The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 17, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 1898 HERE ARE ADVENTURES MORE WONDERFUL THAN ANY IN THE ARABIAN NIGHTS orld to another. Tickey and Kunana, his wife, the two Esquimau guides who accompanied Third Mate Tilton on his extraordinary trip through Alaska to bring the tidings from the icebound whaling fleet, tive and shown a few of the simple wonders of the ‘‘white man.” {wo natives have been living in a condition of dazed wonder ever since their arrival. So paralyzed are they with our everyday Tilton is by their side to assure them that the earth will not swallow them When the first railroad car they boarded began to move Mrs. Tickey kest, most deso- a coast; cradled rished by raw fish aught for the thirty but ice floes, snow, your horizon ing of an ice- n occasional sported to the very ilization, and what, vou would know, for 1 Francisco who have are capable of answering that these chocolate-com- arrived within our be no bigger and t this end of the that 'tis not for hs have been put grabbed Mr. Tilton and screamed. s t say, ““Am | awake or eep?’’ OJOROJOROXO} omplex wonders came within their ken. 5 n%py these simple souls, dog-like in devotion yet ferocious in their savagery when racial instincts rise uppermost, the Land of the White Man is a region of the incomprehensible, where the evidence of the es may.not be believed. them that the White Man can darken the sun in high heaven, drain the great ocean dry to its ittermost depths and lasso a corner of the new moon he glides through starry space, and they will feve you. Have they not n things more ma velous than these come to p: in our strange, en- chanted world? Mr. and Mrs. Tickey are guests at a down-town hotel, In care of G. Tiltc In a private dining- room they sample thrice daily the American bill of fare, and If they be compelled to forego the dainties to which they have been accustomed in the way of seal, walrus, bear and whale au natural, with blub- ber sauce and frozen fish on the side, left over from last year's catch, they do not complain. Your true Esquimau is not one to voice hardships. They are learning our ways very fast, are the Tickeys. Already they wield knife and fork with the grace and dexterity to be expected from hands ac- customed to whacking refractory ice floes with oars and jabbing harpoons into a whale’s hide. For at home, at Point Hope, they go out in their skin boat in search of whales, the traders paying them in provisions and clothing, and while the man pursues the monster, the woman, who pulls a better stroke than he, propels the boat. To their joy they have found ice here, unfamiliarly clean, 'tis true, but ice nevertheless, and during the long, hot days just past, the bell boys have been kept actively in transit between their apartments and the ice chest, with pitchers klink-klinking along the route in musical response to the three-bell summons at the push-button. Nor have these guileless wayfarers attempted to blow out the gas. When they are ready to dispense with its rays at night they ring for a bell-boy to “put out the fire,” as they call it in their tongue, for they know not so much as a word of any other. As to their speech, it is like unto nothing that we ordinarily hear. It sounds as the incoherent stutter- ing of a linotype machine might, if talked into a pho- nograph. Translated, Tickey means ‘‘thimble,” which article the Esquimaux fashion out of a walrus tusk. Kunana is “Morning Star,” and the name of their little son in the Arctic signifies “valley.” Kunana 1s not a beauty, but there is a certain plcturesqueness in her uncorseted outlines and a dumb kindliness in her face. Across one cheek a deep scar tells of past tragedy. In her youth Kunana was the wife of the chief of her tribe, who one day laid her cheek open with a knife when she dared to displease him. He sup- plemented this conjugal attention with an attempt to murder her. Her old father appeared upon the domes- tic scene and shot him dead. Tickey, some ten years her senior, then came to woo, and having in the required space of time killed and trapped enough animals to prove himself a good provider, her father consented to their union. The rest of the tribe were called in to feast on the game and the bride went to her husband’'s dug-out to live happily ever after, her chin painted with three black perpendicular marks, signifying wifehood. Thelr native costume is bull~ but light in weight and consists of two deerskin suits—one worn with the fur next the skin, the other with the fur outside. Kunana looks with unqualified disapproval upon the hat of the “white squaw.” A shawl over her head is the only compromise she can be induced to con- sider. Her hands are strong and plentifully ringed, her inky-black hair braided behind each ear, and hid- den somewhere 'twixt chin and waist is her beloved pipe, with its curving stem made of wood, its bowl of brass, and its tobacco and match accessories. e e It was at Astoria that Mr. Tilton, who speaks their language, took his attendants for their first ride be- hind horses. To them a horse is the ‘“White Man’'s dog,” a carriage and a cable car his “sled.” So little have they in their barren country witn which to com- pare the astonishing sights they see that the most they n do is to exclaim and gesticulate. Watching their varying expressions of countenance, the bewild- erment reflected there and the impossibility of their minds gaining the ieast clew to the kaleidoscope of mysteries surrounding them, is entertainment for the onlooker of a rare kind. Fear they know not the meaning of, so implicit is their faith in Mr. Tilton. If he should walk to the end of Fisherman’s wharf, drop into the bay and swim to Goat Island, T believe that there would be a brace of dusky Esquimaux at his heels to land with him. And they would not regard the proceeding as at all unusual in a country where “sleds” swoop down upon them in all directions without four-footed aid; where “little houses,” term elevators, dart dizzily skyward by invi means; where people drink water from totem poles—for such to them a the city’s fountains; where a searchlight hunts or out in the darkness, in the twinkling of an eye; where Two simple people have just been transported from one wi have been taken around the city by a CALL representa sights that they will not venture anywhere unless Mr. or that scmething out of the sky will not grab them away. «“Look! look! the white man’s houses are all running away. ture into an elevator, ‘‘the house that runs up and down.” In their opinion ‘“‘the white man can do anything he desires,”” make houses fly, stars shoot or stand on the street to light the @ way, make rivers run up hill and make fire come and go just as he pleases. D Mr. Tilton says that when these two wonder-stricken nativ 2 uch as electric and cable cars, electric lights, steam cars, gas, hydrants in the house, elephants, lions, etc., every one will set hem down as crazy and say, ‘* Oh, the white man has bewitched you. Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Tickey rub their heads daily and gasp at everything they see. Somztimes they shake each other They will be taken back to their icebound northern home on the first steamer to the Arctic, and the tales they will have to teil will hold ths incredulous natives spellbound for years to come. the stars themselves seem to drop earthward and wink at you from “a glass box on a stick” each night —their conception of street lamps—or blaze whitely at you in incandescent glory from one end of the big village to the other, on streets that interlace like the cords of a fishnet. atihe The tram lay near the Park entrance awaiting the conductor's signal to speed to the Cliff. Kunana and her mate surveyed the cars curiously. Why did the white man build a row of houses on hoops instead of on the ground? A bell clanged and lo, the dwel- lings apparently picked themselves up and vanished. Tickey stood as though ‘petrified. Kunana, being a woman, s the first to articulate. She caught at Mr. Tilton's “The houses! They are all moving out of town In faith, the dug-outs of her ancestors had deserted them in no such weird fashion. “The Chutes,” I thought, as I laughed at their amazement. What fun to take them there! Would Mr. Tilton mind? Not at all, he said. Never a step, though, would his companions budge unless he went, too. So we traveled thence, an odd quartet, and thereby hangs this tale. ‘ Once, on a country road, I saw a Chinaman driver clutching desperately the reins of a runaway horse attached to a rheumatic wagon load of garden pro- duce. His queue cleaved the air behind him, a black streak against the horizon, and at every bounce over the highway's ruts the vehicle discardea a fresh in- voice of vegetables. Presently a violent lurch sent the wheels spinning in air and for an instant the dusty expanse seemed full of somersaulting China- man. Then he landed, badly scared but unhurt, upon a pyramid of carrots and cabbages in the middle of the road. I thought it the funniest thing that could happen, but 1 had not then officlated as guide, phil- osopher, friend and envoy extraordinary to a pair of newly imported Esquimaux. e sl s Kunana blinked in the rays of the se.>chlight like a toad In the sunshine. “See the big candle!” she cried in Tickey's ear, but that amiable savage was too engrossed with the workings of thg turnstile to give respectful heed to her staccato gutterals. A leather-lunged spieler next fascinated him into statuesque silence, from which he was rudely aroused by a vigorous shaking of the shoulder. It was his better half in a high state of excitement, for her little ferret eyes had spied the merry-go-round. Toward it she sprinted in breath- less wonder, dragging the still speechless partner of her joys and sorrows after her. “Tickey!" she exclaimed, pointing a fat finger at the revolving procession of dummies and their live freight. A tangle of Esquimau words followed in unintelligible succession. Mr. Tilton laughed. “They cannot comprehend,” he explained, “why ‘dead dogs’ are able to run faster than the live ones in Alaska.” Then the source of the music attracted their at- tention. How could such noises come from a box? they asked, as the grgan ground out its tunes in the center of the whirling circle. We put them aboard the wooden horses and watched them in their dizzy journey, and I wish I could see one-half as much genuine enjoyment upon the face of blase American childhood as I saw that night upon the faces of those grown-up children of the northland. i Like one in a dream, Kunana followed me up the steps to the car that transferred us to the chutes’ top landing. “Do the rivers come from the sky like that, in your country she questioned Mr. Tilton, pointing to the cascade at her left. Just then a boatful of shrieking passengers shot past her. She grabbed instinctively for Tickey, direct- ing that abstracted Indlan’'s gaze from terra firma and its swarm of humans, to the stream on the other side. Another boat flashed downward. Then the startled pair began to exchange exclamatory confi- dences. Mr. Tilton smiled. “They are saying that the white man can do any- thing.” he interpreted. “That he can make rivers run up hill if he wants to, and that he can jump out of the stars.” Compared with such fancies the famous tale of Jack the Giant Annihilator seems flat, stale and un- profitible. As we slipped into watery space, struck the lake's surface and bounded again and again upward into the spray I saw nothing, heard nothing but Esqui- maux. There might have been half a hundred of them instead of two, for their delighted whoops echoed all around us like the voices of a tribe gone wild with joy. They may have expected a whale or two to spout beside them. At all events they will never be surpassed in noise or the happy abandon- ment of thelr surprise during that damp, exhilarating moment. Be it recorded of the Tickeys, Alaska tour- ists, that they shot the chlnes .llke thoroughbreds. . Chiquita trotted sedately out from behind a cur- es return home and tell about the everyday sights they have seen, There are no such things.”’ " she gasped. “The white man's’ These For days they would not ven- (CYOXOJOROXOXOXOYOROROXCROJOJONO] PEREE®E Blolorclcololo oot oototololololo o rolololorotore oo lototofoloforoXotoloFokoXofolotoY o oYoYoXofofofOJOIOJOJORS tain and the effect of that tiny mortal’s presence upon Kunana was magical. The rough features took on a softened look. The hard, bright eyes shone tenderly as they gazed. A smile played over the face of Ku- nana different from any that I had yet seen there. And, strangely enough, it made her for the moment almost comely. It intensified while the atom piped her wee song and waved her doll-like arms, and then 1 knew what it radiated from—the mother-love with- ip, For be it on the spiritualized Madonna of an ar- tist’s conception, or the face of an Indian, crooning over her offspring in a wigwam, the smile of a woman when she looks upon a babe is good to see. “Mickaninni,” murmured Kunana, gently, rocking unconsciously to an. fro. ‘“Mickaninni.” Perhaps she was thinking of a sturdy little bar- barian thousands of miles ~way. As for myself, I was wondering if Esquimau babies ever cry for their mothers. Chiquita looked hesitatingly at the big, clumsy hand that Kunan- stretched toward her, then laid her rose-leaf palm for an instant within 1 Evidently humanity’s smallest reprcsentative is more accus- tomed to heathen white visitors than heathen brown ones; but the mother instinct is quick to make itself understood the world over, and in the light that shone J‘;Sljéhen from Kunana's eye- even Chiquita was not afraid. wislie Te Were your wild animal acquaintance limited to deer, foxes and polar bears what manner of creatures would the denizens of a zoo seem to you? To the Tickeys they were new varieties of Arctic game, the like of which had never been stowed away in their caches, and much did they speculate upon their edl- ble qualities. They were asking iIf the lion were good to eat, when that unfriendly beast opened his jaws and sent forth a roar like the combined fury of a dozen Arctic gales. In the presence of such an unexpected blast the Tickeys fell back In hot haste, nor paused till a safer distance lay between them and the caged un- known. Mr. Tilton explained that the feeding was usually done on the lion’s side; that the white man had no fancy for lions, cooked or uncooked, and that a little way out in the ocean a big rock had been the home for many years of countless seals, not one of which had as yet been sacrificed for the white man’s larder. Before the monkeys the visitors stood spellbound. Were these a new kind of fox, or merely a different kind of white man, as Chiquita was a different kind of mickaninni? I respectfully leave these Esquimau interrogations for Dr. David Starr Jordan to answer. But stranger than all else in the “animal’s house” was the elephant. Who of us is not used to the ele- phant from infancy? Then how can we appreciate the awe and interest which the sight of one inspired in those Esquimaux? Especially did his long-distance manner of feeding impress them. . e e ‘We left the theater with two of the most absurdly confused creatures in our wake that ever saw kineto- scope pictures thrown upon a screen. They believed it a living reality. The white man's wonders would never cease. Where did the people and the animals on the screen come from? Where did they go to so quickly? As our car slowly climbed the grade on the scenic railway Kunana pointed to the stars. Were we, too, going there? she asked. Mr. Tilton cautioned his charges to hold on tight. Then the car tore down the grade with three hundred pounds of as amazed Indian avoirdupois as it will ever carry. Up, down and around we whizzed, then shot into a tunnel where a great multi-colored eye opened wickedly at us. When we emerged I looked back. Tickey was huddled into a_ball, cocoon-wise, and motionless as a cigar store red man, except for the swaying of the car. His eves were fixed with mute questioning, but unshaken 'confidence, upon Mr. Tilton. To him the end of all things was coming, but our laughter as- sured him that, whatever it was, we were willing to meet it. Kunana, her hand in his, was trying to crawl under the seat. and the picture they made will abide with me forever and a day. No slough of despond will ever be so deeply depressing that I cannot rise from it at thought of those Fsquimaux, dashing they knew not whither, the puzzied playthings of a white man’'s power, In a “sled” drawn by the unseen dogs of his deviltry. While we awalted on a corner the coming of a down-town car Kunana drew forth her pipe and puffed long and deeply. It was the one familiar in- animate object within reach, the only thing that was real, and she fingered it affectionately. Tickey lit his own pipe and they boarded the dummy of the white man's sled, where tobacco of many brands makes the life of the gripman unenviable. In Kunana's hand I noticed = piece of paper which she had carefully preserved, even during the wild whirl between heaven and earth. It was a programme which the gate keeper had gravely handed to her earlier in the evening. LILLIAN FERGUSON. { m%h’? i