The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 10, 1901, Page 17

N Woman of the Little Brown Race in the Frozzn Nerih Whe Has Szaved Qolntless Lives. IE DEXTER. :tr “good title cle; which w her by the miners of broad-faced, dark- red wom whose re un-American vertical lines This “good e e st tnin dis- her she was g the lan Now she s regarded had before f work and wander- r made his w new and Dexter’s for Dexter ce since hi the Yukon 8. trading news of Dawso: for t was the forced stop- i= who were suffer- fons and terribl e winter journey from the Klondike n once did this warm- ka woman open her 1 & half-frozen miner ly- d. In no kinder spot have thrust him, been more red for than at the rk-skinned woman ¥y miner through- u ws something of John Dexter, and most em have reason to peak in thankful praise of his womanly wife It was no house of 4 seventy- sleeping on the w ng for the little ve as many as belated miners froze tables or in any other place that could possibly be found for hem. Once, when John Dexter was away Mollie her#elf rescued two men from the grzsp of the snow and the unconsclous leep that is~the forerunner of being frozen to death. Out with her dog team nd sledge, ghe found them, and one at a wrapped in part of her own furs 1¢ dragged them on the sledge and drove them to the warmth and good cheer of e 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 while in no way properly equipped for the trip, as so0 many of these gold seek- crs falled to be, will remember the home f Mollie Dexter as the place where he was warmed and fed and cared for pa- enily, and sent on his way with a fresh #tock of provisions. Lindblum, the man vho ran away from a whaling ship and made his way to Nome to find one of the biggest paying claims of the strike, was a 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- Iy exhausted to continue the journey at vnce, he was tenderly nursed and taken care of by this little Bskimo woman, un- 1l he was thoroughly recuperated, and @ble to go on his way, And there were ften quite a number of these unfortu- ates who left the Dexter home with thankfulness and blessings on its occu- pants in their hearts. o wonder that Molly. Dexter should be vegarded by s0 many Alaskan miners wit akin to reverence did ali rings, aided and abe by her husband. from a heart full of fove and charity toward humankind, and worth more than their uch a time in such a e no one knows anything for newcomer. nd what is must be done in the broad spirit that marks the brotherhood f man. For these poor and suffering mgn she sewed; she gave away her furs rovisions: she ministered to them with kindly hands: and for it all Mollle Dexter wculd never recelve a penny in payment. Surely the nature of the little Eskimo teaches a lesson to many ter the Dexters moved into a hotel Mr. Dexter, and now being op- erated by a company. This hotel was al- a glad milestone when reached by the way from Dawson to Dexter moved to Nome in its days and was fortunate in the ore of claims that paid from the are now promising much on Mr of late years, is not now enormously rich man once was, though still a man of means, Which the rich claims at Nome bid fair to largely increase amd 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 of Dexter with feelings of the name warm gratitude, as none there were per- mitted to want for food or shelter while Mollie Dexter and her husband could Surely no better field for philanthropy and kindness or one with wider demands could have been found than the one in which Mollle Dex- ter has filled a never to be forgotten place. Her own troubles weigh 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- ly 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 as_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 frksome 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 m 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 words: “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 breakfast. Bad years, sometime starve. I like American eating. give it to them. 1 go back to my people last year, eat seal ol 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 lle down, put fish {n the middle, so, everybody reach out, take THE SUNDAY CALL. N ) putting her finger to breakfasting. -2 2 " In her land each child Is marked, among When one thinks of raw fish or even the Eskimo at the age of ten or twelve plece in finger, her mouth. walrus hide steaks served in such a fash- years, with the sime marks as those on fon they admire Mrs. Dexter's taste in her chin, done with a needle and a thread coming over to the American fashion Jn dipped in some pigment. or ink. In her R %} 15 ] Story of Real : Romange and Pathos That Qomes From . the kand of Tce and Smow. G 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 Bome 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 a 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 lttle 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 afterncon; 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- bles. “Two years, first time I come to this country, my husband he come with me: this time I come lone, or my little Jennia die. I 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 greatesc tenderness, eloquently expressive of the devotion to family and children which is So strong a tralt among the Eskimo. Then she told the story of how when going back to Alaska last year om the St. Paul, the same ship that a few days since landed them here from Nome, after “fourteen sleeps,” as she called the four- tcen days’ passage, litt'e Jennie had fallea = am., cv. Do \ VAL G Sl SR, . \ JuulLly miso a very convenlent custom on the deck and hurt Tor beggars prevalls, for wealt! ng are distinctly labeled. If you -:':.rmm- mrm'fl:‘ . mo golng along the place where the street tion for seven long ought to be with a big bead, almost as big the Children's Hospital they ha as a three-cent plece and of any color it I hip disease, and but red, projecting from a circular inci- it may be long sion in his chin made to receive it, you Could ail the may know' that he ‘has plenty of money. the face of the These beads are often owned in families for mhny years. Beads of all sorts form indeed a “good & large part in the trading currency of gorrow now that country. surely many 1 saw Mollle Dexter at her hotel the would reach out to day after her arrtval here. She Is changed pathy. ALFRED