The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-02-06
WHERE NO ONE LIVES.
WEIRD TALE or THE GREATEST
ESKIMO VILLAGE EVER BUILT.

I -AA went ~ OIL Nutll "a Quantity OF
Liquor Was Found Among the stores
In South Africa. as is well known,
nevis travels from one portion Of the
copfrt to another by what is called
tlId5lSldlr telegraph more rapidly
ths I'M YES by regular white man
70 III 81, e such a service must be
COZ On To- - Arctic Eskimo, for
MAI \ things 3seNm to come to his
knc -ldge from far distant sources.
TVS, in the fall Of 1871 thirty
three whaling vessels we're caught and
abandoned in the Ice near Wainwright
Inlet, on the Arctic coast Of North
AEIerica, word seemed to fash along
th6> coast and Tar inland among the
Eskimo villages, and from igloo and
topek the people headed north and east
and west to the shore where lay the
greatest windfall in all Eskimo history.
The whalemen had escaped merely with
their lives, their boats and scant pro
visions All else was left behind; and
the value Of the whalebone, stores ard
vessels was not far from a million anl
a half in American dollars
To this place of great riches travelled
all tribes that had means of travel.
From the bleak coast far east of the
mouth of the Mackenzie river, from
the sandy peninsula Of Point Hope,
from the villages of the northern shore
Of Kotzebue Sound, and from the far
interior along the Kobuk, the Noatak
and Selawik rivers the tribes saw the
others pack up and move, and hitched
up their dogs and followed, knowing
well that the prizes for such a jour
ney at such a time of year must be
great else none would attempt it. Ear
ly in December, about the time that
the sun ceases to rise in the southwark
on that bleak coasS t merely lights
the southern sky wEf rosy glow at
what should be noon, fully 1000 Eski-
mos had assembled and begun to, build
the greatest Eskimo village ever k&Own
in the history Of the race. -
The skin topeks we're set up. Where
the wind had blown the snow bare from
the lodges, they quaTTied rough stone
and built igloos of these, chinked with
reindeer moss and banked with snow
for warmth. But many of them began
to dismantle the ships frozen all about
in the shore ice and build cabins from
their wood, for the Eskimo knows how
to build a rough wooden house when
he has the material If you will visit
the Diomede islands, in the fer. EUR
rents Of Boring Straits, today y, Eill
see similar stone igloos and othG "a
of driftWood and rough boards,
up heaven knows where, reinforce "A
canvas bought from visiting whalers
| and skins of seal and walrus.
Such We're the nondescript abodes oil
the new village; and here they settled
down in the darkness and fierce cold Of
the Arctic midnight, content for neal
at hand were provisions and loot IN
dreamed Of in any Eskimo dream be-
fore.
The looting went on continuously
and at first there was enough for all
The lglOos became crowded with arms
and ammunition, implements, canvas
lines and utensils The ships store
were broken open and much taken, bu
far more wasted, because the igEor
ant men of the sea beach and tundr
did not hnow the value of what the,
had in hand. The whalebone, of whicl
there was much, they took ashore, AM
the hard bread was a special prize an
fought for accordingly but the flour
of which there were great quantities
they had not then learned the value O
and the barrels and sacks of that wer
broken open and scattered about i
wanton ignorance.
With plenty of the priced hard tacl
with salt junk in barrels, with oil an
wood galore, it would seem that tn
Eskimo millennium was near at hanC
and that the tribes might live in peac
and plenty together for a long time t
come, and-whO kpows?-out Of thei
prosperity found a permanent city an
a higher scheme Ct Eskimo civilizatio
than they had hitherto known. Bu
alas! the means of their undoing ha
come with the means Of the upbuildini
and their untutored wills might not n
sist the serpent of their below zeI
Eden. There was liquor left behind Q
the ships. Not very much, if divided pI
rata among three thousand people, bI
enough to fight to get, and to fight sti
harder because of when once gotten
The fact is, very little liquor wi
upset a great many Eskimos; and I
man can describe the orgies that b
gan in the new Eskimo city, once tn
had begun to get in its work upon Il
] I'll o. Iattanta LLlLol anlrn aaitL- ..-hi