The National tribune., 1892-08-25
COSTLY COOKING.

a couple OF hours, they returned to their occu-
patton.
COSTLY COOKING.
The Fate of an Alaskan Woman who At
| tempted American Methods.
| [!Sdn Francisco Eraminerl
| There was wild excitement in Siwashtown.
as the struggling row of Indian log huts above
| the cannery was called. when it was known
that SAM one of the Indian fishermen, had
| bought the superintendents old cook stove.
For months Annie, Sans wife, had craved
the precious piece of furniture. Now it
was safely set up in her log hut, the fire was
burning merrily, and the Chinese cook,
especially retained at considerable expense to
give private lessons in the art of cooking, was
instructng Annie in the mysteries of making
biscuit.
Every kloochman alaskan for woman) in
the settlement crowded into Sans house to
watch the proceedings, and give vent to their
admiration in cultural wahs. Only the super
intendent of the canDery and the stOrekeeper
winked and smiled at each other, for had they
not large stock of very strong butter and
lard hand, and was not the willy Chinaman
standing in with them?
That night lard rose five cents and butter Is
cents pound at the store. All day long smoke
poured from Sans stovepipe. He no longer
worked regular hours at the cannery. His
time was spent in cutting frewood and fetch
ing butter and lard from the store to his house,
for the Chinaman had impressed OH Annie the
fact that no dish whatever could be properly
prepared without an abundance of these
articles.
Sam soon saw insolvency staring him in the
face He WAS not earning anything, and his
store bill for butter and lard amounted in one
week to $40. RemOnstrances were useless, as
Annie ruled him with rod Of iron, as every
Alaska kloochman does her husband. One day
the cannery people were blasting out some
rocks in the bed of the salmon stream. Sam
sst in solemn silence and watched them.
His brain was working all the time and at
last brilliant idea struck him. While every
one was watching the effects of blast he
sneaked up and stole three sticks of powder.
Returning home, he divided these into small
pieces, which he carefully concealed in his
wife's butter keg. Then he got all his personal
property together, packed it in his canoe and
started out on deer hunt, announcing that he
would be absent for three or four days.
When he returned, log hut, stove, and Annie
had gone to better land. Moreover, another
kloochman, who had been admiring Anne's
| culinary performances, had also SO disappeared,
all but very little Of her, which one of the
neighbor's boys found down on the beach and
brought home in a basket.
AS she had met her fate in Sans abode he,
aCCOTulUR 10 AiaSKau OAtlVe laws, WAS IeSpOu.
sible for the accident and had to settle with
the bereaved husband. She was old and ugly,
but could bead moccasns cleverly, 80 they
valued her at 5000 payable in skins, guns. and
blankets. When Sam saw that remOnstrances
were useless he bowed to the inevitable, and
having induced the creditors to give him time
to meet his liabilities, he went to work again in
the cannery.
The next Spring he was lucky at bear hunt.
ing, liquidated his debts, and after working
all Summer, in the Fall purchased another
kloochman.
The chief article of diet of the new menage
is plain smoked salmon, and whenever any
cooking has to be done it is carried on in an
open fireplace, and not in an American stove.
Danger for Pearl-Divers.
[Pearsons Weekiy.l
great danger constantly menaces the diver
for pearls. Wherever the oyster grows there
also thrives the giant tridachna a monstrous
bivalve whose shell is from four to six feet
in length, firmly anchored to the bottom,
1t lies with its scalloped shells yawning a
foot or moro apart. Immediately anything
touches it the shells snap together, and once
these large shells are closed not dozen men
out of the water could get them apart, far
less the single diver, Is fathoms deep, who may
have dropped into the capacious mouth or have
carelessly put his hand within its shell while
cropping in the gloom.
If such fate befall diver there's only one
thing for him to do, and that is to amputate
himself from the enormous molusk and rise
to the surface, fainting and mangled. Most
men will fight anything from lion to q PAN
ther, on land, but they haven't the courage to
run against bivalve 80 feet under water, and
stand the chance of those yawning shells clos
ing in on an arm or a leg and crushing the bones
to splinters, o."
Ii the monstrous mollusk should close down
and catch the divers head, OF course he would
never know what killed him.