The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-12
A SEAL ISLAND SIREN.
Sung a Song Which Caused an Amer
lean to Break His Marriage Vows.
From the st. Louis Republic.


Mai. S. r.. Nettleton, who was two
years United States special treasury
agent at the Pribylov Islands. or Seal
Islands, as they are sometimes called,
was a close observer of the customs of
the Aleutians, and relates many interest
ing anecdotes of his sojourn there
I'm the far away Pribylov Islands there
is a little convent devoted tea nameless
religion" said Maj. NeJtleton 1T has
only one occupant, whom the natives call
Kchatka, the Aleutian nun. She wer-
ships no invisible divinity and has no
theoretical doctrines, but she teaches
her people that if they live honestly and
relieve the sick and unfortunate they will
be rewarded.
Years ago. when the islands were the
property of Russia, Russian trader
came TO the islands to exchange his mer-
chandise for sealskins and the fur of the
silver gray fox. He fell in love with an
AleUtian maiden, the belle of the island,
and in the due course of time they were
married. The trader and his duSky wife
made many voyages between the island
and Russian ports, but one day they were
Alaska Commercial Company's huts,
both very i'll with terrible fever With
them were two little twin. girls, whose
exuberant health and spirits were sad
contrast to the condition of their parents
The next day their mother died Her
husband was at the point of death, but
when his dying wife was brought to his
bedside and asked him TO give their chill
dren to her parents he feebly assented.
When the funeral of his wife was taking
place he, too, died, and the two little
orphans were removed to the home of
their grandmother.
''There lives were uneventful until they
reached the age of 16. Neither had been
to school, and they knew nothing of the
outside world, except what they remem-
bered of the fairy tales told to amuse
their childhood's fancies About this
time the United States purchased Alaska
and sent a young professor from one of
the leading eastern universities to the
island on a scientific expedition. The
trip was an arduous one, and he left his
young wife at home9@ith her relatives
Securing the data and statistics for which
he was sent in q few days, time hung
heavily on his hands, and the young sa-
want undertood the. task of instructing
Kchatka was an apt pupil, quaf-
fng eagerly from the Pierian spring,
but her sister, although quite as
bright, seemed to be much more
interested in her tutor than she
was in her grammar or arithmetic The
attraction was mutual, and when a ship
came on which the young professor might
have returned home, he wrote to his wife
that he was unexpectedly detained and
months. The. arrivals of ships at the
islands are few and far between, and the
next mail brought a letter imploring him
to return home, as his wife was at the
point of death. 1t so happened that one
of the Alaska Commercial Company's
schooners was to sail for San. Francisco
the following day. The young professor
resolutely Vent on board, bribing the
boatmen to refuse to bring his Aleutan
sweetheart to the schooner should she ask
them to do So u ...,
THE schooner lay fully mile from the
shore, and the sailors were already in the
tall masts, spreading the canvas prepara-
tory TO departure, when one Of them
caught sight OF a woman swimming in
the water. She came on board and i'm
plored the young man TO abandon his idea
of returning home, or to stay at least
until the next ship. Her knowledge of
English was limited, but as she kuelt be-
fore him on the deck of the ship, her dark
eyes pleaded more eloquently than words,
he decided to forsake his invalid wife and
spend his days With MS eA1eutian love
He returned to the island and endeav-
ored to forget the woman whom he had
promised 10 love and cherish, who, lying
at the dark portals of death, was longing
for parting kiss or last embrace before
she died. The mail which next reached
the islands informed him that his wife
was dead; that she died with his name
on her lips and that her last ineligible
utterance was hope that he would meet
her in the better land
"He read the letter and fell to the floor
unconscious. Fully two months of faith
full nursing saved him from dyingof brain
fever. When he was we'll enough to re
turn home he married his Aleutian sweet
heart and to-day she is an accomplished
mistress of an elegant home in Cleveland,
o. Kchatka, her sister, refused to leave
the islands. During the epidemic of
smallpox which nearly depopulated the
islands few years ago she was one of the
very few who did not take the disease,
although she was constantly at the bed
side of the sufferers The simple natives
say that the great spirit refused to
spoil her beauty that she might
shine as an angel of light among them
and teach the road to the Aleutian
heaven, where seals are plenty and it is
never cold" ' 10 Ef11-a ''