The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1920-06-19
ARCTIC SUNRISE
Great PICTURE
Gorgeous Spectacle That Repays
for Long Winter Night.
WILD RIOT OF CUBIsT COLOR

WILD RIOT OF CUBIST COLOR
Aurora and First Glimpse of Pale
Golden Ball an Unequaled Nature
Picture-"God's Smile" the Natives
Poetic Name for First Harbinger of
Breaking Ice Barriers-Teacher's
Experience.
Fffty-two years ago, when the Uni
ted States took over the inhabitants of
what was s%pitefully called by some
Stewards Ice box" the natives of
Alaska were savages, or maybe more
properly an unenlightened people. They
were not saVages in the sense that they
met the white with tomahawk and
scalping knife. for their food and eli
mate were not conducive to warfare.
The Alaskan aborigineS were a quiet,
gentle people, a nonresisting people.
glad of the brotherhood of every pass
ing stranger, for strangers were few
and did not come to rob them of their
homes and haunts.
When the Russian priests offered
their religion it was accepted as a wei
come addition to the emptiness of a
duh, cold life. When the white trap
pers came for furs they were not OPP
posed, for there were plenty for all.
Then when other white men went
crazy over the gold hidden in the sands
of frozen rivers and creeks it was
nothing to the Indian and the Eskimo.
But when the conquering ~whitesneh
took the young women of the NWth ID
be their mates and settled down Hfd6t
their people the a~boriginesg of AkfaSka
awoke. Their scant language soon q 8
banded to give names toEbe belongings
of the whites ~ include their rude
colloquialisms ana give a glimpse of
the great Somewhere whence the new
SETTLERS cafne.s Gradually the need for
schools In this vast area of half a mil
1 lion square miles, with 25,000 natives,
Impressed itself upon the government
and the Alaska school service began
the task OF lifting the descendants OF
- 1880 pV
adults, for territorial citizenship.
Schools Widely Separated.
Had the prospective pupils been
gathered into a group the task would
not have been light. but when il is re-
membered that scA86ls are in some
places separated BY 1000 miles of
snowy white silence and that others
bare far beyondufhe limits of transpor-
tation and mali serF&e. the difficulties
come Within the limits of imagination.
On the Yukon, about midway be-
tween Dawson and North Boring sea,
and only 60 miles below the arctic cir
Gle. is Rampant. There many trappers
and hunters make Headquarters. 1t has
a climate ranging from 80 degrees
above zero in summer to 65 degrees
below zero in winter. There Isabel
Amber Gilman was long stationed as a
teacher in the Alaska school service,
says the New York Times. Let her tell
Il few brief stories of her life in the
frozen North:
Zone morning in January, while the
schoolchildren were quietly studying,
a thr~ee-year-old boy appeared at the
door, a stick of stove wood in his bea-
ver-rnittened hands. You let me stay,
teacher. | pack wood for YOU he an
nounced good-naturedly. The school
thermometer outside registered So be
low zero aud the teacher lost no time
in closing the door, with the boy inside.
He won't stay home, teacher explain
ed an older sister from her corner be-
hind a rei-hOt stove. and mana saws
it'll be 60 below tonight Sixty below
The teacher had never experienced
that. The child serenely tucked him
self into a primary seat alongside
other babies who wouldn't stay at
home