4V
IOK 'iiw jmw c the future, when
' . fA trim and bitterly cold darkness
' 0 thit.longiArctti night hrtiteved
i the dazzling play of the aurora borealis,
JA ttrir J shadows of the snoyxappep citjfs
' and , icy ' promontories will ' lie ) athwart a fr .
strange; new figure in that numbing, deso- r
lated land.r ' . ;';.;'. ' "" '
v J J mid some wandering, scant, tribe of '. .
the Eskimos will loom the form of Bern
hardt Hantzsch, a school; teacher from
: Dresden .whose preparations jor ms un-.
usual expedition, i which begins next year :
and is to last until J912, are exciting the ,
interest of the scientific world here ; as well
5 ii Germany t t : . t
: His is one of the most novel and one of
ft woif journeys of discovery ever K
undertaken by civilized man; Yet it is pos- s
sible that, fascinated by the report brought
back by Commander Peary from his last 1
', expedition of the existence of a marvelously
beautiful Eskimo girl who is the daughter
of a chief, jheunique adventure of the -'Dresden
schoolmaster may have a more ro
mantic, secret purpose ; . , .
1IL
I A.YING . his cwn expenses in part, and in
.part aided by the members -of the scien
tific societies of Dresden; Herr Hantzsch
expects to equip himself with' nothing
mere civilized than a boat specially constructed
for sailing around the southern coasts of Baf
. fin's'.bay. ,'.' ' , ' ' .
As soon a he can affiliate himself with one
, of the wandering' Eskimo tribes,' he will discard
the last veBtiges of his European garb, manner
: v of life, and even .languageif he canand
travel, with them, eat .with them, sleep with
them, end live with them in all things as they
live, fpr the whole three years.
- So far as-.' may r lie , in his power,' Herr .
5 Hantzsch will become an .Eskimo.
' li 'e' twld survive the experience--and
a1"""! by starvation and. by the chances of fioe
' and flood are very many he hopes to. make
. his way northward along the western coast and '
. meet with some whaling $hip. that will bring him'
back to Europe. ' " ' ; 1 ' r, , ,
If it prove,- ultimately, ";thaf pure science,"
, mim uv uuiiiig fvuaucc, ia , mo power "that
draws him from the dull round o n
srhool teaching, it w highly probable that Herr
flint TTi ' -
, VT: r "S :recsni .domiUble1leary. Have, brought , to, geogrgpners, awmesa-journeys, rep
oeciaraiion ozr mr .man's rashness. in. adve
" l"e missionary w.tneKimo- that thia en- irista: and -thnoloiata Jmowrledee. of. inestimable , There is no "base of
tire.raM I pure-blooded aborigines is doomed r interest -or utility-priceless
w Fpeoay exunciiow was reviewed not long ago by
t'OninVn ruler 1'carr. 'Jcamips bevond. in- :. . - . i 3 .
farthest orlh, took census during 10S of the Geographical Society.
t ' THE i OREGON ; SUNDAY ;
'V f
7
'
, ,
i v
V
-pure-blooded Eskimos of 'Whale sound;' thero
were but, 53 of them, all as yet uncontaminated
1 by tb.6 decimating vices forced upon their ,kind
in the south- by tho white, traders so pure, and
. free,' during ; thb"last; centuries , of .their , xist
encef: 'from any, taint. .of disease -that now they
possess: absolutely no inheritance pi immunity
against the germs of . tuberculosis, smallpox and ,
other. scourges that may. bo borne to them. by
the air they breathe, from 'the civilization which
encroaches more and more upon their icy Edeiu --
- The long1 series of superhuman' onslaughts
. ii. -11. .' ijn: - .f-.l,-
ir - - ' Jti.il '.i il? wf.,C' in -
Kane, edition1 to
information' which
Commander Peary
uig. 'fiauvuu.,
; -.' v
m ,i- : ! l V.V
AY? 4 ta.. . ,:
Wv 11
JOURNAL, . PORTLAND, SUNDAY
17
V
':)
1 - - V;rirfi:W;';i6i
Yet vast stores of facts remain to be as
. . tembled, if the world of science is to be en
. dowed with a complete record of the material
lives and the Bocial customs of this people,
doomed 'to so speedy an extinction.
And it-will have scientific value only as it
Jte gathered at?first hand by some bold, hardy,
studious adventurer, willing to consecrate a
considerable part, of his life 'to the difficult
investigation. . ' .
A writer, describing experiences with the
Eskimos, in 1900, in .connection with "Peary1
expedition work, remarked that V some - day
there will be given to the world a fund of
scientific knowledge regarding, them ' which
'must be -of absorbing human interest. V Com
plete identification with the Eskimos, contin
ued through several years, he said, would put
trained observer in possession of 'a unique chap-
ter of history. .. ' , . ,
It is just' that complete identification which
Herr Hantzsch will seek to achieve,, and his in
terest will, bo almost exclusively . occupied with
tho humanity .of tho Arctic highlands, -rather
than with the land; and the-sea," , - 4
He will know the fierce joy of the walrus hunt
a9 no other white man has ever known it in
the fashion of tho native. Even to the
plorers to whom the animals of ihe Arctics have
been the . sole resources against, hunger ' and
oiieu tno timely protection against sheer star-
yation, the zest of; hunting, by sea and land -has '..
..v,.., , lv. .jom f iuijjuujjit;u . varsenai oi , poisons ior nis own pciense, wim , inaw;u icgivw.vi . vnui , . -j. i -by
the overwhelming 'weapons- their mighty, his 'germs-of disease that thrive in him and can If he find herJheicah win ner,af-ovfo, th
.though distant, civilization affords. Buf the wreak upon his immune body but little harm, so ' strength 'tof-his-aims sufliee for the conquest.
Eskimos,: CHjuipped; ebiefly with the crude bar-, .many microscopic serpents multiplying in 'their .Though she be no longer the maiden, blooming
poons and light kyacka of their own' devising, native habitat; with his morals that givethe in- . incongruously like some wonderful flower m the
nu wanuenng, leagues in , meir wiae, almost
resent the extreme" of
nture , - -
SUDDlieS.". ,Thil inn. ,
piies are? wnere :mey nnu ,mem, irom the seals
or" walrus , they steal upon . with auch infinite''
auwvu iv , vuo.onoj Uio, UAc UlKli JO -BOme
dire extremity- of . famine, serve, to stay , the
KORNINr, JANUARY'. 12. 1903
, . . . i
cm
v- '
v.
griping pangs of their empty stomachs;
It is, naked tragedy bare -. death with ; the ;
clothes and the fleshroflf its empty bones that
they brave so boldly when" they abandon the ig
loos of roughly heaped stones, affording them
tho low, im-ovised ' caves which are. "their
houses. And W men with tho hardy, eestful "
spirit ' of the primeval' wild there is no life so
live, so poignantly thrilling, as that one which T
pits ;the strength: of .the body and the shrewd-"
ness of the mind against the bare, bony clutch
of.;death. , i r
The white man with his alcohol which has
go 'long poisoned' him that he is ' a walking
stinctive JieltfL evry haptisntof moraluy.4hat
has .vsrnlv consecrated his unreeenerate flesh
.hA. dnti hia vil heat to min' the.virtue and the
ViooltJi.A fn. i MAriini hoi Tnr-h1nnlp1. p1fnn.
vminded children of the Arctics.
-. In the end. he wUl destroy them. Already, the
almost -white skin1 of -some of the "younger gen-;
eration proves the inevitable .fraction hat must
; . . ' , '
;r,-
rbi r ' ' ' '
vfjj-hi :
r
A
vanish Id the process of racial absorption: and
the countless , little mounds, -which the melting
snows at times uncover in the. summer season. :
ease which, with quiet insidipusneas, has seized
upon one; here and "there; -or, with epidemio '
sweep, has laid low, hall, a tribe. . .
Tet Jhe schoolmaster, from Dresden 'will find )
.'ample subjects for his venturesome study men (
and women' of - the- uncontaminated, ; ancient
race, still clad in the warm sealskins the wives )
of the hunters have chewed with their atronfir, (
white "teeth until every 'fiber in the sun-dried '
hide has been broken down, and the garment is
as . soft and pliable as the broadcloth ' of the
burgomeiaters. . v ; T. , ;, .-. . ' '
' And then he will come to" appreciate the deep- '
Iy seated, instinct-for graphic expression, the
unconquerable need for art, which distinguished
mankind even in the age of stone; and he will
comprehend the niceties ' of skill, the aching
longings of genius bom dumb and nearly blind,
when he studies the carvings on ivory and bone
which these people make, - because, even amid
the emptiness of their inhospitable land, the
humanity that is in.them cries out for splendors
they cannot conceive.
lie will 'realize the exquisite grace and ele
gance of movement that underlie the bundling,
swathing of furs necessitated by the insistent
- ----- .....
rigor of. the cold, a grace .which, as some close
observers aver, can be equaled by the Japanese
alone. . .'' ' f )
He will learn, in their fuU, priceless yaluefc
the simple directness, honesty and loyalty which ,
'make the pure-blooded Eskimos the finest qual
ity of gentlemen that are, to, be found on earth r
which,; indeed, from the . magnificent expedi
. tions of Peary to-the lonely. year of exile spent
among them by Peary's surgeon, Dr, Dedrick,
made them the sole dependence of the .white
. man in his siege of the still unattainable .pole
And surpVisingr as it will be to all 'who do '
;not know intimately this neglected, lost Tace" of ' ,
mankind, he will, find among . them types of '
women who " have - the beauty of statues of .-
bronze, brilliant . exceptions to the,, flat-faced "
. breed so commonly, identified .with the squat, ,
t uncouth figure of the Eskimo. ' 1
1 ; An1 authority tells of "one remarkable type of '
feminine beauty, the daughter of a1 chief with ,
whom Peary had become acquainted during for
mer trips to .the North.", , '
- Can it be that -Herr Hantzsch Is' of the
- dreamy,:,romantio Teutonic nature, inspired by ; .
these rarely enthusiastic words, of science to an
adventure in quest ;of tho, ideal, such as has been
a common ; thing among .Teutonst and, 1 Anglo -Saxons
from time immemorial? ' In the. quiet, ' '
orderly v 8choolhouse" of 5prosaic ;Dresden, where
insipid shepherdesses -in china ate the extremes -of
loveliness attainable, has some vision come to .
' the quiet schoolmaster of the ancient' tradition ,
of beautiful Salome, the daugnter ot jieroaias, -
reincarnated for her penance of life, amid the
twilight --darkrfess of . ner-cmextain iiatner 8
irioo. thoUarh she be already given to some stal
wart huntet whose carments of sealskin'her'perJ.
foot - teeth ' 'miiHt f rhfiW Anta Bof tnPSS it .hi .
, muscles oriron.v Bernard Hantzsch iieed only
overcomai her present possessor in the trials of
. strensrth his 1 Druid' forefathers loved, to make
her meekly his. . - , ',-.s--
f
3
4 if,-