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Show I INHERE U'NCLI ' I JAM I'S H EAD , I OF THE ' FAMILY m ' nNIUE Administratlon f the Pribilof Islands, m 9 Where Natives Depend Upon Him Even for Food m and for Protection Against Japanese Seal Poachers. J Their Names Are Very Musical Nadcsda Orlof , Alexan- R tier Melovfdoff. Marcia and Margaret Mclovidoff and Nicolai Orlof. The Revenue Cutters Set Their Fashion & in Dress. K rTj INTER sealskins worn by the -woman of V ? B A fli asnon amid lne ffnyety and luxury of 11 m liii!Jmetropolitan life are obtained largely from U h fLi the barren and desolate Pribilof Islands, some- rK times called the Fur Seal Islands, which lio off y IB' tllc A-askan coast, in the Behring Sea, in lati- 1& Ku tude 56 degrees 50 minutes north and longitude ?Wrr jSk 170 degrees -.vest. There nre only four of the W4J IB; islands largo enough to be habitable St. Paul, sfii&fcH IB, St. George, Otter and Seal islands. Joan Snyd rfSwHS' Bf first sighted them in 1767, and in 1786 ssals I Ssrlj, IB were discovered there by Gerassim Pribilof. n I llSiB IK; Hussian. The United States acquired them VtSjVra By with the purchase of Alaska and leases them to VBBhP IjB the North American Commercial Company. Al- B ' though the islands have been the subject of x-""""' B international disputes over scaling rights, the nn ' Hi' life of the natives and government of the group, n Br which arc described in the following story, are B known to very few Americans. '. Vp. (Cocrrtrbt. 1011 lit ih New Vorl Herald Co. All debts referred l B y"x Ui: government's dealings with some of its Bl ffl ft 1)e0"'e !" remarkably intimate. Tbere are iB official reports which will sbow, for instance. WS "" not only when, young Alexander Rooknavlsh- BT nikoH was born, but how long he went to BT, school :iDd when lie had tho mumps. It is of public EffiMforccord tliJl Agrlfiua Bogadanof has $161.10 in the BE bank, and somewhere else Is told how Porflrl PankoQ Btf got drunk. Un another page one learns tbc local price B? of potatoes and onions, ginghams and bedspreads, met trousers, tobacco, iiockcl knives, soap, shoes, and jwr nearly anything else the family may need, as well'as jjHp the sum of the paterfamilias' wages during the year. jB This domestic information iB to be found In reports fmt of the government representative in a remote bit of Bf the United States, where the government is not only ijB' owner and manager of all Industry, but personal gunr- Bfr an of the People in the establishment. It is soine- K what as it the Pullman Company, owning the land and B houses of the town of Pullman, exercLsed legal jurls- jB diction over Its residents, the Pullman employe-, and IB guardianship of their temporal welfare besides. The B Httlc villages of St Paul and St. George arc the scene B' of tho American fur seal Industry, and this Industry is BJ a government monopoly. So peculiar are all the con- Bi dltions surrounding it that Its administration not only Bf becomes a precedent in public policy with respect to Br natural resources but involves a curiona human prob- B lein which entails other exceptional procedure. No- Bfr where In the world, probably, is just hie countcnart h of this diminutive domain. BT About three hundred persona live on the Pribllol Bb Islands, or rather on two of thoi five little bits of B volcanic land, named respectively St. Paul, and St. HE- .George Islands, but more commonlyknown as tho Seal B Iftliiuds. It was the pursuit of fur iseals that led BT Pribilof, of a Itusslan trading vessel, into these un- B- dkcoveretl regions away back In 17SG. It was because SB iauorei-8 to uelp him kill and cure the iK skins of the M.-als from the new found rookeries that 1 there oanie to be human inhabitants upon these deso- B "ate ',l0t A!l tljrou"" thti two hundred and twenty- dB four years since then the people of the Pribilof Islands B haw been merely an adjunct of the seal Industry. Thus U is not remarkable that except to the govern- & e:it lepreenuitives who are actively engaged with Mt the affairs of the inlands the "natives" uppear but as Vm pan of the landscape. jm 1-',s Ut' handful of people has, however, n patheti- B caVy Interesting hlbtory pathetic because they are jM i ii Inr-ldi'iit In tho great world's life and are so K conipifiotv tin- victims of circumstance. Tavo ccn- B tuu' -io must of the Islands of the Alaskan coast tm wi'c inhabited by ihe Aleuts, hardy hunters and Ush- Jm- crnipii of prluiltic but Independent race. Then came jW the Iiisl-u explorers, who turned the bklll of these im slmpii' people to their own profit. From Unnlaskn tB and Atl:a Pribilof garnered the-little colony for his tm previously uninhabited Iblaudb, and when the United IB States acquired Alaska this Isolated little group of w Aleuts wa.s living in virtual blavery. W The llrt stoji of American administration was to IB lekse the sealing rights and provide for the future of IW tue stives, who were made wards of the govorumentj fm much like the Indlmis. But they were provided a com- fim- pulsory occupation, the lessee bc-iug required to crn- Uf ploy them at a specified wage. Of Its own accord the leasee. I ho Alaska Commercial Company then, re- lm placed with neat frame dwellings the native bulf-un- MM dergrouiul, sod roofed biirrabaras. In which the BjL Ateuti hail dejiendetl for wannth upon crowding to- ML Kcther and burning the 111 smelling and stifling aeal' WE blubber. K Their filthy and uusanilary condition was further B '""Prred by the L'nlt9d States government which pro- H vlded staple foods in addition to the weal meat dlel. gave them wood aud coal to burn, furnished physicians and medicines, schools where English rudiments are taught, and churches of the Island faith, the Russian Greek of the former ninsters. The beuollciarics of these measures continue to look buck regretfully to their Russian days, after the manner of subject people.. peo-ple.. But the treatment I hey have experienced under American dominion has in a sense almost killed them with kindness. The Notation and barrenness of the Pribilof Inlands make the natives peculiarly helpless. The seaN time long been the one local food resource, except birds and bird eggs from the cliffs. There N not a tree on the Islands, and the climate permits scant vegetation of any sort. The waters are practically empty of tNh. The walrus and sea otter long ago disappeared, and the few foxes are Inuillclcnt for clothing, even were not they, like the seals, withheld from the nuthes' use. The ueccssarles of life must be brought to the Islands from elsewhere or there would be famine and want. Thus, though the government had provided a wage giving occupation, the earnings would be usek-b with nothing to buy. So a store hud to be established, maintained main-tained tirst by the lessee, bur now by the government itself, since the seal rights are no longer leased. Credited with Their Wages. But the simple Aleut islander was naturally no master mas-ter at busluess. and to insure his welfare a system of control was adopted for the expenditure of his earnings. earn-ings. At forty cents a sealskin the native communities communi-ties earned flO.OOO u yoaV, $13:3 per caput, which with Lhelr simple needs afforded a margin of savings. sav-ings. Tbey were not paid in cash for their tabor, but credited -with the sum, which was to be drawn upon in the form of supplies from the store. For the first twenty years the support of the Pribilof natives presented .no serious problem. They nre a faithful, obedient and Industrious race, skilled and swift in their accustomed work. They are tractable tract-able and kind In disposition, aud, though slower of head than of hand, they responded grntlfyingly to the civilizing influences about them. The chief adverse factor was the long dark, winter of idleness, for tho bcal work lasts through the summer only. I he seals, however, under the devastating slaughter of the pekiglc- hunters, were growing fewer nnd fewer in numbers. The second lessee, the North American Commercial Company, when it took over Its privileges privi-leges In 1S0O was soon limited to 00.000 instead of 100,000 sealskins a year. An increase to tifty cents a skin for the native laborer left him still with a loss, and soon the calamitous limit of 10,000 skins was decreed, for the herd wa.s disappearing fast. The natives were now paid ?l a skin, but their mere $15,000 a year left them facing starvation. There was nothing for it, apparently, but to supply the deficiency de-ficiency outright. This Congress did In a yearly appropriation of $10,000. The arrangement continued for years, leaving leav-ing the native no margin of funds and no voice In his own expenditures. His feeble pelf-reliance dbiap-pcared, dbiap-pcared, he became childlike in his dependence. lie hns worked just us faithfully as ever, be it recorded to bis credit, which not many men would do for no more pay than if they did nothing. That is what the condition amounted to. When a man's earnings were gone, exhausted In orders for supplies, the supplies were continued as before out of a fund furnished by the government. There was uo iucenlive for the industrious in-dustrious man to do more than his Idle neighbor, and none had to think for himself. But' here, of course. Is the problem. Kor two hundred hun-dred years confined to one occupation, the Aleut cannot can-not leave his Island and take chances eUuwhcre for a livelihood; ho lacks the initiative lo do so If he could. Yet there are not enough seals to afford him a living wage by any natural standard. Tho government bus. however, so dlsjwsed Its appropriation that there Is no longer frankly an alms fund, but the money available wIU be apportioned In the form of wages raised iu accordance ac-cordance with needs. The rate of paj-, that Is, instead of $1 a veniskip, will depend upon the number t seal- 1 IM II I I ! I IIWIII I I' !!! r---f, - - skins taken. This year it proves to be about $3 a skin. In the old scheme w:is pauperization the new one is buj. beating the devil around the slump. The stand-t stand-t y1 0,c;re.s Is, necessarily purely fictitious, based on no lavvTfpply and 'demand, but merely paternal al-1 al-1 jowaugcT And liN'giinrilian government will not now allow the lftssj man to siar.ve.5uiy more than It did be-fprev. be-fprev. There Is this 'inlvantage, however, that the thrifty -jwlll have some incentive. And this year's rc-port-j' from the Nlnnds show that 'there are thrifty - Aleuts. In amounts ranging from -100 to $1,000. thirty thir-ty natives last year transferred to a San Francisco ''bank a total of ?0100. their savings from the earlier and more prosperous days. The administration of the natives' affairs, in addition addi-tion to the duties of the seal work, is in the hands of the government ngents. They serve as governors of the Lslands In tho fullest sense, being responsible for rW&fr 111 - '"i& V- S '" j-JBilriiBiBwBBBBMQBMBOiMMhiMBxiysi Bird Eggs Collected from the Cliffs and Laid Out in Piles Apportioned to the, .Native Families external protection as well as internal order. Their posts seem hardly Inviting. The life, lacks many material comforts, and means banishment from one's kind. St. Paul and St. George Islands are two hundred miles from any 'other land and are themselves forty miles apart. This year wireless telegraph equipment equip-ment was Installed, but heretofore for six or seven mouths of every year they hae been cut off from all the world as well as from each other, and even In summer the only communication was by means of the revenue cutters. The cutters maintain a regular patrol, nnd they also bring the uiulK or.ee a month, until wlntor drives them southward.' Bur after the last election it was six months before American citizens citi-zens on the Pribilof Islands learned who was President Presi-dent of 'the United Stales. Nor are the agents' duties simple. For them the peal work menus not only personal direction of the killing, the skinning, weighing and coiiutlug ofthe sklus, but observations of the seal herd. It must be a matter of record when and how many seals are here or there, and what their movements, behavior and condition are, just as the scientific observer and careful care-ful breeder watches his domestic stock. To manage the affairs of the natives means to upportlpn and bank their earnings, to be magistrate In their quarrels and dealings among themselves, sympathizer In their troubles, and general administrator of the village The general demands of all kinds need an almost 1 i-. $25 ; '. ' - ',. -'I Zi&att?&?j&rs - Va, LWal . . H firfHBBBBSKJKWBS ij7ffirjrg!5ffii'qffi I 7HBIflHHliflliB&5 &&9m3ffiP&tt 1 niHii in1 ' St. Paul Village. The GovcmmTTBfvi House Is in Front of the Church A'"Sa3SsSIIE8; r r t Tjiio iii wETiBliryfiiiiSy Pavla Stepetin Agnes Stepctin ' - &?&' St. Paul Island "Creoles" "'? a te- cndltjas versatility of resource. If a houo Is to be built, the government's official representative Is chief builder. If the launch has broken down, this is the man who repairs the cuglne. A telephone Hue is to be run. and here Is the chief of the linemen. The artillery is to be mounted or the guard to be drilled, and here is the commanding officer. It Is an Isolated existence, to he sure But one comes to realize that men and women who can meet Us demands have that within them which can defy their Isolation. For, yes, their wives go with them. Danger from Japanese Poachers. With the disappearance of the pelagic sealer the islands will henceforth have less need of their arina-mcut. arina-mcut. Until now, however, the military responsibilities responsibili-ties of the accnts have been fraught with a real and serious personal danger as well as that of International Interna-tional complication. In a place so remote the whole population might be destroyed months before the world could know there was trouble. There Is hi winter win-ter a natural defence In the very Ice that comes down from the north and cuts these islands off from the rest of the world. In summer they braely set up their guns and drill their guards-. The unlives are an effective garrison, If a small one, for under training they have become very skilful rlficmen, and likewise know their Catlings and their Ilotchklsses. Some of the seal rookeries have always been under watch during the summer, each watch house with a telephone line to the government headquarters. Tho danger has been the Japanese poachers. The pelagic sealing schooners surrounded tho Islauds. shootinc the seals as Lliov eame out in . in thnir search for food, and not seldom sending boaLs boldly within the three mile national limit. In tho dense and constant fogs they could elude the revenue cutters which were on patrol, and their guns were often heard near shore when the boats could not be seen. Many necessarily escaped, but every season furnished Its list of captured poachers, and In 1JCK5 an apparently planned series of raids by the Japanese scaling ficet resulted In tho capturo of three or four landing parUes on SL Paul Inland. The Island guards, with Mr. Lcrnbkcy and Mr. Judge, the government agents, in command, fortunately fortu-nately were not Injured, but they killed no fewer than seven Japanese and captuted a dozen of the party. There are other adventurous experiences. There was a shipwreck on St George Island a vessel on Its way from Nome with miners and then- families. All hands from the lslands turned out to help and the soventy persons wcro saved from the sinking ship. This meant seventy new mouths to feed out of limited stores, and men, women nnd babies to shelter for the next few weeks or more, until a cutter could take them to Juneau. But It was tho last cutter of the season, and after the departure three men appeared In the village who had deliberately hidden buck in the island 4o avoid being sent away. They were typical mining camp outlaws, of the Dan Stark and Kunyon style, guns, braggadocio and all. They coolly Informed Dr. Chichester, tho St. George agent, that they had chosen this place to spend tho wlntor because they knew they could not be ejected and must be furnished food and shelter. And In fact they must. For such as these no existing lock-up would have beeu effective and they would In uny cuso huve to be fed. To forbid thorn tho village wbb lo court their depredations from without and constant con-stant trouble with the native. The same four men Mild been the ''overnnienr agents In charge of the Pribilof stands for wl.tcen jH years or more, until last spring. 1'or a year there had been a naturalist, besides, with, of course, t all times. the resident physician and school teachers. The en- H lire establishment, formerly under thy Treasury' Do- parlment, was a few yean ago transferred to the jH Bureau of Fisheries, in the Depart iwuit of Comnierec IH and Labor. The chief aceut Is Mr.-Walter I. 1.4.111 H key: two assistants arc Mr. .7umc.C Judu'c and Major I! W. Clark." H Dr. IL I"). Chlclieot'er and Dr.'waiie'r II, Ualiu. the H other assistant agent and the na'tUr.-ilNt. were vi'v H thus of a trnslc disaster last May. when bof.li men jH and their wh'er,, hi a sailboat, were capsized in -t M squall. After an hour's struggle In the water, when H rescue was at last accomplished. 1)t. Chichester and IH Dr. Hahn died. This teirlble news n-n awaitine: Mr H Lcrnbkcy wien he arrived at Si. Paul about d the fir-t H vessel of the summer, two 'weeks Inter, and he thence made it known by revenue chtter and wireless. Mrs. M Chichester and Mrs, Ilalm had gone to the Inlands the H previous July as bride. Dr. ChleheMer had just taken IH his uicdii-al degree, and wax voluntarily taking up the M study of certain health problems of the native on the jH Islands, In addition to his work as a.?cnt. Dr. Hahn's H observations as a biologist were expected to aid in H many of the troublesome questions concerning the H seal herd. M Styles for the Girls! jH What the Aleuts arc to-day in education and civil- JH Ized attaliiinenl they owe largely lo the government agents and the tatters' wives, as wejl as to tho teach- M en and the physicians- that have been provided for M them. It hart been no prescribed duty 'of Mrs. Lorub- key, Mrs-. Judge and Mrs. Clark during all these years. IH nor of Mrs. Ilahn and Mrs'. Chichester during .their H briefer cxperlenej, to teach. the native women house- IH hold arts, but this they have all found their pleasure In M The native girls are skilled in dressmaking and are M clever Imitators. The arrival of the ship -with any of these women 011 board has meant the advent of new M pattern and new dre-s goods, a special delight for the IH native girls which their white friends are glad to pro- IH vide. The women of the Islands do all the sowing. H oxcept the making of the grown men's clothes, and at " - hvrt W&uJ0GEBIZZ?JI' -C " B kT1? W " - T" m. . - II H Breeding Seals il gatherings for the purpose -on the long, dark'wlnter H dnyfc the American women preside and direct- , M The native men do the vlllugo work -and shoot or M gather eggs for the common store of food. Mr. Judge M helped them to build a club house, and here they play M bllllaids nnd other games the white mcu have taught M them. Here. toc, occur the dances, the favorite B amusement of the natives. B Tho work the men's work of all sorts is done un- ll der orders of the agents through a. first and second B chief, elected by the natives themselves. These chiefs B are held responsible, nnd they produce satisfactory B service. The vice or the Aleut is drink, but tbe'gow ernuient forbids the landing of liquor on the Lslands. M They have an Intoxicant, however, a concoction of B sugar and yeast, which they make for themselves. The ogents restrict this Indulgence by curtailing the .sugar M supply. B The Aleut Is not cleanly by nature, though he has B CTcatly Improved In this respect. His houses, despite B the while men's efforts, are not as sanitary and. whole- B some as they.should be. This, with the weakness of B deterioration during two centuries of abnormal en B vlronmeut, has brought these natives under the plague B of tuberculosis, which causes half the deaths on the B islands. The average life Is but twenty-three yearis, B and a man is old at forty. The oldest now llvlug Is B fifty -nine. B Russianized in religion, and spending generously H upon bis church, the Inhabitant of the Pribilof Islands M Is Bussiaulzed also in blood. Though the Aleut race is B of Mongolian origin, its members on the Pribilof Isl- B auds do not relish their Japanese resemblance, for IB iui. inuf am L'uciuies ui me Jiussians. Ana, in iact, lH many of them arc almost white, with most Caucasian IB features. They are proud of the Russian admixture, iB nnd call themsches, because of it, "Creoles." The B more of a mixture" the prouder, but every Aleut says jB he Is a Creole. They all bear Russian names, and they B have selected from the aristocracy. jB The government agents tell many a story of the ua- B tlves' simplicity and their crudity of Instinct nnd cmo- B tlon. But they tell also of their kindliness, their gen- H ercwlly and their willingness to learn. And there Is B pathos In the Incident of the man who came to the IH government boupe one night to say that his baby "hu B stop." The government house and "the bovs" aie th B source of nil things to the native! from (lie food he eats H to Instructions about hLs family. This lime It was a B Uttln pine lumber that was wanted. And Dr. Chiches- JB ter. passing the window an hour later. -a tlie'inati H making his baby's coulu. H TJie.ro is pathos too. in the Isolated condition f H these people. How cau they overcome their enormous hnndlcup? To us It Is somewhat conolln, but at the same time In one way more pitltful. to realize that jH they know none but this life. The freedom aud hardy H Independence of generations past they cannot rem cm- ber. The development to which their present civUiza- Hon entitles tlic-in their circumscribed exlstonce for- bids. Perhaps some time, however. If present benevo- lent efforts succeed, the world will be opened to tho Aleut by Instruction Iu hundcraft industries which will afford him a. means of livelihood Independent ot B the B The difficulty Is to find markets for his products with all other humanity hundreds of miles away. But trusting to accomplish tbLs by some means, thy agents are urging manual training schools for the younger generations. Four uuUvo boys, through Mr. Judge's efforts, have this year gone to an Indian si hortl iu Oreenn |