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Show REINDEER QUEEN OF ALASKA RULES OYER WIDE DOMAIN, i There have been cattle queens, oil queens, mining queens and queens of finance, and now we hear of n iclndeer queen n woman who owns moie of these animals than my othei person In tho United htates nnd is earning n for tune by supplying them to the Govern ment for mall-currylng purposes and to tho nottlers In the far Northwest She Iivih In Alaska, and is, If one mav Judge b her name, a native of the Arctic Arc-tic regions, where people aro familiar fiom Infano with the nature and habits hab-its of the reindeer Marv Makrldolf Is the widow of a frontier eharacler who was known far nnd wlfo as Slnrock Charlie When he died some loirs ago he left her In entire charge of his immense im-mense estate, w hlch means many mile of white tundra and the greatest herd ot reindeer ever owned by an Eskimo. Marj represents to her people not only on-ly the highest degree ot rank and honor, but of wealth, culture and fashion as well. Hor power over them la one with their time-honored superstition. Her mother before her was queen of Alaska Her father was a Russian who had the knowledge of a few written words, and this caused her to rank ns the daughter of a scholar. Her husband, Slnrock Charlie Auglnsook, owned and bequeathed be-queathed to her his famous reindeer herd This has given her the distinction distinc-tion ot being the wealthiest of all her people. Therefore Mary Is queen In every sense of tho word Her clapboard house Is palatial to the Eskimo eye. Her garments gar-ments are regal, and her word Is law. Her home Ilea In the midst of the vast tundr where her reindeer pasture There In tho cold land stretch miles upon up-on miles of her moss-covered ground, white, whether vdth or without snow, for the summer moss takes the place of the winter snow and whitens the ground, springing up in n few hours nf-Ict nf-Ict It Is nibbled away, On approaching you see only white grounl. The deer are far of. where the moss Is thicker. Then of a sudden, as the sound or the scent of vour nartv reaches the ears or scent of jour party reaches the ears or their noses, the great herd of 400 comes llko a whirlwind over the tundra. The word has been passed nmong them that there la an excitement, an arrival. They come to see, ns boys rush to a fire. They come to listen, they come to smell. got ciiAtion or a iinuo. When reindeer wero Imported from Siberia Si-beria by the United Stntes Government they were In many cases given to reliable relia-ble Indians Slnrock Chnrlle was a good Indian even before he was dead, and he was allowed 125 of tho deer. He wns so successful In raising them that ho had Increased his herd to 400 und died then, leiving Mary, his wife, to earn for his property. This sho has dona ever since, and sho has shown as good business ability as Charlie did. If Mary decides to receive jou sho will come out to meet you dressed In her best, which Is a costume of such fins as a queen may well wear. The parka Is of the finest reindeer fur, spotted spot-ted nnd dappled. It Is tremendous and flowing. The sleeves are, either one, large enough for nn ordinary shoulder cape. The pirka develops Into a sort of hood at the top and flares nt the edges, being bordered with long red fox fur that makes a halo nround her face. No wonder Mary's people look upon her as the rising sun. Marj's home Is a good-sized clapboird .war noi'ic I n buii-4.-u uia)iuu uu house that accommodates her and her adopted children and her servants. The servants attend to the work of tho house and help Mary in her Immense business of raising reindeer. The children nre countless They swarm. They havo been picked up here, there, everywhere, whenevei Mary has happened upon n vi alt who wns cold or hungry for his dinner which wns not forthcoming They are little nnd brown nnd greasy nnd they are bundled In miniature parkas par-kas with miniature halos nround their dlity little faces. Augook Is the most sinful of them and the most promising His hug is a very warm and furry arid dirty one, but you w,lll Ike it He will rench oul his lltllo arms to you, out of tho far, frozen up North, where even little bos' htMits urc frozen most of the enr. Tho house contains a wonderful room, with u diesses and looking-ghss There Is no such thing ns this In any other Ksklmo house. It Is on display In the pailoi nnd pioudest Hsklmo Is aluaja overwhelmed with Ills magnj licence. A Bight of that diessei alone would quell an unruly subject If Mary ever had one. Tho cleeplng-rooma nre In a loft above Thither one must rllinb every night by means of n shaky ladder Odds und ends ot rooms nre used for the servants ser-vants nnd tl") woik Tor Mary, although al-though a qu in, works like ull of her people, except hat she cairles on business busi-ness on a larger scale. She lives by the pioftts that hei reindeer bring her, and those ate large. In the llrst place, tho deer cost almost nothing The land Is ns good as hers Tho food upon which the unmlnls live Is tho white moss which covers the fundi fun-di a nnd grows of Its own free will In great plenty. Tho deer nre estimated to be worth about 1200 apiece This means a foi-tune foi-tune ot JiO.OUQ, which is immense to an Indian. The Income Is larger to Mary than It would bo to most people, for sho is ft business woman born and made, nnd sho gets every cunt out of those deer that there Is to get. She gets It In different wuss. hi a system of economic Industry that Is ni up-to-date as a great Ameilcan packing-house or cotton fnctorj. Not one product Is lost In working for others. usns or thu ri:indi:ur. Somo of the doer lirlin In nn income for use In transportation, Tho troops hire them for this purjiose. One Is furnished fur-nished by tho shrewd lady foi some-thliuf some-thliuf like JlOw ft month. The creatures are well worth the money she gets for their hire, however, for they can travel ton miles an hour, draw ing us much as 200 pounds of freight, to say nothing of the sledge. They sometimes cover 100 miles a day, Tho deer nre nt certain times killed nnd sold fet- food. This Is when they can not brine a better Income by haul-Ins haul-Ins Mary watches, and she never slips on he! transactions Reindeer porterhouse porter-house steak Is u Nome elcllcuc and It hi lugs a fnnei pi Ice In the market Hut the deud leer lu worth far more than his pike us vli iks Ills skin is ns precious as cloth of gold and when Mori and her women hive wrought It Into purkns and muiklucks It brings In a goodly sum Daj after day tiny sit und ittt and sew muking the garments, which aro later pent on down the thirty-mile thirty-mile road tint lends south to Nome On the coldest daja they work Indoors, when the sun makes It posslbh they ma bo seen sitting under tho .shelter of nn upturned boat all bundled In their own pirkns eneti with the halo of fur thrown bark that she may sen It is this same hilo tint can be drawn over the face in a snowstotm to break tho force ot the cutting wind a ki:i:n uusinhss woman Mary is a healthy specimen, und therefore, remarkable. She Ins nevev taken to the'houch habit, which is killing kill-ing off the Alaska Indian In great numbers num-bers She is too keen In business to be Intemperate, and she has no uso for drunkenness She Is nn Immense woman, wo-man, tall and broid, with a heavy, masculine face and n shock of straight, coarse, black hair Her right arm Is a. splendid one nnd deals promptly with emergency cases, but never under tho Influence of liquor llei education Is profound as the Indian In-dian regards It She knows a few words of English, nlso Russian. This Is being a scholar Sho Is wonderfully quick to grasp new Ideas and can bo taught any words readily. DEVOTED TO HKH HUSBAND. Mary Makrldoff Is as superstitious as the rest of her race, but her great love for Slnrock Charlie broke down her superstition su-perstition upon the occasion of his death. She left him dte in the house. Such a privilege has never been accorded accord-ed to any other Eskimo by his people. The Eskimo's terror of death Is supremo and Is born and bred In him. A diing parent, child, husband or wlfo Is cast out of doors like u poisoned int and left to finish what little llfo may be left on Ihe snow-covered bleakness of the tundra. tun-dra. Hut It vus not uu with Slnrock Charlie Augensook. Mary loved hlin. It wns the love of her life, a romanco that lasted for years. Charlie was n goes Indian, a bus. Intelligent In-telligent and ralthful one, nnd Mary loved him with nil tho heart there was In hei. When she knew that he was going to dlo sho did not caio If his cold body lying In tho house hi ought destruction de-struction to nil the members theieof. It might for all she cured. She wns going to care for him until the last bitter moment mo-ment when she had to let him slip from her hold care for hlin ns sho always had done. She gave him food nnd tenderness ten-derness and warmth ns long ns ha could feel them nnd she defied the god of her people, of her fathers and their fathers before them to punish her for her love. Slnrock Charllo died in her arms. Not far from her house Is tho burial ground, which Is not a pleasant sight. There lies or did lie the body of Charlie Char-lie nnd of nil other dead members of the tribe. It Is u pen fenced In with driftwood, a mere pen built out on the cold tundra, and there the dead bodleH aro Hung. Mnlamut dogs prowl there by night. ' MAUY GIVES A PARTY. Mary recently gave n gorgeous party. Tho guests Included no white womnn except the guest of honor, but there were whlto men of every nitlonallty, such a mixture as only mining countiles know. The native women wero not enough to go nround, but nobody placd wallflower, for there was too much gay-ety gay-ety on hand for that. An accordion furnished fur-nished the music The company danced until the little Klondike Btove with Its glowing box had to be squelched 'lhey were put through n quadrille under tho white visitors' leadership und lhey fell to with magnificent splilt. caring not n whit for mistakes and making fewer, she says, than seemed possible for n first attempt. Mary watched with tremendous de-light de-light while she, three Eskimo women and four miners went through the fig. ures She was delighted again when the guest eang 'The Iilsti Wushei-wo. man," nnd returned the compliment by chanting her own native song and somo Russian ones as well which she had learned from heii father, American games followed, the Indians became so excited ovei ' button, button whos got tho button?" Hint Mary had to break tho stilng on which they wero passing it In older to get them awuy to bud. pel The supper was n marvelous conglom. eratlon There wero seal ment nnd poi-torhouse poi-torhouse steak thero was dried codfish dipped In senl oil foi an entice, together with solid unleavened blend spread with hud The dersert was the plot ode re-slstnnce re-slstnnce n splendid pudding made of blueberries, stirred Into n mixture of flour nnd mashed fresh fish liver Chi-cngo Chi-cngo Chionlele |
