St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-22
WILD, WEIRD, WOOLlY.
Thrilling Tale Told by a
Traveller at the Mer-
chants Hotel.
Terrible Hardship Endured
on a Trip to the Rainy
River.
Discovery Of an Indian VII
lage With All Frozen
Stiff.
Incredible Suffering Under
gone Before Reaching
HabitationS.

LIE MtICIdlllS JlOIC1 Woo OSSuPiSNA SN'~
greater portion of yesterday morning by
q tall very lean man who carried III his
face the traces of recent suffering and
who had more the appearance OF a
partially rejuvinated corpse than OF be-
ing a human being in whose veins
flowed the red blood of life. With all
due respect to the gentleman, he looked
as though he had been pulled through
several knot-hoes. after which he had
spent a week in the Phoenix club
Turkish baths.
"Get next to that fellow and he will
give you a story which will make your
hair curl" said Clerk Ehle Allen to
reporter for the GLOBE. "His name Is
j. G. Browne and he just come from
the mining regions Of Northern Mime
sofa and the Canadian boundry. lie
told me he had been without food for the
greater part of two weeks and to see
him eat az the table would make you
think that it had been that many
months"
YOU'RE reporter, | suppose" said
Mr.. Browne to the GLOBE man. "Well
if YOU have read Robinson CruSOe,
Charles Reade, Capt. Mayne Reid and
some of the other writers Of that class,
you can get your ears all fixed for one
of the stories they were looking for, and
gave what they had for the reason that
they could not find anything strong
enough to write a more narrowing tale.
Look at me. Would you think that two
weeks ago | made the scales grOan with
the weight of 225 pounds. All solid
flesh, too. That is not very heavy for
me, as am feet inches i'll my soc ks.
] jumped on the scales this morning
and hardly noticed that there was any
thing on them. One hundred and forty
four pounds was the limit. Let's 90
and have drink. l want to get in
where that free lunch is. | have had
nothing to eat for three weeks-that is,
with the exception of piece Of brolled
dog. Dog is not very palatable, but it
goes to the spot just the same as roast
turkey with cranberry sauce"
After the drink had been disposed of
and MI. Browne had surreptitlously
taken handful of crackers from the
lunch table, he suggested that the
GLOBE man accompany HIM to his room,
where they could have a lunch and q
bottle of beer.
"A half-dozen ham sandwiches and a
couple of bottles of beer" he said to the
bell boy. Hurry with it, as am hun
cry" The bell boy looked at him as a
man looks at an insane person, and
slowly turned away from the door with
sigh of regret. He could not under
stand where this man placed all of the
food which he had been carrying to the
room all day.
Here's the story.
"Now that we are settled l will give
YOU the story" said Mr.. Browne as he
leaned back in his chair in position to
allow perfect freedom of the digestive
organs and nunched a ham sandwich.
al am interested to a considerable eX-
tent in mining lands in the vicinity of
Rainy lake i'll company with number
of other ChicagoanS. | am from Mas
sachusetts, but | say that | am from
Chicago for the reason that l have lived
there for the past five months. 1t was
deemed advisable for one of the mem
beTs of the syndicate to make an in
spection of the lands, and as | had
nothing else to do | thought it would be
nice plan for me to go. | thought that
it would be pleasant trip with little
dash of adventure, and l would have a
chance to eat-I mean hunt am
thinking of eating all the time now. So
told the others that l would 20. l
made extensive preparations in the
manner of an arsenal, which, by the
way, is now at the bottom of Rainy
lake. l had bird dog with me and l
took a complete hunting outfit. l did
not bring any of them back with me.
! was in luck to bring my carcass with
me.
81 arrived in Duluth about Dec. 1. and
went by way of the Duluth q Iron
Range road to Tower. l got in with an
explorer there, and we decided to go to
Bots Fort together, as he was bound for
that place. He said that | could get a
guide there. as there were number OF
Indians around who take trips with
travellers. We found Lake Vermillion
frozen OVER and, as there had been but
little snow, we decided to skate across
the lake. had not had on a pair of
skates, with the exception Of those of a
tigurative character, for years-slnce |
was a boy-So that my ankles gave out
after we had skated but short dis
tauce. Ryan, the explorer, said that we
had better stop for the night at an
island, which [ believe he said was
Horter's island, and we camped there
for the night. We cut some brush,
found dead tree which we cut up for
tirewood, and with the brush shelter
TO break the wind OH our backs, we sat
by the roaring fire and cooked our sup
per. Fried bacon, potatoes, slap-jacks
made of flour and lake water and coffee
completed the meal, and | ate like a
hungry wolf Then we lay down in
blankets, and | slept like log. | was
not in the least bit cold and Ryan saw
that the fire did not go out during the
night. After breakfast in the morning
at daybreak we ShOuldered our packs
and started. had small sled which |
'tOted' with long rope, and Oh which |
had tied my arsenal and hunting outfit.
The packs which we carried were very
light and we did not mind their weight.
The trip to Bots Fort was without inter
TuptiOn. We skated across Lake Yer.
million, tramped to Pelican lake, which
we skated across, and then we packed
10 Bots Fort.
'Did you ever see Indians in their
native State-dirty, ragged. covered with
vermin and grease, lazy and ready fol-
murder for bottle of whisky, or even q
small drink from the same? Well, they
were there at the fort. | never saw
such lazy lot of dogs. They looked
like the veriest animals, and had moi
the same amount of self-respect as theil
dogs, By the way, speaking of dogs
my bird dog was approached by some Of
the Indian breed, and they chewed hin
up in no time. They did not give hin
even a show for his white alley.
A Lazy Guide.
"As Ryan was not going any further
and as it would not be safe for white
man to go alone through the region into
which | was bound, the officers at the
fort and Ryan said that ought to have
an Indian guide. They picked one on
for me. Oh, he was the LATEST mortal
ever saw in all my life. They calico
him We-Wip. That means in Indiar
hurry up They had named him We
Wip for the reason that he was so slow
and it was necessary to keep telling
him to hurry up. He walked as though
he was a ball-bearer at the funeral of {
man weighing 800 pounds, and as though
his feet were frozen to the ground
He said he would accompany mt
for the modest remuneration of 81 PEI
day, but the officers and Ryan made
arrangements for him to accept So pc
TDhic a 10 Al