Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1909 — Selections [ARTICLE]

Selections

THE LAPLANDERS. • This Dying Raes to Ba Transplanted to Labrador. A commencement has just been made in a most remarkable and long talked” of enterprise. This Is nothing less than the transplanting of the Lapps from Lapland, where they are a dying race, to Labrador, where it is hoped that they will flourish and increase.

Whether these hopes will be justified or not remains to be seen. Similar experiments in the past have seldom been wholly successful, and some have resulted disastrously. The Doukhobors, for Instance, who in 1899 were transported to the number of 8,000 or 9,000 from their homes in southern Russia to the Canadian northwest, were for a time in dire straits. They also behaved erratically, marching naked through the snow and abandoning their flocks and herds to the wolves. They are now, however, reported to be settling down and doing better.

On the other hand, the attempt made some eighty years ago to transplant the Roskolnlkls of the Don country to a new home that was supposed to have been found for them In eastern Turkestan resulted In one of the most ghastly tragedies recorded in the annals of history. The huge caravan lost its way in the terrible desert Of Gobi and was never heard of again, the probability being that hunger and thirst, combined with the attacks of nomad robbers, were responsible for the deaths of the entire party. Equally dreadful was the fate that befell the 10,000 Jutlanders transplanted to the east coast of Greenland by Queen Margaret of Sweden. At first they flourished exceedingly. Villages were founded, churches and schools were built, and a bishop was appointed. Then one year the Ice pack broke loose from the remote northern seas and came to a standstill along the coast opposite the settlemepts In a belt fifty miles broad. All communication with the open sea was then cut off. The settlers were unable to obtain supplies, and In the end they perished down to the very last man.—Pearson’s Weekly.