The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-02-09
A RACE FOR
A WIFE
By ELEANOR L. BRITT0N
The Girl Gave Answer In Lapland
Fashion TO a Proposal
Copyright, 1911. by American Press
Association.

SlODe, ana verify DeueNe lnat III
aviation had come up in his day he
would have sailed up beyond the
clouds TO find others. When l made
his acquaintance he had settled down
in n place he called by jawbreaking
name signifying dwelling that he
had picked up among the Eskimos
or some other benighted peoples II
was in the country situated on the top
of hill and looked more like q Chi
nese pagoda than any other structure.
Sptzburger was a widower. with
one child, daughter. She was TWEEN.
ty years old and for half her life had
Travelled during half of each year-the
summer season-with her father. He
redity and travel had made her as
odd as he. Rather she was unique.
She was of medium height. 1.-the, why
indeed, feminine athlete of the
featherweight type. Her hair was black
and straight as an Indians; her eyes
large black ones. with lashes of the
Spanish type. / wondered If her moth
er had not been some duslly semicivi-
liZed creature her father had picked up
on the underside of the world But
he told me his wife had been an Amer
lean creole.
The inside of the house in which
these two lived was as curious as the
outside. The furniture and ornamen-
tai articles had apparently been gath
cred from all points of the globe. rang
ing from the south sea islands to
Greenland. There was mill for
grinding from The Holy Land similar
to those used in Bible times. a wheel
from India to spin fax on, and the
bathtub had been the sarcophagus of
an Egyptian mummy.
The reason for my making the Spitz-
burgers acquaintance was this: was
taking q postgraduate course at the
time, studying the customs of differ
ent races of men, the causes and eff
fects which shape them and their re-
lationship. Desiring some informa-
ton as to the people of Tibet. land
forbidden TO foreigners and therefore
little known, / was recommended to
SpitZburger as one who had penetrat-
ed to the interior of that country.
went to see him. and my visit led to
my studying with him.
How long l remained there doesn't
matter, but ii was sufficient for my
enthra llment by HAT little savage"
as ! called his daughter. Irene. Not
that there was any outward intima-
ton on my part that was coming un-
der spell. and, es for the girl. l had
no idea that l was any more to her
than anotf or man. Indeed, / some
times fancied tina: she might have left
her heart in New Zealand. Kamchatka
or some other barbarous land Wheth-
er Spitzburger suspected the drift of
day he took occasion to mention with
appreciation the marriage customs in
Lapland, where one who marries n
girl without her parents consent is
adiudged guilty CT a crime next below
murder and is punished accordingly.
l thought that he looked at me very
hard. but "a guilty conscience needs
no accuser," and may have attached
more meaning to his words than they
covered.
The only thing to indicate that Irene
and I were drifting together as lovers
was that we took long walks together
i made an excuse for this that in her
company ! could 10th exercise and
study. This was true. | could get
from her certain Information of the
domestic habits of the people she had
visited that could not get from her
father. One day while we were on
one of these walks said to her:
"Your father tells me that in Lap
land to marry girl without her par
ents' consent is punished as a crime
Please tell me how a man in that coun-
try does his courting"
HE doesn't do any counting"
"Then how does he proceed?"
"He goes to her parents and asks
for her. If he is refused there is no
hope for him. IL they approve of his
suit they tell the girl of It. She may
or may not have seen the lover. but
the process is the same in either case.
Her parents give feast at which
they. the girl. her sutton and mutual
friends are present. The two princi-
Knls are placed opposite each other at
table, where they can observe and
talk with each other all they like"
well. then what? l suppose the
girl has something to say in the mat
ter, else this looking over her sutton
would be useless"
YES, she has good deal TO say
about 1t. but she doesn't yet make It
known. She indicates her decision
later. After the feast all go to an open
space suitable for running a race. A
course Is marked off-a quarter of n |
mile usually-and the girl Is given n
handicap of a third Of the distance
The handicap is intended TO enable her
to win the race easily IL she wishes.
aud II she wins that indicates her re-
fusal of the offer. But If, on the con-
rary, she purposely lags and her sutton
catches her. that indicates she accents
him for her husband"
When Irene finished giving me this
DIT OF a lecture on Lapand customs I
walked for some distance without
speaking.