Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-12

intercollegiate heavyweight wrestInr
champion. is expected to give an exhlbi
tion OF his art N partner can be OBJ
tained for him Doctor Moore viii Illus
trate his talk on big game hunting In
Africa by means OF stereopticon Views
Mr. Crossmans lecture will be augmented
with moving pictures Of Egypt and the
Nile, which should be especially inter-
esting at this time because the seat of
the Holy War now raging between the
British and Mohammedan armies will be
shown. Other motion pictures will be a
part OF the program, which is now being
definitely mapped out by the committee.
Boy Scouts in Alaska, within the Arctic
Circle, will be realities within half a
year II the plans OF DR.. Grafton Burke
! OF Fort Yukon, Alaska, are successful
Doctor Burke, who is the medical mis-
| sionary attached to ST. Stephens Prot
| estant Episcopal Mission at Fort Yukon,
| obtained the necessary blank for a scout
| masters commission at Boy Scout head
| quarters, 5th and Chestnut streets, yes
| terday, and will MI II out and submit
/ IL TO the National Council. In addition,
he was armed with a pocketful Of liter
ature dealing with the uniforming and
| equipping of Boy Scout troops when he
left Philadelphia for New York today.
Within five months Doctor Burke will
have completed POSTGRADUATE course
at Cornell and the Bellevue Hospital, in
New York and will then return to his
post at Fort Yukon where he has been
located the last seven years The Boy
Scout troop which he intends to organize
will be formed from the members OF
the st Stephens Boys Club, of which
he has been In charge since IL was
founded five years ago
The boys. about 20 in number are In
dians and Eskimos. ranging from to
II years old. They will constitute the
first juvenile body In the Land OF the
Midnight Sun 10 be taught Boy Scout
principles. lcelands BOY Scouts which
are now the "farthest north" Just misc
being included in the territory bounded
by the Arctic Circle, that imaginary line
barely tipping the northernmost point of
the island.
Alaska's potential troop of Boy Scouts
forms very good material for a troop,
according TO Doctor Burke, who is
familiar with the precepts of the or
ganizatlon
THE Indian and Eskimo boys are very
docile and tractable by nature" he said.
They are surprisingly successful in
whatever they undertake. Trapping is |
the chief means of employment and |
amusement. and they are especially |
wcasels and the many varieties of
foxes for their fur.
But, however adapted they are for
thelr work, they are indolent and pursue /
their trapping irregularly. One weeks
success means another week of loafing
They require a stimulus such as l think
Boy Scout training would give them
That Is my purpose in forming a troop
to instil realization of the necessity of
regular habits in them and also to teach
them to be patriotic to the United States
nag, which Is their flag just as it is the
banner of all the Boy Scouts of America"
Doctor Burke described the boys as
enthusiastic members of the club. They
are especially proud of their purple ini-
tial sweaters, he said, which the women
of the mission gave them when they
made definite assertion that they wished
TO be regular members. They meet once
n week for athletic games and music
in the little log town which contains
their meeting house. Their native games,
he said, were for the most part sun
planted by outside" games, as games
foreign to Alaska are called because the
native games. such as tossing the vic
tim I'm mooseskin blanket were deemed
too strenuous Water games on the Yu-
kon River, indoor sports similar to the
medicine ball exercise and baseball and
football. with mooseslSin balls, were in
troduced by Doctor Burke with varying
He also taught them college
songs; he is n graduate of the University
Of the South. The song, "Possum Meat
Am Good to Eat they altered to "Por--
cupine Meat Am Good to Eat" he said |
because the 'possum is unknown to them,
while the spiney-bacled animal is not !
Ihey sing the College songs with gusto.
The home of the future Alaska Boy 4
Scout troop is chiefly a fur-tradlng
centre, according to Doctor Burke, with
| tributary population of about 500 In
iians and Eskimos and shifting popu-
alton of about 80 white persons 1t
S situated inland on the Yukon River,
he said, and knows none of the mild
weather. which is more characteristic of
he coast towns farther south
Unseasoned scouts of Troop 2s now
Inow what ghost looks like. They saw
me of these ghostly spirits on the re-
urn from hike late Saturday evening
The troop, in command of Scoutmaster =
hubert l.. Rutherford, hiked to Bowler's ,
Woods, north OF Bala, in the morning :
or an all-day camp. This locality is In >
tself sufficiently deserted to give a raw :
eeruit on hike n homesick feeling,
ccording to scouts who have nassed {
Trough the forest; but when the scouts, :
Ist sitting down TO dinner, were told ,
hat the woods was not for camping pur- =
oses they hiked farther, following a !
reek for two miles into a region more .
isolate and lonely than Bowler's y
Woods. In a deserted glen they pitched I
he portable tents and made ready for .
upper. Not a sound. save their own.
'as to be heard; not n sign of human d
was to be seen. As the win !
sr evening rapidly darkened into night 2
ne boys. many of them just old enough I
} be scouts, gathered around the fire d
nd ate supper. After the meal some Z
ne suggested a few ories before the j
sturn hike, and almost instantly a scout Il
unched into a ghost story. with the a
lckering hames throwing unearthly {
1adows that danced out into the dark a
ess and among the trees, IL was re- s.
ted how ghosts actually did freauent "
is very ground upon which they were G.
imping. The notorious "Banshee" S
oaning and screaming out in the inky
spths OF the woods where two limbs