Daily Wabash Express, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 25 August 1889 — Page 6

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A Narrative oi Life at the Remotest of the American Ministers.

THE MOST WORTHLESS PART OF THE WHOLE WORLD.

Tb.e Fisheries Off th.o Coast in the Summer—How Visits Are Made

CopjTlgbted, 1889.]

Special Correspondence of the Express. On Hoard S^hoonkk Sophie, August 12,1889— From Hoped ale we proceeded northwest, skirting the shore, continually dodging islands, iceoergs and home-ward-bound fishing craft. 1 here is no change in dreary scene. The shores present the same lofty, massive, desolate outline. At our distance occasionally the moss upon them, under certain conditions of atmosphere and sunlight, gave the appearance of heathery heights such as you will see when cruising along the noble northern shores of Iceland, from Lough Foyle around Marlin Head to Lough Swilly but we knew there was no verdure there, and naught but stone. With that consciousness these shores are ever stern, repellant, awful and no influence save that eurious fascination to semi-Arctic exploration one may have a hint of in going thus far towards eternal ice and silence, can justly prompt any rational being in following our course for aught save danger and fish. Both can be got nearer home. We agreed on sailing as far as human life permanently existed along the coast, aud again had opportunity to carry passengers free without a license. These were a Bort of novitiate Moravian missionary who belonged to Hebron and had come to Hopedale with homeward-bound fishers, and two Esquimaux pilots who had brought vessels to the South. I was interested chiefly in the former's narative of life at this remotest American mission, and in the powers of the latter to assimilate our provisions. In all my wanderings I never saw two creatures in the Bemblance of humans with such swinish capacity and rapacity. We had a few boxes of oranges ou board. They had never seen the fruit before. 1 was curiouB to know if they could once be seated with it. We made the attempt but failed. These two animals actually ate fifty-six oranges skins and all in one hour and forty minutes.

Passing Nain, an important Moravian mission where the Home society annually sends a large ship with supplies and for furs, and Okak island and vilages, where there are straggling huts, a few traders and trappers, aud where the Esquimaux come in the summer to fish, we finally reached Heborn, and, without anchorage, left our strange passengers who were taken ashore in a kaya—a sort of hide-bottomed boat, almost precisely like the curragh of the Irish Aran islands—followed by a procession of kayaks filled with grinning and chattering Esquimaux when we proceeded on our now wholly dreary voyage to Cape Chudleigh. Here, as Chaplain Deachamps set the course of the Sophie toward the St. Lawrence again, in 60deg. north latitude, our eyes, if but for a brief half-hour, rested upon the uncharted shores of Hudson's strait and could at least see along the steely blue waters the way wnere so many intrepid searchers for polar seas had passed never to return.

The result of the information secured during our few weeks' cruise leads me to believe that the portion of Labrador east of a line extending due north from the mouth of the St. Lawrence river to Hudson's bay, is the most worthless part of the whole world. Indeed it ie scarcely worth visiting even as a curiosity in sterility and desolation. In the one thousand miles of coast upon which there is any pretense of population, the total number of resident human beings all told will not exceed six thousand souls. This number includes all Indians of the Montagnais, Nasquapee and Esquimaux tribes. Estimating the peninsula as a quadrilateral with sides averaging 500 miles in length, a moderate computation, this would give an area of 100,000,000 acres and just one human being to about twenty-seven thousand acres. That there is 100 acres of land capable of cultivation within this mighty expanse has been remorsely disproved for over three hundred and fifty years by the efforts of Jesuits and other missionaries, by those of christianized Indians,and by all settlers who have been lured upon these shores to starve and perish. It is possible that during two, and possibly three, months of the summer 10,000 fishermen may be found off Labrador 15,000 within the gulf of St. Lawrence, and 25,000 along the Atlantic Labrador shores. These are residents of the United States, of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Prince Edward's islands, and Newfoundland. They have no interest here whatever, save to come and grab and go. There are not enough standing trees in all the Labrador district named and, that comprises all of Labrador proper, available for building timber, to pay for transporting to any place of lighting the first tire in, a single saw-mill. All the frantic efforts of the Dominion government to discover mineral deposits have been unavailing.

What then does Labrador possess? An unmeasured and measureless reach of stone and ice, covered here and there with moss again occasionally patched with stunted spruce oftener for hundreds of miles scarred and blackened by burned spruce stumps between which Hinty rocks projcct like cruel speare with countless impassable rivers plowing in ungovernable torrents throughhideous gorges, 4,000 whites utterly unable to leave their prisonment or better their condition, living half of the year like beasts, and the other half little better 2,000 Indians subsisting on salt fish ami rnw, with occasionally a bit of musty

But there is a certain interest the world over in how even so hopeless a folk as the Labradorians may live, and in that outstretching of alert religious effort, whatever its faults of methods, which aspires through great personal hardship and suffering to keep afiame the tiny lamps of Christian lighthouses along these wild and savage shores. The Jesuit missionaries have labored along the St. Lawrence coast since 1G11, and their efforts among the Indians of British America from the Atlantic to the Pacific fill a luminous page in North American history. On tne Labrador coast from Seven islands to Forteau bay the people, comprising Montagnais and Nasquapee Indians, French Acadiane, and half-breeds, are all adherents of the Roman Catholic faith. At but a few points are there resident priests. The fathers visit the different stations and settlements, by lxat, twice, the remotest once, each year, devoting themselves untiringly to ministrations from one to two weeks at each place. From Forteau bay past the straits of Belle Isle and around the Atlantic coast to Hamilton inlet, the Church of England may be said to control Labrador territory. This population is almost an English speaking one, comprising perhaps one thousand souls, which include several hundred Esquimaux and Esquimaux half-breeds. There are also in this territory three Wesleyan Methodist missionaries with roving charges, of whom our melancholy passenger from Mingan to Forteau bay was one. The Church of England missions were established 40 years ago and they now possess perhaps hajf a dozen mission houses and tiny churches all told, which are annually visited with great anguish and trepidation by the bishop of Quebec. Beyond this to the north there are no other than Moravian missions. These are four in number, all located on the Atlantic coast, at Hopedale, Nain, Okak and Heb on, the latter the northern-most mission of the continent. The brethren whom I met informed me that the'r first missionary and five sailors were murdered by the Esquimaux in 1752. But in 1770, under permission from the British crown, they gained a foothold and founded the mission at Nain. Okak was founded in 177C Hopedale in 17S2, and Hebron in 1830. The total number of Esquimaux along the 500 miles of the Atlantic coast is now about sixteen hundred. Of these nearly twelve hundred have been "civilized" and belong to the four missions, and thirty-one missionaries are engaged in this work upon the entire coast.

r..i .' (8 WEET EXPECTATION.)

Allegretto, -f f-

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Hour or meal three hundred to fourhundredEsquimaux doge any number of wolves and countless seals and fish. Now that is all there is to Labrador besides a climate of Greenland and even the seals and fish do not exclusively belong to it, for they area common product of the ocean, and as common to all other northeast shores. Any land so God-forsaken that the government possessing it cannot survey it, or procure any form of statistics concerning it, is a veritable castaway indeed. It is impossible to secure statistics of even seals and fish. But from the known Iobs in[naval and commercial expeditions, and the wreckage of coasting and fishers' vessels along the coast, since Labrador was discovered, it would be a safe calculation that for every dollar in value of fish or fur secured upon the Labrador coast for the paBt 400 years, an equal or greater actual lose by somebody has been sustained. And when the additional frightful loss of life has been taken into account, the inexpressible worthleesness of the entire peninsula may be to some extent conceived.

V-

These brethren are absolute rulers of the Esquimaux, and in all matters pertaining either to the Indians or to other trappers and residents on lands granted them by the English government. They control the entire fur trade of the Esquimaux, paying such prices as they may chooee, and no article of food or use finds its way into the handB of these simple folk save through the Moravian trading houses at such price of barter as the miEsionaries may demand. Vessels come to Nain with Btores and provisions from Europe, and to take away proceeds of the onesided trading. The brethren state that all profits are turned over to the general funds of the society. 1 do not wish to belittle their spiritual efforts or disparage their methods unjustly but as nearly as I am able to judge, a form of slavery exists here which iB not creditable to ostensibly christianizing effort. It is certain that the dusky flock who are thus fleeced, notwithstanding their sickening servility to the brethren, have a statement, of the whole situation which they sullenly grunt among each other, and occasionally permit a sharD^eared stranger to overhear. ThiB i6: "Missionary heap good in church heap bad in store!"'

The manner of subsistence of all the Indians and half-breed population of Labrador iB practically the same. The Montagnais and NaBquapees live in lodges the year round, whether in the interior or upon the coast. The Esquimaux generally live in igloes, a sort of turf-covered wigwam, when in the interior, and when at the missions in rude huts modeled after the igloe while the few remaining inland hunting Indians seldom appear upon the coast, unless driven in by famine, or when they come to the villages to barter, when they bring all their belongings down the rivers and inlets in open boats, camping at night under seal-skin tents. The coast Dabradorians, and there are not 600 others, are occupied in sealing in the early spring they fish in the summer, hunt and trap in the winter and these occupatiuns are common to all, including half-breeds and whites. There iB nothing else to be done, whatever the ability or inclination. In the extreme north the clothing is exclusively sealskin and on the south shore the attire is a combination of sealskin and fustian, the latter being especially prized for withstanding the cruel winds and storms of the region. The number of stockings worn by these folk is often astounding. Four, five, and sometimes a half dozen, are used inside their sealskin boots. There is nothing striking about the dress of the few white women who are here, save that they reminded one in the mountain of clothing they bundle upon themselves ot the tremendous skirts of the women ot Irish Connamora. But the Indian woman ot the South and the Esquimaux women of the North are wonderfully appareled. Anything they can get their hands upon possessing gorgeous color is used for decoratfon. They almost equal American women in this respect. Perhaps thiB is more noticable among the women of the St. Lawrence coast than with the Northern Esquimaux.

The drees of the latter usually consists of huge seal-skin boots, petticoats, a seal-skin garment covering the whole person from the neck to the knees trimmed with white fur, a cap enveloping the entire head, and a sort of baggy cap or hood hanging down the back, in which their fat little babies are carried.

The cradle is unknown among the Esquimaux but the universal tendency of all mothers to bounce, sway and

THE TERRE HAUTE EXPRESS, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 25,1889

W. L. BLUMENSCHEIN.

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-Copyright—Kiinkel Bros., 1889—KUNKEL'S ROYAL EDITION.- eUssna iKWARrcs-ia [*»«.

heave about the helpless infant, has illustration here in the "jigging" of the Esquimaux child in itB aerial cradle. Walking or sitting the Esquimaux mother has an endless movement like that of an old tar under a heavy sea. It is a writhing, weaving, swaying motion which cannot be adequately described. But it suffices, and the fat mother getB a good deal of exercise out of it, whatever the effect upon the babe. Only among the half-bretd women are there forms and feces that are attractive as civilized folk judge these things. The compensation is here, however for nearly all Esquimaux women will measure in girth what they will in height and all forms of fat represent the Labradorian idea of both utility and beauty. At child-bearing their own women officiate as midwives and they get along in every respect without physicians. There is not a resident doctor in all Labrador, nor, for that matter, a lawyer and our timber-hunting friend regards thiB fact as a forceful argument against American high-pressure civilization and Boston ethical culture.

The mission churches are very comfortable structures and the servics interest, entertain, and no doubt benefit, these lonely people. All are built of wood and whitewashed within and without. Some have a small tower and chancel, and a few boast of varnished pews. There are, perhaps a half dozen tiny church bells in all Labrador but at most missions the people are ca led together for services, and for all other purposes, by a flag displayed from the higheet eminence near. I visited an afternoon service at one of the Moravian missions. Perhaps two hundred and fifty people were present, and the collection of seal-Bkins was something remarkable to behold. Their possessore are all very demure and attentive on these occasions. The music, for indeed the entere service seemed to be one interminable chant, was strikingly {Mculiar. Several women formed a choir, and bravely sang with all their lungs and power. A half dozen men were playing the violin two were at work upon French horns, and two others crowded quavering threnodies out of wheezy accordeons. The members of this strange choir seemed to realize what devolved upon them, and bounded over the passages BO vigorously that all were in a violent state of enthusiasm and perspiration. All the congregation Bang. There was not a musical voice to be heard. A gutteral gasp, in which the Esquimaux "took" and "chuck" were uppermost, was all that could be recognized. At Hop»edale there is ground enough to permit a little cemetry but nearly all Labrador interments are made between clefts of rocks, as a protection against wolves. It is not a very comfortable country where soil enough can not be had to cover one's bones, or where such grewBome provision is necessary.

If there be anything like a social or home-life in Labrador, it exists exclusively in the long,' frozen night of the winter. Then the entire inhabitants retire from the howling coast to winter quarters within the trifling Bhelter of spruce forests and protecting river crags, and from their burrows of sod, hut and ice, sally forth in their sledges or cometiques to "visit" each other in their storm-swept settlements for distances of hundreds of miles. These tripe are made over the glistening snow at the rate of^sixty to 100 miles a day, by the aid of their gaunt and ferocious dogs which are kept in submission by that cruelest and deadliest of all driver's scourges, the Esquimaux whip. Its han­

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dle is not a foot long, but the lash is often forty feet in length, and the drivers are so skilled in its use that a piece can be struck out of a "leader," or "guide" dog's ear at a distance of from thirty to forty feet. These dogs, fully one hundred and fifty of which I saw at Hopedale, are simply a species of partly domesticated wolves. They are fed on fish once each day. In the summer they are sources of endless terror about the coast settlements but life would be impossible here without Their use in winter. These visiting tours are marked by the most prodigal hospitality, and a good deal of rude pleasure, indeed all these far-away humans in any manner secure, is enjoyed. But Labradorian life is an endless round of inane, sodden fruitlessness at best. The summer is passed in a scourging effort for winter's provision. Winter brings its struggle to prevent death by cold and hunger. TheBe human animals seam simply born to exist, be robbed, and to die. One turns from the slightest glimpse of land and people, heart sick from irrevocability of the hopelessness "of both. Labrador can never be else than what Jaques Cartier termed it in 15H4, "the land given to Cain."

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Edgar B. Wakrman.

WATCHES ANI) NATURE.

A oinpnrigon of a Timepiece nml the Human Body. A facetious watchmaker makes this unique comparison in the Jeweler's Weekly: "A watch is like the human body. It is just as sensitive as the most delicate child and needs more care and protection than it ever receives. "It is affected by climatic influences, and its vitaAs are ju6t as liable to de rangement as those of our bodies, hsart beats govern its action and hands and face tell its condition at times. "If I were to classify the diseases of watches, I should say that the one where the works are clogged with dirt and the oil has become stiff is analagous to our billiousnees. This is the most common complaint watch doctors find, and unless the ownerof the watch makes it a rule to submit it to a reputable repairer he will probably be victimized, iust as human patients are when they consult quack doctors."

Its its all

Waste or Coal Due to Expomire. The waste of coal by exposure to the weather has been variously computed and depends very much upon the nature and quality of the coal and the climate to which it is exposed. Soft coal suffers the greatest amount of loss, as it crumbles to dust by the action of the sun, air and rain its loss in bulk is calculated to amount to twelve per cent, per annum, and it deteriorates in quality much more than hard coal. Hard coal exposed to the weather loses in bulk to the extent of about eight per cent, per annum. On the whole, it is much more economical to place coal under cover, as while sheltered it retains its qualit} and suffers little loss. Another serious danger is also thus avoided—spontaneous combustion, which is attributed to ram falling npon coals after a long drought, causing the small or slacky portion to sweat and ignite.

Bound to Be Popular.

Queen Victoria says she will nub mt for her portrait any more. Queen Victoria is bound to be popular in her old age, no matter what it costs.—[Somerville Journal.

The Date Set at uti Advent Ciunp-MeotliiK —Sermon* and Al«l resses. The Advent camp-meeting yesterday had the largest attendance of the week since Sunday, and some good sermons were heard, says the Springfield, Mass., Republican. Elder Grant preached in the morning from John ii., 5, "Whosoever he saith unto you, do it." He quoted a number of passages from the Bible which contain commandments, and laid stress upon the necessity of acting upon them in actual life, as well as believing in them. Elder E. A. Stockman preached at 2:30, on the subject of "The Survival of Memory." The devil's purpose is to exterminate the human race. He thought by carrying sin into the Garden of Eden that he would cause man to incur God's displeasure and thus insure his destruction. If death is extinction, then the devil has won. The speaker believed that when Christ comep we shall rise with every faculty thatGod ever gave us. The devil shall have nothing of anybody as the result of the first transgression. The idea that we will enter the kingdom with anew set of functions is a great mistake. Memory must survive. We shall remember our conversion, our baptism, this campmeeting, perhaps, and times of trial. We must then be very careful, for in this world we are storing up memories for the world to come.

I. C. Wellcome, of Yarmouth, Me., preached in the evening one of the best sermons of the week. We are on the camp-ground, he said, as the representatives of a people who are specially looking for the second coming of the Lord and hoping for a share of his kingdom. Our faith will become dead unless we continue active in his service. The Lord Baid: "Add to your faith virtue." The Lord requires that every child of his should not only trust in him and believe every word that* he has Bpoken, but be ready to defend him at all times. We are sometimes timid about telling that we believe things which others do not. A private and quiet faith amounts to naught. The Advent people should make their beliefs known, not with bombast, but in such a way as to show people that they are consistent in their lives, and that they fear God and intend to follow in his way. Two tents were filled at the social meeting at the close of the service. Elder Tucker led one, and several preachers made ten-minute remarks on the second advent. Samuel Ayers, of Worcester, thought the event would take place either on the Cth or 7th of next October, while some others put it as far away as twelve years from now. Elder SederquiBt led the other meeting, and many testimonials were given, several from those who "knew the Lord was in the Wednesday night meeting, whatever they said about crankp," and expressed themselves as "wishing to take their stand" with those who were abused. In the course of Elder Sederquist's remarks he stepped forward several feet and said: "If the newspaper reporter is here to-night he can put me down as a No. 2 crank. I never was a No. 1 anything, but I'm a No. 2 crank. You can put that in the Springfield Republican if you want to." The preachers have not been selected for to-day, but Elder E. A. Stockman and Elder George W. Sederquist will probably preach to-mor-row. At a meeting of the association held at 4 o'clock yesterday several mem­

Cantabile.

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ENI) OF THE WORLD IN OCTOBER.

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bers joined, making the total number now ninety-eight.

KNOWN BY PENMANSHIP.

Truthful ChunicterlntlcH of llaiMlwrltluK— Time Told by An:ily»l». Handwriting has its characteristic?, and is a study in itself to those who want to become familiar with its peculiarities, says the St. Louis Globe-Demo-crat. It can very easily be told whether a perEon whose writing you want to identify is a man or a woman, a minoror adult. Tt is very

Eeldom

a handwriting

assumes its peinianency before the writer is 25 years old. The nge of the writing can be approximately determined by various methods. If it haB a Spencerian appearnjee you may know it was written after 18S2,

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at that date the

Spencerian system was introduced. If it is the black aniline ink that is generally used now, you may know it was written after lH7:i. The older inks had iron or some diluted dyestufT for a basis, and preceded the aniline. An analysis of the writing will most generally determine the date of the writing.

Sincere. 'ot Peculiar.

Dealer—What kind of a novel would you like? Here is one that has been well received by the critics, and they all say that it is a book that every one ought to read.

Young Lady—That is just the book 1 don't want. Have you any that the public is advised not to read?— ankee Blade.

A Prudent Uelpinei't.

Wife—I read in the paper that they are likely to have a war in Behring sea and kill all the seals.

Husband—Yes, the price of sealskin sacques will be so high next winter that we must not think of buying.

Wife—That was what I was

afrBid

of,

so I ordered two to-day before the rise in price occurred.--[Omaha World.

Silence in Golden.

"Yes," said Fenderson, "my new book has received golden opinions from all sorts of people."

Fogg—Why, I thought the press of the country had been entirely silent about it.

Fenderson—That's what I said. Silence is golden, you know.—|Boston Transcript.'

A Cool Ulooded Cuu'ida 11 rl. A queer freak of femininity was that of a young lady on a street car on Saturday wearing a fur boa. The mercury indicated over 80 deg., and the other passengers were fanning themselves, but the fur-wearer appeared as cool as a cucumber.—[Toronto Globe.

Compeiiftutlon.

Mrs. Cobwigger—My husband, I'm sorry to say, is a man of very little taste. Cora—That must be real nice for you, for I heard ma say your cooking was dreadful.—[Harper's Bazar.

Dashea at Fun.

"Begobs" said an Irishman, as he gazed at an ignited gas weiyg|^***L' divil wud iver have expouf^ earth burnin'fur all tlj^^ 4, 4 a csndle."—[Wasliiij*' i-