Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-01-14

Life Of the children Of the Frorsa NORTH
Not By Auy Means Monetonoua.

Did you ever see n group OF children get
together on the sidewalk aad play the faS
einating game Of "Eskimof" All the
youngsters gather In ring and slowly jig
around and around. while half Of them
shrin in queer sing song
Oh. do you know the Eskimoi
The Eskimol
The Eskimoi
The query II sClemnly answered with
great alacrity by the other half Of the car
Gle. who shrek
Oh. yes, we know the Eskimo.
The Eskimo.
The Eskimo
He lives Ia the land OF Ice and snow.
or ice and snow.
OF ice RRd 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
q 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 a circus and summer vaca
tion 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 Il 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 to their relatives, just
as If they lived on California street or
somewhere in the mission
The Eskimo small boy 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 baseball game. but he's
lot; 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 bubber
is She knows just the same kind OF
games. When one brown tot goes wis
itin" another brown tot she lugs 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 a strange looking
being. 1t has fiat face, made of wood or
bone, and it has the stiffest kind of arms
and legs, not a joint In them, and it's eyes
are just painted on the face, and it's a
lucky doll that has hair on its head, but
little Miss Eskimo loves that doll just as
much as If it were flaxen haired and had
red cheeks and shining blue eyes. Dolly
couldn't speak Mamma" if you squeezed
1t to pieces, and it would never think OF
such thing as letting you turn its head,
but Miss Eskimo doesn't mind that a bit
She just dresses and undresses her whips
her and cries over her dreadful misdeeds
quite us 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 it's weird animals among
their toys Wooden walruSeS with fierce
mustaches, and ghostly birds. whose un.
bending dignity suggests the splendid re-
serve of those familiar patriarchs, Shem,
Ham and laphet 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 tb bay have a jolly substitute.
There's a tiny ledge of bone, drawn by
four sleuthlike logs, and there are bold
forerunners going on before and daring
hunter is walking nopchalantly behind
There's a toy for you There's something
even better than that, though There's
regular Santa Claus Of doll, sitting in
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 fishskin cunningy stretched over
skeleton Of firm wood While they are
tinkering 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
trimming robe with a delicate border of
porcupine quilts, and she can tell the
loveliest of fairy tales. San Francisco Elk
aminer