St. Landry democrat., 1893-01-28

''All my old clothes, of course.
knew that I should never have such {
good opportunity to get them worn gu
without any anxiety as to changing
fashions. That applies only to gowns
My Arctic dress was odd enough
Lieutenant Peary, as you know, hac
been in Greenland before, and had ;
good idea of the needs of the climate
Nothing but fur will give suffice mt pro
lection against the cold, and we lid no
make the mistake CT Eaying our fur gar.
ments made up before leaving. In addi
ton to the discomfort of trying on fur:
in the spring, We knew that no furriel
had sufficient disregard of appearance tc
make our outfit as we would order it
Instead we took on board wcll.cured
deer skins, which cut during the voy
age to the exact shape wanted. Then
when we reached Greenland we hired
| the Eskimo women to sew the skins,
which they do with great skill. l had
| an undergarment--a sort Of divided
skirt-made of deer skins with the fur
inside. This l wore between my usual
underwear and my dress, instead of extra
skirts. Above the waist had hooded
blouse of fur which put on to go out
in. / never knew what it was to suffer
from cold throughout the Journey"
"What kind of house can ono have
when the material has to be taken so far
and set up under such difficulties9'
cit was a very good house, indeed,
though j. had only two rooms. In one
of these had carpet, heavy curtains,
portieres and most of the comforts of a
"ell-appointed home in lower ATTITUDES.
The other room, which was used for all
sorts of household purposes, could not
be made so pretty. We all lived to-
gether in sort of happy family. There
were seven members of the expedition,
none of whom were previously known to
us, but we found them very pleasant and
harmonious. We had a colored boy,
Matt, whom we took with US to do the
cooking and other work. His first at
tempts at cookery were so bad that as
sumed that duty myself for few months,
until he was trained into a very efficient
serval;. Lieutenant Peary sat at one
end of the table and at the other. We
had very jolly party throughout the
long winter with its three months of IN
broken night"
"What did you have to eata Ishould
think the fare would have been very
limited2"
"Not at all. We had just the same
things that you were eating down here.
Most of it came out of tin cans, but that
is winter necessity everywhere. We
had three kinds of vegetables every day
at dinner and there was always plenty of
fresh meat. 1t was no trouble to keep
it in that latitude; all out of-doors was
one great refrigerator. When we wanted
fresh water we went ont to the nearest
glacier and chopped Off chunks with
Ratchet till we had enough to melt for
drinking and household purposes. Under
these conditions q daily bath is labori-
Gus. 1t is small wonder that the natives
never think of such thing as washing,
even their faces"
'Did you see very much Of the native
life, or were you away from even such
primitive society as that?'
ooh, the Eskimos, or 'Husk s. rs
we called them, were our chief source of
entertainment all through the long
winter. They came hundreds of miles
on their. sledaes to sac tn" white noonln
and their wonderful house. In fact, we
held one continuous reception. We
could not have been gayer at home in
Washington. We always offered re-
freshments-cofiee and biscuits-to new
corners, but made no attempt after that
to feed them, as our supplies would very
soon have been exhausted. In return
they did anything they could for us,
and if one was asked for some little favor,
the rest all were very jealous. l could
not entertain them, good natured and
kind as they were, in my inner room, as
all natives are fairly alive with verlnin
and must not be brought into contract
with anything which cannot be scrubbei;
but they swarmed into the outer room
whenever we would allow it. They are
very docile and could be sent away at
any time like flock of exceptionally
good children"
II suppose you were the first white
woman most of them had ever SEEM"
eyes, and on the whole they con-
sidered me about the most curious pos
session the white man had. The Eskimo,
like most other savages, devotes all his
time to hunting, and lets his womenkind
do the work. have seen whole party
of them sit by and watch the women
roll the heavy stones which fastem down
the edges of the skin tent-thc summer
residence OF the native Greenlander. AS
great concession the man will occas-
ionally hold the tent in position while his
wife does the heavy work in securing it.
It amazed them to see me shoulder
a gun and start out hunting with my
husband, but not so much as to see him
and the other men of the party carefully
spare me from any -arduous task.
sWhite woman very lazy was the open
ly expressed verdict. This, however,
did not prevent one prominent Eskimo
citizen from proposing an exchange of
wives with Lieutenant Peary. AS an
additional inducement to the trade he
offered to throw in his two children"
Chow do you know when spring has
come in such high latitudesa Is there
any outward and visible sign besides
perpetual day instead of perpetual
nighta"
1.-THE warmth of q Greenland spring
is delicious. In April before the e1-