The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-17
THE KLONDIxE sCHOoLMARM.
The Educational Institution which
Mrs. Rowland VIII Open.
San Francisco Post

San Francisco Post.
Mrs. l. c. Rowland is going to the Blon-
dixie to teach school. Mrs Rowland is de-
scribed as "a native of Boston and grad
uate of Harvard annex" She is accom-
panied" by her schoolhouse. q portable
structure that "fits into ITSELF like a Japa-
nese bungalow She also takes with her
a supply of educational raw material, In
Guiding books. states charts and what she
learned in the Harvard annex" Mr.. How
land is part of the outfit" but he isn't
counted as an equation of the higher edu-
cation of the Klondike.
The most peculiar feature of this adven-
ture develops in the fact that there are no
children in the Northwest Territory, cir
cumstance that might be regarded as an
insuperable obstacle to the success of q
kindergarten enterprise in the "boreal
north" Mrs. Rowland, however, is not dis
expects to find a lot of adult ignoramuses
In and about Dawson, and she is confident
book learning preferring the elevating
influences of a Boston education to the
contamination of a hurdy gurdy; forsak-
feet of this Hypatia of the Yukon.
1t is an original idea, and worthy of the
pretty schoolmarm--we believe she is pretty
the K1ondike Is written it will embrace the
pretty schoolmarm aforesaid as the ro-
mances OF other mining camps have done.
but the chronicle will proceed along lines
similar to those described by Truthful
James in his account of "a spellin' bee at
Anglers that we organized last year" It
will be remembered that this "Spellin' Bee"
"Warn't made up Of gentle kids-of pretty
kids-like you.
But gents ez he'd their regular growth, and
some enough for two.
There woz Lanky Jim of Suffers Fork. and
Bilson of Lagrange.
There WOE Poker Dick from Whisky Flat,
and Smith of Shooters Bend,
And Brown of Calaveras-which [ want no
better friend.
Three-f fingered Jack-yes, pretty dears-
three fingers-you have five
Clapp cut off two-its sing lar, too, that
FlDFA n i'm mr.. al II
Twas very wrong indeed, my dears, and
Likewise was Jack, in after years, for
shootin' of that same
But no fatalities will result from the es-
adjustment of Mrs. Howland's Academy
for Elderly Gents on the Klondihe--' gents
enough for dwo." The bearded kids" will
assemble in the portable schoohouse earn
estly intent upon the object of their tasks.
stand up" to recite that 1.-THE Northwest
Territories include the districts of Alberta,
Athabasca, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan
without single allusion by Seattle Bill or
Frisco Mike that if the boundary were
properly surveyed the Klondike would be-
long TO the United States, nor hint from
Purring Jock of Cornwall intimating that
II you Yankees don't like the way we've
fixed that boundary you can snow shoe
back to Alaska, where you belong" When
the class in mental arithmetic arises to
demonstrate that Canadian duty sub
tracted from an American miners outfit
leaves" the outfit, there will be no un-
kind remarks by the Vancouver Chicken to
the effect that. =" art a leafs better than no
bread, OF son, an yer beastly lucky to get
in with the outfit" In the presence of the
Boston schoolmarm none of these pleas
antrieS will be permitted to disturb the ed
ucational harmony-the Pierian spring OF
the Klondike will flow as limpidly as 1t
flows at Harvard or at Oxford
married schoolmarm is another innova-
ton on the accepted idea of elementary
learning in frontier mining camp. Usually
the young woman who undertakes to in
ki6S-thp n
such q community is husbandless, to the
end that she may reform and eventually
camp having taken the precaution previ-
ously to refine" him into a gentleman and
convert him to an ideal involving the
capacity to perform heroic deeds on the
spur of the impulse, thereby classifying
every local tradition concerning her pro-
tege's utter ,'shiftlessness' and all round
In the case of Mrs. Rowland there can
be no shame-faced rivalry for the smiles
of the new schoolmarm," no diffdent
Sinking be-whiskered Romeos of the dig
gings, no awkward maneuvering by sun
burned, mud-splashed, gum-booted, OPEN
shlrted, horny-nanded galiants OF the tun-
neS and bitches" Her affections having
been pre-empted. staked claimed and duly
recorded, she will be denied the womans
pleasure of exciting amorous emulation in
the hearts of men. She will have TO take
her place with the other married women
of the camp and be content with the con-
ventional difference that men accord to
women the world around, throwing over.
regretfully, perhaps, the adulation of the
masculine majority to the widows and
maidens now hockng northward as the
gray goose flies when the summer solstice
is creeping into Cancer
Neither can Mrs. Rowland bank" on
such preferential respect raw eommuni-
ties bestow on the first woman In camp"
There are others. many others, who have
pioneered the feminine klondike. There Is
Mrs Adams, who takes in" sewing and
Mrs. Thomas, who keeps boarders--so
when the social conditions OF Dawson are
sized up the schoolmarm must carve
out career for herself independent of the
maiden who allures, the widow who snares,
and the woman whose position is assured"
That she will do this nobody doubts. She
is from Boston and she is a bachelor OF
the Harvard annex.
Then hail. all hall the first schoolmarm
of the K londkel And long may she flourish
the birch of the Yukon for the advancement
of knowledge In the Northwest Territory.