Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-12-16

| THE ISLAND. BROKE 1T OFF AND PUSHED
| 1t OUT TO SEA.
| Scomalt, who was great and strong and
ruled the island where the first men lived
| This was long, long ago, when the sun
| was so young that it was only as large as
| star and there was very little earth to
| live on.
| This island was far in the east and was
| settled by white giants. War arose among
| them, and the noise and slaughter so ex-
| asperated Scomalt, their queen, that she
| drove the rebels to the end of the island,
| broke it off and pushed it out to sea. This
| fragment with its inhabitants, now too
| busy worrying to fight, drifted for many
days and was SO swept by storm and so
| lacking in food that one by one the people
| died, all but man and his wife, who de-
serted the derelict, for it was waterlogged
and sinking, and padded day and night
in their canoe until they came to America,
| then an island fringed with rocks, and
| landed on what is now the territory of the
Okanagans.
From them came all the people of the
western world. But, alas! they were no
longer white. After their days of exposure
to the sun they had been burned red from
head to foot Here the descendants of this
pair shall dwell until the lakes and ever
flowing rivers deep beneath us shall melt
the foundations of the world and it will
float away again, that time to ruin.
This is story of Alaska. 1t tells of the
baffled ice god:
Thirty or forty miles up the Stickeen
river in Alaska is glacier % miles long
and 80 miles wide, stupendous ice mass
that is part of the bridge once flung
across the river A god of this region
who had most power in winter, closing
the smaller streams, covering the noun
tains with white, stripping the foliage
from the trees and covering the inlets with
foes, was angry at the spirit of the Stick
cen for it's refusal to submit to the power
of the frost. AS the long winter came on,
brooding and threatening, the god shook
his spear of icicle in triumph and began
bawling his orders in a north wind voice
that roared and echoed with the cliffs and
shook all the loose snow out of the passing
clouds.
The Stickeen went dancing and frolick-
ing to the ocean, without any notice of the
god, until, filled with wrath that one child
of nature should disobey him, he gathered
from the mountain side great masses of
ice and snow and flung them across the
stream. He could not close it, but he
bridged it and shut it from the air and
sunlight, and the people who had gone to
il daily for fish were frightened and asked |
its spirit what could be done to make it |
free again. Crushed and shamed, the spirit |
made TO answer, but the god cried in his |
stormiest voice that he must have two lives |
to pay for this disobedience, and must |
have them soon, or he would visit his \
wrath upon all the men who lived along
the river.
An old chief asked who among the COM
pany would make the sacrifce-make it |
by ID. most dreaded death of drowning /
His people shrank away, and there fell /
silence. But presently young woman /
arose and said in falsering tones that she /
would die to save her people At this a |
young warrior sprang up proudly and /
cried that he would be the other to make
this gift of life. a canoe was brought to
the shore sadly decked with carvings for
the last voyage OF the two, and they were
bound so that they might not attempt an
escape when the boat swept against the
ice bridge and sucked into the deeps be-
low. fearful farewells were said, and the
boat was pushed into the stream. As it
neared the low arch of ice the people turn
ed aside that they might not see the trag-
edy. But there was no tragedy. Pleased
and touched by the willingness of these
innocent ones TO give their lives for his
selfish within. the god stamped on his rev
made bridge. and a part of it fell into the
water, leaving space by which the boat
was carried by the river Manitou in safe
ty- Then it swung to the shore and
grounded. Loud were the cries of praise
and quick the release of the willing cap
tives, who were led back to their camp in
triumph And the god desisted from his
battling from that hour.
Memory.