Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 59, 18 January 1919 — Page 12

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RICHMOND PALLADIUM, SATURDAY, JAN. 18, 1919

3 C m V.J 0 (DIE It was ono of those first warm days In early spring when the soft whisper of lazy hours to come lies Bleepily In the breeze, that Jimmie G. was coming home very slowly in the twilight. How could he hurry? Every little whiff of air, every gentle swaying branch budding with life, and every loose' pebble inviting a kick, was working mightily upon that particular weakness inside poor Jimmie, commonly called spring fever. In fact it almost Is to be doubted that the motor nerves of hlstrer extremities could have been forced to carry him forward, had net a growing sense of vacuum within his central organism urged him on. When nothing else urges a boy to go borne, supper will. The evening paper was lying onthe front steps and Jimmie stooped , to pick it up as he slowly ambled towards the front door and stood teetering on the edge of the door sill before entering. But as he opened the door, a strange deserted air seemed to greet him. AH the downstairs was. silent and dark, . and the clock ticked very deliberately from its place in the corner. Jimmie proceeded at once to the kitchen, but here also he met with a chilling, 6hadowy emptiness.- ' "Huh," he grunted in disgust and disappointment. But as he sauntered back into the living room again,' he noticed for the first time the faint sounds of someone moving hurriedly, back and forth. upstairs, and mounting to his mother's room, he opened the door on a scene that struck vague terror to his very bone. , ? ' Two huge suit cases were spread out on the floor with piles of gar ments ready to be packed. Mrs. Gray was bending over a traveling case fitting in her toilet articles, and although her face was half turned away, Jimmie could see it was chalk white and deadly calm. Jean was silently working over, her doll in one corner. "Mother, where are you going," broke in Jimmie O., his voice sounding so loud and unexpected that Mrs. Gray started slightly as she looked up and then held out her hand to her boy. - "Come here, Jimmie," she answered very quietly, "and I'll tell you all about it" As she slipped' her arm about him, Jimmie leaned his head against her shoulder, while he looked down at the little service pin on her waist and toyed with it, . with his stubby brown fingers. Jean laid her doll down very gently and came over to the otherside, leaning her head against her mother's arm, while the big 1 silent tears rolled down her cheeks. '"Jimmie," began his mother, "you are your daddy's own son, aren't you, and I can depend on you tak ing things liko a man, no matter what comes, can't I? ', -Jimmie aodded silently. . "Then Jimmie Boy, to tell you right straight, this afternoon about half past three, a cablegram came from Major Andrews, whom you remember your father has mentioned as his good friend, and in it he said for me to come at once and ' stay with his sister in England. ' "I thought there was some mis take, and was puzzling over what he possibly could mean, when, about -an hour later, the official word came, Jimmie, that - your father has been wounded. "Of course it' doesn't tell what the wound means, or where your daddy Is, but from the Major's cablegram, I imagine your father will be in a hospital near her home, and that I may be with him over there. "And so, Jimmie Boy, I'm going to leave you and Jean here with Nannah. No one could care for you more than she does, and although of course I won't really be here, you'll know I'm thinking - about you and little sister all the time, and then we can write to each other every day, can't we?" . . . . . mil. jimmie s aeaa Ban a nine lower against his mother, and somehow no answer seemed to come, but his mother knew he would, just the same. "I have telephoned your Aunt Lois, and she has promised to keep an eye on you, so you know all the nice little surprises she can lx up; and besides that, if I should be gone until summer time, you and Jean can go out to Indiana and

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visit your Grandmother Gray in the old brick bouse where your daddy lived as a little boy, and go fishing in Thlstlethwaite's Pond and do all sorts of things he has told about "But we must not talk any more now. There Isn't any real need to, is there? You can tell your daddy and me everything in your letters, and although it will take some time for our answers to come through, you will know what we would say about the things you do, anyhow. Oh, Jimmie Boy, you dont't know how much I'm depending on you. I am right now. And while I am away, no matter whether you are visiting in strange places or staying here at home with Nannah and little Jean. I will be thinking of you as my own same manly son. And you won't disappoint me, will you?" For a moment the cords in her throat drew so tight that she leaned her forehead on the mass of Jimmie's black hair as the blinding tears came, but the next minute she had forced them back again and was smiling as she wiped the big salty tears away from Jean's eyes, and- then continued. "But we must not cry yet, Jean dear. Your daddy is still alive and will fight hour by hour to regain his old strength so that he can come home well and strong once more, some day. And when I am there with him, it will mean that our old happy times will be brought back just that much sooner. Our little home hasn't been broken up, not yet, and if you keep remembering that these times are passing by right now, never to come back again, you can be happy, as I am, looking forward to the long years ahead, when all nations livo in peace and brotherhood, and war will be a memory. "Jimmie Boy, my own little Jim mie Boy, you won't forget that that you're an American, and a soldier's son, will you? I know you won't. "There, half past six, and we still have so much else to do, we must begin to show the fiber we're made of, and through all the times to come never flinch. Jimmie, will you call Mr. Harlow and ask him if he could get my reservation on the eight o'clock eastern train, please?" "But . mother," cried Jimmie, starting up and standing wide-eyed before her. "You aren't going to leave a fellow right now, tonight, are you?" Mrs. Gray looked straight into Jimmie's eyes with all her quiet strength as she answered slowly, "Jimmie Boy, your father is lying there in a hospital, wounded, tOBSing in pain, perhaps calling for me. When do you want me to go?" Jimmie's eyes seemed fastened on the little gleam of light reflected from the plain gold circle on his mother's finger, and his voice was a little muffled, but his mother seemed to catch the words and their deep meaning as he mumbled, "Is Harlow's number seven eighty six main?" For she answered, "Yes, Jimmie Junior, that is right." After Eating Gooseberry Pie The Owl and the Pussy Cat went to Bee A boy of diminutive size, Who was full of contrition, remorse, and crust From lemon and gooseberry pies. They lifted him up, and they cast him down, And rolled him over the floor, And the boy resolved, when they vanished away, That he'd slep after dinner no more. Selected. PUTTING BOTH FEET IN IT. In the course of an evening reception a woman who had none to good a voice sang for the guests. One of the guests turned to a meek looking little man who sat at his side and said "How awful! Who can she be?" "That," replied the man addressed, "is my wife." Oh, I b-b-beg your pardon," stut tered the other. "She's really a I know she'd sing beautifully if she made a better selection of her music. Who do you suppose wrote that song?" "I did," replied the meek-looking little man.

Vacation Is a Punishment for Children of Alaska, Says Friends Missionary

"School is one of the greatest pleasures of the children that live way up beyond the Arctic Circle of our own continent," said Mr. Charles Replogle, in speaking to Aunt Polly, the other da7. Mr. Replogle has been working in the service of tho United States Governmentand in co-operation with Friends' Missionaries in several places in Alaska, for many years, and knows a great deal about little brown Eskimos that lfve there. The wind blows very, very hard in Northern Alaska, too hard for even Eskimos to endure, and Esbimos are very strong and are used to winds that blow so constantly and severely that a person out in it can't see but a few yards distance ahead of him, and can scarcely breathe. That was the way it was in a certain, tiny, dirty little Alaskan village not many years ago. Moving the Vfllage. So they decided to move the village. It wasn't much to leave just a few small huts made of earth, just like the old cave-dwellers and there wasn't even so very much to move. Of course it took some time to get everyone to move to another place, (even if it was more sheltered from the wind) for, of course they had always lived there and that seemed reason enough to some of them for staying, in spite of any amount of wind. But at last, it was all arranged, and they began to pack up. This consisted in hitching up the reindeer (real for sure ones, white, black and brown ones) and the beautiful dogs to the sleds, and putting in a very few furs, a few provisions, and the family and then starting. They were then loaded onto a great flat boat and taken to their new home, which they called Noorvik (which is pronounced just as it is spelled). : So they settled down and built new and better homes, a church, a school, a store and a few other little buildings. It is only a very small and a very plain little place, that school, but all the children come, in fact some of the pupils are more than children, for some men, seventy years old, and some women, seventy-five years old, go to school and have learned to read out of the second and the third readers. First of all every one gathers in the school room early in the morning to hear the news that has come since the morning before, by wireless, for there is a wireless line there and they know all the latest news about as soon as we do. They study this, news with their histories and geographies in their hands (How many Juniors have followed the world events that carefully.'), and then they print a little newspaper about it. This is all done in English, in fact all of the people In Noorvik speak English, which Mr. Replogle ALLIGATORS

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 18. What might be classed as a sport Is one of St Petersburg's Indus-' tries. It Is that of capturing lire alligators. Near the city there is a large alligator farm where tourists like to visit and watch the alligator captors angle for the leathery creatures and tie them until they are harmless. They are fastened securely to boards, with their jaws tied with heavy rope and their legs bound behind them. The men above hare been following their hazardous calling since youth and although they have experienced some narrow escapes, not one has received any injury. The alligators are Bold alive for exhibition purposes and others are killed for their skins, which are used to make purses for the women folk and traveling bags for the men. .

thinks sounds a great deal better than the grunts that the Eskimos use in speaking their own language. The children are very brown and their hair i3 as straight and stiff as pine needles only longer, and their faces are very round, 1)ut they're very likeable children, all Ihe same. Their chief dress Is called a Parka, which is a onepiece soma thing (coat, trousers, hood and all) made all of fur, probably of reindeer skins. They didn't know how to play at all, these boys and girls, until the schools and Sunday schools came. But then they learned in a hurry. A doll is the only plaything for a girl, but that is all she wants. Balls occupy the boys in their play times. At 20 degrees below zero the weather is just right for. baseball; but it has to be about 20 degrees lower before it is cold enough for football. Races are very popular among them and many of these Eskimos are very swift runners. In fact whenever they go from place to place, they usually run. If a boy walks, he is sick. All that is taught in our schools, is taught to them in their school year, which lasts nine months, and sewing to the girls besides. The worst punishment that can be given, is to send a boy home from school; and if the whole school has to be severely punished, the teachers just declare a vacation, for that makes the children feel very, very bad. At first, no child would do a single problem unless everyone in the room had finished the problem before, and yet they would not help that slow one to get it, but now there is a keen rivalry between the pupils and some are very rapid figurers. But the slow ones are very willing to work. One little girl, called Jennie Outwater, daughter of the judge of the village was very, very slow in her studies. So, though only nine years old, she sat up, sometimes two or three nights, studying, so that she would not have to go to school without her lessons. She won out and was such a good student that last year, she was chosen teacher of the intermediates, though is only sixteen years old. In a little home, called an igloo, too small for white people to enter, lived another little girl. Her name was Lydia Taft The home was one room with a ceiling that was only four feet high, and the only door was very small, and of course there were no windows, for they didn't know about windows then, and the whole thing was covered with sod. Inside were the parents, the children and the sled dogs," and Lydia was one of the children. She liked to sew and learned all she could about it. Now she is the

FURNISH SPORT AND LIVING

most important seamstress in all Noorvik, and makes her own living, in fact she also makes the .living for her lazy husband and their little child, although as yet she is only sixteen years old. Even as children, they learn to train the dogs to pull the sleds. As they grow older, the girls learn to work in the home and the boy learns the trade that he chooses. They can choose to be carpenters, tanners (tanning the thousands of skins that the trappers catch), bookkeepers, mill-workers, wireless workers, or can choose the more native vocations of curing fish, trapping all kinds of animals for their fur, or herding reindeer. Their food consists mainly of Ush, of seal, of reindeer meat, some bread and roots. To eat, all the family sits down on the floor, around a bowl of food, and then everyone eats out of the same bowl. This doesn't sound at all nice to us, but they don't know any better yet. They are slowly learning the customs of the white people, which are much cleaner and much more pleasing than anything they know about. . All little Eskimo children like each other, and when they play they very, very seldom quarrel, which is one custom we might learn from them. During the many years that Mr. Replogle worked in Alaska, he only saw one quarrel among the children, and that happened to be Jennie Outwater fighting a little boy. And by the way, Jennie came out victorious from the struggle. All these Alaskan children are very proud to be citizens of the United States. Old Glory Is seen every where. The first Christmas tree that ever came to Noorvik drove the children wild with delight, and even the big-fclks too. It was only a tiny Spruce tree, whose widest branches measured twenty inches, but it was tall and strong and loaded with tons of presents. And such .presents! You would never guess some of them. They ranged from a package of needles to an Immense empty water barrel. But now they don't have any tree nor presents. . They have found another way, a very happy one to celebrate this wonderful day. The children's organization that is active in relief of hunger and cold all the year round, sees to it that everyone is especialy helped at this time -and at their Christmas party, they give an offering to the poor people of their district. And so we see that our brothers and sisters way up in the cold, cold snowlands are very much like us after all, friendly, loving life and quick to respond to all teaching and training when such opportunities come.