OCR Text |
Show GOING ABOUT WITH DR. GRENFELL IN HIS ARCTIC PARISH Copyright. l rubllo Ilr Co. - - ''"&fd.b f ' ' - '- f ' The missionary-phys ai wno has 5 - " -r'ji Bflfe'''' made the North Atlantic coast his , F ullerton I . II 7o " bBIIS'' S'dMfgKaMsSSSB ROuld ""' ','II'r i"ojPai'is" w'r ny Tun." I- . mn wh.,n, i ; IR - '' s"t down beside tbc Blascbka miracles in tit hi. are sou) m wnoiu it is a tonic . - rV- "i-1 . j. . ck , . . S 5- W-. i glass at Harvard s Agassis Museum, one to meet and a iwurrent stimulus to be SR.S S . jm v. ... -,j , .. .. . . .. ... . . r, ..., , E.S6 jyaiBb v SJ W - ' , ,1 sends to Paris for trie dves. and realism with, and one such man is lr. Wilfred " Er If V - - " .... . j.i IWo. m,Ml. sometime of Oxford, the " WZ jBSBgi is striking. 1 be flowers and the hooked Eoj.l College of Surgeons. White. hapel and J-khmJ JK J Hffr - " 2mh..n will meTmuoh toheTp! I m"nlT cTbed" wuhtu' along the 'fiV& , -tib1 ft EL mVtlon '"of' ' h" " "i " " " keep of Doctor GrenfeU's hospitals dispen- of LabdorafJ northern Newfound lilHEtW ' '1 jl-AX ' Th,t US' .anes and schools and shops as time goe, had in his rowing, rotten little s.eamTbip R "KR F'' IvEuf JM& JRI 9 9 "d adfp' ,nCreaSe He SWthoon.. d of that sbipb,vard and WSShRsW fi& i . 40 '-, A general demeanor puzzle the shore dogs. The numb- T CTuhi,'8, t"? ,0 K W ' S HB ' W'; . ' Te always wolf, in part, though the doctor nerer is glum: he never pull. 1 h it ha . VT 'n k"W bim T fe-- -3 kM mJ&W&m!f proport$oo rwies. The, are always go.ug 1 . ,on8 f.ee as he .bout hi. bnsl- ttto rtoiThe is oDu"'ZTt " K A lkTa' ' ' ...V ''taHH 'M briogbdDOC'frth'lr,iy"t0f 'I' tlTivil mT he never attitudinizes as a mart jr. feLV'T' k " " l fct ' 'S-irlil Si tur,)o"ku1ow if,hi" r'.t .:,e or the SMnUBkeU1 inhe'" . 'Z mm aw Ihiiit on bread and tea. auJ for si-"'' " " ' TJT JV'ei.Jf 'tfiif"- P,I?,r- pir'c'l,. ihout Christ was a goo:', sport." he told me. He mm thej wear pieces cut from rubber f.3S5eJSf TTP : -iS- . - some of tbc milk. 1L oogs circle aooui , , j , taU. EyKS ; - "WM The patriarch looking the part In the "friemllv cow," ruffing up tBeir fur and cas no use for a frowning and gloomy re- DKtor Grenfeil-s e'ir, ; , hrM. th. " his jersey and tam-o-shanter cap growling ( huskies" do not bsrk . and they He despises sham and cant His pjtn .: v",.; .'od thJ.: ' - -F- - f. fxou,d gia.Hy pull her to earth and polish ast flies a blue flag say.ng "Oodi. Kt fhi. hru,r. 1 . rZ L7,-H - . , Vi V lancet or forceps dowu there at the foot hel. lH,nos !t they cmld. but they have found Love : on his hospitals, his orphanage. tb ricH rt'eamer of eirhrv four lor - named M liJM-'L-1 J. '"Wjl'l -' ' - of the ladder with a basin of blood beside bow sharp .no long lier horns re. store aud even the bird house are apt texts aranlord whe cave $5000 'toward "he 0 "V, i , V' i him. Many times with the sea swelling sister Baileys dog team ia phenomenal. taken from the Bible but thei-e is no pose dase She is now about twentT years of .. ' '"&, ."fel - land I am a poor sailor! I emptied that she never needs a whip, and, of course, " that. The words so seen, day unto day. and she has fa 'len apart by "seams and ' f. ' -kT8feiijL" " basin with its reeking trophies of teeth and every dog driver dispenses with reins, call- sink deep into the minds of zJ who behold i kaa so often that she is like the Irish- tT&itfto&-': - ,r. ' ' iWSWk.t-jmi tonsils. The spines and bones of fish, and ig "ouk. ouk" to turn to the right and them.. aaa's knife renewed in every part and yet 1 1 1 sharp knives used to clean them, make "urrah, urrah" for the left. Uncle George It is a continuing inspiration to be with i . Her ratlins are not fit to build Where ..they a0 down to tne 6ea 8nlps.. Tuel wounds, and there is the ever-present Holley. of Fox's Harbor, tells of whips a man who is all aSes to .11 ages-who graekleVBest her plates in spots are X 9 Hanger of an uglv infection from foul whale- fifty-four feet long, wherewith the neck of does everything the one r,gJ: w.y who would uot suffer by o'uiparisou wpr? thef bt dowo bei(Je tbc BIas-bka miracles ia glas-s at Harvard's Agasii Museum. She seDds to Paris for the dyes, and the realism is striking. These flowers and the "hooked" rugt? of animated aud humorous design made at St. Auth'-ny will mean much to the upkeep up-keep of Doctor (JrenfelJ's hospitals, dispensaries dispen-saries and schools and shops as time goes on and adept manufacturers increase in number. THE doctor never is glum: he never pulls a long face as he goes about his business; busi-ness; he never attitudinizes as a martjr. Under the opening eyelids of the morn tou struggle out from beneab your four double blankets in the whcelhouse and there he stands in a sun bath after a sea bath or he cries: '"I've just had my bucket on the deck and you might have had one, but I've lost the bucket overboard!" He believes in the sun and the sea as medicinal. 1 told him that 1 had asked Dr. Charles A. Kastman for the words that lived in his mind and the Indian replied: '"The Soul of the Soil." The doctor said: "You might say my words would be: "The Sea Is His.' " "Isn't it fun to live:" and "Isn't it gcod to be alive?" are often oo his lips, and when he says it he means it. "I try to teach my people that Jesus Christ was a goo;! sport." he told me. He has no use for a frowning and gloomy religion. re-ligion. He despises sham and cant. His mainmast flies a blue flag saying "God is Love" : on his hospitals, his orphanage, the store aud eveu the bird house are apt texts taken from the Bible but there is no pose in that. The words so seen, day unto day, sink deep into the niiiids of .l who behold them.. it is a continuing inspiration to be with a man who is all ajes to U ages who does everything the one rigjt way who is gentle and just, yet a terror to evildoers evil-doers : who is as patient a magistrate when soberly adjusting the proprietary rights of a puffin -shooter on a lone iclet as if he w-ere a supreme court sitting in august session on a case involving millions. But yor. do not know (.J re u fell till you have beheld him in his boat at grips with the so. . Then he is in his element and then he is at home. sea was calm and there was no at.cn of the terrifying force that was gathering general demeanor puzzle the shore dog. The latter are always wolf, iu part, though the proportion varies. They are always going from the Doctor Jekyll of the good side the dog side of their natures to the evil Mr. Hyde represented by the wolf. Tou cauuot know if it is the dog or tne wolf that will be uppermost to meet you. A dog will cringe and fawn ujion you for your favor, and show delight if you notice bim. but a furious jealousy is stirred in all the rest, aud presently a fierce battle is in full swing, with bushy tails and foaming jowls nd pelts of gray and tan and browu and .fellow in a wild aud hideous brawl that makes the welkin ring with every sort of profanity dogs know. At Forteau we rind Sister Bailey, coworker co-worker of Edith Cavell in Engl: ud. the better self of this small Labrador settlement settle-ment for twelve years. She has the only cow. aud iu the gray of the morning a queue of a large part of the population of 141 Comes with every sort of pot or kettle to get some of the milk. The dogs circle about the "friendly cow," ruffing up their fur and growling ("huskies" do not bsrk. and they would gladly pull her to earth aud polish her bones if they could, but they have found how sharp ana long her horus are. Sister Bailey's dog team is phenomenal. She never needs a whip, and, of course, every dog driver dispenses with reins, calling call-ing "ouk. ouk" to turn to the right and "urrah, urrah" for the left. Uncle George Holley, of Fox's Harbor, telU of whips fifty -four feet long, wherewith the neck of a bottle is flicked off by an expert hand, or the cigar is cut from a man's mouth, or a button from hi.' coat or even a nail ia driven. But Sister Bailey trains her team to move aud stop by moral suasion, and Parson Kichards's team, on the further side of the strait, is similarly governed. Not least among the triumphs of this brave, good woman of Forteau is that she taught the girls to make cloth flowers that By Fullerton L. Waldo THL'K are some men trbom it is a tonic to meet and a recurrent stimulus to be ita. aod one such man is Dr. Wilfred Tbooisson Grenfell. sometime of Oxford, the Rtwal College of Surgvous. White, hapel and tte North sea: now of 1-abrador. I recently cruised with him along the nssts of Labrador sad uortbern Newfoundland Newfound-land in his rocking, rotten little steamship uw Stratheona. and of that shipboard aud teaSoard intimacy is born the desire to talk i bim a little while to those who know him I through ais books and his addresses and tlwse to whom he is only a ditaut uame Mr sacrifice and daring, for surgery and sea-UDship sea-UDship in a forsaken a-a. Doctor Grenfell. who might string aD alphabet of academic and heraldic d is tine -noes after his came if he chose, is ,i fisher f sen in a tossing world of rod-hunters aaoe rich or poor as the fish choose or refus ta "strike in" aod to bite. Down the west west of Newfoundland in the summer of 1919 some fishermen hii away in tin cans in the hard ground their several thousand outre; on the east c. a-t. in White bay, e staers who received as little as $7.50 1 the catch of s season a quintal ( "ken-UTI "ken-UTI of cod that is to say. a dry weight all2 pounds from "green" tish that weighed aust five times as much w hen taken. These asensea is the days that are upon them ht are living on bread and tea. aud for ihe they wear pieces cut from rubber ante. Doctor Gresfelt's effort is to bridge the : ''tween those who have and those who Bat aud is bridge is a little ketch -nciH steamer of eighty -four tons, named for milord whe gave $-r000 toward her pur-thtst. pur-thtst. She is low about twenty years of ii. and she has fallen apart by seams and awns so often that she is like the Irisu-san's Irisu-san's knife, renewed in every part and yet the same. Her ratlins are not fit to build grackVs nest, her plates in snots are Stt better than if rhy wore of china, her :i.:-s and her boilers rai-cot drive her PSagh a shouting, headstrong sea. and still the doctor whips and spurs her to the game when hardy matpr-marinrs who BpaAed their "Newfoundland and Labra-r Labra-r Pilot and Guid-" long before be came frcsi Eoglan twenty-seven years ago would afce safe in tickle or bight or cove and let the storm rave past the headland where the VfiBcona bucks the wind aud the indigent indig-ent sea. T FOUND the little boat at Battle Harbor August 31. As she clung to Croucher's turf she was redolent of whale-meat as Wten as her rigging, though over the four Ltp1s there was stuffed a brave showing white reindeer n.oss to intercept the wn'.-b. That part of her cargo was des- Pl for the menu of the "huskies," led by redoubtable Eric, at St. Anthony, eighty i-s to the southward across the Strait of wile Isle. The rest of the deck was piled h with logs of spruce and fir. white birch juniper. Coal has beeu ?24 a tou this Json at Battle Harbor, and therefore wood been fed to the firebox whenever pos-nle. pos-nle. Mils number six mainsail, foresail, 0 Jibs and two topsails ; and one of the Pils is noteworthy. It is oblong, like topsails of the fishing smacks in the ; 'jT:z wL p.- Doctor Grenfell learned techniqup as seagoing surgeon. That v'a-i is his darst idolatry. U will Z3'' the wheelhouse any time to fuss with (that it will Mill a little harder, with C' symmetric bellying, and if it is not exactly as it should be, he will have it n upon the deck forthwith to tie it so nd will "burst it out." at is to say. the rebellious bit of can-hound can-hound in places with a cord, like the oreila of a rustic at a fair, and then it auled in a bulging package to the peak mainmast. There the wind fightingly I old of it and presto! out it burgeons : &JPrinB Poets say with explosions like the t jrj? of a riflp- Aud then the doctor grius iJ.? Alert Ash, the pessimistic mate, ' JJiifi S'ms' tho able"bodied deck- 4 ' aod with a light in his eyes goes back i . heel with its inscription, "Jesus ' ta-.Unt0 tnem- 1 will make you fishers of '"bow tlit-re is an iutiuiio solemnity "j WDpQ small a boat as the Stratb- "i08 Ut f a ilB between the green -4 BJr cud-capppd mountains. It seems ' M tJ Sabbah then, if the water is still, 4 ai 1r?w. whispu-iugly cleaves tho sea air is freSb and new and the sea patriarch looking the part In N jersey and tam-o'-shanter cap laucet nr forceps dowu there at the fs of the ladder with a basin of blood beside him. Many times with the sea swelling land I am a poor sailor) I emptied that basin with its reeking trophies of teeth and toosils. The spines and bones of tish, and the sharp knives used to clean them, make cruel wounds, aud there is the ever-present danger f an ugly infection from foul whale-meat whale-meat or the grime of the galley or the wharf. THL doctor is humming the- air of a gospel hymu as he hunts for a hypodermic hypo-dermic ueedie or antiseptic gauze to pack into a siuus. or sharpens a kuife or paints iodine round an incision. He accompanies all his sleigltt-of-hand with a running commentary. com-mentary. He. charms his patieut with a tale of how the fish down north are biting or not biting, as the case may be; he is the morning morn-ing newspaper as well as the guide, philosopher philoso-pher aud friend wherever he goes. Best of all. he likes to sit in a fisherman's hut chatting with the iumates. but son his roving eye beholds wan children whose lungs or adenoids awaken his solicitude, and his peace of mind is gone. You cannot thoughtlessly thought-lessly enjoy yourself tor long among the . sick, if you "have the quick, taut senses of the diagnostician. Somebody fetches a bent, worn spoon from the sagging shelves where the half-eaten half-eaten bread loaf reposes amid the broken chiua, aud he calls a child to his knee, presses down the tongue and takes an inventory. in-ventory. Sometimes he operates on the spot ; sometimes he arranges for a visit to the hospital at Battle Harbor or St. Anthony. An-thony. "Don't you ever get tired?" T ask him. "I don't remember that I ever was tired in my life," he flashes back, smiling like a prima donna at a curtain call. But even the doctor, of whipcord sinew and wire nerves, is human, aud one of his indoor recreations is the intense game of chess, which he plays admirably. He delights de-lights iu the unhackneyed opening, insists on advancing aud attacking, develops a most bellicose offensive with his pawns, and is particularly vindictive toward bishops. Is that because a bishop once wrote nim : "Dear sir It is a God -defying crime that you read the Church of England prayer iu the morning morn-ing against heresy and schism, and in the afteruooLi preach in a nonconformist chapel. ' ' A warden would have shut him out of a starch-box church iu a tiny place, on the ground that in a previous sermon he "talked about trade" ; aud in another spot as desolate and drear the sexton ran awa; with the keys lest he profane the pulpit by his uuordained, unlicensed participation in the service. A S THE doctor trudges about a village t. the dogs debouch in swarms from under the bottom boards of every cottage, to inspect in-spect Fritz, the dog of the gtrathcona. Fritz is uot a husky ; he does not even know his predominant strain. His black color, his uncurled tail, his well-molded head aud his i eulls are veering and creaking. Perhaps to the dim distance an ireberg flashes a white wing in the suu the visage of an augel. but a power malign and diabolic despite the fair and specious aspect. Wutu we suited from Battie Harbor we pulled u yawj behind us. aud as the smaller . vessel blapped and scuffled with the rough sea at the end of our long leading rope, three worried Eskimo dogs cocked their heads over the rail and their quizzical faces said, "Pray, what is to become of us?"' But when the two puppies and their mother reached terra nova at St. Anthony one of the puppies settled the status of the immigrant im-migrant family at once by leaping to the crest of a boulder and biting Eric, the leader of the local pack, on the supercilious tip of his black, wet nose. The rest of the dogs took their cue from the discomfiture of Eric and had no more to say against the advent of the strangers from the north. The winter of 191S-19 was such a winter win-ter as the Labrador has not known. From the unpublished journal of Henry Gordon, Church of England missionary at Cart-wright, Cart-wright, in Sandwich Bay, I take such annotations an-notations as these made while the influenza raged without let or hindrance : "Bodies too much doubled np to put iu coffin"; "find five little orphans living alone iu a deserted de-serted house in a deserted cove"; "right on the side of the dead man was his little girl actually frozen onto him, so that the bodies came off the bunk in one piece." A woman of seventy -three lived on after all the rest in the house had died, for nine days fire-less, fire-less, thawing lumps of ice in hor armpits for drinking water. A little "girl saw father, mother, brothers aod sisters die of influenza: then the dogs came and ate them, and she could not drive them off. One bit a piece out of her arm. When succor finally came she was burning the last inch of a candle used to light a Christmas tree that she might melt ice to queuch her thirst. Entire Eskimo villages were wiped from the map. and not even the dead were left to bury the dead, for the dogs came prowling prowl-ing and they cared not what they ate. "We have had a hideous winter," the doctor said to me when I met him in New York ou the '.Jiith of June for a brief conference. con-ference. He had reached New York, a month late, for a meeting with the board of directors of the Grenfell Association. Five times he tried to get away from St. Anthony iu June on the Strathcona. Theu he tramped eighty miles aloug the rocky beach to round the uorthero promontory. He came to Flower's Cove and there caught the Ethie, which had failed in two attempt m to cleave a path through the ice across the strait to Labrador. On the way to the cove the doctor slept iu his wet clothes upon the frozen beach. Ere Parson Kichards at the cove could offer him a cup of tea there came a rap at the door. "Abe Gould has shot himself in the leg." The doctor amputated the leg aud sat up all uight feediug his patient sleeping sleep-ing doses of opium. All this the parson, not the doctor, told me. The doctor does not parade his deprivations aud endurances. WE HAD to turn iu at Pleasure Harbor, on the Labrador coast, to ride out a high wind aud a sea ou the rampage iu the strait, and tlie doctor seized the chance to go a-fishing. Perhaps the brawling black stream that rushed aud bounded down to the harbor past two snowfields ne,ver saw the fly before. At any rate, the trout were ravenous, aud even from the thinnest, sun-struck sun-struck shallows and pools that seemed utterly ut-terly depopulated the doctor bareheaded, sweatered, hipbooted pulled the fish as if they had been waiting here this long time past for him. But at the lake at the head of the stream, where the wind was like an orchestra, he came into his own as a fishermau. The wind whipped the Hue back to his body as quickly as he threw it out. but every time it seemed to return with at least one rubesceut monster adhering. Fifteen and sixteeu inch fellows they were, too; and where I tried iu vain the doctor had least trouble. It was an .uncanuy plenitude. Aud when we came back to the boat it was no use to tell the radiant Mrs. Grenfell that her husband bought them at the store, since there was no store. F'ritz, the big black dog. had a sumptuous feast of oddments odd-ments for his supper. The fisher -folk swarmed over the rail at all hours with their families and their symptoms, and the doctor's stock of patience pa-tience and sympathy, like his store of lnedi-ciues. lnedi-ciues. never ran out. This man had his tooth "hauled." for it hurt him "wonderful." This woman was. "full of glams (glands)." and the nest declared de-clared that she "worked in punishment." Theu came a boy with a "rale squick bawling bawl-ing on his inside," aud a woman who her husband said had "overtopped herself and overcast bee mind." Misfortunes never come siugly aud neither do the unfortunate. The light dowu the coiu-pauiouway coiu-pauiouway into the dim saloon was always blocked by peering, furrow-browed parents, children or friends aud sympathizers, eager to see what the doctor was doing with This Is not a smiling countryside in the temperate zone, but a garden In Labrador, to many of us a region of icy desolation |