The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-07-25
People of Barrow Finally Hear
OF the Election Of Pres
ident Taft.
MOST NORTHERN OFFICE
LITTLE CITY OF SNOW FIELDS RE.
cEjvES UNCLE SANS MAIL
THREE TIMES A YEAR, ONCE IN
THE SUMMER.

Wainwright, Alaska, July 24.-Many
and sometimes curious, are the ways
in which the United States postal au-
thorities collect and distribute the
mail. Perhaps the most curious mail
of all is that which cross
es the Arctic Circle, carrying the be-
lated news of far-off world to the
few white men and women who know
at first-hand the gloom, as well as the
glory of the long arctic night of win
ter and the unsetting summer sun.
Is Most Northern.
Barrow is the most northerly post
office in the world, with the exception
of an office in Greenland. 1t receives
mail three times year. One OF these
mails comes by water during the brief
summer, when the ice usually permits
the ships to reach that point. The
two other mails are carried nearly 400
miles by reindeer.
There are about 80 white people liv-
ing along the coast of Alaska north of
the Arctic Circle. Seventeen of these
are at Barrow. Seven more are at
Point Hope, and the remaining six are
schoolteachers and their wives. who
have the bleak tundra and the ice-pil-
ed sea for company, and who do not
see a white face more than two or
three times year.
The terrible isolation of such a life
can hardly be appreciated by those en-
joying the conveniences and associa-
tons of civilized society. In this wild
world the mail that brings news from
the old home and that tells of the
throbbing world far away is a thing
to be yearned for and dreamed over.
Kind Of Lottery.
Even in civilized society, where the
mails are received daily and some.
times hourly, and where telegraphs
telephones and other means of com.
munication are at hand the post office
has all the fascination of fairyland
Anxious faces are pressed against the
window panes along great city streets
waiting for the mailcarrier. for the
mail is kind of lottery that occas'
ionally brings a prize.
Ac OF CoSAIdJlFSo vi q Guilt
waited and complicated civilization that
they have left behind. but have not
forgotten, how must they feel when
after long months of anxious waiting
the time for the arrival of mail ap
proaches?
Telegraphs and telephones and the
gossip of distant visiting friends are
unknown. The mail must bring all
the news. For days before it's arrival
lone figures may be seen mounted or
great snowbanks or on the red-roofed
schoolhouses carefully searching the
beach ice for the least sign of the on
coming mail.
Little, Low SIedge.
At last it is seen-three putting rein
deer hitched tandem, a little low slet
seven feet long and 20 inches wide
and befurred and befrosted driver
fling along under the pale tints of the
aurora borealis or in the dim twilight
of midwinter arctic moon.
The driver of this odd little mai
stage is an Esquiman by the name o
Pavauna. He cannot speak word o
English, but he knows his business
and it's significance, for the bells ar,
rung and the flags are given to thu
chilling breeze when Uncle Sans arc
tic mail comes in sight through tn
gloom.
| The last mail arrived here Jan.
but none of it was dated later thai
Oct. 5. The presidential campaign wa
then on in the home land; but unit
the next mail arrives, in April, tn
loyal arctic Americans will not know
whom their countrymen have electe'
and inaugurated president.