The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 10, 1901, Page 15

] Worman of the Little Brown Race in the Frozzn Nerth Whe Has Szved Colntless Lives. the *good is in towr tle cl She s ttle. broad-faced, dark- woman, whose re un-American vertical lines This “good st promi kimo met her she was eaking the lan north Now she s regarded people, the e has was in the little house of drift Dexter the big of Mol Here r camp was the forced stop- r hundreds who were suffer- ations and terrible ed by the winter journey nd snow {rom the Klondike n once did this warm- aska woman open her a half-frozen miner ly- no kinder spot have thrust him, have been more cared for than at the -skinned woman ¥ miner through- of John em have reason to e of his womanly on the thres and nowhere co tenderly nursed hande of th Dexter, and most speak in thankful y wife. It was no uncommon house of driftvood to Ing for the little as many as belated miners " - tables or in any other place that a4 possibly be fownd for them. Once, when John Dexter was away, Mollie herdelf rescued two men from the grasp of the snow and the unconsclous ecp that fs-the forerunner of being rozen to death. Out with her dog team nd sledge, ghe found them, and one at a me, wrapped in part of her own furs, he dregged them on the sledge and drove them to the warmth and g0od cheer of the home that never refused a shelter and care to any one. Many a miner who stopped at the Dex- ter camp after a long struggle made vhile in no way properly equipped for the trip, as so many of these gold seek- cre falled to be, will remember the home f Mollie Dexter as the place where he was warmed and fed and cared for pa- ently, and sent on his way with a fresh tock of provisions. Lindblum, the man who ran away from a whaling ship and made his way to Nome to find one of the biggest paying claims of the strike, was & visitor at the home of the Dex- ters when fortune had not found him. If a miner was sick as the result of Lis exposures and hardships or too utter- ly exhausted to continue the journey at unce, he was tenderly nursed and taken care of by this little Bskimo woman, un- 1l he was thoroughly recuperated, and able to go on his way. And there were ften quite a number of these unfortu- ates who left the Dexter home with ikfulness and blessings on its occu- ts in thelr hearts wonder that Molly. Dexter should be vegarded by s0 many Alaskan miners akin to reverence. She s, aided and abejted m a heart full of fove 1 humankind, worth more than 1t n gold at such a time in such a where no one knows anything for ainst any newcomer. and what Is broad spiri t man r these poor and n she <he gave away her fu she ministered to them hands; and for it all Mollie ter wculd mever recelve a penny in Surely the nature of the little hes a lesson to many r Dexters moved into a hotel it by Mr. Dex and now belng op- company. This hotel was al- < a glad milestone when reached by ers on the way from Dawson to Nome. Mr. Dexter moved to Nome in its carliest days and was fortunate in the rs of claims that paid from the nd are now promising much ccrtune has given him many ups and downs of late ¥ and he is not now the enorme rich man he once was, though still a man of means, Which the rich claims at Nome bid fair to largely increase and to restore him to his old days of fortune again. Many of the un- fortunate among the population of the new camp at Nome will also remember the name of Dexter with feelings of warm gratitude, as none there were per- mitted to want for food or shelter while Mollie Dexter and her husband could give it to them. Surely no better fleld for philanthropy and kindness or one with wider demands could have been found than the one in which Mollie Dex- ter has filled a never to be forgotten place. Her own troubles welgh upon her now, and the “good angel” needs the kindness and sympathy of others, for in addition to the fllness of her only child, who is with her, her husband has been for the past year or so suffering from that slow- Iy creeping disease, locomotor ataxia. He could not come with her on this her sec- ond trip from her own country and pec- ple, and she will not see him again till the winter sun is shining over the frozen north. Since Mrs. Dexter married out of her own tribe she has taught her people habits of cleanliness and civilization, and brought out by her influence many of the good and lovable points in their charac- ters. She has also induced the members of her own immediate family to adopt the American style of dress as far as pos- sible. In learning the ways of her Ameri- can husband she showed the true char- acteristic of her own people, evincing but little enthusiasm or surprise at things new and unfamiliar, but simply accepting them and meking them as far she could a part of her own mode of life. There were many things to take up the young wife's interest after her marriage, not the least of which must have been the somewhat irksome task of introducing herself to American styles in dress. That she is still Interested is evidenced by the fact that she, on her last and first visit to San Francisco, took home with her many pretty gowns, which must have ex- cited the envy and wonder of some of her northern friends. How she has grown to like in eatables a more varied and palat- able bill of fare is best told in her own worde: “My people eat dried fish; in bad time when no fish, eat walrus hide, seal ofl and whale oll. Home we go fishing, Funt berries for breskfast. Bad years, sometime starve. I like American eating. - 1 go back to my people last year, eat seal ofl and dry fish; make me sick, vomit quick. When we catch fish for break- fast with my le, we bring it home, no cook it, everybody ile down, put fish n the middle, 8o, everybody reach out, m&s ‘THE SUNDAY CALL. plece In finger, 80,” putting her finger to breakfas her mouth. AN "f A ND E Aam,, /j/‘/ . e Suntty WSO & very convenlent custom Tor beggars prevalls, for wealthy persons are distinctly labeled. If you see an Eski- mo going along the place where the street ought to be with a big bead, almost as big as a three-cent plece and of any color % but red, projecting from a circular Inci- sion in his chin made to receive it, you may know' that he ‘has plenty of money. These beads are often owned in familles 3, her land each child Is marked, among foT many years. Beads of all sorts form When one thinks of raw fish or even the Bskimo at the age of ten or twelve & large part in the trading curre walrus hide steaks served In such a fash- years, with the llma‘.mrh :l those Ol’.l that country. % - fon they admire Mrs. Dexter's taste in .her chin, done with a needle and a thread . I saw Mollie Dexter at her hotel the coming over to the American fashion In dipped in some pigment. or ink. In her day after her arrival here. She Is changed VAL G dan SR A Story of Real Romangce and Pathos That Qomes From . the Land: of Tce and SnoW. —_— and in trouble now and is bearing her own heart’s aches with the courage which is part of her character. When she spoke to me it was with a soft slowness and in somewhat halting and broken English. “How I can tell you stories? I like this country well, but I am homesick for my people. I flome Golofnic Bay, Alaska, not far from Nome. I can’t tell Englis.” The narrow dark eyes wandered from mine, and I followed their sad gaze. In u corner of the room was a sort of couch or stretcher, made of skins and white fur. between two chairs, and resting on it was a wooden form or splint, laden with ban- dages. “My Mttle girl,” she sald, while the tears came into her eyes. “She omly $ years last August, but she talk Englis little better than me. I take her to Chii- dren's Hospital thiy afternoon; she stay there many months.” Again the sad eyes sent a caressing look toward the mass of fur. And I knew that Mollfe Dexter, the “good angel,”” as hundreds of half-starved half-frozen miners have often had reason to call her, was thinking of her own trou- bies. “Two years, first time I come to this country, my huisband he come with me: this ume I come lone, or my little Jennis die. 1 bring her little Eskimo dress that she like to wear at Chignik with me, but she no wear it mow.” She went to a trunk, brought out a little child’s dress made entirely of deerskins, with trim- mings of wolf's fur. It was made with some taste and sewn and embroidered with colored threads made from simew. With it was another loose garment to wear under the dress, made of squirrel skins. She patted them with the greatest tenderness, eloquently expressive of the devotion to family and children which is so strong a trait among the Eskimo. Then she told the story of how when going back to Alaska last year on the St. Paul, the same ship that a few days since landed them here from Nome, after “fourteen sleeps,”” as she called the four- teen days’ passage, litt'e Jennie had faliea I/ on the deck and hurt one of her The bandaged splint that lay over chair had heid it in an upward tion for seven long months. the Children's Hospital they have told the { i RSN S1 )