Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1909 — THE WOMEN CHUMS. [ARTICLE]

THE WOMEN CHUMS.

The Scandinavia ship Sea Gull was sailing In Kara Bay, a part of the Arctic 06ean lying between Russia proper and Siberia. About five miles from the Russian coast at sunrise In the morning the lookout in the fire top, a woman (women on Scandinavian ships do the same work before the mast as men) saw on, the port quarter a black speck on the track of sunlight shimmering on the waves. A black speck on a river usually means nothing, but at sea always excites attention. The lookout seized a glass and brought it to bear on the object, which under the magnifying power of the glass was resolved into a boat with a person in it. The lookout sent word to the captain, who gave orders to put the vessel off a point or two with a view to discovering if the lone boatman needed assistance. As the Sea Gull approached the boat the figure in it was discovered to be that of a woman. She was lifted over the ship’s side in an exhausted condition, pale and emaciated, but when they asked her questions she oould respond only in the Russian language, which was unintelligible to the Scandinavians. One of the crew was a young Russian woman, Katia Jaroff, who had shipped at a, Siberian port a few days before. Knowing a little Scandinavian, she was brought forward as an interpreter. A close observer would have noticed a slight start on the part of both her and the woman from the boat when they first saw each other, but they sufficiently restrained themselves so that nothing unusual was noticed. Katia questioned the stranger and reported that she claimed to have been aboard a Russian vessel and, incurring the d spleasure of the captain, had been marooned. She asked where the Sea Gull was bound and when told that she would first stop at a Norwegian port asked to be transported there. Since she had no money she was required to work her passage before the mast. Naturally the two Russian women became companions. The woman who had been marooned," Sonia Sarderhoff, was large and soon regained her strength, which was considerable. Katia, on the contrary, was delicate, and she seemed to have been pulled down by some.past hardship. Both women were intellectual looking, and their station was evidently far. above that of the balance of the crew. Sonia from the time she was able to stand watch offered to do duty for Katia. The first mate, a Swede named Scanderson, became enamored of Katia and made love to her. Katia repelled him but he persisted. Sonia took the girl under her protection, which led to hard words between the mate and Sonia, and during the altercation Sonia told him that if he did not cease annoying her friend and countrywoman she would compel him to do so. This interested the crew, who ridiculed Scanderson. He paid no attention to Sonia’s threat, but persisted in annoying Katia. One day while he was so doing he was felled to the deck by a blow from Sonia. When the mate got up several of the sailors were laughing at him. He attempted_tQ .hring-lie-open palm of his hand against Sonia’s ear; but, leaving hip own face unguarded, he received a knock under tho jaw which raised him off his feet and landed him on the deck again. A fight between a man and a woman brought the crew together to see. The mate arose and let drive at Sonia. He was now in earnest, and the fight was more even. Sonia was at a disadvantage from her skirts, but she had the luck to knock her enemy against the capstan, which stunned him, and he was carried below unconscious. That ended the mate’s attentions to Katia, and from the time of the fight the two women were inseparable. But Sonia had nothing to do with any of the women of the crew except Katia. She would not occupy a bunk with the women, sleeping when she did sleep at night on deck. She was a puzzle to the men, and her devotion to Katia excited a good deal of curiosity. The captain hearing of her quarrel with the mate, reprimanded him and gave orders that the two Russian women should hereafter be treated with every consideration. He even relieved Katia of her part of the duties of a seaman. Finally the Sea Gull rounded the northern extremity of Norway and sailing down into the Atlantic ocean, put into Bergen. When the anchor had been dropped in Swedish waters the women went to the cabin of tbe captain and made a confession. They were both escaped prisoners from the Russian political prison at Kara. Katia had been convicted of teaching the Russian peasants. Sonia was a man, Michael Vlostoff, who had got himself sent to Kara for the express purpose of freeing Katia, which he had planned to do by bribery. Katla’s escape bad been made, at the time arranged, but Vlostoff had been delayed. They had arranged to get away from Siberia by shipping on a foreign vessel, which Katia had accomplished. Vlostoff had been obliged to put out in Kara Bay in a boat, and fortune decreed that be should be picked up by the vessel on which Katia had shipped. Tbe captain furnished Vlostoff with a Blit of men's clothes, and the pair were married before leaving the ahtp. —Arelaide Hill. ~ , 1