The midland journal., 1916-08-11
APART FROM WORLD
JEWELLERS IN ARCTIC CIRCLE
LEAD SECLUDED LIVES.
Know Nothing Of What Transpires Be-
yond the Marrow Limits Of Their
Own Territory--Warfare a
Thing Undreamed OF.


Battle history halts at the arctic
circle. Beyond that human life is so
difficult to sustain that its wil1ful
waste is unthinkable. The Lapps and
Samoyeds of arctic Russia, like the Es-
kimos Of North America and Green
land, are so often compelled in times
Of dearth and famine to sacrifice their
aged weaklings that this form of death
has become vague religion and So
cial principle with them.
The armies of the great white czar,
like those of the king ng-emperor, are not
recruited in such distant places; ins
deed, the men are of such meager
stature and intellect that a military
training is next to impossible
tainly not a thing to be thought OF
in the days of great campaign, Pear
sons Weekly observes.
The population of arctic Russia, both
In Asia and in Europe outside the Of
ficial and mercantile classes, contains
few elements which are truly Slavonic.
but in the minds of insular Britons the
reputation of arctic dwellers pertains
to all the people living in Siberia, which
Is always portrayed as a land Of ice
and snow and unhealthy marsh.
The Siberian battalions, which have
won so great a fame in the Russian
campaigns, are drawn mainly fro
territory as near the equator as Great
Britain. 1t is undeniable that their
winters are terribly severe, but in the
hot summer crops of the utmost value
can be sown, ripened and harvested.
It is not impossible to lead robust
life in the Siberia of military Russia.
The real natives of the Arctic can
endure hunger and fatigue-can march
In their own fashion through hurrt-
cane and blizzard-but their value is
table North than to the soldier As
hunters they are wonderfully clever,
yet they are curiously formal in adj.
ministering the coup de grace.
They will apologize to the fierce
white bear which they have cornered
before advancing to close attack
with bone-tipped arrows and spears, a
duel in which the odds seem decisively
on the bears destroying the man. They
are therefore not towards in any sense,
and few British sportsmen would risk
their lives against bear and wolf and
walrus protected only by futile weap-
ons and their own personal dexterity.
How goes the news of war to these
arctic dwellers?
Most casually and slowly, without a
doubt. There are colonies in the fro
zen North which have not yet heard
of the Russo-Japanese war, and GER
tainly have no knowledge of the pres
ent war.
They are free from national duties
and taxation, and their intercourse.
even with fur traders of blood alien to
their own, is meager indeed. There
are dialects spoken by these tribes
which have never been interpreted and
never reduced to writing, and their
ideas of the great world outside the
tundras and steppes are very crude.
A generation may pass before the
story of the grand dukes great cam
paign filters north, and even then 1t
will be incomprehensible to persons
to whom a crowd of even hundred
human beings would be marvel. Now
and again stray whaler or explor-
ing ship comes within sight of the
shore camps, and little barter by
means of signs is carried on, but the
inland dwellers have not even this
communication with the outside world.
na.,x uanA cnan.dae Mo,.,