The age-herald., 1897-09-26

He was at Si.. Michael get.irS h-s winter supplies when arrived and he spoke as chzeAfuly of SC and TO degrees below zero and travelling by a dog siedge over icy rivers from one distant mission to another as a man who contemplated some pleasant scene.
 At the small house where Farther Bar mum was saying awaiting the steamer to go up the .iYef he showed me a dc t'onary arii grammar of tn II kimo lan- guage upon which he has spent seven years Of cci-ssaa. study. Already ha llas designated and defined over S,ee9 Eskimo words, and says that has task is lbut be- gun, as the language Is fich~in Us No-, cabuiary, and for each thing. act or thought there is a separate and distinct wo:d. Some .dsa of the en5rmous task he has before Tim may be gained from tha fact that his grammar has to be Written and made upon bases which do not eXis5 irl our language. For instars, with us we have singular and plural, wlfle with the Inult or Esk. mo language they have singular. dual and plural. Tn the conjugsli-rT of the NatI5us moods and tenses. in o:idar to aoeonnodate the pe- culiarittss of this languaga and retain lis thought, it has been necessary for Father Barnum to crea "a naw forms and grammatical constructions which do not eTfse in our language.
 It is interesting to see this priest the soldlea on guard aN the fur thest picket line fighting and laboring and at the same time retaining all the gentleness of a child. As he turns over the pages of his grammar, calling attention to this psculfalf.y and again to that his eyss light up and his countenance becomes animated with an interest that could not be hidden, no matter how many yeaIs might be det1iied ito h.s say on the frozen banks of tha Yukon
 Father Barnum had been out but once since he wens into the Yukon aeaio1, coming out the last time by the trail, and enduring all the hardships and ext cftements that fall to tine lot of ;he pres peoaor crossing s,ha pass on the snow building boa ts, skimmtng oyer lakes and frozen rivers, again piunging through dark cams, over escaped nap ds, and all the ,drne with a physique that seemed better fitted to sIom a drawing room in a cenller of cu1ture and refinemsnt. $ Don't you eyer sigh for the comforts ard pleasures of clvilzation?' I asked him.
 NO, mo- he siaid; "I ann simply sol de. and this is my duty. I follow it and find pleasure Cln it.''
 Father Barnum will talk of everything but Himself. He talks of the co1,rlry and has found in 1t beauties which the average miner overlooks. The Esk.mos he says, are the harpiest. best -natursd people on earth being full of laughter and the affection which exis-s bstween t(ne elders and the childten might well be emulated Tn more civilized naifors His work with the Indians, both on the ukon and on the coast, has made him an aldhorf.y upon them. It is his thso- ny that the Indians originally came from the interior of America, being driven further and fur her north by the more powerful tribes, atnd he apparently takes no stock in the generally acc -pted theory that the Eskimos are traceabie to the Mongolians.
 Father Rarnum's description of the methods of transportation in the winter Tn his part of Alaska was amusing. I was shown his winters suit and was told what he would wear when ready for a sleigh ride, which meanit travefng be hind team of dogs, all of variable tenn per and each of them ready to stop at any moment and fight with some other team coming in sight. To undertake to describe the numerous garments would be to enurmerate about three suits of the heaviest sort of clothing, and these wrapped in fur. The fur parkee goes over all. By the time the slightest man has gotten on his winter suit and is ready for travelling he outrivals the stoutest alderman in his proportions For instance, the question of gloves is very simple cne. First Ihe travelel puts on a heavy pair of wooden gloves, then over this pair of fur gloves and finally over all a heavier glove. To keep the feet warm heavy hose, with fur-hned boot is used over this an- other fur boot with the fur on the in side, and over all this a fish skin boot to keep out the moisture.
 Wrapped in robs the traveler gets into his sleigh. There are anywhere from one to dozen false starts on the part of the dogs. Each dog is bowling at the top of his voice. There is no stop ping to bid goodbye Everybody bids goodbye in the house, and then it is jump to get into the sleigh and get the dogs away. All that the average Eskimo dog knows about pulling sleigh is to get up and go If they all get up and go together and you are in the sleigh, everything is all right but if one does not get up to go, they stop to argue 1t out, and another start has to be made. This time in their haste to be off the sleigh may be overturned, and there is another start. Everything has to run smoothly in starting a dog sleigh, or there is no start or there may be varied mishaps.
 Finally you are off. Away they go and you are entirely at their mercy. You can guide them, it is true. but very, very little. They stem to take revenge on their human masters by swinging down on the ice beside a crevasse, running so close that 1t seems a miracle that dogs sleigh and everybody do not go into the crevasse, never stopping until they reach the end of what they consider the journey.
 Perhaps on your journey you are for tunate enough to meet somebody coming the other way and the chances are in favor of g. fight in which the dogs of both teams participate to the last dog. At this time he travellers are wieldirg clubs with judicious effect, get the teams strengthened out, and away you go again. One thing is sure-you must be in the sleigh when the dogs start for this is train that waits for nobody.
 EVOLUTION IN SPELLING.