Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-04
UNCLE SANS REINDEER MAIL
Twice a Year the Runner Crosses the
Arctic Circle.
RELIEF FOR THE OUTLYING POST
Break for y Time the Isolation In
which Thirty White People Live
In the Far North of
Alaska.

WAINWRIGHT, Arctic Alaska, March &
|By Reindeer Mail Service. )-Many and
sometimes curious are the ways in which
the United States postal authorities collect
and distribute the mail. Perhaps the most
curious mail conveyance of all is the one
that crosses the Arctic circle carrying the
belated news Of a far off world to the few
white men and women who knew at first
hand the gloom as we'll as the glory OF the
long Arctic night OF winter and the I'M
setting summer sun.
Barrow is the most northerly postoffice
in the world, with the exception Of one in
Greenland. 1t receives mail three times a
year. One OF these malls comes by water
during the brief summer, when the Ice
usually permits the ships to reach that
point The two other mails are carried
for nearly four hundred miles by reindeer.
There are about thirty 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 school teachers
and their wives who have the bleak tundra
and the ice piled sea for company and who
do not see a white face more than two OF
three times a during the entire year.
The terrible Isolation OF such a life can
hardly be appreciated by those enjoying
$50 -Na Va GANL-
ICED society. In this wild world the mall
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.
Even in civilized society where the mails
are received daily and sometimes hourly
and where telegraphs, telephones and other
means of communication are at hand, the
postoffice has all the fascination OF fairy
land. Anxious faces are pressed against
the window panes along great city streets
waiting for the mail carrier. For the mail
Is a kind of lottery that occasionally brings
US a prize.
But the thirty representatives of a Gull
tivated and complicated civilization that
they have left behind. but have not for
gotten, how must they feel when after
long months Of anxious waiting the time
for the arrival of the man approaches?
Telegraphs and telephones and the gos-
sip OF distant visiting friends are I'M
known. The mail must bring all the
news. For days before It's arrival lone
figures may be seen mounted on great
snow banks or on the red-roofed school
houses carefully searching the beach ice
for the least sign OF the oncoming mail.
At last II is seen-three putting reindeer
hitched tandem, q little low sled seven
feet long and twenty inches wide and q
befurred and befrosted driver flying along
under the pale tints Of the aurora borealls
or In the dim twilight OF a midwinter Arc
tic noon.
The driver OF this odd little mail stage is
an Eskimo by the name OF PAvunA. He
cannot speak a word Of English, but he
knows his business and its significance.
For the bells are rung and the flags are
given to the chilling breeze when Uncle
Sans Arctic mail comes in sight through
the gloom.
The last mall arrived here January :.
but none OF 1t was dated later than 90
tober 8. The presidential campaign was
then on In the home land; but until the
next mail arrives In April the loyal Arc
tic Americans will not know whom their
countrymsn have elected and inaugurated
president Of the United States