Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-25
CHRISTMAS IN THEARCTIC
PATHETIC ABSTRACTS FROM
LIEUT.. LOCKWOOD'S DIARY.

Meagre Diet Which the Ice-Bound Ex-
plOrers Thought Equal to Royal
Feasts-ThOughts Turned LOngingly
to Friends and Relatives in Far-Of
Homes.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-The National
Republican of this city will print to-mor-
row extracts from the diary CT Lieut..
Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic colony,
describing the manner in which the
starving party spent the last Christmas
at Cape Sabine, in the Arctic regions.
Lieut.. Lockwood kept a diary in short
hand, which has been transcribed by a
member of his family, and he appears to
have made full record of
everything of impOl tance which hap
pened in the daily life of the party. The
extracts which the Republican will print
relate how as Christmas drew near the
officers and men joined in talk of home
and planned grand feasts for the time
when they should reach the civilized
world, and how they made preparations
for feast on the approaching Christmas
by setting apart small portion of their
daily ration. On Dec. 81 Lieut.. Lock
able TO save one ounce OF my bread and
about two ounces of butter for Christ
mas. L shall make a vigorous effort to
abstain from eating it before them"
He adds that he ''put it in charge
OF Blnderneck as an additional
safeguard " On Dec. % he writes: eve
look forward to tomorrow and Chi istmas.
L offered to give anyone roast turkey on
reaching home for a single dog biscuit
now, but found no takers.' He SAYS on
the next day: 81 saved nearly all my
hard bread for Christmas, though L need
it sorely, to make the Christmas dinner
grander. made tremendous effort and
went without my rum in order to have it
for Christmas to add to the punch1 On
Christmas eve he added to his scanty
savings for the next days feast half of
his bread and his piece of lemon, and be
wrote in his book; "Kislingbury was
Kind enough to make for each of the party
cigarette. Many of us are now out Of
tobacco entirely"
THE STORY OF THE FEAST.
On the day after Christmas he writes as
follows: yesterday has passed, but |
find my notes of yesterday very imper-
feet. The day was a great success. We
all had enough, or nearly enough. / had
eight ounces extra, which had saved up,
and one ounce of butter besides. and the
rum of the Sunday afOre. 1t was agreed
early in the morning that nothing should
be said to mar the pleasure 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 seVe-
raj homes. After dinner we had songs in
all languages Including French, Ger
man, Danish and Innut. The punch
was extremely fine. We had chocolate
about O'Clock, and by this time most of
us were too full for utterance. and the
conversation gradually slackened off, and
with the songs the day ended. To-day we
have all been feeling extremely we'll all
day. 1t was nice and warm and comfort
able IN the extreme. Some of us ate too
much yesterday, but only so much as to
feel little uncomfortable at times, but we
all slept well. Our talk this morning was of
home and our families. | have extended
a general invitation to all the members of
the expedition to visit my fathers house.
l spoke this morning of the reunions of
my family and how enjoyable they, are.
My remarks about my father brought
tears, the first time that l have shed tears
since have been in this country. 1 pic
ture tOmYself my dear father and mother
sisters, Harry, my niece and brothers-in-
law, all sitting around the table tO-mor-
row. Turkeys and mince pies are strewn
on the table. Many thoughts are turned
towards me and where l am at this mo-
ment."
THE CHRISTMAS DAY ENTRY.
The entry for Christmas day is as fol-
lows:
''DEC. 25.-Barometer q, thermcm-
eter 20, Christmas. We have all been
talking and waiting anxiousIy for the
hour, and now it is here and 70 p. m. J
nearly gone. Breakfast consisted of a
thin soup of peas and carrots, with lit
tie blubber and some spOonfuls of pota-
toes. This we had at 6 o'clock. Cloud
berries served out 1.-TWO cans
to each messy. At D..
m. Long lighted UP for the event
Of the day-dinner. Dinner consisted of
a fine, rich stew of all seal meat
with onions, little blubber,
potatoes and bread crumbs.
After this we had in the course of an
hour or so a fine, nice stew, with raisins
and a little blubber and milk. These
were pretty much the same as Thanks
giving, but the cooks made a great deal
on that day. The meats seemed bet
ter. The cooks are now preparing some
fine chocolate and that will be
followed by punch of one gill of rum to
each man. The party have been in fine
spirits to-day. Cheers were given after
breakfast for Lieut.. Greedy, Corporal Eli
son, Rice and the two cooks. 1t was
agreed that we should give each of the
two EsquimauX fifty cents from each
member of the expedition to be kept for
next ChristmaS1