The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-08-30
WON BY A SIREN.
The Romantic Tale OF an Amer
lean Professors Downfall
Led by the Wiles of an AIeutlan Island
Maiden to Forsake His wife and Coun-
try-A Touching Story OF Life
In the North.

Maj. 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 close observer of the customs OF
the Aleutians, and relates many inter
esting anecdotes of his sojourn there,
says the st. Louis Republic.
SIN the far away Pribylov islands
there is little convent devoted to a
nameless religion" said Maj. Nettle-
ton. 1T has only one occupant, whom
the natives call Kchatka, the Aleutian
nun. She worships no invisible divin-
ity 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 merchandise for sealsluns 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 dusly wife made
many voyages between the island and
Russian ports, but one day they were
brought from their ship to one of the
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 children 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.
"Their lives were uneventful until
they reached the age of sixteen.
Neither had been to school, and they
knew nothing of the outside world, ex-
cept what they remembered of the
fairy tales told to amuse their child
hood fancies About this time the
United States purchased Alaska and
sent young professor from one of the
leading eastern universities to the
island on scientific expedition. The
trip was an arduous one. and he left
his young wife at home with her rela-
tives. Securing the data and statistics
for which he was sent in few days..
time hung heavily on his hands, and
the young savant undertook the task
ofinstrncting the beautiful but Hitter
ate sisters. Kchatka was an apt pupil,
quaffing eagerly from the Pierian
spring, out her sister, although quite
as bright, seemed to be much more in
terested in her tutor than she was in
her grammar or arithmetic. The at
traction was mutual, and when ship
came on which the young professor
might have returned home he wrote to
his wife that he was unexpectedly de-
tanned and could not come home for
another three months. The arrivals of
ships at the islands were 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
went on board, bribing the boatmen to
refuse to bring his Aleutian sweetheart
to the schooner should she ask them to
do so.
1.-THE schooner lay fully a mile from
the shore, and the sailors were already
in the tall masts spreading the canvas
preparatory to departure, when one of
them caught sight of woman swim
ming in the water. She came on board
and implored the young man to aban-
don his idea of returning home, or to
stay at least until the next ship Her
knowledge of English was limited but
as she lSnelt before him on the deck OF
the ship, her dark eyes pleading more
eloquently than words, he decided to
forsake his invalid wife and spend his
days with his Aleutian love.
HE returned to tho island and en-
deavored to forget the woman whom
he had promised to 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 in
formed him that his wife was dead;
that she died with his name on her
lips, and that her last Ineligible utter
ance 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 faithful nursing saved him from
dying of brain fever. When he was
well enough to return home he mar
ried his Aleutian sweetheart, Kchatka,
her sister, refused to leave the islands.
During the epidemic of smallpox,
which nearly depopulated the islands
a few years ago. she was one of the
very few who aid not take the disease,
although she was constantly at the
bedside of the sufferers. The simple
natives say that the Great Spirit re-
fused to spoil her beauty. that she
might shine as an angel of light among
them and teach the road to the Aleu-
tian heaven, where seals are plenty and
it is never cold"