The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-10-17
BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON.

copvrish,. 1909 by tho New York Herald
co. All rights reserved
glance backward over the history
Of Arctic whaling and exploration sug
ccsts Vividly that there must be some
wonderful magnetism about tins great
white world. some supernatural spcI
that IN exercises over mon ana makes
inem insen2ole TO the worst forms OF
suffering and death.
Its history * very black IN places.
Many Of the most horrible chapters are
locked up within its breast or ice ana
ruory. but some have been told, and
thew read like the primal brutal strife
Of the stone age.
Seemingly the Arctic ocean has
striven 10 isolate itself within great,
sweeping barrier Of ice. Beyond my
gates. ), seems 10 say. you must not
venture Within is a shifting world OF
ice, swept beneath by treacherous,
mighty currents md overhead with ter
Yifc gales furious snow squalls, the
ghastlv Shroud of soddcn fog.
For years it has been a foregonc
conclusion that goodly percentage o.
men and ships who dared 10 enter
would never return. and yet year after
vcar the little army Of invasion has
chcerfullv gone forth. Spring sees a
ficct of ships zigZagging their SLOW,
huffcjing way through the ice pack. aud
tbo midnight sun looks down upon the
ssason = aftermath--hcre phantom
thiu drifting aimlcssiy in the pack, and
there y linc Of Tiny black dots. men
they are. struggling over the ice, half
starved. half dead with cold and thirst
praying frantically for deliverance.
Why do they go'
pat the question 10 a grizzled old
vhaler. who a the age Of scventy-iour
still listened 10 that strange call OF
the north and eagerly accepted petty
place on boat whi"h he once com
inaudcd. put il 10 him hopefully and
rot ? reply that shattered all idoas OF
the romantic: why said he simply,
u went after whales.
ihcn ! happened on Younger man,
one Of education and imagination, and
asked him.
s,WclI.'' said he. ~ went whaling
for my health 5 sake. Sort Of tatalis,lc
idea IL was. Ny doctor said: You II
either be killed or come back cured
''Ghat was my excuse. Now, j can
tell vou OF some others.
''In our crew there WAS an English
man. who, we learned aftcrward, bad
been valet 10 n rich old nabob in Aus
tralia. This man murdered his em
plovcr and ned with $4,000 in gold.
lie was hard pressed by the police and
literally cuc'rclcd tho globe IN hls CT
forts to shake of purSUii. In san
Francisco hc tried 10 hide in the Chi
ucsc underworld. and falling in this
he shipped with us tor the Arctic.
Can I beat II a. a hiding place. you
know
"Wc had many such characters there
in my day. hardened criminals. ont
laws. llooligans. and in consequence
mutinIcs were common.
''Wcll. there s one type of man and
his reason. Now. take your professional
vhaler, Npur lcaihcry faced, hard fistcd
old New Bedford csptain and his able
scsmcu. They 90 for oil and bone :;
that s al. Talk 10 them all day long
and YOU u get no other answer from
them Il had found This truc); they
literally think IN barrels of oil and
pounds of bone. That 5 their liNcli.
hood.
AS Primal Savagery.
''Thon your explorer. naturalist. sci.
enlist, hunter VOL. tbcv 90 for per
soual glory take IT,. and 7 think YOU II
find this true 80, after all, the vuy
ayers Of the Arctic are only stirred by
hc same vital impulses as we of New
York. who take daily chances will
street cars in order to follow our qucst
"f III" urattainablc That is tho lur,
ot The Arctic aS | interpret II.
'Snll. he added thoughtfully. sit Z
terrible, savage world. this Arcti,
world: and then. as we looked ou