St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-22
my LITTLE ALEUTIAN FRIEND,
Another of Captain Toms Charm,
ing Stories of Child Life.
How Youngsters Live up In the Land
Of Fog and Rain, and Ice and Snow,
with Nights Six Months Long,

Still hunting for gold and never getting all
we need, that is why we work and change
place; and let me say the motive is not the
noblest, but it was that and a love of adven-
ture that took me to the island of Kodiak
many years ago. We own it now, but at one
time the island belonged to Russia, and it
was they who built and named the little
hamlet of Alexandria. Negho lived neal
Alexandria with father and mother, and no
end of brothers and sisters. They were
Aleutes, that is natives of the Aleutian
Islands, and their eyes were bias, like those
of the Chinese, and like those people they
were short of stature; but the long black
hair, and the coppery color of the skin, made
them look like Indians on the nearby shore
of America, and I am sure they are all
related.
Negho was my servant; he looked to be
about fifteen, he might have passed for
twelve, but he was as strong and active as a
grown up man, and had the solemn ways Of
one who had seen at least century of life,
for he but seldom laughed. He took every
thing seriously; but he was as honest as
the sun, with the moon and lot of stars
thrown in-except that he would steal tallow
candles and whale oil, whenever my back was
turned.
''These are strange things for boy to
STEAL" you saysand you ask, "What did he do
with them?" Well he drank the oil and
smacked his lips with great relish after it;
and he ate the candles with more enjoy
ment than any one of my nephews ever ate
candy.
You see it is very cold country, and the
people up there need heat-producing food,
for these fats and oils warm up in our bodies,
just as they do in lamps and candle-sticks,
with a little difference you will understand.
Once came into my tent while Negho was
eating stolen candle; indeed, that is how
first discovered it, and anxious to hide the
theft he swallowed it. The wick caught on
one of his teeth, and he was seized with
strangling fit. I patted him vigorously on
the back, and brought up the wick with bits
of tallow adhering, and he was very peni-
tent and very sad boy. After that I tried
to hide the candles.
Umak was Neghos father, and he lived
down the shore in house that couldn't be-
seen till one came right on it. It was like
big cellar rooted in with clay and moss, and
the hole through which the smoke came
looked like baby volcano, but where the
smoke came out the people went in, for it was
at once, chimney, door and window
The way to enter the house was by climbing
down anotched pole. Shell lamps, filed with
fish oil, lit up the place, and made smell
very hard for white man to bear. About
the walls there were hunks, like those on a
ship or in sleeping car, though far from be-
ing so clean. Furs were used for clothing
and bed-covers, but there were no change of
clothes on going to bed or getting up, and no
bathing or washing. The people varnish
themselves with oil, but the only time they
ever wet themselves, is when they are thrown
into the cold salt sea from their kyaks when
hunting the seal or walrus.
Negho's little brothers and sisters with a
lot of children from the neighboring cellars
We're running about in very light attire and
Judging by their happy laughter they were
having good time of it. Some sat in groups
playing game with the knuckle bones of the
seal, that resembled our jack stones
Hanging from the roof of this strange house.
there were long strings of dried fish, black