The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-01-17


/; occurred 70 mo this scheme had
he ancient Egyptians worstcd and ]
suggested 90 a miner that as j. was
bat matter Of years when Dawson
Guild return 10 the Wild from whence
(; came, that permanent markers
should be put over some Of tho hardest
i frozen stiTg. so that the explorers OF
new civilization thousands years
hence would not have so much trouble
IN research and guessing. He replied
that IL would be Of no avail. for the
minute these frozen bodies were I'M
covered 70 the warm air they immed-
lately went into the phosphate bust
ness
Al St Michael a short time ago the
body Of a Russian priest Was exhumed
and talked with "Old Tom" one Of
the men who dug him up. He had
been buried on the shore Of the North
Sound and boat company wanted the
ground for dry dock purposes. The
priest had been buried for more than
/ twenty years, and when exhumed he
was in just the same state as when
buried--he had been frozen solid all
these years.
| But all dead bodies arc not in this
condition, in fact the most of them
are not, for the reason that il is
mighty hard work to dig a grave
THROUGH the solidly frozen ground, and
rs fellow said, "What does it matter
whether they keep or not" That was
the way reasoned when helped bury
the trio of Eskimos. The man who
helped to exhume the priest said that
before the body had arrived at the new
grave decomposition had made the
face almost unrecognizable as a hui
man face.
rendered ten dollar gold piece for
my breakfast in Dawson, on my way
down the river, and the girl at the
cash register asked me If was going
up or down. ] thought she was get
ting chatty and flattered myself that
she wanted to know if | was going to
remain in town, so friend wife being
several hundred miles away, endeav-
ored to look boyish, and told her I
might buy lot and build in Dawson.
Her reply dashed my hopes for 4 |
Irritation. II wanted to know which |
kind Of change to give you" she said,
and then she explained if was going |
up the river she would give me 1925 |
in Canadian money, but if was going |
down, into Alaska, she would give me
American currency.
1t is peculiar but positive fact
that the "seur doughs," the real, sea-
soned Alaskans who have been Din
side" for six or eight years, are afraid
TO go out. There are hundreds of such |
men in Alaska, many of them sick
and tired Of the hard and comfortless
North Land, and who yearn to return
TO the States, but when the time comes
they don't go; they put it off until an
ether summer, and then put it off
again.
They are simply afraid to go out
and mix with the hustle and changes.
They think they are like the boy off
farm who goes to New York for the
first time. They realize they have
been out Of the world for several
years and they think the minute they
step onto the dock at Seattle every
bunco steerer in the city will know
them by their awkward ways and
pounce upon them. It's a sort of men
tel alteration, or palmer, Yukon in
sanity. There are many varieties in
Alaska, all the way from eccentrics to
bugs,
And so these old timers hang on.
They think they will go out some day
and they hope they can "come back"
and fit in somewhere as they once did,
but Robert Service, the Alaskan poet,
who is now in the trenches in France,
frames this for their finish:
A cabin, a squaw, fish wheel,
A bend in the rivers flow;
A couple of sad-eyed half breeds-
He died therc--a "sour dough-"
1t was pitiful to me, the little chill
dren born in these river-girt towns
and whose knowledge of the outside"
is what they hear from those who
come in and who have time enough to
talk with them. Their playthings and
are very few, and enjoy
ment is almost unknown.
One day ran across pretty little
white girl playing on rock above the
town-a big fiat stone on which she
had her pitifully few little playthings,
4 little wagon with spool wheels, an
Indian baby basket and few tin
spoons. She was playing house" |
toij brr about tho MANY toys and