St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-22
LApLAADERs WITH US.
THE STRANGE VISiTcRS WILL Be on
snow TODAY
a RACE ROMANCE EN ROUTE

Ihe LaplanderS WonderstruCk
With America-SQuatty,S w,
! thy PeopIe-Their Dogs Queer,
in Looks as Themseives-Tak Ike
Kindly to American Food-Go
| to Alaska.
AT noon yesterday the Omaha passen!
ger train pulled out from Madison, Wis.
III the train was the Great Northern
tourist car Winnipeg, which was sent
! down to WisconSin's capital city for the
| purpose OF bringing to this citv the del
egatiOn of Laplanders imported by the
| United States government from their
native land, to form colony III Alaska
for the care of the government reindeer.
| These curious people arrived III Madi-
son last Monday night from New York
| city, which p0It they reached week
ago last SATURDAY.. They left their ma.
tive land April "a.
They laid over in Madison about a
week. They soon "caughC on to- the
American ways, for when they reached
Madison they rented vacant store
building and gave five days exhib.
| ton of themselves, dogs and belong
ings. They charged an admission fee
of ten cents per head. and Melted about
$500. The people at Madison were much
Interested i'll the novel group. Of which
there were eighteen people. Frederick
Larsen, an eighteen-year-old lad. is the
linguist of the party. The ladies' at
! Madison were much taken with him.
| and he was escorted about by the fair
sex every night during the stay of the
party.
James Young. general agent of the
Great Northern at Milwaukee, accom-
panied the party from Madison TO st.
Paul. To him the GLOBE is indebted
for much valuable information. He
was met in the "Winnipeg" last night
when the Omaha train pulled in, and
accompanied to the Merchants In the
car was peculiar odor. emanating from
the reindeer fur clothing and bodies of
the Laps. There they were. stretched
out at full length in their berths, sound
asleep. and clad in the furs
of their native cline. Asleep as
they were, there was no chance
to interview them. and, even had they
been awake, it is doubtful whether
much progress could have been made.
They are sguatty, dark com pleXioned
people.
William .Kjellmann, superintendent
of the government reindeer station at
Port Clarence, Alaska, who secured the
party. accompanied them. Three more
people, Dr.. Brabig, wife and child. who
will accompany the party to Alaska,
will not arrive from Madison until this
morning.
Twelve dogs are conveyed in crates.
There were originally thirteen dogs,
but one died while crossing the At
lantic, and found watery grave. At
the Merchants General Agent Young
said:
"There is one queer thing 1 would
like to tell you. One young couple de-
sired TO get married at Madison. This
event was to be the leading feature of
their Sunday exhibition at Madison, but
the authorities there forebade the show
Oh Sunday, SO the ceremony was called
off. This, however, did not prevent
the happy lovers from enjoying
the pleasure of each others society.
| They long ago assumed the marital re-
lati0n according to their native custom,
and when they get ready they Will have
the ceremony performed. They already
have siX-months-old babe. Their dogs,
however, have nose similar to fox
hound and bodies similar to shepherd
dog. They are gentle and Intelligent in
their line of misunderstanding reindeer.
This Importation of Lapps was originally
brought about by Sheldon Jackson, of
Washington. general agent of education
for the United States government for
Alaska. Prof. Rasmus b. Anderson, of
Madison, was delegated by Mr.. Jackson
to arrange for the transporta-
ton of these people from Mad
ison TO San Francisco. The
entire party will leave Tuesday night
for Seattle over the Great Northern.
From Seattle they will go to San Fran
cisco by one of the Pacific Coast Steam
! ship company's steamers. Here they
will purchase provisions for three years
| they being under contract with the
| government for that length of time.
| From San Francisco they will ship for
| Port Clarence. These people are noun
| tain Lapps, AMI | should not be sur
prised if they could find the north pole
II once they set about it.
They got loaded on the cars at s
| O'clock this morning. They were much
taken with the cooking range in the car,
and they at once proceeded to utilize it.
| They use coffee-and very strong at
that. This they season with salt. Mr..
Kjellmann first gave them one meal OF
| edibles Of the American kind per day to
two of their own These consisted of
dry reindeer meat fried in grease. They
| take to our kind of food very well
| indeed, particularly potatoes. Finally,
when their own kind of rations
ran short, they took up two meals la
| Americana, per day. They drink but
very little water, and show fondneSs
for beer and whisky, and are not over
| particular as to the brands"
| General Agent Young returns to Mil
| waukee tonight.
The Winnipeg and It's unique human
freight was switched out into the Great
| Northern yards last night, where it will
| probably be visited today by crowds of
| the curious.
The Lapps are much surprised at the
beauty of the country, and are not slow
! to express themselves, So Mr.. Young
| says, in this regard.
DaTsTV ON UaDrn Nnroc