Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-05-03

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 per
describe these manifold mysteries OF
the frozen north. Here. in these
brief, sweet summer months, the
nomad may linger. gazing by day or
night on a never-setting sun. breath
ing an air the purest and most inVlg
/ Grating that ever was waited on the
breeze. coming from snOW-tlpped
peaks and down their slopes which
are densely clad with hardy noun
tain 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 hest of your breeding. lend
me your chosen ONES,
Them will l take to my bosom. them Will
| call my sons.
For this is the stern law of Alaska,
and woe betide him who SCOTS at II.
Even among the chosen ones ana
hardy pioneers of today terrible Ill
deed are signs written on many OF
their bodies. Scared and rugged vet
Grams show. with smiling face,
places where once fingers or toes
adorned their hands or feet. but which
have now gone forever, token OF
mans struggle against Nature
cruelty Let those who sit in 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 so degrees or GO degree below
zero. Only those who have been and
felI 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 thee great gold rushe'
which have taken place in recen
years The writer. during three sea
sons spent in that country, and il
trips extending from its southernmos
portions to the arctic shores, has per
sonally been an eyewitness of man!
pitiful scenes there. The time has al
ready arrived when fast steamers
make pleasure trips during summer
and convey tourists in comfort alons
the southern coasts of Alaska. through
some of the finest fjOrds and scener.
on earth But probably none of thes'
luxurious travellers has any idea of thu
privations suffered by many of tn
old-time pioneers who followed thi
route on their way to the new Edo
RADIO Nor can they hope to realiz
what a winter is like within the arc
tic circle. Mr.. K. w. Service ha
more accurately described this thai
any other writer in the following
splendid lines:
! The winter, the brightness that blind
you
The white land locked tight as a drum.
| The cold fear that follows and finds you
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The SHOWS that arr older than history,
The woods where the weird shadow
slant.
The stiffness. the moonlight, the mystery
I've bade 'em good-bye-but l can't.
No more awe-inspiring scene can b
, witnessed than that of the ice breai
f ing up on some big river, such as tn
I Yukon, or many others in Alaska
when the pent-up waters burst thei
, way in spring through many miles {
I icy letters, with an accompaniment
, of appalling noises which bewilder til
, on locker. Or again, let the travele
q gaze a while at some spot where on
2 of the huge glaciers ends abrupt
p in the sea. towering alOft above tn
I waters. Here vast masses of ice col
o stantly fall off, drift aimlessly abOu
and form a continual source of menaC
TO unwaTy mariners.