Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-22
SUPERMAN FOUGHT
ALASKAN REINDEER

WASHINGTON. - Wonders insist
upon being heard in Alaska. Gold
kadiak bears, singing glaciers. the
greatest geySer field in the world are
there. This is story Of the world s
best man physically. Compared tc
him Dempsey would be pulling child
Carpenter might ouL-Greek-god him
but the Frenchman would be as g
wisp of straw in the AlaSkan'S hands
The strong men who break anchor
chains with their pectoral muscles
would be as dainty as shopgirls II he
got to handling them.
DR.. Edward w. Nelson is the au,
thority for the story. Mind you, DR.
Nelson. would not authorize the trim
mings He is scientist. A rea!
scientist. Not only is he the heac
Of the biological survey of the de-
partment of agriculture and the au
thor of a five-foot shelf of books or
real, onest-to-goodness wild life
from the Arctic cirle to Lower Call
fornia, but he might be called an eX'
tremely acid sour-dough. He was the
last man to see the Inflated Jean
stricken with lung fever in the Arctic
he had optimism and courage enough
to lash himself to the dogsled with
his last Pickering strength. The
dogs wandered into a native settle
ment eventually. No one knows how
long he had raved unconscious on the
sled in the Arctic frost. So that DR.
Nelson knows men and the frost
country. But he would not tell TINS
story as a definitely proven fact be-
cause definite proof is not to be had
Material for NoveHsts
The strong mans :.ame I've for
gotten. He is a graduate of the Nor
Wegian Imperial university, is SIX
feet and a jump tall, slender, but full
Of wire and steel springs. Any nov
elist writing of him would inevitably
call him a herman. Eventually I am
certain the term will come into com
mon use among nOvelists. 1t is sc
descriptive. 1t is hard to understand
why no novelist of the hard life has
ever thought of calling some one
herman before. Anyhow, this Nor
wegian was as described, physically
and mentally, and he had all his
sparkplugs and accessories.
There must be a love interest in the
story. Otherwise this college grad
uate would not have taken on a JoE
as boss of a reindeer farm in Alaska
DR.. Nelson knows what hard WORK
and is exposure is, and he says that
reindeer herder has the hardest jot
he has, ever heard of. He must fol
low the deer day and night the year
through. In the summer they feeC
on the Doggy tundra. 1t is one inter.
secting series of miry pools anc
meadows through which no horse
the deer-thanks to their spreading
hooves-the deers' hooves---negotiate
the going, although, with difficulty.
Eerder's Many Difficulties
The herder carries on his back his
provisions and his blanket and his
rifle. He lives, eats, and sleeps IN
mud and rain. At all times through
the short Arctic summer he is cater
alive by borders of the most
iniquitously vicious mosquitoes that
ever sank a prong in an honest man
He has no company except the deeT
If he sickens he may die in the mud
1t is against probability that ever
his bones will ever be found except
by accident. In the winter his IRE
is the same, except that he is able
to spend q part of his time in perma'
nent camps. But the deer sicken II
held on short cropped range toc
long, and so he must go 2field with
them. Then he fights the naked
Arctic with just what he can carry
or sometimes load on deer-haulec
sled.
The young Norwegian undertook to
drive a herd of 500 reindeer 500 miles
across Alaska to Fairbanks. He and
a Lap drove the reindeer on foot
through 600 miles of widest Alaska,
from the Kuskokwim River to the
sea. They swan the Yukon just as
an incident of that trek. They lived
on meat they killed and On the con-
tents Of the packs they carried on
their shoulders. At Fairbanks they
hired a couple of Esquimos to herd
the deer for a few days, while they
sloshed around in the metropolitan
delights of the great city.
Herd Ran Away During Night