The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-21

! carriers, was travelling through slush
Ice and got badly wet He pushed
on to reach the bunk house" but
night overlook him. After collecting
wood along the river bank and maxi
ing fire, he found that while he
warmed on one side he was chilling
| on the other, the thermometer reg
istring GA degrees below zero. So he
spent the night climbing up and down
the hill to keep his blood in circula-
| ton.
Men Who Vanish Forever.
These are mild incidents of the
everyday hazards of the trial. told by
| survivors. In this adventurous life the
| old saying that 1.-The dead tell no tales
| is as true as it was in the days of pi-
| racy on the high seas. The number
really lost on the trails of this grim
region since the carrying of the mails
would make a long and gruesome list.
Dogs, sled and man disappear. 1t is
: impossible, in these vast soltudes, to
! say what becomes of them.
Two mail carriers on the short run
to Attn did not arrive last winter. and
| a. search party was sent out They
! found the tracks of the sled leading
| to what had been a hole in the ice.
That was all: In the same district,
| the frozen body of a mail carrier was
| found and identified by his watch.
He had been lost three years pre-
| viously.
Harry Frayne, a mail carrier from
| Valdes to Eagle, started out last jan
uary with the expectation of meeting
/ the carrier on the next stage. He
found the dogs and the sled. The car
rier, Tuff1n, had abandoned them
when the dogs were exhausted, and had
started off with the idea of carrying
| the mail on his back for the rest of
| the distance Some Indians found his
frozen body six miles from the summit
| of Mentasa Pass. He had plodded with
the mail until he fell in the snow,
| frozen to death.
From the lower end of this lonely
| trail of 1000 miles to Nome there is
often in the local newspapers brief
mention of the disappearance of mail
carrier, and people, appreciating the
risks they run, are entirely unmoved.
1t is an episode of daily life, exciting
no more comment than a runaway
horse does in a big city.
Heroic Servants of Civilization
These mail carriers, in their humble
way, are doing more than anybody
else to spread civilization to the utter
most ends of the earth. The United
States has behaved literally to Alas
| ka in the matter of mails. Mail mat
ter in some parts of this vast territory
pays the government about 30 cents a
pound for transportation, and costs
| about 81 per pound to carry to its des-
tination after it reaches the seaboard
of the territory. Costly as this policy is
it places the lonely prospector in touch
with civilization and tends to keep him
| civilized in a larger degree than any
bother agency could.
But the cost to the mail carrier is
| oftentimes life itself. 1t is strange
that men can be found to undertake a
| task full of such extraordinary and
terrific risks. There is never any diff
Guilty, however. The adventurous life
| appeals to men of grit and spirit; they
sayathat they prefer it, with all its per-
lis, to a humdrum occupation
Hard Life.
| Leaving all danger and adventure
| out of consideration, it is still rough,
hard life. Do not imagine the carrier
| reclining at his ease, covered with
warm robes, while the dogs lope
| along over a smooth surface. He has
to guide the sled from one side OF
the river to the other to miss the
heaped up ice, the soft places, and the
snowbanks. Where the trail Is good,
he grasps the long handles at the rear
| and at a continuous jog trot guides
l
| places he jumps on narrow board
resting a good part of his weight on
| the handle bars.
In a temperature of so degrees be-
low zero, which is common, he has
to keep warm, and yet he must not
perspire, or the moisture will immedi-
| ately freeze. Instead of warm robes,
he has a parka "a smock frock with
no opening except at the neck) which
is made of ticking. This is light and
keeps out the wind.
His greatest care is as to his foot
| wear. He has two or three pairs OF
wooden socks, and over them a pair
| of moccasins made of deer hide.
Should these get wet his feet freeze
and he is little better than dead man.
After he has made his distance fof
the day, he arrives at a lonely cabin
| under some feet of snow. He has to
put on his snowshoes to break trail
to it for the dogs. The cabin contains
| a rusty stove and some provisions
for himself and the dogs. He has to
| chop wood after his days work, and
! must first cook the supper for his
| dogs. Then he cooks and eats his
lonely meal and lies down in his
| clothes to sleep. There is no furniture
| In a country where fuel is scarce the
temptation to chop it up for stove
wood would be too great.
Only men of iron frame can stand
/ the hardshps of such life. The
others are "weeded out" after two or
three trips.