The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1913-05-09

and other insect life from beneath
those great stretches OF snow and ice
which lay for months upon the
ground? No man can tell nor any pen
describe these manifold mysteries ol
the frozen north. Here, in these
brief sweet summer months, the
nomad may linger, gazing by day OF
night on a neveT-setting sun, breath.
ing an air the purest and most invig-
Grating that ever was waited on the
breeze, coming from snow-tipped
/ peaks and down their slopes which
are densely clad with hardy noun
taiA pines, But let the ,wanderer in
! quest of sunshine beware lest he over
staps his welcome. since once that
great magician, King Frost, asserts
his sway, this is no land for the weak
lings:
Send me the best Of your breeding. lend
me your chosen ones,
Them viii / take TO my bosom, them will
! call my sons.
For this is the stern law of Alaska,
and woe betde him who SCOTS at it.
Even among the CHOSEN ones and
haEdy pioneers of today terrible in
deed are signs written on many of
their bodies. Scared and rugged vet
Grams show. with a smiling face,
places where once fingers or toes
adorned their hands or feet but which
have now gone forever a token of
mans struggle against Natures
cruelty. Let those who sit in a com
Portable chair by the fireside at home,
in 20 degrees OF frost, think what life
is like in a tent with the thermometer
ready 80 degrees or GO degree below
zero. Only those who have been and
felt it can realize what this means.
Probably no country on earth has
lured so many people to ruin and de-
struction, in proportion to the mum
bers visiting it, as Alaska has done
in many Of the great gold rushes
which have taken place in recent
years. The writer, during three sea
sons spent in that country, and in
trips extending from its southerumost !
portions to the arctic shores, has per |
sonally been an eyewitness of many |
pitiful scenes there. The time has al |
ready arrived when fast steamers |
make pleasure trips during summer, |
and convey tourists in comfort along
the southern coasts of Alaska, through |
some Of the finest fjords and scenery |
on earth. But probably none of these
luxurious travellers has. any idea of the
suffered by many of the
old-time pioneers who followed this
route on their way to the new Edo
RADIO. Nor can they hope to realize
what a winter is like within the arc
lie circle Mr.. r. w. Service has
more accurately described this than
my other writer in the following
splendid lines:
rhe winter! the brightness that blinds
you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
rhe cold fear that follows and finds you.
The silence that bludgeons you dumb,
The SHOWS that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows
slant,
'he stiffness, the moonlight, the mystery.
we bade 'em -byebut l can't.
No more awe-inspiring scene can be
Witnessed than that of the ice break
ng up on some big river, such as the
Yukon, or many others in Alaska,
yhen the pent-up waters burst their
yay in spring through many miles of
cy fetters, with an accompaniment
( appalling noises which bewilder the
n locker Or again, let the traveller
aze a while at some spot where one
the huge glaciers ends abruptly
4 the sea- towering aloft above the
'aters, Here vast masses of ice CON
tantly fall off, drift aimlessly about,
nd form a continual source of menace
} unwaTy mariners.