The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1885-06-13
GRIM "REMINISCENCES.
sergt Connell Chats About Experience
With the Greedy Expedition.

the Greedy expedition, has been inter-
viewed by reporter for the San Fran
cisco Call:
"Who was the most cheerful OF the
party?" inquired the writer.
"They were all of them brave men,
and kept up their spirits to the last.
Nothing daunted them, and they died
nobly, and blamed nobody for their
death. But l think if any distinction
should be made. Rice should have the
palm. He was q CHEEKY, courageous
man OF most noble character. You
know we spent TWO years at our station,
near Lady Franklin bay. In thespring,
from the return Of the sun, ne
lst of March, 70 the end OF
June, we were always in the field. But
during the remainder of the time we
had little to do, and during the winter
the sun was absent 1870 days. We had
to do something to make the time pass
pleasantly, aud he had jolly time, l
do assure you We had snow-shoe races
out on the ice, and there was some tall
betting done. The only money we had
in circulation was TOBACCO, but we had
plenty OF that, and so one Of the men
would bnck his idYCritd with pound
of tobacco, and another would go him
LWD DObJOIs NO Idu
matches, putting lantern 200 yards of
in the darkness. The men were all good
shots, and some of them made hand
some records. Long, one of the survi-
vors, was about the best shot. We had
a paper issued in camp, the Arctic
Moon, in which men got off some capt.
tai jokes; and we used to play
Jokes on each other some pretty
tough ones-anything to raise a
laugh. recollect when the men
came back from their trip north, some
of them, Ellison among the rest, were
snow. blind, and some of the boys got
out q dscoy duck and placed it on q
pond near the camp, where 1t looked for
all the world like an Oneida duck. Then
they told Ellison to como and look. He
took one peep, then jumped for his gun,
crept down cautiously and sighted II.
A BLIND MANS SHOT.
"Bsng! Blind as he was he hit it
square and knocked it over. But | snail
never forget Ellison's words when ne
found out how he had been fooled.
lowell, Well he said, anybody that
would play such trick on poor blind
manp 1T made us feel small.
"phe men were fond of music, and
some of them had good voices. Ellis,
particularly, had rich, mellow voice
that it was delight to hear. But we
never asked any questions about the
quality or range of cultivation of a
mans voice. so long as he could follow
a tune he pitched in with The rest. The
only musical instrument we had was
one of the little organettes that turn
with crank and grind out music to or
der. Somebody brought it down TO the
ship just as we set sail. 1t seemed a
foolish little gilt at the time, but it
proved bonanza up there. 1t played
the Sweet By and By John Browns
Body and any quantity Of hymns.
Lieutenant Kislingbury was a great
hand at singing church tunes, and he
sung the doxoloey the moment before
he drew his last breath"
"Did you ever sing Home, Sweet
Home?h questioned the interviewer.
"Always, Over and over again, from
the first TO the last. Even in those last
days at Cape Sabine we sang it,"
COULD NOT SING THE OLD SONG.
sit must have been hard to sing it
sometimes?"
Cornell did not reply, but turned
away for q moment, busying himself
with the map. When he turned back
there was tell-tale moisture in his
eyes. He hastened to change the sub
ject-"And we had politics-politics till
you couldn't rest. You see there were
some rsbid Republicans in the party,
and some Democrats (by which it is
plain to see that Mr.. Connell belongs to
the party in power), and we had men of
other nationalities-Germ who
adored Bismarck and Germans who
hated him, and Englishmen and Irish
men who were perpetually at swords
points. l tell you we had IL hot and
heavy sometimes. We would have had
stump speeches If we could have found
any stumps. ran for Congress myself,
once, up at Land o. Plenty'-the camp
on Lady franklin Bay,r continued
Council, his eyes sparkling with fun
over the recollection, "ran tor delegate
from Grinneu Land, And
made a speech, stating that
favored the governments Civ
ing 100 acres of land, a pair of musk oxen
and team Of EsquimauX dogs to every
settler. And declared myself in favor
of female suffrage, provided we found
the females. Even at Camp Sabine,
when we settled down to pass the win
ter without fuel, and appOrtioned out
the forty days rations We found there
to last from the LIST of November to the
10th day OF March, we kept up a form of
entertainment. Greedy delivered lee
lures to the last, and we might have
acquired fund Of learning If we had
not been so hungry and cold. All the
way we had OF warming our feet was by
the friction of our hands, and we got so
weak after awhile that we could not
stand the eXertion of rubbing.
ARCTIC WOLVES.
When Brain lrd and Lockwood
started on their famous expedition
north / was with them, but We hadn't
gone far when froze one foot and had
% turn back. The EsquimauX came
back with nearly to the snow huts at
Cape Beechy and left me there. hadn't
gone far before | noticed the tracks OF
the wolves and pretty soon came upon
three OF them standing on the icefoot
(the Ice that adhores 10 tho iand). |
had heard great deal about the feroc-
lty OF these Arctic wolves, aud though
my day had come, for | was hobbling
along ON my heel, only making mile
In three or four hours. | had no arms,
no knife, but pair of dogsllin mittens
and sealskin jumper, land bright idea
struck mo that II | dropped these, one
at a time, they might stop to eat them
before they began on me; and, mean
time, might possibly get TO the hut,
So l got the mlttens OIL, ready 10
drop; but before let Ego, crazy i'm.
pulse seized me TO try Kind of an In
dian yell and see how they'd like that.
And would you believe it, the moment
those wolves heard my warwhoop they
put their tails between their legs and
scrambled of over the ice as fast as they
could travel. A few days later / had
occasion to hunt them with gun, but /
couldn't get within a 1000 yatds of
| them.n
During tie conversation Connell
brought out the newly completed map
of their explorations and traced with
his finger the lines OF the disastrous re-
treat. Designated by his mbling
hand and sad tones, tho route became
real and tangible road, leading over
silent fields of deep snow, treacherous