Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1917-06-08
APART FROM WORLD
JEWELLERS IN ARCTIC CIRCLE
LEAD SECLUDED LIVES.
Know Nothing Of What Transpires Be.
yond the Narrow 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 willful
waste is unthinkable. The Laps 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 thei.
aged weaklings that this form of dealt
has become vague religion and So
cial principle with them.
The armies of the great white car,
like those of the king-emperor. are not
recruited in such distant places; in
deed, the men are of such meager
stature and intellect that q military
training Is next to impossible-cer-
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
fetal and mercantile classes. contains
few elements which are truly Slavonic.
but in the minds Of insular Britons the
reputation Of arctic jewellers 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 fame in the Russian
campaigns. are drawn mainly from
territory as near the equator as Great
Britain. It Is undeniable that their
winters are terribly severe, but in the
MT % ho
IAN 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 hurri-
cane and blizzard-but their value is
'ather to the explorer Of the inhospi-
table North than to the soldier. As
hunters they are wonderfully clever,
yet they are curiously formal In adj
ninistering the coup de grace.
They will apologize to the fierce
white bear which they have cornered
before advancing to- a close attack
with bone-tipped arrows and spears, a
1uel in which the odds seem decisively
IN the bears destroying the man. They
are therefore not towards In any sense,
and few British sportsmen would risk
heir 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
If the Russo-Japanese war, and GER
tainly have no knowledge Of the pres
emit 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 it
will be incomprehensible to persons
to whom crowd Of even a hundred
human beings would be marvel. Now
and again a 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 jewellers have not even this
communication with the outside world.