The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-27

Washington November 26.-(speeial.)- yilhjaimur Stefansson is an explorer. not a patent medicine. He has explored some among the far north and in a lecture on the people in that cold frozen region he tells some very interesting things. Human nature is human nature anywhere found, and that is disclosed by MT. Stefansson's s lecture concerning the traits and char aeteristies of the folks he came in con- tact with In the north. Mir Stefansson Is going to head another expedition next year in search of the polar continent sup posed to lie in the far north, and when he comes back, no doubt he will have some information to crowd upon us at so much per crowd.
 MT. Stefanssons lecture, which was given under the auspices of the National Geographic society, was on the ''blond' Eslxlmos he discovered in Victoria Land last year. the announcement of whose ex- istanee stirred the scientific world. Every now and then the scientific world gets stirred by some good stirrer, and then sets to work and proves that he ought to be charter member of the Ananias club. MT. Stefansson, however, is an exeep- ton to this rule-that is, he is so far 1t may be that they have some respect for his name. If pr. Cook had been named Yilhjaimur he would have commanded more attention and less adverse criticism. When one goes into the exploring business these days he cannot be too careful about his name Christopher Columbus got away with it, but it has taken a long time for him to get all the credit that was coming to him He never lived to get the full glory due him from discovering our peculiar brand of politics and the Amer iean protective tariff system.
 No Attempt to Look Pleasant
 With the aid of maps showing the Cor onation gulf region where he found the blond" Esltimos, and with stereopticon pictures made from photographs taken by him in the Arctic, MT. Stefansson describes in detail his four year trip in search of the new people. The art of photog- raphy must evidently be lost one among the Eskimos, for none of the subjects photographed by Vihjaimur apparently made any attempt to Hook pleasant" But they were right there on the "blon- dine stuff and came up to advance mo- tices in that regard. Vilhjaimur made particular point of the fact that he and his party had been able to live in the Arctic country for four years without large supplies of food, living on the coun-
 
 characterized as a hitherto unaccomp- lished feat, Still, Vilhjaimur need not feel so chesty, we have heard of folks living that way before, until the police got them. Mir. Stefansson declared that 1t is possible for a white man to live in the Arctic region by means of his rifle if he is willing to live as the Eskimos do and subsist on the food they do-he inti- mated that the hotel service up there was sadly in need of reform. He says that 1t Is possible for white man to get along without the Eskimo women to make and repair constant changes of clothing. Pan anna hats and white duck trousers are not very fashionable in Eskimo society. Bear skin rugs, however, are extensively worn. needy, he said, has the value in the Arctic of @ two foot knife-a knife being worth two dogs, and 6 dog being the most valuable possession the Eskimo looks forward to owning. Tn a pinch one can almost eat the dog.
 We do that in this country, only 1t goes under some French name.
 Descendants From Scandinayians
 Vilhjaimur analysed his own theory that the blond Es1imos he found in Victoria Land, described on the latest of ficial Canadian maps as uninhabited, are the descendants of the colony of Scandi- nayians who once inhabited Greenland and who became lost to history after l412 A. D. He told of the characteristics of 1 the new people he had found, laying par tieular stress on their hospitality. The latter is the characteristic of the white man rather than that of the savage and the aborigine. although he deprecated the so-called civilization as displayed by the Alaskan EslSimos, who he says have be- | come lazy, shiftless and greedy. To H. lustrate his point he told a story of a Nome Eskimo who, after having been | fitted out with clothing by white man of the Alaskan city, tried to sell his bene- factor a bone ornament for 10 cents Evi- dently that fellow would make a success | in Wall street and is wasting his talents l in