half Of his bread
and his piece Of lemon, and he wrote in his
book: "To.night is Christmas Eve, and my
! thoughts are turned toward home. God
preserve me 10 see this day next year and
TO enjoy 1t at home with those love. To-
morrow II Is to be pretty much repetition
Of Thanksgiving. have saved up my rum
and bread. / think Of the children at home,
the Christmas tree tonight and the toys,
etc. But my fingers are too cold TO write
more. picture to myself my dear father
and mother, sisters, Harry, my niece and
brothers-in-law, all sitting around the table
tomorrow. Turkey and mince pies are
strewn on the table. Many thoughts are
turned toward me and where i am at this
moment.
The entry for Christmas Day is as fol-
lows: December 25.s Barometer 29.93,
thermometer 27.5. Christmas. We have
all been talking and waiting anxiously for
the hour, and now 1t is here five o'clock in
the afternoon) and nearly gone. Breakfast
consisted Of a thin soup Of peas and carrots,
with little blubber and some spoonfuls Of
potatoes. This we had at six o'clock.
Cloudberries were served out two cans to
each mess. At one o'clock in the afternoon
LeEtg lighted up for the event of the day
dinner. Dinner consisted OF fine, rich stew
Of all seal meat, onions, little blnbber,
potatoes, and bread crumbs. After this we
had in the course of an hour or so a fine
rich stew with raslns and little blubber
and milk. These were pretty much the
same as Thanksgiving, but the cooks made
great deal on that day and the meals
seemed better. The cooks are now pre-
pairing some fine chocolate and that will
be followed by punch Of one gill Of rum
10 each mai. The party have been In good
spirits to-day Cheers were given after
breakfast for Lieutenant Greedy, Corporal
/ Il
agreed we should give each OF the two
EsquimauX fifty cents from each member OF
the expedition, 10 be kept for next Christ
mas.
"Kislingbury was kind enough TO make
for each party cigarette. Many OF us are
now out OF tobacco entirely"
On the day after Christmas he writes as
follows: Yesterday has passed, but l find
my notes of yesterday very imperfect. The
day was great success. We all had enough
or nearly enough. / had eight ounces extra
which saved up, one ounce Of butter, be-
sides the rum of Sunday before. 1t was
agreed early In the morning that nothing be
said to mar the pleasures Of the day. Many
kindly thoughts were expressed for those
at home, and oh how often we spoke OF
what was going on at our several homes.
After dinner we had songs In all
languages, including French, Ger.
man and Innult The punch
was extremely fine Chocolate was served
about seven o'clock, and by this time most
Of us were too full for utterance, and con-
yersation gradually slackened of and with
The SONGS the day ended. To-day we have
all been feeling extremely well. The day
Is nice and warm and comfortable In the
extreme. Some OF us ate too much yester-
day, but only so much as TO feel little un-
comfortable at times Nevertheless we all
slept well. Our talk this morning was Of
home and our families. have extended q
general invitation TO all the members Of
the expedition 10 visit my fathers house
spoke this morning OF the reunions OF my
family and how enjoyable they are. My re-
marks about my father brought tears, the
irst time have shed tears since l have