Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-05
rows or THE ESKIMO.

>
together on the sidewalk and play the fas-
cinating game Of "Eskimof" All the
youngsters gather in "A ring and slowly jig
around and around, while half of them
shrill in "A queer sing song
Oh, do you know the Eskimo2
The Eskimo?
The Eskimo?
The query is sCemnly answered with
great alacrity by the other half of the cir
Gle. who shrek
Oh, yes, we know the Eskimo,
The Eskimo,
The Eskimo:
He lives in the land of ice and snow.
OF ice and snow,
OF ice and snow.
Then the whole band hop solemnly about
in stimulation of the supposed antics of the
Eskimo
The funniest part of it all, according to
a gentleman who has returned from the
arctic regions, is that the little Eskimo
youngsters have an almost identical game
singing an odd little tune of their own
and going through queer antics, unhesi
tatingly believed to be exact representa-
tions of the children of the far away south.
You would think that so much of the
little Eskimo's time would be spent trying
to keep warm that he wouldn't have a
great deal left to play. But those little fur
clad tots in the ice and snow are having
more fun than Il circus and summer vaca-
ton rolled into one.
They tag around their male relatives Just
as the small boys do here, and they fidget
their snub nosed mammas almost to death
by stealing off among the icebergs in a lit
tie bit of tippy, cranky craft made of
skins and things. They listen round eyed
to tales of harpoons and deadly bouts with
polar bears. They tell their sisters brave
tales of their own dauntless courage, and
when bigger boy shouts "Polar bearp
they run shrieking . their relatives, just
as if they lived o, California street or
somewhere in the M sion.
The Eskimo smat> Dy is amazingly like
other boys. He is round faced and brown
checked and chubby beyond belief He
wears queer garments of skins and of
leather. He never ate "A pound of candy
or dish of ice cream in his life and he
never heard of a baseball game, but he's
lots like other boys for all that.
AS for the girl, she's precisely like her
blond sister down here, who hasn't the
faintest notion how good whales blubber
is. She knows just the same kind of
games. When one brown tot goes wis
itin" another brown tot she Tugs her ia
vorite doll with her, and then she sits right
down in the dark little hut and begins to
play house"
That doll of hers is strange looking
being. 1t has fiat face, made of wood or
bone, and it has the stitfest kind of arms
and legs, not joint in them, and its eyes
are just painted on the face, and it's
lucky doll that has hair on it's head, but
little Miss Eskimo loves that doll Just ms
much as if it were faxen haired and had
red cheeks and shining blue eyes. Dolly
couldn't speak Mamma" if you squeezed
it to pieces, and it would never think OF
such thing us letting you turn its head,
but Miss Eskimo doesn't mind that IA bit.
She just dresses and undresses her, whips
her and cries over her dreadful misdeeds
quite as much as if her name was Maud
Athel Van Buren,, instead of being an un-
pronounceable thing in consonants and
grunt
Those benighted little beetle brows have
never heard of Noah's ark, but they have
a substitute for its weird animals among
their toys. Wooden walruses with fierce
hluSu''thSS, anu SiOS'Iy Dll'Sj NIpSS uli-
bending dignity suggests the splendid re-
serve of those familiar patriarchs, Shem,
Ham and Japhet SO distinctly that you
look around for the little green trees and
spotted dogs that always stand guard over
the ark.
They don't have trains of cars to play
WITH those blue nosed shiverers. They
wouldn't know what to do with them if
they had, but they have a jolly substitute
There's tiny sledge of bone, drawn by
four sleuthlke dogs, and there are bold |
forerunners going on before and a daring
hunter is walking nonchalantly behind |
There's a toy for you. There's something !
even better than that, though, There's
regular Santa Claus of doll, sitting in a |
sledge and driving four beautifully snarl |
ing dogs
When the long winter dark comes on the |
boys sit in the low huts and make tiny |
boats of fishskn, cunningly stretched over |
q skeleton of firm wood While they are |
away at these pretty boats the |
small sister sits beside them on the bear |
skin and makes soft little fur boots for her |
doll
The mother is close by making nets or
II robe with delicate border of |
porcupine quilts, and she can tell the |
loveliest of fairy tales.-San Francisco FIX