Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1910 — THE FIRST WHITE MAN AT THE NORTH POLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FIRST WHITE MAN AT THE NORTH POLE

Along the edge or the Arctic Ocean, 75 degrees north, two reindeer sledges were driven furiously. Over the waste of the tundra the lone driver* strained their eyes for a lost woman. “I seek to the left!” cried the Idolatrous, human sacrificing Samoyede savage. ”1 to the right!” answered the cultlred European artist and pilgrim of color; and he was now alone In the frozen desert, unable to retrace his tracks. In the tundra tracks can never be depended on; the fairest weather may turn, in five minutes, to a blizzard; and the snow was falling. A reindeer dropped. The European unharnessed it and landed a kick in the ribs, in vain; the stubborn animal lay still with its eyes shut. He drove with three reindeer. Icy gusts blinded his eyes, cut his face; but from the top of a hillock he perceived a black spot, afar off. It must be the woman! Lashing the tired be>sts, he approached. It was Danlllo, with his deer unharnessed, that they might scratch up some lichen from beneath the snow. ‘‘What’s all this? Why did our Ireena go off?” thundered the European. “Where’s her man?” “Oh, Pavell, he is back there in his sledge, howling. Perhaps he’s asleep now.” “Did she take bread and meat with her?” “No fear; she took only her little sack, with her embroideries, and her snow boots; and she left us. All because I said to her: ‘Why don’t you drive faster?’ She answered that the reindeer of her leading sledge were bad. I cut the store-sledges from behind her, sayng: I will take them,’ She could not stand for the disgrace and went off to loose herself, for reVenge. I thought she did not mean it; and I would not stop her. Only that when we saw that she was gone for good, Nikeeta went to hunt her—and you after.” The remainder of the sledges dragged up miserably. The strange cofeature, Ireena, would be doubly revenged; for If she had deserted caravan, food, water, husband and baby, to perish in the cold, tis? others would lose In her their abnormal pasturage-seer, who could perceive things beyond the line of the horizon; and her family would demand account of her. The other sledges moved up. Onward they hastened. Icy gusts of fine snow scorched their skin like red-hot brushes; yet the sky was flooded with a golden glow, as In summer evenings of the South. Only the snow rendered strange the beautiful illusion, falling blue against the golden horizon. One is seized with a desire to dash into the fascinating distance, the soul filled with a sweet feeling, softness, sadness, submlssiveqess, love and Inflexible will, all melting into one unaccountable whole. “Wake up! Wake up!” the Samoyedes had to call to their European guest, half-hypnotized, half-frozen, as they beheld the black point in the snow they knew to be a welcome tchoom. As they drove into the hospitable inclosure of the sledges and impediments protecting nomad tents, anxiety was set at rest. Nikeeta was there. His desperate efforts to find Ireena had been successful. Grief and sorrow vanished. The cultured European left light and easy-hearted. In the warmth of the savage tent, this is the astonishing story they told him of the first white man at the North Pole: The cultured European was Alexander Borissoff, a shy, big-hearted Hercules of 42 years. To see him about Paris or London in immaculate frock coat and silk hat no one would imagine he had spent desperate seasons with the Samoyedes, venturing with them farther north than any other nomads of the Arctic circle, to bring back, fixed on canvas for the first time, the undreamt-of color effects of the extreme North. London and Paris and American cities have seen his paintings. Newspapers have published extracts from his great,, color Illustrated book, which is being published at the ex-

pense of the Czar. But the story of the first white man at the North Pole was not in those extracts. “The white man came to us seven years-ago,” said Ireena, the-strange woman. "He came In a great ship and unloaded such great quantities of precious stores as had never before been seen. He made a pact w|th our people. He had hundreds of garments of the most beautiful colors, ornaments, scarfs, gloves, soft slippers—all magnificent. He had delicious food, meats of strange flavors, preserved fruits, sweets! Never had such treasures been dreamt pf, and there was no end to them. All were to be ours if half our people would go north with him, where the sun goes round and round and shadows dd not lengthen.” “The idea of this unknown scientist is perfectly simply,” says M. Borissoff. “It was to reach the North Pole in one of the annual migrations of the Samoyedes, when they follow the reindeer. He would have the protection of a tribe, and the dash to the pole with dog sledges would scarcely be more than doubling the usual journey.” ’ “What convinces you that they reached the North Pole?” I asked Borissoff. “A single phrase of Ireena, ‘where shadow’s neither lengthen nor shorten,’ ” answered Borissoff. "Only In the Immediate vicinity of the pole is such a phenomenon possible; and is unmistakable. These people measure time very much by the length of shadows. The Unknown European had told them that their goal would' be reached when their shadows remained stationary. They were, naturally, on the watch for It; and as they are too ignorant to have imagined such a thing they must haVe seen it.” The first white man at the North Pole stayed there during "five sleeps.* 1 “He had heavy Instruments, which we carried for him, said Ireena. “He worked with them much, rejoicing loudly; but he also made great feasts for i<s. The white man said to me that my name should be famous. He said this voyage was the greatest ever made. ‘There is a secret spot up here,’ he said, ‘where nothing moves.’ All was we?*; we broke camp and went joyously south. Who could have foreseen the bad things coming?” They reached the tchoom where they had wintered. Twenty young; men driving a great herd of reindeer had already arrived from'the south to feed them and escort them back. The North Pole party welcomed them as saviors; but the young men were morose and troubled. Something was wrong. “When we reached home after long travel,” said Ireena, "we learned what was wrong. We others, the strongest and bravest of our people, had worked a year to earn the great stores of our European master. Now, when they should be divided, there were no stores left. The stay-at-homes had consumed them. The strange foods and sweets had been eaten. The beautiful red and blue garments had been worn and soiled. “A rage seized on us; there was battle, and our friend the European was killed, with many others.” So ends the tragic mystery of the first white man at the North Pole. His head, placed on an iron box full of instruments and observations, reposes in the last pagan shrine‘of Europe—tfre dwelling place qf Hye, the god, which Borissoff never reached. Ireena and Danlllo ~ started with him for it. bn the edge of the Arctic they reached the cliffs containing, what he was Informed, was the chief holy place, reached only after a terrible journey over icy rocks and fearful ravines, river beds stuffed with snowT where reindeer sun themselves. Before the altar of Hye stands an iron box with a Europeon's head upon it; in that box Is the secret of the first white man at the North Pole. Sterling Heilwig.