The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-01-21
ESKIMO 3 s. (. IKGENUI
THE FLAT-FAcED. RoLY-PoLY
LITTLE SAVAGE "A MARVEL.
some OF His Invontiona-Close Secoud
= to the Yankee In OrIglnality-S1edxe s
Better Than Anything We Could Offer
for the Purpose. r. - -,

| The Eskimo and the Yankee are
hoout as far apart as two human types
well could be, yet they have traits in
common. If there is any quality super.
lat1Vely characteristic of the Yankee it
is surely his mechanical ingenuity; and
the Hat-faced, roly-poly Eskimo Is SIM
ply marvel In the same line, though
ne doesn't look 1t, says the Philadelphia
Press. In fact, it is to his cleverness
that he owes his existence. No race
not fertile in expedients could possibly
survive for a single year in that land
OF eternal winter, where nothing can be
done In the same manner as in other
parts OF the world. Really, those re-
glons OF fr1ghtful cold were never
meant for man to dwell in, and the har-
dy natives are able to live there only by
denying nature and outwitting her at
every turn. In country where the
| mercury drops down into the bulb and
freezes into a bullet that you could
shoot out of a gun, to be long without
shelter means death, yet the materials
out OF which men build houses are no
where to be found. So the shifty Eski-
mo builds hut of the very snow that
seemed likely to destroy him and
makes himself very comfortable in it.
But, again, in that terrible climate
he has neither wood nor coal nor any,
thing else that we are accustomed to
use for fuel; indeed, If he were to build
an ordinary fire in his icy den he would
quickly bring his own roof down upon
his head in mass of slush. So, with
little lamp, which Is nothing more
than a saucerful of blubber, he gets
warmth and light and heat for his
cooking. Fish and seal are his chief
means of subsistence; yet for his boat
he has not even the birch bark which
serves the purpose so we'll for his IN
dian neighbors little farther south.
Not in the least daunted, this arctic
Yankee makes a craft of skin, which
is scarcely more than an inflated bag,
but which he manipulates with such
amazing cleverness that he can out
ride the toughest seas and actually
turn somersaults on the tumbling
waves. They are not easily baked,
these phlegmatic, stolid-looking saw
ages. Most ingenious OF all are their
'sledges. Everybody is supposed to
know how, in the absence of wood,
! they build them Of numberless little
pieces of bone deftly fitted, pierced and
bound together with bits OF sinew. But
though everybody is presumed to know
how it is done, nobody but an Eskimo
can do it. You might more readily
construct a bicycle of scrap-iron and
;stove wire. It is a task recurring in
finite skill and patience; yet, when fin
ished, one of these sledges lasts for
many generations, an heirloom handed
down from father to son, better for its
purpose than anything We, with all our
science, could offer as substitute. At
the same time strong and flexible, It
endures the toughest usage as 1t is
dragged by the wild, fleet dog packs
over the frozen wastes that girdle the
pole. Not always, however, has the
Eskimo sledge of this description
ready to his hand, and something he
must have. But you can't freeze out
an Eskimo. Calling to his aid the very
frosts that threaten his life, he makes
two long tubes of sealskin, fills them
with moss and EARTH or even with
snow, and vets them down, bending
them up little at the ends. In a few
minutes they are frozen as rigid as
iron-and there are his runners. Mean
while he has cut out a large oblong
from thick walrus hide, which he
also moistens. When that, too, is
frozen it becomes as stiff as a. deal
plank-and there is the top board. A
few stout thongs do the rest, and in less
than an hour he has serviceable
sledge ready for business.