The gold leaf., 1906-01-04
Henderson,. n. c., THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1906.
NEW YEARS IN ARCTIC.
4 Merry Day With the Iceboun
New ENGLAND Whalers

L Merry Day With the Icebound
New England Whalers.
They are making New Years calls in
the arctic. says the Boston Globe.
'sThey" are the American women,
wives of whaling captains, who spend
three years out of every four IN that
region, where tha perpetual blizzard is
In motion. and where they rise superior
to months and days and weeks
You can imagine how welcome peo-
pie are who are so scarce as In the
friendly little feet near Point Barrow.
Whc1 yen only have three or four wo-
men neighbOrs you are not going to be
snippy and new fashioned and refuse
to make the time honored greeting that
used to prevail in this enlightened land.
Instead you are going to don your best
fur) dress suit and sea;skin hood and
go and pay your respects to those la
dies. And the respects will not be
chilly. if the surroundings are, for the
spirit OF hospitality can overlook
great deal in the matter of climate and
canned peach sherbet.
When the 1st of January dawns,
with the first peep of the north pole
day the men jump into their gunny
sack-like garments and begin work.
The ships are frozen into the ice foes,
and the SNOW must be swept away
from ship to ship to form q path. The
men have feveriSh anxiety to see the
day pass without a jar or jerk in the
festivities, and they labor with great
enthusiasm to convert this lonely land
into something akin to holiday I'm
town"
The women meanwhile have been
making their preparations for the Occa
sion. The plum pudding has to be
steamed and the crackers and nuts put
into dishes that will tempt the bashful
whalers, and there Is a general air Of
mysterious concoction that delights and
confounds the hungry men who admir-
ingly survey the scene. They fetch
and carry with eagerness dishes and
compliments and what not. and before
you could say Jack Robinson there is q
table set and an array Of toastmasters
alongside of it, and The ladies. God
bless 'em"' become sort Of brown clad
angels with seaiskin halos and q corner
on popularity.
AT about II a. ~ the real day begins,
and then there are such a talking and
such feasting and such a Delaying
there as never were When q sailor
goes calling in the cold, cold land of six
months Of winter he is not looking for
+
And the dinner-gorgeOus array that
1t is-one vast table in the inner cabin
and one vast amount of temptations in
the way of food and drink! They all
sit down to the china pot and the sand
wicheS, and the bits Of cranberry, and
the loads of walrus rump. and the beef
stew, and the bean soup, and there is q
lively time.
Dried fruits and spiced pickles and
many jokes fly about. and there is as
much jollity as you would expect from
a blackberry Juice toddy innocent of
Kentucky rye. And then, after the
dinner is over, there is a session of
"reminiscences and ease and handmade
cigars, and the ladies do fancy work
Ou the pdtteIuS VI tulee years dSo dut
chat with the men about anything but
"shop" Whales may come and whales
may go in the meantime, but the chat
ter goes on forever, or so the men wish
1t would as they lounge in the lighted
cabin and tell stories of home and think
of the women who await them there,
and then more talk, and later tea
again. and preserved ginger, and jokes
not a bit older than those at home.
And then they all march home to their
icebound ships under the stars of that
big night