Evening star., 1942-05-31
Bishop Of Alaska Still
Roams the North at IS
BY Sigrid Arne,
Wide World.

frozen. mud or flying dust. Rowdy
saloons stood side by side on main
streets. Gard games were settled with
ASS.
He looked over Fairbanks for pos
sible pulpit, and quite sensibly decided
on the place which drew the biggest
crowds-Cy Marks saloon. He startled
the rail denizens, somewhat, but there's
something even now about the bishops
big shoulders and his glinting eyes
which probably quieted the crowd.
He preached, leaning against the bar,
and when he bowed his head to pray,
the sourdoughs followed suit after q
sheepish glance around. The bishop
ended. and Cy Marx turned his hat up
side down, plopped $40 gold piece into
it. and made the rounds of the big room.
The collection that day was sly40O.
Rowe put the hat under his arm and
set out to build himself little church.
He did it personally. Sawed, climbed.
church to compete with the IA wooden
saloons.
His fame spread. 1t got around that
he didn't haul out the Bible to minister
to hungry sourdoughs on the trail. He
offered them, instead, bowl of hot
mulligan.
He asked no special favors as church,
man. He got his own dogs, and mushed
to every settlement worthy the name in
billiards that even the Eskimos didn't
dare.
He became known as one of the bravest
men in Alaska. He's been the first white
man to visit innumerable Eskimo villages,
and now both the hymnal and prayer
book are translated into Eskimo for the
Arctic Circle communicates
He dressed for the trail in regular
sourdough clothes. He carried some
kindling. a gun to shoot his dinner, and
his church vestments which he always
wore even when preaching to 30 EskimoS
in an igloo.
His vestments were the simplest, since
Rowe puts little stock in trimmings. He
didn't bother to iron them, but he kept
them spotlessly clean himself, washing
them out on stopovers He has famous
pectoral cross, studded with gold nuggets
from the Klondike, but he only wears it
when he goes back East to seek funds
for his missions.
His magic probably lay in the fact that
he took people as he found them He
fed the hungry. He started hospitals for
the sick. His first hospital was built
with Tex Richards help. He even taught
himself the simpler surgical technique,
His quiet, mind-my y-own-business at
titude is the basis of many stories. Like
the one when he met two prospectors on
the trail one day. They were travelling
in opposite directions, SO Rowe stopped
to ask how the trail was ahead.
Its the worst blankety- blank string
OF black COB south of the blank blank
Arctic Circle" said one man. "How's it
your way, brother2'
"The same gentlemen" said the bishop
with twinkle.
In Rowe's first 80 years in Alaska he
only came out" 10 times. He's constantly
asked now when he intends to retire.
But his son tells this story on him:
Two summers ago-when the bishop
was 83-he volunteered to take another
Anglican to Alaska, a man whose health
had broken. There was some to-do
about the baggage before they started,
and the bishop confided to his son, "The
old man certainly needs care. I hope I
can help him"
The son got the other man aside and
asked his age. 1t was IS!
The bishops son saw them of. Rowe
carried his friends luggage up the gang
plank.