The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-06

dead. Several times he was warned
by a faithful friend not TO go about out
OF doors alone. for there VAS a plot
10 throw him from the cliff, and thrice
attempts were made TO poison him.
The discouraging work Of slowly
leading the Innuits OF Cape Pierce into
the ways OF civilized people went con-
stantly forward. The youths in the
school were urged to abstain from the
use of the intoxicating decoction of mo-
lasses and alcohol hat the whalers and
traders left there in exchange for Eski-
mo products every summer. BY prom
Use OF pecuniary reward the older men
were gradually induced to abstain from
the fiery drink for a whole season. The
m~issionary's medicine chest proved a
wonder in dispelling the superstition
and witchcraft regarding Illness and
disease. Several cures of a who
had been given up to die did more tina
all else To make the brave Scotchman
beloved i'm that region. By 1854. after
five years Of extraordinary labor. Mr..
Macpherson began TO see n gratifying
change in the spirit and conduct Of
the people about him. Not a person
had been killed there for three years:
he was consulted by people far and
wide. and the Innuits had abandoned
their caves n dugouts n lived in
huts and cabins. Morality had improved.
III nv hAiAilA' VI " a. Nbuuk
Davie wisner OF Toronto, Canada, came
and added his private fortune and his
efforts 10 Mr.. MacPherson's. From
that time the missionary movement
went forward fast. In the summer Of
1884 the whalers and traders were in
duced to trade with the Indians i'm pro-
visions, such as hams, bacon, flour.
~raisins, etc. and not the ingredients for
intoxicants. The drunkenness. which
had begun annually with the opening
of navigation I'm Boring sea was much
diminished from that time forth, al
though some OF the old men n women
I'm the settlement were so mgr at be-
ing deprived Of their summer debauch-
cry that they plotted the assassination
Of the missionaries.
MIR. Macpherson has from the first
taught lessons In cleanliness in persol
and habitation at Cape Pierce. 1t has
been a hard struggle, for the n
have. from prehistoric times, been
about as filthy a race as lives. In the
first years that the Scotch missionary
was there IL was common for a family
of parents and a dozen children n
grandchildren to live in one howell or
dugout i'm the cliff. A walrus would be
hauled from the water into the low,
fou habitation and be cooked by a
fire on the floor. part Of the body each
day, until all but the bones and hard
flesh were consumed. The bones would
then he pushed aside and a new walrus
carcass cooked there, while the smell
Of putrid flesh and foul bones filled the
air day and night. Now every family
i'm Cape Pierce lives In n woodcn habi-
tation. and the cleanliness there Will
compare favorably with that of any
reclaimed race. The Innuits have been
taught To wear better clothing, and
nowadays the traders who sail up into
Boring sea every summer take along
cheap trousers. coats and gowns for
trading with the Innuits Twenty years
ago old Chief Mathajuk lived in "A dug
out with several wives. He has now a
40x2O cabin. with four rooms, glass
windows and dirt floors. 1t is a model
cleanliness. He has let three of his
wives go. and was formally married To
the wife he retained. He employs men
to fish and hunt for him, and he has
developed into a sagacious trader and
is teaching lessons Of thrift and TEN
perance among his fellow country
men.
MIR. Macpherson has been laying the
groundwork only for teaching Christ
ian doctrines. He has never yet tried
to teach the meaning of baptism. the
sacrament of communion and church
offices. That instruction Is To come in
later years. II has been enough to
teach the fundamentals of civilization
10 so degraded a people. He has shown
the Innuits how TO he self-supporting.
how to provide for the winter season
when there Is no one to buy their furs
and fish. how to make an agreeable
home, how TO wash, at least, their
faces. and how cleanliness keeps them
I'm better health. When he went 10
Cape Pierce there were not n dozen
blankets i'm the settlement. Now there
are not only n great many clean blan-
kets. but some pretty good beds as
well. Tables, stoves and crockery
dishes nave i'm the last few years be-
come the fashion at Cape Pierce, M
in n few years more there will be win
dow curtains and wooden floors. \
store, kept by "A bright native from
Sitka, has been doing n good business
at Cape Pierce. and since 1898 has twice
been enlarged.