New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-11-18

THE PEOPLE OF I4BRAD0R
Their Homes and OccupatSsns-Preear
Gus Living Gained by FishingAnd sealing
Hard and Dang erous Alo<1eof Life With
But Few Enjoyments.
4 If environment oulds a people then
the Labrad koreans should have strong
traits. The climate, the unique feat
4 nres OF the country, the undispnted
supremacy of the sea, the isolation
from the world-all their circum-
stances, indeed ESQ strongly mark
ed as to be irresistible. The pop.1la-
! ton Of the Canadian part of the coast
down to the boundary line at Blanc
Sablon-is OF French:origin, Canadian
and Acadian; the Newfoundland part
OF Labrador Strait Of Belle Isle
and the Atlantic coast inhabited
by English-speaking people. Moravi-
ans and Exquimaux are found IN the
| far North. The French Canadians
/ consist OF two classes;:a part of them
come here every sprMgto, fish for the
i merchants, and return every fall to
their families and small honlesteads
between Quebec and Gaspe; others live
here permanently; own little isolated
establishments, and fish on their own
account. The Acadians have collected
in two principals settlements, Esqui-
maux Point and Natashquan, where
they have their schools, priests,
churches, and some other features of
village life.
/ WAS fortunate in being storm.stay-
ed at a few Of these French Canadian
homes, where found now and then
a person able to give mesome account
OF the summer and winter life of the
people. To begin with external and
material things, the average home of
Labrador generally consists ofarough
board dwelling, with two rooms and a
garrett, small dock and store-house
for receiving, cleaning, curing, and
storing fish, and two or three open
fishing boats. Allthese building perch
like anxious water-fowls on the bare
rocks; they never impress me as homes,
for they make for themselves no niche
or place in the surface of the earth;
you expect them to be washed or
blown away at the next gale-as they
sometimes are For the sake of be-
ing near the fishing grounds these
shelters are generally established on
some outlying island offering moor
ing or else beach for the boats;
they seem to be banished from the
earth as far as possible seward. They
stand up gaunt, stark naked in the
gales, in the midst OF q desert of sea
and rocks.
In the best places there may be in a
hollow little sand, enriched with de-
caying fish, where a few turnips and
cabbages manage to show themselves
duringa briefseason. Youget agleam
of hope and horror an beholding a
quaint scatfold about 18 feet high; but
it is not a gallows for the ending OF
life, only a platform for keeping the
frozen fish for dogmeat. The interior
of these homes snot quiteso distress
ing as these hard surroundings, for
the human hand indoors can make
it's mark, which is not always clean
one. The furniture, diet, costumes,
are rough and commonplace; but the
people are courteous and kind, and
they observe we'll their religious rites.
Their isolation is such that they keep
the run Of time by marking the days
OF the week on the door-post. An ex-
ception to this dreariness is to be met
here and there, at a lighthouse, or at
the home of a merchant. I asked an
intelligent fisherman how he could con
tent himself in such a place.
"Well, sir, | expect we're fools to
stay here. The worst of it is, our
children are growing up as ignorant as
we just like the dogs. Hardly any
of us can read or write. Our houses
are too far apart to get the children
together for school, excepting at Els
quimaux Point, Natashquan, and
Mutton Bay. Then, too, we can tsee
the priest more than once or twice a
year, and that's very announcement
about dying, for pleurisy and consump.
tion are very headstrong. And there's
no doctor at all, nor any roots OF
herbs or medicines. We keep alive on
pain-killer and salts that the traders
sell. It's hard life, and we don't
: NV w w SCly viz. We uttfC w VIZ
all our own wOrk-iack OF all trades.
you know. When we came here to
live, my wife and cut all the timber
in the winterfor building these houses,
sawed it by hand in a pit, and in the
spring RATED it down the river
Sealing, one of the peculiar industries
of EsquimauxP Point and Natashquan,
IS the most venturesome occupation
ofthe Labradorcoast. Seals are taken
4 in three ways-by hunting them along
the bays and shores in boats or on the
ice, by netting them as fish are taken,
and by following them out to sea in
vessels and killing them on the foes.
l sometimes met a boat sailing about
the islands and bays with two men
aboard eagerly watching the water and
the rocks for the harbor seals. Dressed
in coats and skull-caps made Of seal.
skin, they often creep along the rocks
with the motion of the seal, and decoy
the animal by calling. Some of them
have a. trained doc