New-York tribune., 1909-04-09
HARDSHIPS IN ALASKA.
Mr., Reid Talks of Y. NJ. C. A. Work at Miss
Helen Gould S Home.

4 stirring story OF danger. hardship and advent
IITe was told by william A. Reid, army secre-
tary Of the Young Mems Christian Association Cor
Alaska in a lecture before the national womans
auxiliary Of the association. at the home Of Miss
Helen Miller Could. No. 579 Fifth avenue. yester-
dav morning Travelling sometimes in the Helen
Could the Young Mems Christian Association
launch. sometimes IN dog sleds through the
and ice MI and Mrs Reid visit the army posts in
the Far North. organizing entertainments for the
men taking them books. trying to make their lives
A little less lonely. Men. Mr. Reid Subsidiary
trappers and ruers-had travelled much five
hundred miles to see the Helen Gould its organ
its talking machine and moving picture appliances
and other equipments for giving people good time.
Il remember one lonely trapper We visited"
Mr.. Reid said Before We reached his camp
set the gramophone playing tune. The old
fellow came rushing 20 the bank OF the river.
what's doing? he cried Where's the band?
He had never seen a gramophone. l had hard
work to persuade him 10 come to the launch,
where Mrs Reid I amt lady In
years he said. The first thing he saw on the
launch was Mrs. Reid's hat hanging up there
and he went and touched it reverently.
It's the real thing he said in an awestruck
tone It's a woman's hat This old had
been living in those solitudes for years. work.
ing 10 educate four daughters who are going to
school in Philadelphia. 1 asked him If he would
Ike some magazines. The mans hands trembed
with eagerness. I'd rather have some magazines
10 read he declared. than anything in the wide
world
.'No one who has not been there know what
a few old books will mean to those people. because
no one can picture the loneliness 1t is very well
in the summer. the season when tourists travel
there and wonder at the marvellous scenery. but
take It In the winter, when even in the towns the
snow Is drifted that a pedestrian, losing his
way will not infrequently go plunging through the
canvas roof of a house and land his neighbOr's
dinner table-when for a traveller lose his trail
means death-then is the time when men in Alaska
go mad from loneliness. I remember three in
q telegraph station which 1 visited with Mrs Reid
Those men, far from any other human being. living
in one little hut the long year round, loathed each
other with an almost murderous hatred. They had
mouth one Of them said in a desperate tone,
I know just what he's going to say -
In contrast these lonely places Mr. Reid de
scribed the towns. where the army men will go
nayday and waste a months wages in the saloons
in a few hours To counteraCt this the Young Mems
Christian Association organized payday enter
talnrnents'' in the garrisons. They have grown
very popular said Mr.. Reid Not only have they
kept many men from the saloons. but some of the
saIoonkeepers would shut up their places to
tend"
Next winter Mr.. and Mrs. Reid will return to Fort
Gtbbon Mr. Reid said it the ambition of the
army posts in Alaska. but that is out of tine
question now they bending their energies TO
the establishing OF travelling libraries. Anybody
who wants 10 help with money or old books Will
find aid gratefully received