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margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + .poem span.pn { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: 75%; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + color: silver; background-color: inherit; + font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers in poems */ + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 75%; } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Labrador Doctor, by Wilfred Thomason +Grenfell</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Labrador Doctor</p> +<p> The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell</p> +<p>Author: Wilfred Thomason Grenfell</p> +<p>Release Date: August 22, 2007 [eBook #22372]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LABRADOR DOCTOR***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Jeannie Howse,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p> +<p class="noin">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.<br /> +For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</p> +<p class="noin">Click on the images to see a larger version.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="ad"> +<h3>By Wilfred T. Grenfell</h3> +<p class="hang2">A LABRADOR DOCTOR. The Autobiography of +Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. Illustrated.</p> +<p class="hang2">LABRADOR DAYS. Tales of the Sea Toilers. +With frontispiece.</p> +<p class="hang2">TALES OF THE LABRADOR. With frontispiece.</p> +<p class="hang2">THE ADVENTURE OF LIFE.</p> +<p class="hang2">ADRIFT ON AN ICE-PAN. Illustrated.</p> +<br /> +<p class="cen">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</p> +<p class="cen sc">Boston and New York</p> +</div> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>A LABRADOR DOCTOR</h2> + +<h2>THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF<br /> +WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="45%" alt="Wilfred Grenfell" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"> <span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h1>A LABRADOR DOCTOR</h1> + +<h3>THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF<br /> +WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL<br /> +M.D. (OXON.), C.M.G.</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.png" alt="Riverside Press logo" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br /> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /> +The Riverside Press Cambridge</h5> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY WILFRED T. GRENFELL<br /> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>I have long been resisting the strong pressure from friends that would +force me to risk having to live alongside my own autobiography. It +seems still an open question whether it is advisable, or even whether +it is right—seeing that it calls for confessions. In the eyes of God +the only alternative is a book of lies. Moreover, sitting down to write +one's own life story has always loomed up before my imagination as an +admission that one was passing the post which marks the last lap; and +though it was a justly celebrated physician who told us that we might +profitably crawl upon the shelf at half a century, that added no +attraction for me to the effort, when I passed that goal.</p> + +<p>Thirty-two years spent in work for deep-sea fishermen, twenty-seven of +which years have been passed in Labrador and northern Newfoundland, +have necessarily given me some experiences which may be helpful to +others. I feel that this alone justifies the writing of this story.</p> + +<p>To the many helpers who have coöperated with me at one time or another +throughout these years, I owe a debt of gratitude which will never be +forgotten, though it has been impossible to mention each one by name. +Without them this work could never have been.</p> + +<p>To my wife, who was willing to leave all the best the civilized world +can offer to share my life on this lonely coast, I want to dedicate +this book. Truth forces me to own that it would never have come into +being without her, and her greater share in the work of its production +declares her courage to face the consequences.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp" width="10%">I.</td> + <td class="tdlsc" width="70%"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Early Days</a></td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">II.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">School Life</a></td> + <td class="tdr">15</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">III.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Early Work in London</a></td> + <td class="tdr">37</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">At the London Hospital</a></td> + <td class="tdr">64</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">V.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">North Sea Work</a></td> + <td class="tdr">99</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Lure of the Labrador</a></td> + <td class="tdr">119</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The People of Labrador</a></td> + <td class="tdr">139</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Lecturing and Cruising</a></td> + <td class="tdr">159</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IX.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The Seal Fishery</a></td> + <td class="tdr">171</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">X.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Three Years' Work in the British Isles</a></td> + <td class="tdr">183</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">First Winter at St. Anthony</a></td> + <td class="tdr">197</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">The Coöperative Movement</a></td> + <td class="tdr">215</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XIII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">The Mill and the Fox Farm</a></td> + <td class="tdr">226</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XIV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">The Children's Home</a></td> + <td class="tdr">241</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Problems of Education</a></td> + <td class="tdr">254</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XVI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">"Who hath desired the Sea?"</a></td> + <td class="tdr">270</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XVII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">The Reindeer Experiment</a></td> + <td class="tdr">288</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XVIII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">The Ice-Pan Adventure</a></td> + <td class="tdr">304</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XIX.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">They that do Business in Great Waters</a></td> + <td class="tdr">315</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XX.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Marriage</a></td> + <td class="tdr">331</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">New Ventures</a></td> + <td class="tdr">344</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Problems on Land and Sea</a></td> + <td class="tdr">357</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXIII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">A Month's Holiday in Asia Minor</a></td> + <td class="tdr">376</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXIV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">The War</a></td> + <td class="tdr">384</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">Forward Steps</a></td> + <td class="tdr">403</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXVI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">The Future of the Mission</a></td> + <td class="tdr">411</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XXVII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">My Religious Life</a></td> + <td class="tdr">424</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"> </td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></td> + <td class="tdr">435</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="List of Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td width="80%" class="tdlsc"><a href="#frontis">Wilfred Thomason Grenfell</a></td> + <td width="20%" class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep002">View from Mostyn House, the Author's Birthplace, Parkgate, Cheshire</a></td> + <td class="tdr">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep044">Oxford University Rugby Union Football Team</a></td> + <td class="tdr">44</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep120">The Labrador Coast</a></td> + <td class="tdr">120</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep128a">Eskimo Woman and Baby</a></td> + <td class="tdr">128</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep128b">Eskimo Man</a></td> + <td class="tdr">128</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep132">Eskimo Girls</a></td> + <td class="tdr">132</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep140">Battle Harbour</a></td> + <td class="tdr">140</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep156">A Labrador Burial</a></td> + <td class="tdr">156</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep164">The Labrador Doctor in Summer</a></td> + <td class="tdr">164</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep192">The Strathcona</a></td> + <td class="tdr">192</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep198">Three of the Doctor's Dogs</a></td> + <td class="tdr">198</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep202">A Komatik Journey</a></td> + <td class="tdr">202</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep218">The First Coöperative Store</a></td> + <td class="tdr">218</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep226">St. Anthony</a></td> + <td class="tdr">226</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep250">Inside the Orphanage</a></td> + <td class="tdr">250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep272a">Fish on the Flakes</a></td> + <td class="tdr">272</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep272b">Drying the Seines</a></td> + <td class="tdr">272</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep296a">A Part of the Reindeer Herd</a></td> + <td class="tdr">296</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep296b">Reindeer Teams meeting a Dog Team</a></td> + <td class="tdr">296</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep304a">A Spring Scene at St. Anthony</a></td> + <td class="tdr">304</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep304b">Dog Race at St. Anthony</a></td> + <td class="tdr">304</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep320">Icebergs</a></td> + <td class="tdr">320</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep340">Commodore Peary on his Way back from the Pole, 1909</a></td> + <td class="tdr">340</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep354">The Institute, St. John's</a></td> + <td class="tdr">354</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep368">Dog Travel</a></td> + <td class="tdr">368</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep406">The Labrador Doctor in Winter</a></td> + <td class="tdr">406</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep418">Entrance To St. Anthony Harbour</a></td> + <td class="tdr">418</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span><br /> + +<h1>A LABRADOR DOCTOR</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>EARLY DAYS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>To be born on the 28th of February is not altogether without its +compensations. It affords a subject of conversation when you are asked +to put your name in birthday books. It is evident that many people +suppose it to be almost an intrusion to appear on that day. However, it +was perfectly satisfactory to me so long as it was not the 29th. As a +boy, that was all for which I cared. Still, I used at times to be +oppressed by the danger, so narrowly missed, of growing up with undue +deliberation.</p> + +<p>The event occurred in 1865 in Parkgate, near Chester, England, whither +my parents had moved to enable my father to take over the school of his +uncle. I was always told that what might be called boisterous weather +signalled my arrival. Experience has since shown me that that need not +be considered a particularly ominous portent in the winter season on +the Sands of Dee.</p> + +<p>It is fortunate that the selection of our birthplace is not left to +ourselves. It would most certainly be one of those small decisions +which would later add to the things over which we worry. I can see how +it would have acted in my own case. For my paternal forbears are really +of Cornish extraction—a corner of our little Island to which attaches +all the romantic aroma of the men, who, in defence of England, "swept +the Spanish Main," and so long successfully singed the Bang of Spain's +beard, men whose exploits never fail to stir the best blood of +Englishmen, and among whom my direct ancestors had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>the privilege of +playing no undistinguished part. On the other hand, my visits thither +have—romance aside—convinced me that the restricted foreshore and the +precipitous cliffs are a handicap to the development of youth, compared +with the broad expanses of tempting sands, which are after all +associated with another kinsman, whose songs have helped to make them +famous, Charles Kingsley.</p> + +<p>My mother was born in India, her father being a colonel of many +campaigns, and her brother an engineer officer in charge during the +siege of Lucknow till relieved by Sir Henry Havelock. At the first +Delhi Durbar no less than forty-eight of my cousins met, all being +officers either of the Indian military or civil service.</p> + +<p>To the modern progressive mind the wide sands are a stumbling-block. +Silting up with the years, they have closed the river to navigation, +and converted our once famous Roman city of Chester into a sleepy, +second-rate market-town. The great flood of commerce from the New World +sweeps contemptuously past our estuary, and finds its clearing-house +under the eternal, assertive smoke clouds which camouflage the miles of +throbbing docks and slums called Liverpool—little more than a dozen +miles distant. But the heather-clad hills of Heswall, and the old red +sandstone ridge, which form the ancient borough of the "Hundred of +Wirral," afford an efficient shelter from the insistent taint of +out-of-the-worldness.</p> + +<p>Every inch of the Sands of Dee were dear to me. I learned to know their +every bank and gutter. Away beyond them there was a mystery in the blue +hills of the Welsh shore, only cut off from us children in reality by +the narrow, rapid water of the channel we called the Deep. Yet they +seemed so high and so far away. The people there spoke a different +language from ours, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>all their instincts seemed diverse. Our +humble neighbours lived by the seafaring genius which we ourselves +loved so much. They made their living from the fisheries of the river +mouth; and scores of times we children would slip away, and spend the +day and night with them in their boats.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep002" id="imagep002"></a> +<a href="images/imagep002.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep002.jpg" width="95%" alt="View From Mostyn House, The Author's Birthplace, Parkgate, Cheshire" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">VIEW FROM MOSTYN HOUSE, THE AUTHOR'S BIRTHPLACE, PARKGATE, CHESHIRE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>While I was still quite a small boy, a terrible blizzard struck the +estuary while the boats were out, and for twenty-four hours one of the +fishing craft was missing. Only a lad of sixteen was in charge of +her—a boy whom we knew, and with whom we had often sailed. All my +family were away from home at the time except myself; and I can still +remember the thrill I experienced when, as representative of the "Big +House," I was taken to see the poor lad, who had been brought home at +last, frozen to death.</p> + +<p>The men of the opposite shores were shopkeepers and miners. Somehow we +knew that they couldn't help it. The nursery rhyme about "Taffy was a +Welshman; Taffy was a thief," because familiar, had not led us to hold +any unduly inflated estimate of the Welsh character. One of my old +nurses did much to redeem it, however. She had undertaken the burden of +my brother and myself during a long vacation, and carried us off bodily +to her home in Wales. Her clean little cottage stood by the side of a +road leading to the village school of the State Mining District of +Festiniog. We soon learned that the local boys resented the intrusion +of the two English lads, and they so frequently chased us off the +village green, which was the only playground offered us, that we at +last decided to give battle. We had stored up a pile of slates behind +our garden wall, and luring the enemy to the gates by the simple method +of retiring before their advance, we saluted them with artillery fire +from a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>comparatively safe entrenchment. To my horror, one of the first +missiles struck a medium-sized boy right over the eye, and I saw the +blood flow instantly. The awful comparison of David and Goliath flashed +across my terror-stricken mind, and I fled incontinently to my nurse's +protection. Subsequently by her adroit diplomacy, we were not only +delivered from justice, but gained the freedom of the green as well.</p> + +<p>Far away up the river came the great salt-water marshes which seemed so +endless to our tiny selves. There was also the Great Cop, an embankment +miles long, intended to reach "from England to Wales," but which was +never finished because the quicksand swallowed up all that the workmen +could pour into it. Many a time I have stood on the broken end, where +the discouraged labourers had left their very shovels and picks and +trucks and had apparently fled in dismay, as if convicted of the +impiousness of trying to fill the Bottomless Pit. To my childish +imagination the upturned wheelbarrows and wasted trucks and rails +always suggested the banks of the Red Sea after the awful disaster had +swept over Pharoah and his host. How the returning tide used to sweep +through that to us fathomless gulch! It made the old river seem ever so +much more wonderful, and ever so much more filled with adventure.</p> + +<p>Many a time, just to dare it, I would dive into the very cauldron, and +let the swirling current carry me to the grassy sward beyond—along +which I would run till the narrowing channel permitted my crossing to +the Great Cop again. I would be drying myself in the sunshine as I +went, and all ready for my scanty garments when I reached my clothing +once more.</p> + +<p>Then came the great days when the heavy nor'westers howled over the +Sands—our sea-front was exposed to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>all the power of the sea right +away to the Point of Ayr—the days when they came in with big spring +tides, when we saw the fishermen doubling their anchors, and carefully +overhauling the holding gear of their boats, before the flooding tide +drove them ashore, powerless to do more than watch them battling at +their moorings like living things—the possessions upon which their +very bread depended. And then this one would sink, and another would +part her cable and come hurtling before the gale, until she crashed +right into the great upright blocks of sandstone which, riveted with +iron bands to their copings, were relied upon to hold the main road +from destruction. Sometimes in fragments, and sometimes almost entire, +the craft would be slung clean over the torturing battlements, and be +left stranded high and dry on our one village street, a menace to +traffic, but a huge joy to us children.</p> + +<p>The fascination of the Sands was greatly enhanced by the numerous birds +which at all times frequented them, in search of the abundant food +which lay buried along the edges of the muddy gutters. There were +thousands of sandpipers in enormous flocks, mixed with king plovers, +dunlins, and turnstones, which followed the ebb tides, and returned +again in whirling clouds before the oncoming floods. Black-and-white +oyster-catchers were always to be found chattering over the great +mussel patches at low water. With their reddish bills, what a trophy a +bunch of them made as we bore them proudly home over our shoulders! +Then there were the big long-billed curlews. What a triumph when one +outwitted them! One of my clearest recollections is discovering a place +to which they were flighting at night by the water's edge; how, having +no dog, I swam out for bird after bird as they fell to my gun—shooting +some before I had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>even time to put on my shirt again; and my +consequent blue-black shoulder, which had to be carefully hidden next +day. There were wild ducks, too, to be surprised in the pools of the +big salt marshes.</p> + +<p>From daylight to dark I would wander, quite alone, over endless miles, +entirely satisfied to come back with a single bird, and not in the +least disheartened if I got none. All sense of time used to be lost, +and often enough the sandwich and biscuit for lunch forgotten, so that +I would be forced occasionally to resort to a solitary public house +near a colliery on our side of the water, for "tea-biscuits," all that +they offered, except endless beer for the miners. I can even remember, +when very hard driven, crossing to the Welsh side for bread and cheese.</p> + +<p>These expeditions were made barefoot as long as the cold was not too +great. A diary that I assayed to keep in my eighth year reminds me that +on my birthday, five miles from home in the marshes, I fell head over +heels into a deep hole, while wading out, gun in hand, after some +oyster-catchers which I had shot. The snow was still deep on the +countryside, and the long trot home has never been quite forgotten. My +grief, however, was all for the gun. There was always the joy of +venture in those dear old Sands. The channels cut in them by the +flowing tides ran deep, and often intersected. Moreover, they changed +with the varying storms. The rapidly rising tide, which sent a bore up +the main channel as far as Chester, twelve miles above us, filled first +of all these treacherous waterways, quite silently, and often +unobserved. To us, taught to be as much at home in the water as on the +land, they only added spice to our wanderings. They were nowhere very +wide, so by keeping one's head, and being able to swim, only our +clothes suffered by it, and they, being built for that purpose, did not +complain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>One day, however, I remember great excitement. The tide had risen +rapidly in the channel along the parade front, and the shrimp +fishermen, who used push-nets in the channels at low tide, had returned +without noticing that one of their number was missing. Word got about +just too late, and already there was half a mile of water, beyond +which, through our telescopes, we could see the poor fellow making +frantic signals to the shore. There was no boat out there, and a big +bank intervening, there seemed no way to get to him. Watching through +our glasses, we saw him drive the long handle of his net deep into the +sand, and cling to it, while the tide rose speedily around him. +Meanwhile a whole bevy of his mates had rowed out to the bank, and were +literally carrying over its treacherous surface one of their clumsy and +heavy fishing punts. It was a veritable race for life; and never have I +watched one with keener excitement. We actually saw his post give way, +and wash downstream with him clinging to it, just before his friends +got near. Fortunately, drifting with the spar, he again found bottom, +and was eventually rescued, half full of salt water. I remember how he +fell in my estimation as a seaman—though I was only a boy at the time.</p> + +<p>There were four of us boys in all, of whom I was the second. My next +brother Maurice died when he was only seven, and the fourth, Cecil, +being five years younger than I, left my brother Algernon and myself as +the only real companions for each other. Moreover, an untoward +accident, of which I was the unwitting cause, left my younger brother +unable to share our play for many years. Having no sisters, and +scarcely any boy friends, in the holidays, when all the boys in the +school went home, it might be supposed that my elder brother and I were +much thrown together. But as a matter of fact <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>such was not the case, +for our temperaments being entirely different, and neither of us having +any idea of giving way to the other, we seldom or ever found our +pleasures together. And yet most of the worst scrapes into which we +fell were coöperative affairs. Though I am only anxious to shoulder my +share of the responsibility in the escapades, as well as in every other +line of life, my brother Algernon possessed any genius to which the +family could lay claim, in that as in every other line. He was my +father over again, while I was a second edition of my mother. Father +was waiting to get into the sixth form at Rugby when he was only +thirteen years old. He was a brilliant scholar at Balliol, but had been +compelled to give up study and leave the University temporarily owing +to brain trouble. He never published anything, but would reel off +brilliant short poems or essays for friends at a moment's notice. I +used always to remark that in whatever company he was, he was always +deferred to as an authority in anything approaching classics. He could +read and quote Greek and Latin like English, spoke German and French +fluently, while he was an excellent geologist, and Fellow of the +Geographical Society. Here is quite a pretty little effusion of his +written at eight years of age:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">O, Glorious Sun, in thy palace of light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To behold thee methinks is a beautiful sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O, Glorious Sun, come out of thy cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No longer thy brightness in darkness shroud.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let thy glorious beams like a golden Flood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pour over the hills and the valleys and wood.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">See! Mountains of light around him rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While he in a golden ocean lies:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O, Glorious Sun, in thy Palace of Light<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To behold thee methinks is a beautiful sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Algernon Sydney Grenfell<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Aged eight years<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>Some of my brother's poems and hymns have been published in the school +magazine, or printed privately; but he, too, has only published a +Spanish grammar, a Greek lexicon, and a few articles in the papers. +While at Oxford he ran daily, with some friends, during one "eights +week" a cynical comic paper called "The Rattle," to boost some theories +he held, and which he wished to enforce, and also to "score" a few of +the dons to whom he objected. This would have resulted in his being +asked to retire for a season from the seat of learning at the request +of his enemies, had not our beloved provost routed the special cause of +the whole trouble, who was himself contributing to a London society +paper, by replying that it was not to be wondered at if the scurrilous +rags of London found an echo in Oxford. Moreover, a set of "The Rattle" +was ordered to be bound and placed in the college archives, where it +may still be seen.</p> + +<p>My father having a very great deal of responsibility and worry during +the long school terms, as he was not only head master, but owned the +school as well, which he had purchased from his great-uncle, used to +leave almost the day the holidays began and travel abroad with my +mother. This partly accounts for the very unusual latitude allowed to +us boys in coming and going from the house—no one being anxious if now +and again we did not return at night. The school matron was left in +charge of the vast empty barracks, and we had the run of play-field, +gymnasium, and everything else we wanted. To outwit the matron was +always considered fair play by us boys, and on many occasions we were +more than successful.</p> + +<p>One time, when we had been acquiring some new lines of thought from +some trashy boys' books of the period, we became fired with the desire +to enjoy the ruling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>passion of the professional burglar. Though never +kept short of anything, we decided that one night we would raid the +large school storeroom while the matron slept. As always, the planning +was entrusted to my brother. It was, of course, a perfectly easy +affair, but we played the whole game "according to Cavendish." We let +ourselves out of the window at midnight, glued brown paper to the +window panes, cut out the putty, forced the catch, and stole sugar, +currants, biscuits, and I am ashamed to say port wine—which we mulled +in a tin can over the renovated fire in the matron's own sanctum. In +the morning the remainder was turned over to fishermen friends who were +passing along shore on their way to catch the early tide.</p> + +<p>I had no share in two other of my brother's famous escapades, though at +the time it was a source of keen regret, for we were sent to different +public schools, as being, I suppose, incompatible. But we heard with +pride how he had extracted phosphorus from the chemical laboratory and +while drawing luminous ghosts on the wall for the benefit of the +timorous, had set fire to the large dormitory and the boys' +underclothing neatly laid out on the beds, besides burning himself +badly. Later he pleaded guilty to beeswaxing the seat of the boys in +front of him in chapel, much to the detriment of their trousers and the +destruction of the dignity of Sunday worship.</p> + +<p>During the time that my parents were away we never found a moment in +which to be lonely, but on one occasion it occurred to us that the +company of some friends would add to our enjoyment. Why we waited till +my father and mother departed I do not know, but I recall that +immediately they had gone we spent a much-valued sixpence in +telegraphing to a cousin in London to come down to us for the holidays. +Our message read: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>"Dear Sid. Come down and stay the holidays. Father +has gone to Aix." We were somewhat chagrined to receive the following +day an answer, also by wire: "Not gone yet. Father." It appeared that +my father and mother had stayed the night in London in the very house +to which we had wired, and Sid. having to ask his father's permission +in order to get his railway fare, our uncle had shown the invitation to +my father. It was characteristic of my parents that Sid. came duly +along, but they could not keep from sharing the joke with my uncle.</p> + +<p>During term-time some of our grown-up relatives would occasionally +visit us. But alas, it was only their idiosyncrasies which used to make +any impression upon us. One, a great-uncle, and a very distinguished +person, being Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and a great +friend of the famous Dr. Jowett, the chancellor, was the only man we +knew who ever, at any time, stood up long to my father in argument. It +was only on rare occasions that we ever witnessed such a contest, but I +shall never forget one which took place in the evening in our +drawing-room. My great-uncle was a small man, rather stout and pink, +and almost bald-headed. He got so absorbed in his arguments, which he +always delivered walking up and down, that on this occasion, coming to +an old-fashioned sofa, he stepped right up onto the seat, climbed over +the back, and went on all the time with his remarks, as if only +punctuating them thereby.</p> + +<p>Whether some of our pranks were suggested by those of which we heard, I +do not remember. One of my father's yarns, however, always stuck in my +memory. For once, being in a very good humour, he told us how when some +distinguished old lady had come to call on his father—a house master +with Arnold at Rugby—he had been especially warned not to interrupt +this important person, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>who had come to see about her son's entering my +grandfather's "House." It so happened that quite unconsciously the lady +in question had seated herself on an old cane-bottomed armchair in +which father had been playing, thus depriving him temporarily of a toy +with which he desired to amuse himself. He never, even in later life, +was noted for undue patience, and after endeavouring in vain to await +her departure, he somehow secured a long pin. With this he crawled from +behind under the seat, and by discreetly probing upwards, succeeded +suddenly in dislodging his enemy.</p> + +<p>Our devotions on Sunday were carried out in the parish church of the +village of Neston, there being no place of worship of the Established +Church in our little village. In term-time we were obliged to go +morning and evening to the long services, which never made any +concessions to youthful capacities. So in holiday-time, though it was +essential that we should go in the morning to represent the house, we +were permitted to stay home in the evening. But even the mornings were +a time of great weariness, and oft-recurrent sermons on the terrible +fate which awaited those who never went to church, and the still more +untoward end which was in store for frequenters of dissenting +meeting-houses, failed to awaken in us the respect due to the occasion.</p> + +<p>On the way to church we had generally to pass by those who dared even +the awful fate of the latter. It was our idea that to tantalize us they +wore especially gorgeous apparel while we had to wear black Etons and a +top hat—which, by the way, greatly annoyed us. One waistcoat +especially excited our animosity, and from it we conceived the title +"specklebelly," by which we ever afterwards designated the whole "genus +nonconformist." The entrance to the chapel (ours was the Church!) was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>through a door in a high wall, over which we could not see; and my +youthful brain used to conjure up unrighteous and strange orgies which +we felt must take place in those precincts which we were never +permitted to enter. Our Sunday Scripture lessons had grounded us very +familiarly with the perverse habits of that section of the Chosen +People who <i>would</i> serve Baal and Moloch, when it obviously paid so +much better not to do so. But although we counted the numbers which we +saw going in, and sometimes met them coming out, they seemed never to +lessen perceptibly. On this account our minds, with the merciless logic +of childhood, gradually discounted the threatened calamities.</p> + +<p>This must have accounted for the lapse in our own conduct, and a sort +of comfortable satisfaction that the Almighty contented Himself in +merely counting noses in the pews. For even though it was my brother +who got into trouble, I shall never forget the harangue on impiety that +awaited us when a most unchristian sexton reported to our father that +the pew in front of ours had been found chalked on the back, so as to +make its occupants the object of undisguised attention from the rest of +the congregation. As circumstantial evidence also against us, he +offered some tell-tale squares of silver paper, on which we had been +cooking chocolates on the steam pipes during the sermon.</p> + +<p>In all my childhood I can only remember one single punishment, among +not a few which I received, which I resented—and for years I never +quite forgot it. Some one had robbed a very favourite apple tree in our +orchard—an escapade of which I was perfectly capable, but in this +instance had not had the satisfaction of sharing. Some evidence had +been lodged against me, of which I was not informed, and I therefore +had no opportunity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>to challenge it. I was asked before a whole class +of my schoolmates if I had committed the act, and at once denied it. +Without any hearing I was adjudged guilty, and promptly subjected to +the punishment of the day—a good birching. On every occasion on which +we were offered the alternative of detention, we invariably "plumped" +for the rod, and got it over quickly, and, as we considered, +creditably—taking it smiling as long as we could. But that one act of +injustice, the disgrace which it carried of making me a liar before my +friends, seared my very soul. I vowed I would get even whatever it +cost, and I regret to say that I hadn't long to wait the opportunity. +For I scored both the apples and the lie against the punishment before +many months. Nor was I satisfied then. It rankled in my mind both by +day and by night; and it taught me an invaluable lesson—never to +suspect or condemn rashly. It was one of Dr. Arnold's boys at Rugby, I +believe, who summed up his master's character by saying, "The head was +a beast, but he was always a just beast."</p> + +<p>At fourteen years of age my brother was sent to Repton, to the house of +an uncle by marriage—an arrangement which has persuaded me never to +send boys to their relatives for training. My brother's pranks were +undoubtedly many, but they were all boyish and legitimate ones. After a +time, however, he was removed at his own request, and sent to Clifton, +where he was head of the school, and the school house also, under Dr. +Percival, the late Bishop of Hereford. From there he took an open +scholarship for Oxford.</p> + +<p>It was most wisely decided to send us to separate schools, and +therefore at fourteen I found myself at Marlborough—a school of nearly +six hundred resident boys, on entering which I had won a scholarship.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>SCHOOL LIFE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Marlborough "College," as we say in England for a large University +preparatory school, is situated in Wiltshire, in a perfectly beautiful +country, close to the Savernake Forest—one of the finest in all +England. As everything and everybody was strange to me on my arrival, +had I been brought up to be less self-reliant the events of my first +day or two would probably have impressed themselves more deeply on my +memory than is the case. Some Good Samaritan, hearing that I was bound +for a certain house, allowed me to follow him from the station to the +inn—for a veritable old inn it was. It was one of those lovely old +wayside hostels along the main road to the west, which, with the +decline of coaching days, found its way into the market, and had fallen +to the hammer for the education of youth. Exactly how the adaptation +had been accomplished I never quite understood. The building formed the +end of a long avenue of trees and was approached through high gates +from the main road. It was flanked on the east side by other houses, +which fitted in somewhat inharmoniously, but served as school-rooms, +dining-hall, chapel, racquets and fives courts, studies, and other +dwelling-houses. The whole was entirely enclosed so that no one could +pass in or out, after the gates were shut, without ringing up the +porter from his lodge, and having one's name taken as being out after +hours. At least it was supposed that no one could, though we boys soon +found that there were more ways than one leading to Rome.</p> + +<p>The separate dwelling-houses were named A, B, and C. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>I was detailed to +C House, the old inn itself. Each house was again divided into three, +with its own house master, and its own special colour and badges. Our +three were at the time "Sharps," "Upcutts," and "Bakers." Our +particular one occupied the second floor, and was reached by great oak +staircases, which, if you were smart, you could ascend at about six +steps at a time. This was often a singular desideratum, because until +you reached the fifth form, according to law you ascended by the less +direct back stairway.</p> + +<p>Our colours were white and maroon, and our sign a bishop's mitre—which +effigy I still find scribbled all over the few book relics which I have +retained, and which emblem, when borne subsequently on my velvet +football cap, proved to be the nearest I ever was to approach to that +dignified insignia.</p> + +<p>My benefactor, on the night of my arrival, having done more for me than +a new boy could expect of an old one, was whirled off in the stream of +his returning chums long before I had found my resting-place for the +night. The dormitory to which I at last found myself assigned contained +no less than twenty-five beds, and seemed to me a veritable wilderness. +If the coaches which used to stop here could have ascended the stairs, +it might have accommodated several. What useful purpose it could have +served in those far-off days I never succeeded in deciding. The room +most nearly like it which I can recall is the old dining-hall of a +great manor, into which the knights in armour rode on horseback to +meals, that being far less trouble than removing one's armour, and +quite as picturesque. More or less amicably I obtained possession of a +bed in a good location, under a big window which looked out over the +beautiful gardens below. I cannot remember that I experienced any of +those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>heart-searchings or forebodings which sentiment deplores as the +inevitable lot of the unprotected innocent.</p> + +<p>One informal battle during the first week with a boy possessed of the +sanctity of having come up from the lower school, and therefore being +an "old boy," achieved for me more privileges than the actual decision +perhaps entitled one to enjoy, namely, being left alone. I subsequently +became known as the "Beast," owing to my belligerent nature and the +undue copiousness of my hair.</p> + +<p>The fact that I was placed in the upper fourth form condemned me to do +my "prep" in the intolerable barrack called "Big School"—a veritable +bear-garden to which about three hundred small boys were relegated to +study. Order was kept by a master and a few monitors, who wandered to +and fro from end to end of the building, while we were supposed to +work. For my part, I never tried it, partly because the work came very +easy to me, while the "repetition" was more readily learned from a +loose page at odd times like dinner and chapel, and partly because, +winning a scholarship during the term, I was transferred to a building +reserved for twenty-eight such privileged individuals until they gained +the further distinction of a place in the house class-room, by getting +their transfer into the fifth form.</p> + +<p>Besides those who lived in the big quad there were several houses +outside the gates, known as "Out-Houses." The boys there fared a good +deal better than we who lived in college, and I presume paid more +highly for it. Our meals were served in "Big Hall," where the whole +four hundred of us were fed. The meals were exceptionally poor; so much +so that we boys at the beginning of term formed what we called brewing +companies—which provided as far as possible breakfasts <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>and suppers +for ourselves all term. As a protection against early bankruptcy, it +was our custom to deposit our money with a rotund but popular school +official, known always by a corruption of his name as "the Slug." Every +Saturday night he would dole out to you your deposit made on return +from the holidays, divided into equal portions by the number of weeks +in the term. Once one was in the fifth form, brewing became easy, for +one had a right to a place on the class-room fire for one's kettle or +saucepan. Till then the space over gas stoves in Big School being +strictly limited, the right was only acquired "vi et armis." Moreover, +most of the fourth form boys and the "Shells," a class between them and +the fifth, if they had to work after evening chapel, had to sit behind +desks around the house class-room facing the centre, in which as a rule +the fifth form boys were lazily cooking and devouring their suppers. +Certain parts of those repasts, like sausages, we would import ready +cooked from the "Tuck Shop," and hence they only needed warming up. +Breakfast in Big School was no comfort to one, and personally I seldom +attended it. But at dinner and tea one had to appear, and remain till +the doors were opened again. It was a kind of roll-call; and the +penalty for being late was fifty lines to be written out. As my own +habits were never as regular as they should have been, whenever I was +able to keep ahead, I possessed pages of such lines, neatly written out +during school hours and ready for emergencies. On other occasions I +somewhat shamefacedly recall that I employed other boys, who devoted +less time to athletics than was my wont, to help me out—their only +remuneration being the "joy of service."</p> + +<p>The great desire of every boy who could hope to do so was to excel in +athletics. This fact has much to commend <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>it in such an educational +system, for it undoubtedly kept its devotees from innumerable worse +troubles and dangers. All athletics were compulsory, unless one had +obtained permanent exemption from the medical officer. If one was not +chosen to play on any team during the afternoon, each boy had to go to +gymnasium for drill and exercises, or to "flannel" and run round the +Aylesbury Arms, an old public house three quarters of a mile distant. +Any breach of this law was severely punished by the boys themselves. It +involved a "fives batting," that is, a "birching" carried out with a +hardwood fives bat, after chapel in the presence of the house. As a +breach of patriotism, it carried great disgrace with it, and was very, +very seldom necessary.</p> + +<p>Experience would make me a firm believer in +self-government—determination is the popular term now, I believe. No +punishments ever touched the boys one tenth part as much as those +administered by themselves. On one occasion two of the Big School +monitors, who were themselves notorious far more for their constant +breaches of school law than for their observance of it, decided to make +capital at the expense of the sixth form. One day, just as the +dinner-bell rang, they locked the sixth form door, while a conclave was +being held inside. Though everyone was intended to know to whom the +credit belonged, it was understood that no one would dream of giving +evidence against them. But it so happened that their voices had been +recognized from within by one of the sixth form boys—and "bullies" and +unpopular though the culprits were, they wouldn't deny their guilt. +Their condign punishment was to be "fives-batted" publicly in Big +School—in which, however, they regained very considerable popularity +by the way they took a "spanking" without turning a hair, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>though it +cost no less than a dozen bats before it was over.</p> + +<p>The publicity of Big School was the only redemption of such a +bear-garden, but that was a good feature. It served to make us toe the +line. After tea, it was the custom to have what we called "Upper School +Boxing." A big ring was formed, boxing-gloves provided, and any +differences which one might have to settle could be arranged there. +There was more energy than science about the few occasions on which I +appeared personally in the ring, but it was an excellent safety-valve +and quite an evolutionary experience.</p> + +<p>The exigency of having to play our games immediately after noon dinner +had naturally taught the boys at the head of athletic affairs that it +was not wise to eat too much. Dinner was the one solid meal which the +college provided, and most of us wanted it badly enough when it came +along, especially the suet puddings which went by the name of "bollies" +and were particularly satisfying. But whenever any game of importance +was scheduled, a remorseless card used to be passed round the table +just after the meat stage, bearing the ominous legend "No bolly +to-day." To make sure that there were no truants, all hands were forced +to "Hooverize." Oddly enough, beer in large blue china jugs was freely +served at every dinner. We called it "swipes," and boys, however small, +helped themselves to as much as they liked. Moreover, as soon as the +game was over, all who had their house colours might come in and get +"swipes" served to them freely through the buttery window. Both +practices, I believe, have long since fortunately fallen into +desuetude.</p> + +<p>To encourage the budding athlete there was an excellent custom of +classifying not only the players who attained the first team; but +beyond them there were "the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>Forty" who wore velvet caps with tassels, +"the Sixty" who wore velvet caps with silver braid, "the Eighty," and +even "the Hundred"—all of whom were posted from time to time, and so +stimulated their members to try for the next grade.</p> + +<p>Like every other school there were bounds beyond which one might not +go, and therefore beyond which one always wanted to go. Compulsory +games limited the temptation in that direction very considerably; and +my own breaches were practically always to get an extra swim. We had an +excellent open-air swimming pool, made out of a branch of the river +Kenneth, and were allowed one bathe a day, besides the dip before +morning chapel, which only the few took, and which did not count as a +bathe. The punishment for breaking the rule was severe, involving a +week off for a first offence. But one was not easily caught, for even a +sixth-former found hundreds of naked boys very much alike in the water, +and the fact of any one having transgressed the limit was very hard to +detect. Nor were we bound to incriminate ourselves by replying to +leading questions.</p> + +<p>"Late for Gates" was a more serious crime, involving detention from +beloved games—and many were the expedients to which we resorted to +avoid such an untoward contingency. I remember well waiting for an hour +outside the porter's view, hoping for some delivery wagon to give me a +chance to get inside. For it was far too light to venture to climb the +lofty railings before "prep" time. Good fortune ordained, however, that +a four-wheel cab should come along in time, containing the parents of a +"hopeful" in the sick-room. It seemed a desperate venture, for to "run" +the gate was a worse offence than being late and owning up. But we +succeeded by standing on the off step, unquestioned by the person +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>inside, who guessed at once what the trouble was, and who proved to be +sport enough to engage the porter while we got clear. Later on a +scapegrace who had more reason to require some by-way than myself, +revealed to me a way which involved a long détour and a climb over the +laundry roof. Of this, on another occasion, I was sincerely glad to +avail myself. One of the older boys, I remember, made a much bolder +venture. He waited till dusk, and then boldly walked in through the +masters' garden. As luck would have it, he met our form master, whom we +will call Jones, walking the other way. It so happened he possessed a +voice which he knew was much like that of another master, so simply +sprinting a little he called out, "Night, night, Jones," and got by +without discovery.</p> + +<p>Our chapel in those days was not a thing of beauty; but since then it +has been rebuilt (out of our stomachs, the boys used to say) and is a +model work of art. Attendance at chapel was compulsory, and no "cuts" +were allowed. Moreover, once late, you were given lines, besides losing +your chapel half-holiday. So the extraordinary zeal exhibited to be +marked off as present should not be attributed to religious fervour. +The chapel was entered from quad by two iron gates, with the same lofty +railings which guarded the entrance on each side. The bell tolled for +five minutes, then was silent one minute, and then a single toll was +given, called "stroke." At that instant the two masters who stood by +the pillars guarding each gate, jumped across, closing the gates if +they could, and every one outside was late. Those inside the open +walk—the length of the chapel that led to the doors at the far +end—then continued to march in.</p> + +<p>During prayers each form master sat opposite his form, all of which +faced the central aisle, and marked off those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>present. Almost every +morning half-dressed boys, with shirts open and collars unbuttoned, +boots unlaced, and jumping into coats and waistcoats as they dashed +along, could be seen rushing towards the gate during the ominous minute +of silence. There was always time to get straight before the mass of +boys inside had emptied into chapel; and I never remember a gate master +stopping a boy before "stroke" for insufficiency of coverings. Many +were the subterfuges employed to get excused, and naturally some form +masters were themselves less regular than others, though you never +could absolutely count on any particular one being absent. Twice in my +time gates were rushed—that is, when "stroke" went such crowds of +flying boys were just at the gate that the masters were unable to stop +the onslaught, and were themselves brushed aside or knocked down under +the seething mass of panic-stricken would-be worshippers. On one of +these occasions we were forgiven—"stroke" was ten seconds early; on +the other a half-holiday was stopped, as one of the masters had been +injured. To trip one's self up, and get a bloody nose, and possibly a +face scratched on the gravel, and then a "sick cut" from the kindly old +school doctor, was one of the more common ways boys discovered of +saving their chapel half—when it was a very close call.</p> + +<p>The school surgery was presided over in my day by a much-beloved old +physician of the old school, named Fergus, which the boys had so long +ago corrupted into "Fungi" that many a lad was caught mistakenly +addressing the old gentleman as Dr. Fungi—an error I always fancied to +be rather appreciated.</p> + +<p>By going to surgery you could very frequently escape evening chapel—a +very desirable event if you had a "big brew" coming off in class-room, +for you could get <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>things cooked and have plenty of room on the fire +before the others were out. But one always had to pay for the +advantage, the old doctor being very much addicted to potions. I never +shall forget the horrible tap in the corner, out of which "cough +mixture" flowed as "a healing for the nations," but which, nasty as it +was, was the cheapest price at which one could purchase the cut. Some +boys, anxious to cut lessons, found that by putting a little soap in +one's eye, that organ would become red and watery. This they practised +so successfully that sometimes for weeks they would be forbidden to do +lessons on account of "eye-strain." They had to use lotions, +eye-shades, and every spectacle possible was tried, but all to no +avail. Sometimes they used so much soap that I was sure the doctor +would suspect the bubbles.</p> + +<p>I had two periods in sick-room with a worrying cough, where the time +was always made so pleasant that one was not tempted to hasten +recovery. Diagnosis, moreover, was not so accurate in those days as it +might have been, and the dear old doctor took no risks. So at the age +of sixteen I was sent off for a winter to the South of France, with the +diagnosis of congestion of the lungs.</p> + +<p>One of my aunts, a Miss Hutchinson, living at Hyères in the South of +France, was delighted to receive me. With a widowed friend and two +charming and athletic daughters, she had a very pretty villa on the +hills overlooking the sea. My orders—to live out of doors—were very +literally obeyed. In light flannel costumes we roamed the hills after +moths and butterflies, early and late. We kept the frogs in miniature +ponds in boxes covered with netting, providing them with bamboo ladders +to climb, and so tell us when it was going to be wet weather. We had +also enclosures in which we kept banks of trap-door spiders, which used +to afford us intense interest with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>their clever artifices. To these we +added the breeding of the more beautiful butterflies and moths, and so, +without knowing that we were learning, we were taught many and valuable +truths of life. There were horses to ride also, and a beautiful "plage" +to bathe upon. It was always sunny and warm, and I invariably look back +on that winter as spent in paradise. I was permitted to go over with a +young friend to the Carnival at Nice, where, disguised as a clown, and +then as a priest, with the <i>abandon</i> of boys, we enjoyed every moment +of the time—the world was so big and wonderful. The French that I had +very quickly learned, as we always spoke it at our villa, stood me on +this occasion in good stead. But better still, I happened, when +climbing into one of the flower-bedecked carriages parading in the +"bataille de fleurs"—which, being in costume, was quite the right +thing to do—to find that the owner was an old friend of my family, one +Sir William Hut. He at once carried me to his home for the rest of the +Carnival, and, of course, made it doubly enjoyable.</p> + +<p>A beautiful expedition, made later in that region which lives in my +memory, was to the gardens at La Mortola, over the Italian line, made +famous by the frequent visits of Queen Victoria to them. They were +owned by Sir Thomas Hanbury, whose wife was my aunt's great friend.</p> + +<p>The quaintness of the memories which persist longest in one's mind +often amuse me. We used, as good Episcopalians, to go every Sunday to +the little English Church on the rue des Palmiers. Alas, I can remember +only one thing about those services. The clergyman had a peculiar +impediment in his speech which made him say his <i>h</i>'s and <i>s</i>'s, both +as <i>sh</i>. Thus he always said <i>sh</i>uman for <i>h</i>uman, and invariably +prayed that God might be pleased <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>to "shave the Queen." He nearly got +me into trouble once or twice through it.</p> + +<p>About the middle of the winter I realized that I had made a mistake. In +writing home I had so enthusiastically assured my father that the place +was suiting my health, that he wrote back that he thought in that case +I might stand a little tutoring, and forthwith I was despatched every +morning to a Mr. B., an Englishman, whose house, called the +"Hermitage," was in a thick wood. I soon discovered that Mr. B. was +obliged to live abroad for his health, and that the coaching of small +boys was only a means to that end. He was a good instructor in +mathematics, a study which I always loved, but he insisted on my taking +Latin and French literature, for neither of which I had the slightest +taste. I consequently made no effort whatever to improve my mind, a +fact which did not in the least disturb his equanimity. The great +interest of those journeys to the Hermitage were the fables of La +Fontaine—which I learned as repetition and enjoyed—and the enormous +number of lizards on the walls, which could disappear with lightning +rapidity when seen, though they would stay almost motionless, waiting +for a fly to come near, which they then swallowed alive. They were so +like the stones one could almost rub one's nose against them without +seeing them. Each time I started, I used to cut a little switch for +myself and try to switch them off their ledges before they vanished. +The attraction to the act lay in that it was almost impossible to +accomplish. But if you did they scored a bull's-eye by incontinently +discarding their tails, which made them much harder to catch next time, +and seemed in no way to incommode them, though it served to excuse my +conscience of cruelty. At the same time I have no wish to pose as a +protector of flies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>Returning to Marlborough School the following summer, I found that my +father, who knew perfectly the thorough groundwork I had received in +Greek and Latin, had insisted on my being given a remove into the lower +fifth form "in absentia." Both he and I were aware that I could do the +work easily; but the form master resented it, and had already protested +in vain. I believe he was a very good man in his way, and much liked by +those whom he liked. But alas, I was not one of them; and never once, +during the whole time I was in his form, did I get one single word of +encouragement out of him. My mathematical master, and "stinks," or +chemical master, I was very fond of, and in both those departments I +made good progress.</p> + +<p>The task of keeping order in a chemistry class of boys is never easy. +The necessary experiments divert the master's eye from the class, and +always give opportunity for fooling. Added to this was the fact that +our "stinks" master, like many scientific teachers, was far too +good-natured, and half-enjoyed himself the diversion which his +experiments gave. When obliged to punish a boy caught "flagrante +delicto," he invariably looked out for some way to make it up to him +later. It was the odd way he did it which endeared him to us, as if +apologizing for the kindness. Thus, on one occasion, suddenly in most +righteous anger, just as if a parenthesis to the remark he was making, +he interposed, "Come and be caned, boy. My study, twelve o'clock." When +the boy was leaving, very unrepentant after keeping the appointment, in +the same parenthetical way the master remarked, "Go away, boy. Cake and +wine, my room, five o'clock"—which proved eventually the most +effective part of the correction.</p> + +<p>To children there always appears a gap between them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>and "grown-ups" as +impassable as that which Abraham is made to describe as so great that +they who would pass to and fro cannot. As we grow older, we cease to +see it, but it exists all the same. As I write, five children are +romping through this old wood on broom-handle horses. One has just +fallen. A girl of twelve at once retorts, "Do get up, Willy, your horse +is always throwing you off." The joys of life lie in us, not in things; +and in childhood imagination is so big, its joys so entirely uncloyed. +Sometimes grown-ups are apt to grudge the time and trouble put into +apparently transient pleasures. A trivial strawberry feast, given to +children on our dear old lawn under the jasmine and rose-bushes, +something after the order of a New England clam-bake, still looms as a +happy memory of my parents' love for children, punctuated by the fact +that though by continuing a game in spite of warning I broke a window +early in the afternoon, and was banished to the nursery "as advised," +my father forgave me an hour later, and himself fetched me down again +to the party.</p> + +<p>To teach us independence, my father put us on an allowance at a very +early age, with a small bank account, to which every birthday he added +five pounds on our behalf. We had no pony at that time, indeed had not +yet learned to ride, so our deposits always went by the name of "pony +money." This was an excellent plan, for we didn't yet value money for +itself, and were better able to appreciate the joy of giving because it +seemed to postpone the advent of our pony. However, when we were +thought to have learned to value so sentient a companion and to be +likely to treat him properly, a Good Samaritan was permitted to present +us with one of our most cherished friends. To us, she was an +unparalleled beauty. How many times we fell over her head, and over +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>her tail, no one can record. She always waited for you to remount, so +it didn't much matter; and we were taught that great lesson in life, +not to be afraid of falling, but to learn how to take a fall. My own +bent, however, was never for the things of the land, and though gallops +on the Dee Sands, and races with our cousins, who owned a broncho and +generally beat us, had their fascination, boats were the things which +appealed most to me.</p> + +<p>Having funds at our disposal, we were allowed to purchase material, and +under the supervision of a local carpenter, to build a boat ourselves. +To this purpose our old back nursery was forthwith allocated. The craft +which we desired was a canoe that would enable us to paddle or drift +along the deep channels of the river, and allow us to steal upon the +flocks of birds feeding at the edges. Often in memory I enjoy those +days again—the planning, the modelling, the fitting, the setting-up, +and at last, the visit of inspection of our parents. Alas, stiff-necked +in our generation, we had insisted on straight lines and a square +stern. Never shall I forget the indignation aroused in me by a cousin's +remark, "It looks awful like a coffin." The resemblance had not +previously struck either of us, and father had felt that the joke was +too dangerous a one to make, and had said nothing. But the pathos of it +was that we now saw it all too clearly. My brother explained that the +barque was intended to be not "seen." Ugliness was almost desirable. It +might help us if we called it the "Reptile," and painted it red—all of +which suggestions were followed. But still I remember feeling a little +crestfallen, when after launching it through the window, it lay +offensively resplendent against the vivid green of the grass. It +served, however, for a time, ending its days honourably by capsizing a +friend and me, guns and all, into the half-frozen water of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>lower +estuary while we were stalking some curlew. I had to run home dripping. +My friend's gun, moreover, having been surreptitiously borrowed from my +cousin's father, was recovered the following day, to our unutterable +relief. Out of the balance of the money spent on the boat, we purchased +a pin-fire, breech-loading gun, the pride of my life for many days. I +was being kept back from school at the time on account of a cold, but I +was not surprised to find myself next day sitting in a train, bound for +Marlborough, and "referred once more to my studies."</p> + +<p>A little later my father, not being satisfied, took me away to read +with a tutor for the London matriculation, in which without any +trouble, I received a first class.</p> + +<p>A large boarding-school in England is like a miniature world. One makes +many acquaintances, who change as one gets pushed into new classes, so +at that stage one makes few lasting friends. Those who remain till they +attain the sixth form, and make the school teams, probably form more +permanent friendships. I at least think of that period as one when +one's bristles were generally up, and though many happy memories +linger, and I have found that to be an old Marlburian is a bond of +friendship all the world over, it is the little oddities which one +remembers best.</p> + +<p>A new scholarship boy had one day been assigned to the closed +corporation of our particular class-room. To me he had many +attractions, for he was a genius both in mathematics and chemistry. We +used to love talking over the problems that were set us as voluntary +tasks for our spare time; and our united excursions in those directions +were so successful that we earned our class more than one "hour off," +as rewards for the required number of stars given for good pieces of +work. My friend <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>had, however, no use whatever for athletics. He had +never been from home before, had no brothers, and five sisters, was the +pet of his parents, and naturally somewhat of a square plug in a round +hole in our school life. He hated all conventions, and was always in +trouble with the boys, for he entirely neglected his personal +appearance, while his fingers were always discoloured with chemicals, +and he would not even feign an interest in the things for which they +cared. I can remember him sitting on the foot of my bed, talking me to +sleep more than once with some new plan he had devised for a +self-steering torpedo or an absolutely reliable flying machine. He had +received the sobriquet of "Mad G.," and there was some justice in it +from the opposition point of view. I had not realized, however, that he +was being bullied—on such a subject he would never say a +syllable—till one day as he left class-room I saw a large lump of coal +hit him square on the head, and a rush of blood follow it that made me +hustle him off to surgery. Scalp wounds are not so dangerous as they +are bloody to heads as thick as ours. His explanation that he had +fallen down was too obvious a distortion of truth to deceive even our +kindly old doctor. But he asked no further question, seeing that it was +a point of honour. The matter, however, forced an estrangement between +myself and some of my fellows that I realized afterwards was excellent +for me. Forthwith we moved my friend's desk into my corner of the room +which was always safe when I was around, though later some practices of +the others to which I took exception led to a combination which I +thought of then as that made by the Jews to catch Paul, and which I +foiled in a similar way, watchfully eluding them when they were in +numbers together, but always ready to meet one or two at a time. The +fact that I had just taken up "racquets" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>impressed it on my memory, +for considering the class-room temporarily unsafe for "prep" work, I +used that building as a convenient refuge for necessary study. It would +have been far better to have fought it out and taken, if unavoidable, +whatever came to me—had it been anywhere else I should probably have +done so. But the class-room was a close corporation for Foundation +scholars, and not one of my chums had access to it to see fair play.</p> + +<p>My friendship for "Mad G." was largely tempered by my own love for +anything athletic, and eccentricities paid a very heavy price among all +boys. Thus, though I was glad to lend my protection to my friend, we +never went about together—as such boys as he always lived the life of +hermits in the midst of the crowd. I well remember one other boy, made +eccentric by his peculiar face and an unfortunate impediment of speech. +No such boy should have been sent to an English public school as it was +in my day. His stutter was no ordinary one, for it consisted, not in +repeating the first letter or syllable, but in blowing out both cheeks +like a balloon, and making noises which resembled a back-firing motor +engine. It was the custom of our form master to make us say our +repetition by each boy taking one line, the last round being always +"expressed"—that is, unless you started instantly the boy above you +finished, the next boy began, and took your place. I can still see and +hear the unfortunate J. getting up steam for his line four or five boys +ahead of time, so that he might explode at the right moment, which +desirable end, however, he but very rarely accomplished, and never +catching up, he used, like the man in the parable, always to "begin +with shame to take the lowest place." Sometimes the master in a +merciful mood allowed us to write the line; but that was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>risky, for it +was considered no disgrace to circumvent him, and under those +circumstances it was very easy for the next boy to write his own and +then yours, and pass it along if he saw you were in trouble.</p> + +<p>There was, and I think with some reason, a pride among the boys on +their appearance on certain occasions. It went by the name of "good +form." Thus on Sundays at morning chapel, we always wore a button-hole +flower if we could. My dear mother used to post me along a little box +of flowers every week—nor was it by any means wasted energy, for not +only did the love for flowers become a hobby and a custom with many of +us through life, and a help to steer clear of sloppiness in appearance, +but it was a habit quite likely to spread to the soul. But beyond that, +the picture of my dear mother, with the thousand worries of a large +school of small boys on her hands, finding time to gather, pack, +address, and post each week with her own hands so fleeting and +inessential a token of her love, has a thousand times arisen to my +memory, and led me to consider some apparently quite unnecessary little +labour of love as being well worth the time and trouble. It is these +deeds of love—not words, however touching—that never fade from the +soul, and to the last make their appeal to the wandering boy to "arise" +and do things.</p> + +<p>Like everything else this fastidiousness can be overdone, and I +remember once a boy's legal guardian showing me a bill for a hundred +pounds sterling that his ward had incurred in a single term for cut +flowers. Yet "form" is a part of the life of all English schools, and +the boys think much more of it than sin. At Harrow you may not walk in +the middle of the road as a freshman; and in American schools and +universities, such regulations as the "Fence" laws at Yale show that +they have emulated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>and even surpassed us in these. It was, however, a +very potent influence, and we were always ridiculously sensitive about +breaches of it. Thus, on a certain prize day my friend "Mad G.," having +singularly distinguished himself in his studies, his parents came all +the way from their home, at great expense to themselves, to see their +beloved and only son honoured. I presume that, though wild horses would +not drag anything out of the boy at school, he had communicated to them +the details of some little service rendered. For to my horror I was +stopped by his mother, whom I subsequently learned to love and honour +above most people, and actually kissed while walking in the open +quad—strutting like a peacock, I suppose, for I remember feeling as if +the bottom had suddenly fallen out of the earth. The sequel, however, +was an invitation to visit their home in North Wales for the Christmas +holidays, where there was rough shooting,—the only kind I really cared +for,—boating, rock-climbing, bathing, and the companionship of as +lively a family as it was possible to meet anywhere. Many a holiday +afterwards we shared together, and the kindness showered upon me I +shall never be able to forget, or, alas, return; for my dear friend +"Mad G." has long ago gone to his rest, and so have both his parents, +whom I loved almost as my own.</p> + +<p>Another thing for which I have much to thank my parents is the interest +which they encouraged me to take in the collecting and study of natural +objects. We were taught that the only excuse that made the taking of +animal life honourable was for some useful purpose, like food or study +or self-preservation. Several cases of birds stuffed and set up when we +were fourteen and sixteen years of age still adorn the old house. Every +bit had to be done by ourselves, my brother making the cases, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>I +the rock work and taxidermy. The hammering-up of sandstone and granite; +to cover the glue-soaked brown paper that we moulded into rocks, +satisfied my keenest instinct for making messes, and only the patience +of the old-time domestics would have "stood for it." My brother +specialized in birds' eggs, and I in butterflies and moths. Later we +added seaweeds, shells, and flowers. Some of our collections have been +dissipated; and though we have not a really scientific acquaintance +with either of these kingdoms, we acquired a "hail-fellow-well-met" +familiarity with all of them, which has enlivened many a day in many +parts of the world as we have journeyed through life. Moreover, though +purchased pictures have other values, the old cases set on the walls of +one's den bring back memories that are the joy and solace of many idle +moments later in life—each rarer egg, each extra butterfly picturing +some day or place of keen triumph, otherwise long since forgotten. +Here, for instance, is a convolvulus hawk father found killed on a +mountain in Switzerland; there an Apollo I caught in the Pyrenees; here +a "red burnet" with "five eyes" captured as we raced through the +bracken on Clifton Downs; and there are "purple emperors" wired down to +"meat" baits on the Surrey Downs.</p> + +<p>Many a night at school have I stolen into the great forest, my +butterfly net under my coat, to try and add a new specimen to my hoard. +We were always supplied with good "key-books," so that we should be +able to identify our specimens, and also to search for others more +intelligently. One value of my own specialty was that for the moths it +demanded going out in the night, and the thrills of out of doors in the +beautiful summer evenings, when others were "fugging" in the house or +had gone to bed, used actually to make me dance around <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>on the grass. +The dark lantern, the sugaring of the tree stems with intoxicating +potions, and the subsequent excitement of searching for specimens, +fascinated me utterly. Our breeding from the egg, through the +caterpillar stage, taught us many things without our knowing that we +were learning.</p> + +<p>One of our holidays was memorable, because as soon as our parents left +we invited my friend and two sisters as well to come and stay with us. +They came, fully expecting that mother had asked them, but were good +enough sports to stay when they found it was only us two boys. They +greatly added to the enjoyment of the days, and if they had not been +such inveterate home letter-writers—a habit of which we were very +contemptuous—it would have saved us boys much good-humoured teasing +afterwards, for the matron would have been mum and no one the wiser.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>EARLY WORK IN LONDON</h4> +<br /> + +<p>In 1883 my father became anxious to give up teaching boys and to +confine himself more exclusively to the work of a clergyman. With this +in view he contemplated moving to London where he had been offered the +chaplaincy of the huge London Hospital. I remember his talking it over +with me, and then asking if I had any idea what I wanted to do in life. +It came to me as a new conundrum. It had never occurred to me to look +forward to a profession; except that I knew that the heads of tigers, +deer, and all sorts of trophies of the chase which adorned our house +came from soldier uncles and others who hunted them in India, and I had +always thought that their occupation would suit my taste admirably. It +never dawned on me that I would have to earn my bread and butter—that +had always come along. Moreover, I had never seen real poverty in +others, for all the fisher-folk in our village seemed to have enough. I +hated dress and frills, and envied no one. At school, and on the +Riviera, and even in Wales, I had never noticed any want. It is true +that a number of dear old ladies from the village came in the winter +months to our house once or twice a week to get soup. They used to sit +in the back hall, each with a round tin can with a bucket handle. These +were filled with hot broth, and the old ladies were given a repast as +well before leaving. As a matter of fact I very seldom actually saw +them, for that part of the house was cut off entirely by large double +green-baize covered doors. But I often knew that they must have been +there, because our Skye terrier, though fed to overflowing, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>usually +attended these séances, and I presume, while the old ladies were +occupied with lunch, sampled the cans of soup that stood in rows along +the floor. He used to come along with dripping whiskers which betrayed +his excursion, and the look of a connoisseur in his large round +eyes—as if he were certifying that justice had been done once more in +the kitchen.</p> + +<p>While I was in France the mother of my best chum in school had been +passing through Marseilles on her way home from India, and had most +kindly taken me on a jolly trip to Arles, Avignon, and other historical +places. She was the wife of a famous missionary in India. She spoke +eight languages fluently, including Arabic, and was a perfect "vade +mecum" of interesting information which she well knew how to impart. +She had known my mother's family all her life, they being Anglo-Indians +in the army service.</p> + +<p>About the time of my father's question, my friend's mother was staying +in Chester with her brother-in-law, the Lord Lieutenant of +Denbighshire. It was decided that as she was a citizeness of the world, +no one could suggest better for what profession my peculiar talents +fitted me. The interview I have long ago forgotten, but I recall coming +home with a confused idea that tiger hunting would not support me, and +that she thought I ought to become a clergyman, though it had no +attraction for me, and I decided against it.</p> + +<p>None of our family on either side, so far as I can find out, had ever +practised medicine. My own experience of doctors had been rather a +chequered one, but at my father's suggestion I gladly went up and +discussed the matter with our country family doctor. He was a fine man, +and we boys were very fond of him and his family, his daughter being +our best girl friend near by. He had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>an enormous practice, in which he +was eminently successful. The number of horses he kept, and the miles +he covered with them, were phenomenal in my mind. He had always a kind +word for every one, and never gave us boys away, though he must have +known many of our pranks played in our parents' absence. The only +remaining memory of that visit was that the old doctor brought down +from one of his shelves a large jar, out of which he produced a pickled +human brain. I was thrilled with entirely new emotions. I had never +thought of man's body as a machine. That this weird, white, puckered-up +mass could be the producer or transmitter of all that made man, that it +controlled our physical strength and growth, and our responses to life, +that it made one into "Mad G." and another into me—why, it was +absolutely marvellous. It attracted me as did the gramophone, the +camera, the automobile.</p> + +<p>My father saw at once on my return that I had found my real interest, +and put before me two alternative plans, one to go to Oxford, where my +brother had just entered, or to join him in London and take up work in +the London Hospital and University, preparatory to going in for +medicine. I chose the latter at once—a decision I have never +regretted. I ought to say that business as a career was not suggested. +In England, especially in those days, these things were more or less +hereditary. My forbears were all fighters or educators, except for an +occasional statesman or banker. Probably there is some advantage in +this plan.</p> + +<p>The school had been leased for a period of seven years to a very +delightful successor, it being rightly supposed that after that time my +brother would wish to assume the responsibility.</p> + +<p>Some of the subjects for the London matriculation <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>were quite new to +me, especially "English." But with the fresh incentive and new vision +of responsibility I set to work with a will, and soon had mastered the +ten required subjects sufficiently to pass the examination with credit. +But I must say here that Professor Huxley's criticisms of English +public school teaching of that period were none too stringent. I wish +with all my heart that others had spoken out as bravely, for in those +days that wonderful man was held up to our scorn as an atheist and +iconoclast. He was, however, perfectly right. We spent years of life +and heaps of money on our education, and came out knowing nothing to +fit us for life, except that which we picked up incidentally.</p> + +<p>I now followed my father to London, and found every subject except my +chemistry entirely new. I was not familiar with one word of botany, +zoölogy, physics, physiology, or comparative anatomy. About the +universe which I inhabited I knew as little as I did about cuneiform +writings. Except for my mathematics and a mere modicum of chemistry I +had nothing on which to base my new work; and students coming from +Government free schools, or almost anywhere, had a great advantage over +men of my previous education; I did not even know how to study wisely. +Again, as Huxley showed, medical education in London was so divided, +there being no teaching university, that the curriculum was +ridiculously inadequate. There were still being foisted upon the world +far too many medical men of the type of Bob Sawyer.</p> + +<p>There were fourteen hospitals in London to which medical schools were +attached. Our hospital was the largest in the British Isles, and in the +midst of the poorest population in England, being located in the famous +Whitechapel Road, and surrounded by all the purlieus of the East End of +the great city. Patients came from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>Tilbury Docks to Billingsgate +Market, and all the river haunts between; from Shadwell, Deptford, +Wapping, Poplar, from Petticoat Lane and Radcliffe Highway, made famous +by crime and by Charles Dickens. They came from Bethnal Green, where +once queens had their courts, now the squalid and crowded home of +poverty; from Stratford and Bow, and a hundred other slums.</p> + +<p>The hospital had some nine hundred beds, which were always so full that +the last surgeon admitting to his wards constantly found himself with +extra beds poked in between the regulation number through sheer +necessity. It afforded an unrivalled field for clinical experience and +practical teaching. In my day, however, owing to its position in +London, and the fact that its school was only just emerging from +primeval chaos, it attracted very few indeed of the medical students +from Oxford and Cambridge, who are obliged to come to London for their +last two or three years' hospital work—the scope in those small +university towns being decidedly limited.</p> + +<p>Looking back I am grateful to my alma mater, and have that real +affection for her that every loyal son should have. But even that does +not conceal from me how poor a teaching establishment it was. Those who +had natural genius, and the advantages of previous scientific training, +who were sons of medical men, or had served apprenticeships to them, +need not have suffered so much through its utter inefficiency. But men +in my position suffered quite unconsciously a terrible handicap, and it +was only the influences for which I had nothing whatever to thank the +hospital that saved me from the catastrophes which overtook so many who +started with me.</p> + +<p>To begin with, there was no supervision of our lives whatever. We were +flung into a coarse and evil <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>environment, among men who too often took +pride in their shame, just to sink or swim. Not one soul cared which +you did. I can still remember numerous cases where it simply meant that +men paid quite large sums for the privilege of sending the sons they +loved direct to the devil. I recall one lad whom I had known at school. +His father lavished money upon him, and sincerely believed that his son +was doing him credit and would soon return to share his large practice, +and bring to it all the many new advances he had learned. The reports +of examinations successfully passed he fully accepted; and the +non-return of his son at vacation times he put down to professional +zeal. It was not till the time came for the boy to get his degree and +return that the father discovered that he had lived exactly the life of +the prodigal in the parable, and had neither attended college nor +attempted a single examination of any kind whatever. It broke the +father's heart and he died.</p> + +<p>Examinations for degrees were held by the London University, or the +Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, never by the hospital +schools. These were practically race committees; they did no teaching, +but when you had done certain things, they allowed you to come up and +be examined, and if you got through a written and "viva voce" +examination you were inflicted on an unsuspecting public "qualified to +kill"—often only too literally so.</p> + +<p>It is obvious on the face of it that this could be no proper criterion +for so important a decision as to qualifications; special crammers +studied the examiners, their questions, and their teachings, and luck +had a great deal to do with success. While some men never did +themselves justice in examinations, others were exactly the reverse. +Thus I can remember one resident accoucheur <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>being "ploughed," as we +called it, in his special subject, obstetrics—and men to whom you +wouldn't trust your cat getting through with flying colours.</p> + +<p>Of the things to be done: First you had to be signed up for attending +courses of lectures on certain subjects. This was simply a matter of +tipping the beadle, who marked you off. I personally attended only two +botany lectures during the whole course. At the first some practical +joker had spilled a solution of carbon bisulphide all over the +professor's platform, and the smell was so intolerable that the lecture +was prorogued. At the second, some wag let loose a couple of pigeons, +whereupon every one started either to capture them or stir them up with +pea-shooters. The professor said, "Gentlemen, if you do not wish to +learn, you are at liberty to leave." The entire class walked out. The +insignificant sum of two and sixpence secured me my sign-up for the +remainder of the course.</p> + +<p>Materia medica was almost identical; and while we had better fortune +with physiology, no experience and no apparatus for verifying its +teachings were ever shown us.</p> + +<p>Our chemistry professor was a very clever man, but extremely eccentric, +and his class was pandemonium. I have seen him so frequently pelted +with peas, when his head was turned, as to force him to leave the +amphitheatre in despair. I well remember also an unpopular student +being pushed down from the top row almost on to the experiment table.</p> + +<p>There was practically no histology taught, and little or no pathology. +Almost every bit of the microscope which I did was learned on my own +instrument at home. Anatomy, however, we were well taught in the +dissecting-room, where we could easily obtain all the work we needed. +But not till Sir Frederick Treves became our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>lecturer in anatomy and +surgery was it worth while doing more than pay the necessary sum to get +signed up.</p> + +<p>In the second place we had to attend in the dispensary, actually to +handle drugs and learn about them—an admirable rule. Personally I went +once, fooled around making egg-nogg, and arranged with a considerate +druggist to do the rest that was necessary. Yet I satisfied the +examiners at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, those of the +London University at the examinations for Bachelor of Medicine—the +only ones which they gave which carried questions in any of these +subjects.</p> + +<p>In the athletic life of the University, however, I took great interest, +and was secretary in succession of the cricket, football, and rowing +clubs. I helped remove the latter from the old river Lea to the Thames, +to raise the inter-hospital rowing championship and start the united +hospitals' rowing club. I found time to row in the inter-hospital race +for two years and to play on the football team in the two years of +which we won the inter-hospital football cup. A few times I played with +the united hospitals' team; but I found that their ways were not mine, +as I had been taught to despise alcohol as a beverage and to respect +all kinds of womanhood. For three years I played regularly for +Richmond—the best of the London clubs at the time—and subsequently +for Oxford, being put on the team the only term I was in residence. I +also threw the hammer for the hospital in the united hospitals' sports, +winning second place for two years. Indeed, athletics in some form +occupied every moment of my spare time.</p> + +<p>It was in my second year, 1885, that returning from an out-patient case +one night, I turned into a large tent erected in a purlieu of Shadwell, +the district to which I happened to have been called. It proved to be +an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>evangelistic meeting of the then famous Moody and Sankey. It was +so new to me that when a tedious prayer-bore began with a long oration, +I started to leave. Suddenly the leader, whom I learned afterwards was +D.L. Moody, called out to the audience, "Let us sing a hymn while our +brother finishes his prayer." His practicality interested me, and I +stayed the service out. When eventually I left, it was with a +determination either to make religion a real effort to do as I thought +Christ would do in my place as a doctor, or frankly abandon it. That +could only have one issue while I still lived with a mother like mine. +For she had always been my ideal of unselfish love. So I decided to +make the attempt, and later went down to hear the brothers J.E. and +C.T. Studd speak at some subsidiary meeting of the Moody campaign. They +were natural athletes, and I felt that I could listen to them. I could +not have listened to a sensuous-looking man, a man who was not a master +of his own body, any more than I could to a precentor, who coming to +sing the prayers at college chapel dedication, I saw get drunk on +sherry which he abstracted from the banquet table just before the +service. Never shall I forget, at the meeting of the Studd brothers, +the audience being asked to stand up if they intended to try and follow +Christ. It appeared a very sensible question to me, but I was amazed +how hard I found it to stand up. At last one boy, out of a hundred or +more in sailor rig, from an industrial or reformatory ship on the +Thames, suddenly rose. It seemed to me such a wonderfully courageous +act—for I knew perfectly what it would mean to him—that I immediately +found myself on my feet, and went out feeling that I had crossed the +Rubicon, and must do something to prove it.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep044" id="imagep044"></a> +<a href="images/imagep044.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep044.jpg" width="95%" alt="Oxford University Rugby Union Football Team" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">OXFORD UNIVERSITY RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL TEAM<br />W.T. Grenfell at left of bottom row<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>We were Church of England people, and I always <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>attended service with +my mother at an Episcopal church of the evangelical type. At her +suggestion I asked the minister if I could in any way help. He offered +me a class of small boys in his Sunday School, which I accepted with +much hesitation. The boys, derived from houses in the neighbourhood, +were as smart as any I have known. With every faculty sharpened by the +competition of the street, they so tried my patience with their pranks +that I often wondered what strange attraction induced them to come at +all. The school and church were the property of a society known by the +uninviting title of the "Episcopal Society for the promotion of +Christianity among the Jews." It owned a large court, shut off from the +road by high gates, around which stood about a dozen houses—with the +church facing the gates at one end of a pretty avenue of trees. It was +an oasis in the desert of that dismal region. It possessed also an +industrial institution for helping its converts to make a living, when +driven out of their own homes; and its main work was carried on for the +most part by superannuated missionaries. One was from Bagdad, I +remember, and one from Palestine, both themselves Jews by extraction. +These missionaries were paid such miserable salaries that in their old +age they were always left very poor.</p> + +<p>One instance of a baptism I have never forgotten. I was then living in +the court, having hired a nice separate house under the trees after my +father had died and my mother had moved to Hampstead. In such a +district the house was a Godsend. One Sunday I was strolling in the +court when the clergyman came rushing out of the church and called to +me in great excitement, "The church is full of Jews. They are going to +carry off Abraham. Can't you go in and help while I fetch the police?" +My friend and I therefore rushed in as directed to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>narrow alleyway +between high box pews which led into the vestry, into which "Abraham" +had been spirited. The door being shut and our backs put to it, it was +a very easy matter to hold back the crowd, who probably supposed at +first that we were leading the abduction party. There being only room +for two to come on at once, "those behind cried forward, and those in +front back," till after very little blood spilt, we heard the police in +the church, and the crowd at once took to flight. I regret to say that +we expedited the rear-guard by football rather than strictly Christian +methods. His friends then charged Abraham with theft, expecting to get +him out of his place of refuge and then trap him, as we were told they +had a previous convert. We therefore accompanied him personally through +the mean streets, both to and fro, spoiling for more fun. But they +displayed more discretion than valour, and to the best of my belief he +escaped their machinations.</p> + +<p>My Sunday-School efforts did not satisfy me. The boys were few, and I +failed to see any progress. But I had resolved that I would do no work +on Sundays except for others, so I joined a young Australian of my +class in hospital in holding services on Sunday nights in half a dozen +of the underground lodging-houses along the Radcliffe Highway. He was a +good musician, so he purchased a fine little portable harmonium, and +whatever else the lodgers thought of us, they always liked the music. +We used to meet for evening tea at a place in the famous Highway known +as "The Stranger's Rest," outside of which an open-air service was +always held for the sailors wandering up and down the docks. At these a +number of ladies would sing; and after the meetings a certain number of +the sailors were asked to come in and have refreshments. There were +always some who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>spent their money on drink, or been robbed, or +were out of ships, and many of them were very fine men. Some were +foreigners—so much so that a bit farther down the road a Norwegian +lady carried on another similar work, especially for Scandinavians.</p> + +<p>A single story will illustrate the good points which some of these men +displayed. My hospital chief, Sir Frederick Treves, had operated on a +great big Norwegian, and the man had left the hospital cured. As a rule +such patients do not even know the name of their surgeon. Some three +weeks later, however, this man called at Sir Frederick Treves's house +late one dark night. Having asked if he were the surgeon who had +operated on him and getting a reply in the affirmative, he said he had +come to return thanks, that since he left hospital he had been +wandering about without a penny to his name, waiting for a ship, but +had secured a place on that day. He proceeded to cut out from the upper +edge of his trousers a gold Norwegian five-kronen piece which his wife +had sewed in there to be his stand-by in case of absolute need. He had +been so hungry that he had been tempted to use it, but now had come to +present it as a token of gratitude—upon which he bowed and +disappeared. Sir Frederick said that he was so utterly taken aback that +he found himself standing in the hall, holding the coin, and bowing his +visitor out. He said he could no more return it than you could offer +your teacher a "tip," and he has preserved it as a much-prized +possession.</p> + +<p>The underground lodging-house work did me lots of good. It brought me +into touch with real poverty—a very graveyard of life I had never +surmised. The denizens of those miserable haunts were men from almost +every rank of life. They were shipwrecks from the ocean of humanity, +drifted up on the last beach. There were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>large open fireplaces in the +dens, over which those who had any food cooked it. Often while the +other doctor or I was holding services, one of us would have to sit +down on some drunken man to keep him from making the proceedings +impossible; but there was always a modicum who gathered around and +really enjoyed the singing.</p> + +<p>We soon found that there were no depths of contemptible treachery which +some among these new acquaintances would not attempt. We became +gradually hardened to the piteous tales of ill luck, of malignant +persecution, and of purely temporary embarrassments, and learned soon +to leave behind us purses, and watches, and anything else of value, and +to keep some specially worn clothing for this service.</p> + +<p>There was always a narrow passage from the front door to the staircase +which led down into those huge underground basements. The guardians had +a room inside the door, with a ticket window, where they took five or +possibly eight cents from the boarders for their night's lodging. At +about eleven o'clock a "chucker out" would go down and clear out all +the gentlemen who had not paid in advance for the night. This was +always a very melancholy period of the evening, and in spite of our +hardened hearts, we always had a score against us there. That, however, +had to be given in person, for there were plenty among our audiences +who had taken special courses in imitative calligraphy. I.O.U.'s on odd +bits of paper were a menace to our banking accounts till we sorrowfully +abandoned that convenient way of helping often a really deserving case.</p> + +<p>In those houses, somewhat to my astonishment, we never once received +any physical opposition. We knew that some considered us harmless and +gullible imbeciles; but the great majority were still able to see that +it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>an attempt, however poor, to help them. Drink, of course, was +the chief cause of the downfall of most; but as I have already said, +there were cases of genuine, undeserved poverty—like our sailor +friend, overtaken with sickness in a foreign port. We induced some to +sign the pledge and to keep it, if only temporarily, but I think that +we ourselves got most out of the work, both in pleasure and uplift. I +recall one clergyman, one doctor, and many men from the business world +and clerk's life in the flotsam and jetsam.</p> + +<p>One poor creature, in the last stage of poverty and dirt, proved to be +an honours man in Oxford. We looked up his record in the University. He +assured us that he intended to begin again a new life, and we agreed to +help start him. We took him to a respectable, temperance lodging-house, +paid for a bed, a bath, and a supper, and purchased a good second-hand +outfit of clothing for him. We were wise enough only to give this to +him after we had taken away his own while he was having a bath in the +tub. We did not give him a penny of money, fearing his lack of control. +Next morning, however, when we went for him, he was gone—no one knew +where. We had the neighbouring saloons searched, and soon got track of +him. Some "friend" in the temperance house had given him sixpence. The +barman offered him the whiskey; his hands trembled so that he could not +lift the glass to his mouth, and the barman kindly poured it down his +throat. We never saw him again.</p> + +<p>In this lodging-house work a friend, now a well-known artist and +successful business man, often joined us two doctors.</p> + +<p>My growing experience had shown me that there was a better way to the +hearts of my Sunday-School boys than merely talking to them. Like +myself, they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>worshipped the athlete, whether he were a prize-fighter +or a big football player. There were no Y.M.C.A.'s or other places for +them to get any physical culture, so we arranged to clear our +dining-room every Saturday evening, and give boxing lessons and +parallel-bar work: the ceiling was too low for the horizontal. The +transformation of the room was easily accomplished. The furniture was +very primitive, largely our own construction, and we could throw out +through the window every scrap of it except the table, which was soon +"adapted." We also put up a quoit pitch in our garden.</p> + +<p>This is no place to discuss the spiritual influences of the "noble art +of boxing." Personally I have always believed in its value; and my +Sunday-School class soon learned the graces of fair play, how to take +defeat and to be generous in victory. They began at once bringing +"pals" whom my exegesis on Scripture would never have lured within my +reach. We ourselves began to look forward to Saturday night and Sunday +afternoon with an entirely new joy. We all learned to respect and so to +love one another more—indeed, lifelong friendships were developed and +that irrespective of our hereditary credal affiliations. The +well-meaning clergyman, however, could not see the situation in that +light, and declining all invitations to come and sample an evening's +fun instead of condemning it unheard, or I should say, unseen, he +delivered an ultimatum which I accepted—and resigned from his school.</p> + +<p>My Australian friend was at that time wrestling with a real ragged +school on the Highway on Sunday afternoons. The poor children there +were street waifs and as wild as untamed animals. So, being temporarily +out of a Sunday job, I consented to join him.</p> + +<p>Our school-room this time owed no allegiance to any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>one but ourselves, +and the work certainly proved a real labour of love. If the boys were +allowed in a minute before there was a force to cope with them, the +room would be wrecked. Everything movable was stolen immediately +opportunity arose. Boys turned out or locked out during session would +climb to the windows, and triumphantly wave stolen articles. On one +occasion when I had "chucked out" a specially obstreperous youth, I was +met with a shower of mud and stones as I passed through a narrow alley +on my return home. The police were always at war with the boys, who +annoyed them in similar and many other ways. I remember two scholars +whose eyes were blacked and badly beaten by a "cop" who happened to +catch them in our doorway, as they declared, "only waiting for Sunday +School to open." Old scores were paid off by both parties whenever +possible. My own boys did not stay in the old school long after I left, +but came and asked me to keep a class on Sunday in our dining-room—an +arrangement in which I gladly acquiesced, though it involved my +eventually abandoning the ragged school, which was at least two miles +distant.</p> + +<p>With the night work at the lodging-houses, we used to combine a very +aggressive total abstinence campaign. The saloon-keepers as a rule +looked upon us as harmless cranks, and I have no doubt were grateful +for the leaflets we used to distribute to their customers. These served +admirably for kindling purposes. At times, however, they got ugly, and +once my friend, who was in a saloon talking to a customer, was trapped +and whiskey poured into his mouth. On another occasion I noticed that +the outer doors were shut and a couple of men backed up against them +while I was talking to the bartender over the counter, and that a few +other customers were closing in to repeat the same experiment on me. +However, they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>greatly overrated their own stock of fitness and equally +underrated my good training, for the scrimmage went all my own way in a +very short time.</p> + +<p>If ever I told my football chums (for in those days I was playing hard) +of these adventures in a nether world, they always wanted to come and +coöperate; but I have always felt that reliance on physical strength +alone is only a menace when the odds are so universally in favour of +our friend the enemy. At this time also at St. Andrew's Church, just +across the Whitechapel Road from the hospital, the clergyman was a fine +athlete and good boxer. He was a brother of Lord Wenlock, and was one +night returning from a mission service in the Highway when he was set +upon by footpads and robbed of everything, including the boots off his +feet. Meantime "Jack the Ripper" was also giving our residential +section a most unsavoury reputation.</p> + +<p>My long vacations at this time were always taken on the sea. My brother +and I used to hire an old fishing smack called the "Oyster," which we +rechristened the "Roysterer." This we fitted out, provisioned, and put +to sea in with an entirely untrained crew, and without even the +convention of caring where we were bound so long as the winds bore us +cheerily along. My brother was always cook—and never was there a +better. We believed that he would have made a mark in the world as a +chef, from his ability to satisfy our appetites and cater to our +desires out of so ill-supplied a galley. We always took our departure +from the north coast of Anglesea—a beautiful spot, and to us +especially attractive as being so entirely out of the run of traffic +that we could do exactly as we pleased. We invariably took our fishing +gear with us, and thus never wanted for fresh food. We could replenish +our bread, milk, butter, and egg supply at the numerous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>small ports at +which we called. The first year the crew consisted of my brother and +me—skipper, mate, and cook between us—and an Oxford boating friend as +second mate. For a deckhand we had a young East London parson, whom we +always knew as "the Puffin," because he so closely resembled that +particular bird when he had his vestments on. We sailed first for +Ireland, but the wind coming ahead we ran instead for the Isle of Man. +The first night at sea the very tall undergraduate as second mate had +the 12 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span> to 4 <span class="fakesc">A.M.</span> night watch. The tiller handle +was very low, and when I gave him his course at midnight before turning +in myself, he asked me if it would be a breach of nautical etiquette to +sit down to steer, as that was the only alternative to directing the +ship's course with his ankles. No land was in sight, and the wind had +died out when I came on deck for my 4 <span class="fakesc">A.M.</span> to 8 <span class="fakesc">A.M.</span> +watch. I found the second mate sitting up rubbing his eyes as I emerged +from the companion hatch.</p> + +<p>"Well, where are we now? How is her head? What's my course?"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry about such commonplace details," he replied. "I have made +an original discovery about these parts that I have never seen +mentioned before."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" I asked innocently.</p> + +<p>"Well," he replied, "when I sat down to steer the course you gave +brought a bright star right over the topmast head and that's what I +started to steer by. It's a perfect marvel what a game these heavenly +bodies play. We must be in some place like Alice in Wonderland. I just +shut my eyes for a second and when next I opened them the sun was +exactly where I had left that star—" and he fled for shelter.</p> + +<p>It is a wonder that we ever got anywhere, for we had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>not so much as a +chronometer watch, and so in spite of a decrepit sextant even our +latitude was often an uncertain quantity. However, we made the port of +Douglas, whence we visited quite a part of the historic island. As our +parson was called home from there, we wired for and secured another +chum to share our labours. Our generally unconventional attire in +fashionable summer resorts was at times quite embarrassing. Barelegged, +bareheaded, and "tanned to a chip," I was carrying my friend's bag +along the fashionable pier to see him off on his homeward journey, when +a lady stopped me and asked me if I were an Eskimo, offering me a job +if I needed one. I have wondered sometimes if it were a seat in a +sideshow which she had designed for me.</p> + +<p>We spent that holiday cruising around the island. It included getting +ashore off the north point of land and nearly losing the craft; and +also in Ramsey Harbour a fracas with the harbour authorities. We had +run that night on top of the full spring tide. Not knowing the harbour, +we had tied up to the first bollard, and gone incontinently to sleep. +We were awakened by the sound of water thundering on top of us, and +rushing up found to our dismay that we were lying in the mud, and a +large sewer was discharging right on to our decks. Before we had time +to get away or clean up, the harbour master, coming alongside, called +on us to pay harbour duties. We stoutly protested that as a pleasure +yacht we were not liable and intended to resist to the death any such +insult being put upon us. He was really able to see at once that we +were just young fellows out for a holiday, but he had the last word +before a crowd of sight-seers who had gathered on the quay above us.</p> + +<p>"Pleasure yacht, pleasure yacht, indeed!" he shouted as he rode away, +"I can prove to any man with half an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>eye that you are nothing but one +of them old coal or mud barges."</p> + +<p>The following year the wind suited better the other way. We were +practically all young doctors this time, the cook being a very athletic +chum in whose rooms were collected as trophies, in almost every branch +of athletics, over seventy of what we called silver "pots." As a cook +he proved a failure except in zeal. It didn't really interest him, +especially when the weather was lively. On one occasion I reported to +the galley, though I was the skipper that year, in search of the +rice-pudding for dinner—Dennis, our cook, being temporarily +indisposed. Such a sight as met my view! Had I been superstitious I +should have fled. A great black column the circumference of the boiler +had risen not less than a foot above the top rim, and was wearing the +iron cover jauntily on one side as a helmet. It proved to be rice. He +had filled the saucepan with dry rice, crowded in a little water, +forced the lid on very tight and left it to its own devices!</p> + +<p>Nor, in his subsequent capacity as deckhand, did he redeem in our eyes +the high qualities of seamanship which we had anticipated from him.</p> + +<p>Our tour took us this time through the Menai Straits, <i>via</i> Carnarvon +and the Welsh coast, down the Irish Channel to Milford Haven. In the +region of very heavy tides and dangerous rocks near the south Welsh +coast, we doubled our watch at night. One night the wind fell very +light, and we had stood close inshore in order to pass inside the +Bishop Rocks. The wind died out at that very moment, and the heavy +current driving us down on the rocky islands threatened prematurely to +terminate our cruise. The cook was asleep, as usual when called, and at +last aroused to the nature of the alarm, was found leaning forward over +the ship's bows with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>lighted candle. When asked what he was doing, +he explained, "Why, looking for those bishops, of course."</p> + +<p>No holiday anywhere could be better sport than those cruises. There was +responsibility, yet rest, mutual dependence, and a charming, +unconventional way of getting acquainted with one's own country. We +visited Carnarvon, Harlech, and other castles, lost our boat in a +breeze of wind off Dynllyn, climbed Snowden from Pwllheli Harbour, and +visited a dozen little out-of-the-world harbours that one would +otherwise never see. Fishing and shooting for the pot, bathing and +rowing, and every kind of healthy out-of-doors pleasure was indulged in +along the road of travel. Moreover, it was all made to cost just as +much or as little as you liked.</p> + +<p>Another amusing memory which still remains with me was at one little +seaport where a very small man not over five feet high had married a +woman considerably over six. He was an idle, drunken little rascal, and +I met her one day striding down the street with her intoxicated little +spouse wrapped up in her apron and feebly protesting.</p> + +<p>One result of these holidays was that I told my London boys about them, +using one's experiences as illustrations; till suddenly it struck me +that this was shabby Christianity. Why shouldn't these town cagelings +share our holidays? Thirteen accompanied me the following summer. We +had three tents, an old deserted factory, and an uninhabited gorge by +the sea, all to ourselves on the Anglesea coast, among people who spoke +only Welsh. Thus we had all the joys of foreign travel at very little +cost.</p> + +<p>Among the many tricks the boys "got away with" was one at the big +railway junction at Bangor, where we had an hour to wait. They +apparently got into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>baggage-room and stole a varied assortment of +labels, which they industriously pasted over those on a large pile of +luggage stacked on the platform. The subsequent tangle of destinations +can better be imagined than described.</p> + +<p>Camp rules were simple—no clothing allowed except short blue knickers +and gray flannel shirts, no shoes, stockings, or caps except on +Sundays. The uniform was provided and was as a rule the amateur +production of numerous friends, for our finances were strictly limited. +The knickers were not particularly successful, the legs frequently +being carried so high up that there was no space into which the body +could be inserted. Every one had to bathe in the sea before he got any +breakfast. I can still see ravenous boys staving off the evil hour till +as near midday as possible. No one was allowed in the boats who +couldn't swim, an art which they all quickly acquired. There was, of +course, a regular fatigue party each day for the household duties. We +had no beds—sleeping on long, burlap bags stuffed with hay. A very +favourite pastime was afforded by our big lifeboat, an old one hired +from the National Lifeboat Society. The tides flowed very strongly +alongshore, east on the flood tide and west on the ebb. Food, fishing +lines, and a skipper for the day being provided, the old boat would go +off with the tide in the morning, the boys had a picnic somewhere +during the slack-water interim, and came back with the return tide.</p> + +<p>When our numbers grew, as they did to thirty the second year, and +nearly a hundred in subsequent seasons, thirty or more boys would be +packed off daily in that way—and yet we never lost one of them. If +they had not had as many lives as cats it would have been quite another +story. The boat had sufficient sails to give <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>the appearance to their +unfamiliar eyes of being a sailing vessel, but the real work was done +with twelve huge oars, two boys to an oar being the rule. At nights +they used to come drifting homeward on the returning tides singing +their dirges, like some historic barge of old. There was one familiar +hymn called "Bringing in the Sheaves," which like everything else these +rascals adapted for the use of the moment; and many a time the +returning barge would be announced to us cooking supper in the old +factory or in the silent gorge, by the ringing echoes of many voices +beating with their oars as they came on to the words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Pulling at the sweeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pulling at the sweeps;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here we come rejoicing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pulling at the sweeps."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noin">As soon as the old boat's keel slid up upon the beach, there would be a +rush of as appreciative a supper party as ever a cook had the pleasure +of catering for.</p> + +<p>An annual expedition was to the top of Mount Snowdon, the highest in +England or Wales. It was attempted by land and water. Half of us +tramped overland in forced marches to the beautiful Menai Straits, +crossed the suspension bridge, and were given splendid hospitality and +good beds on the straw of the large stables at the beautiful country +seat of a friend at Treborth. Here the boat section who came around the +island were to meet us, anchoring their craft on the south side of the +Straits. Our second year the naval division did not turn up, and some +had qualms of conscience that evil might have overtaken them. Nor did +they arrive until we by land had conquered the summit, travelling by +Bethesda and the famous slate quarries, and returning for the second +evening at Treborth. We then found that they had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>stranded on the +sands in Red Wharf Bay, so far from shore that they could neither go +forward nor back; had thus spent their first night in a somewhat chilly +manner in old bathing machines by the land wash, and supped off the +superfluous hard biscuit which they had been reserving for the return +voyage. They were none the worse, however, our genial host making it up +to them in an extra generous provision and a special evening +entertainment. One of my smartest boys (a Jew by nationality, for we +made no distinctions in election to our class), in recounting his +adventures to me next day, said: "My! Doctor, I did have some fun +kidding that waiter in the white choker. He took a liking to me so I +let him pal up. I told him my name was Lord Shaftesbury when I was +home, but I asked him not to let it out, and the old bloke promised he +wouldn't." The "old bloke" happened to be our host, who was always in +dress-clothes in the evening, the only time we were at his house.</p> + +<p>These holidays were the best lessons of love I could show my boys. It +drew us very closely together; and to make the boys feel it less a +charitable affair, every one was encouraged to save up his railway fare +and as much more as possible. By special arrangement with the railway +and other friends, and by very simple living, the per caput charges +were so much reduced that many of the boys not only paid their own +expenses, but even helped their friends. The start was always attended +by a crowd of relatives, all helping with the baggage. The father of +one of my boys was a costermonger, and had a horse that he had obtained +very cheap because it had a disease of the legs. He always kept it in +the downstairs portion of his house, which it entered by the front +door. It was a great pleasure to him to come and cart our things free +to the station. The boys used to load his cart <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>at our house, and I +remember one time that they made him haul unconsciously all the way to +the big London terminal at Euston half our furniture, including our +coal boxes. His son, a most charming boy, made good in life in +Australia and bought a nice house in one of the suburbs for his father +and mother. I had the pleasure one night of meeting them all there. The +father was terribly uneasy, for he said he just could not get +accustomed to it. All his old "pals" were gone, and his neighbours' +tastes and interests were a great gulf between them. I heard later that +as soon as his son left England again the old man sold the house, and +returned to the more congenial associations of a costermonger's life, +where I believe he died in harness.</p> + +<p>The last two years of my stay in London being occupied with resident +work at hospital, I could not find time for such far-off holidays, and +at the suggestion of my chief, Sir Frederick Treves, himself a +Dorsetshire man, we camped by permission of our friends, the owners, in +the grounds of Lulworth Castle, close by the sea. The class had now +developed into a semi-military organization. We had acquired real +rifles—old-timers from the Tower of London—and our athletic clubs +were portions of the Anglesey Boys' Brigade, which antedated the Boys' +Brigade of Glasgow, forerunner of the Church Lads' Brigade, and the Boy +Scouts.</p> + +<p>One of the great attractions of the new camping-ground was the +exquisite country and the splendid coast, with chalk cliffs over which +almost any one could fall with impunity. Lulworth Cove, one of the most +picturesque in England, was the summer resort of my chief, and he being +an expert mariner and swimmer used not only very often to join us at +camp, but always gave the boys a fine regatta and picnic at his +cottage. Our water <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>polo games were also a great feature here, the +water being warm and enabling us easily to play out the games. There +are also numerous beautiful castles and country houses all the way +between Swanage and Weymouth, and we had such kindness extended to us +wherever we went that every day was a dream of joy to the lads. Without +any question they acquired new visions and ideals through these +experiences.</p> + +<p>We always struck camp at the end of a fortnight, having sometimes +arranged with other friends with classes of their own to step into our +shoes. The present head master of Shrewsbury and many other +distinguished persons shared with us some of the educative joys of +those days. Among the many other more selfish portions of the holidays +none stand out more clearly in my memory than the August days when +partridge and grouse shooting used to open. Most of my shooting was +done over the delightful highlands around Bishop's Castle in +Shropshire, on the outskirts of the Welsh hills, in Clun Forest, and on +the heather-covered Longmynds. How I loved those days, and the friends +who made them possible—the sound of the beaters, the intelligent +setters and retrievers, the keepers in velveteens, the lunches under +the shade of the great hedges or in lovely cottages, where the ladies +used to meet us at midday, and every one used to jolly you about not +shooting straight, and you had to take refuge in a thousand "ifs."</p> + +<p>As one looks back on it all from Labrador, it breathes the aroma of an +old civilization and ancient customs. Much of the shooting was over the +old lands of the Walcotts of Walcott Hall, a family estate that had +been bought up by Earl Clive on his return from India, and was now in +the hands of his descendant, an old bachelor who shot very little, +riding from one good stand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>to another on a steady old pony. There were +many such estates, another close by being that of the Oakovers of +Oakover, a family that has since sold their heritage.</p> + +<p>A thousand time-honoured old customs, only made acceptable by their +hoary age, added, and still continue to add in the pleasures of memory, +to the joys of those days, with which golf and tennis and all the +wonderful luxury of the modern summer hotel seem never able to compete. +It is right, however, that such eras should pass.</p> + +<p>The beautiful forest of Savernake, that in my school days I had loved +so well, and which meant so much to us boys, spoke only too loudly of +the evil heirloom of the laws of entail. Spendthrift and dissolute +heirs had made it impossible for the land to be utilized for the +benefit of the people, and yet kept it in the hands of utterly +undeserving persons. Being of royal descent they still bore a royal +name even in my day; but it was told of them that the last, who had +been asked to withdraw from the school, on one occasion when, half +drunk, he was defending himself from the gibes and jeers of grooms and +'ostlers whom he had made his companions, rose with ill-assumed dignity +and with an oath declared that he was their king by divine right if +only he had his dues. Looking back it seems to me that the germs of +democratic tendencies were sown in me by just those very incidents.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL</h4> +<br /> + +<p>I have never ceased to regret that there was not more corporate life in +our medical school, but I believe that conditions have been greatly +improved since my day. Here and there two or three classmates would +"dig" together, but otherwise, except at lectures or in hospitals, we +seldom met unless it was on the athletic teams. We had no playground of +our own, and so, unable to get other hospitals to combine, when a now +famous St. Thomas man and myself hired part of the justly celebrated +London Rowing Club Headquarters at Putney for a united hospitals' +headquarters, we used to take our blazers and more cherished +possessions home with us at night for fear of distraint of rent.</p> + +<p>They were great days. Rowing on the Thames about Putney is not like +that at Oxford on a mill-pond, or as at Cambridge on what we nicknamed +a drain that should be roofed over. Its turgid waters were often rough +enough to sink a rowing shell, and its busy traffic was a thing with +which to reckon. But it offered associations with all kinds of +interesting places, historical and otherwise, from the Star and Garter +at Richmond and the famous Park away to Boulter's Lock and Cleveden +Woods, to the bathing pools about Taplow Court, the seat of the senior +branch of our family, and to Marlow and Goring where our annual club +outings were held. Twice I rowed in the inter-hospital race from Putney +to Mortlake, once as bow and again as stroke. During those early days +the "London" frequently had the best boat on the river.</p> + +<p>Having now finished my second year at hospital and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>taken my +preliminary examinations, including the scientific preliminary, and my +first bachelor of medicine for the University of London degree, I had +advanced to the dignity of "walking the hospitals," carried a large +shining stethoscope, and spent much time following the famous +physicians and surgeons around the wards.</p> + +<p>Our first appointment was clerking in the medical wards. We had each so +many beds allotted to us, and it was our business to know everything +about the patients who occupied them, to keep accurate "histories" of +all developments, and to be ready to be quizzed and queried by our +resident house physician, or our visiting consultant on the afternoon +when he made his rounds, followed by larger or smaller crowds of +students according to the value which was placed upon his teaching. I +was lucky enough to work under the famous Sir Andrew Clark, Mr. +Gladstone's great physician. He was a Scotchman greatly beloved, and +always with a huge following to whom he imparted far more valuable +truths than even the medical science of thirty years ago afforded. His +constant message, repeated and repeated at the risk of wearying, was: +"Gentlemen, you must observe for yourselves. It is your observation and +not your memory which counts. It is the patient and not the disease +whom you are treating."</p> + +<p>Compared with the methods of diagnosis to-day those then were very +limited, but Sir Andrew's message was the more important, showing the +greatness of the man, who, though at the very top of the tree, never +for a moment tried to convey to his followers that his knowledge was +final, but that any moment he stood ready to abandon his position for a +better one. On one occasion, to illustrate this point, while he was in +one of the largest of our wards (one with four divisions and twenty +beds each) he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>was examining a lung case, while a huge class of fifty +young doctors stood around.</p> + +<p>"What about the sputum, Mr. Jones?" he asked. "What have you observed +coming from these lungs?"</p> + +<p>"There is not much quantity, sir. It is greenish in colour."</p> + +<p>"But what about the microscope, Mr. Jones? What does that show?"</p> + +<p>"No examination has been made, sir."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "I will now go to the other ward, and you shall +choose a specimen of the sputum of some of these cases. When I return +we will examine it and see what we can learn."</p> + +<p>When he returned, four specimens awaited him, the history and diagnoses +of the cases being known only to the class. The class never forgot how +by dissolving and boiling, and with the microscope, he told us almost +more from his examination of each case than we knew from all our other +information. His was real teaching, and reminds one of the Glasgow +professor who, in order to emphasize the same point of the value of +observation, prepared a little cupful of kerosene, mustard, and castor +oil, and calling the attention of his class to it, dipped a finger into +the atrocious compound and then sucked his finger. He then passed the +mixture around to the students who all did the same with most dire +results. When the cup returned and he observed the faces of his +students, he remarked: "Gentlemen, I am afraid you did not use your +powers of obsairvation. The finger that I put into the cup was no the +same one that I stuck in my mouth afterwards."</p> + +<p>Sir Stephen Mackenzie, who operated on the Emperor Frederick, was +another excellent teacher under whom we had the good fortune to study. +Indeed, whatever could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>be said against the teaching of our college, in +this much more important field of learning, the London Hospital was +most signally fortunate, and, moreover, was famed not only in London, +but all the world over. Our "walking class" used to number men from the +United States to Australia, insomuch that the crowds became so large +that the teachers could not get room to pass along. It was this fact +which led to the practice, now almost universal, of carrying the +patient in his bed with a nurse in attendance into the theatre for +observation as more comfortable and profitable for all concerned.</p> + +<p>On changing over to the surgical side in the hospital, we were employed +in a very similar manner, only we were called "dressers," and under the +house surgeon had all the care of a number of surgical patients. My +good fortune now brought me under the chieftaincy of Sir Frederick +Treves, the doyen of teachers. His great message was self-reliance. He +taught dogmatically as one having authority, and always insisted that +we should make up our minds, have a clear idea of what we were doing, +and then do it. His ritual was always thought out, no detail being +omitted, and each person had exactly his share of work and his share of +responsibility. It used greatly to impress patients, and he never +underestimated the psychical value of having their complete confidence. +Thus, on one occasion asking a dresser for his diagnosis, the student +replied:</p> + +<p>"It might be a fracture, sir, or it might be only sprained."</p> + +<p>"The patient is not interested to know that it might be measles, or it +might be toothache. The patient wants to know what is the matter, and +it is your business to tell it to him or he will go to a quack who will +inform him at once."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>All his teachings were, like Mark Twain's, enhanced by such +over-emphasis or exaggeration. He could make an article in the "British +Medical Journal" on Cholecystenterostomy amusing to a general reader, +and make an ordinary remark as cutting as an amputation knife. He never +permitted laxity of any kind in personal appearance or dress, or any +imposing on the patients. His habit of saying openly exactly what he +meant made many people fear, as much as they respected, him. However, +he was always, in spite of it, the most popular of all the chiefs +because he was so worth while.</p> + +<p>One incident recurs to my mind which I must recount as an example when +psychology failed. A Whitechapel "lady," suffering with a very violent +form of delirium tremens, was lying screeching in a strait-jacket on +the cushioned floor of the padded room. With the usual huge queue of +students following, he had gone in to see her, as I had been unable to +get the results desired with a reasonable quantity of sedatives and +soporifics. It was a very rare occasion, for cases which did not +involve active surgery he left strictly alone. After giving a talk on +psychical influence he had the jacket removed as "a relic of +barbarism," and in a very impressive way looking into her glaring eyes +and shaking his forefinger at her, he said: "Now, you are comfortable, +my good woman, and will sleep. You will make no more disturbance +whatever." There was an unusual silence. The woman remained absolutely +passive, and we all turned to follow the chief out. Suddenly the "lady" +called out, "Hi, hi,"—and some perverse spirit induced Sir Frederick +to return. Looking back with defiant eyes she screamed out, "You! You +with a faice! You do think yerself —— —— clever, don't yer?" The +strange situation was only relieved by his bursting into a genuine fit +of laughter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>Among other celebrated men who were admired and revered was Mr. Harry +Fenwick on the surgical side, for whom I had the honour of illustrating +in colours his prize Jacksonian essay. Any talent for sketching, +especially in colours, is of great value to the student of medicine. +Once you have sketched a case from nature, with the object of showing +the peculiarity of the abnormality, it remains permanently in your +mind. Besides this, it forces you to note small differences; in other +words, it teaches you to "obsairve." Thus, in the skin department I was +sent to reproduce a case of anthrax of the neck, a rare disease in +England, though all men handling raw hides are liable to contract it. +The area had to be immediately excised; yet one never could forget the +picture on one's mind. On another occasion a case of genuine leprosy +was brought in, with all the dreadful signs of the disease. The macula +rash was entirely unique so far as I knew, but a sketch greatly helped +to fix it on one's memory. The poor patient proved to be one of the men +who was handling the meat in London's greatest market at Smithfield. A +tremendous hue and cry spread over London when somehow the news got +into the paper, and vegetarianism received a temporary boost which in +my opinion it still badly needs for the benefit of the popular welfare.</p> + +<p>Among the prophets of that day certainly should be numbered another of +our teachers, Dr. Sutton, an author, and very much of a personality. +For while being one of the consulting physicians of the largest of +London hospitals, he was naturally scientific and strictly +professional. He was very far, however, from being the conventionalist +of those days, and the younger students used to look greatly askance at +him. His message always was: "Drugs are very little use whatever. +Nature is the source of healing. Give her a chance." Thus, a careful +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>history would be read over to him; all the certain signs of typhoid +would be noted—and his comment almost always was: "This case won't +benefit by drugs. We will have the bed wheeled out into the sunshine." +The next case would be acute lobar pneumonia and the same treatment +would be adopted. "This patient needs air, gentlemen. We must wheel him +out into the sunshine"—and so on. How near we are coming to his +teaching in these days is already impressing itself upon our minds. +Unfortunately the fact that the doctors realize that medicines are not +so potent as our forbears thought has not left the public with the +increased confidence in the profession which the infinitely more +rational treatment of to-day justifies, and valuable time is wasted and +fatal delays incurred, by a return of the more impressionable public to +quacks with high-sounding titles, or to cults where faith is almost +credulity.</p> + +<p>Truly one has lived through wonderful days in the history of the +healing art. The first operations which I saw performed at our +hospitals were before Lord Lister's teaching was practised; though even +in my boyhood I remember getting leave to run up from Marlborough to +London to see my brother, on whom Sir Joseph Lister had operated for +osteomyelitis of the leg. Our most famous surgeon in 1880 was Sir +Walter Rivington; and to-day there rises in memory the picture of him +removing a leg at the thigh, clad in a blood-stained, black velvet +coat, and without any attempt at or idea of asepsis. The main thing was +speed, although the patient was under ether, and in quickly turning +round the tip of the sword-like amputation knife, he made a gash in the +patient's other leg. The whole thing seemed horrible enough to us +students, but the surgeon smiled, saying, "Fortunately it is of no +importance, gentlemen. The man will not live."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>The day came when every one worked under clouds of carbolic steam which +fizzed and spouted from large brass boilers over everything; and then +the time when every one was criticizing the new, young surgeon, Treves, +who was daring to discard it, and getting as good results by scrupulous +cleanliness. His aphorism was, "Gentlemen, the secret of surgery is the +nailbrush." Now with blood examinations, germ cultures, sera tests, +X-rays, and a hundred added improvements, one can say to a fisherman in +far-off Labrador arriving on a mail steamer, and to whom every hour +lost in the fishing season spells calamity, "Yes, brother, you can be +operated on and the wound will be healed and you will be ready to go +back by the next steamer, unless some utterly unforeseen circumstance +arises."</p> + +<p>The fallibility of diagnosis was at this very impressionable time fixed +upon my mind—a fact that has since served me in good stead. For what +can be more reactionary in human life than the man who thinks he knows +it all, whether it be in science, philosophy, or religion?</p> + +<p>During my Christmas vacation I was asked to go north and visit my +father's brother, a well-known captain in Her Majesty's Navy, who was +also an inventor in gun machinery and sighting apparatus, and who had +been appointed the naval head of Lord Armstrong's great works at +Yarrow-on-the-Tyne. All that I was told was that he had been taken with +such severe pains in the back that he needed some one with him, and my +new-fledged dignity of "walking the hospitals" was supposed to qualify +me especially for the post. Already my uncle had seen many doctors in +London and had been ordered to the Continent for rest. After some +months, not a bit improved, he had again returned to London. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>This time +the doctor told his wife that it was a mental trouble, and that he +should be sent to an asylum. This she most indignantly denied, and yet +desired my company as the only medical Grenfell, who at such a crisis +could stay in the house without being looked upon as a warder or +keeper. Meantime they had consulted Sir C.P., who had told my uncle +that he had an aneurism of his aorta, and that he must be prepared to +have it break and kill him any minute. His preparations were +accordingly all made, and personally I fully anticipated that he would +fall dead before I left. He put up a wonderful fight against +excruciating pain, of which I was frequently a witness. But the days +went by and nothing happened, so I returned to town and another young +doctor took my place. He also got tired of waiting and suggested it +might be some spinal trouble. He induced them once more to visit London +and see Sir Victor Horsley, whose work on the brains of animals and men +had marked an epoch in our knowledge of the central nervous system. +Some new symptoms had now supervened, and the famous neurologist at +once diagnosed a tumour in the spinal canal. Such a case had never +previously been operated on successfully, but there was no alternative. +The operation was brilliantly performed and a wonderful success +obtained. The case was quoted in the next edition of our surgical +textbooks.</p> + +<p>A little later my father's health began to fail in London, the worries +and troubles of a clergyman's work among the poor creatures who were +constantly passing under his care utterly overwhelming him. We had +agreed that a long change of thought was necessary and he and I started +for a fishing and sight-seeing tour in Norway. Our steamer was to sail +from the Tyne, and we went up to Newcastle to catch it. There some evil +fiend persuaded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>my father to go and consult a doctor about his +illness, for Newcastle has produced some well-known names in medicine. +Thus, while I waited at the hotel to start, my father became persuaded +that he had some occult disease of the liver, and must remain in +Newcastle for treatment. I, however, happened to be treasurer of the +voyage, and for the first time asserting my professional powers, +insisted that I was family physician for the time, and turned up in the +evening with all our round-trip tickets and reservations taken and paid +for. In the morning I had the trunks packed and conveyed aboard, and we +sailed together for one of the most enjoyable holidays I ever spent. We +travelled much afoot and in the little native carriages called +"stolkjærre," just jogging along, staying anywhere, fishing in streams, +and living an open-air life which the increasing flood of tourists in +after years have made much less possible. We both came back fitter in +body and soul for our winter's work.</p> + +<p>My father's death a year later made a great difference to me, my mother +removing to live with my grandmother at Hampstead, it being too lonely +and not safe for her to live alone in East London. Twice our house had +been broken into by burglars, though both times fruitlessly. The second +occasion was in open daylight during the hour of evening service on a +Sunday. Only a couple of maids would have been in the house had I not +been suffering from two black eyes contracted during the Saturday's +football game. Though I had accompanied the others out, decidedly my +appearance might have led to misinterpretations in church, and I had +returned unnoticed. The men escaped by some method which they had +discovered of scaling a high fence, but I was close behind following +them through the window by which they had entered. Shortly afterward I +happened <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>to be giving evidence at the Old Bailey on one of the many +cases of assault and even murder where the victims were brought into +hospital as patients. London was ringing with the tale of a barefaced +murder at Murray Hill in North London, where an exceedingly clever +piece of detective work, an old lantern discovered in a pawnbroker's +shop in Whitechapel—miles away from the scene of the crime—was the +means of bringing to trial four of the most rascally looking villains I +ever saw. The trial preceded ours and we had to witness it. One of the +gang had turned "Queen's evidence" to save his own neck. So great was +the hatred of the others for him and the desire for revenge that even +in the court they were hand-cuffed and in separate stands. Fresh from +my own little fracas I learned what a fool I had been, for in this case +also the deed was done in open daylight, and the lawn had tight wires +stretched across it. The young son, giving chase as I did, had been +tripped up and shot through his abdomen for his pains. He had, however, +crawled back, made his will, and was subsequently only saved by a big +operation. He looked in terrible shape when giving evidence at the +trial.</p> + +<p>The giving of expert evidence on such occasions was the only +opportunity which the young sawbones had of earning money. True we only +got a guinea a day and expenses, but there were no other movie shows in +those days, and we learned a lot about medical jurisprudence, a subject +which always greatly interested me. It was no uncommon sight either at +the "London" or the "Poplar," at both of which I did interne work, to +see a policeman always sitting behind the screen at the foot of the +patient's bed. One man, quite a nice fellow when not occupied in crime, +had when furiously drunk killed his wife and cut his own throat. By the +curious custom of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>society all the skill and money that the hospital +could offer to save a most valuable life was as usual devoted to +restoring this man to health. He was weaned slowly back from the grave +by special nurses and treatment, till it began to dawn upon him that he +might have to stand his trial. He would ask me if I thought he would +have to undergo a long term, for he had not been conscious of what he +was doing. As he grew better, and the policeman arrived to watch him, +he decided that it would probably be quite a long time. He had a little +place of his own somewhere, and he used to have chickens and other +presents sent up to fellow patients, and would have done so to the +nurses, only they could not receive them. I was not personally present +at his trial, but I felt really sorry to hear that they hanged him.</p> + +<p>Many of these poor fellows were only prevented from ending their own +lives by our using extreme care. The case of one wretched man, driven +to desperation, I still remember. "Patient male; age forty-five; +domestic trouble—fired revolver into his mouth. Finding no phenomena +of interest develop, fired a second chamber into his right ear. Still +no symptoms worthy of notice. Patient threw away pistol and walked to +hospital." Both bullets had lodged in the thick parts of his skull, and +doing no damage were left there. A subsequent note read: "Patient +to-day tried to cut his throat with a dinner-knife which he had hidden +in his bed. Patient met with no success." Another of my cases which +interested me considerably was that of a professional burglar who had +been operated upon in almost every part of the kingdom, and was +inclined to be communicative, as the job which had brought him to +hospital had cost him a broken spine. Very little hope was held out to +him that he would ever walk again. He was clear of murder, for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>he said +it was never his practice to carry firearms, being a nervous man and +apt to use them if he had them and got alarmed when busy burglaring. He +relied chiefly on his extraordinary agility and steady head to escape. +His only yarn, however, was his last. He and a friend had been detailed +by the gang to the job of plundering one of a row of houses. The plans +of the house and of the enterprise were all in order, but some +unexpected alarm was given and he fled upstairs, climbed through a +skylight onto the roof, and ran along the gables of the tiles, not far +ahead of the police, who were armed and firing at him. He could easily +have gotten away, as he could run along the coping of the brick parapet +without turning a hair, but he was brought up by a narrow side street +on which he had not counted, not having anticipated, like cats, a +battle on the tiles. It was only some twelve or fifteen feet across the +gap, and the landing on the other side was a flat roof. Taking it all +at a rush he cleared the street successfully, but the flat roof, black +with ages of soot, proved to be a glass skylight, and he entered a +house in a way new even to him. His falling on a stone floor many feet +below accounted for his "unfortunate accident"! After many months in +bed, the man took an unexpected turn, his back mended, and with only a +slight leg paralysis he was able to return to the outside world. His +long suffering and incarceration in hospital were accepted by the law +as his punishment, and he assured me by all that he held sacred that he +intended to retire into private life. Oddly enough, however, while on +another case, I saw him again in the prisoner's dock and at once went +over and spoke to him.</p> + +<p>"Drink this time, Doctor," he said. "I was down on my luck and the +barkeeper went out and left his till open. I climbed over and got the +cash, but there was so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>little space between the bar and the wall that +with my stiff back I couldn't for the life of me get back. I was jammed +like a stopper in a bottle."</p> + +<p>Among many interesting experiences, one especially I shall never +forget. Like the others, it occurred during my service for Sir +Frederick Treves as house-surgeon, and I believe he told the story. A +very badly burned woman had been brought into hospital. Her dress had +somehow got soaked in paraffin and had then taken fire. Her terribly +extensive burns left no hope whatever of her recovery, and only the +conventions of society kept us from giving the poor creature the relief +of euthanasia, or some cup of laudanum negus. But the law was +interested. A magistrate was brought to the bedside and the husband +sent for. The nature of the evidence, the meaning of an oath, the +importance of the poor creature acknowledging that her words were +spoken "in hopeless fear of immediate death," were all duly impressed +upon what remained of her mind. The police then brought in the savage, +degraded-looking husband, and made him stand between two policemen at +the foot of the bed, facing his mangled wife. The magistrate, after +preliminary questions, asked her to make her dying statement as to how +she came by her death. There was a terrible moment of silence. It +seemed as if her spirit were no longer able to respond to the stimuli +of life on earth. Then a sudden rebound appeared to take place, her +eyes lit up with a flash of light, and even endeavouring to raise her +piteous body, she said, "It was an accident, Judge. I upset the lamp +myself, so help me God"; and just for one moment her eyes met those of +her miserable husband. It was the last time she spoke.</p> + +<p>Tragedy and comedy ran hand in hand even in this work. St. Patrick's +Day always made the hospital busy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>just as Christmas was the season +for burned children. Beer in an East London "pub" was generally served +in pewter pots, as they were not easily broken. A common head injury +was a circular scalp cut made by the heavy bottom rim, a wound which +bled horribly. A woman was brought in on one St. Patrick's Day, her +scalp turned forward over her face and her long hair a mass of clotted +blood from such a stroke, made while she was on the ground. When the +necessary readjustments had been made and she was leaving hospital +cured, we asked her what had been the cause of the trouble. "'Twas just +an accidint, yer know. Sure, me an' another loidy was just havin' a few +words."</p> + +<p>On another occasion late at night, we were called out of bed by a +cantankerous, half-drunken fellow whom the night porter could not +pacify. "I'm a regular subscriber to this hospital, and I have never +had my dues yet," he kept protesting. A new drug to produce immediate +vomiting had just been put on the market, and as it was exactly the +treatment he required, we gave him an injection. To our dismay, though +the medicine is in common use to-day, either the poison which he had +been drinking or the drug itself caused a collapse followed by head +symptoms. He was admitted, his head shaved and icebags applied, with +the result that next day he was quite well again. But when he left he +had, instead of a superabundance of curly, auburn hair, a polished +white knob oiled and shining like a State House at night. We debated +whether his subscription would be as regular in future, though he +professed to be profoundly grateful.</p> + +<p>I have digressed, but the intimacy which grew up between some of my +patients and myself seemed worth while recounting, for they showed me +what I never in any other way could have understood about the seamy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>side of life in great cities, of its terrible tragedies and pathos, of +how much good there is in the worst, and how much need of courage, and +what vast opportunities lie before those who accept the service of man +as their service to God. It proved to me how infinitely more needed are +unselfish deeds than orthodox words, and how much the churches must +learn from the Labour Party, the Socialist Party, the Trades-Union, +before tens of thousands of our fellow beings, with all their hopes and +fears, loves and aspirations, have a fair chance to make good. I +learned also to hate the liquor traffic with a loathing of my soul. I +met peers of the realm honoured with titles because they had grown rich +on the degradation of my friends. I saw lives damned, cruelties of +every kind perpetrated, jails and hospitals filled, misery, want, +starvation, murder, all caused by men who fattened off the profits and +posed as gentlemen and great people. I have seen men's mouths closed +whose business in life it was to speak out against this accursed trade. +I have seen men driven from the profession of priests of God, making +the Church a stench in the nostrils of men who knew values just as well +as those trained in the universities do, all through alcohol, alcohol, +alcohol. This awful war has been dragging its weary course for over +four years now, and yet England has not tackled this curse which is +throttling her. We sing "God save the King," and pretend to believe in +the prayer, and yet we will not face this glaring demon in our midst. +Words may clothe ideas, but it takes deeds to realize them.</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>My parents having gone, it became necessary for me to find +lodgings—which I did, "unfurnished," in the house of a Portuguese +widow. Her husband, who had a good family name, had gone down in the +world, and had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>disappeared with another "lady." The eldest son, a +mathematical genius, had been able to pay his way through Cambridge +University by the scholarships and prizes which he had won. One +beautiful little dark-eyed daughter of seven was playing in a West End +Theatre as the dormouse in "Alice in Wonderland." She was second fiddle +to Alice herself, also, and could sing all her songs. Her pay was some +five pounds a week, poor enough for the attraction she proved, but more +than all the rest of the family put together earned. At that time I +never went to theatres. Acquaintances had persuaded me that so many of +the girls were ruined on the stage that for a man taking any interest +in Christian work whatever, it was wrong to attend. Moreover, among my +acquaintances there were not a few theatre fans, and I had nothing in +common with them. The "dormouse," however, used to come up and say her +parts for my benefit, and that of occasional friends, and was so modest +and winsome, and her earnings so invaluable to the family, that I +entirely altered my opinion. Then and there I came to the conclusion +that the drama was an essential part of art, and that those who were +trying to elevate and cleanse it, like Sir Henry Irving, whose son I +had met at Marlborough, must have the support of a public who demanded +clean plays and good conditions both in front and behind the screen. +When I came to London my father had asked me not to go to anything but +Shakespearian or equally well-recognized plays until I was twenty-one. +Only once did I enter a music hall and I had plenty to satisfy me in a +very few minutes. Vaudevilles are better than in those days. The censor +does good work, but it is still the demand which creates the supply, +and whatever improvement has occurred has been largely due to the taste +of the patrons. Medical students need all the open air <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>they can get in +order to keep body and soul fit, and our contempt for the theatre fan +was justifiable.</p> + +<p>My new lodgings being close to Victoria Park afforded the opportunity +for training if one were unconventional. To practise throwing the +sixteen-pound hammer requires rough ground and plenty of space, and as +I was scheduled for that at the inter-hospital sports, it was necessary +to work when not too many disinterested parties were around. Even an +East-Ender's skull is not hammer-proof, as I had seen when a poor woman +was brought into hospital with five circular holes in her head, the +result of blows inflicted by her husband with a hammer. The only excuse +which the ruffian offered for the murder was that she had forgotten to +wake him, he had been late, and lost his job.</p> + +<p>A number of the boys in my class were learning to swim. There was only +one bathing lake and once the waters were troubled we drew the line at +going in to give lessons. So we used to meet at the gate at the hour of +opening in the morning, and thus be going back before most folks were +moving. Nor did we always wait for the park keeper, but often scaled +the gates and so obtained an even more exclusive dip. Many an evening +we would also "flannel," and train round and round the park, or Hackney +Common, to improve one's wind before some big event. For diet at that +time I used oatmeal, milk, and eggs, and very little or no meat. It was +cheaper and seemed to give me more endurance; and the real value of +money was dawning on me.</p> + +<p>Victoria Park is one of those open forums where every man with a sore +spot goes out to air his grievance. On Sundays there were little groups +around the trees where orators debated on everything from a patent +medicine to the nature of God. Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>Besant +were associated together in iconoclastic efforts against orthodox +religion, and there was so much truth in some of their contentions that +they were making no little disturbance. Hanging on their skirts were a +whole crowd of ignorant, dogmatic atheists, who published a paper +called "The Freethinker," which, while it was a villainous and +contemptible rag, appealed to the passions and prejudices of the +partially educated. To answer the specious arguments of their +propaganda an association known as the Christian Evidence Society used +to send out lecturers. One of them became quite famous for his clever +arguments and answers, his ready wit, and really extensive reading. He +was an Antiguan, a black man named Edwards, and had been a sailor +before the mast. I met him at the parish house of an Episcopal +clergyman of a near-by church, who, under the caption of Christian +socialism, ran all kinds of social agencies that really found their way +to the hearts of the people. His messages were so much more in deeds +than in words that he greatly appealed to me, and I transferred my +allegiance to his church, which was always well filled. I particularly +remember among his efforts the weekly parish dance. My religious +acquaintances were apt to class all such simple amusements in a sort of +general category as "works of the Devil," and turn deaf ears to every +invitation to point out any evil results, being satisfied with their +own statement that it was the "thin edge of the wedge." This good man, +however, was very obviously driving a wedge into the hearts of many of +his poor neighbours who in those days found no opportunity for relief +in innocent pleasures from the sordid round of life in the drab +purlieus of Bethnal Green. This clergyman was a forerunner of his +neighbour, the famous Samuel Barnett of Mile End, who thought out, +started, and for many years <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>presided over Toynbee House, the first big +university settlement in East London. His workers preached their gospel +through phrases and creeds which they accepted with mental +reservations, but just exactly in such ways as they believed in +absolutely. At first it used to send a shiver down my spine to find a +church worker who didn't believe in the Creed, and stumbled over all +our fundamentals. At first it amazed me that such men would pay their +own expenses to live in a place like Whitechapel, only to work on drain +committees, as delinquent landlord mentors, or just to give special +educational chances to promising minds, or physical training to unfit +bodies. Yet one saw in their efforts undeniable messages of real love. +Personally I could only occasionally run up there to meet friends in +residence or attend an art exhibition, but they taught me many lessons.</p> + +<p>Exactly opposite the hospital was Oxford House, only two minutes +distant, which combined definite doctrinal religion with social work. +Being an Oxford effort it had great attractions for me. Moreover, right +alongside it in the middle of a disused sugar refinery I had hired the +yard, converted it into a couple of lawn-tennis courts, and ran a small +club. There I first met the famous Dr. Hensley Henson, now Bishop of +Hereford, and also the present Bishop of London, Dr. +Winnington-Ingram—a good all-round athlete. He used to visit in our +wards, and as we had a couple of fives courts, a game which takes +little tune and gives much exercise, we used to have an afternoon off +together, once a week, when he came over to hospital. Neither of these +splendid men were dignitaries in those days, or I am afraid they would +have found us medicals much more stand-offish. I may as well admit that +we had not then learned to have any respect for bishops or church +magnates generally. We <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>liked both of these men because they were +unconventional and good sports, and especially in that they were not +afraid to tackle the atheist's propaganda in the open. I have seen Dr. +Henson in Whitechapel debating alone against a hall full of opponents +and with a fairness and infinite restraint, convincing those open to +reason that they were mistaken. Moreover, I have seen Dr. Ingram doing +just the same thing standing on a stone in the open park. It may all +sound very silly when one knows that by human minds, or to the human +mind, the Infinite can never be demonstrated as a mathematical +proposition. But the point was that these clergy were proving that they +were real men—men who had courage as well as faith, who believed in +themselves and their message, who deserved the living which they were +supposed to make out of orthodoxy. This the audience knew was more than +could be said of many of the opponents. Christ himself showed his +superb manhood in just such speaking out.</p> + +<p>Indelibly impressed on my mind still is an occasion when one of the +most blatant and vicious of these opponents of religion fell ill. A +Salvation Army lass found him deserted and in poverty, nursed and +looked after him and eventually made a new man of him.</p> + +<p>Far and away the most popular of the Park speakers was the Antiguan. +His arguments were so clever it was obvious that he was well and widely +read. His absolute understanding of the crowd and his witty repartee +used frequently to cause his opponents to lose their tempers, and that +was always their undoing. The crowd as a rule was very fair and could +easily distinguish arguments from abuse. Thus, on one Sunday the debate +was as to whether nature was God. The atheist representative was a very +loud-voiced demagogue, who when angry betrayed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>his Hibernian origin +very markedly. Having been completely worsted and the laugh turned +against him by a clever correction of some one's, he used the few +minutes given him to reply in violent abuse, ending up that "ladies and +gentlemen did not come out on holidays to spend their time being taught +English by a damned nigger."</p> + +<p>"Sir," Edwards answered from the crowd, "I am a British subject, born +on the island of Antigua, and as much an Englishman as any Irishman in +the country."</p> + +<p>Edwards possessed an inexhaustible stock of good-humour and his laugh +could be heard halfway across the Park. As soon as his turn came to +mount the stone, he got the crowd so good-natured that they became +angry at the interruptions of the enemy, and when some one suggested +that if nature were that man's God, the near-by duckpond was the +natural place for him, there was a rush for him, and for several +subsequent Sundays he was not in evidence. Edwards was a poor man, his +small salary and incessant generosity left him nothing for holidays, +and he was killing himself with overwork. So we asked him to join us in +the new house which we were fitting up in Palestine Place. He most +gladly did so and added enormously to our fun. Unfortunately +tuberculosis long ago got its grip upon him, and removed a valuable +life from East London.</p> + +<p>It was a queer little beehive in which we lived in those days, and a +more cosmopolitan crowd could hardly have been found: one young doctor +who has since made his name and fortune in Australia; another in whose +rooms were nearly a hundred cups for prowess in nearly every form of +athletics, and who also has "made good" in professional life, besides +several others who for shorter or longer periods were allotted rooms in +our house. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>Among the more unusual was the "C.M.," a Brahmin from +India, a priest in his youth, who had been brought back to England by +some society to be educated in medical missionary work, but whom for +some reason they had dropped. For a short time a clever young Russian +of Hebrew extraction who was studying for the Church helped to render +our common-room social engagements almost international affairs.</p> + +<p>As I write this I am at Charleston, South Carolina, and I see how hard +it will be for an American to understand the possibility of such a +motley assembly being reasonable or even proper. It seems to me down +here that there must have been odd feelings sometimes in those days. I +can only say, however, that I never personally even thought of it. East +London is so democratic that one's standards are simply those of the +value of the man's soul as we saw it. If he had been yellow with pink +stripes it honestly would not have mattered one iota to most of us.</p> + +<p>It so happened that there was at that time in hospital under my care a +patient known as "the elephant man." He had been starring under that +title in a cheap vaudeville, had been seen by some of the students, and +invited over to be shown to and studied by our best physicians. The +poor fellow was really exceedingly sensitive about his most +extraordinary appearance. The disease was called "leontiasis," and +consisted of an enormous over-development of bone and skin on one side. +His head and face were so deformed as really to resemble a big animal's +head with a trunk. My arms would not reach around his hat. A special +room in a yard was allotted to him, and several famous people came to +see him—among them Queen Alexandra, then the Princess of Wales, who +afterward sent him an autographed photograph of herself. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>He kept it in +his room, which was known as the "elephant house," and it always +suggested beauty and the beast. Only at night could the man venture out +of doors, and it was no unusual thing in the dusk of nightfall to meet +him walking up and down in the little courtyard. He used to talk freely +of how he would look in a huge bottle of alcohol—an end to which in +his imagination he was fated to come. He was of a very cheerful +disposition and pathetically proud of his left side which was normal. +Very suddenly one day he died—the reason assigned being that his head +fell forward and choked him, being too heavy for him to lift up.</p> + +<p>In 1886 I passed my examinations and duly became a member of the +College of Physicians and of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; +and sought some field for change and rest, where also I could use my +newly acquired license to my own, if to no one else's, benefit. Among +the patients who came to the London Hospital, there were now and again +fishermen from the large fishing fleets of the North Sea. They lived +out, as it were, on floating villages, sending their fish to market +every day by fast cutters. Every two or three months, as their turn +came round, a vessel would leave for the home port on the east coast, +being permitted, or supposed to be permitted, a day at home for each +full week at sea. As the fleets kept the sea summer and winter and the +boats were small, not averaging over sixty tons, it was a hazardous +calling. The North Sea is nowhere deeper than thirty fathoms, much of +it being under twenty, and in some places only five. Indeed, it is a +recently sunken and still sinking portion of Europe, so much so that +the coasts on both sides are constantly receding, and when Heligoland +was handed over by the English to the Kaiser, it was said that he would +have to keep jacking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>it up or soon there would be none left. Shallow +waters exposed to the fierce gales which sweep the German Ocean make +deep and dangerous seas, which readily break and wash the decks of +craft with low freeboard, such as the North Sea vessels are obliged to +have in order to get boats in and out to ferry their fish to the +cutter.</p> + +<p>There being no skilled aid at hand, the quickest way to get help used +to be to send an injured man to market with the fish. Often it was a +long journey of many days, simple fractures became compound, and limbs +and faculties were often thus lost. It so happened that Sir Frederick +Treves had himself a love for navigating in small sailing craft. He had +made it a practice to cross the English Channel to Calais in a sailing +lugger every Boxing Day—that is, the day after Christmas. He was +especially interested in those "that go down to the sea in ships" and +had recently made a trip among the fishing fleets. He told me that a +small body of men, interested in the religious and social welfare of +the deep-sea fishermen, had chartered a small fishing smack, sent her +out among the fishermen to hold religious services of a simple, +unconventional type, in order to afford the men an alternative to the +grog vessels when fishing was slack, and to carry first aid, the +skipper of the vessel being taught ambulance work. They wanted, +however, very much to get a young doctor to go out, who cared also for +the spiritual side of the work, to see if they could use the additional +attraction of proper medical aid to gain the men's sympathies. His +advice to me was to go and have a look at it. "If you go in January you +will see some fine seascapes, anyhow. Don't go in summer when all of +the old ladies go for a rest."</p> + +<p>I therefore applied to go out the following January, and that fall, +while working near the Great London <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>docks, I used often to look at the +tall East Indiamen, thinking that I soon should be aboard just such a +vessel in the North Sea. It was dark and raining when my train ran into +Yarmouth, and a dripping, stout fisherman in a blue uniform met me at +that then unattractive and ill-lighted terminus. He had brought a +forlorn "growler" or four-wheeled cab. Climbing in we drove a mile or +more along a deserted road, and drew up at last apparently at the back +of beyond.</p> + +<p>"Where is the ship?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, those are her topmasts," replied my guide, pointing to two posts +projecting from the sand. "The tide is low and she is hidden by the +quay."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" I thought; "she's no tea clipper, anyhow."</p> + +<p>I climbed up the bank and peered down in the darkness at the hull of a +small craft, a little larger than our old Roysterer. She was just +discernible by the dim rays of the anchor light. I was hesitating as to +whether I shouldn't drive back to Yarmouth and return to London when a +cheery voice on deck called out a hearty welcome. What big things hang +on a smile and a cheery word no man can ever say. But it broke the +spell this time and I had my cabby unload my bags on the bank and bade +him good-night. As his wheels rumbled away into the rain and dark, I +felt that my cables were cut beyond recall. Too late to save me, the +cheery voice shouted, "Mind the rigging, it's just tarred and greased." +I was already sliding down and sticking to it as I went. Small as the +vessel was she was absolutely spotless. Her steward, who cooked for all +hands, was smart and in a snow-white suit. The contrast between-decks +and that above was very comforting, though my quarters were small. The +crew were all stocky, good-humoured, and independent. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>Democratic as +East London had made me, they impressed me very favourably, and I began +to look forward to the venture with real pleasure.</p> + +<p>Drink was the worst enemy of these men. The quaysides of the +fisherman's quarters teemed with low saloons. Wages were even paid off +in them or their annexes, and grog vessels, luring the men aboard with +cheap tobacco and low literature, plied their nefarious calling with +the fleets, and were the death, body and soul, of many of these fine +specimens of manhood.</p> + +<p>There was never any question as to the real object of the Mission to +Deep-Sea Fishermen. The words "Heal the sick" carved in large letters +adorned the starboard bow. "Preach the Word" was on the port, and +around the brass rim of the wheel ran the legend, "Jesus said, Follow +me and I will make you fishers of men." Thirty years ago we were more +conventional than to-day, and I was much surprised to learn from our +skipper that we were bound to Ostend to ship four tons of tobacco, sent +over from England for us in bond, as he might not take it out consigned +to the high seas. In Belgium, however, no duty was paid. The only +trouble was that our vessel, to help pay its expenses, carried fishing +gear, and as a fishing vessel could not get a clearance in Belgium. Our +nets and beams, therefore, had to go out to the fishing grounds in a +friendly trawler while we passed as a mercantile marine during the time +we took on our cargo.</p> + +<p>So bitter was the cold that in the harbour we got frozen in and were +able to skate up the canals. We had eventually to get a steamer to go +around us and smash our ice bonds when we were again ready for sea. +During the next two months we saw no land except Heligoland and +Terschelling—or Skilling, as the fishermen called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>it—far away in the +offing. Nor was our deck once clear of ice and snow during all the +time.</p> + +<p>Our duty was to visit as many fleets as we could, and arrange with some +reliable vessel to take a stock of tobacco for the use of their special +fleet. The ship was to carry about six feet of blue bunting on her +foretopmast stay, a couple of fathoms above her bowsprit end, so that +all the fleet might know her. She was to sell the tobacco at a fixed +price that just covered the cost, and undersold the "coper" by fifty +per cent. She was to hoist her flag for business every morning, while +the small boats were out boarding fish on the carrier, and was to lie +as far to leeward of the coper as possible so that the men could not go +to both. Nineteen such floating depots were eventually arranged for, +with the precaution that if any one of them had to return to port, he +should bring no tobacco home, but hand over his stock and accounts to a +reliable friend.</p> + +<p>These deep-sea fisheries were a revelation to me, and every hour of the +long trip I enjoyed. It was amazing to me to find over twenty thousand +men and boys afloat—the merriest, cheerfullest lot which I had ever +met. They were hail-fellow-well-met with every one, and never thought +of deprivation or danger. Clothing, food, customs, were all +subordinated to utility. They were the nearest possible thing to a +community of big boys, only needing a leader. In efficiency and for +their daring resourcefulness in physical difficulties and dangers, they +were absolutely in a class by themselves, embodying all the traits of +character which make men love to read the stories of the buccaneers and +other seamen of the sixteenth-century period.</p> + +<p>Each fleet had its admiral and vice-admiral, appointed partly by the +owner, and partly by the skippers of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>vessels. The devil-may-care +spirit was always a great factor with the men. The admiral directed +operations by flags in the daytime and by rockets at night, thus +indicating what the fleet was to do and where they were to fish. +Generally he had the fastest boat, and the cutters, hunting for the +fleet always lay just astern of the admiral, the morning after their +arrival. Hundreds of men would come for letters, packages, to load +fish, to get the news of what their last assignment fetched in market. +Moreover, a kind of Parliament was held aboard to consider policies and +hear complaints.</p> + +<p>At first it was a great surprise to me how these men knew where they +were, for we never saw anything but sky and sea, and not even the +admirals carried a chronometer or could work out a longitude; and only +a small percentage of the skippers could read or write. They all, +however, carried a sextant and could by rule of thumb find a latitude +roughly. But that was only done at a pinch. The armed lead was the +fisherman's friend. It was a heavy lead with a cup on the bottom filled +fresh each time with sticky grease. When used, the depth was always +called out by the watch, and the kind of sand, mud, or rock which stuck +to the grease shown to the skipper. "Fifteen fathoms and coffee +grounds—must be on the tail end of the Dogger. Put her a bit more to +the westward, boy," he would remark, and think no more about it, though +he might have been three or four days looking for his fleet, and not +spoken to a soul since he left land. I remember one skipper used to +have the lead brought down below, and he could tell by the grit between +his teeth after a couple of soundings which way to steer. It sounds +strange even now, but it was so universal, being just second-nature to +the men, who from boyhood had lived on the sea, that we soon ceased to +marvel at it. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>Skippers were only just being obliged to have +certificates. These they obtained by <i>viva voce</i> examinations. You +would sometimes hear an aspiring student, a great black-bearded pirate +over forty-seven inches around the chest, and possibly the father of +eight or ten children, as he stamped about in his watch keeping warm, +repeating the courses—"East end of the Dogger to Horn S.E. by E. ½ +and W. point of the island [Heligoland] to Barkum S. ½ W. Ower Light +to Hazebrough N.N.W."—and so on. Their memories were not burdened by a +vast range of facts, but in these things they were the nearest +imaginable to Blind Tom, the famous slave musician.</p> + +<p>Our long round only occupied us about a month, and after that we +settled down with the fleet known as the Great Northerners. Others were +the Short Blues, the Rashers (because they were streaked like a piece +of bacon), the Columbia, the Red Cross, and so on. Sometimes during the +night while we were fishing into the west, a hundred sail or more of +vessels, we would pass through another big fleet coming the other way, +and some of our long trawls and warps would tangle with theirs. Beyond +the beautiful spectacle of the myriads of lights bobbing up and down +often enough on mighty rough seas—for it needed good breezes to haul +our trawls—would be the rockets and flares of the entangled boats, and +often enough also rockets and flares from friends, and from cutters. +One soon became so friendly with the men that one would not return at +night to the ship, but visit around and rejoin the Mission ship +boarding fish next day, to see patients coming for aid. Though it was +strictly against sea rules for skippers to be off their vessels all +night, that was a rule, like all others on the North Sea, as often +marked in the breach as in the observance. A goodly company would get +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>together yarning and often singing and playing games until it was time +to haul the trawl and light enough to find their own vessel and signal +for the boat.</p> + +<p>The relation of my new friends to religion was a very characteristic +one. Whatever they did, they did hard. Thus one of the admirals, being +a thirsty soul, and the grog vessels having been adrift for a longer +while than he fancied, conceived the fine idea of holding up the +Heligoland saloons. So one bright morning he "hove his fleet to" under +the lee of the island and a number of boats went ashore, presumably to +sell fish. Altogether they landed some five hundred men, who held up +the few saloons for two or three days. As a result subsequently only +one crew selling fish to the island was allowed ashore at one time. The +very gamble of their occupation made them do things hard. Thus it was a +dangerous task to throw out a small boat in half a gale of wind, fill +her up with heavy boxes of fish, and send her to put these over the +rail of a steamer wallowing in the trough of a mountainous sea.</p> + +<p>But it was on these very days when less fish was sent to market that +the best prices were realized, and so there were always a number of +dare-devils, who did not care if lives were lost so long as good prices +were obtained and their record stood high on the weekly list of sales +which was forwarded to both owners and men. I have known as many as +fourteen men upset in one morning out of these boats; and the annual +loss of some three hundred and fifty men was mostly from this cause. +Conditions were subsequently improved by the Board of Trade, who made +it manslaughter against the skipper if any man was drowned boarding +fish, unless the admiral had shown his flags to give the fleet +permission to do so. In those days, however, I often saw twenty to +thirty boats all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>tied up alongside the cutter at one time, the heavy +seas every now and again rolling the cutter's sail right under water, +and when she righted again it might come up under the keels of some of +the boats and tip them upside down. Thus any one in them was caught +like a mouse under a trap or knocked to pieces trying to swim among the +rushing, tossing boats.</p> + +<p>As a rule we hauled at midnight, and it was always a fresh source of +wonder, for the trawl was catholic in its embrace and brought up +anything that came in its way. To emphasize how comparatively recently +the Channel had been dry land, many teeth and tusks of mammoths who +used to roam its now buried forests were given up to the trawls by the +ever-shifting sands. Old wreckage of every description, ancient +crockery, and even a water-logged, old square-rigger that must have +sunk years before were brought one day as far as the surface by the +stout wire warp. After the loss of a large steamer called the Elbe many +of the passengers who had been drowned were hauled up in this way; and +on one occasion great excitement was caused in Hull by a fisher lad +from that port being picked up with his hands tied behind his back and +a heavy weight on his feet. The defence was that the boy had died, and +was thus buried to save breaking the voyage—supported by the fact that +another vessel had also picked up the boy and thrown him overboard +again for the same reason. But those who were a bit superstitious +thought otherwise, and more especially as cruelty to these boys was not +unknown.</p> + +<p>These lads were apprenticed to the fishery masters largely from +industrial or reformatory schools, had no relations to look after them, +and often no doubt gave the limit of trouble and irritation. On the +whole, however, the system worked well, and a most excellent class of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>capable seamen was developed. At times, however, they were badly +exploited. During their apprenticeship years they were not entitled to +pay, only to pocket money, and yet sometimes the whole crew including +the skipper were apprentices and under twenty-one years of age. Even +after that they were fitted for no other calling but to follow the sea, +and had to accept the master's terms. There were no fishermen's unions, +and the men being very largely illiterate were often left victims of a +peonage system in spite of the Truck Acts. The master of a vessel has +to keep discipline, especially in a fleet, and the best of boys have +faults and need punishing while on land. These skippers themselves were +brought up in a rough school, and those who fell victims to drink and +made the acquaintance of the remedial measures of our penal system of +that day were only further brutalized by it. Religion scarcely touched +the majority; for their brief periods of leave ashore were not +unnaturally spent in having a good time. To those poisoned by the +villainous beverages sold on the sordid grog vessels no excess was too +great. Owners were in sympathy with the Mission in trying to oust the +coper, because their property, in the form of fish, nets, stores, and +even sails, were sometimes bartered on the high seas for liquor. On one +occasion during a drunken quarrel in the coper's cabin one skipper +threw the kerosene lamp over another lying intoxicated on the floor. +His heavy wool jersey soaked in kerosene caught fire. He rushed for the +deck, and then, a dancing mass of flames, leaped overboard and +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Occasionally skippers devised punishments with a view to remedying the +defects of character. Thus one lad, who through carelessness had on +more than one occasion cooked the "duff" for dinner badly, was made to +take his cinders on deck when it was his time to turn <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>in, and go +forward to the fore-rigging. Then he had to take one cinder, go up to +the cross-tree, and throw it over into the sea, come down the opposite +rigging and repeat the act until he had emptied his scuttle. Another +who had failed to clean the cabin properly had one night, instead of +going to bed, to take a bucketful of sea water and empty it with a +teaspoon into another, and so to and fro until morning. On one occasion +a poor boy was put under the ballast deck, that is, the cabin floor, +and forgotten. He was subsequently found dead, drowned in the bilge +water. It was easy to hide the results of cruelty, for being washed +overboard was by no means an uncommon way of disappearing from vessels +with low freeboards in the shallow water of the North Sea.</p> + +<p>A very practical outcome in the mission work was the organization of +the Fisher Lads' Letter-Writing Association. The members accepted so +many names of orphan lads at sea and pledged themselves to write +regularly to them. Also, if possible, they were to look them up when +they returned to land, and indeed do for them much as the War Camp +Community League members are to-day trying to accomplish for our +soldiers and sailors. As every practical exposition of love must, it +met with a very real response, and brought, moreover, new interests and +joys into many selfish lives.</p> + +<p>I remember one lady whose whole care in life had been her own health. +She had nursed it, and worried over it, and enjoyed ill health so long, +that only the constant recourse to the most refined stimulants +postponed the end which would have been a merciful relief—to others. +The effort of letter-writing remade her. Doctors were forgotten, +stimulants were tabooed, the insignia of invalidism banished, and to my +intense surprise I ran across her at a fishing port surrounded by a +bevy of blue-jerseyed lads, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>who were some of those whom she was being +blessed by helping.</p> + +<p>The best of efforts, however, sometimes "gang aft agley." One day I +received a letter, evidently written in great consternation, from an +elderly spinster of singularly aristocratic connections and an +irreproachableness of life which was almost painful. The name sent to +her by one of our skippers as a correspondent who needed help and +encouragement was one of those which would be characterized as +common—let us say John Jones. By some perverse fate the wrong ship was +given as an address, and the skipper of it happened to have exactly the +same name. It appeared that lack of experience in just such work had +made her letter possibly more affectionate than she would have wished +for under the circumstances which developed. For in writing to me she +enclosed a ferocious letter from a lady of Billingsgate threatening, +not death, but mutilation, if she continued making overtures to "her +John."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>NORTH SEA WORK</h4> +<br /> + +<p>I have dwelt at length upon the experiences of the North Sea, because +trivial as they appear on the surface, they concern the biggest problem +of human life—the belief that man is not of the earth, but only a +temporary sojourner upon it. This belief, that he is destined to go on +living elsewhere, makes a vast difference to one's estimate of values. +Life becomes a school instead of a mere stage, the object of which is +that our capacities for usefulness should develop through using them +until we reach graduation. What life gives to us can only be of +permanent importance as it develops our souls, thus enabling us to give +more back to it, and leaves us better prepared for any opportunities +than may lie beyond this world. The most valuable asset for this +assumption is love for the people among whom one lives.</p> + +<p>The best teachers in life are far from being those who know most, or +who think themselves wisest. Show me a schoolmaster who does not love +his boys and you show me one who is of no use. Our faith in our sonship +of God is immensely strengthened by the puzzling fact that even God +cannot force goodness into us, His sons, because we share His nature.</p> + +<p>These convictions, anyhow, were the mental assets with which I had to +begin work, and no others. A scientific training had impressed upon me +that big and little are very relative terms; that one piece of work +becomes unexpectedly permanent and big, while that which appears to be +great, but is merely diffuse, will be temporary and ineffective. +Experience has taught me that one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>human life has its limits of direct +impetus, but that its most lasting value is its indirect influence. The +greatest Life ever lived was no smaller for being in a carpenter's +shop, and largely spent among a few ignorant fishermen. The Scarabee +had a valid <i>apologia pro vita sua</i> in spite of Dr. Holmes. Tolstoy on +his farm, Milton without his sight, Bunyan in his prison, Pasteur in +his laboratory, all did great things for the world.</p> + +<p>There is so much that is manly about the lives of those who follow the +sea, so much less artificiality than in many other callings, and with +our fishermen so many fewer of what we call loosely "chances in life," +that to sympathize with them was easy—and sympathy is a long step +toward love. Life at sea also gives time and opportunity for really +knowing a man. It breaks down conventional barriers, and indeed almost +compels fellowship and thus an intelligent understanding of the +difficulties and tragedies of the soul of our neighbour. That rare +faculty of imagination which is the inspiration of all great lovers of +men is not alone indispensable. Hand in hand with this inevitably goes +the vision of one's own opportunity to help and not to hinder others, +even though it be through the unattractive medium of the collection +box—for that gives satisfaction only in proportion to the sacrifice +which we make.</p> + +<p>In plain words the field of work offered me was attractive. It seemed +to promise me the most remunerative returns for my abilities, or, to +put it in another way, it aroused my ambitions sufficiently to make me +believe that my special capacities and training could be used to make +new men as well as new bodies. Any idea of sacrifice was balanced by +the fact that I never cared very much for the frills of life so long as +the necessities were forthcoming.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>The attention that Harold Begbie's book "Twice-Born Men" received, was +to me later in life a source of surprise. One forgets that the various +religions and sects which aimed at the healing of men's souls have +concerned themselves more with intellectual creeds than material, +Christ-like ends. At first it was not so. Paul rejoiced that he was a +new man. There can be no question but that the Gospels show us truly +that the change in Christ's first followers was from men, the slaves of +every ordinary human passion, into men who were self-mastered—that +Christ taught by what he was and did rather than by insistence on +creeds and words. It has been seeing these changes in men's lives, not +only in their surroundings, though those improve immediately, that +reconcile one to our environment, and has induced me to live a +life-time in the wilds.</p> + +<p>Another movement that was just starting at this time also interested me +considerably. A number of keen young men from Oxford and Cambridge, +having experienced the dangers that beset boys from big English public +schools who enter the universities without any definite help as to +their attitude toward the spiritual relationships of life, got together +to discuss the question. They recognized that the formation of the +Boys' Brigade in our conservative social life only touched the youth of +the poorer classes. Like our English Y.M.C.A., it was not then +aristocratic enough for gentlemen. They saw, however, that athletic +attainments carried great weight, and that all outdoor accomplishments +had a strong attraction for boys from every class. Thus it happened +that an organization called the Public School Camps came into being. +Its ideal was the uplift of character, and the movement has grown with +immense strides on both sides of the Atlantic.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>An integral part of my summer holidays during these years was spent as +medical officer at one of these camps. For many reasons it was wise in +England to run them on military lines, for besides the added dignity, +it insured the ability to maintain order and discipline. Some +well-known commandant was chosen who was a soldier also in the good +fight of faith. Special sites were selected, generally on the grounds +of some big country seat which were loaned by the interested lord of +the manor, and every kind of outdoor attraction was provided which +could be secured. Besides organized competitive games, there was +usually a yacht, good bathing, always a gymkhana, and numerous +expeditions and "hikes." Not a moment was left unoccupied. All of the +work of the camp was done by the boys, who served in turn on orderly +duty. The officers were always, if possible, prominent athletes, to +whom the boys could look up as being capable in physical as well as +spiritual fields. There was a brief address each night before "taps" in +the big marquee used for mess; and one night was always a straight talk +on the problems of sex by the medical officers, whom the boys were +advised to consult in their perplexities. These camps were among the +happiest memories of my life, and many of the men to-day gratefully +acknowledge that the camps were the turning-point of their whole lives. +The secret was unconventionality and absolute naturalness with no +"shibboleths." The boys were allowed to be boys absolutely in an +atmosphere of sincere if not omniscient fervour. On one occasion when +breaking up camp, a curly-headed young rascal in my tent, being late on +the last morning—unknown to any one—went to the train in his pajamas, +hidden only by his raincoat. At a small wayside station over a hundred +miles from London, whither he was bound, leaving his coat in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>carriage, he ventured into the refreshment stall of the waiting-room. +Unfortunately, however, he came out only to find his train departed and +himself in his nightclothes on the platform without a penny, a ticket, +or a friend. Eluding the authorities he reached the huge Liverpool +terminus by night to find a faithful friend waiting on the platform for +him with the sorely needed overgarment.</p> + +<p>No one was ever ashamed to be a Christian, or of what Christ was, or +what he did and stood for. However, to ignore the fact that the mere +word "missionary" aroused suspicion in the average English +unconventional mind—such as those of these clean, natural-minded +boys—would be a great mistake. Unquestionably, as in the case of +Dickens, a missionary was unpractical if not hypocritical, and mildly +incompetent if not secretly vicious. I found myself always fighting +against the idea that I was termed a missionary. The men I loved and +admired, especially such men as those on our athletic teams, felt +really strongly about it. Henry Martyn—as a scholar—was a hero to +those who read of him, though few did. Moreover, who does not love +Charles Kingsley? Even as boys, we want to be "a man," though Kingsley +was a "Parson Lot." It always seemed that a missionary was naturally +discounted until he had proved his right to be received as an ordinary +being. Once after being the guest of a bank president, he told me that +my stay was followed by that of their bishop, who was a person of great +importance. When the bishop had gone, he asked his two boys one day. +"Well, which do you like best, the bishop or the doctor?" "Ach," was +the reply, "the bishop can't stand on his head." On another occasion +during a visit—while lecturing on behalf of the fishermen—and doing +my usual evening physical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>drill in my bedroom, by a great mischance I +missed a straight-arm-balance on a chair, fell over, and nearly brought +the chandelier of the drawing-room down on the heads of some guests. +That a so-called "missionary" should be so worldly as to wish to keep +his body fit seemed so unusual that I heard of that trifle a hundred +times.</p> + +<p>The Church of Christ that is coming will be interested in the forces +that make for peace and righteousness in this world rather than in +academic theories as to how to get rewards in another. That will be a +real stimulus to fitness and capacity all round instead of a dope for +failures. It is that element in missions to-day, such as the up-to-date +work of the Rockefeller Institute and other medical missions in China +and India, which alone holds the respect of the mass of the people. The +value of going out merely to make men of different races think as we +think is being proportionately discounted with the increase of +education.</p> + +<p>Our North Sea work grew apace. Vessel after vessel was added to the +fleet. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, became interested, and besides +subscribing personally toward the first hospital boat, permitted it to +be named in her honour. According to custom the builders had a +beautiful little model made which Her Majesty agreed to accept. It was +decided that it should be presented to her in Buckingham Palace by the +two senior mission captains.</p> + +<p>The journey to them was a far more serious undertaking than a winter +voyage on the Dogger Bank. However, arrayed in smart blue suits and new +guernseys and polished to the last degree, they set out on the eventful +expedition. On their return every one was as anxious to know "how the +voyage had turned out" as if they had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>been exploring new fishing +grounds around the North Cape in the White Sea. "Nothing to complain +of, boys, till just as we had her in the wind's eye to shoot the gear," +said the senior skipper. "A big swell in knee-breeches opened the door +and called out our names, when I was brought up all standing, for I saw +that the peak halliard was fast on the port side. The blame thing was +too small for me to shift over, so I had to leave it. But, believe me, +she never said a word about it. That's what I call something of a +lady."</p> + +<p>At this time we had begun two new ventures, an institute at Yarmouth +for fishermen ashore and a dispensary vessel to be sent out each spring +among the thousands of Scotch, Manx, Irish, and French fishermen, who +carried on the herring and mackerel fishery off the south and west +coast of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The south Irish spring fishery is wonderfully interesting. Herring and +mackerel are in huge shoals anywhere from five to forty miles off the +land, and the vessels run in and out each day bringing back the catch +of the night. Each vessel shoots out about two miles of net, while some +French ones will shoot out five miles. Thus the aggregate of nets used +would with ease stretch from Ireland to New York and back. Yet the +undaunted herring return year after year to the disastrous rendezvous. +The vessels come from all parts. Many are the large tan-sailed luggers +from the Scottish coasts, their sails and hulls marked "B.F." for +Banff, "M.E." for Montrose, "C.N." for Campbelltown, etc. With these +come the plucky little Ulster boats from Belfast and Larne, Loch Swilly +and Loch Foyle; and not a few of the hereditary seafaring men from +Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. Others also come from Falmouth, Penzance, +and Exmouth. Besides these are the Irish boats—few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>enough, alas, for +Paddy is not a sailor. A good priest had tried to induce his people to +share this rich harvest by starting a fishery school for boys at +Baltimore, where net-making and every other branch of the industry was +taught. It was to little purpose, for I have met men hungry on the west +coast, who were trying to live on potato-raising on that bog land who +were graduates of Father D.'s school.</p> + +<p>There was one year when we ourselves were trying out the trawling in +Clew Bay and Blacksod, and getting marvellous catches; so much so that +I remember one small trawler from Grimsby on the east coast of England +making two thousand dollars in two days' work, while the Countess of Z. +fund was distributing charity to the poverty-stricken men who lived +around the bay itself. The Government of Ireland also made serious +efforts to make its people take up the fishery business. About one +million dollars obtained out of the escheated funds of the Church of +England in Ireland, when that organization was disestablished by Mr. +Gladstone, was used as a loan fund which was available for fishermen, +resident six months, at two per cent interest. They were permitted to +purchase their own boat and gear for the fishery out of the money thus +provided.</p> + +<p>While we lay in Durham Harbour at the entrance to Waterford Harbour, we +met many Cornishmen who were temporarily resident there, having come +over from Cornwall to qualify for borrowing the money to get boats and +outfit. During one week in which we were working from that port, there +were so many saints' days on which the Irish crews would not go out +fishing, but were having good times on the land, that the skippers, who +were Cornishmen, had to form a crew out of their own numbers and take +one of their boats to sea.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>One day we had landed on the Arran Islands, and I was hunting ferns in +the rock crevices, for owing to the warmth of the Gulf current the +growth is luxuriant. On the top of the cliffs about three hundred feet +high, I fell in with two Irishmen smoking their pipes and sprawling on +the edge of the precipice. The water below was very deep and they were +fishing. I had the fun of seeing dangling codfish hauled leisurely up +all that long distance, and if one fell off on the passage, it was +amusing to note the absolute insouciance of the fishermen, who assured +me that there were plenty more in the sea.</p> + +<p>It has always been a puzzle to me why so few tourists and yachtsmen +visit the south and west coast of Ireland. Its marvellous wild, rock +scenery, its exquisite bays,—no other words describe them,—its +emerald verdure, and its interesting and hospitable people have given +me, during the spring fishing seasons that I spent on that coast, some +of the happiest memories of my life. On the contrary, most of the +yachts hang around the Solent, and the piers of Ryde, Cowes, and +Southampton, instead of the magnificent coast from Queenstown to +Donegal Cliffs, and from there all along West Scotland to the Hebrides.</p> + +<p>About this time our work established a dispensary and social centre at +Crookhaven, just inside the Fastnet Lighthouse, and another in Tralee +on the Kerry coast, north of Cape Clear. Gatherings for worship and +singing were also held on Sundays on the boats, for on that day neither +Scotch, Manx, nor English went fishing. The men loved the music, the +singing of hymns, and the conversational addresses. Many would take +some part in the service, and my memories of those gatherings are still +very pleasant ones.</p> + +<p>On this wild coast calls for help frequently came from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>the poor +settlers as well as from the seafarers. A summons coming in one day +from the Fastnet Light, we rowed out in a small boat to that lovely +rock in the Atlantic. A heavy sea, however, making landing impossible, +we caught hold of a buoy, anchored off from the rock, and then rowing +in almost to the surf, caught a line from the high overhanging crane. A +few moments later one was picked out of the tumbling, tossing boat like +a winkle out of a shell, by a noose at the end of a line from a crane a +hundred and fifty feet above, swung perpendicularly up into the air, +and then round and into a trap-door in the side of the lighthouse. On +leaving one was swung out again in the same fashion, and dangled over +the tumbling boat until caught and pulled in by the oarsmen.</p> + +<p>Another day we rowed out nine miles in an Irish craft to visit the +Skerry Islands, famous for the old Beehive Monastery, and the countless +nests of gannets and other large sea-birds. The cliffs rise to a great +height almost precipitously, and the ceaseless thunder of the Atlantic +swell jealously guards any landing. There being no davit or crane, we +had just to fling ourselves into the sea, and climb up as best we +could, carrying a line to haul up our clothing from the boat and other +apparatus after landing, while the oarsmen kept her outside the surf. +To hold on to the slippery rock we needed but little clothing, anyhow, +for it was a slow matter, and the clinging power of one's bare toes was +essential. The innumerable gannets sitting on their nests gave the +island the appearance of a snowdrift; and we soon had all the eggs that +we needed lowered by a line. But some of the gulls, of whose eggs we +wanted specimens also, built so cleverly onto the actual faces of the +cliffs, that we had to adopt the old plan of hanging over the edge and +raising the eggs on the back of one's foot, which is an exploit not +devoid of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>excitement. The chief difficulty was, however, with one of +our number, who literally stuck on the top, being unable to descend, at +least in a way compatible with comfort or safety. The upshot was that +he had to be blindfolded and helped.</p> + +<p>One of our Council, being connected at this time with the Irish +Poor-Relief Board and greatly interested in the Government efforts to +relieve distress in Ireland, arranged that we should make a voyage +around the entire island in one of our vessels, trying the trawling +grounds everywhere, and also the local markets available for making our +catch remunerative. There has been considerable activity in these +waters of late years, but it was practically pioneer work in those +days, the fishery being almost entirely composed of drift nets and long +lines. It was supposed that the water was too deep and the bottom too +uneven and rocky to make trawling possible. We had only a sailing +vessel of about sixty tons, and the old heavy beam trawl, for the other +trawl and steam fishing boats were then quite in their infancy. The +quantity and variety of victims that came to our net were prodigious, +and the cruise has remained as a dream in my memory, combined as it was +with so many chances of helping out one of the most interesting and +amiable—if not educated—peoples in the world. It happened to be a +year of potato scarcity; as one friend pointed out, there was a surplus +of Murphys in the kitchen and a scarcity of Murphys in the +cellar—"Murphys" being another name for that vegetable which is so +large a factor in Irish economic life. As mentioned before, a fund, +called the Countess of Z.'s fund, had been established to relieve the +consequent distress, and while we were fishing in Black Sod Bay, the +natives around the shore were accepting all that they could secure. Yet +one steam trawler <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>cleared four hundred pounds within a week; and our +own fine catches, taken in so short a while, made it seem a veritable +fishermen's paradise for us, who were accustomed to toil over the long +combers and stormy banks of the North Sea. The variety of fish taken +alone made the voyage of absorbing interest, numbering cod, haddock, +ling, hake, turbot, soles, plaice, halibut, whiting, crayfish, shark, +dog-fish, and many quaint monsters unmarketable then, but perfectly +edible. Among those taken in was the big angler fish, which lives at +the bottom with his enormous mouth open, dangling an attractive-looking +bait formed by a long rod growing out from his nose, which lures small +victims into the cavern, whence, as he possesses row upon row of spiky +teeth which providentially point down his throat, there is seldom any +returning.</p> + +<p>Among the many memories of that coast which gave me a vision of the +land question as it affected the people in those days, one in +particular has always remained with me. We had made a big catch in a +certain bay, a perfectly beautiful inlet. To see if the local fishermen +could find a market within reach of these fishing grounds, with one of +the crew, and the fish packed in boxes, we sailed up the inlet to the +market town of Bell Mullet. Being Saturday, we found a market day in +progress, and buyers, who, encouraged by one of the new Government +light railways, were able to purchase our fish. That evening, however, +when halfway home, a squall suddenly struck our own lightened boat, +which was rigged with one large lugsail, and capsized her. By swimming +and manœuvring the boat, we made land on the low, muddy flats. No +house was in sight, and it was not until long after dark that we two +shivering masses of mud reached an isolated cabin in the middle of a +patch of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>redeemed ground right in the centre of a large bog. A +miserably clad woman greeted us with a warm Irish welcome. The house +had only one room and accommodated the live-stock as well as the +family. A fine cow stood in one corner; a donkey tied to the foot of +the bed was patiently looking down into the face of the baby. Father +was in England harvesting. A couple of pigs lay under the bed, and the +floor space was still further encroached upon by a goodly number of +chickens, which were encouraged by the warmth of the peat fire. They +not only thought it their duty to emphasize our welcome, but—misled by +the firelight—were saluting the still far-off dawn. The resultant +emotions which we experienced during the night led us to suggest that +we might assist toward the erection of a cattle pen. Before leaving, +however, we were told, "Shure t' rint would be raised in the fall," if +such signs of prosperity as farm buildings greeted the land agent's +arrival.</p> + +<p>The mouth of Loch Foyle, one of the most beautiful bays in Ireland, +gave us a fine return in fish. Especially I remember the magnificent +turbot which we took off the wild shore between the frowning basalt +cliffs of the Giant's Causeway, and the rough headlands of Loch Swilly. +We sold our fish in the historic town of Londonderry, where we saw the +old gun Mons Meg, which once so successfully roared for King William, +still in its place on the old battlements. By a packet steamer plying +to Glasgow, we despatched some of the catch to that greedy market. At +Loch Foyle there is a good expanse of sandy and mud bottom which nurses +quite a harvest of the sea, though—oddly enough—close by off Rathlin +Island is the only water over one hundred fathoms deep until the +Atlantic Basin is reached. The Irish Sea like the North Sea is all +shallow water. Crossing to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>Isle of Man, we delayed there only a +short while, for those grounds are well known to the Fleetwood +trawlers, who supply so much fish to the dense population of North +Central England. We found little opportunity of trawling off the west +of Scotland, the ocean's bottom being in no way suited to it. On +reaching the Western Hebrides, however, we were once more among many +old friends. From Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis alone some nine +hundred drifters were pursuing the retreating armies of herring.</p> + +<p>The German hordes have taught us to think of life in large numbers, but +were the herring to elect a Kaiser, he would dominate in reality an +absolutely indestructible host. For hundreds of years fishermen of all +countries have without cessation been pursuing these friends of +mankind. For centuries these inexhaustible hordes have followed their +long pathways of the sea, swimming by some strange instinct always more +or less over the same courses—ever with their tireless enemies, both +in and out of the water, hot foot on their tracks. Sharks, dog-fish, +wolf-fish, cod, and every fish large enough to swallow them, gulls, +divers, auks, and almost every bird of the air, to say nothing of the +nets set now from steam-propelled ships, might well threaten their +speedy extermination. This is especially true when we remember that +even their eggs are preyed upon in almost incalculable bulk as soon as +they are deposited. But phœnix-like they continue to reappear in +such vast quantities that they are still the cheapest food on the +market. Such huge numbers are caught at one time that they have now and +again to be used for fertilizer, or dumped overboard into the sea. The +great bay of Stornaway Harbour was so deeply covered in oil from the +fish while we lay there, that the sailing boats raced to and fro before +fine breezes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>and yet the wind could not even ripple the surface of the +sea, as if at last millennial conditions had materialized. Many times +we saw nets which had caught such quantities of fish at once that they +had sunk to the bottom. They were only rescued with great difficulty, +and then the fish were so swollen by being drowned in the net that it +took hours of hard work and delay to shake their now distended bodies +out again.</p> + +<p>The opportunities for both holding simple religious services and +rendering medical help from our dispensary were numerous, and we +thought sufficiently needed to call for some sort of permanent effort; +so later the Society established a small mission room in the harbour.</p> + +<p>Alcohol has always been a menace to Scotch life, though their fishermen +were singularly free from rioting and drunkenness. Indeed, their +home-born piety was continually a protest to the indulgence of the +mixed crowd which at that time followed King Henry. Scores of times +have I seen a humble crew of poor fishermen, who themselves owned their +small craft, observing the Sunday as if they were in their homes, while +the skippers of large vessels belonging to others fished all the week +round at the beck of their absent owners, thinking they made more money +in that way.</p> + +<p>In 1891 the present Lord Southborough, then Mr. Francis Hopwood, and a +member of the Mission Board, returned from a visit to Canada and +Newfoundland. He brought before the Council the opportunities for +service among the fishermen of the northwest Atlantic, and the +suggestion was handed on to me in the form of a query. Would I consider +crossing the Atlantic in one of our small sailing vessels, and make an +inquiry into the problem?</p> + +<p>Some of my older friends have thought that my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>decision to go was made +under strong religious excitement, and in response to some deep-seated +conviction that material sacrifices or physical discomforts commended +one to God. I must, however, disclaim all such lofty motives. I have +always believed that the Good Samaritan went across the road to the +wounded man just because he wanted to. I do not believe that he felt +any sacrifice or fear in the matter. If he did, I know very well that I +did not. On the contrary, there is everything about such a venture to +attract my type of mind, and making preparations for the long voyage +was an unmitigated delight.</p> + +<p>The boat which I selected was ketch-rigged—much like a yawl, but more +comfortable for lying-to in heavy weather, the sail area being more +evenly distributed. Her freeboard being only three feet, we replaced +her wooden hatches, which were too large for handling patients, by iron +ones; and also sheathed her forward along the water-line with +greenheart to protect her planking in ice. For running in high seas we +put a large square sail forward, tripping the yard along the foremast, +much like a spinnaker boom. Having a screw steering gear which took two +men to handle quickly enough when she yawed and threatened to jibe in a +big swell, it proved very useful.</p> + +<p>It was not until the spring of 1892 that we were ready to start. We had +secured a master with a certificate, for though I was myself a master +mariner, and my mate had been in charge of our vessel in the North Sea +for many years, we had neither of us been across the Atlantic before. +The skipper was a Cornishman, Trevize by name, and a martinet on +discipline—an entirely new experience to a crew of North Sea +fishermen. He was so particular about everything being just so that +quite a few days were lost in starting, though well spent as far as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>preparedness went. Nothing was wanting when at last, in the second week +of June, the tugboat let us go, and crowds of friends waved us good-bye +from the pier-head as we passed out with our bunting standing. We had +not intended to touch land again until it should rise out of the +western horizon, but off the south coast of Ireland we met with heavy +seas and head winds, so we ran into Crookhaven to visit our colleagues +who worked at that station. Our old patients in that lonely corner were +almost as interested as ourselves in the new venture, and many were the +good eggs and "meals of greens" which they brought down to the ship as +parting tokens. Indeed, we shrewdly guessed that our "dry" principles +alone robbed us of more than "one drop o' potheen" whose birth the +light of the moon had witnessed.</p> + +<p>As we were not fortunate in encountering fair winds, it was not until +the twelfth day that we saw our first iceberg, almost running into it +in a heavy fog. The fall in the temperature of the sea surface had +warned us that we were in the cold current, and three or four days of +dense fog emphasized the fact. As it was midsummer, we felt the change +keenly, when suddenly on the seventeenth day the fog lifted, and a high +evergreen-crowned coast-line greeted our delighted eyes. A lofty +lighthouse on a rocky headland enabled us almost immediately to +discover our exact position. We were just a little north of St. John's +Harbour, which, being my first landfall across the Atlantic, impressed +me as a really marvellous feat; but what was our surprise as we +approached the high cliffs which guard the entrance to see dense +columns of smoke arising, and to feel the offshore wind grow hotter and +hotter as the pilot tug towed us between the headlands. For the third +time in its history the city of St. John's was in flames.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>The heat was fierce when we at last anchored, and had the height of the +blaze not passed, we should certainly have been glad to seek again the +cool of our icy friends outside. Some ships had even been burned at +their anchors. We could count thirteen fiercely raging fires in various +parts of the city, which looked like one vast funeral pyre. Only the +brick chimneys of the houses remained standing blackened and charred. +Smoke and occasional flame would burst out here and there as the fickle +eddies of wind, influenced, no doubt, by the heat, whirled around as if +in sport over the scene of man's discomfitures. On the hillside stood a +solitary house almost untouched, which, had there been any reason for +its being held sacred, might well have served as a demonstration of +Heaven's special intervention in its behalf. As it was, it seemed to +mock the still smouldering wreck of the beautiful stone cathedral just +beside it. Among the ruins in this valley of desolation little groups +of men darted hither and thither, resembling from the harbour nothing +so much as tiny black imps gloating over a congenial environment. I +hope never again to see the sight that might well have suggested +Gehenna to a less active imagination than Dante's.</p> + +<p>Huts had been erected in open places to shelter the homeless; long +queues of hungry human beings defiled before temporary booths which +served out soup and other rations. Every nook and corner of house-room +left was crowded to overflowing with derelict persons and their +belongings. The roads to the country, like those now in the environs of +the towns in northern France, were dotted with exiles and belated +vehicles, hauling in every direction the remnants of household goods. +The feeling as of a rudely disturbed antheap dominated one's mind, and +yet, in spite of it all, the hospitality and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>welcome which we as +strangers received was as wonderful as if we had been a relief ship +laden with supplies to replace the immense amount destroyed in the +ships and stores of the city. Moreover, the cheerfulness of the town +was amazing. Scarcely a "peep" or "squeal" did we hear, and not a +single diatribe against the authorities. Every one had suffered +together. Nor was it due to any one's fault. True, the town +water-supply had been temporarily out of commission, some stranger was +said to have been smoking in the hay loft, Providence had not specially +intervened to save property, and hence this result. Thus to our relief +it was a city of hope, not of despair, and to our amazement they were +able to show most kindly interest in problems such as ours which seemed +so remote at the moment. None of us will ever forget their kindness, +from the Governor Sir Terence O'Brien, and the Prime Minister, Sir +William Whiteway, to the humblest stevedore on the wharves.</p> + +<p>I had expected to spend the greater part of our time cruising among the +fishing schooners out of sight of land on the big Banks as we did in +the North Sea; but I was advised that owing to fog and isolation, each +vessel working separately and bringing its own catch to market, it +would be a much more profitable outlay of time, if we were to follow +the large fleet of over one hundred schooners, with some thirty +thousand fishermen, women, and children which had just sailed North for +summer work along the coast of Labrador. To better aid us the +Government provided a pilot free of expense, and their splendid +Superintendent of Fisheries, Mr. Adolph Nielsen, also accepted the +invitation to accompany us, to make our experiment more exhaustive and +valuable by a special scientific inquiry into the habits and manner of +the fish as well as of the fishermen. Naturally a good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>deal of delay +had occurred owing to the unusual congestion of business which needed +immediate attention and the unfortunate temporary lack of facilities; +but we got under way at last, and sailing "down North" some four +hundred miles and well outside the land, eventually ran in on a +parallel and made the Labrador coast on the 4th of August.</p> + +<p>The exhilarating memory of that day is one which will die only when we +do. A glorious sun shone over an oily ocean of cerulean blue, over a +hundred towering icebergs of every fantastic shape, and flashing all of +the colours of the rainbow from their gleaming pinnacles as they rolled +on the long and lazy swell. Birds familiar and strange left the dense +shoals of rippling fish, over which great flocks were hovering and +quarrelling in noisy enjoyment, to wave us welcome as they swept in +joyous circles overhead.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Twenty years have passed away since that day, and a thousand more +important affairs which have occurred in the meantime have faded from +my memory; but still its events stand out clear and sharp. The large +and lofty island, its top covered with green verdure, so wonderful a +landmark from the sea, its peaks capped with the fleecy mist of early +morning, rose in a setting of the purest azure blue. For the first time +I saw the faces of its ruddy cliffs, their ledges picked out with the +homes of myriad birds. Its feet were bathed in the dark, rich green of +the Atlantic water, edged by the line of pure white breakers, where the +gigantic swell lazily hurled immeasurable mountains of water against +its titanic bastions, evoking peals of sound like thunder from its +cavernous recesses—a very riot of magnificence. The great schools of +whales, noisily slapping the calm surface of the sea with their huge +tails as in an <i>abandon</i> of joy, dived and rose, and at times threw the +whole of their mighty carcasses right out of water for a bath in the +glorious morning sunshine. The shoals of fish everywhere breaching the +water, and the silver streaks which flashed beneath our bows as we +lazed along, suggested that the whole vast ocean was too small to hold +its riches.</p> + +<p>When we realized that practically no man had ever lived there, and few +had even seen it, it seemed to overwhelm us, coming as we did from the +crowded Island of our birth, where notices not to trespass haunted even +the dreams of the average man.</p> + +<p>A serried rank of range upon range of hills, reaching <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>north and south +as far as the eye could see from the masthead, was rising above our +horizon behind a very surfeit of islands, bewildering the minds of men +accustomed to our English and North Sea coast-lines.</p> + +<p>In a ship just the size of the famous Matthew, we had gone west, +following almost the exact footsteps of the great John Cabot when just +four hundred years before he had fared forth on his famous venture of +discovery. We seemed now almost able to share the exhilaration which +only such experiences can afford the human soul, and the vast potential +resources for the blessing of humanity of this great land still +practically untouched.</p> + +<p>At last we came to anchor among many schooners in a wonderful natural +harbour called Domino Run, so named because the Northern fleets all +pass through it on their way North and South. Had we been painted +scarlet, and flown the Black Jack instead of the Red Ensign, we could +not have attracted more attention. Flags of greeting were run up to all +mastheads, and boats from all sides were soon aboard inquiring into the +strange phenomenon. Our object explained, we soon had calls for a +doctor, and it has been the experience of almost every visitor to the +coast from that day to this that he is expected to have a knowledge of +medicine.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep120" id="imagep120"></a> +<a href="images/imagep120a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep120a.jpg" width="60%" alt="The Labrador Coast: Cape Uivuk" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Cape Uivuk</p> + +<a href="images/imagep120b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep120b.jpg" width="60%" alt="The Labrador Coast: The Tickle Anchorage" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">The Tickle Anchorage</p> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE LABRADOR COAST<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>One impression made on my mind that day undoubtedly influenced all my +subsequent actions. Late in the evening, when the rush of visitors was +largely over, I noticed a miserable bunch of boards, serving as a boat, +with only a dab of tar along its seams, lying motionless a little way +from us. In it, sitting silent, was a half-clad, brown-haired, +brown-faced figure. After long hesitation, during which time I had been +watching him from the rail, he suddenly asked:</p> + +<p>"Be you a real doctor?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>"That's what I call myself," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Us hasn't got no money," he fenced, "but there's a very sick man +ashore, if so be you'd come and see him."</p> + +<p>A little later he led me to a tiny sod-covered hovel, compared with +which the Irish cabins were palaces. It had one window of odd fragments +of glass. The floor was of pebbles from the beach; the earth walls were +damp and chilly. There were half a dozen rude wooden bunks built in +tiers around the single room, and a group of some six neglected +children, frightened by our arrival, were huddled together in one +corner. A very sick man was coughing his soul out in the darkness of a +lower bunk, while a pitiably covered woman gave him cold water to sip +out of a spoon. There was no furniture except a small stove with an +iron pipe leading through a hole in the roof.</p> + +<p>My heart sank as I thought of the little I could do for the sufferer in +such surroundings. He had pneumonia, a high fever, and was probably +tubercular. The thought of our attractive little hospital on board at +once rose to my mind; but how could one sail away with this husband and +father, probably never to bring him back. Advice, medicine, a few +packages of food were only temporizing. The poor mother could never +nurse him and tend the family. Furthermore, their earning season, +"while the fish were in," was slipping away. To pray for the man, and +with the family, was easy, but scarcely satisfying. A hospital and a +trained nurse was the only chance for this bread-winner—and neither +was available.</p> + +<p>I called in a couple of months later as we came South before the +approach of winter. Snow was already on the ground. The man was dead +and buried; there was no provision whatever for the family, who were +destitute, except for the hollow mockery of a widow's grant of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>twenty +dollars a year. This, moreover, had to be taken up in goods at a truck +store, less debts <i>if</i> she owed any.</p> + +<p>Among the nine hundred patients that still show on the records of that +long-ago voyage, some stand out more than others for their peculiar +pathos and their utter helplessness. I shall never forget one poor +Eskimo. In firing a cannon to salute the arrival of the Moravian +Mission ship, the gun exploded prematurely, blowing off both the man's +arms below the elbows. He had been lying on his back for a fortnight, +the pathetic stumps covered only with far from sterile rags dipped in +cold water. We remained some days, and did all we could for his +benefit; but he too joined the great host that is forever "going west," +for want of what the world fails to give them.</p> + +<p>It is not given to every member of our profession to enjoy the +knowledge that he alone stands between the helpless and suffering or +death, for in civilization modern amenities have almost annihilated +space and time, and the sensations of the Yankee at the Court of King +Arthur are destroyed by the realization of competitors, "just as good," +even if it often does leave one conscious of limitations. The +successful removal of a molar which has given torture for weeks in a +dentistless country, gains one as much gratitude as the amputation of a +limb. One mere boy came to me with necrosis of one side of his lower +jaw due to nothing but neglected toothache. It had to be dug out from +the new covering of bone which had grown up all around it. The +whimsical expression of his lop-sided face still haunts me.</p> + +<p>Deformities went untreated. The crippled and blind halted through life, +victims of what "the blessed Lord saw best for them." The torture of an +ingrowing toe-nail, which could be relieved in a few minutes, had +incapacitated one poor father for years. Tuberculosis and rickets +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>carried on their evil work unchecked. Preventable poverty was the +efficient handmaid of these two latter diseases.</p> + +<p>There was also much social work to be done in connection with the +medical. Education in every one of its branches—especially public +health—was almost nonexistent—as were many simple social amenities +which might have been so easily induced.</p> + +<p>At one village a woman with five children asked us if we could marry +her to her husband. They had never been together when a parson happened +along, and they now lived in a lonely cove three miles away. This +seemed a genuine case of distress; and as it happened a parson was +taking a passage with us, we sent two of our crew over in a boat to +round up the groom. Apparently he was not at all anxious, but being a +very small man and she a large woman, he discreetly acquiesced. The +wedding was held on board our ship, every one entering into the spirit +of the unusual occasion. The main hold was crammed with guests, bells +were rung and flags flown, guns fired, and at night distress rockets +were sent up. We kept in touch with the happy couple for years, till +once more they moved away to try their luck elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Obviously the coast offered us work that would not be done unless we +did it. Here was real need along any line on which one could labour, in +a section of our own Empire, where the people embodied all our best sea +traditions. They exhibited many of the attractive characteristics +which, even when buried beneath habits and customs the outcome of their +environment, always endear men of the sea to the genuine Anglo-Saxon. +They were uncomplaining, optimistic, splendidly resourceful, cheerful +and generous—and after all in one sense soap and water only makes the +outside of the platter clean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>I confess that we had greatly enjoyed the adventure <i>qua</i> adventure. +Mysterious fjords which wound out of sight into the fastnesses of +unknown mountains, and which were entirely uncharted, fairly shouted an +invitation to enter and discover what was round the next corner. +Islands by the hundred, hitherto never placed on any map, challenged +one's hydrographic skill. Families of strange birds, which came +swinging seaward as the season advanced, suggested a virgin field for +hunting. Berries and flowering plants, as excellent as they were +unfamiliar, appealed for exploration. Great boulders perched on +perilous peaks, torn and twisted strata, with here and there raised +beaches, and great outcrops of black trap-rock piercing through red +granite cliffs in giant vertical seams—all piqued one's curiosity to +know the geology of this unknown land. Some stone arrow-heads and +knives, brought to me by a fisherman, together with the memories that +the Norse Vikings and their competitors on the scroll of discovery made +their first landfall on this the nearest section of the American coast +to Europe, excited one's curiosity to know more of these shores. The +dense growth of evergreen trees abounding in every river valley, and +the exquisite streams with trout and salmon and seals attracted one +whose familiarity with sport and forests was inseparably connected with +notices to trespassers.</p> + +<p>It only wanted an adventure such as we had one day while sailing up a +fjord on a prosaic professional call, when we upset our cutter and had +to camp for the night, to give spice to our other experiences, and made +us wish to return another year, better equipped, and with a more +competent staff.</p> + +<p>I am far from being the only person from the outside world who has +experienced what Wallace describes as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>"the Lure of the Labrador." It +was a genuine surprise to me one morning to find ice on deck—a scale +of sparkling crystals most beautifully picking out the water-line of +our little craft. It was only then that I realized that October had +come. The days, so full of incident, had passed away like ships in the +night. Whither away was the question? We could not stay even though we +felt the urgent call to remain. So "Heigho for the southward bar" and a +visit to St. John's to try and arouse interest in the new-discovered +problems, before we should once more let go our stern lines and be +bowling homeward before the fall nor'westers to dear old England.</p> + +<p>Home-going craft had generously carried our story before us to the city +of St. John's. The Board of Trade commended our effort. The papers had +written of the new phenomenon; the politicians had not refrained from +commendation. His Excellency the Governor made our path plain by +calling a meeting in Government House, where the following resolution +was passed:</p> + +<p>"That this meeting, representing the principal merchants and traders +carrying on the fisheries, especially on the Labrador coast, and others +interested in the welfare of this colony, desires to tender its warmest +thanks to the directors of the Deep-Sea Mission for sending their +hospital ship Albert to visit the settlement on the Labrador coast.</p> + +<p>"Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions beyond the +ordinary reach of medical aid, or of charity, and it is with the +deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount of +medical and surgical work done....</p> + +<p>"This meeting also desires to express the hope that the directors may +see their way to continue the work thus begun, and should they do so, +they may be assured <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>of the earnest coöperation of all classes of this +community."</p> + +<p>When at last we said good-bye on our homeward voyage, our cabins were +loaded with generous souvenirs for the journey, and no king on his +throne was happier than every man of the crew of the good ship Albert.</p> + +<p>Our report to the Council in London, followed by the resolution sent by +the Newfoundland Committee, induced the Society to repeat the +experiment on a larger scale the following spring. Thus, with two young +doctors, Elliott Curwen of Cambridge and Arthur Bobardt from Australia, +and two nurses, Miss Cawardine and Miss Williams, we again set out the +following June.</p> + +<p>The voyage was uneventful except that I was nearly left behind in +mid-Atlantic. While playing cricket on deck our last ball went over the +side, and I after it, shouting to the helmsman to tack back. This he +did, but I failed to cut him off the first time, as he got a bit +rattled. However, we rescued the ball.</p> + +<p>We had chosen two islands two hundred miles apart for cottage +hospitals, one at Battle Harbour, on the north side of the entrance of +the St. Lawrence (Straits of Belle Isle), and the other at Indian +Harbour, out in the Atlantic at the mouth of the great Hamilton Inlet. +Both places were the centres of large fisheries, and were the +"bring-ups" for numberless schooners of the Labrador fleet on their way +North and South. The first, a building already half finished, was +donated by a local fishery firm by the name of Baine, Johnston and +Company. This was quickly made habitable, and patients were admitted +under Dr. Bobardt's care. The second building, assembled at St. John's, +was shipped by the donors, who were the owners of the Indian Harbour +fishery, Job Brothers and Company. Owing to difficulties in landing, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>this building was not completed and ready for use until the following +year, so Dr. Curwen took charge of the hospital ship Albert, and I +cruised as far north as Okkak (lat. 57°) in the Princess May, a midget +steam launch, eight feet wide, with a cook and an engineer. As there +was no coal obtainable in the North, we used wood, and her fire-box +being small the amount of cutting entailed left a permanent impression +on our biceps.</p> + +<p>A friend from Ireland had presented this little boat, which I found +lying up on the Chester Race-Course, near our home on the Sands of Dee. +We had repaired her and steamed her through the canal into the Mersey, +where, somewhat to our humiliation, she had been slung up onto the deck +of an Allan liner for her trans-Atlantic passage, as if she were +nothing but an extra hand satchel. Nor was our pride restored when on +her arrival it was found that her funnel was missing among the general +baggage in the hold. We had to wait in St. John's for a new one before +starting on our trip North. The close of the voyage proved a fitting +corollary. In crossing the Straits of Belle Isle, the last boat to +leave the Labrador, we ran short of fuel, and had to burn our cabin-top +to make the French shore, having also lost our compass overboard. Here +we delayed repairing and refitting so long that the authorities in St. +John's became alarmed and despatched their mail steamer in search of +us. I still remember my astonishment, when, on boarding the steamer, +the lively skipper, a very tender-hearted father of a family, threw +both arms around me with a mighty hug and exclaimed, "Thank God, we all +thought you were gone. A schooner picked up your flagpole at sea." Poor +fellow, he was a fine Christian seaman, but only a year or two later he +perished with his large steamer while I still rove this rugged coast.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>That summer we visited the stations of the Moravian Brethren, who were +kindness personified to us. Their stations, five in number, dated back +over a hundred and thirty years, yet they had never had a doctor among +them. It would scarcely be modest for me to protest that they were the +worse off for that circumstance. Each station was well armed with +homœopathic pills, and at least those do no harm; while one old +German house-father had really performed with complete success +craniotomy and delivery of a child <i>en morcellement</i>, in the case of a +colleague's wife. During our stay they gave us plenty of work among +their Eskimos, and were good enough to report most favourably of our +work to their home Committee.</p> + +<p>As there was no chart of any use for the coast north of Hopedale, few +if any corrections having been made in the topographic efforts of the +long late Captain Cook, of around-the-world reputation, one of the +Brethren, Mr. Christopher Schmidt, joined the Princess May to help me +find their northern stations among the plethora of islands which fringe +the coast in that vicinity. Never in my life had I expected any journey +half so wonderful. We travelled through endless calm fjords, runs, +tickles, bays, and straits without ever seeing the open sea, and with +hardly a ripple on the surface. We passed high mountains and lofty +cliffs, crossed the mouths of large rivers, left groves of spruce and +fir and larches on both sides of us, and saw endless birds, among them +the Canada goose, eider duck, surf scoters, and many commoner sea-fowl. +As it was both impossible and dangerous to proceed after dark, when no +longer able to run we would go ashore and gather specimens of the +abundant and beautiful sub-arctic flora, and occasionally capture a +bird or a dish of trout to help out our diminutive larder.</p> + +<div class="imgl" style="width: 45%;"><a name="imagep128a" id="imagep128a"></a> +<a href="images/imagep128a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep128a.jpg" width="88%" alt="Eskimo Woman and Baby" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ESKIMO WOMAN AND BABY</p> +</div> + +<div class="imgr" style="width: 45%;"><a name="imagep128b" id="imagep128b"></a> +<a href="images/imagep128b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep128b.jpg" width="95%" alt="Eskimo Man" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ESKIMO MAN<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p style="clear: both;"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>Among the Eskimos I found a great deal of tuberculosis and much eye +trouble. Around the Moravian Mission stations wooden houses had largely +replaced the former "tubiks," or skin tents, which were moved as +occasion required and so provided for sanitation. These wooden huts +were undrained, dark and dirty to a remarkable degree. No water supply +was provided, and the spaces between the houses were simply +indescribable garbage heaps, presided over by innumerable dogs. The +average life was very short and infant mortality high. The best for +which we could hope in the way of morals among these people was that a +natural unmorality was some offset to the existing conditions. The +features of the native life which appealed most to us were the +universal optimism, the laughing good-nature and contentment, and the +Sunday cleanliness of the entire congregation which swarmed into the +chapel service, a welcome respite from the perennial dirt of the week +days. Moreover, nearly all had been taught to read and write in Eskimo, +though there is no literature in that language to read, except such +books as have been translated by the Moravian Brethren. At that time a +strict policy of teaching no English had been adopted. Words lacking in +the language, like "God," "love," etc., were substituted by German +words. Nearly every Eskimo counted "ein, zwei, drei." In one of my +lectures, on returning to England, I mentioned that as the Eskimos had +never seen a lamb or a sheep either alive or in a picture, the +Moravians, in order to offer them an intelligible and appealing simile, +had most wisely substituted the kotik, or white seal, for the phrase +"the Lamb of God." One old lady in my audience must have felt that the +good Brethren were tampering unjustifiably with Holy Writ, for the +following summer, from the barrels of clothing sent out to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>Labrador, was extracted a dirty, distorted, and much-mangled and wholly +sorry-looking woolly toy lamb. Its <i>raison d'être</i> was a mystery until +we read the legend carefully pinned to one dislocated leg, "Sent in +order that the heathen may know better."</p> + +<p>Their love for music and ability to do part-playing and singing also +greatly impressed us, and we spent many evenings enjoying their brass +bands and their Easter and Christmas carols. We made some records of +these on our Edison phonograph, and they were overpowered with joy when +they heard their own voices coming back to them from the machine. The +magic lantern also proved exceedingly popular, and several tried to +touch the pictures and see if they could not hold them. We were also +able to show some hastily made lantern slides of themselves, and I +shall never forget their joyful excitement. The following season, in +giving them some lantern views, we chanced to show a slide of an old +Eskimo woman who had died during the winter. The subsequent commotion +caused among the "little people" was unintelligible to us until one of +the Moravian Brethren explained that they thought her spirit had taken +visible form and returned to her own haunts.</p> + +<p>I happened to be in the gardens at Nain when a northerly air made it +feel chilly and the thermometer stood only a little above freezing. A +troop of Eskimo women came out to cover up the potatoes. Every row of +potatoes is covered with arched sticks and long strips of canvas along +them. A huge roll of sacking is kept near each row and the whole is +drawn over and the potatoes are tucked in bed for the night. I could +not resist the temptation to lift the bedclothes and shake hands and +say good-night to one of the nearest plants, whereat the merry little +people went off into convulsions of laughter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>At Hopedale there was a large Danish ship with over six hundred tons of +cargo for the new Moravian buildings. The Brethren do not build as we +are doing from coast material. In order to save time and also to have +more substantial buildings, they are cut out and built in Germany, +photographed, and each piece marked. Then they are taken to pieces, +shipped, and sent out here for erection.</p> + +<p>Some years ago in Germany, when the Socialists were wearing beards and +mustaches, all respectable people used to shave. Therefore the +missionaries being Germans insisted on the Eskimos shaving as they did. +The result is that at one store at least a stock of ancient razors are +left on hand, for now neither missionary nor Eskimo shaves in the +inhospitable climate of this country. A small stock of these razors +was, therefore, left on my account in some graves from which one or two +Eskimos were good enough to go and get us a few ancient stone +implements. It is a marvellous thing how superstition still clings +around the very best of native Christian communities.</p> + +<p>The Moravian Mission is a trading mission. This trading policy in some +aspects is in its favour. It is unquestionably part of a message of +real love to a brother to put within his reach at reasonable rates +those adjuncts of civilized life that help to make less onerous his +hard lot. Trade, however, is always a difficult form of charity, and +the barter system, common to this coast, being in vogue at the Moravian +Mission stations also, practically every Eskimo was in debt to them. In +reality this caused a vicious circle, for it encouraged directly the +outstanding fault of the Eskimo, his readiness to leave the morrow to +care for itself so long as he does not starve to-day. Like a race of +children, they need the stimulus of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>necessity to make them get out and +do their best while the opportunity exists. In the past twenty-six +years I have made many voyages to one and another of the stations of +the Brethren, and have learned to love them all very sincerely as +individuals, though their mission policies are their own and not mine.</p> + +<p>I remember once in Nain the slob ice had already made ballicaters and +the biting cold of winter so far north had set in with all its vigour. +There was a heavy sea and a gale of wind. One of two boats which had +been out all day had not come in. The sea was so rough and the wind so +strong that the occupants of the first boat could not face it, and so +had run in under the land and walked all the way round, towing their +boat by a long line from the shore. Night came on and the second boat +had not appeared. Next morning the Nain folk knew that some accident +must have happened. Some men reported that the evening before they had +seen through a glass the boat trying to beat against the storm, and +then disappear. The Eskimos gathered together to see what could be done +and then decided that it was kismet—and went their way. The following +evening a tiny light was seen on the far shore of the bay—some one +must be alive there. There was no food or shelter there, and it was +obvious that help was needed. The gale was still blowing in fury and +the sea was as rough as ever, and Eskimos and missionaries decided that +in their unseaworthy boats they could do nothing. There was one +dissentient voice—Brother Schmidt; and he went and rescued them. One +was nearly spent. When their boat had capsized, one man, a woman, and a +lad had been drowned, but two men had succeeded in getting into their +kajaks and floated off when the disaster happened.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep132" id="imagep132"></a> +<a href="images/imagep132a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep132a.jpg" width="70%" alt="Eskimo Girls 1" /></a><br /> + +<a href="images/imagep132b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep132b.jpg" width="70%" alt="Eskimo Girls 2" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ESKIMO GIRLS<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>With October came the necessity for returning South, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>and the long dark +nights spent at the little fishing stations as we journeyed from place +to place proved all too short. The gatherings for lantern meetings, for +simple services, for spinning yarns, together with medicine and such +surgery as we could accomplish under the circumstances, made every +moment busy and enjoyable. One outstanding feature, however, everywhere +impressed an Englishman—the absolute necessity for some standard +medium of exchange. Till one has seen the truck system at work, its +evil effects in enslaving and demoralizing the poor are impossible to +realize.</p> + +<p>All the length and breadth of the coast, the poorer people would show +me their "settling up" as they called their account, though many never +got as far as having any "settling up" given them—so they lived and +died in debt to their merchant. They never knew the independence of a +dollar in their pockets and the consequent incentive and value of +thrift.</p> + +<p>It was incredible to me that even large concerns like the Hudson Bay +Company would not pay in cash for valuable furs, and that so many +dealers in the necessities of life should be still able to hold free +men in economic bondage. It seemed a veritable chapter from "Through +the Looking Glass," to hear the "grocer" and "haberdasher" talking of +"my people," meaning their patrons, and holding over them the whip of +refusal to sell them necessities in their hour of need if at any time +they dealt with outsiders, however much to their advantage such a +course might be.</p> + +<p>This fact was first impressed upon me in an odd way. Early in the +summer an Eskimo had come aboard the hospital ship with a bear skin and +a few other furs to sell. We had not only been delighted with the +chance to buy them, but had spread them all around the cabin and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>taken +a picture of him in the middle. Later in the season, while showing my +photograph album to a trader, he had suddenly remarked, "Why, what's +—— doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Selling me some beautiful furs," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Oh! was he?" said the man. "I'll make him sing for selling the furs +for which I supplied him."</p> + +<p>It was no salve to his fretfulness when I assured him that I had paid +in good English gold, and that his "dealer" would be as honest with the +money as the system had made him. But the trader knew that the truck +system creates slippery, tricky men; and the fisherman openly declares +war on the merchant, making the most of his few opportunities to outwit +his opponent.</p> + +<p>A few years later a man brought a silver fox skin aboard my ship, just +such a one as I had been requested by an English lady to secure for +her. As fulfilling such a request would involve me in hostilities +(which, however, I do not think were useless), I asked the man, who was +wretchedly poor, if he owed the skin to the trader.</p> + +<p>"I am in debt," he replied, "but they will only allow me eight dollars +off my account for this skin, and I want to buy some food."</p> + +<p>"Very well," I answered. "If you will promise to go at once and pay +eight dollars off your debt, I will give you eight gold sovereigns for +this skin."</p> + +<p>To this he agreed, and faithfully carried out the agreement—while the +English lady scored a bargain, and I a very black mark in the books of +my friend the trader.</p> + +<p>On another occasion my little steamer had temporarily broken down, and +to save time I had journeyed on in the jolly-boat, leaving the cook to +steer the vessel after me. I wanted to visit a very poor family, one of +whose eight children I had taken to hospital for bone tuberculosis the +previous year, and to whom the Mission had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>made a liberal grant of +warm clothing. As the steamer had not come along by night, I had to +sleep in the tiny one-roomed shack which served as a home. True, since +it stood on the edge of the forest, there was little excuse that it was +no larger; but the father, a most excellent, honest, and faithful +worker, was obviously discouraged. He had not nearly enough proper food +for his family; clothing was even more at a discount; tools with which +to work were almost as lacking as in a cave man's dwelling; the whole +family was going to pieces from sheer discouragement. The previous +winter on the opposite bank of the same river, called Big River, a +neighbour had in desperation sent his wife and eldest boy out of the +house, killed his young family, and then shot himself.</p> + +<p>When night came five of the children huddled together for warmth in one +bed, and the parents and balance of the family in the other. I slept on +the floor near the door in my sleeping-bag, with my nose glued to the +crack to get a breath of God's cold air, in spite of the need for +warmth—for not a blanket did the house possess. When I asked, a little +hurt, where were the blankets which we had sent last year, the mother +somewhat indignantly pointed to various trousers and coats which +betrayed their final resting-place, and remarked, "If you'se had five +lads all trying to get under one covering to onct, Doctor, you'd soon +know what would happen to that blanket."</p> + +<p>Early in the morning I made a boiling of cocoa, and took the two elder +boys out for a seal hunt while waiting for my steamer. I was just in +time to see one boy carefully upset his mug of cocoa, when he thought I +was not looking, and replace it with cold spring water. "I 'lows I'se +not accustomed to no sweetness" was his simple explanation. It was raw +and damp as we rowed into the estuary at sunrise in search of the +seals. I was chilly even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>in a well-lined leather coat. But the two +shock-headed boys, clad in ancient cotton shirts, and with what had +once been only cotton overall jackets, were as jolly as crickets, and +apparently almost unduly warm. The Labrador has taught me one truth, +which as a physician I never forget, that is, coddling is the terrible +menace of civilization, and "to endure hardness" is the best +preparation for a "good soldier." On leaving, I promised to send to +those boys, whose contentment and cheerfulness greatly endeared them to +me, a dozen good fox traps in order to give them a chance for the +coming winter. Such a gift as those old iron rat traps seemed in their +eyes! When at last they arrived, and were really their own possessions, +no prince could have been prouder than they. The next summer as I +steamed North, we called in at D—— B——'s house. The same famine in +the land seemed to prevail; the same lack of apparently everything +which I should have wanted. But the old infective smile was still +presented with an almost religious ceremonial, and my friend produced +from his box a real silver fox skin. "I kept it for you'se, Doctor," he +said, "though us hadn't ne'er a bit in t' house. I know'd you'd do +better 'n we with he."</p> + +<p>I promised to try, and on my way called in at some northern islands +where my friend, Captain Bartlett, father of the celebrated "Captain +Bob" of North Pole fame, carried on a summer trade and fishery. He +himself was a great seal and cod fisherman, and a man known for his +generous sympathy for others.</p> + +<p>"Do your best for me, Captain Will," I asked as I handed over the +skin—and on coming South I found a complete winter diet laid out for +me to take to D—— B——'s little house. It was a veritable full load +for the small carrying capacity of my little craft.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>When we arrived at the house on the promontory, however, it was locked +up and the family gone. They were off fishing on the outer islands, so +all we could do was to break in the door, pile up the things inside, +bar it up again, affixing a notice warning off bears, dogs, and all +poachers, and advising Dick that it was the price of his pelt. In the +note we also told him to put all the fur he caught the following winter +in a barrel and "sit on it" till we came along, if he wanted a chance +to get ahead. This he did almost literally. We ourselves took his +barrel to the nearest cash buyer, and ordered for him goods for cash in +St. John's to the full amount realized. The fur brought more than his +needs, and he was able to help out neighbours by reselling at cash +prices. This he did till the day of his death, when he left me, as his +executor, with a couple of hundred good dollars in cash to divide among +his children.</p> + +<p>It was experiments like this which led me in later years to start the +small coöperative distributive stores, in spite of the knowledge of the +opposition and criticism it would involve. How can one preach the +gospel of love to a hungry people by sermons, or a gospel of healing to +underfed children by pills, while one feels that practical teaching in +home economics is what one would most wish if in their position? The +more broad-minded critics themselves privately acknowledged this to me. +One day a Northern furrier, an excellent and more intelligent man than +ordinary, came to me as a magistrate to insist that a trading company +keep its bargain by paying him in cash for a valuable fox skin. They +were trying to compel him to take flour and supplies from them at +prices far in excess of those at which he could purchase the goods in +St. John's, <i>via</i> the mail steamer.</p> + +<p>When asked to act as a justice of the peace for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>Colony, I had +thought it my duty to accept the responsibility. Already it had led me +into a good deal of trouble. But that I should be forced to seize the +large store of a company, and threaten an auction of goods for payment, +without even a policeman to back me up, had never entered my mind. It +was, however, exactly what I now felt called upon to do. To my intense +surprise and satisfaction the trader immediately turned round and said: +"You are quite right. The money shall be paid at once. The truck system +is a mistaken policy, and loses us many customers." It was Saturday +night. We had decided to have a service for the fishermen the next day, +but had no place in which to gather. Therefore, after we had settled +the business I took my pluck in my hands, and said:</p> + +<p>"It's Sunday to-morrow. Would you lend us your big room for prayers in +the morning?"</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly," he replied; and he was present himself and sang as +heartily as any man in the meeting. Nor did he lose a good customer on +account of his open-mindedness.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Since the publication of the book "Labrador, the Country and the +People," the means of transportation to the coast have been so improved +that each year brings us an increasing number of visitors to enjoy the +attractions of this sub-arctic land. So many misconceptions have +arisen, however, as to the country and its inhabitants, and one is so +often misrepresented as distorting conditions, that it seems wise at +this point to try and answer a few questions which are so familiar to +us who live on the coast as to appear almost negligible.</p> + +<p>The east coast of Labrador belongs to Newfoundland, and is not part of +the territory of Canada, although the ill-defined boundary between the +two possessions has given rise to many misunderstandings. Newfoundland +is an autonomous government, having its own Governor sent out from +England, Prime Minister, and Houses of Parliament in the city of St. +John's. Instead of being a province of Canada, as is often supposed, +and an arrangement which some of us firmly believe would result in the +ultimate good of the Newfoundlanders, it stands in the same +relationship to England as does the great Dominion herself. Labrador is +owned by Newfoundland, so that legally the Labradormen are +Newfoundlanders, though they have no representation in the Newfoundland +Government. At Blanc Sablon, on the north coast in the Straits of Belle +Isle, the Canadian Labrador begins, so far as the coast-line is +concerned. The hinterland of the Province of Ungava is also a Canadian +possession.</p> + +<p>The original natives of the Labrador were Eskimos <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>and bands of roving +Indians. The ethnologist would find fruitful opportunities in the +country. The Eskimos, one of the most interesting of primitive races, +have still a firm foothold in the North—chiefly around the five +stations of the Moravian Brethren, upon whose heroic work I need not +now dilate. The Montagnais Indians roam the interior. They are a branch +of the ancient Algonquin race who held North America as far west as the +Rockies. They are the hereditary foes of the Eskimos, whole settlements +of whom they have more than once exterminated. Gradually, with the +influx of white settlers from Devon and Dorset, from Scotland and +France, the "Innuits" were driven farther and farther north, until +there are only some fifteen hundred of them remaining to-day. Among +them the Moravians have been working for the past hundred and +thirty-five years. A few bands of Indians still continue to rove the +interior, occasionally coming out to the coast to dispose of their +furs, and obtain such meagre supplies as their mode of life requires. +The balance of the inhabitants of the country are white men of our own +blood and religion—men of the sea and dear to the Anglo-Saxon heart.</p> + +<p>During the past years it has been the experience of many of my +colleagues, as well as myself, that as soon as one mentions the fact +that part of our work is done on the north shore of Newfoundland, one's +audience loses interest, and there arises the question: "But +Newfoundland is a prosperous island. Why is it necessary to carry on a +charitable enterprise there?"</p> + +<p>There is a sharp demarcation between main or southern Newfoundland and +the long finger of land jutting northward, which at Cape Bauld splits +the polar current, so that the shores of the narrow peninsula are +continuously bathed in icy waters. The country is swept by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>biting +winds, and often for weeks enveloped in a chilly and dripping blanket +of fog. The climate at the north end of the northward-pointing finger +is more severe than on the Labrador side of the Straits. Indeed, my +friend, Mr. George Ford, for twenty-seven years factor of the Hudson +Bay Company at Nakvak, told me that even in the extreme north of +Labrador he never really knew what cold was until he underwent the +penetrating experience of a winter at St. Anthony. The Lapp reindeer +herders whom we brought over from Lapland, a country lying well north +of the Arctic Circle, after spending a winter near St. Anthony, told me +that they had never felt anything like that kind of cold, and that they +really could not put up with it! The climate of the actual Labrador is +clear, cold, and still, with a greater proportion of sunshine than the +northern peninsula of Newfoundland. As a matter of fact, our station at +St. Anthony is farther north and farther east than two of our hospitals +on the Labrador side of the Straits of Belle Isle. Along that north +side the gardens of the people are so good that their produce affords a +valuable addition to the diet—but not so here.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep140" id="imagep140"></a> +<a href="images/imagep140.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep140.jpg" width="95%" alt="Battle Harbour" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">BATTLE HARBOUR<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The dominant industry of the whole Colony is its fisheries—the +ever-recurrent pursuit of the luckless cod, salmon, herring, halibut, +and lobster in summer, and the seal fishery in the month of March. It +is increasingly difficult to overestimate the importance, not merely to +the British Empire, but to the entire world, of the invaluable +food-supply procured by the hardy fishermen of these northern waters. +Only the other day the captain of a patrol boat told me that he had +just come over from service on the North Sea, and in his opinion it +would be years before those waters could again be fished, owing to the +immense numbers of still active mines which would render such an +attempt disproportionately hazardous. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>From this point of view, if from +no other more disinterested angle, we owe a great and continuous debt +to the splendid people of Britain's oldest colony. It was among these +white fishermen that I came out to work primarily, the floating +population which every summer, some twenty thousand strong, visits the +coasts of Labrador; and later including the white resident settlers of +the Labrador and North Newfoundland coasts as well.</p> + +<p>The conditions prevailing among some of the people at the north end of +Newfoundland and of Labrador itself should not be confused with those +of their neighbours to the southward. Chronic poverty is, however, very +far from being universally prevalent in the northern district. Some of +the fishermen lead a comfortable, happy, and prosperous life; but my +old diaries, as well as my present observations, furnish all too many +instances in which families exist well within the danger-line of +poverty, ignorance, and starvation.</p> + +<p>The privations which the inhabitants of the French or Treaty shore and +of Labrador have had to undergo, and their isolation from so many of +the benefits of civilization, have had varying effects on the residents +of the coast to-day. While a resourceful and kindly, hardy and +hospitable people have been developed, yet one sometimes wonders +exactly into what era an inhabitant of say the planet Mars would place +our section of the North Country if he were to alight here some crisp +morning in one of his unearthly machines. For we are a reactionary +people in matters of religion and education; and our very "speech +betrays us," belonging as so many of its expressions do to the days +when the Pilgrims went up to Canterbury, or a certain Tinker wrote of +another and more distant pilgrimage to the City of Zion.</p> + +<p>The people are, naturally, Christians of a devout and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>simple faith. +The superstitions still found among them are attributable to the +remoteness of the country from the current of the world's thought, the +natural tendency of all seafaring people, and the fact that the days +when the forbears of these fishermen left "Merrie England" to seek a +living by the harvest of the sea, and finally settled on these rocky +shores, were those when witches and hobgoblins and charms and amulets +were accepted beliefs.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, to-day as a medical man one is startled to see a fox's or +wolf's head suspended by a cord from the centre, and to learn that it +will always twist the way from which the wind is going to blow. One man +had a barometer of this kind hanging from his roof, and explained that +the peculiar fact was due to the nature of the animals, which in life +always went to windward of others; but if you had a seal's head +similarly suspended, it would turn from the wind, owing to the timid +character of that creature. Moreover, it surprises one to be assured, +on the irrefutable and quite unquestioned authority of "old Aunt Anne +Sweetapple," that aged cats always become playful before a gale of wind +comes on.</p> + +<p>"I never gets sea boils," one old chap told me the other day.</p> + +<p>"How is that?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I always cuts my nails on a Monday, so I never has any."</p> + +<p>There is a great belief in fairies on the coast. A man came to me once +to cure what he was determined to believe was a balsam on his baby's +nose. The birthmark to him resembled that tree. More than one had given +currency if not credence to the belief that the reason why the +bull's-eye was so hard to hit in one of our running deer rifle matches +was that we had previously charmed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>it. If a woman sees a hare without +cutting out and keeping a portion of the dress she is then wearing, her +child will be born with a hare-lip.</p> + +<p>When stripping a patient for examination, I noticed that he removed +from his neck what appeared to be a very large scapular. I asked him +what it could be. It was a haddock's fin-bone—a charm against +rheumatism. The peculiarity of the fin consists in the fact that the +fish must be taken from the water and the fin cut out before the animal +touches anything whatever, especially the boat. Any one who has seen a +trawl hauled knows how difficult a task this would be, with the +jumping, squirming fish to cope with.</p> + +<p>Protestant and Catholic alike often sew up bits of paper, with prayers +written on them, in little sacks that are worn around the neck as an +amulet; and green worsted tied around the wrist is reported to be a +never-failing cure for hemorrhage.</p> + +<p>Every summer some twenty thousand fishermen travel "down North" in +schooners, as soon as ever the ice breaks sufficiently to allow them to +get along. They are the "Labrador fishermen," and they come from South +Newfoundland, from Nova Scotia, from Gloucester, and even Boston. Some +Newfoundlanders take their families down and leave them in summer tilts +on the land near the fishing grounds during the season. When fall comes +they pick them up again and start for their winter homes "in the +South," leaving only a few hundreds of scattered "Liveyeres" in +possession of the Labrador.</p> + +<p>We were much surprised one day to notice a family moving their house in +the middle of the fishing season, especially when we learned that the +reason was that a spirit had appropriated their dwelling.</p> + +<p>Stephen Leacock would have obtained much valuable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>data for his essay +on "How to Become a Doctor" if he had ever chanced to sail along "the +lonely Labrador." In a certain village one is confidently told of a +cure for asthma, as simple as it is infallible. It consists merely of +taking the tips of all one's finger-nails, carefully allowed to grow +long, and cutting them off with sharp scissors. In another section a +powder known as "Dragon's Blood" is very generally used as a plaster. +It appears quite inert and harmless. A little farther south along the +coast is a baby suffering from ophthalmia. The doctor has only been +called in because blowing sugar in its eyes has failed to cure it.</p> + +<p>A colleague of mine was visiting on his winter rounds in a delightful +village some forty miles south of St. Anthony Hospital. The "swiles" +(seals) had struck in, and all hands were out on the ice, eager to +capture their share of these valuable animals. But snow-blindness had +incontinently attacked the men, and had rendered them utterly unable to +profit by their good fortune. The doctor's clinic was long and busy +that night. The following morning he was, however, amazed to see many +of his erstwhile patients wending their way seawards, each with one eye +treated on his prescription, but the other (for safety's sake) doctored +after the long-accepted methods of the talent of the village—tansy +poultices and sugar being the acknowledged favourites. The consensus of +opinion obviously was that the stakes were too high for a man to offer +up both eyes on the altar of modern medicine.</p> + +<p>In the course of many years' practice the methods for the treatment and +extraction of offending molars which have come to my attention are +numerous, but none can claim a more prompt result than the following: +First you attach a stout, fine fish-line firmly to the tooth. Next <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>you +lash the other end to the latch of the door—we do not use knobs in +this country. You then make the patient stand back till there is a nice +tension on the line, when suddenly you make a feint as if to strike him +in the eye. Forgetful of the line, he leaps back to avoid the blow. +Result, painless extraction of the tooth, which should be found hanging +to the latch.</p> + +<p>Although there have been clergyman of the Church of England and +Methodist denominations on the coast for many years past—devoted and +self-sacrificing men who have done most unselfish work—still, their +visits must be infrequent. One of them told me in North Newfoundland +that once, when he happened to pass through a little village with his +dog team on his way South, the man of one house ran out and asked him +to come in. "Sorry I have no time," he replied. "Well, just come in at +the front door and out at the back, so we can say that a minister has +been in the house," the fisherman answered.</p> + +<p>Even to-day, to the least fastidious, the conditions of travel leave +much to be desired. The coastal steamers are packed far beyond their +sleeping or sitting capacity. On the upper deck of the best of these +boats I recall that there are two benches, each to accommodate four +people. The steamer often carries three hundred in the crowded season +of the fall of the year. One retires at night under the misapprehension +that the following morning will find these seats still available. On +ascending the companionway, however, one's gaze is met by a +heterogeneous collection of impedimenta. The benches are buried as +irretrievably as if they "had been carried into the midst of the sea." +Almost anything may have been piled on them, from bales of hay—among +which my wife once sat for two days—to the nucleus of a chicken farm, +destined, let us say, for the Rogues' Roost Bight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>As the sturdy little steamer noses her way into some picturesque +harbour and blows a lusty warning of her approach, small boats are seen +putting off from the shore and rowing or sculling toward her with +almost indecorous rapidity. Lean over the rail for a minute with me, +and watch the freight being unloaded into one of these bobbing little +craft. The hatch of the steamer is opened, a most unmusical winch +commences operations—and a sewing machine emerges <i>de profundis</i>. This +is swung giddily out over the sea by the crane and dropped on the +thwarts of the waiting punt. One shudders to think of the probably +fatal shock received by the vertebræ of that machine. One's sympathies, +however, are almost immediately enlisted in the interest and fortunes +of a young and voiceful pig, which, poised in the blue, unwillingly +experiences for the moment the fate of the coffin of the Prophet. Great +shouting ensues as a baby is carried down the ship's ladder and +deposited in the rocking boat. A bag of beans, of the variety known as +"haricot," is the next candidate. A small hole has been torn in a +corner of the burlap sack, out of which trickles a white and ominous +stream. The last article to join the galaxy is a tub of butter. By a +slight mischance the tub has "burst abroad," and the butter, a golden +and gleaming mass,—with unexpected consideration having escaped the +ministrations of the winch,—is passed from one pair of fishy hands to +another, till it finds a resting-place by the side of the now quiescent +pig.</p> + +<p>We pass out into the open again, bound for the next port of call. If +the weather chances to be "dirty," the sufferers from <i>mal-de-mer</i> lie +about on every available spot, be it floor or bench, and over these +prostrate forms must one jump as one descends to the dining-saloon for +lunch. It may be merely due to the special keenness of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>my professional +sense, but the apparent proportion of the halt, lame, and blind who +frequent these steamers appears out of all relation to the total +population of the coast. Across the table is a man with an enormous +white rag swathing his thumb. The woman next him looks out on a blue +and altered world from behind a bandaged eye. Beside one sits a young +fisherman, tenderly nursing his left lower jaw, his enjoyment of the +fact that his appetite is unimpaired by the vagaries of the North +Atlantic tempered by an unremitting toothache.</p> + +<p>But the cheerful kindliness and capability of the captain, the crew, +and the passengers, on whatever boat you may chance to travel, pervades +the whole ship like an atmosphere, and makes one forget any slight +discomfort in a justifiable pride that as an Anglo-Saxon one can claim +kinship to these "Vikings of to-day."</p> + +<p>Life is hard in White Bay. An outsider visiting there in the spring of +the year would come to the conclusion that if nothing further can be +done for these people to make a more generous living, they should be +encouraged to go elsewhere. The number of cases of tubercle, anæmia, +and dyspepsia, of beri-beri and scurvy, all largely attributable to +poverty of diet, is very great; and the relative poverty, even compared +with that of the countries which I have been privileged to visit, is +piteous. The solution of such a problem does not, however, lie in +removing a people from their environment, but in trying to make the +environment more fit for human habitation.</p> + +<p>The hospitality of the people is unstinted and beautiful. They will +turn out of their beds at any time to make a stranger comfortable, and +offer him their last crust into the bargain, without ever expecting or +asking a penny of recompense. But here, as all the world over, the +sublime and the ridiculous go hand in hand. On one of my dog <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>trips the +first winter which I spent at St. Anthony, the bench on which I slept +was the top of the box used for hens. This would have made little +difference to me, but unfortunately it contained a youthful and +vigorous rooster, which, mistaking the arrival of so many visitors for +some strange herald of morning, proceeded every half-hour to salute it +with premature and misdirected zeal, utterly incompatible with unbroken +repose just above his head. It was possible, without moving one's limbs +much, to reach through the bars and suggest better things to him; but +owing to the inequality which exists in most things, one invariably +captured a drowsy hen, while the more active offender eluded one with +ease. Lighting matches to differentiate species under such exceptional +circumstances in the pursuit of knowledge was quite out of the +question.</p> + +<p>A visit to one house on the French shore I shall not easily forget. The +poor lad of sixteen years had hip disease, and lay dying. The +indescribable dirt I cannot here picture. The bed, the house, and +everything in it were full of vermin, and the poor boy had not been +washed since he took to bed three or four months before. With the help +of a clergyman who was travelling with me at the time, the lad was +chloroformed and washed. We then ordered the bedding to be burned, +provided him with fresh garments, and put him into a clean bed. The +people's explanation was that he was in too much pain to be touched, +and so they could do nothing. We cleansed and drained his wounds and +left what we could for him. Had he not been so far gone, we should have +taken him to the hospital, but I feared that he would not survive the +journey.</p> + +<p>Although at the time it often seemed an unnecessary expenditure of +effort in an already overcrowded day, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>one now values the records of +the early days of one's life on the coast. In my notebook for 1895 I +find the following: "The desolation of Labrador at this time is easy to +understand. No Newfoundlanders were left north of us; not a vessel in +sight anywhere. The ground was all under snow, and everything caught +over with ice except the sea. I think that I must describe one house, +for it seems a marvel that any man could live in it all winter, much +less women and children. It was ten feet by twenty, one storey high, +made of mud and boards, with half a partition to divide bedroom from +the sitting-room kitchen. If one adds a small porch filled with dirty, +half-starved dogs, and refuse of every kind, an ancient and dilapidated +stove in the sitting part of the house, two wooden benches against the +walls, a fixed rude table, some shelves nailed to the wall, and two +boarded-up beds, one has a fairly accurate description of the +furnishings. Inside were fourteen persons, sleeping there, at any rate +for a night or two. The ordinary regular family of a man and wife and +four girls was to be increased this winter by the man's brother, his +wife, and four boys from twelve months to seven years of age. His +brother had 'handy enough flour,' but no tea or molasses. The owner was +looking after Newfoundland Rooms, for which he got flour, tea, +molasses, and firewood for the winter. The people assure me that one +man, who was aboard us last fall just as we were going South, starved +to death, and many more were just able to hold out till spring. The +man, they tell me, ate his only dog as his last resource."</p> + +<p>I sent one day a barrel of flour and some molasses to a poor widow with +seven children at Stag Islands. She was starving even in summer. She +was just eating fish, which she and her eldest girl caught, and +drinking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>water—no flour, no tea, nothing. Two winters before she and +her eldest girl sawed up three thousand feet of planking to keep the +wolf from the little ones. The girl managed the boat and fished in +summer, drove the dogs and komatik and did the shooting for which they +could afford powder in winter.</p> + +<p>A man, having failed to catch a single salmon beyond what he was forced +to eat, left in his little boat to row down to the Inlet to try for +codfish. To get a meal—breakfast—and a little flour to sustain life +on the way, he had to sell his anchor before he left.</p> + +<p>The life of the sea, with all its attractions, is at best a hazardous +calling, and it speaks loud in the praise of the capacity and simple +faith of our people that in the midst of a trying and often perilous +environment, they retain so quiet and kindly a temper of mind. During +my voyage to the seal fishery I recall that one day at three o'clock +the men were all called in. Four were missing. We did not find them +till we had been steaming for an hour and a half. They were caught on +pans some mile or so apart in couples, and were in prison. We were a +little anxious about them, but the only remark which I heard, when at +last they came aboard, was, "Leave the key of your box the next time, +Ned."</p> + +<p>To those who claim that Labrador is a land of plenty I would offer the +following incident in refutation. At Holton on a certain Sunday morning +the leader of the church services came aboard the hospital steamer and +asked me for a Bible. Some sacrilegious pigs which had been brought +down to fatten on the fish, driven to the verge of starvation by the +scarcity of that article, had broken into the church illicitly one +night, and not only destroyed the cloth, but had actually torn up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>and +eaten the Bible. In reply to inquiry I gave it as my opinion that it +would be no sin to eat the pork of the erring quadrupeds.</p> + +<p>Once when I was cruising on the North Labrador coast I anchored one day +between two desolate islands some distance out in the Atlantic, a +locality which in those days was frequented by many fishing craft. My +anchors were scarcely down when a boat from a small Welsh brigantine +came aboard, and asked me to go at once and see a dying girl. She +proved to be the only woman among a host of men, and was servant in one +of the tiny summer fishing huts, cooking and mending for the men, and +helping with the fish when required. I found her in a rude bunk in a +dark corner of the shack. She was almost eighteen, and even by the dim +light of my lantern and in contrast with the sordid surroundings, I +could see that she was very pretty. A brief examination convinced me +that she was dying. The tender-hearted old captain, whose aid had been +called in as the only man with a doctor's box and therefore felt to be +better qualified to use it than others, was heart-broken. He had +pronounced the case to be typhoid, to be dangerous and contagious, and +had wisely ordered the fishermen, who were handling food for human +consumption, to leave him to deal with the case alone. He told me at +once that he had limited his attentions to feeding her, and that though +helpless for over a fortnight, and at times unconscious, the patient +had not once been washed or the bed changed. The result, even with my +experience, appalled me. But while there is life in a young patient +there is always hope, and we at once set to work on our Augean task. By +the strangest coincidence it was an inky dark night outside, with a low +fog hanging over the water, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>and the big trap boat, with a crew of some +six men, among them the skipper's sons, had been missing since morning. +The skipper had stayed home out of sympathy for his servant girl, and +his mind was torn asunder by the anxiety for the girl and his fear for +his boys.</p> + +<p>When night fell, the old captain and I were through with the hardest +part of our work. We had new bedding on the bed and the patient clean +and sleeping quietly. Still the boat and its precious complement did +not come. Every few minutes the skipper would go out and listen, and +stare into the darkness. The girl's heart suddenly failed, and about +midnight her spirit left this world. The captain and I decided that the +best thing to do was to burn everything—and in order to avoid +publicity to do it at once. So having laboriously carried it all out +onto the edge of the cliff, we set a light to the pile and were +rewarded with a bonfire which would have made many a Guy Fawkes +celebration. Quite unintentionally we were sending out great streams of +light into the darkness over the waters away down below us, and +actually giving the longed-for signal to the missing boat. Her crew +worked their way in the fog to life and safety by means of the blazing +and poor discarded "properties" of the soul preceding us to our last +port.</p> + +<p>Although our work has lain almost entirely among the white population +of the Labrador and North Newfoundland coasts, still it has been our +privilege occasionally to come in contact with the native races, and to +render them such services, medical or otherwise, as lay within our +power. Our doctor at Harrington on the Canadian Labrador is appointed +by the Canadian Government as Indian Agent.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>Once, when my own boat was anchored in Davis Inlet, a band of roving +Indians had come to the post for barter and supplies. Our steamer was a +source of great interest to them. Our steam whistle they would gladly +have purchased, after they had mastered their first fears. At night we +showed them some distress rockets and some red and blue port flares. +The way those Indians fled from the port flares was really amusing, and +no one enjoyed it more than they did, for the shouting and laughter, +after they had picked themselves out of the scuppers where they had +been rolling on top of one another, wakened the very hills with their +echoes. Next morning one lonely-looking brave came on board, and +explained to me by signs and grunts that during the entertainment a +white counter, or Hudson Bay dollar, had rolled out of the lining of +his hat into our woodpile. An elaborate search failed to reveal its +whereabouts, but as there was no reason to doubt him, I decided to make +up the loss to him out of our clothes-bag. Fortunately a gorgeous +purple rowing blazer came readily to hand, and with this and a helmet, +both of which he put on at once, the poor fellow was more than +satisfied. Indeed, on the wharf he was the envy of the whole band.</p> + +<p>At night they slept in the bunkhouse, and they presented a sight which +one is not likely to forget—especially one lying on his back on the +table, with his arms extended and his head hanging listlessly over the +edge. One felt sorely tempted to put a pin into him to see if he really +were alive, but we decided to abstain for prudential reasons.</p> + +<p>We had among the garments on board three not exactly suited to the +white settlers, so I told the agent to let the Indians have a rifle +shooting match for them. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>They were a fox huntsman's red broadcloth +tail-coat, with all the glory of gilt buttons, a rather dilapidated red +golf blazer, and a white, cavalryman's Eton coat, with silver buttons, +and the coat-of-arms on. Words fail me to paint the elation of the +winner of the fox hunting coat; while the wearer of the cavalry mess +jacket was not the least bit daunted by the fact that when he got it on +he could hardly breathe. I must say that he wore it over a deerskin +kossak, which is not the custom of cavalrymen, I am led to believe.</p> + +<p>The coast-line from Ramah to Cape Chidley is just under one hundred +miles, and on it live a few scattered Eskimo hunters. Mr. Ford knew +every one of them personally, having lived there twenty-seven years. It +appears that a larger race of Eskimos called "Tunits," to whom the +present race were slaves, used to be on this section of the coast. At +Nakvak there are remains of them. In Hebron, the same year that we met +the Indians at Davis Inlet, we saw Pomiuk's mother. Her name is Regina, +and she is now married to Valentine, the king of the Eskimos there. I +have an excellent photograph of a royal dinner party, a thing which I +never possessed before. The king and queen and a solitary courtier are +seated on the rocks, gnawing contentedly raw walrus bones—"ivik" they +call it.</p> + +<p>The Eskimos one year suffered very heavily from an epidemic of +influenza—the germ doubtless imported by some schooner from the South. +Like all primitive peoples, they had no immunity to the disease, and +the suffering and mortality were very high. It was a pathetic sight as +the lighter received its load of rude coffins from the wharf, with all +the kindly little people gathered to tow them to their last +resting-place in the shallow sand at the end of the inlet. The ten +coffins in one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>grave seemed more the sequence of a battle than of a +summer sickness in Labrador. Certainly the hospital move on the part of +the Moravians deserved every commendation; though I understand that at +their little hospital in Okkak they have not always been able to have a +qualified medical man in residence.</p> + +<p>One old man, a patient on whose hip I had operated, came and insisted +that I should examine the scars. Oddly enough during the operation the +Eskimo, who was the only available person whom I had been able to find +to hold the light, had fainted, and left me in darkness. I had +previously had no idea that their sensibilities were so akin to ours.</p> + +<p>At Napatuliarasok Island are some lovely specimens of blue and green +and golden Labradorite, a striated feldspar with a glorious sheen. +Nothing has ever really been done with this from a commercial point of +view; moreover, the samples of gold-bearing quartz, of which such good +hopes have been entertained, have so far been found wanting also. In my +opinion this is merely due to lack of persevering investigation—for +one cannot believe that this vast area of land can be utterly +unremunerative.</p> + +<p>On one of the old maps of Labrador this terse description is written by +the cartographer: "Labrador was discovered by the English. There is +nothing in it of any value"; and another historian enlarges on the +theme in this fashion: "God made the world in five days, made Labrador +on the sixth, and spent the seventh throwing stones at it." It is so +near and yet so far, so large a section of the British Empire and yet +so little known, and so romantic for its wild grandeur, and many +fastnesses still untrodden by the foot of man! The polar current steals +from the unknown <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>North its ice treasures, and lends them with no +niggard hand to this seaboard. There is a never-wearying charm in these +countless icebergs, so stately in size and so fantastic in shape and +colouring.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep156" id="imagep156"></a> +<a href="images/imagep156.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep156.jpg" width="95%" alt="A Labrador Burial" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A LABRADOR BURIAL<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The fauna and flora of the country are so varied and exquisite that one +wonders why the world of science has so largely passed us by. Perhaps +with the advent of hydroplanes, Labrador will come to its own among the +countries of the world. Not only the ethnologist and botanist, but the +archæologist as well reaps a rich harvest for his labours here. Many +relics of a recent stone age still exist. I have had brought to me +stone saucepans, lamps, knives, arrow-heads, etc., taken from old +graves. It is the Eskimo custom to entomb with the dead man all and +every possession which he might want hereafter, the idea being that the +spirit of the implement accompanies the man's spirit. Relics of ancient +whaling establishments, possibly early Basque, are found in plenty at +one village, while even to-day the trapper there needing a runner for +his komatik can always hook up a whale's jaw or rib from the mud of the +harbour. Relics of rovers of the sea, who sought shelter on this +uncharted coast with its million islands, are still to be found. A +friend of mine was one day looking from his boat into the deep, narrow +channel in front of his house, when he perceived some strange object in +the mud. With help he raised it, and found a long brass "Long Tom" +cannon, which now stands on the rocks at that place. Remains of the +ancient French occupation should also be procurable near the seat of +their deserted capital near Bradore.</p> + +<p>My friend, Professor Reginald Daly, head of the Department of Geology +at Harvard University, after having spent a summer with me on the +coast, wrote as follows:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>"We crossed the Straits of Belle Isle once more, homeward bound. Old +Jacques Cartier, searching for an Eldorado, found Labrador, and in +disgust called it the 'Land of Cain.' A century and a half afterward +Lieutenant Roger Curtis wrote of it as a 'country formed of frightful +mountains, and unfruitful valleys, a prodigious heap of barren rock'; +and George Cartwright, in his gossipy journal, summed up his +impressions after five and twenty years on the coast. He said, 'God +created this country last of all, and threw together there the refuse +of his materials as of no use to mankind.'</p> + +<p>"We have learned at last the vital fact that Nature has set apart her +own picture galleries where men may resort if for a time they would +forget human contrivances. Such a wilderness is Labrador, a kind of +mental and moral sanitarium. The beautiful is but the visible splendor +of the true. The enjoyment of a visit to the coast may consist not +alone in the impressions of the scenery; there may be added the deeper +pleasure of reading out the history of noble landscapes, the sculptured +monuments of elemental strife and revolutions of distant ages."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>LECTURING AND CRUISING</h4> +<br /> + +<p>We had now been coming for some two years to the coast, and the problem +was assuming larger proportions than I felt the Society at home ought +to be called on to finance. It seemed advisable, therefore, to try and +raise money in southern Newfoundland and Canada. So under the wing of +the most famous seal and fish killer, Captain Samuel Blandford, I next +visited and lectured in St. John's, Harbour Grace, and Carbonear.</p> + +<p>The towns in Newfoundland are not large. Its sectarian schools and the +strong denominational feeling between the churches so greatly divide +the people that united efforts for the Kingdom of God were extremely +rare before the war. Even now there is no Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A. in the +Colony. The Boys' Brigade, which we initiated our first year, divided +as it grew in importance, into the Church Lads Brigade, the Catholic +Cadet Corps, and the Methodist Guards.</p> + +<p>Dr. Bobardt, my young Australian colleague, and I now decided to cross +over to Halifax. We had only a certain amount of money for the venture; +it was our first visit to Canada, and we knew no one. We carried +credentials, however, from the Marquis of Ripon and other reputable +persons. If we had had experience as commercial travellers, this would +have been child's play. But our education had been in an English school +and university; and when finally we sat at breakfast at the Halifax +hotel we felt like fish out of water. Such success as we obtained +subsequently I attribute entirely to what then seemed to me my +colleague's colonial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>"cheek." He insisted that we should call on the +most prominent persons at once, the Prime Minister, the General in +charge of the garrison, the Presidents of the Board of Trade and +University, the Governor of the Province, and all the leading +clergymen. There have been times when I have hesitated about getting my +anchors for sea, when the barometer was falling, the wind in, and a +fog-bank on the horizon—but now, years after, I still recall my +reluctance to face that ordeal. But like most things, the obstacles +were largely in one's own mind, and the kindness which we received left +me entirely overwhelmed. Friends formed a regular committee to keep a +couple of cots going in our hospital, to collect supplies, and sent us +to Montreal with introductions and endorsements. Some of these people +have since been lifelong helpers of the Labrador Mission.</p> + +<p>By the time we reached Montreal, our funds were getting low, but Dr. +Bobardt insisted that we must engage the best accommodations, even if +it prevented our travelling farther west. The result was that reporters +insisted on interviewing him as to the purpose of an Australian coming +to Montreal; and I was startled to see a long account which he had +jokingly given them published in the morning papers, stating that his +purpose was to materialize the All Red Line and arrange closer +relations between Australia and Canada. According to his report my +object was to inspect my ranch in Alberta. Life to him, whether on the +Labrador Coast, in an English school, or in his Australian home, was +one perpetual picnic.</p> + +<p>Naturally, our most important interview was with Lord Strathcona. He +was President of the Hudson Bay Company, the Canadian Pacific Railroad, +and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>Bank of Montreal. As a poor Scotch lad named Donald Smith he +had lived for thirteen years of his early life in Labrador. There he +had found a wife and there his daughter was born. From the very first +he was thoroughly interested in our work, and all through the years +until his death in 1914 his support was maintained, so that at the very +time he died we were actually due to visit him the following month at +Knelsworth.</p> + +<p>We hired the best hall and advertised Sir Donald as our chairman. To +save expense Dr. Bobardt acted in the ticket-box. When Sir Donald came +along, not having seen him previously, he insisted on collecting fifty +cents from him as from the rest. When Sir Donald strongly protested +that he was our chairman, the shrewd young doctor merely replied that +several others before him had made the same remark. Every one in the +city knew Sir Donald; and when the matter was explained to him in the +greenroom, he was thoroughly pleased with the business-like attitude of +the Mission. As we had never seen Canada he insisted that we must take +a holiday and visit as far west as British Columbia. All of this he not +only arranged freely for us, but even saw to such details as that we +should ride on the engine through the Rocky Mountains, and be +entertained at his home called "Silver Heights" while in Winnipeg. It +was during this trip that I visited "Grenfell Town," a queer little +place called after Pascoe Grenfell, of the Bank of England. The marvel +of the place to me was the thousands and thousands of acres of splendid +farmland on which no one lived. I promised that I would send the +hotel-keeper the Grenfell crest.</p> + +<p>Lord Strathcona later presented the Mission with a fine little steamer, +the Sir Donald, purchased and equipped at his expense through the +Committee in Montreal.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>We went back to England very well satisfied with our work. Dr. Bobardt +left me and entered the Navy, while I returned the following year and +steamed the new boat from Montreal down the St. Lawrence River and the +Straits to Battle Harbour. There the Albert, which had sailed again +from England with doctors, nurses, and supplies, was to meet me. We had +made a fine voyage, visiting all along the coast as we journeyed, and +had turned in from sea through the last "run," or passage between +islands. We had polished our brass-work, cleaned up our decks, hoisted +our flags, all that we might make a triumphant entry on our arrival a +few minutes later—when suddenly, <i>Buff—Bur-r—Buff</i>, we rose, +staggered, and fell over on a horrible submerged shoal. Our side was +gored, our propeller and shaft gone, our keel badly splintered, and the +ship left high and dry. When we realized our mistake and the dreadful +position into which we had put ourselves, we rowed ashore to the +nearest island, walked three or four miles over hill and bog, and from +there got a fisherman with a boat to put us over to Battle Harbour +Island. The good ship Albert lay at anchor in the harbour. Our new +colleagues and old friends were all impatiently waiting to see our fine +new steamer speed in with all her flags up—when, instead, two +bedraggled-looking tramps, crestfallen almost to weeping, literally +crept aboard.</p> + +<p>Sympathy took the form of deeds and a crowd at once went round in boats +with a museum of implements. Soon they had her off, and our plucky +schooner took her in tow all the three hundred miles to the nearest +dry-dock at St. John's.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sir Thomas Roddick, of Montreal, an old Newfoundlander, had +presented us with a splendid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>twenty-foot jolly-boat, rigged with +lug-sail and centre-boom. In this I cruised north to Eskimo Bay, +harbouring at nights if possible, getting a local pilot when I could, +and once being taken bodily on board, craft and all, by a big friendly +fishing schooner. It proved a most profitable summer. I was so +dependent on the settlers and fishermen for food and hospitality that I +learned to know them as would otherwise have been impossible. Far the +best road to a seaman's heart is to let him do something for you. Our +impressions of a landscape, like our estimates of character, all depend +on our viewpoint. Fresh from the more momentous problems of great +cities, the interests and misunderstandings of small isolated places +bias the mind and make one censorious and resentful. But from the +position of a tight corner, that of needing help and hospitality from +entire strangers, one learns how large are the hearts and homes of +those who live next to Nature. If I knew the Labrador people before +(and among such I include the Hudson Bay traders and the Newfoundland +fishermen), that summer made me love them. I could not help feeling how +much more they gladly and freely did for me than I should have dreamed +of doing for them had they come along to my house in London. I have +sailed the seas in ocean greyhounds and in floating palaces and in +steam yachts, but better than any other I love to dwell on the memories +of that summer, cruising the Labrador in a twenty-footer.</p> + +<p>That year I was late returning South. Progress is slow in the fall of +the year along the Labrador in a boat of that capacity. I was +weather-bound, with the snow already on the ground in Square Island +Harbour. The fishery of the settlers had been very poor. The traders +coming South had passed them by. There were eight <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>months of winter +ahead, and practically no supplies for the dozen families of the little +village. I shall never forget the confidence of the patriarch of the +settlement, Uncle Jim, whose guest I was. The fact that we were without +butter, and that "sweetness" (molasses) was low, was scarcely even +noticed. I remember as if it were yesterday the stimulating tang of the +frosty air and the racy problem of the open sea yet to be covered. The +bag of birds which we had captured when we had driven in for shelter +from the storm made our dry-diet supper sweeter than any Delmonico +ten-course dinner, because we had wrested it ourselves from the +reluctant environment. Then last of all came the general meeting in +Uncle Jim's house at night to ask the Lord to open the windows of +heaven for the benefit of the pathetic little group on the island. Next +morning the first thing on which our eyes lighted was the belated +trader, actually driven north again by the storm, anchored right in the +harbour. Of course Uncle Jim knew that it would be there. Personally, I +did not expect her, so can claim no credit for the telepathy; but if +faith ever did work wonders it was on that occasion. There were +laughing faces and happy hearts as we said good-bye, when my dainty +little lady spread her wings to a fair breeze a day or so later.</p> + +<p>The gallant little Sir Donald did herself every credit the following +year, and we not only visited the coast as far north as Cape Chidley, +but explored the narrow channel which runs through the land into Ungava +Bay, and places Cape Chidley itself on a detached island.</p> + +<p>There were a great many fishing schooners far north that season, and +the keen pleasures of exploring a truly marvellous coast, practically +uncharted and unknown, were redeemed from the reproach of selfishness +by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>numerous opportunities for service to one's fellow men.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep164" id="imagep164"></a> +<a href="images/imagep164.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep164.jpg" width="47%" alt="The Labrador Doctor in Summer" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE LABRADOR DOCTOR IN SUMMER<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Once that summer we were eleven days stuck in the ice, and while there +the huge mail steamer broke her propeller, and a boat was sent up to us +through the ice to ask for our help. The truck on my mastheads was just +up to her deck. The ice was a lot of trouble, but we got her into +safety. On board were the superintendent of the Moravian Missions and +his wife. They were awfully grateful. The great tub rolled about so in +the Atlantic swell that the big ice-pans nearly came on deck. My dainty +little lady took no notice of anything and picked her way among the +pans like Agag "treading delicately." We had five hours' good push, +however, to get into Battle Harbour. It was calm in the ice-field, only +the heavy tide made it run and the little "alive" steamer with human +skill beat the massive mountains of ice into a cocked hat.</p> + +<p>At Indian Tickle there is a nice little church which was built by +subscription and free labour the second year we came on the coast. +There is one especially charming feature about this building. It stands +in such a position that you can see it as you come from the north miles +away from the harbour entrance, and it is so situated that it leads +directly into the safe anchorage. There are no lights to guide sailors +on this coast at all, and yet during September, October, and November, +three of the most dangerous months in the year, hundreds of schooners +and thousands of men, women, and children are coming into or passing +through this harbour on their way to the southward. By a nice +arrangement the little east window points to the north—if that is not +Irish—and two large bracket lamps can be turned on a pivot, so that +the lamps and their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>reflectors throw a light out to sea. The good +planter, at his own expense, often maintains a light here on stormy or +dark nights, and "steering straight for it" brings one to safety.</p> + +<p>While cruising near Cape Chidley, a schooner signalling with flag at +half-mast attracted our attention. On going aboard we found a young man +with the globe of one eye ruptured by a gun accident, in great pain, +and in danger of losing the other eye sympathetically. Having excised +the globe, we allowed him to go back to his vessel, intensely grateful, +but full of apprehension as to how his girl would regard him on his +return South. It so happened that we had had a gift of false eyes, and +we therefore told him to call in at hospital on his way home and take +his chance on getting a blue one. While walking over the hill near the +hospital that fall I ran into a crowd of young fishermen, whose +schooner was wind-bound in the harbour, and who had been into the +country for an hour's trouting. One asked me to look at his eye, as +something was wrong with it. Being in a hurry, I simply remarked, "Come +to hospital, and I'll examine it for you"; whereupon he burst out into +a merry laugh, "Why, Doctor, I'm the boy whose eye you removed. This is +the glass one you promised. Do you think it will suit her?"</p> + +<p>Another time I was called to a large schooner in the same region. There +were two young girls on board doing the cooking and cleaning, as was +the wont in Newfoundland vessels. One, alas, was seriously ill, having +given birth to a premature child, and having lain absolutely helpless, +with only a crew of kind but strange men anywhere near. Rolling her up +in blankets, we transferred her to the Sir Donald, and steamed for the +nearest Moravian station. Here the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>necessary treatment was possible, +and when we left for the South a Moravian's good wife accompanied us as +nurse. The girl, however, had no wish to live. "I want to die, Doctor; +I can never go home again." Her physical troubles had abated, but her +mind was made up to die, and this, in spite of all our care, she did a +few days later. The pathos of the scene as we rowed the poor child's +body ashore for interment on a rocky and lonely headland, looking out +over the great Atlantic, wrapped simply in the flag of her country, +will never be forgotten by any of us—the silent but unanswerable +reproach on man's utter selfishness. Many such scenes must rise to the +memory of the general practitioner; at times, thank God, affording +those opportunities of doing more for the patients than simply patching +up their bodies—opportunities which are the real reward for the "art +of healing." Some years later I revisited the grave of this poor girl, +marked by the simple wooden cross which we had then put up, and bearing +the simple inscription:</p> + +<div class="block" style="padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .5em;"> +<p class="cen">Suzanne<br /> +"Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee."</p> +</div> + +<p>The fall trip lasted till late into November, without our even +realizing the fact that snow was on the ground. Indeed the ponds were +all frozen and we enjoyed drives with dog teams on the land before we +had finished our work and could think of leaving. We had scarcely left +Flowers Cove and were just burying our little steamer—loaded to the +utmost with wood, cut in return for winter clothing—in the dense fog +which almost universally maintains in the Straits, and were rounding +the hidden ledges of rock which lie half a mile offshore, when we +discovered a huge trans-Atlantic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>liner racing up in our wake. We +instantly put down our helm and scuttled out of the way to avoid the +wash, and almost held our breath as the great steamer dashed by at +twenty miles an hour, between us and the hidden shoal. She altered her +helm as she did so, no doubt catching her first sight of the lighthouse +as she emerged from the fog-bank, but as it was, she must have passed +within an ace of the shoal. We expected every minute to see her dash on +the top of it, and then she passed out of sight once more, her +light-hearted passengers no doubt completely unconscious that they had +been in any danger at all.</p> + +<p>The last port of call was Henley, or Château, where formerly the +British had placed a fort to defend it against the French. We had +carried round with us a prospective bridegroom, and we were privileged +to witness the wedding, a simple but very picturesque proceeding. A +parson had been fetched from thirty miles away, and every kind of +hospitality provided for the festive event. But in spite of the warmth +of the occasion the weather turned bitterly cold, the harbour "caught +over," and for a week we were prisoners. When at last the young ice +broke up again, we made an attempt to cross the Straits, but sea and +wind caught us halfway and forced us to run back, this time in the +thick fog. The Straits' current had carried us a few miles in the +meanwhile—which way we did not know—and the land, hard to make out as +it was in the fog, was white with snow. However, with the storm +increasing and the long dark night ahead, we took a sporting chance, +and ran direct in on the cliffs. How we escaped shipwreck I do not know +now. We suddenly saw a rock on our bow and a sheer precipice ahead, +twisted round on our heel, shot between the two, and we knew where we +were, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>as that is the only rock on a coast-line of twenty miles of +beach—but there really is no room between it and the cliff.</p> + +<p>All along the coast that year we noticed a change of attitude toward +professional medical aid. Confidence in the wise woman, in the seventh +son and his "wonderful" power, in the use of charms like green worsted, +haddock fins, or scrolls of prayer tied round the neck, had begun to +waver. The world talks still of a blind man made to see nineteen +hundred years ago; but the coast had recently been more thrilled by the +tale of a blind man made to see by "these yere doctors." One was a man +who for seventeen years had given up all hope; and two others, old men, +parted for years, and whose first occasion of seeing again had revealed +to them the fact that they were brothers.</p> + +<p>Some lame had also been made to walk—persons who had abandoned hope +quite as much as he who lay for forty years by the Pool of Siloam, or +for a similar period at the Golden Gate.</p> + +<p>One of my first operations had been rendered absolutely inescapable by +the great pain caused by a tumour in the leg. The patient had insisted +on having five men sit on her while the operation proceeded, as she did +not believe it was right to be put to sleep, and, moreover, she +secretly feared that she might not wake up again. But now the +conversion of the coast had proceeded so far that many were pleading +for a winter doctor. At first we did not think it feasible, but my +colleague, Dr. Willway, finally volunteered to stay at Battle Harbour. +We loaded him up with all our spare assets against the experiment, the +hospital being but very ill-equipped for an Arctic winter. When the +following summer we approached the coast, it was with real <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>trepidation +that I scanned the land for signs of my derelict friend. We felt that +he would be gravely altered at least, possibly having grown hair all +over his face. When an alert, tanned, athletic figure, neatly tonsured +and barbered, at last leaped over our rail, all our sympathy vanished +and gave way to jealousy.</p> + +<p>One detail, however, had gone wrong. We had anchored our beautiful Sir +Donald in his care in a harbour off the long bay on the shores of which +he was wintering. He had seen her once or twice in her ice prison, but +when he came to look for her in the spring, she had mysteriously +disappeared. The ice was there still. There wasn't a vestige of +wreckage. She must have sunk, and the hole frozen up. Yet an extended +period of "creeping" the bottom with drags and grapples had revealed +nothing, and, anyhow, the water not being deep, her masts should have +been easily visible. It was not till some time later that we heard from +the South that our trusty craft had been picked up some three hundred +miles to the southward and westward, well out in a heavy ice-pack, and +right in amongst a big patch of seals, away off on the Atlantic. The +whole of the bay ice had evidently gone out together, taking the ship +with it, and the bay had then neatly frozen over again. The seal +hunters laughingly assured me that they found a patch of old "swiles" +having tea in the cabin. As the hull of the Sir Donald was old, and the +size of the boat made good medical work aboard impossible, we decided +to sell her and try and raise the funds for a more seaworthy and +capable craft.</p> + +<p>Years of experience have subsequently emphasized the fact that if you +are reasonably resistant, and want to get tough and young again, you +can do far worse than come and winter on "the lonely Labrador."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE SEAL FISHERY</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Returning South in the fall of 1895, business necessitated my remaining +for some time in St. John's, where as previously the Governor, Sir +Terence O'Brien, very kindly entertained me. It proved to be a most +exciting time. There were only two banks in the Colony, called +respectively the Union and the Commercial. These issued all the notes +used in the country and except for the savings bank had all the +deposits of the fishermen and people. Suddenly one day I was told, +though with extreme secrecy, that the two banks were unsound and would +not again open after Monday morning. This was early on Saturday. +Business went on as usual, but among the leaders of the country +consternation was beginning to spread. The banks closed at their usual +hour—three o 'clock on Saturday, and so far as I knew no one profited +by the secret knowledge, though later accusations were made against +some people. The serious nature of the impending disaster never really +dawned on me, not being either personally concerned in either bank or +having any experience of finance. When the collection came around at +the cathedral on Sunday my friend whispered to me, "That silver will be +valuable to-morrow." It so happened that on Sunday I was dining with +the Prime Minister, who had befriended all our efforts, and his +tremendously serious view of the position of the Colony sent me to bed +full of alarms for my new friends. We were to have sailed for England +next day and I went down after breakfast to buy my ticket. The agent +sold it, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>but remarked, "I am not sure if Newfoundland money is good +any longer. It is a speculation selling you this ticket." Before we +sailed the vessel was held up by the Government, as only a few of the +ships were taking notes at face value. Those of the Commercial Bank +were only fetching twenty cents. Besides the banks quite a number of +commercial firms also closed. The directors of the banks were all local +merchants, and many were heavily indebted to them for supplies given +out to their "planters," as they call the fishermen whom they supply +with goods in advance to catch fish for them. It was a sorry mix-up, +and business was very difficult to carry on because we had no medium of +exchange. Even the Governor to pay his gardener had to give I.O.U. +orders on shops—there simply being no currency available.</p> + +<p>Matters have long since adjusted themselves, though neither bank ever +reopened. Larger banks of good standing came in from Canada, and no one +can find anything of which to complain in the financial affairs of the +"oldest Colony," even in these days of war.</p> + +<p>Newfoundland has a large seal as well as cod fishery. The great sealing +captains are all aristocrats of the fishermen and certainly are an +unusually fine set of men. The work calls for peculiar training in the +hardest of schools, for great self-reliance and resource, besides skill +in handling men and ships. In those days the doyen of the fleet was +Captain Samuel Blandford. He fired me with tales of the hardships to be +encountered and the opportunities and needs for a doctor among three +hundred men hundreds of miles from anywhere. The result was a decision +to return early from my lecture tour and go out with the seal hunters +of the good ship Neptune.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>I look back on this as one of the great treats of my life; though I +believe it to be an industry seriously detrimental to the welfare of +the people of the Colony and the outside world. For no mammal bringing +forth but one young a year can stand, when their young are just born +and are entirely helpless, being attacked by huge steel-protected +steamers carrying hundreds of men with modern rifles or even clubs. +Advantage is also taken of the maternal instinct to get the mothers as +well as the young "fat," if the latter is not obtainable in sufficient +quantities. Meanwhile the poor scattered people of the northern shores +of Newfoundland are being absolutely ruined and driven out. They need +the seals for clothing, boots, fresh food, and fats. They use every +portion of the few animals which each catches, while the big steamers +lose thousands which they have killed, by not carrying them at once to +the ship and leaving them in piles to be picked up later. Moreover, in +the latter case all the good proteid food of their carcasses is left to +the sharks and gulls.</p> + +<p>At twelve o'clock of March 10, 1896, the good ship Neptune hauled out +into the stream at St. John's Harbour, Newfoundland, preparatory to +weighing anchor for the seal fishery. The law allows no vessels to sail +before 2 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span> on that day, under a penalty of four thousand +dollars fine—nor may any seals be killed from the steamers until March +14, and at no time on Sundays. The whole city of St. John's seemed to +be engrossed in the one absorbing topic of the seal fishery. It meant +if successful some fifty thousand pounds sterling at least to the +Colony—it meant bread for thousands of people—it meant for days and +even weeks past that men from far-away outports had been slowly +collecting at the capital, till the main street was peopled all day +with anxious-looking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>crowds, and all the wharves where there was any +chance of a "berth" to the ice were fairly in a state of siege.</p> + +<p>Now let us go down to the dock and visit the ship before she starts. +She is a large barque-rigged vessel, with auxiliary steam, or rather +one should say a steamer with auxiliary sails. The first point that +strikes one is her massive build, her veritable bulldog look as she +sits on the water. Her sides are some eighteen inches thick, and +sheathed and resheathed with "greenheart" to help her in battering the +ice. Inside she is ceiled with English oak and beech, so that her +portholes look like the arrow slits of the windows of an old feudal +castle. Her bow is double-stemmed—shot with a broad band of iron, and +the space of some seventeen feet between the two stems solid with the +choicest hardwoods. Below decks every corner is adapted to some use. +There are bags of flour, hard bread, and food for the crew of three +hundred and twenty men; five hundred tons of coal for the hungry engine +in her battle with the ice-floe. The vessel carries only about eighteen +hundred gallons of water and the men use five hundred in a day. This, +however, is of little consequence, for a party each day brings back +plenty of ice, which is excellent drinking after being boiled. This ice +is of very different qualities. Now it is "slob" mixed with snow born +on the Newfoundland coast. This is called "dirty ice" by the sealers. +Even it at times packs very thick and is hard to get through. Then +there is the clearer, heavy Arctic ice with here and there huge +icebergs frozen in; and again the smoother, whiter variety known as +"whelping ice"—that is, the Arctic shore ice, born probably in +Labrador, on which the seals give birth to their pups.</p> + +<p>The masters of watches are also called "scunners"—they go up night and +day in the forebarrel to "scun" the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>ship—that is, to find the way or +leads through the ice. This word comes from "con" of the conning tower +on a man-of-war.</p> + +<p>When the morning of the 10th arrives, all is excitement. Fortunately +this year a southwest wind had blown the ice a mile or so offshore. Now +all the men are on board. The vessels are in the stream. The flags are +up; the whistles are blowing. The hour of two approaches at last, and a +loud cheering, renewed again and again, intimates that the first vessel +is off, and the S.S. Aurora comes up the harbour. Cheers from the +ships, the wharves, and the town answer her whistle, and closely +followed by the S.S. Neptune and S.S. Windsor, she gallantly goes out, +the leader of the sealing fleet for the year.</p> + +<p>There have been two or three great disasters at the seal fishery, where +numbers of men astray from their vessels in heavy snow blizzards on the +ice have perished miserably. Sixteen fishermen were once out hunting +for seals on the frozen ice of Trinity Bay when the wind changed and +drove the ice offshore. When night came on they realized their terrible +position and that, with a gale of wind blowing, they could not hope to +reach land in their small boats. Nothing but an awful death stared them +in the face, for in order to hunt over the ice men must be lightly +clad, so as to run and jump from piece to piece. Without fire, without +food, without sufficient clothing, exposed to the pitiless storm on the +frozen sea, they endured thirty-six hours without losing a life. +Finally, they dragged their boats ten miles over the ice to the land, +where they arrived at last more dead than alive.</p> + +<p>It is the physical excitement of travelling over broken loose ice on +the bosom of the mighty ocean, and the skill and athletic qualities +which the work demands, that makes one love the voyage. Jumping from +the side of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>ship as she goes along, skurrying and leaping from +ice-pan to ice-pan, and then having killed, "sculped," and "pelted" the +seal, the exciting return to the vessel! But it has its tragic side, +for it takes its regular tribute of fine human life.</p> + +<p>A Mr. Thomas Green, of Greenspond, while a boy, with his father and +another man and a 'prentice lad, was tending his seal nets when a +"dwey" or snowstorm came on, and the boat became unmanageable and +drifted off to sea. They struck a small island, but drifted off again. +That night the father and the 'prentice lad died, and next morning the +other man also. The son dressed himself in all the clothes of the other +three, whose bodies he kept in the boat. He ate the flesh of an old +harp seal they had caught in their net. On the third day by wonderful +luck he gaffed an old seal in the slob ice. This he hauled in and drank +the warm blood. On the fifth day he killed a white-coat, and thinking +that he saw a ship he walked five miles over the floe, leaving his boat +behind. The phantom ship proved to be an island of ice, and in the +night he had to tramp back to his open punt. On the seventh day he was +really beginning to give up hope when a vessel, the Flora, suddenly +hove in sight. He shouted loudly as it was dark, whereupon she +immediately tacked as if to leave him. Again he shouted, "For God's +sake, don't leave me with my dead father here!" The words were plainly +heard on board, and the vessel hove to. The watch had thought that his +previous shouting was of supernatural origin. He and his boat with its +pitiful load were picked up and sent back home by a passing vessel.</p> + +<p>On this particular voyage we were lucky enough to come early into the +seals. From the Conner's barrel, in which I spent a great deal of time, +we saw one morning <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>black dots spread away in thousands all over the +ice-floes through which we were butting, ramming, and fighting our way. +All hands were over the side at once, and very soon patients began +needing a doctor. Here a cut, there a wrench or sprain, and later came +thirty or forty at a time with snow-blindness or conjunctivitis—very +painful and disabling, though not fatal to sight.</p> + +<p>One morning we had been kept late relieving these various slight +ailments, and the men being mostly out on the ice made me think that +they were among the seals; so I started out alone as soon as I could +slip over the side to join them. This, however, I failed to do till +late in the afternoon, when the strong wind, which had kept the loose +ice packed together, dropped, and in less than no time it was all +"running abroad." The result naturally is that one cannot get along +except by floating on one piece to another, and that is a slow process +without oars. It came on dark and a dozen of us who had got together +decided to make for a large pan not far distant; but were obliged to +give it up, and wait for the ship which had long gone out of sight. To +keep warm we played "leap-frog," "caps," and "hop, skip, and jump"—at +which some were very proficient. We ate our sugar and oatmeal, mixed +with some nice clear snow; and then, shaving our wooden seal bat +handles, and dipping them into the fat of the animals which we had +killed, we made a big blaze periodically to attract the attention of +the ship.</p> + +<p>It was well into the night before we were picked up; and no sooner had +we climbed over the rail than the skipper came and gave us the best or +worst "blowing-up" I ever received since my father spanked me. He told +me afterwards that his good heart was really so relieved by our safe +return that he was scarcely conscious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>of what he said. Indeed, any +words which might have been considered as unparliamentary he asked me +to construe as gratitude to God.</p> + +<p>Our captain was a passenger on and prospective captain of the S.S. +Tigris when she picked up those members of the ill-fated Polaris +expedition who had been five months on the ice-pans. He had gone below +from his watch and daylight was just breaking when the next watch came +and reported a boat and some people on a large pan, with the American +flag flying. A kayak came off and Hans, an Eskimo, came alongside and +said, "Ship lost. Captain gone." Boats were immediately lowered and +nineteen persons, including two women and one baby, born on the +ice-pan, came aboard amidst cheers renewed again and again. They had to +be washed and fed, cleaned and clothed. The two officers were invited +to live aft and the remainder of the rescued party being pestered to +death by the sealing crew in the forecastle, it was decided to abandon +the sealing trip, and the brave explorers were carried to St. John's, +the American people eventually indemnifying the owners of the Tigris.</p> + +<p>In hunting my patients I started round with a book and pencil +accompanied by the steward carrying a candle and matches. The invalids +were distributed in the four holds—the after, the main, forecastle, +and foretop-gallant-forecastle. I never went round without a bottle of +cocaine solution in my pocket for the snow-blind men, who suffered the +most excruciating pain, often rolling about and moaning as if in a kind +of frenzy, and to whom the cocaine gave wonderful relief. Very often I +found that I must miss one or even both holds on my first rounds, for +the ladders were gone and seals and coals were exchanging places in +them during the first part of the day. Once down, however, one shouts +out, "Is there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>any one here?" No answer. Louder still, "Is there any +one here?" Perhaps a distant cough answers from some dark recess, and +the steward and I begin a search. Then we go round systematically, +climbing over on the barrels, searching under sacks, and poking into +recesses, and after all occasionally missing one or two in our search. +It seems a peculiarity about the men, that though they will lie up, +they will not always say anything about it. The holds were very damp +and dirty, but the men seemed to improve in health and fattened like +the young seals. It must have been the pork, doughs, and excellent +fresh meat of the seal. We had boiled or fried seal quite often with +onions, and I must say that it was excellent eating—far more palatable +than the dried codfish, which, when one has any ice work, creates an +intolerable thirst.</p> + +<p>The rats were making a huge noise one night and a barrel man gave it as +his opinion that we should have a gale before long; but a glorious +sunshine came streaming down upon us next morning, and we decided +perforce the rats were evidently a little previous.</p> + +<p>On Sunday I had a good chance to watch the seals. They came up, simply +stared at the ship; now from sheer fat rolling on their backs, and +lying for a few seconds tail and flippers beating the air helpless. +These baby seals resemble on the ice nothing so much as the South Sea +parrot fish—that is, a complete round head, with somewhere in the +sphere two huge black dots for eyes and a similar one for a nose. These +three form the corners of a small triangle, and except for the tail one +could not easily tell which was the back and which the belly of a young +white-coat—especially in stormy weather. For it is a well-ascertained +fact that Nature makes the marvellous provision that in storm and snow +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>they grow fattest and fastest. I have marvelled greatly how it is +possible for any hot-blooded creature to enjoy so immensely this +terribly cold water as do these old seals. They paddle about, throw +themselves on their backs, float and puff out their breasts, flapping +their flippers like paws over their chests.</p> + +<p>Sunday morning we were lying off Fogo Island when some men came aboard +and reported the wreck of the S.S. Wolf in the ice. She got round the +island, a wind offshore having cleared the ice from the land. Three +other vessels were behind her. Hardly, however, had she got round when +the northerly wind brought the ice back. The doomed ship now lay +between the main or fixed frozen shore ice and the immense floe which +was impelled by the north wind acting on its whole irregular surface. +The force was irresistible. The Wolf backed and butted and got twenty +yards into a nook in the main ice, and lay there helpless as an infant. +On then swept the floe, crashed into the fixed ice, shattered its edge, +rose up out of water over it, which is called "rafting," forced itself +on the unfortunate ship, rose over her bulwarks, crushed in her sides, +and only by nipping her tightly avoided sinking her immediately. Seeing +that all was lost, Captain Kean got the men and boats onto the pans, +took all they could save of food and clothes, but before he had saved +his own clothing, the ice parted enough to let her through and she sank +like a stone, her masts catching and breaking in pieces as she went. A +sorrowful march for the shore now began over the ice, as the three +hundred men started for home, carrying as much as they could on their +backs. Many would have to face empty cupboards and hard times; all +would have days of walking and rowing and camping before they could get +home. One hundred miles would be the least, two and even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>three hundred +for some, before they could reach their own villages. Some of these +poor fellows had walked nearly two hundred miles to get a chance of +going on the lost ship, impelled by hunger and necessity. Alas, we felt +very sad for them and for Captain Kean, who had to face almost absolute +ruin on account of this great loss.</p> + +<p>The heaving of the great pans, like battering-rams against the sides of +the Neptune, made a woesome noise below decks. I was often glad of her +thirty-six inches of hardwood covering. Every now and then she steamed +ahead a little and pressed into the ice to prevent this. I tried to +climb on one of the many icebergs, but the heavy swell made it +dangerous. At every swell it rolled over and back some eight feet, and +as I watched it I understood how an iceberg goes to wind. For it acted +exactly like a steam plough, crashing down onto one large pan as it +rolled, and then, as it rolled back, lifting up another and smashing it +from beneath. A regular battle seemed to be going on, with weird sounds +of blows and groanings of the large masses of ice. Sometimes as pieces +fell off the water would rush up high on the side of the berg. For some +reason or other the berg had red-and-white streaks, and looked much +like an ornamental pudding.</p> + +<p>At latitude 50.18, about Funk Island, is one of the last refuges of the +great auk. A few years ago, the earth, such as there is on these lonely +rocks, was sifted for the bones of that extinct bird, and I think three +perfect skeletons, worth a hundred pounds sterling each, were put +together from the remnants discovered. One day the captain told me that +he held on there in a furious gale for some time. Masses of ice, +weighing thirty or forty tons, were hurled high up and lodged on the +top of the island. Some men went out to "pan" seals on a large pan. +Seven hundred of the animals had been placed on one of them, and the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>men had just left it, when a furious breaking sea took hold of the pan +and threw it completely upside down.</p> + +<p>I am never likely to forget the last lovely Sunday. We had nearly "got +our voyage"; at least no one was anxious now for the credit of the +ship. The sunshine was blazing hot as it came from above and below at +the same time, and the blue sky over the apparently boundless field of +heaving "floe" on which we lay made a contrast which must be seen to be +appreciated. I had brought along a number of pocket hymn-books and in +the afternoon we lay out on the high fore-deck and sang and talked, +unworried by callers and the thousand interruptions of the land. Then +we had evening prayers together, Catholic and Protestant alike; and for +my part I felt the nearness of God's presence as really as I have felt +it in the mysterious environment of the most magnificent cathedral. +Eternal life seemed so close, as if it lay just over that horizon of +ice, in the eternal blue beyond.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THREE YEARS' WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES</h4> +<br /> + +<p>In the spring of 1897 I was asked by the Council to sail to Iceland +with a view to opening work there, in response to a petition sent in to +the Board by the Hearn longliners and trawlers, who were just beginning +their vast fishery in those waters from Hull and Grimsby.</p> + +<p>Having chosen a smaller vessel, so as to leave the hospital ship free +for work among the fleets, we set sail for Iceland in June. The fight +with the liquor traffic which the Mission had been waging had now been +successful in driving the sale of intoxicants from the North Sea by +international agreement; but the proverbial whiskey still continued its +filibustering work in the Scotch seaports. As our men at times had to +frequent these ports we were anxious to make it easier for them to walk +straight while they were ashore.</p> + +<p>We therefore called at Aberdeen on the way and anchored off the first +dock. The beautiful Seaman's Home there was on the wrong side of the +harbour for the vessels, and was not offering exactly what was needed. +So we obtained leave to put a hull in the basin, with a first-aid +equipment, refreshments, lounge and writing-rooms, and with simple +services on Sunday. This boat commenced then and there, and was run for +some years under Captain Skiff; till she made way for the present +homely little Fishermen's Institute exactly across the road from the +docks before you came to the saloons.</p> + +<p>I shall not soon forget our first view of the cliffs of the southern +coast of Iceland. We had called at Thorshaven <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>in the Faroë group to +see what we could learn of the boats fishing near Rockall; but none +were there at the time. As we had no chronometers on our own boat we +were quite unable to tell our longitude—a very much-needed bit of +information, for we had had fog for some days, and anyhow none of us +knew anything about the coast.</p> + +<p>We brought up under the shadow of the mighty cliffs and were debating +our whereabouts, when we saw an English sailing trawler about our own +size, with his nets out close in under the land. So we threw out our +boat and boarded him for information. He proved to be a Grimsby +skipper, and we received the usual warm reception which these Yorkshire +people know so well how to give. But to my amazement he was unable to +afford us the one thing which we really desired. "I've been coming this +way, man and boy, for forty years," he assured me. "But I can't read +the chart, and I knows no more of the lay of the land than you does +yourself. I don't use no chart beyond what's in my head."</p> + +<p>With this we were naturally not content, so we sent back to the boat +for our own sheet chart to try and get more satisfactory information. +But when it lay on the table in this old shellback's cabin all he did +was to put down on it a huge and horny thumb that was nearly large +enough to cover the whole historic island, and "guess we were somewhere +just about here."</p> + +<p>Our cruise carried us all round the island—the larger part of our time +being spent off the Vestmann Islands and the mouth of Brede Bugt, the +large bay in which Reikyavik lies. It was off these islands that Eric +the Red threw his flaming sticks into the sea. The first brand which +alighted on the land directed him where to locate his new headquarters. +Reikyavik means "smoking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>village," so called from the vapours of the +hot streams which come out of the ground near by.</p> + +<p>There is no night on the coast in summer; and even though we were a +Mission ship we found it a real difficulty to keep tab of Sundays. The +first afternoon that I went visiting aboard a large trawler, the +extraordinary number of fish and the specimens of unfamiliar varieties +kept me so interested that I lost all count of time, and when at last +hunger prompted me to look at my watch I found that it was exactly 1.30 +<span class="fakesc">A.M.</span></p> + +<p>At that time so many plaice and flatfish were caught at every haul, and +they were so much more valuable than cod and haddock, that it was +customary not to burden the vessel on her long five days' journey to +market with round fish at all. These were, however, hauled up so +rapidly to the surface from great depths that they had no time to +accommodate the tension in their swimming bladders to the diminished +pressure, with the result that when thrown overboard they were all left +swimming upside down. A pathetic wake of white-bellied fish would +stretch away for half a mile behind the vessel, over which countless +screaming gulls and other birds were fighting. A sympathy for their +horribly unprotected helplessness always left an uneasy sinking feeling +at the pit of my own stomach. The waste has, however, righted itself in +the course of years by the simple process of an increasing scarcity of +the species, making it pay to save all haddock, cod, hake, ling, and +other fish good for food, formerly so ruthlessly cast away.</p> + +<p>One had many interesting experiences in this voyage, some of which have +been of no small value subsequently. But the best lesson was the +optimism and contentment of one's fellows, who had apparently so few of +the things that only tyrannize the lives of those who live for them. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>They were a simple, kindly, helpful people, living in a country barren +and frigid beyond all others, with no trees except in one extreme +corner of the island. The cows were literally fed on salt codfish and +the tails of whales, and the goats grazed on the roofs of the houses, +where existed the only available grass. There were dry, hard, and +almost larval deposits over the whole surface of the land which is not +occupied by perpetual snow and ice. The hot springs which abound in +some regions only suggest a forlorn effort on the part of Nature at the +last moment to save the situation. The one asset of the country is its +fisheries, and of these the whale and seal fisheries were practically +handed over to Norwegians; while large French and English boats fell +like wolves on the fish, which the poor natives had no adequate means +of securing for themselves.</p> + +<p>We were fishing one day in Seyde Fjord on the east coast, when suddenly +with much speed and excitement the great net was hauled, and we started +with several other trawlers to dash pell-mell for the open sea. The +alarm of masts and smoke together on the horizon had been given—the +sign manual of the one poor Danish gunboat which was supposed to +control the whole swarm of far smarter little pirates, which lived like +mosquitoes by sucking their sustenance from others. The water was as a +general rule too deep outside the three-mile limit for legitimate +fishing.</p> + +<p>The mention of Iceland brings to every one's mind the name of Pierre +Loti. We saw many of the "pêcheurs d'islande" whom he so effectively +portrays; and often felt sorry enough for them, fishing as they still +were from old square-rigged wind-jammers. On some of these which had +been months on the voyage, enough green weed had grown "to feed a +cow"—as the mate put it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>On our return home we reported the need of a Mission vessel on the +coast, but the difficulty of her being where she was wanted at the +right time, over such an extended fishery ground, was very +considerable. We decided that only a steam hospital trawler would be of +any real value—unless a small cottage hospital could be started in +Seyde Fjord, to which the sick and injured could be taken.</p> + +<p>It was now thought wise that I should take a holiday, and thus through +the kindness of my former chief, Sir Frederick Treves, then surgeon to +the King, whose life he had been the means of saving, I found myself +for a time his guest on the Scilly Islands. There we could divert our +minds from our different occupations, conjuring up visions of heroes +like Sir Cloudesley Shovel, who lost his life here, and of the scenes +of daring and of death that these beautiful isles out in the Atlantic +have witnessed. Nor did we need Charles Kingsley to paint for us again +the visit of Angus Lee and Salvation Yeo, for Sir Frederick, as his +book, "The Cradle of the Deep," shows, is a past-master in buccaneer +lore. Besides that we had with us his nephew, the famous novel writer, +A.E.W. Mason.</p> + +<p>Treves, with his usual insatiable energy, had organized a grand regatta +to be held at St. Mary's, at which the Governor of the island, the Duke +of Wellington, and a host of visiting big-wigs were to be present. One +event advertised as a special attraction was a life-saving exhibition +to be given by local experts from the judges' stage opposite the grand +stand on the pier. This, Mason and I, being little more than ornaments +in the other events, decided to try and improve upon. Dressed as a +somewhat antiquated lady, just at the psychological moment Mason fell +off the pier head with a loud <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>scream—when, disguised as an aged +clergyman, wildly gesticulating, and cramming my large beaver hat hard +down on my head, I dived in to rescue him. A real scene ensued. We were +dragged out with such energy that the lady lost her skirt, and on +reaching the pier fled for the boat-house clad only in a bonnet and +bodice over a bathing-suit. Although the local press wrote up the +affair as genuine, the secret somehow leaked out, and we had to make +our bow at the prize distribution the following evening.</p> + +<p>Only parts of the winter seasons could be devoted to raising money. The +general Mission budget had to be taken care of as well as the special +funds; besides which one had to superintend the North Sea work. Thus +the summer of 1897 was spent in Iceland as above described, and some of +the winter in the North Sea. The spring, summer, and part of the fall +of 1898 were occupied by the long Irish trip, which established work +among the spring herring and mackerel men from Crookhaven.</p> + +<p>On leaving England for one of these North Sea trips I was delayed and +missed the hospital ship, so that later I was obliged to transfer to +her on the high seas from the little cutter which had kindly carried me +out to the fishing grounds. Friends had been good enough to give me +several little delicacies on my departure, and I had, moreover, some +especially cherished personal possessions which I desired to have with +me on the voyage. These choice treasures consisted of some eggs, a +kayak, a kodak, a chronometer, and a leg of mutton! After I was safely +aboard the Mission hospital ship I found to my chagrin that in my +anxiety to transfer the eggs, the kayak, the kodak, the chronometer, +and especially the leg of mutton to the Albert, I had forgotten my +personal clothing. I appreciated the fact that a soaking meant a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>serious matter, as I had to stay in bed till my things, which were +drenched during my passage in the small boat, were dry again.</p> + +<p>It was on this same voyage that a man, badly damaged, sent off for a +doctor. It was a dirty dark morning, "thick o' rain," and a nasty sea +was running, but we were really glad of a chance of doing anything to +relieve the monotony. So we booted and oil-skinned, sou'-westered and +life-jacketed, till we looked like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and felt +much as I expect a German student does when he is bandaged and padded +till he can hardly move, preparatory to his first duel. The boat was +launched and eagerly announcing the fact by banging loudly and +persistently on the Albert's side. Our two lads, Topsy and Sam, were +soon in the boat, adopting the usual North Sea recipe for transit: (1) +Lie on the rail full length so as not to get your legs and hands +jammed. (2) Wait till the boat bounces in somewhere below you. (3) Let +go! It is not such a painful process as one might imagine, especially +when one is be-padded as we were. The stretcher was now handed in, and +a bag of splints and bandages. "All gone!" shouted simultaneously the +mate and crew, who had risked a shower bath on deck to see us off; and +after a vicious little crack from the Albert's quarter as we dropped +astern, we found ourselves rushing away before the rolling waters, +experiencing about the same sensation one can imagine a young sea-gull +feels when he begins to fly.</p> + +<p>While the skipper was at work in the tobacco locker one morning he +heard a fisherman say that he had taken poison.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get it?"</p> + +<p>"I got it from the Albert."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>"Who gave it to you?"</p> + +<p>"Skipper ——" mentioning the skipper's name.</p> + +<p>At this the skipper came out trembling, wondering what he had done +wrong now.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see it was this way. Our skipper had a bad leg, so as I was +going aboard for some corf mixture, he just arst me to get him a drop +of something to rub in. Well, the skipper here gives me a bottle of red +liniment for our skipper's leg, and a big bottle of corf mixture for +me, but by mistake I drinks the liniment and gave the corf mixture to +our skipper to rub in his leg. I only found out that there yesterday, +so I knew I were poisoned, and I've been lying up ever since."</p> + +<p>"How long ago did you get the medicine?"</p> + +<p>"About a fortnight."</p> + +<p>This man had got it into his head that he was poisoned, and nothing on +earth would persuade him to the contrary, so he was put to bed in the +hospital. For three meals he had nothing but water and a dose of castor +oil. By the next time dinner came round the patient really began to +think he was on the mend, and remarked that "he began to feel real +hungry like." It was just marvellous how much better he was before tea. +He went home to his old smack, cured, and greatly impressed with the +capacity of the medical profession.</p> + +<p>The first piece of news that reached us in the spring was that the Sir +Donald had been found frozen in the floe ice far out on the Atlantic. +No one was on board her, and there was little of any kind in her, but +even the hardy crew of Newfoundland sealers who found her, as they +wandered over the floating ice-fields in search of seals, did not fail +to appreciate the weird and romantic suggestions of a derelict Mission +steamer, keeping her lonely watch on that awful, deathlike waste. She +had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>been left at Assizes Harbour, usually an absolutely safe haven of +rest. But she was not destined to end her chequered career so +peacefully, for the Arctic ice came surging in and froze fast to her +devoted sides, then bore her bodily into the open sea, as if to give +her a fitting burial. The sealing ship Ranger passed her a friendly +rope, and she at length felt the joyful life of the rolling ocean +beneath her once more, and soon lay safely ensconced in the harbour at +St. John's. Here she was sold by auction, and part of the proceeds +divided as her ransom to her plucky salvors.</p> + +<p>The money which could be especially devoted to the new steamer for +Labrador, over and above the general expenses, was not forthcoming +until 1899, when the contract for building the ship was given to a firm +at Dartmouth in Devon. The chief donor of the new boat was again Lord +Strathcona, after whom she was subsequently named.</p> + +<p>On June 27, 1899, the Strathcona was launched, and christened by Lady +Curzon-Howe. When the word was given to let go, without the slightest +hitch or roll the ship slid steadily down the ways into the water. The +band played "Eternal Father," "God save the Queen," and "Life on the +Ocean Wave." Lord Curzon-Howe was formerly commodore upon the station +embracing the Newfoundland and Labrador coast. Lord Strathcona +regretted his enforced absence and sent "Godspeed" to the new steamer.</p> + +<p>She arrived at Gorleston July 18, proving an excellent sea-boat, with +light coal consumption. She is larger than the vessel in which Drake +sailed round the world, or Dampier raided the Spanish Main, or than the +Speedy, which Earl Dundonald made the terror of the French and +Spanish.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>In the fall of 1899 the hull of the Strathcona was completely finished, +and I brought her round, an empty shell, to fit her up at our Yarmouth +wharf; after which, in company with a young Oxford friend, Alfred +Beattie, we left for the Labrador, crossing to Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, +direct from Swansea in an empty copper ore tanker, the Kilmorack. On +this I was rated as purser at twenty-five cents for the trip. Most +tramps can roll, but an empty tanker going west against prevailing +winds in the "roaring forties" can certainly give points to the others. +Her slippery iron decks and the involuntary sideways excursions into +the scuppers still spring into my mind when a certain Psalm comes round +in the Church calendar, with its "that thy footsteps slip not." We were +a little delayed by what is known as wind-jamming, and we used to kill +time by playing tennis in the huge empty hold. This occupation, under +the circumstances, supplied every kind of diversion.</p> + +<p>The mine at Tilt Cove is situated in a hole in the huge headland which +juts out far into the Atlantic, in the northern end of Newfoundland. +Communication in these days was very meagre. No vessel would be +available for us to get North for a fortnight. It so happened, however, +that the Company's doctor had long been waiting a chance to get +married, but his contract never allowed him to leave the mine without a +medical man while it was working. I therefore found myself welcomed +with open arms, and incidentally practising in his place the very next +day—he having skipped in a boat after his bride. The exchange had been +ratified by the captain of the mine on the assurance that I would not +leave before he returned. It was absolutely essential that I should not +let the next north-bound steamer go by. The season was already far +advanced; and yet when the day on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>which she was due arrived, there +was no sign of the doctor and his wife. It was a kind of Damon and +Pythias experience—only Pythias got back late by a few hours in spite +of all his efforts, and Damon would have had to pay the piper if the +captain of the mine had not permitted me to proceed.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep192" id="imagep192"></a> +<a href="images/imagep192.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep192.jpg" width="95%" alt="The Strathcona" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE STRATHCONA<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The narrow road around the cavernous basin in the cliffs leaves only +just room for the line of houses between the lake in the middle and the +precipice behind. Only a few years later an avalanche overwhelmed the +house of Captain Williams, and he and his family perished in it. During +the days I was at the mine the news travelled by grapevine telegraph +that the Mission doctor from England had come to the village, and every +one took advantage of it. The plan there was to pay so much per month, +well or ill, for the doctor. The work was easy at first, but by the +time I left every living being seemed to me to have contracted some +disease. For each succeeding day my surgery got fuller, until on the +last morning even the yard and road contained waiting patients. Whose +fault it was has always been a problem to me; but it added a fresh +reason for wishing to leave punctually, so that one might not risk +outliving one's reputation.</p> + +<p>In October, 1899, I wrote to my mother: "We have just steamed into +Battle Harbour and guns and flags gave us a welcome after our three +years' absence. The hospital was full and looked splendid. What a +change from the day, now seven years ago, that we first landed and had +only a partially finished house! What an oasis for patients from the +bleak rocks outside! I never thought to remain so long in this +country."</p> + +<p>Here we boarded the little Mission steamer, but no human agency is +perfect, and even the Julia Sheriden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>had her faults. Her gait on this +fall voyage was suggestive of inebriety, and at times gave rise to the +anxious sensations one experiences when one sees a poor victim of the +saloon returning home along a pavement near much traffic.</p> + +<p>While in England we had received letters from the north coast of +Newfoundland, begging us to again include their shores in our visits, +and especially to establish a definite winter station at St. Anthony. +The people claimed, and rightly, to be very poor. One man with a large +family, whom I knew well, as he had acted guide for me on hunting +expeditions, wrote: "Come and start a station here if you can. My +family and I are starving." Dr. Aspland wrote that every one was +strongly in favour of our taking up a Mission hospital in North +Newfoundland. We felt that we should certainly reach a very large +number of people whom we now failed to touch, and that careful +inquiries should be made.</p> + +<p>Life on the French shore has been a struggle with too many families to +keep off actual starvation. For instance, one winter at St. Anthony a +man with a large family, and a fine, capable, self-respecting fellow, +was nine days without tasting any flour or bread, or anything besides +roast seal meat. Others were even worse off, for this man was a keen +hunter, and with his rickety old single-barrel, boy's muzzle-loading +gun used to wander alone far out over the frozen sea, with an empty +stomach as well, trying to get a seal or a bird for his family. At last +he shot a square flipper seal and dragged it home. The rumour of his +having killed it preceded his arrival, and even while skinning it a +crowd of hungry men were waiting for their share of the fat. Not that +any was due to them, but here there is a delightful semi-community of +goods.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>Fish was then only fetching two or three dollars a hundredweight, +salted and dried. The price of necessities depended on the conscience +of the individual supplier and the ignorance of the people. The truck +system was universal; thrift at a discount—and the sin of Ananias an +all too common one; that is, taking supplies from one man and returning +to him only part of the catch. The people in the north end of +Newfoundland and Labrador were very largely illiterate; the sectarian +schools split up the grants for teachers—as they still most +unfortunately do—and miserable salaries, permitting teachers only for +a few months at a time, were the rule.</p> + +<p>I had once spent a fortnight at St. Anthony, having taken refuge there +in the Princess May when I was supposed to be lost by those who were +cut off from communication with us. I had also looked in there each +summer to see a few patients. My original idea was to get a winter +place established for our Indian Harbour staff, and I proposed opening +up there each October when Indian Harbour closed, and closing in June +when navigation was reopened, Battle Harbour again accessible, and when +the man-of-war doctors are more on this section of the coast.</p> + +<p>The snow was deep on the ground long before our voyage ended. There is +always a romantic charm about cruising in the fall of the year on the +Labrador. The long nights and the heavy gales add to the interest of +the day's work. The shelter of the islands becomes a positive joy; the +sense of safety in the harbours and fjords is as real a pleasure as the +artificial attractions of civilization. The tang of the air, the young +ice that makes every night, the fantastic midnight dances of the +November auroras in the winter sky, all make one forget the petty +worries of the daily round.</p> + +<p>As Beattie agreed to stay with me it was with real <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>keenness to sample +a sub-arctic winter that in November we disembarked from the Julia +Sheriden. We made only the simplest preparations, renting a couple of +rooms in the chief trader's house and hiring my former guide as +dog-driver.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Not one of the many who have wintered with us in the North has failed +to love our frozen season. To me it was one long delight. The +dog-driving, the intimate relationships with the people on whom one was +so often absolutely dependent, the opportunity to use to the real help +of good people in distress the thousand and one small things which we +had learned—all these made the knowledge that we were shut off from +the outside world rather a pleasure than a cause for regret.</p> + +<p>Calls for the doctor were constant. I spent but three Sundays at home +the whole time, and my records showed fifteen hundred miles covered +with dogs.</p> + +<p>The Eskimo dog is so strong and enduring that he is the doyen of +traction power in the North, when long distances and staying qualities +are required. But for short, sharp dashes of twenty to thirty miles the +lighter built and more vivacious Straits dog is the speedier and +certainly the less wolfish. We have attempted crossbreeding our +somewhat squat-legged Eskimo dogs with Kentucky wolf hounds, to combine +speed with endurance. The mail-carrier from Fullerton to Winnipeg found +that combination very desirable. With us, however, it did not succeed. +The pups were lank and weedy and not nearly so capable as the ordinary +Straits breed.</p> + +<p>The real Labrador dog is a very slightly modified wolf. A good specimen +stands two feet six inches, or even two feet eight inches high at the +shoulder, measures over six feet six inches from the tip of the nose to +the tip of the tail, and will scale a hundred pounds. The hair is +thick <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>and straight; the ears are pointed and stand directly up. The +large, bushy tail curves completely over on to the back, and is always +carried erect. The colour is generally tawny, like that of a gray wolf, +with no distinctive markings. The general resemblance to wolves is so +great that at Davis Inlet, where wolves come out frequently in winter, +the factor has seen his team mixed with a pack of wolves on the beach +in front of the door, and yet could not shoot, being unable to +distinguish one from the other. The Eskimo dog never barks, but howls +exactly like a wolf, in sitting posture with the head upturned. The +Labrador wolf has never been known to kill a man, but during the years +I have spent in that country I have known the dogs to kill two children +and one man, and to eat the body of another. Our dogs have little or no +fear, and unlike the wolves, will unhesitatingly attack even the +largest polar bear.</p> + +<p>No amount of dry cold seems to affect the dogs. At 50° F. below zero, a +dog will lie out on the ice and sleep without danger of frost-bite. He +may climb out of the sea with ice forming all over his fur, but he +seems not to mind one iota. I have seen his breath freeze so over his +face that he had to rub the coating off his eyes with his paws to +enable him to see the track.</p> + +<p>The dogs have a wonderful instinct for finding their way under almost +insurmountable difficulties, and they have oftentimes been the means of +saving the lives of their masters. Once I was driving a distance of +seventy miles across country. The path was untravelled for the winter, +and was only a direction, not being cut or blazed. The leading dog had +been once across the previous year with the doctor. The "going" had +then been very bad; with snow and fog the journey had taken three days. +A large part of the way lay across <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>wide frozen lakes, and then +through woods. As I had never been that way before I had to leave it to +the dog. Without a single fault, as far as we knew, he took us across, +and we accomplished the whole journey in twelve hours, including one +and a half hours for rest and lunch.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep198" id="imagep198"></a> +<a href="images/imagep198.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep198.jpg" width="95%" alt="Three of the Doctor's Dogs" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THREE OF THE DOCTOR'S DOGS<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The distance travelled and the average speed attained depends largely +on other factors than the dog power. We have covered seventy-five miles +in a day with comfort; we have done five with difficulty. Ordinary +speed would be six miles an hour, but I once did twenty-one miles in +two hours and a quarter over level ice. Sails can sometimes be used +with advantage on the komatik as an adjunct. The whole charm of +dog-team driving lies in its infinite variety of experiences, the +personal study of each dog, and the need for one's strength, courage, +and resourcefulness.</p> + +<p>South and north of the little village of St. Anthony where we had +settled were other similar villages; and we decided that we could make +a round tour every second month at least. We soon found, however, a +great difficulty in getting started, because we always had some +patients in houses near about, whom we felt that we could not leave. So +we selected a motherly woman, whom we had learned that we could trust +to obey orders and not act on her own initiative and judgment, and +trained her as best we could to deal with some of these sick people. +Then, having borrowed and outfitted a couple of rooms in a friend's +house, we left our serious cases under her care, and started for a +month's travel with all the optimism of youth.</p> + +<p>Weight on your komatik is a vital question, and not knowing for what +you may be called upon, makes the outfitting an art. I give the +experience of years. The sledge should be eleven feet long. Its runners +should be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>constructed of black spruce grown in the Far North where +wood grows slowly and is very tough, and yet quite light. The runners +should be an inch thick, eleven inches high, and about twenty-six +inches apart, the bottoms rising at the back half an inch, as well as +at the front toward the horns. The laths are fastened on with alternate +diagonal lashings, are two inches wide, and close together. Such a +komatik will "work" like a snake, adapting itself to the inequalities +of the ground, and will not spread or "buckle." Long nails are driven +up right through the runners, and clinched on the top to prevent +splitting. The runners should be shod with spring steel, one inch wide; +and a second runner, two and a half inches wide, may be put between the +lower one and the wood, to hold up the sledge when the snow is soft. +Thus one has on both a skate and a snowshoe at once. The dogs' traces +should be of skin and fastened with toggles or buttons to the bowline. +Dog food must be distributed along the komatik trail in summer—though +the people will make great sacrifices to feed "the Doctor's team."</p> + +<p>Clothing must be light; to perspire in cold weather is unpardonable, +for it will freeze inside your clothes at night. Fortunately warmth +depends only on keeping heat in; and we find an impervious, light, +dressed canvas best. The kossak should be made with, so to speak, no +neck through which the heat which one produces can leak out. The +headpiece must be attached to the tunic, which also clips tight round +the wrists and round the waist to retain the heat. The edges may be +bound with fur, especially about the hood, so as to be soft and tight +about the face, and to keep the air out. The Eskimo cuts his own hair +so as to fill that function. Light sealskin boots are best for all +weathers, but in very cold, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>dry seasons, deerskin dressed very soft is +warmer. The skin boot should be sewn with sinew which swells in water +and thus keeps the stitches water-tight. These skin boots are made by +the Eskimo women who chew the edges of the skin to make them soft +before sewing them with deer sinew. The little Eskimo girls on the +North Labrador coast are proficient in the art of chewing, as they are +brought up from childhood to help their mothers in this way, the women +having invariably lost their teeth at a very early age.</p> + +<p>A light rifle should always be lashed on the komatik, as a rabbit, a +partridge, or a deer gives often a light to the eyes with the fresh +proteids they afford, like Jonathan's wild honey. In these +temperatures, with the muscular exercise required, my strictest of +vegetarian friends should permit us to bow in the House of Rimmon. One +day while crossing a bay I noticed some seals popping up their heads +out of the water beyond the ice edge. I had a fine leading dog bearing +the unromantic name of Podge, and pure white in colour. But he was an +excellent water dog, trained not only to go for birds, but to dive +under water for sunken seals. Owing to their increasing fat in winter, +seals as a rule float, though they invariably sink in summer. On this +particular occasion, having hitched up the team we crept out to the ice +edge, Podge following at my heels. Lying still on the ice, and just +occasionally lifting and waggling one's leg when the seal put up his +head, he mistook one for a basking brother, and being a very curious +animal, he again dived, and came up a few feet away. We shot two, both +of which Podge dived after and retrieved, to the unbounded joy both of +ourselves and his four-footed chums, who more than gladly shared the +carcasses with him later.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>A friend, returning from an island, was jogging quietly along on the +bay ice, when his team suddenly went wild. A bear had crossed close +ahead, and before he could unlash his rifle the komatik had dashed +right onto the animal, who, instead of running, stood up and showed +fight. The team were all around him, rapidly snarling themselves up in +their own traces. He had just time to draw his hunting knife across the +traces and so save the dogs, caring much more for them than he did for +the prey. Whilst his dogs held the attention of the bear, he was able, +though only a few feet away, to unlash his rifle at his leisure, and +very soon ended the conflict.</p> + +<p>A gun, however, is a temptation, even to a doctor, and nearly cost one +of my colleagues his life. He was crossing a big divide, or neck of +land, between bays, and was twenty miles from anywhere, when his dogs +took the trail of some deer, which were evidently not far off. Being +short of fresh food, he hitched up his team, and also his pilot's team, +leaving only his boy driver in charge, while the men pursued the +caribou. He enjoined the boy very strictly not to move on any account. +By an odd freak a sudden snowstorm swept out of a clear sky just after +they left. They missed their way, and two days later, starving and +tired out, they found their first refuge, a small house many miles from +the spot where they had left the sledges. When, however, they sent a +relief team to find the komatiks, they discovered the boy still +"standing by" his charge.</p> + +<p>When crossing wide stretches of country we are often obliged to camp if +it comes on dark. It is quite impossible to navigate rough country when +one cannot see stumps, windfalls, or snags; and I have more than once, +while caught in a forest looking for our tilt, been obliged to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>walk +ahead with a light, and even to search the snow for tracks with the +help of matches, when one's torch has carelessly been left at home. On +one occasion, having stopped our team in deep snow at nightfall, we +left it in the woods to walk out to a village, only five or six miles +distant, on our snowshoes. We entirely lost our way, and ended up at +the foot of some steep cliffs which we had climbed down, thinking that +our destination lay at their feet. The storm of the day had broken the +sea ice from the land, and we could not get round the base of the +cliffs, though we could see the village lights twinkling away, only a +mile or two across the bay. Climbing steep hills through dense woods in +deep snow in the dark calls for some endurance, especially as a white +snow-bank looks like an open space through the dark trees. I have +actually stuck my face into a perpendicular bluff, thinking that I was +just coming out into the open. Oddly enough, when after much struggling +we had mounted the hill, we heard voices, and suddenly met two men, who +had also been astray all day, but now knew the way home. They were "all +in" for want of food, and preferred camping for the night. A good fire +and some chunks of sweet cake so greatly restored them, however, that +we got under way again in a couple of hours, further stimulated to do +so by the bitter cold, against which, in the dark, we could not make +adequate shelter. Moreover, we had perspired with the violent exercise +and our clothes were freezing from the inside out.</p> + +<div style="padding-bottom: .5em;"> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 46%;"><a name="imagep202" id="imagep202"></a> +<a href="images/imagep202a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep202a.jpg" width="95%" alt="A Hilly Trail: A Komatik Journey" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em; margin-bottom: .2em;">A Hilly Trail</p> +</div> + +<div class="imgr" style="width: 46%;"> +<a href="images/imagep202b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep202b.jpg" width="92%" alt="Crossing A Brook: A Komatik Journey" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em; margin-bottom: .2em;">Crossing a Brook</p> +</div> + +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: -1em; clear: both;">A KOMATIK JOURNEY<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>You must always carry an axe, not only for firewood, but for getting +water—unless you wish to boil snow, which is a slow process, and apt +to burn your kettle. Also when you have either lost the trail or there +is none, you must have an axe to clear a track as you march <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>ahead of +your dogs. Then there is, of course, the unfortunate question of food. +Buns baked with chopped pork in them give one fine energy-producing +material, and do not freeze. A sweet hard biscuit is made on the coast +which is excellent in one's pocket. Cocoa, cooked pork fat, stick +chocolate, are all good to have. Our sealers carry dry oatmeal and +sugar in their "nonny bags," which, mixed with snow, assuage their +thirst and hunger as well. Pork and beans in tins are good, but they +freeze badly. I have boiled a tin in our kettle for fifteen minutes, +and then found a lump of ice in the middle of the substance when it was +turned out into the dish.</p> + +<p>Winter travelling on this coast oftentimes involves considerable +hardships, as when once our doctor lost the track and he and his men +had to spend several nights in the woods. They were so reduced by +hunger that they were obliged to chew pieces of green sealskin which +they cut from their boots and to broil their skin gloves over a fire +which they had kindled.</p> + +<p>One great joy which comes with the work is the sympathy one gets with +the really poor, whether in intelligence, physical make-up, or worldly +assets. One learns how simple needs and simple lives preserve simple +virtues that get lost in the crush of advancing civilization. Many and +many a time have the poor people by the wayside refused a penny for +their trouble. On one occasion I came in the middle of the night to a +poor man's house. He was in bed and the lights out, and it was bitter +cold. He got out of bed in a trice and went down to his stage carrying +an old hurricane lantern to feed my dogs, while his wife, after he had +lit a fire in the freezing cold room, busied herself making me some +cocoa. Milk and sugar were provided, and not till long afterwards did I +know that it was a special little hoard kept for visitors. Later <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>I was +sent to bed—quite unaware that the good folk had spent the first part +of the night in it, and were now themselves on the neighbouring floor. +Nor would a sou's return be asked. "It's the way of t' coast," the good +fellow assured me.</p> + +<p>Another time my host for the night had gone when I rose for breakfast. +I found that he had taken the road which I was intending to travel to +the next village, some fourteen miles distant, just to break and mark a +trail for us as we did not know the way; and secondly to carry some +milk and sugar to "save the face" of my prospective host for the next +day, who had "made a bad voyage" that year. Still another time no less +than forty men from Conche marched ahead on a twenty-mile track to make +it possible for our team to travel quickly to a neighbouring +settlement.</p> + +<p>Often I have thought how many of these things would I do for my poorer +friends. We who speak glibly of the need of love for our neighbours as +being before that for ourselves, would we share a bed, a room, or give +hospitality to strangers even in our kitchens, after they had awakened +us in the middle of the night by slinging snowballs at our bedroom +windows?</p> + +<p>One day that winter a father of eight children sent in from a +neighbouring island for immediate help. His gun had gone off while his +hand was on the muzzle, and practically blown it to pieces. To treat +him ten miles away on that island was impossible, so we brought him in +for operation. To stop the bleeding he had plunged his hand into a +flour barrel and then tied it up in a bag, and as a result the wounded +arm was poisoned way up above the elbow. He preferred death to losing +his right arm. Day and night for weeks our nurse tended him, as he +hovered between life and death with general blood <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>poisoning. Slowly +his fine constitution brought him through, and at last a secondary +operation for repair became possible. We took chances on bone-grafting +to form a hand; and he was left with a flipper like a seal's, able, +however, to oppose one long index finger and "nip a line" when he +fished. But there was no skin for it. So Dr. Beattie and I shared the +honours of supplying some. Pat—for that was his name—has been a +veritable apostle of the hospital ever since, and has undoubtedly been +the means of enabling others to risk the danger of our suspected +proselytizing. For though he had English Episcopal skin on the palm of +his hand and Scotch Presbyterian skin on the back, the rest of him +still remained a devout Roman Catholic.</p> + +<p>Another somewhat parallel case occurred the following year, when a dear +old Catholic lady was hauled fifty miles over the snow by her two +stalwart sons, to have her leg removed for tubercular disease of the +ankle. She did exceedingly well, and the only puzzle which we could not +solve was where to raise the necessary hundred dollars for a new +leg—for her disposition, even more than her necessity, compelled her +to move about. While lecturing that winter in America, I asked friends +to donate to me any of their old legs which they no longer needed, and +soon I found myself the happy possessor of two good wooden limbs, one +of which exactly suited my requirements. A departed Methodist had left +it, and the wife's clergyman, a Congregationalist, had handed it to me, +an Episcopalian, and I had the joy of seeing it a real blessing to as +good a Roman Catholic as I know. As the priest says, there is now at +least one Protestant leg established in his parish.</p> + +<p>We once reached a house at midnight, found a boy with a broken thigh, +and had to begin work by thawing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>out frozen board in order to plane it +for splints, then pad and fix it, and finally give chloroform on the +kitchen table. On another occasion we had to knock down a partition in +a tiny cottage, make a full-length wooden bath, pitching the seams to +make it water-tight, in order to treat a severe cellulitis. Now it +would be a maternity case, now a dental one, now a gunshot wound or an +axe cut with severed tendons to adjust, now pneumonia, when often in +solitary and unlearned homes, we would ourselves do the nursing and +especially the cooking, as that art for the sick is entirely +uncultivated on the coast.</p> + +<p>The following winter I lectured in England and then crossed in the +early spring to the United States and lectured both there and in +Canada, receiving great kindness and much help for the work.</p> + +<p>As I have stated in the previous chapter we had raised, largely through +the generosity of Lord Strathcona, the money for a suitable little +hospital steamer, and she had been built to our design in England. I +had steamed her round to our fitting yard at Great Yarmouth, and had +her fitted for our work before sailing. While I was in America, my old +Newfoundland crew went across and fetched her over, so that June found +us once more cruising the Labrador coast.</p> + +<p>While working with the large fleet of schooners, which at that time +fished in August and September from Cape Mugford to Hudson Bay Straits, +I visited as usual the five stations of the Moravian Brethren. They +were looking for a new place to put a station, and at their request I +took their representative to Cape Chidley in the Strathcona.</p> + +<p>This northern end of Labrador is extremely interesting to cruise. The +great Appalachian Mountain Range runs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>out here right to the water +edge, and forms a marvellous sea-front of embattled cliffs from two +thousand to three thousand feet in height. The narrow passages which +here and there run far into the mountains, and represent old valleys +scooped out by ice action, are dominated all along by frowning peaks, +whose pointed summits betray the fact that they overtopped the ice +stream in the glacial age. The sharp precipices and weather-worn sides +are picked out by coloured lichens, and tiny cold-proof Arctic plants, +and these, with the deep blue water and unknown vistas that keep +constantly opening up as one steams along the almost fathomless fjords, +afford a fascination beyond measure.</p> + +<p>Once before in the Sir Donald we had tried to navigate the narrow run +that cuts off the island on which Cape Chidley stands from the mainland +of Labrador, but had missed the way among the many openings, and only +noted from a hilltop the course we should have taken, by the boiling +current which we saw below, whose vicious whirlpools like miniature +maelstroms poured like a dashing torrent from Ungava Bay into the +Atlantic.</p> + +<p>It was, however, with our hearts somewhere near our mouths that we made +an attempt to get through this year, for we knew nothing of the depth, +except that the Eskimos had told us that large icebergs drove through +at times. We could steam nine knots, and we essayed to cover the tide, +which we found against us, as we neared the narrowest part, which is +scarcely one hundred yards wide. The current carried us bodily astern, +however, and glad enough we were to drive stern foremost into a cove on +one side and find thirteen fathoms of water to hold on in till the tide +should turn. When at last it did turn, and got under way, it fairly +took us in its teeth, and we shot through, an impotent plaything <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>on +the heaving bosom of the resistless waters. We returned safely, with a +site selected and a fair chart of the "Tickle" (Grenfell Tickle).</p> + +<p>When winter closed in, I arranged for an old friend, a clerk of the +Hudson Bay Company, to stay with me at St. Anthony, and once more we +settled down in rooms hired in a cottage. We had a driver, a team of +dogs, and an arrangement with a paternal Government to help out by +making an allowance of twenty-five cents for medicine for such patients +as could not themselves pay that amount, and in those days the number +was quite large.</p> + +<p>When early spring came the hospital question revived. An expedition +into the woods was arranged, and with a hundred men and thrice as many +dogs, we camped in the trees, and at the end of the fortnight came home +hauling behind us the material for a thirty-six by thirty-six hospital. +Being entirely new to us it proved a very happy experience. We were +quartermasters and general providers. Our kitchen was dug down in thick +woods through six feet of snow, and our main reliance was on boiled +"doughboys"—the "sinkers" among which, with a slice of fat pork or a +basin of bird soup, were as popular as lobster à la Newburg at +Delmonico's or Sherry's.</p> + +<p>The next summer we had trouble with a form of selfishness which I have +always heartily hated—the liquor traffic. Suppose we do allow that a +man has a right to degrade his body with swallowing alcohol, he +certainly has no more right to lure others to their destruction for +money than a filibuster has a right to spend his money in gunpowder and +shoot his fellow countrymen. To our great chagrin we found that an +important neighbour near one of our hospitals was selling intoxicants +to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>people—girls and men. One girl found drunk on the hillside +brought home to me the cost of this man's right to "do as he liked." We +promptly declared war, and I thanked God who had made "my hands to war, +and my fingers to fight"—when that is the only way to resist the Devil +successfully and to hasten the kingdom of peace.</p> + +<p>This man and I had had several disagreements, and I had been warned not +to land on the premises on pain of being "chucked into the sea." But +when I tested the matter out by landing quite alone from a row-boat, +after a "few wor-r-r-ds" his coast-born hospitality overcame him, and +as his bell sounded the dinner call, he promptly invited me to dine +with him. I knew that he would not poison the food, and soon we were +glowering at one another over his own table—where his painful efforts +to convince me that he was right absolutely demonstrated the exact +opposite.</p> + +<p>My chance came that summer. We were steaming to our Northern hospital +from the deep bay which runs in a hundred and fifty miles. About twenty +miles from the mouth a boat hailed us out of the darkness, and we +stopped and took aboard a wrecked crew of three men. They had struck +our friend's well-insured old steam launch on a shoal and she had sunk +under them. We took them aboard, boat and all, wrote down carefully +their tale of woe, and then put the steamer about, pushed as near the +wreck as we dared and anchored. Her skipper came forward and asked me +what I intended doing, and I told him I was going to survey the wreck. +A little later he again came to ask permission to go aboard the wreck +to look for something he had forgotten. I told him certainly not. Just +before sunrise the watch called me and said that the wrecked crew had +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>launched their boat, and were rowing toward the steamer. "Launch ours +at once, and drive them back" was an order which our boys obeyed with +alacrity and zest. It was a very uneasy three men who faced me when +they returned. They were full of bluff at what they would do for having +their liberties thus interfered with, but obviously uneasy at heart.</p> + +<p>With some labour we discovered that the water only entered the wreck at +low tide and forward; so by buoying her with casks, tearing up her +ballast deck, and using our own pumps as well as buckets—at which all +hands of my crew worked with a good will, we at last found the hole. It +was round. There were no splinters on the inside. We made a huge bung +from a stick of wood, plugged the opening, finished pumping her out, +and before dark had her floating alongside us. Late that night we were +once more anchored—this time opposite the dwelling-house of my friend +the owner. We immediately went ashore and woke him up. There is a great +deal in doing things at the psychological moment; and by midnight I had +a deed duly drawn up, signed and sealed, selling me the steamer for +fifty cents. I still see the look in his eyes as he gave me fifty cents +change from a dollar. He was a self-made man, had acquired considerable +money, and was keen as a ferret at business. The deed was to me a +confession that he was in the plot for barratry, to murder the boat for +her insurance.</p> + +<p>On our trip South we picked up the small steamer, and towing her to a +Hudson Bay Company's Post we put her "on the hard," photographed the +hole, with all the splintering on the outside, and had a proper survey +of the hull made by the Company's shipwright. The unanimous verdict was +"wilful murder." In the fall as her own best witness, we tried to tow +her to St. John's, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>but in a heavy breeze of wind and thick snow we +lost her at sea—and with her our own case as well. The law decided +that there was no evidence, and my friend, making out that he had lost +the boat and the insurance, threatened to sue me for the value.</p> + +<p>The sequel of the story may as well be told here. A year or so later I +had just returned from Labrador. It used to be said always that our +boat "brought up the keel of the Labrador"; but this year our friend +had remained until every one else had gone. Just as we were about to +leave for England, the papers in St. John's published the news of the +loss of a large foreign-going vessel, laden with fish for the +Mediterranean, near the very spot where our friend lived. On a visit a +little later to the shipping office I found the event described in the +graphic words of the skipper and mate. Our friend the consignee had +himself been on board at the time the "accident" occurred. After +prodigies of valour they had been forced to leave the ship, condemn +her, and put her up for sale. Our friend, the only buyer at such a time +on the coast, had bought her in for eighty dollars.</p> + +<p>It was the end of November, and already a great deal of ice had made. +The place was six hundred miles north. The expense of trying to save +the ship would be great. But was she really lost? The heroics sounded +too good to be true. All life is a venture. Why not take one in the +cause of righteousness? That night in a chartered steam trawler, with a +trusty diver, we steamed out of the harbour, steering north. Our +skipper was the sea rival of the famous Captain Blandford; and the way +he drove his little craft, with the ice inches thick from the driving +spray all over the bridge and blocking the chart-room windows, made one +glad to know that the good sea genius of the English was still so well +preserved.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>When our distance was run down we hauled in for the land, but had to +lay "hove to" (with the ship sugared like a Christmas cake), as we were +unable to recognize our position in the drifting snow. At length we +located the islands, and never shall I forget as we drew near hearing +the watch call out, "A ship's topmasts over the land." It was the wreck +we were looking for.</p> + +<p>It took some hours to cut through the ice in which she lay, before ever +we could get aboard; and even the old skipper showed excitement when at +last we stood on her deck. Needless to say, she was not upside down, +nor was she damaged in any way, though she was completely stripped of +all running gear. The diver reported no damage to her bottom, while the +mate reported the fish in her hold dry, and the hatches still tightly +clewed, never having been stirred.</p> + +<p>With much hearty good-will our crew jettisoned fish enough into our own +vessel to float the craft. Fearing that so late in the year we might +fail to tow her safely so far, and remembering the outcome of our +losing the launch, we opened the stores on the island, and finding both +block and sails, neatly labelled and stowed away, we soon had our prize +not only refitted for sea, but also stocked with food, water, chart, +and compass and all essentials for a voyage across the Atlantic, if she +were to break loose and we to lose her. The last orders were to the +mate, who was put on board her with a crew, "If not St. John's then +Liverpool."</p> + +<p>No such expedient, however, proved necessary. Though we had sixty +fathoms of anchor chain on each of our wire cables to the ship, we +broke one in a seaway and had to haul under the lee of some cliffs and +repair damages. Often for hours together the vessel by day <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>and her +lights by night would disappear, and our hearts would jump into our +mouths for fear we might yet fail. But at last, with all our bunting +up, and both ships dressed as if for a holiday, we proudly entered the +Narrows of St. John's, the cynosure of all eyes. The skipper and our +friend had gone to England, so the Government had them extradited. The +captain, who was ill with a fatal disease, made a full confession, and +both men were sent to prison.</p> + +<p>That was how we "went dry" in our section of Labrador.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE COÖPERATIVE MOVEMENT</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Being a professional and not a business man, and having no acquaintance +with the ways of trade, the importance of a new economic system as one +of the most permanent messages of helpfulness to the coast was not at +first obvious to me. But the ubiquitous barter system, which always +left the poor men the worst end of the bargain, is as subtle a danger +as can face a community—subtle because it impoverishes and enslaves +the victims, and then makes them love their chains.</p> + +<p>As a magistrate I once heard a case where a poor man paid one hundred +dollars in cash to his trader in the fall to get him a new net. The +trader could not procure the twine, and when spring arrived the man +came to get on credit his usual advance of "tings." From the bill for +these the trader deducted the hundred dollars cash, upon which the man +actually came to me as a justice of the peace to have him punished!</p> + +<p>Lord Strathcona told me that in his day on this coast, when a man had +made so good a hunt that he had purchased all he could think of, he +would go round to the store again asking how much money was still due +him. He would then take up purchases to exceed it by a moderate margin, +saying that he liked to keep his name on the Company's books. In those +days the people felt that they had the best part of the bargain if they +were always a little in debt. The tendency to thrift was thus +annihilated. The fishermen simply turned in all their catch to the +merchant, and took what was coming to them as a matter of course. Many +even were afraid to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>ask for certain supplies. This fact often became +evident when we were trying to order special diets—the patient would +reply, "Our trader won't give out that." Naturally the whole system +horrified us, as being the nearest possible approach to English +slavery, for the poor man was in constant fear that the merchant "will +turn me off." On the other hand, the traders took precautions that +their "dealers" should not be able to leave them, such as not selling +them traps outright for furring, or nets for fishing, but only loaning +them, and having them periodically returned. This method insured their +securing all the fur caught, because legally a share of the catch +belonged to them in return for the loan of the trap. They thus +completely minimized the chance for competition, which is "the life of +trade."</p> + +<p>Soon after my arrival on the coast I saw the old Hudson Bay Company's +plan of paying in bone counters of various colours; and a large lumber +company paying its wages in tin money, stamped "Only valuable at our +store." If, to counteract this handicap, the men sold fish or fur for +cash to outsiders, and their suppliers found it out, they would punish +them severely.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, sitting by me on a gunning point where we were +shooting ducks as they flew by on their fall migration, was a friend +who had given me much help in building one of our hospitals. I suddenly +noticed that he did not fire at a wonderful flock of eiders which went +right over our heads. "What's the matter, Jim?" I asked. "I settled +with the merchant to-day," he replied, "and he won't give me nothing +for powder. A duck or two won't matter. 'Tis the children I'm minding." +The fishery had been poor, and not having enough to meet his advances, +he had sold a few quintals of fish for cash, so as to get things like +milk which he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>not be allowed on winter credit, and had been +caught doing so. He was a grown man and the father of four children. We +went to his trader to find out how much he was in debt. The man's +account on the books was shown us, and it read over three thousand +dollars against our friend. It had been carried on for many years. A +year or two later when the merchant himself went bankrupt with a debt +of $686,000 to the bank of which he was a director, the people of that +village, some four hundred and eleven souls in all, owed his firm +$64,000, an asset returned as value nil. The whole thing seemed a +nightmare to any one who cared about these people.</p> + +<p>In Labrador no cereals are grown and the summer frosts make potato and +turnip crops precarious, so that the tops of the latter are practically +all the green food to which we can aspire—except for the few families +who remain at the heads of the long bays all summer, far removed from +the polar current. Furthermore, until some one invents a way to extract +the fishy taste from our fish oils, we must import our edible fats; for +the Labrador dogs will not permit cows or even goats to live near them. +I have heard only this week that a process has just been discovered in +California for making a pleasant tasting butter out of fish oil. Our +"sweetness" must all be imported, for none of our native berries are +naturally sweet, and we can grow no cultivated fruits. The same fact +applies to cotton and wool. Thus nearly all our necessities of life +have to be brought to us. Firewood, lumber, fish and game, boots or +clothing of skins, are all that we can provide for ourselves. On the +other hand, we must export our codfish, salmon, trout, whales, oil, +fur, and in fact practically all our products. An exchange medium is +therefore imperative; and we must have some gauge like cash by which to +measure, or else <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>we shall lose on all transactions; for all the prices +of both exports and imports fluctuate very rapidly, and besides this, +we had then practically no way to find out what prices were maintaining +in our markets.</p> + +<p>Government relief had failed to stop the evils of the barter system. In +the opinion of thinking men it only made matters worse. We were +therefore from every point of view encouraged to start the coöperative +plan which had proved so successful in England. I still believe that +the people are honest, and that the laziness of indolence, from the +stigma of which it is often impossible to clear them, is due to despair +and inability to work properly owing to imperfect nourishment.</p> + +<p>Things went from bad to worse as the years went by. The fact of the +sealing steamers killing the young seals before they could swim greatly +impoverished the Labrador inshore seal fishery. The prices of fish were +so low that a man could scarcely catch enough to pay for his summer +expenses out of it.</p> + +<p>With us the matter came to a head in a little fishing village called +Red Bay, on the north side of the Straits of Belle Isle. When we ran in +there on our last visit one fall, we found some of our good friends +packed up and waiting on their stages to see if we would remove them +from the coast. A meeting was called that night to consider the +problem, and it was decided that the people must try to be their own +merchants, accepting the risks and sharing the profits. The fisherman's +and trapper's life is a gamble, and naturally, therefore, they like +credit advances, for it makes the other man carry the risks. We then +and there decided, however, to venture a coöperative store, hiring a +schooner to bring our freight and carry our produce straight to market; +and if necessary eat grass for a year or so. Alas, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>after a year's +saving the seventeen families could raise only eighty-five dollars +among them for capital, and we had to loan them sufficient to obtain +the first cargo. A young fisherman was chosen as secretary, and the +store worked well from the beginning. That was in 1905. He is still +secretary, and to-day in 1918 the five-dollar shares are worth one +hundred and four dollars each, by the simple process of accumulation of +profits. The loan has been repaid years ago. Not a barrow load of fish +leaves the harbour except through the coöperative store. Due to it, the +people have been able to tide over a series of bad fisheries; and every +family is free of debt.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep218" id="imagep218"></a> +<a href="images/imagep218.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep218.jpg" width="95%" alt="The First Coöperative Store" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE FIRST COÖPERATIVE STORE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>At the time of the formation one most significant fact was that every +shareholder insisted that his name must not be registered, for fear +some one might find out that he owned cash. They were even opposed to a +label on the building to signify that it was a store. However, I +chalked all over its face "Red Bay Coöperative Store."</p> + +<p>The whole effort met with very severe criticism, not to say hostility, +at the hands of the smaller traders, but the larger merchants were most +generous in their attitude, and though doubtful of the possibility of +realizing a cash basis, were without exception favourable to the +attempt. This store has been an unqualified success, only limited in +its blessings by its lack of larger capital. It has enabled its members +to live independently, free of debt and without want; while similar +villages, both south and east and west, have been gradually deleted by +the people being forced to leave through inability to meet their needs.</p> + +<p>During my first winter at St. Anthony, the young minister of the little +church on more than one occasion happened to be visiting on his rounds +in the very house <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>where we were staying on ours, and the subject of +coöperation was frequently discussed over the evening pipe with the +friends in the place. He had himself been trading, and had so disliked +the methods that he had retired. He would certainly help us to organize +a store on the Newfoundland side of the Straits.</p> + +<p>At last the day arrived for the initial meeting. We gave notice +everywhere. The chosen rendezvous was in a village fourteen miles +north. The evening before, however, the minister sent word that he +could not be present, as he had to go to a place twenty miles to the +northwest to hold service. Knowing for how much his opinion counted in +the minds of some of the people, this was a heavy blow, especially as +the traders had notified me that they would all be on hand. Fortunately +an ingenious suggestion was made—"He doesn't know the way. Persuade +his driver, after starting out, to gradually work round and end up at +the coöperative meeting." This was actually done, and our friend was +present willy-nilly. He proved a broken reed, however, for in the face +of the traders he went back on coöperation.</p> + +<p>As fortune would have it, our own komatik fell through the ice in +taking a short cut across a bay, and we arrived late, having had to +borrow some dry clothing from a fisherman on the way. Our trader +friends had already appeared on the scene, and were joking the parson +for being tricked, saying that evidently we had made a mistake and were +really at Cape Norman, the place to which he had intended to go.</p> + +<p>It was a dark evening, crisp and cold, and hundreds of dogs that had +hauled people from all over the countryside to the meeting made night +dismal outside. We began our meeting with prayer for guidance, wisdom, +and good temper, for we knew that we should need them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>all—and then we +came down to statistics, prices, debts, possibilities, and the story of +coöperation elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The little house was crammed to overflowing. But the fear of the old +régime was heavy on the meeting. The traders occupied the whole time +for speaking. Only one old fisherman spoke at all. He had been an +overseas sailor in his early days, and he surprised himself by turning +orator. His effort elicited great applause. "Doctor—I means Mr. +Chairman—if this here copper store buys a bar'l of flour in St. John's +for five dollars, be it going to sell it to we fer ten? That's what us +wants to know."</p> + +<p>Outside, after the meeting, Babel was let loose. The general opinion +was that there must be something to it or the traders would not have so +much to say against the project. The upshot of the matter was that for +a long time no one could be found who would take the managership; but +at length the best-beloved fisherman on the shore stepped into the +breach. He was not a scholar—in fact could scarcely read, write, and +figure—but his pluck, optimism, and unselfishness carried him through.</p> + +<p>That little store has been preaching its vital truths ever since. It is +a still small text, but it has had vast influences for good. There has +proved to be one difficulty. It is the custom on the coast to give all +meals to travellers free, both men and dogs, and lodging to boot. +Customers came from so far away that they had to stay overnight at +least, and of course it was always Harry's house to which they went. +The profit on a twenty-five cent purchase was slender under these +circumstances, and as cash was scarce in those days, a twenty-five-cent +purchase was not so rare as might be supposed. We therefore printed, +mounted, framed, and sent to our friend the legend, "No more free +meals. Each meal will cost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>ten cents." Later we received a most +grateful reply from him in his merry way, saying that he had hung up +the card in his parlour, but begging us not to defer visits if we had +not the requisite amount, as he was permitted to give credit to that +extent. But when next we suddenly "blew in" to Harry's house, the +legend was hanging with its face to the wall.</p> + +<p>Our third store was seventy-five miles to the westward at a place +called Flowers Cove. Here the parson came in with a will. Being a +Church of England man, he was a more permanent resident, and, as he +said, "he was a poor man, but he would sell his extra pair of boots to +be able to put one more share in the store." What was infinitely more +important he put in his brains. Every one in that vicinity who had felt +the slavery of the old system joined the venture. One poor Irishman +walked several miles around the coast to catch me on my next visit, and +secretly give me five dollars. "'Tis all I has in the world, Doctor, +saving a bunch of children, but if it was ten times as large, you +should have every cent of it for the store." "Thanks, Paddy, that's the +talking that tells." For some years afterwards, every time that he knew +I was making a visit to that part of the coast, he would come around +seeking a private interview, and inquire after the health of "the +copper store"; till he triumphantly brought another five dollars for a +second share "out of my profits, Doctor."</p> + +<p>That store is now a limited liability company with a capital of ten +thousand dollars owned entirely by the fishermen, it has paid +consistently a ten per cent dividend every year, and is located in fine +premises which it bought and owns outright.</p> + +<p>A fourth store followed near the lumber mill which we started to give +winter labour at logging; but owing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>to bad management and lack of +ability to say "no" to men seeking credit, it fell into debt and we +closed it up. Number five almost shared the same fate. Unable to get +local talent to manage it, we hired a Canadian whose pretensions proved +unequal to his responsibility. He was, however, found out in time to +reorganize the store; but the loss which he had caused was heavy, and +it was his notice of leaving for Canada which alone betrayed the truth +to us. The most serious aspect of the matter was that many of the local +fishermen lost confidence in the ability of the store to succeed, and +returning to the credit system, they found it modified enough to appear +to them a lamb instead of a wolf. However, number five is growing all +the time again and will yet be a factor in the people's deliverance.</p> + +<p>Numbers six and seven were in poor and remote parts of Labrador, very +small, and with insufficient capital and brains. One has closed +permanently. They were simply small stores under the care of one +settler, who guaranteed to charge the people only a fixed percentage +over St. John's prices for goods, as the return for his responsibility. +Number eight was the result of a night spent in a miserable shack on a +lonely promontory called Adlavik.</p> + +<p>God forbid that I should judge traders or doctors or lawyers or priests +by their profession or their intellectual attitude. There are noble men +in all walks of life. Alas, some are more liable than others to yield +to temptation, and the temptations to which they are exposed are more +insistent.</p> + +<p>Number nine was on the extreme northern edge of the white settlers at +Ford's Harbour. The story of it is too long to relate, but the trade +there, in spite of many difficulties, still continues to preach a +gospel and spell much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>blessing to poor people. To help out, we have +sent north to this station three of our boys from the orphanage, as +they grew old enough to go out into the world for themselves.</p> + +<p>One disaster, in the form of a shipwreck, overtook the fine fellow in +charge of this most northerly venture. For the first time in his life +he came south, to seek a wife, his former wife having succumbed to +tuberculosis. He brought with him his year's products of fur and skin +boots. The mail steamer on which he was travelling struck a rock off +Battle Harbour, and most of his goods were lost uninsured, he himself +gladly enough escaping with his life.</p> + +<p>It remained for our tenth venture to bring the hardest battle, and in a +sense the greatest measure of success. Spurred by the benefits of the +Red Bay store, the people of a little village about forty miles away +determined to combine also. The result was a fine store near our +hospital at Battle Harbour—which during the first year did sixty +thousand dollars' worth of business. This served to put a match to the +explosive wrath of those whose opposition hitherto had been that of +rats behind a wainscot. They secured from their friends a Government +commission appointed to inquire into the work of the Mission as "a +menace to honest trade." The leading petitioner had been the best of +helpers to the first venture. When the traders affected by it had first +boycotted the fish, he had sent his steamer and purchased it from the +company. Now the boot was on the other leg. The Commission and even the +lawyers have all told me that they were prejudiced against the whole +Mission by hearsay and misinterpretations, before they even began their +exhaustive inquiry. Their findings, however, were a complete refutation +of all charges, and the best advertisement possible.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>It would not be the time to say that the whole coöperative venture has +been an unqualified success; but the causes of failure in each case +have been perfectly obvious, and no fault of the system. Lack of +business ability has been the main trouble, and the lack of courage and +unity which everywhere characterizes mankind, but is perhaps more +emphasized on a coast where failure means starvation, and where the +coöperative spirit has been rendered very difficult to arouse owing to +mistrust born of religious sectarianism and denominational schools. +These all militate very strongly against that unity which alone can +enable labour to come to its own without productive ability.</p> + +<p>There is one aspect for which we are particularly grateful. Politics, +at any rate, has not been permitted to intrude, and the stress laid on +the need of brotherliness, forbearance, and self-development—if ever +these producers are to reap the rewards of being their own traders—has +been very marked. Only thus can they share in the balance of profit +which makes the difference between plenty and poverty on this isolated +coast.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The argument for coöperation had been that life on the coast was not +worth living under the credit system. A short feast and a long famine +was the local epigram. If our profits could be maintained on the coast, +and spent on the coast, then the next-to-nature life had enough to +offer in character as well as in maintenance to attract a permanent +population, especially with the furring in winter. For the actual +figures showed that good hunters made from a thousand to fifteen +hundred dollars in a season, besides the salmon and cod fishery. There +was, moreover, game for food, free firewood, water, homes, and no +taxation except indirect in duties on their goods.</p> + +<p>These same conditions prevailed on the long, narrow slice of land known +as the "French shore" in northern Newfoundland. There the people were +more densely settled, the hinterland was small, and many therefore +could not go furring. Moreover, the polar current, entering the mouth +of the Straits of Belle Isle, makes this section of land more liable to +summer frosts, with a far worse climate than the Labrador bays, and +gardening is less remunerative. We puzzled our brains for some way to +add to our earning capacities, some coöperative productive as well as +distributive enterprise.</p> + +<p>The poverty which I had witnessed in Canada Bay in North Newfoundland, +some sixty miles south of St. Anthony Hospital, had left me very keen +to do something for that district which might really offer a solution +of the problem. I had been told that there was plenty of timber to +justify running a mill in the bay; but that no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>sawmills paid in +Newfoundland. This was emphasized in St. John's by my friends who still +own the only venture out of the eleven which have operated in that city +that has been able to continue. They have succeeded by adopting modern +methods and erecting a factory for making furniture, so as to supply +finished articles direct to their customers. We knew that in our case +labour would be cheaper than ordinarily, for our labour in winter had +generally to go begging. It was mainly this fact which finally induced +us to make the attempt.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep226" id="imagep226"></a> +<a href="images/imagep226.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep226.jpg" width="95%" alt="St. Anthony" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. ANTHONY<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Having talked the matter over with the people we secured from the +Government a special grant, as the venture, if it succeeded, would +relieve them of the necessity of having poor-relief bills. The whole +expense of the enterprise fell upon myself, for the Mission Board +considered it outside their sphere; and already we had built St. +Anthony Hospital in spite of the fact that they thought that we were +undertaking more than they would be able to handle, and had discouraged +it from the first.</p> + +<p>The people had no money to start a mill, and the circumstances +prohibited my asking aid from outside, so it was with considerable +anxiety that we ordered a mill, as if it were a pound of chocolates, +and arranged with two young friends to come out from England as +volunteers, except for their expenses, to help us through with the new +effort. At the same time there was three hundred dollars to pay for the +necessary survey and line cutting, and supplies of food for the loggers +for the winter. Houses must also be erected and furnished.</p> + +<p>Ignorance undoubtedly supplied us with the courage to begin. Personally +I knew nothing whatever of mills, having never even seen one. Nor had I +seen the grant of land, or selected a site for the building. This was +left entirely to the people themselves; and as none of them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>had ever +seen a mill either, we all felt a bit uneasy about our capacities. I +had left orders with the captain of the Coöperator (our schooner) to +fetch the mill and put it where the people told him; but when I heard +that there was one piece which included the boiler which weighed three +tons, it seemed to me that they could never handle it. We had no wharf +ready to receive it and no boat capable of carrying it. I woke many +times that summer wondering if it had not gone to the bottom while they +were attempting the landing. There was no communication whatever with +them as we were six hundred miles farther north on our summer cruise; +and we had not the slightest control over the circumstances in which we +might become involved.</p> + +<p>It was late in the season and the snow was already deep on the ground +when eventually we were piloted to the spot selected. It was nine miles +up the bay on a well-wooded promontory of a side inlet. The water was +deep to the shore and the harbour as safe as a house. The boys from +England had arrived, and a small cottage had been erected, tucked away +in the trees. It was very small, and very damp, the inside of the walls +being white with frost in the morning until the fire had been under way +for some time. But it was a merry crowd, emerging from various little +hutlets around among the trees, which greeted the Strathcona.</p> + +<p>The big boiler, the "bugaboo" of my dreams all summer, lay on the bank. +"How did you get it there?" was my first query. "We warped the vessel +close to the land, and then hove her close ashore and put skids from +the rocks off to her. On these we slid the boiler, all hands hauling it +up with our tackles."</p> + +<p>Having left the few supplies which we had with us, for the Strathcona +has no hold or carrying space, we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>returned to the hospital, mighty +grateful for the successful opening of the venture. The survey had been +completed and accepted by the Government, and though unfortunately it +was but very poorly marked, and we have had lots of trouble since,—as +we have never been able to say exactly where our boundaries lie, nor +even to find marks enough to follow over the original survey +again,—yet it enabled us to get to work, which was all that we wanted +at the moment.</p> + +<p>The fresh problems at the hospital, and the constant demands on our +energies, made Christmas and New Year go by with our minds quite +alienated from the cares of the new enterprise. But when after +Christmas the dogs had safely carried us over many miles of +snow-covered wastes, and our immediate patients gave us a chance to +look farther afield, I began to wonder if we might not pay the mill a +visit. By land it was only fifty miles distant to the southward, +possibly sixty if we had to go round the bays. The only difficulty +about the trip was that there were no trails, and most of the way led +through virgin forest, where windfalls and stumps and dense undergrowth +mixed with snow made the ordinary obstacle race a sprint in the open in +comparison. We knew what it meant, because in our eagerness to begin +our dog-driving when the first snow came, we had wandered over small +trees crusted with snow, fallen through, and literally floundered about +under the crust, unable to climb to the top again. It was the nearest +thing to the sensations of a man who cannot swim struggling under the +surface of the water. Moreover, on a tramp with the minister, he had +gone through his snow racquets and actually lost the bows later, +smashing them all up as he repeatedly fell through between logs and +tree-trunks and "tuckamore." His summons for help and the idea that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>there were still eight miles to go still haunted me. On that occasion +we had cut down some spruce boughs and improvised some huge webbed feet +for ourselves, which had saved the situation; but whether they would +have served for twenty or thirty miles, we could not tell. Not so long +before a man named Casey, bringing his komatik down the steep hill at +Conche, missed his footing and fell headlong by a bush into the snow. +The heavy, loaded sledge ran over him and pressed him still farther +into the bank. Struggling only made him sink the deeper, and an hour +later the poor fellow was discovered smothered to death.</p> + +<p>No one knew the way. We could not hear of a single man who had ever +gone across in winter, though some said that an old fellow who had +lived farther south had once carried the mails that way. At length we +could stand it no longer, and arranging with four men and two extra +teams, we started off. We hoped to reach the mill in two days, but at +the end of that time we were still trying to push through the tangle of +these close-grown forests. To steer by compass sounded easy, but the +wretched instrument seemed persistently to point to precipitous cliffs +or impenetrable thickets. There were no barren hilltops after the first +twenty miles. Occasionally we would stop, climb a tree, and try to get +a view. But climbing a conifer whose boughs are heavily laden with ice +and snow is no joke, and gave very meagre returns. At last, however, we +struck a high divide, and from an island in the centre of a lake, +occupied only by two lone fir trees, we got a view both ways, showing +the Cloudy Hills which towered over the south side of the bay in which +the mill stood.</p> + +<p>A very high, densely wooded hill lay, however, directly in our path; +and which way to get round it best none of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>us knew. We "tossed up" and +went to the eastward—the wrong side, of course. We soon struck a +river, and at once surmised that if we followed it, it must bring us to +the head of the bay, which meant only three miles of salt water ice to +cover. Alas, the stream proved very torrential. It leaped here and +there over so many rapid falls that great canyons were left in the ice, +and instead of being able to dash along as when first we struck it, we +had painfully to pick our way between heavy ice-blocks, which sorely +tangled up our traces, and our dogs ran great danger of being injured. +Nor could we leave the river, for the banks were precipitous and +utterly impassable with undergrowth. At length when we came to a gorge +where the boiling torrent was not even frozen, and as prospects of +being washed under the ice became only too vivid, we were forced to cut +our way out on the sloping sides. The task was great fun, but an +exceedingly slow process.</p> + +<p>It was altogether an exciting and delightful trip. Now we have a good +trail cut and blazed, which after some years of experience we have +gradually straightened out, with two tilts by the roadside when the +weather makes camping imperative, or when delay is caused by having +helpless patients to haul, till now it is only a "joy-ride" to go +through that beautiful country "on dogs." There is always a challenge, +however, left in that trail—just enough to lend tang to the toil of +it. Once, having missed the way in a blizzard, we had to camp on the +snow with the thermometer standing at twenty below zero. The problem +was all the more interesting as we struck only "taunt" timberwoods with +no undergrowth to halt the wind. On another occasion we attempted to +cross Hare Bay, and one of the dogs fell through the ice. There was a +biting wind blowing, and it was ten degrees below zero. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>When we were a +mile off the land I got off the sledge to try the ice edge, when +suddenly it gave way, and in I fell. It did not take me long to get +out—the best advice being to "keep cool." I had as hard a mile's +running as ever I experienced, for my clothing was fast becoming like +the armour of an ancient knight; and though in my youth I had been +accustomed to break the ice in the morning to bathe, I had never run in +a coat of mail.</p> + +<p>Never shall I forget dragging ourselves in among those big trees with +our axes, and tumbling to sleep in a grave in the snow, in spite of the +elements. In this hole in a sleeping-bag, protected by the light drift +which blew in, one rested as comfortably as in a more conventional type +of feather bed. Nor, when I think of De Quincey's idea of supreme +happiness before the glowing logs, can I forget that gorgeous blaze +which the watch kept up by felling trees full length into the fire, so +that our Yule logs were twenty feet long, and the ruddy glow and +crackling warmth went smashing through the hurtling snowdrift. True, it +was cold taking off our dripping clothing, which as it froze on us made +progress as difficult as if we were encased in armour. But dancing up +and down before a huge fire in the crisp open air under God's blue sky +gave as pleasing a reaction as doing the same thing in the dusty, +germ-laden atmosphere of a ballroom in the small hours of the night, +when one would better be in bed, if the joys of efficiency and +accomplishment are the durable pleasure of life.</p> + +<p>It was a real picnic which we had at the mill. Our visit was as welcome +as it was unexpected, and we celebrated it by the whole day off, when +all hands went "rabbiting." When at the end, hot and tired, we gathered +round a huge log fire in the woods and discussed boiling cocoa <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>and +pork buns, we all agreed that it had been a day worth living for.</p> + +<p>Logging had progressed favourably. Logs were close at hand; and the +whole enterprise spelled cash coming in that the people had never +earned before. The time had also arrived to prepare the machinery for +cutting the timber; boxes were being unpacked, and weird iron "parts" +revealed to us, that had all the interest of a Chinese puzzle, with the +added pleasure of knowing that they stood for much if we solved the +problems rightly.</p> + +<p>When next we saw the mill it was spring, and the puffing smoke and +white heaps of lumber that graced the point and met our vision as we +rounded Breakheart Point will not soon be forgotten. Only one trouble +had proved insurmountable. The log-hauler would not deliver the goods +to the rotary saw. Later, with the knowledge that the whole apparatus +was upside down, it did not seem so surprising after all. One accident +also marred the year's record. While a party of children had been +crossing the ice in the harbour to school, a treacherous rapid had +caused it to give way and leave a number of them in the water. One of +my English volunteers, being a first-class athlete, had by swimming +saved five lives, but two had been lost, and the young fellow himself +so badly chilled that it had taken the hot body of one of the fathers +of the rescued children, wrapped up in bed with him in lieu of a +hot-water bottle, to restore his circulation.</p> + +<p>The second fall was our hardest period. The bills for our lumber sold +had not been paid in time for us to purchase the absolutely essential +stock of food for the winter; and if we could not get a store of food, +we knew that our men could not go logging. It was food, not cash, which +they needed in the months when their own slender stock <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>of provisions +gave out, and when all communication was cut off by the frozen sea.</p> + +<p>For a venture which seemed to us problematical in its outcome, we did +not dare to borrow money or to induce friends to invest; and of course +Mission funds were not available. For the day has not yet arrived when +all those who seek by their gifts to hasten the coming of the Kingdom +of God on earth recognize that to give the opportunity to men to +provide decently for their families and homes is as effective work for +the Master, whose first attribute was love, as patching up the +unfortunate victims of semi-starvation. The inculcation of the +particular intellectual conception which the donor may hold of +religion, or as to how, after death, the soul can get into heaven, is, +as the result of the Church teaching, still considered far the most +important line of effort. The emphasis on hospitals is second, partly +at least because, so it has seemed to me as a doctor of medicine, the +more obvious personal benefit thereby conferred renders the recipients +more impressionable to the views considered desirable to promulgate. +Yet only to-day, as I came home from our busy operating-room, I felt +how little real gain the additional time on earth often is either to +the world outside or even to the poor sufferers themselves. In order to +have one's early teachings on these matters profoundly shaken, one has +only to work as a surgeon in a country where tuberculosis, beri-beri, +and other preventable diseases, and especially the chronic malnutrition +of poverty fills your clinic with suffering children, who at least are +victims and not responsible spiritually for their "punishment." Of +course, the magnitude of service to the world of every act of +unselfishness, and much more of whole lives of devotion, such as that +of Miss Sullivan, the teacher of Miss Helen Keller, can never be +rightly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>estimated by any purely material conception of human life.</p> + +<p>Love is dangerously near to sentimentality when we actually prefer +remedial to prophylactic charity—and I personally feel that it is +false economy even from the point of view of mission funds. The +industrial mission, the educational mission, and the orphanage work at +least rank with and should go hand in hand with hospitals in any true +interpretation of a gospel of love.</p> + +<p>In subsequent years the nearest attempt to finance such commonly called +"side issues of the work" has been with us through the medium of a +discretionary fund. Into this are put sums of money specially given by +personal friends, who are content to leave the allocation of their +expenditure in the hands of the worker on the actual field. This fund +is, of course, paid out in the same way as other mission funds, and is +as strictly supervised by the auditors. While it leaves possibly more +responsibility than some of us are worthy of, it enables individuality +to play that part in mission business which every one recognizes to be +all-important in the ordinary business of the world. No money, however, +from this fund has ever gone into the mill or in assisting the +coöperative stores.</p> + +<p>Sorry as one feels to confess it, I have seen money wasted and lost +through red tape in the mission business. And after all is not mission +business part of the world's business, and must not the measure of +success depend largely on the same factors in the one case as in the +other? Has one man more than another the right to be called +"missionary," for of what use is any man in the world if he has no +mission in it? Christ's life is one long emphasis on the point that in +the last analysis, when something has to be done, it is the individual +who has to do it. It is, we believe, a fact of paramount importance for +efficiency <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>and economy; and the loyalty of God in committing such +trust to us, when He presumably knows exactly how unworthy we are of +it, is the explanation of life's enigma.</p> + +<p>When at last our food and freight were purchased for the loggers for +the winter and landed by the mail steamer nine miles from the mill, the +whole bay was frozen and five miles of ice already over six inches +thick. The hull of the Strathcona was three eighths of an inch soft +steel; but there was no other way to transport the goods but on her, +excepting by sledges—a very painful and impracticable method.</p> + +<p>It was decided that as we could not possibly butt through the ice, we +must butt over it. The whole company of some thirty men helped us to +move everything, including chains and anchors, to the after end of the +ship, and to pile up the barrels of pork, flour, sugar, molasses, etc., +together with boats and all heavy weights, so that her fore foot came +above the water level and she looked as if she were sinking by the +stern. We then proceeded to crash into the ice. Up onto it we ran, and +then broke through, doing no damage whatever to her hull. The only +trouble was that sometimes she would get caught fast in the trough, and +it was exceedingly hard to back her astern for a second drive. To +counteract this all hands stood on one rail, each carrying a weight, +and then rushed over to the other side, backward and forward at the +word of command, thus causing the steamer to roll. It was a very slow +process, but we got there, though in true Biblical fashion, literally +"reeling to and fro like drunken men."</p> + +<p>While the mill was in its cradle, we in the Strathcona were cruising +the northern Labrador waters. We witnessed that year, off the mighty +Kaumajets, the most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>remarkable storm of lightning that I have ever +seen in those parts. Inky masses hid the hoary heads of those +tremendous cliffs. Away to the northwest, over the high land called +Saeglek, a lurid light just marked the sharp outline of the mills. +Ahead, where we were trying to make the entrance to Hebron Bay, an +apparently impenetrable wall persisted. Seaward night had already +obscured the horizon; but the moon, hidden behind the curtain of the +storm, now and again fitfully illuminated some icebergs lazily heaving +on the ocean swell. Almost every second a vivid flash, now on one side, +now on the other, would show us a glimpse of the land looming darkly +ahead. The powers of darkness seemed at play; while the sea, the ice, +the craggy cliffs, and the flashing heavens were advertising man's puny +power.</p> + +<p>An amusing incident took place in one isolated harbour. A patient came +on board for medicine, and after examining him I went below to make it +up. When I came on deck again I gave the medicine to one I took to be +my man, and then sent him ashore to get the twenty-five cent fee for +the Mission which he had forgotten. No sooner had he gone than another +man came and asked if his medicine was ready. I had to explain to him +that the man just climbing over the rail had it. The odd thing was that +the latter, having paid for it, positively refused to give it up. True, +he had not said that he was ill, but the medicine looked good (Heaven +save the mark!) and he "guessed that it would suit his complaint all +right."</p> + +<p>At the mill we found that quite a large part of the timberland was over +limestone, while near our first dam there was some very white marble. +We fully intended to erect a kiln, using our refuse for fuel, for the +land is loaded with humic acid, and only plants like blueberries, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>conifers, and a very limited flora flourish on it. Some friends in +England, however, hearing of marble in the bay, which it was later +discovered formed an entire mountain, commenced a marble mine near the +entrance. The material there is said to be excellent for statuary. Even +this small discovery of natural resources encouraged us. For having +neither road, telegraph, nor mail service to the mill, we hoped that +the development of these things might help in our own enterprise.</p> + +<p>For ten years the little mill has run, giving work to the locality, +better houses, a new church and school, and indeed created a new +village.</p> + +<p>The only trouble with this North country's own peculiar winter work, +fur-hunting, is that its very nature limits its supply. In my early +days in the country, fur in Labrador was very cheap. Seldom did even a +silver fox fetch a hundred dollars. Beaver, lynx, wolverine, wolves, +bears, and other skins were priced proportionately. Still, some men +lived very well out of furring. We came to the conclusion that the only +way to improve conditions in this line was to breed some of the animals +in captivity. We did not then know of any enterprise of that kind, but +I remembered in the zoölogical gardens at Washington seeing a healthy +batch of young fox pups born in captivity.</p> + +<p>Life is short. Things have to be crowded into it. So we started that +year an experimental fox farm at St. Anthony. A few uprights from the +woods and some rolls of wire are a fox farm. We put it close by the +hospital, thinking that it would be less trouble. The idea, we rejoice +to know, was perfectly right; but we had neither time, study, nor +experience to teach us how to manage the animals. Very soon we had a +dozen couples, red, white, patch, and one silver pair. Some of the +young fox <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>pups were very tame, for I find an old record written by a +professor of Harvard University, while he was on board the Strathcona +on one trip when we were bringing some of the little creatures to St. +Anthony. He describes the state of affairs as follows: "Dr. Grenfell at +one time had fifteen little foxes aboard which he was carrying to St. +Anthony to start a fox farm there. Some of these little animals had +been brought aboard in blubber casks, and their coats were very sticky. +After a few days they were very tame and played with the dogs; were all +over the deck, fell down the companionway, were always having their +tails and feet stepped on, and yelping for pain, when not yelling for +food. The long-suffering seaman who took care of them said, 'I been +cleaned out that fox box. It do be shockin'. I been in a courageous +turmoil my time, but dis be the head smell ever I witnessed.'"</p> + +<p>When the farm was erected, every schooner entering the harbour was +interested in it, and a deep-cut pathway soon developed as the crews +went up to see the animals. The reds and one patch were very tame, and +always came out to greet us. One of the reds loved nothing better than +to be caught and hugged, and squealed with delight like a child when +you took notice of it. The whites, and still more the silvers, were +always very shy; and though we never reared a single pup, there were +some born and destroyed by the old ones.</p> + +<p>As the years passed we decided to close up the little farm, +particularly after a certain kind of sickness which resembled +strychnine poisoning had attacked and destroyed three of the animals +which were especial pets. We then converted the farm into a garden with +a glass house for our seedling vegetables.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the industry had been developed by a Mr. Beetz in Quebec +Labrador with very marked economic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>success; and in Prince Edward +Island with such tremendous profit that it soon became the most +important industry in the Province. Enormous prices were paid for +stock. I remembered a schooner in the days of our farm (1907) bringing +me in four live young silvers, and asking two hundred dollars for the +lot. We had enough animals and refused to buy them. In 1914 one of our +distant neighbours, who had caught a live slut in pup, sold her with +her little brood for ten thousand dollars. We at once started an +agitation to encourage the industry locally, and the Government passed +regulations that only foxes bred in the Colony could be exported alive. +The last wild one sold was for twenty-five dollars to a buyer, and +resold for something like a thousand dollars by him. A large number of +farms grew up and met with more or less success, one big one especially +in Labrador, which is still running. We saw there this present year +some delightful little broods, also some mink and marten (sables), the +prettiest little animals to watch possible. For some reason the success +of this farm so far has not been what was hoped for it. Indeed, even in +Prince Edward Island the furor has somewhat died down owing to the war; +though at the close of the war it is anticipated that the industry will +go on steadily and profitably. Are not sheep, angora goats, oxen, and +other animals just the result of similar efforts? If fox-farming some +day should actually supersede the use of the present sharp-toothed leg +trap, no small gain would have been effected. A fox now trapped in +those horrible teeth remains imprisoned generally till he perishes of +cold, exhaustion, or fear. Though the fur trapper as a rule is a most +gentle creature, the "quality of mercy is not strained" in furring.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE CHILDREN'S HOME</h4> +<br /> + +<p>"What's that schooner bound South at this time of year for?" I asked +the skipper of a fishing vessel who had come aboard for treatment the +second summer I was on the coast.</p> + +<p>"I guess, Doctor, that that's the Yankee what's been down North for a +load of Huskeymaws. What do they want with them when they gets them?"</p> + +<p>"They'll put them in a cage and show them at ten cents a head. They're +taking them to the World's Fair in Chicago."</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>People of every sort crowded to see the popular Eskimo Encampment on +the Midway. The most taking attraction among the groups displayed was a +little boy, son of a Northern Chieftain, Kaiachououk by name; and many +a nickel was thrown into the ring that little Prince Pomiuk might show +his dexterity with the thirty-foot lash of his dog whip.</p> + +<p>One man alone of all who came to stare at the little people from +far-off Labrador took a real interest in the child. It was the Rev. +C.C. Carpenter, who had spent many years of his life as a clergyman on +the Labrador coast. But one day Mr. Carpenter missed his little friend. +Pomiuk was found on a bed of sickness in his dark hut. An injury to his +thigh had led to the onset of an insidious hip disease.</p> + +<p>The Exhibition closed soon after, and the Eskimos went north. But +Pomiuk was not forgotten, and Mr. Carpenter sent him letter after +letter, though he never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>received an answer. The first year the band of +Eskimos reached as far north as Ramah, but Pomiuk's increasing +sufferings made it impossible for them to take him farther that season.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile in June, 1895, we again steamed out through the Narrows of +St. John's Harbour, determined to push as far north as the farthest +white family. A dark foggy night in August found us at the entrance of +that marvellous gorge called Nakvak. We pushed our way cautiously in +some twenty miles from the entrance. Suddenly the watch sang out, +"Light on the starboard bow!" and the sound of our steamer whistle +echoed and reëchoed in endless cadences between those mighty cliffs. +Three rifle shots answered us, soon a boat bumped our side, and a +hearty Englishman sprang over the rail.</p> + +<p>It was George Ford, factor of the Hudson Bay Company at that post. +During the evening's talk he told me of a group of Eskimos still +farther up the fjord having with them a dying boy. Next day I had my +first glimpse of little Prince Pomiuk. We found him naked and haggard, +lying on the rocks beside the tiny "tubik."</p> + +<p>The Eskimos were only too glad to be rid of the responsibility of the +sick lad, and, furthermore, he was "no good fishing." So the next day +saw us steaming south again, carrying with us the boy and his one +treasured possession—a letter from a clergyman at Andover, +Massachusetts. It contained a photograph, and when I showed it to +Pomiuk he said, "Me even love him."</p> + +<p>A letter was sent to the address given, and some weeks later came back +an answer. "Keep him," it said. "He must never know cold and loneliness +again. I write for a certain magazine, and the children in 'The Corner' +will become his guardians." Thus the "Corner Cot" was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>founded, and +occupied by the little Eskimo Prince for the brief remainder of his +life.</p> + +<p>On my return the following summer the child's joyful laughter greeted +me as he said, "Me Gabriel Pomiuk now." A good Moravian Brother had +come along during the winter and christened the child by the name of +the angel of comfort.</p> + +<p>In a sheltered corner of a little graveyard on the Labrador coast rests +the tiny body of this true prince. When he died the doctor in charge of +the hospital wrote me that the building seemed desolate without his +smiling, happy face and unselfish presence. The night that he was +buried the mysterious aurora lit up the vault of heaven. The Innuits, +children of the Northland, call it "the spirits of the dead at play." +But it seemed to us a shining symbol of the joy in the City of the King +that another young soldier had won his way home.</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>The Roman Catholic Church is undoubtedly correct in stating that the +first seven years of his life makes the child. Missions have always +emphasized the importance of the children from a purely propaganda +point of view. But our Children's Home was not begun for any such +reason. Like Topsy, "it just grow'd." I had been summoned to a lonely +headland, fifty miles from our hospital at Indian Harbour, to see a +very sick family. Among the spruce trees in a small hut lived a Scotch +salmon fisher, his wife and five little children. When we anchored off +the promontory we were surprised to receive no signs of welcome. When +we landed and entered the house we found the mother dead on the bed and +the father lying on the floor dying. Next morning we improvised two +coffins, contributed from the wardrobes of all hands enough black +material for a "seemly" funeral, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>and later, steaming up the bay to a +sandy stretch of land, buried the two parents with all the ceremonies +of the Church—and found ourselves left with five little mortals in +black sitting on the grave mound. We thought that we had done all that +could be expected of a doctor, but we now found the difference. It +looked as if God expected more. An uncle volunteered to assume one +little boy and we sailed away with the remainder of the children. +Having no place to keep them, we wrote to a friendly newspaper in New +England and advertised for foster parents. One person responded. A +young farmer's wife wrote: "I am just married to a farmer in the +country, and miss the chance to teach children in Sunday-School, or +even to get to church, it is so far away. I think that I can feed two +children for the Lord's sake. If you will send them along, I will see +that they do not want for anything." We shipped two, and began what +developed into our Children's Home with the balance of the stock.</p> + +<p>We had everything to learn in the rearing of children, having had only +the hygienic side of their development to attend to previously. One of +the two which we kept turned out very well, becoming a fully trained +nurse. The other failed. Both of those who went to New England did +well, the superior discipline of their foster mother being no doubt +responsible. The following fall I made a special journey to see the +latter. It was a small farm on which they lived, and a little baby had +just arrived. Only high ideals could have persuaded the woman to accept +the added responsibility. The children were as bright and jolly as +possible.</p> + +<p>Among the other functions which have fallen to my lot to perform is the +ungrateful task of unpaid magistrate, or justice of the peace. In this +capacity a little later I was called on to try a mother, who in a +Labrador <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>village had become a widow and later married a man with six +children who refused to accept her three-year-old little girl. When I +happened along, the baby was living alone in the mother's old shack, a +mud-walled hut, and she or the neighbours went in and tended it as they +could. None of the few neighbours wanted permanently to assume the +added expense of the child, so dared not accept it temporarily. It was +sitting happily on the floor playing with a broken saucer when I came +in. It showed no fear of a stranger; indeed, it made most friendly +overtures. I had no right to send the new husband to jail. I could not +fine him, for he had no money. There was no jail in Labrador, anyhow. +My special constable was a very stout fisherman, a family man, who +proposed to nurse the child till I could get it to some place where it +could be properly looked after. When we steamed away, we had the baby +lashed into a swing cot. It became very rough, and the baby, of course, +crawled out and was found in the scuppers. It did everything that it +ought not to do, but which we knew that it would. But we got it to the +hospital at last and the nurse received it right to her heart.</p> + +<p>In various ways my family grew at an alarming rate, once the general +principle was established. On my early summer voyage to the east coast +of Labrador I found at Indian Harbour Hospital a little girl of four. +In the absence of her father, who was hunting, and while her mother lay +sick in bed, she had crawled out of the house and when found in the +snow had both legs badly frozen. They became gangrenous halfway to the +knee, and her father had been obliged to chop them both off. An +operation gave her good stumps; but what use was she in Labrador with +no legs? So she joined our family, and we gave her such good new limbs +that when I brought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>her into Government House at Halifax, where one of +our nurses had taken her to school temporarily, and she ran into the +room with two other little girls, the Governor could scarcely tell +which was our little cripple Kirkina.</p> + +<p>The following fall as we left for the South our good friend, the chief +factor of the Hudson Bay Company, told me that on an island in the +large inlet known to us as Eskimo Bay a native family, both hungry and +naked, were living literally under the open sky. We promised to try and +find them and help them with some warm clothing.</p> + +<p>Having steamed round the island and seen no signs of life, we were on +the point of leaving when a tiny smoke column betrayed the presence of +human life—and with my family-man mate we landed as a search party. +Against the face of a sheer rock a single sheet of light cotton duck +covered the abode of a woman with a nursing baby. They were the only +persons at home. The three boys and a father comprised the remainder of +the family. We soon found the two small boys. They were practically +stark naked, but fat as curlews, being full of wild berries with which +their bodies were stained bright blues and reds. They were a jolly +little couple, as unconcerned about their environment as Robinson +Crusoe after five years on his island. Soon the father came home. I can +see him still—the vacant brown face of a very feeble-minded +half-breed, ragged and tattered and almost bootless. He was carrying an +aged single-barrelled boy's gun in one hand and a belated sea-gull in +the other, which bird was destined for the entire evening meal of the +family. A half-wild-looking hobbledehoy boy of fifteen years also +joined the group.</p> + +<p>It was just beginning to snow, a wet sleet. Eight <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>months of winter lay +ahead. Yet not one of the family seemed to think a whit about that +which was vivid enough to the minds of the mate and myself. We sat down +for a regular pow-wow beside the fire sputtering in the open room, from +which thick smoke crept up the face of the rock, and hung over us in a +material but symbolic cloud. It was naturally cold. The man began with +a plea for some "clodin." We began with a plea for some children. How +many would he swap for a start in clothing and "tings for his winter"? +He picked out and gave us Jimmie. The soft-hearted mate, on whose +cheeks the tears were literally standing, grabbed Jimmie—as the latter +did his share of the gull. But we were not satisfied. We had to have +Willie. It was only when a breaking of diplomatic relations altogether +was threatened that Willie was sacrificed on the altar of "tings." I +forget the price, but I think that we threw in an axe, which was one of +the trifles which the father lacked—and in this of all countries! The +word was no sooner spoken than our shellback again excelled himself. He +pounced on Willie like a hawk on its prey, and before the treaty was +really concluded he was off to our dory with a naked boy kicking +violently in the vice of each of his powerful arms. The grasping +strength of our men, reared from childhood to haul heavy strains and +ponderous anchors, is phenomenal.</p> + +<p>Whatever sins Labrador has been guilty of, Malthusianism is not in the +category. Nowhere are there larger families. Those of Quebec Labrador, +which is better known, are of almost world-wide fame. God is, to +Labrador thinking, the Giver of all children. Man's responsibility is +merely to do the best he can to find food and clothing for them. A man +can accomplish only so much. If these "gifts of God" suffer and are a +burden to others <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>that is kismet. It is the animal philosophy and makes +women's lives on this coast terribly hard. The opportunity for service +along child-welfare lines is therefore not surprising from this angle +also.</p> + +<p>One day, passing a group of islands, we anchored in a bight known as +Rogues' Roost. It so happened that a man who many years before had shot +off his right arm, and had followed up his incapacity with a large +family of dependants, had just died. Life cannot be expected to last +long in Labrador under those conditions. There were four children, one +being a big boy who could help out. The rest were offered as a +contribution to the Mission. A splendid Newfoundland fisherman and his +wife had a summer fishing station here, and with that generous +open-heartedness which is characteristic of our seafarers, they were +only too anxious to help. "Of course, she would make clothing while I +was North"—out of such odd garments as a general collection produced. +"She wouldn't think of letting them wear it till I came along South, +not she." She would "put them in the tub as soon as she heard our +whistle." When after the long summer's work we landed and went up to +her little house, three shining, red, naked children were drying before +a large stove, in which the last vestige of connection with their past +was contributing its quota of calories toward the send-off. A few +minutes later we were off to the ship with as sweet a batch of jolly, +black-haired, dark-eyed kiddies as one could wish for. Our good friend +could not keep back the tears as she kissed them good-bye on deck. The +boy has already put in three years on the Western Front. The girls have +both been educated, the elder having had two years finishing at the +Pratt Institute in New York.</p> + +<p>A grimy note saying, "Please call in to Bird Island as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>you pass and +see the sick," brought me our next donation. "There be something wrong +with Mrs. B's twins, Doctor," greeted me on landing. "Seems as if they +was like kittens, and couldn't see yet a wink." It was only too true. +The little twin girls were born blind in both eyes. What could they do +in Labrador? Two more for our family without any question. After +leaving our Orphanage, these two went through the beautiful school for +the blind at Halifax, and are now able to make their own living in the +world.</p> + +<p>So the roll swelled. Some came because they were orphans; some because +they were not. Thus, poor Sammy. The home from which he came was past +description. From the outside it looked like a tumble-down shed. Inside +there appeared to be but one room, which measured six by twelve feet, +and a small lean-to. The family consisted of father and mother and +three children. The eldest boy was about twelve, then came Sam, and +lastly a wee girl of five, with pretty curly fair hair, but very thin +and delicate-looking. She seemed to be half-starved and thoroughly +neglected. The father was a ne'er-do-well and the mother an imbecile +who has since died of tuberculosis. The filth inside was awful. The +house was built of logs, and the spaces in between them were partly +filled in with old rags and moss. The roof leaked. The room seemed to +be alive with vermin, as were also the whole family. The two boys were +simply clothed in a pair of men's trousers apiece and a dilapidated +pair of boots between them. The trousers they found very hard to keep +on and had to give them frequent hoists up. They were both practically +destitute of underclothing. To hide all deficiencies, they each wore a +woman's long jacket of the oldest style possible and green with age, +which reached down to their heels. Round their waists they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>each wore a +skin strap. They were stripped of their rags, and made to scrub +themselves in the stream and then indoors before putting on their new +clean clothes. Sammy and the little sister joined the family.</p> + +<p>One of our boys is from Cape Chidley itself; others come from as far +south and west as Bay of Islands in South Newfoundland. So many +erroneous opinions seem to persist regarding the difference between +Newfoundland and Labrador that I am constantly asked: "But why do you +have a Children's Home in Newfoundland? Can't the Newfoundlanders look +out for themselves and their dependent children?" As I have tried to +make clear in a previous chapter North and South Newfoundland should be +sharply differentiated as to wealth, education, climate, and +opportunity. Though for purposes of efficiency and economy the actual +building of the Home is situated in the north end of the northern +peninsula of Newfoundland, the children who make up the family are +drawn almost entirely from the Labrador side of the Straits; unless, as +is often the case, the poverty and destitution of a so-called +Newfoundland family on the south side of Belle Isle makes it impossible +to leave children under such conditions.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that something had to be built to accommodate the galaxy; +and some one secured who understood the problem of running the Home. +She—how often it is "she"—was found in England, a volunteer by the +name of Miss Eleanor Storr. She was a true Christian lady and a trained +worker as well. The building during the years grew with the family, so +that it is really a wonder of odds and patches. The generosity of one +of our volunteers, Mr. Francis Sayre, the son-in-law of President +Wilson, doubled its capacity. But buildings that are made of green +wood, and grow like Topsy, are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>apt to end like Topsy—turvy. Now we +are straining every nerve to obtain a suitable accommodation for the +children. We sorely need a brick building, economically laid out and +easily kept warm, with separate wings for girls and boys and a crêche +for babies. Miss Storr was obliged to leave us, and now for over six +years a splendid and unselfish English lady, Miss Katie Spalding, has +been helping to solve this most important of all problems—the +preparation of the next generation to make their land and the world a +more fit place in which to live. Miss Spalding's contribution to this +country has lain not only in her influence on the children and her +unceasing care of them, but she has given her counsel and assistance in +other problems of the Mission, where also her judgment, experience, and +wisdom have proven invaluable.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep250" id="imagep250"></a> +<a href="images/imagep250.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep250.jpg" width="50%" alt="Inside The Orphanage" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INSIDE THE ORPHANAGE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>There is yet another side of the orphanage problem. We have been +obliged, due to the lack of any boarding-school, to accept bright +children from isolated homes so as to give them a chance in life. It +has been the truest of love messages to several. The children always +repay, whether the parents pay anything or not; and as so much of the +care of them is volunteer, and friends have assumed the expenses of a +number of the children, the budget has never been unduly heavy. They do +all their own work, and thanks to the inestimably valuable help of the +Needlework Guild of America through its Labrador branch, the clothing +item has been made possible. In summer we use neither boots nor +stockings for the children unless absolutely necessary. Our harbour +people still look on that practice askance; but ours are the healthiest +lot of children on the coast, and their brown bare legs and tough, +well-shaped feet are a great asset to their resistance to tuberculosis, +their arch-enemy, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>no small addition to the attraction of their +merry faces and hatless heads.</p> + +<p>Even though Gabriel, Prince Pomiuk, never lived within its walls, the +real beginning of the idea of our Children's Home was due to him; and +one feels sure that his spirit loves to visit the other little ones who +claim this lonely coast as their homeland also.</p> + +<p>The one test for surgery which we allow in these days is its "end +results." Patients must not be advertised as cured till they have +survived the treatment many years. Surely that is man's as well as +God's test. Certainly it is the gauge of the outlay in child life. What +is the good of it all? Does it pay? In the gift of increasing joy to +us, in its obvious humanity and in its continuous inspiration, it +certainly does make the work of life here in every branch the better.</p> + +<p>The solution of the problem of inducing the peace of God and the +Kingdom of God into our "parish" is most likely to be solved by wise +and persevering work among the children. For in them lies the hope of +the future of this country, and their true education and upbringing to +fit them for wise citizenship have been cruelly neglected in this +"outpost of Empire."</p> + +<p>Another menace to the future welfare of the coast has been the lack of +careful instruction and suitable opportunities for the development, +physical, mental, and spiritual, of its girls. Without an educated and +enlightened womanhood, no country, no matter how favored by material +prosperity, can hope to take its place as a factor in the progress of +the world. In our orphanage and educational work we have tried to keep +these two ideas constantly before us, and to offer incentives to and +opportunities for useful life-work in whatever branch, from the +humblest to the highest, a child showed aptitude.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>Through the vision, ability, and devotion of Miss Storr, Miss Spalding, +and their helpers, in training the characters as well as the bodies of +the children at the Home, and by the generous support of friends of +children elsewhere, we have been able to turn out each year from its +walls young men and women better fitted to cope with the difficult +problems of this environment, and to offer to its service that best of +all gifts—useful and consecrated personalities.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Every child should be washed. Every child should be educated. The only +question is how to get there. The "why's" of life interest chiefly the +academic mind. The "how's" interest every one. It is a pleasure +sometimes to be out in dirty weather on a lee shore; it permits you to +devote all your energies to accomplishing something. When secretary for +our hospital rowing club on the Thames, a fine cup was given for +competition by Sir Frederick Treves on terms symbolic of his attitude +to life. The race was to be in ordinary punts with a coxswain "in order +that every ounce of energy should be devoted to the progress of the +boat."</p> + +<p>That is the whole trouble with the Newfoundland Labrador. All moneys +granted for education are handed to the churches for sectarian schools. +It is almost writing ourselves down as still living in the Middle Ages, +when the Clergy had a monopoly of polite learning. In more densely +populated countries this division of grants need not be so disastrous. +Here it means that one often finds a Roman Catholic, a Church of +England, a Methodist, and a Salvation Army school, all in one little +village—and no school whatever in the adjoining place.</p> + +<p>The denominational spirit, fostered by these sectarian schools and +societies, is so emphasized that Catholic and Protestant have little in +common. Some preferred to let their children or themselves suffer pain +and inefficiency, rather than come for relief to a hospital where the +doctors were Protestant. This has in some measure passed away, but it +was painfully real at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>first—so much so that once a rickety, crippled +child, easily cured, though he actually came to the harbour, was +forbidden to land and returned home to be a cripple for life.</p> + +<p>The salaries available offer no attraction to enter the teaching +profession in this island; and there is no compulsory education law to +assist those who with lofty motives remain loyal to the profession when +"better chances" come along. Gauged rightly, there is no such thing as +a better chance for fulfilling life's purposes than an education; and +modern conditions concede the right of a decent living wage to all who +render service to the world in whatever line.</p> + +<p>In the little village where are our headquarters there was already a +Church of England and a Methodist school when we came there, and a +Salvation Army one has since been added. Threats of still another +"institution of learning" menaced us at one time—almost like a new +Egyptian plague, with more permanency of results thrown in.</p> + +<p>If the motor power of the school boat is dissipated in sectarian +religious education, not to say focussed on it, the arrival of the +cargo must be seriously handicapped. The statistical returns may show a +majority of our fishermen as "able to read and write"; but as a matter +of fact the illiteracy and ignorance of North Newfoundland and Labrador +is the greatest handicap in the lives of the people.</p> + +<p>My first scholar came from North Labrador, long before we aspired to a +school of our own. He was a lad of Scotch extraction and name, and came +aboard the hospital ship one night, as she lay at anchor among some +northern islands, with the request that we would take him up with us to +some place where he could get an hour's schooling a day. He offered to +work all the rest of the time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>in return for his food and clothing. +To-day he holds a Pratt certificate, is head of our machine shop, has a +sheet-metal working factory of his own which fills a most valuable +purpose on the shore, is general consultant for the coast in matters of +engineering, as well as being the Government surveyor for his district. +He is also chief musician for the church, having fitted himself for +both those latter posts in his "spare time." The inspiration which his +life has been is in itself an education to many of us—a reflex result +which is the really highest value of all life.</p> + +<p>As each transferred individual has come back North for service, desire +has at once manifested itself for similar privileges in young people +who had not previously shown even interest enough to attend our winter +night schools. This is the best evidence that inroads are being made +into that natural apathy which is content with mediocrity or even +inferiority. This is everywhere the world's most subtle enemy. Even if +selfishness or envy has been the motive, the fact remains that they +have often kindled that discontent with the past which Charles Kingsley +preached as necessary to all progress. Nowhere could the pathology of +the matter be more easily traced than in these concrete examples +carrying the infection which could come from no other quarter into our +isolation. It has been in very humble life an example of the return of +the "Yankee to the Court of King Arthur."</p> + +<p>There was a time when Lord Haldane proposed that every English child, +who in the Board schools had proved his ability to profit by it, should +be given a college or university education at the expense of the +State—as a remunerative outlay for the nation. This proposal was +turned down as being too costly, though the expenditure for a single +day's running of this war would have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>gone a long way to provide such a +fund. We now know that it can be done and must be done as a sign manual +of real freedom, which is not the leaving of parents or forbears, +incompetent for any reason, free to damn their country with a stream of +stunted intellects.</p> + +<p>America has already honoured herself forever by being a pioneer in this +movement for the higher education of the people. Religion surely need +not fear mental enlightenment. The dangers of life lie in ignorance, +and after all is not true religion a thing of the intellect as well as +of the heart? Can that really be inculcated in "two periods of forty +minutes each week devoted to sectarian teaching," which was one of the +concessions demanded of us in our fight for a free public or common +school at St. Anthony? My own mental picture of myself at the age of +seven sitting on a bench for forty minutes twice every week learning to +be "religious" made me sympathize with Scrooge when the Ghost of the +Past was paying him a visit.</p> + +<p>One thing was certain. The young lives entrusted to us were having as +good medical care for their bodies as we could provide; and if we could +compass it, we were going to have that paralleled for their minds. The +parents of the village children could do as they liked with those +committed to them—and they did it. There is nothing so thoroughly +reactionary that I know of as religious prejudice well ground in. As +regards the treatment of physical ailments the prejudices of what Dr. +Holmes called "Homœopathy and Kindred Delusions" always are strong +in proportion as they are impregnated with some religious bias.</p> + +<p>Our efforts to combine the local schools having failed, we had to +provide a building of our own. This we felt must be planned for the +future. For some day the halcyon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>days of peace on earth shall be +permitted in our community, and the true loyalty of efficient service +to our brothers will, it is to be hoped, become actually the paramount +object of our Christian religion. Perhaps this terrible war will have +convinced the world that the loftiest aspirations of mankind are no +more to save yourself hereafter than here. Is it not as true as ever +that if we are not ourselves possessors of Christ's spirit, ourselves +we cannot save?</p> + +<p>The only schoolhouse available, anyhow, was not nearly so good a +building as that which we have since provided for the accommodation of +our pigs! Fat pork is considered an absolute essential "down North"; +and it was cheaper and safer, according to Upton Sinclair, to raise +pigs than buy the salted or tinned article. So we had instituted what +we deemed a missionary enterprise in that line. (<i>Pace</i> our vegetarian +friends.)</p> + +<p>As soon as a sum of three thousand dollars had been raised, architect +friends at the Pratt Institute sent down to us competitive designs, and +one of our Labrador boys, who had studied there, erected the building. +Having at the beginning no funds whatever for current expenses, we had +to look for volunteer teachers. One denomination helped with part of +its harbour grant, but the Government would not make any special +donation toward the union school project. Even the caput grant, to +which we had hoped that we were entitled for our own orphanage +children, had by law to go to the denomination to which their parents +had belonged. This was not always easy to decide correctly. On the +occasion of taking the last census in Labrador, a well-dressed stranger +suddenly visited one of our settlements on the east coast. It so +happened that a very poor man with a large and growing family of eight +children under ten years, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>resided there, was not so loyal to his +church as we are taught we ought to be. When the stranger entered his +tilt a vision of material favours to be obtained was the dominant idea +in the fisherman's mind. He was therefore on tenterhooks all the while +that the questioning was going on lest some blunder of his might +alienate the sympathy on which he was banking for "getting his share." +At length it came to the momentous point of "What denomination do you +belong to?"—a very vital matter when it comes to sympathy and sharing +up. In some hesitation he gazed at the row of his eight unwashed and +but half-clad offspring, whose treacly faces gaped open-mouthed at the +visitor. Then with sudden inspiration he decided to play for safety, +and replied, "Half of them is Church of England, and half is +Methodist!"</p> + +<p>Being an unrecognized school, and so far off, some years went by before +the innovation of bringing up scholars from our northern district +entered our heads. We realized at length, however, that we should close +one channel of criticism to the enemy if we proved that we could +justify our school by their standard of annual examinations. Our +teachers, being mostly volunteers, had to come from outside the Colony. +Having no funds to purchase books and other supplies, we made use of +books also sent us from outside. The real value of the local +examination becomes questionable as a standard of success when far more +highly educated teachers, and at least as cleverly laid-out study +books, prevented the children in our school from passing them.</p> + +<p>Moreover, further to waken their faculties, we had included in our +facilities a large upper hall of the school building and a library of +some thousands of books collected from all quarters. The former +afforded the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>stimulus which entertainments given by the children could +carry, and also space for physical drill; the latter, that greatest +incentive of all, access to books which lure people to wish to read +them. In summer the parents and older children are busy with the +fisheries day and night, and the little children run more or less wild, +so this form of occupation was doubly desirable.</p> + +<p>The generous help of summer volunteers, especially a trained +kindergartner, Miss Olive Lesley, gave us a regular summer school. All +the expensive outfit needed was also donated. Eye and hand were +enlisted in the service of brain evolution; while a piano, which it is +true had seen better days, pressed the ear and the imagination into the +service as well.</p> + +<p>One of the great gaps in child development in Labrador had been the +almost entire lack of games. The very first year of our coming the +absence of dolls had so impressed itself upon us that the second season +we had brought out a trunkful. Even then we found later that the dolls +were perched high up on the walls as ornaments, just out of reach of +the children. In one little house I found a lad playing with some +marbles. For lack of better these were three-quarter-inch bullets which +"Dad had given him," while the alley was a full-inch round ball, which +belonged to what my host was pleased to call "the little darlint"—a +hoary blunderbuss over six feet in length. The skipper informed me that +he had plenty of "fresh" for the winter, largely as a result of the +successful efforts of the "darlint"; though it appeared to have +exploded with the same fatal effect this year as the season previous. +"I hear that you made a good shot, the other day, Uncle Joe," I +remarked. "Nothing to speak on," he answered. "I only got forty-three, +though I think there was a few more if I could have found them on the +ice."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>The pathos of the lack of toys and games appealed especially to the +Anglo-Saxon, who believes that if he has any advantage over +competitors, it is not merely in racial attributes, but in the reaction +of those attributes which develop in him the ineradicable love of +athletics and sport. The fact that he dubs the classmate whom he +admires most "a good sport," shows that he thinks so, anyway.</p> + +<p>So organized play was carefully introduced on the coast. It caught like +wildfire among the children, and it was delightful to see groups of +them naïvely memorizing by the roadside school lessons in the form of +"Ring-of-Roses," "Looby-Loo," "All on the Train for Boston." To our +dismay in the minds of the local people the very success of this effort +gave further evidence of our incompetence.</p> + +<p>Our people have well-defined, though often singular, ideas as to what +Almighty God does and does not allow; and among the pursuits which are +irrevocably condemned by local oracles is dancing. The laxity of +"foreigners" on this article of the Creed is proverbial. At the time +there were two ministers in the place, and realizing that the people +considered that our kindergarten was introducing the thin edge of the +wedge, and that our whole effort might meet with disaster unless the +rumours were checked, I went in search of them without delay. Three +o'clock found us knocking at the kindergarten door. The teacher and +source of the reputed scandal seemed in no way disconcerted by the +visitation. The first game was irreproachable—every child was sitting +on the floor. But next the children, were choosing partners, and though +the boys had chosen boys, and the girls girls, the suspicions of the +vigilance committee were aroused. No danger, however, to the three R's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>transpired, and we were next successfully piloted clear of condemnation +through a game entitled "Piggie-wig and Piggie-wee." Our circulation +was just beginning to operate once more in its normal fashion when we +were told that the whole company would now "join hands and move around +in a circle" to music. The entire jury sensed that the crucial moment +had come. We saw boys and girls alternating, hand held in hand—and all +to the undeniably secular libretto of "Looby-Loo." It was, moreover, +noted with inward pain that many of the little feet actually left the +ground. We adjourned to an adjacent fish stage to discuss the matter. I +need not dilate on the vicissitudes of the session. It was clear that +all but "Looby-Loo" could obviously be excluded from the group of +"questionables"—but the last game was of a different calibre and must +be put to vote. My readers will be relieved to learn that the resultant +ballot was unanimously in favour of non-interference, and that from the +pulpit the following Sunday the clergy gave to the kindergarten the +official sanction of the Church.</p> + +<p>Other outsiders now began telling the people that we could not pass the +Colony's examinations because we wasted our efforts on teaching +"foolishness"; and the denomination which had hitherto lent us aid +withdrew it, and tried again to run a midget sectarian school right +alongside. The first occasion, however, on which this institution came +seriously to my attention was when the minister and another young man +came to call during the early weeks of our winter school session. The +stranger was their special teacher. He was undoubtedly a smart lad; he +had passed the preliminary examination. But he was only sixteen, and in +temperament a very young sixteen at that. He was engaged at a more +generous salary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>than usual, and was perfectly prepared to +revolutionize our records. But, alas, not only was their little +building practically unfit for habitation, but after a week's waiting +not one single scholar had come to his school. The contrast between the +two opportunities was too great—except for frothing criticism. Gladly, +to help our neighbours out of a difficulty, we divided a big classroom +into two parts, added a third teacher to our school, and were thus able +to make an intermediate grade.</p> + +<p>The great majority of the whole reconstruction and work of the school +was made possible by the generous and loving interest of a lady in +Chicago. Added to the other anxieties of meeting our annual budget, we +did not feel able to bear the additional burden for which this venture +called. One cannot work at one's best at any time with an anxious mind. +The lady, however, was generous enough to give sufficient endowment to +secure two teachers among other things, though she absolutely refused +to let even her name be known in connection with the school. Our +consolation is that we know that she has vision enough to realize the +value of her gift and to accept that as a more than sufficient return.</p> + +<p>Seeing that some of our older scholars were able to find really useful +and remunerative employment in teaching, and as only for those who held +certificates of having passed the local examinations were augmentation +grants available, we decided to make special efforts to have our +scholars pass by the local standards. We, therefore, thanks to the +endowment, engaged teachers trained in the country, and instituted the +curriculum of the Colony. These teachers told us that our school was +better than almost any outside St. John's. Four scholars have passed +this year; and now we have as head mistress a delightful lady who holds +the best percentage record for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>passing children through the +requirements of the local examinations of any in the country.</p> + +<p>So much more deeply, however, do idle words sink into some natures than +even deeds, that one family preferred to keep their children at home to +risk sending them to our undenominational school; and there is no law +to compel better wisdom with us here in the North.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we had already obtained a scale of our own for +grading success. For a number of our most promising boys and girls we +had raised the money for them to get outside the country what they +could never get in it, namely, the technical training which is so much +needed on a coast where we have to do everything for ourselves, and the +breadth of view which contact with a more progressive civilization +alone can give them. The faculty of Pratt Institute gave us a +scholarship, and later two of them; and with no little fear as to their +ability to keep up, we sent two young men there. The newness of our +school forced us to select at the beginning boys who had only received +teaching after their working hours. Both boys and girls have always had +to earn something to help them on their way through. But they have +stood the test of efficiency so well that we look forward with +confidence to the future. A girl who took the Domestic Economy course +at the Nasson Institute told me only to-day, "It gave me a new life +altogether, Doctor"; and she is making a splendid return in service to +her own people here.</p> + +<p>The real test of education is its communal effect; and no education is +complete which leaves the individual ignorant of the things that +concern his larger relationship to his country, any more than he is +anything beyond a learned animal if he knows nothing of his +opportunities and responsibilities as a son of God. But though example +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>is a more impelling factor than precept, undoubtedly the most permanent +contributions conferred on the coast by the many college students, who +come as volunteers every summer to help us in the various branches of +our work, is just this gift of their own personalities. Strangely +enough, quite a number of these helpers who have to spend considerable +money coming and returning, just to give us what they can for the sole +return of what that means to their own lives, have not been the sons of +the wealthy, but those working their way through the colleges. These +men are just splendid to hold up as inspirational to our own.</p> + +<p>The access to books, as well as to sermons, may not be neglected. Our +faculties, like our jaws, atrophy if we do not use them to bite with. +The Carnegie libraries have emphasized a fact that is to education and +the colleges what social work is to medicine and the hospitals. We were +running south some years ago on our long northern trip before a fine +leading wind, when suddenly we noticed a small boat with an improvised +flag hoisted, standing right out across our bows. Thinking that it was +at least some serious surgical case, we at once ordered "Down sail and +heave her to," annoying though it was to have the trouble and delay. +When at last she was alongside, a solitary, white-haired old man +climbed with much difficulty over our rail. "Good-day. What's the +trouble? We are in a hurry." The old man most courteously doffed his +cap, and stood holding it in his hand. "I wanted to ask you, Doctor," +he said slowly, "if you had any books which you could lend me. We can't +get anything to read here." An angry reply almost escaped my lips for +delaying a steamer for such a purpose. But a strange feeling of +humiliation replaced it almost immediately. Which is really +charity—skilfully <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>to remove his injured leg, if he had one, or to +afford him the pleasure and profit of a good book? Both services were +just as far from his reach without our help.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you got any books?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Doctor, I've got two, but I've read them through and through long +ago."</p> + +<p>"What kind are they?"</p> + +<p>"One is the 'Works of Josephus,'" he answered, "and the other is +'Plutarch's Lives.'"</p> + +<p>I thought that I had discovered the first man who could honestly and +truthfully say that he would prefer for his own library the "best +hundred books," selected by Mr. Ruskin and Dr. Eliot, without even so +much as a sigh for the "ten best sellers."</p> + +<p>He was soon bounding away over the seas in his little craft, the happy +possessor of one of our moving libraries, containing some fifty books, +ranging from Henty's stories to discarded tomes from theological +libraries.</p> + +<p>Each year the hospital ship moves these library boxes one more stage +along the coast. As there are some seventy-five of them, they thus last +the natural life of books, since we have only rarely enjoyed the help +of a trained librarian enabling us to make the most use of these always +welcome assets for our work. Later, some librarian friends from +Brooklyn, chief among whom was Miss Marion Cutter, came down to help +us; but our inability to have continuity when the ladies cannot afford +to give their valuable services, has seriously handicapped the +efficiency of this branch of the work. This, however, only spells +opportunity, and when this war releases the new appreciation of +service, we feel confident that somehow we shall be able to fill the +gap, and some one will be found to come and help us again to meet this +great need.</p> + +<p>The coöperation of teachers and librarians more than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>doubles the +capacity of each alone, and we believe sincerely that they do that of +doctors, as they unquestionably do that of the clergy. All the world's +workers have infinitely more to gain by coöperation than they often +suspect. And indeed we who are apostles of coöperation, as essential +for economy in distribution and efficiency in production, realize that +groups of workers pulling together always increase by geometrical +progression the result obtained.</p> + +<p>None of our methods, however, tackled the smallest settlements, hidden +away here and there in these fjords, especially those unreached by the +mail steamers and devoid of means of transportation. Mahomet just could +not come to the mountain, so it had to go to him. A lady and a Doctor +of Philosophy, Miss Ethel Gordon Muir, whose life had been spent in +teaching, and who would have been excused for discontinuing that +function during her long vacations, came down at her own cost and +charges to carry the light to one of these lonely settlements. She has +with loyal devotion continued to carry on and enlarge that work ever +since, till finally she has built up a work that the clergyman of the +main section of coast affected, and also the Superintendent of +Education, have declared is the most effective branch of our Mission. +Her band of teachers are volunteers. They come down to these little +hamlets for the duration of their summer vacations. They live with the +fishermen in their cottages and gather their pupils daily wherever +seems best. Lack of proper accommodation and pioneer conditions +throughout in no way deter them. We expected that their criticism would +be, "It is not worth while." That has never been the case. Before the +war they came again and again, as a testimony to their belief in the +value of the effort. Some have given promising <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>children a chance for a +complete education in the States. Indeed, one such lad, taken down some +years ago by one of the students, entered Amherst College last year; +while several were fighting with the American boys "Over There."</p> + +<p>The only real joy of possession is the power which it confers for a +larger life of service. Has it been the reader's good fortune ever to +save a human life? A cousin of mine, an officer in the submarine +service of the Royal Engineers, told me a year or two before the war +that he was never quite happy because he had spent all his life +acquiring special capacities which he never in the least expected to be +able to put to practical use. This war has given to him, at least, what +possessions could never have offered.</p> + +<p>It almost requires the fabulous Jack to overcome the hoary giants of +prejudice and custom, or the irrepressible energy of the Gorgon. It has +been helpful to remember away "down North" the stand which Archbishop +Ireland took for public schools. When the Episcopal clergyman for +Labrador, whom we had been influential in bringing out from England, +decided to start an undenominational boarding-school on his section of +the coast, we began to hope that we might yet live to see our sporadic +effort become a policy. Laymen in St. John's, led by the Rev. Dr. Edgar +Jones, a most progressive clergyman, sympathized in dollars, and we +were able to back the effort. A splendid volunteer head teacher will +arrive in the spring to begin work. The effort still needs much help; +but I am persuaded that a chain of undenominational schools can be +started that will react on the whole country. Already a scheme for a +similar uplift for the west coast is being promulgated.</p> + +<p>In a letter written to my wife some years ago I find <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>that my +convictions on the subject of education were no less firm than they are +to-day. One came to the conclusion that "ignorance is the worst cause +of suffering on our coast, and our 'religion' is fostering it. True, it +has denominational schools, but these are to bolster up special +ecclesiastical bodies, and are not half so good as Government schools +would be. The 'goods delivered' in the schools are not educational in +the best sense, and are all too often inefficiently offered. Instead of +making the children ambitious to go on learning through life, they make +them tired. There is no effort to stimulate the play side; and in our +north end of the Colony's territory there are no trades taught, no new +ideas, no manual training—it is all so-called 'arts' and Creeds."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>"WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA?"</h4> +<br /> + +<p>We are somewhat superstitious down here still, and not a few believe +that shoals and submerged rocks are like sirens which charm vessels to +their doom.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, as late in the fall we were creeping up the Straits of +Belle Isle in the only motor boat then in use there, our new toy broke +down, and with a strong onshore wind we gradually drifted in toward the +high cliffs. It was a heavy boat, and though we rowed our best we +realized that we must soon be on the rocks, where a strong surf was +breaking. So we lashed all our lines together and cast over our +anchors, hoping to find bottom. Alas, the water was too deep. Darkness +came on and the prospect of a long, weary night struggling for safety +made us thrill with excitement. Suddenly a schooner's lights, utterly +unexpected, loomed up, coming head on toward us. Like Saul and his +asses, we no longer cared about our craft so long as we escaped. At +once we lashed the hurricane light on the boat-hook and waved it to and +fro on high to make sure of attracting attention. To our dismay the +schooner, now almost in hail, incontinently tacked, and, making for the +open sea, soon left us far astern. We fired our guns, we shouted in +unison, we lit flares. All to no purpose. Surely it must have been a +phantom vessel sent to mock us. Suddenly our amateur engineer, who had +all the time been working away at the scrap-heap of parts into which he +had dismembered the motor, got a faint kick out of one cylinder—a +second—a third, then two, three, and then a solitary one again. It was +exactly like a case of blocked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>heart. But it was enough with our oars +to make us move slowly ahead. By much stimulating and watchful nursing +we limped along on the one cylinder, and about midnight found ourselves +alongside the phantom ship, which we had followed into the harbour +"afar off." Angry enough at their desertion of us in distress, we went +aboard just to tell them what we thought of their behaviour. But their +explanation entirely disarmed us. "Them cliffs is haunted," said the +skipper. "More'n one light's been seen there than ever any man lit. +When us saw you'se light flashing round right in on the cliffs, us +knowed it was no place for Christian men that time o' night. Us guessed +it was just fairies or devils trying to toll us in."</p> + +<p>We had no lighthouses on Labrador in those days, and though hundreds of +vessels, crowded often with women and children, had to pass up and down +the coast each spring and fall, still not a single island, harbour, +cape, or reef had any light to mark it, and many boats were +unnecessarily lost as a result.</p> + +<p>Most of the schooners of this large fleet are small. Many are old and +poorly "found" in running gear. Their decks are so crowded with boats, +barrels, gear, wood, and other impedimenta, that to reef or handle +sails on a dark night is almost impossible; while below they were often +so crowded with women and children going North with their men for the +summer fishing on the Labrador shore, that I have had to crawl on my +knees to get at a patient, after climbing down through the main hatch. +These craft are quite unfitted for a rough night at sea, especially as +there always are icebergs or big pans about, which if touched would +each spell another "vessel missing." So the craft all creep North and +South in the spring and fall along the land, darting into harbours +before dark, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>leaving before dawn if the night proves "civil." Yet +many a time I have seen these little vessels with their precious +cargoes becalmed, or with wind ahead, just unable to make anchorage, +and often on moonless nights when the barometer has been low and the +sky threatening. As there were no lights on the land, it would have +been madness to try and make harbours after sundown.</p> + +<p>I have known the cruel, long anxiety of heart which the dilemma +involved. It has been our great pleasure sometimes to run out and tow +vessels in out of their distress. I can still feel the grip of one fine +skipper, who came aboard when the sea eased down. The only harbour +available for us had been very small, and the water too deep for his +poor gear. So when he started to drift, we had given him a line and let +him hold on to us through the night, with his own stern only a few +yards from the cliffs under his lee, and all his loved ones, as well as +his freighters, a good deal nearer heaven than he wished them to be.</p> + +<p>We had frequently written to the Government of this neglect of lights +for the coast. But Labrador has no representative in the Newfoundland +Parliament, and legislators who never visited Labrador had +unimaginative minds. Year after year went by and nothing was done. So I +spoke to many friends of the dire need for a light near Battle Harbour +Hospital. Practically every one of the Northern craft ran right by us +many times as they fished first in the Gulf and later on the east +coast, and so had to go past that corner of land. I have seen a hundred +vessels come and anchor near by in a single evening. When the money was +donated, our architect designed the building, and a friend promised to +endow the effort, so that the salary of the light-keeper might be +permanent. The material was cut and sent North, when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>we were +politely told that the Government could not permit private ownership of +lights—a very proper decision, too. They told us that the year before +money had been voted by the House for lights, and the first would be +erected near Battle Harbour. This was done, and the Double Island Light +has been a veritable Godsend to me as well as to thousands of others +many times since that day.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep272a" id="imagep272a"></a> +<a href="images/imagep272a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep272a.jpg" width="60%" alt="Fish on the Flakes" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">FISH ON THE FLAKES<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep272b" id="imagep272b"></a> +<a href="images/imagep272b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep272b.jpg" width="60%" alt="Drying the Seines" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">DRYING THE SEINES<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>One hundred miles north of Indian Tickle, a place also directly in the +run of all the fishing schooners, a light was much needed. On a certain +voyage coming South with the fleet in the fall, we had all tried to +make the harbour, but it shut down suddenly before nightfall with a +blanket of fog which you could almost cut with a knife, and being +inside many reefs, and unable to make the open, we were all forced to +anchor. Where we were exactly none of us knew, for we had all pushed on +for the harbour as much as we dared. There were eleven riding-lights +visible around us when a rift came in the fog. We hoped against hope +that we had made the harbour. A fierce northeaster gathered strength as +night fell, and a mighty sea began to heave in. Soon we strained at our +anchors in the big seas, and heavy water swept down our decks from bow +to stern. Our patients were dressed and our boats gotten ready, though +it all had only a psychological value. Gradually we missed first one +and then another of the riding-lights, and it was not difficult to +guess what had happened. When daylight broke, only one boat was left—a +large vessel called the Yosemite, and she was drifting right down +toward us. Suddenly she touched a reef, turned on her side, and we saw +the seas carry her over the breakers, the crew hanging on to her bilge. +Steaming to our anchors had saved us. All the vessels that went ashore +became matchwood. But before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>we could get our anchors or slip them, +our main steam pipe gave out and we had to blow down our boilers. It +was now a race between the engineers trying to repair the damage and +the shortening hours of daylight. On the result depended quite possibly +the lives of us all. I cannot remember one sweeter sound than the +raucous voice of the engineer just in the nick of time calling out, +"Right for'ard," and then the signal of the engine-room bell in the +tell-tale in our little wheel-house. The Government has since put a +fine little light in summer on White Point, the point off which we lay.</p> + +<p>Farther north, right by our hospital at Indian Harbour, is a narrow +tickle known as the "White Cockade." Through this most of the fleet +pass, and here also we had planned for a lighthouse. When we were +forbidden to put our material at Battle Harbour, we suggested moving to +this almost equally important point. But it fell under the same +category, and soon after the Government put a good light there also. +The fishermen, therefore, suggested that we should offer our +peripatetic, would-be lighthouse to the Government for some new place +each year.</p> + +<p>We have not much now to complain of so far as the needs of our present +stage of evolution goes. We have wireless stations, quite a number of +lights, not a few landmarks, and a ten times better mail and transport +service than the much wealthier and more able Dominion of Canada could +and ought to give to her long shore from Quebec to the eastern +"Newfoundland" boundary on the Straits Labrador.</p> + +<p>He is not a great legislator who only makes provision for certainties. +True, the West has shown such riches and capacity that it has paid +better to develop it first. But there is no excuse now whatever for +neglecting the East. The Dominion would have been well advised, +indeed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>had she years ago built a railway to the east coast, +shortening the steamer communication with England to only two nights at +sea, and saving twenty-four hours for the mails between London and +Toronto. The war has shown how easily she could have afforded it. Most +ardently I had hoped that she might have turned some of her German +prisoner labour in so invaluable a direction.</p> + +<p>Had the reindeer installation been handled by the Newfoundland +Government years ago as it should have been, Labrador would have +yielded to our boys in France a very material assistance in meat and +furs. Canada now could and should, if only in the interest of her +native population, begin on this problem as soon as peace is declared.</p> + +<p>The fact that a thing possesses vitality is a guarantee that it will +grow if it can. Each new focus will expand, and caterpillar-like cast +off its old clothing for better. The first necessity for economy and +efficiency in our work has been to get our patients quickly to us or to +be able to get to them. Experience has shown us that while boats +entirely dependent on motors are cheapest, it is not always safe to do +open-sea work in such launches without a secondary and more reliable +means of progression. The stories of a doctor's work in these launches +would fill a volume by themselves. The first Northern Messenger, a +small "hot-head" boat, was replaced and sold to pay part of the cost of +Northern Messenger number two. This in its turn was wrecked on an +uncharted shoal with Dr. West on board, and her insurance used to help +to procure Northern Messenger number three—which is the beautiful boat +which now serves Harrington, our most westerly hospital. We are largely +indebted for her to Mr. William Bowditch, of Milton, Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>Dr. Hare, our first doctor at that station, never wrote <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>his own +experiences, but one of the Yale volunteers who worked under him wrote +a story founded on fact, from which the following incident is +suggestive.</p> + +<p>Once, running home before a wind in the Gulf, the doctor suddenly +missed his little son Pat, and looking round saw him struggling in the +water, already many yards astern. Dr. Hare, who was at the tiller at +the time, instantly jumped over after him. The child was finally +disappearing when he reached him at last and held his head above water. +Meanwhile the engineer, who had been below, jumped on deck to find the +sails flapping in the wind and the boat head to sea. With the intuitive +quickness of our people in matters pertaining to the sea, he took in +the situation in a second, and though entirely alone manœuvred the +boat so cleverly as to pick them both up before they perished in these +frigid waters. Pat's young life was saved, only to be given a short few +years later in France for the same fight for the kingdom of +righteousness which his home life had made his familiar ideal.</p> + +<p>The forty-five-foot, "hot-head" yawl Daryl, given us by the Dutch +Reformed friends in New York, was sold to the Hudson Bay Company. At +first she was naturally called the Flying Dutchman, and was most +useful; but here we have learned when a better instrument is available +that it is the truest economy to scrap-heap the old. We were to give +delivery of the boat in Baffin's Land. There were plenty of volunteers +for the task, for the tough jobs are the very ones which appeal to real +men. It would be well if the churches realized this fact and that +therein lies the real secret of Christianity. The impression that being +a Christian is a soft job inevitably brings our religion into contempt. +I had been in England that spring, and had been able to arrange that +the mail <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>steamer bound for Montreal on which I took passage should +stop and drop me off Belle Isle if the crusaders who were to take this +launch on her long voyage North would stand out across our pathway. Mr. +Marconi personally took an interest in the venture. The launch was to +wait at our most easterly Labrador station, and we were to keep telling +her our position. The boat was in charge of Mr. John Rowland and Mr. +Robert English, both of Yale. It created quite a furor among the +passengers on our great ship, when she stopped in mid-ocean, as it +appeared to them, and lowered an erratic doctor over the side on to a +midget, whose mast-tops one looked down upon from the liner's rail. The +sensation was all the more marked as we disappeared over the rail +clinging to two large pots of geraniums—an importation which we +regarded as very much worth while.</p> + +<p>With an old Hudson Bay man, Mr. George Ford, to act as interpreter, and +a Harvard colleague, who to his infinite chagrin was recalled by a +wireless from his parents almost before starting, the little ship and +her crew of three disappeared "over the edge" beyond communication. I +should mention that the Company had promised an engineer for the +launch, but he had begged off when he understood the nature of the +projected expedition; so Yale decided that they were men enough to do +without any outside help.</p> + +<p>September had nearly gone, and no news had come from the boys. I owe +some one an infinite debt for a temperament which does not go halfway +to meet troubles; but even I was a little worried when unkind rumours +that we had sold a boat that was not safe were capped by a father's +letter to say that he "had heard the reports"! Fortunately, two days +later, as the Strathcona lay taking on whale meat for winter dog food +at the northernmost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>factory, the Northern mail steamer came in. On +board were our returned wanderers, and papa, who had gone down as far +as the Labrador steamer runs to look for them, as proud and happy as a +man has a right to be over sons who do things. The boys had not only +reached Baffin's Land, but had explored over a hundred miles of its +uncharted coast-line, crossed to Cape Wolstenholme, navigated Stupart's +Bay—northeast of Ungava—and finally returned to Baffin's Land, coming +back to Cartwright on the Hudson Bay Company's steamer Pelican. It was +a splendid record, especially when we remember the fierce currents and +tremendous rise and fall of tides in that distant land. This latter was +so great that having anchored one night in three fathoms of water in +what appeared to be a good harbour, they had awakened in the morning to +the fact that they were in a pond a full mile in the country, left +stranded by the retiring tide.</p> + +<p>Our last "hot-head," the Pomiuk, in a heavy gale of wind was smashed to +atoms on a terrible reef of rocks off Domino Point a mile from +land—fortunately with no one aboard. Yet another of our fine yawls, +the Andrew McCosh, given us by the students of Princeton, was driven +from her anchors on to the dangerous Point Amour, where years ago, +H.M.S. Lily was lost, and whose bones still lie bleaching on the rocky +foreshore at the foot of the cliffs. Much as I love the sea, it made +one rather "sore" that it should serve us such a turn as wrecking the +McCosh. I have been on the sea for over thirty years and never lost a +vessel while aboard her, but to look on while the waves destroyed so +beautiful a handmaid almost reconciled me to the statement that in +heaven there shall "be no more sea."</p> + +<p>It was near this same spot that in November, 1905, a very old vessel, +while trying to cross the Straits in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>breeze, suddenly sprung a leak +which sent her to the bottom in spite of all the pumping which could be +done. The six men aboard were able to keep afloat at that time of year +in the open Atlantic out of sight of land for five days and nights. +They had nothing to eat but dry bread, and no covering of any kind. The +winds were heavy and the seas high all the while. By patiently keeping +their little boat's head to the wind with the oars, for they had not +any sails, day after day and night after night, and backing her astern +when a breaker threatened to overwhelm them, they eventually reached +land safe and sound.</p> + +<p>The special interest about the launches has always been the pleasant +connection which they have enabled us to maintain with the +universities. Yale crews, Harvard crews, Princeton crews, Johns Hopkins +crews, College of Physicians and Surgeons crews, and combined crews of +many others, have in succeeding years thus become interested. +Occasionally these men have taken back some of their Labrador shipmates +to the United States for a year's education, and in that and other +ways, so they say, have they themselves received much real joy and +inspiration.</p> + +<p>In order to maintain the interest which Canada had taken in our work, +it had in some way to be organized. We had volunteer honorary +secretaries in a few cities, but no way of keeping them informed of our +needs and our progress. In New England a most loyal friend, Miss Emma +White, who ever since has been secretary and devoted helper of the +Labrador work there, had started a regular association with a board of +directors and had taken an office in Beacon Street, Boston. This +association now and again published little brochures of our work, or +ordered out a few copies of the English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>magazine called "The Toilers +of the Deep." It was suggested that we might with advantage publish a +quarterly pamphlet of our own. This was made possible by the generous +help of the late Miss Julia Greenshields, of Toronto, who undertook not +only to edit, but also personally to finance any loss on a little +magazine to be entitled "Among the Deep-Sea Fishers." This has been +maintained ever since, and has been responsible for helping to raise +many of the funds to enable us to "carry on."</p> + +<p>We had also begun to get friends in New York. Dr. Charles Parkhurst, +famous especially for his plucky exposure of the former rottenness of +the police force of that city, had asked me to give an illustrated +lecture at his mission in the Bowery. After my talk a gentleman +present, to my blank astonishment, gave me a cheque for five hundred +dollars. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with one who +has, for all the succeeding years, given far more than money, namely, +the constant inspiration of his own attitude to life and his wise +counsel—to say nothing of the value of the endorsation of his name. +His eldest son, one of the ablest of the rising New York architects, +became chairman of the Grenfell Association of America, and gave us +both of his time and talent—he being responsible, as voluntary +architect, for many of our present buildings, including the Institute +at St. John's, Newfoundland.</p> + +<p>This spread of interest in the United States greatly increased our +correspondence, with an odd result. Americans apparently all believed +that this Colony was part of Canada, and that the postage was two cents +as to the Dominion. This mistake left us six cents to pay on every +letter, and sixteen on any which were overweight. On one occasion the +postmaster offered me so many taxable letters that I decided to accept +only one, and let the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>others go back. That one contained a cheque for +a hundred dollars for the Mission. I naturally took the rest, and found +every one of them to be bills, gossip, or from autograph-hunters.</p> + +<p>On inquiry, our Postmaster-General informed me that it was not possible +to arrange a two-cent postal rate with America. It had been tried and +abandoned, because Canada wanted a share for carrying the letters +through her territory. He told me, however, that he would agree gladly +if the United States offered it. On my visit to Washington I had the +honour of dining with Lord Bryce, our Ambassador there and an old +friend of my father's, and I mentioned the matter to him. He could not, +however, commend my efforts to the Government, as I had no credentials +as a special delegate. There was nothing to do but take my place in the +queue of importunates waiting to interview the Postmaster-General. When +at length I had been moved to the top of the bench, I was called in, +and very soon explained my mission. I received a most cordial hearing, +but merely the information that a note would be made of my request and +filed.</p> + +<p>It suddenly flashed upon me that Americans had equal fishing rights +with ourselves on the Labrador coast, and that quite a number visited +there every year. Possibly the grant of a two-cent postage would be a +welcome little "sop" to them. Mr. Meyer, who was the Postmaster-General +at the time, said that it made all the difference if the reduced rate +would in any way encourage the American mercantile marine. He bade me +draw a careful list of reasons in favour of my proposal, and promised +to give it careful attention.</p> + +<p>It so happened that a few days later I mentioned the matter to Colonel +McCook at whose home I was staying in New York. Colonel McCook, known +as "Fighting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>McCook," from the fact that he was the only one of nine +brothers not killed in the Civil War, at once took up the cudgels in my +behalf, left for Washington the following day, and wired me on the next +morning, "All arranged. Congratulations"—and I had the pleasure of +telegraphing the Postmaster-General in St. John's that I had arranged +the two-cent postage rate with the United States and Newfoundland. A +few days later I received a marked copy of a Newfoundland paper saying +how capable a Government they possessed, seeing that now they had so +successfully put through the two-cent post for the Colony—and that was +all the notice ever taken of my only little political intrigue; except +that a year or two later, meeting Mr. Meyer in Cambridge, he whispered +in my ear, "We were going out of office in four days, or you would +never have got that two-cent post law of yours through so easily."</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>In the spring of 1907 I was in England, and before I left, my old +University was good enough to offer me an honorary degree of Doctor of +Medicine of Oxford. As it was the first occasion that that respectable +old University had ever given that particular degree to any one, I was +naturally not a little gratified. The day of the conferring of it will +ever live in my memory. My cousin, the Professor of Paleontology, half +of whose life was spent in the desert of Egypt digging for papyri in +old dust-heaps, was considered the most appropriate person to stand +sponsor for me—a would-be pioneer of a new civilization in the +sub-arctic.</p> + +<p>The words with which the Public Orator introduced me to the +Vice-Chancellor, being in Latin, seem to me interesting as a relic +rather than as a statement of fact:</p> + +<p>"Insignissime Vice-Cancellarie vosque egregii <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>Procuratores: Adest +civis Britannicus, hujus academiæ olim alumnus, nunc Novum Orbem +incolentibus quam nostratibus notus. Hic ille est qui quindecim abhinc +annos in litus Labradorium profectus est, ut solivagis in mari Boreali +piscatoribus ope medica succurreret; quo in munere obeundo Oceani +pericula, quæ ibi formidosissima sunt, contempsit dum miseris et +mærentibus solatium ac lumen afferret. Nunc quantum homini licet, in +ipsius Christi vestigiis, si fas est dicere, insistere videtur, vir +vere Christianus. Jure igitur eum laudamus cujus laudibus non ipse +solum sed etiam Academia nostra ornatur.</p> + +<p>"Præsenta ad vos Wilfredum Thomassum Grenfell, ut admittatur ad gradum +Doctoris in Medicina Honoris Causa."</p> + +<p>As we, the only two Doctors Grenfell extant, marched solemnly back down +the aisle side by side, the antithesis of what doctorates called for +struck my sense of humour most forcibly. I had hired the gorgeous robes +of scarlet box cloth and carmine silk for the occasion, never expecting +to wear them again. But some years later, when yet another honorary +Doctorate, of Laws, was most generously conferred upon me by a +University of our American cousins, I felt it incumbent on me to uphold +if possible the British end of the ritual. A cable brought me just in +time the box-cloth surtout. Commencement ceremonies in the United +States are in June; and the latitude was that of Rome. For years I had +spent the hot months always in the sub-arctic. The assembly hall was +small and crowded to bursting—not even all the graduating class could +get in, much less all their friends. The temperature was in three +figures. The scarlet box cloth got hotter and hotter as we paraded in +and about the campus. My face outrivalled the gown in colour. I have +made many lobster <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>men out of the boiled limbs of those admirable +adjuncts of a Northern diet, but I had never expected to pose as one in +the flesh. The most lasting impression which the ceremony left on my +mind is of my volunteer summer secretary, who stood almost on my toes +as he delivered the valedictory address of his class. I still see his +gradually wilting, boiled collar, and the tiny rivulet which trickled +down his neck as he warmed to his subject. We were the best of friends, +but I felt that glow of semi-satisfaction that comes to the man who +finds that he is no longer the only one seasick on board.</p> + +<p>About this time King Edward most graciously presented me, as one of his +birthday honours, with a Companionship in the Order of St. Michael and +St. George—most useful persons for any man to have as companions, +especially in a work like ours, both being famous for downing dragons +and devils. My American friends immediately knighted me. The papers and +magazines knighted me in both the United States and Canada. But that +got me into trouble, for only kings can make pawns into knights, and I +had to appeal several times to the Associated Press to save myself +being dubbed <i>poseur</i>. I have protested at meetings when the chairman +has knighted me; at banquets, when the master of ceremonies has +knighted me. I gave it up lest accusation should arise against me, when +at a semi-religious meeting I uttered a feeble protest against the +title to which I have no right, and my introducer merely repeated it +the more firmly, informing the audience meanwhile that I was "too +modest to use it."</p> + +<p>There was attached to the conferring of the Order one elective +latitude—it could either be sent out or wait till I returned to +England and attended a levee with the other recipients. I had a great +desire to see the King, and, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>though it meant a year's waiting, I +requested to be allowed to do so. This not only was most courteously +granted, but also the permission to let my presence in England be known +to the Hereditary Grand Chamberlain, and the King would give me a +private audience. When the day arrived, I repaired to Buckingham +Palace, where I waited for an hour in the reception room in company +with a small, stout clergyman who was very affable. I learned later +that he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was carrying a fat Bible +from Boston, England, I believe, to be presented to the United States +of America.</p> + +<p>At last Sir Frederick Treves, who kindly acted as my introducer, took +me up to the King's study—that King whose life his skill had saved. +There a most courteous gentleman made me perfectly at home, and talked +of Labrador and North Newfoundland and our work as if he had lived +there. He asked especially about the American helpers and interest, and +laughed heartily when I told him how many freeborn Americans had gladly +taken the oath of loyalty to His Majesty, when called up to act as +special constables for me in his oldest Colony. He left the impression +on my mind that he was a real Englishman in spirit, though he had +spoken with what I took to be a slight German accent. The sports and +games of the Colony I had noticed interested him very much, and all +references to the splendid seafaring genius of the people also found an +appreciative echo in his heart. When at last he handed me a long box +with a gorgeous medal and ribbon, and bade me good-bye, I vowed I could +sing "God save the King" louder than ever if I could do so without +harrowing the feelings of my more tuneful neighbours.</p> + +<p>When later, as a major in an American surgical unit in France, I was +serving the R.A.M.C., the ribbon of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>Order was actually of real +service to me. It undoubtedly opened some closed doors, though it +proved a puzzle to every A.D.M.S. to whom I had to explain the anomaly +of my position when I had to go and worry him for permission to cross +the road or some new imaginary line. In England, and even in America, I +found that the fact that the King had recognized one's work was a real +material asset. It was a credential—only on a larger scale—like that +from our Minister to the Colonies, the Marquis of Ripon, who kindly had +given me his blessing in writing when first I visited Canada.</p> + +<p>How far signs of superiority are permissible is to my mind an open +question. Hereditary human superiority does not necessarily exist, +because selective precautions are not taken, and the environment of the +superior is very apt to enfeeble the physical machine, anyhow. The +question of the hereditary superiority of a man's soul, being outside +my sphere, I leave to the theologians. History, which is the school of +experience, belies the theory, whatever current science may say. As for +the giving of hereditary titles, it is significant that they do not as +a rule go to scholars or even scientific men, but to physical fighters, +being physical rewards for material services. When these are in the +possession of offspring no longer capable of rendering such services, +it appears ridiculous that they should sail under false colours.</p> + +<p>To make a man a hereditary duke for being humble and modest, or +hereditary marquis for being unselfish and generous, or an earl for +being a man of peace, and a benefactor in the things which make for +peace, such as a good husband and father and comrade, has, so far as I +know, never been tried. Some of the so-called lesser honours, such as +knighthood, are reserved for these. However, an order of knightly +citizens, so long as they are real knights, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>is, after all, little more +than the gold key of the Phi Beta Kappa, or the red triangle of the +Y.M.C.A. worker, or the Red Cross badge of the nurse. We are human, +anyhow, and such concessions, seeing that they do have an undoubted +stimulating value in the present stage of our development, to an +Englishman seem permissible.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Labrador will never be a "vineland," a land of corn and wine, or a +country where fenced cities will be needed to keep out the milk and +honey. But though there may be other sections of the Empire that can +produce more dollars, Labrador will, like Norway and Sweden, produce +Vikings, and it is said that the man behind the gun is still of some +moment.</p> + +<p>In past years we have made quite extensive experiments in trying to +adapt possible food supplies to this climate. I had seventeen bags of +the hardiest cereal seeds known sent me. They consisted of barley from +Lapland, from Russia, from Abyssinia, Mansbury barley and Finnish oats. +All the seeds came from the experimental station at Rampart, Alaska, +and were grown in latitude 63° 30', which is two degrees north of Cape +Chidley.</p> + +<p>I find in the notes of one of my earliest voyages my satisfaction at +the fact that a storm with lightning and thunder had just passed over +the boat and freshened up some rhubarb which I was growing in a box. It +had been presented to me by the Governor to carry down to Battle +Harbour, and I was very eager that it, my first agricultural venture, +should not fail.</p> + +<p>Everywhere along the coast the inability to get a proper diet, owing to +the difficulties of successful farming even on ever so small a scale, +had aroused my mind to the necessity of doing something along that +line. In one small cottage I saw a poor woman zealously guarding an +aged rooster.</p> + +<p>"Have you got a hen?" I asked her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>"No, Doctor; I had one, but she died last year."</p> + +<p>"Then why ever do you keep that rooster?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I hopes some day to get a hen. I've had him five years. The last +manager of the mill gave him to me, but you'se sees he can't never go +out and walk around because of the dogs, so I just keeps he under that +settle."</p> + +<p>Pathetic as were her efforts at stock farming, I must admit that my +sympathies were all with the incarcerated rooster.</p> + +<p>The problem of the dogs seemed an insurmountable one. The Moravians' +records abound in stories of their destructiveness. Mr. Hesketh +Pritchard writes: "Dr. Grenfell records two children and one man killed +by the dogs. This is fortunately a much less terrible record than that +shown farther north by the Moravian Missions. The savage dogs did great +harm at those stations one winter." Among other accidents, a boy of +thirteen, strong and well, was coming home from his father's kayak to +his mother. After some time, as he did not arrive, they went to search +for him and found that the dogs had already killed and eaten a good +part of him. A full-grown man, driving to Battle Harbour Hospital, was +killed by his dogs almost at our doors.</p> + +<p>The wolves of the country only pack when deer are about. As a contrast +to our dogs, wolves have never been known to kill a man in Labrador, so +it would be more correct to speak of a doggish wolf than a wolfish dog. +It is an odd thing and a fortunate one that in this country, where it +is very common to have been bitten by a dog, we never have been able to +find any trace of hydrophobia.</p> + +<p>A visitor returning to New York after a summer on the coast wrote as +follows: "One of my lasting remembrances of Battle Harbour will be the +dreadful dogs. The Mission team were on an island far removed, but +there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>were a number of settlers' dogs which delighted in making the +nights hideous. Never before have I seen dogs stand up like men and +grapple with each other in a fight, and when made to move on, renew the +battle round the corner."</p> + +<p>Our efforts at agriculture had taught us not to expect too much of the +country. A New Zealand cousin, Martyn Spencer, a graduate of Macdonald +College of Agriculture, gave us two years' work. His experience showed +that while dogs continued to be in common use, cattle-raising was +impossible. Of a flock of forty Herdwick sheep given by Dr. Wakefield, +the dogs killed twenty-seven at one time. Angora goats, which we had +imported, perished in the winter for lack of proper food. Our land cost +so much to reclaim for hay, being soaked in humic acid, that we had +always to import that commodity at a cost which made more cows than +absolutely essential very inadvisable. Weasels, rats, hawks, and vermin +needed a man's whole time if our chickens were to be properly guarded +and repay keeping at all. An alfalfa sent us from Washington did well, +and potatoes also gave a fair return, though our summer frosts often +destroyed whole patches of the latter. Our imported plum and crabapple +trees were ringed by mice beneath the snow in winter. At a farm which +we cleared nine miles up a bay, so as to have it removed from the polar +current, our oats never ripened, and our turnips and cabbage did not +flourish in every case. We could not plant early enough, owing to the +ground being frozen till July some years.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, when we looked at the hundreds of thousands of +square miles on which caribou could live and increase without any help +from man, and indeed in spite of all his machinations, our attention +was naturally turned to reindeer farming, and I went to Washington to +consult Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Presbyterian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>missionary from Alaska. +It was he who had pioneered the introduction by the United States +Government of domestic reindeer into Alaska. At Washington we received +nothing but encouragement. Reindeer could make our wilderness smile. +They would cost only the protection necessary. They multiply steadily, +breeding every year for eight or ten years after their second season. A +selected herd should double itself every three years.</p> + +<p>The skins are very valuable—there is no better nonconductor of heat. +The centre of the hair is not a hollow cylinder, but a series of air +bubbles which do not soak water, and therefore can be used with +advantage for life-saving cushions. The skins are splendid also for +motor robes, and now invaluable in the air service. The meat is tender +and appetizing, and sold as a game delicacy in New York. The deer +fatten well on the abundant mosses of a country such as ours.</p> + +<p>Sir William MacGregor, the Governor of Newfoundland at the time, had +samples of the mosses collected around the coast and sent to Kew +Botanical Gardens for positive identification. The Cladonia +Rangiferina, or Iceland moss, proved very abundant. It was claimed, +however, that the reindeer would eat any of such plants and shrubs as +our coast offers in summer.</p> + +<p>As long ago as the year 1903 my interest in the domestication of deer +had led me to experiment with a young caribou. We had him on the +Strathcona nearly all one summer. He was a great pet on board, and +demonstrated how easily trained these animals are. He followed me about +like a dog, and called after me as I left the ship's side in a boat if +we did not take him with us. He was as inquisitive as a monkey or as +the black bear which we had had two years before. We twice caught him +in the chart-room chewing up white paper, for on his first raid there +he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>had found an apple just magnanimously sent us from the shore as a +delicacy.</p> + +<p>Friends, inspired by Mr. William Howell Reed, of Boston, collected the +money for a consignment of reindeer, and we accordingly sent to Lapland +to purchase as many of the animals as we could afford. The expense was +not so much in the cost of the deer as in the transport. They could not +be shipped till they had themselves hauled down to the beach enough +moss to feed them on their passage across the Atlantic. Between two +hundred and fifty and three hundred were purchased, and three Lapp +families hired to teach some of our local people how to herd them. When +at last snow enough fell for the sledges to haul the moss down to the +landwash, it was dark all day around the North Cape.</p> + +<p>Fifty years hence in all probability the Lapps will be an extinct race, +as even within the past twelve or fifteen years, districts in which +thousands of domesticated reindeer grazed, now possess but a few +hundreds.</p> + +<p>The good ship Anita, which conveyed the herd to us, steamed in for +southern Newfoundland and then worked her way North as far as the ice +would permit. At St. Anthony everything was frozen up, and the men +walked out of the harbour mouth on the sea ice to meet the steamer +bringing the deer. The whole three hundred were landed on the ice in +Crémaillière, some three miles to the southward of St. Anthony +Hospital, and though many fell through into the sea, they proved hardy +and resourceful enough to reach the land, where they gathered around +the tinkling bells of the old deer without a single loss from land to +land.</p> + +<p>One of our workers at St. Anthony that winter wrote that "the most +exciting moment was when the woman was lowered in her own sledge over +the steamer's side <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>on to the ice, drawn to the shore, and transferred +to one of Dr. Grenfell's komatiks, as she had hurt her leg on the +voyage. The sight of all the strange men surrounding her frightened +her, but she was finally reassured, threw aside her coverings, and +clutched her frying-pan, which she had hidden under a sheepskin. When +she had it safely in her arms she allowed the men to lift her and put +her on the komatik." When the doctor at the hospital advised that her +leg would best be treated by operation, the man said, "She is a pretty +old woman, and doesn't need a very good leg much longer." She was +thirty-five!</p> + +<p>An Irish friend had volunteered to come out and watch the experiment in +our interest—and this he did most efficiently. The deer flourished and +increased rapidly. Unfortunately the Lapps did not like our country. +They complained that North Newfoundland was too cold for them and they +wanted to return home. One family left after the first year. A rise in +salary kept three of the men, but the following season they wanted more +than we had funds to meet, and we were forced to decide, wrongly, I +fear, to let them go. The old herder warned me, "No Lapps, no deer"; +but I thought too much in terms of Mission finances, the Government +having withdrawn their grant toward the herders' salaries. Trusting to +the confidence in their own ability of the locally trained men, I +therefore let the Lapp herders go home. The love of the Lapps for their +deer is like a fisherman's for his vessel, and seems a master passion. +They appeared even to grudge our having any deer tethered away from +their care.</p> + +<p>To us it seemed strange that these Lapps always contended that the work +was too hard, and that the only reason that they were always gone from +camp was that there were no wolves to keep the herd together. They +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>claimed that we must have a big fence or the deer would go off into the +country. They, of course, both when with us and in Lapland as well, +lived and slept where the herd was. They told us that the deer no +longer obeyed the warning summons of the old does' bells, having no +natural enemy to fear; and one told me, "Money no good, Doctor, if herd +no increase." Reindeer seemed to be the complement of their souls.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Alaskan experiment was realizing all of Dr. Jackson's +happiest hopes; but it had a strong Government grant and backing and +plenty of skilled superintendence. The lack of those were our +weaknesses. Our deer thrived splendidly and multiplied as we had +predicted. We went thirty miles in a day with them with ease. We hauled +our firewood out, using half a dozen hauling teams every day. Every +fortnight during the rush of patients at the hospital in summer we +could afford to kill a deer. The milk was excellent in quality and +sweet, and preserved perfectly well in rubber-capped bottles. The +cheese was nourishing and a welcome addition to the local diet. At the +close of the fourth year we had a thousand deer.</p> + +<p>A paper of the serious standing of the "Wall Street Journal," writing +at about that time, under the title "Reindeer Venison from Alaska," had +this to say: "At different times in the past twenty years the +Government imported reindeer into Alaska—about twelve hundred in +all—in hopes to provide food for the natives in the future. The plan +caused some amusement and some criticism at the time. Subsequent +developments, however, have justified the attempt. The herds have now +increased to about forty thousand animals, and are rapidly becoming +still more numerous. The natives own about two thirds of the number. +Shipments of meat have been made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>to the Pacific Coast cities. Last +year the sales of venison and skins amounted to $25,000. It is claimed +that the vast tundra, or treeless frozen plains of Alaska, will support +at least ten million animals. The federal authorities in charge are so +optimistic of the future outlook that the prediction is made that +within twenty-five years the United States can draw a considerable part +of its meat supply from Alaska." What can be done in Alaska can be done +in Labrador, and with its better facilities for shipping and handling +the product, the greater future ought to be the prize of the latter +country.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1912 there were five hundred fawns, and at one time we +had gathered into our corral for tagging no less than twelve hundred +and fifty reindeer. Of these we sold fifty to the Government of Canada +for the Peace River District. There they were lost because they were +placed in a flat country, densely wooded with alders, and not near the +barren lands. We also sold a few to clubs, in order to try and +introduce the deer. These sales would have done the experiment no +injury, but with the fifty to Canada went my chief herder and two of my +other herders from Labrador. This loss, from which we never recovered, +coincided with an outbreak of hostility toward the deer among the +resident population, who live entirely on the sea edge. Only long +afterwards did we find out that it was partly because they feared that +we would force deer upon them and do away with their dogs. The local +Government official told me only the other day that the second +generation from this would have very little good to say of the +short-sightedness of these men who let such a valuable industry fail to +succeed.</p> + +<p>With the increasing cares of the enlarging Mission, with Lieutenant +Lindsay gone back to Ireland, and no one to superintend the herding, +the successful handling of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>the deer imperceptibly declined. The tags +on the ears were no longer put in; the bells were not replaced in the +old localities. The herd was driven, not led as before—was paid for, +not loved. These differences at the time were marked by increasing +poaching on the herd by the people. Here and there at first they had +killed a deer unknown to us; and finally we caught one hidden in a +man's woodpile, and several offenders were sent to jail.</p> + +<p>We appealed to the Newfoundland Government for protection, as to be +policeman and magistrate for the herd which one held in trust was an +anomalous position. I was ordered by them to sit on the bench when +these cases were up, as I did not own the deer. The section of land on +which we had the animals is a peninsula of approximately one hundred +and fifty square miles. It is cut off by a narrow, low neck about eight +miles long. During all our years of acquaintance with the coast not a +dozen caribou had been killed on it, for they do not cross the neck to +the northward. But when we applied for a national preserve, that no +deer at all might be killed on the peninsula, and so we might run a big +fence across the neck with a couple of herders' houses along the line +of it, a petition, signed by part of the "voters," went up to St. +John's, against such permission being granted us. The petition stated +that the deer destroyed the people's "gardens," that they were a danger +to the lives of the settlers, whose dogs went wild when they crossed +their path, and they claimed that the herd "led men into temptation," +because if there were no reindeer to tempt men to kill them, there +would be none killed. The deer thus were supposed to be the cause of +making cattle-thieves out of honest men! The result was that a law was +passed that no domestic reindeer might be shot north of the line of the +neck for which we had applied, and which we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>intended to fence. This +only made matters ten times worse, for if the deer either strayed or +else were driven across the line, the killing of them was thus +legalized.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep296a" id="imagep296a"></a> +<a href="images/imagep296a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep296a.jpg" width="95%" alt="A Part of the Reindeer Herd" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A PART OF THE REINDEER HERD<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep296b" id="imagep296b"></a> +<a href="images/imagep296b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep296b.jpg" width="95%" alt="Reindeer Teams Meeting A Dog Team" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">REINDEER TEAMS MEETING A DOG TEAM<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The deer had cost us, landed, some fifty-one dollars apiece. Three +years of herding under the adverse conditions of lack of support from +either Government or people had not lessened the per caput expense very +materially. If we had shot some one's fifty-dollar cow, our name would +have been anathema—but we lost two hundred and fifty deer one winter. +In addition to this, when we moved the deer to a spot near another +village on a high bluff, over a hundred died in summer, +either—according to the report of the herders—from falling over the +cliffs driven by dogs, or of a sickness of which we could not discover +the nature, though we thought that it resembled a kind of pneumonia.</p> + +<p>The poaching got so bad that we took every means in our power to catch +the guilty parties. But it was a very difficult thing to do. A dead +deer lies quiet, keeps for weeks where he falls in our winter climate, +and can be surreptitiously removed by day or night. The little Lapp +dogs occasionally scented them beneath the snow, and many tell-tale +"paunches" showed where deer had been killed and carried off.</p> + +<p>I had been treating the hunchback boy and only child of a fisherman for +whom I had very great respect. His was the home where the Methodist +minister always boarded, and he was looked upon as a pillar of piety. +After a straightening by frame treatment, the boy's spine had been +ankylosed by an operation; and as every one felt sorry for the little +fellow, we were often able to send him gifts. One day the father came +to me, evidently in great trouble, to have what proved to be a most +uncommon private talk. To my utter surprise he began: "Doctor, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>can +no longer live and keep the secret that I shot two of your reindeer. I +have brought you ninety dollars, all the cash that I have, and I want +to ask your forgiveness, after all you have done for me." Needless to +say, it was freely given, but it made me feel more than ever that the +deer must be moved to some other country.</p> + +<p>It was about this year that the Government for the first time granted +us a resident policeman—previously we had had to be our own police. +Fortunately the man sent was quite a smart fellow. A dozen or so deer +had been killed along the section of our coast, and so skilfully that +even though it was done under the noses of the herders no evidence to +convict could be obtained. It so happened, however, that while one of +the herders was eating a piece of one of the slaughtered animals which +he had discovered, and that the thieves had not been able to carry off, +his teeth met on a still well-formed rifle bullet of number 22 calibre. +This type of rifle we knew was scarcely ever used on our coast, and the +policeman at once made a round to take every one. He returned with +three, which was really the whole stock.</p> + +<p>A piece of meat was now placed at a reasonable distance, also some bags +of snow, flour, etc., and a number of bullets fired into them. These +bullets were then all privately marked, and shuffled up. Our own +deductions were made, and a man from twenty miles away summoned, +arrested, and brought up. He brought witnesses and friends, apparently +to impress the court—one especially, who most vehemently protested +that he knew the owner of the rifle, and that he was never out of his +house at the time that the deer would have been killed. In court was a +man, for twenty-seven years agent in Labrador for the Hudson Bay +Company—a crack shot and a most expert hunter. He was called up, given +the big pile of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>bullets, and told to try and sort them, by the groove +marks, into those fired by the three different rifles. We then handed +him the control bullet, and he put it instantly on one of the piles. It +was the pile that had been fired from the rifle of the accused. This +man, in testifying, in order to clear himself, had let out the fact +that his rifle had not been kept in his house, but in the house of the +vociferous witness—whom we now arrested, convicted, and condemned to +jail for six months or two hundred dollars fine—the latter alternative +being given only because we knew that he had not the necessary sum. +Protesting as loudly as he had previously witnessed, he went to jail; +but the rest let out threats that they were coming back with others to +set him free. We had only a frame wooden jail, and a rheumatic jailer +of over seventy years, hired to hobble around by day and see that the +prisoners were fed and kept orderly. We announced, therefore, that our +Hudson Bay friend, with his rifle loaded, would be night jailer.</p> + +<p>A few days passed by. The prisoner did not like improving the public +thoroughfare for our benefit, while those "who were just as bad as he" +went free. Our old jailer took good care that he should hear what good +times they were having and laughing at him for being caught. Indeed, he +liked it so little that he gave the whole plot away—at least what he +called the whole. This landed four more of his friends in the same +honest and public-spirited occupation which he was himself pursuing; +though all escaped shortly afterwards by paying fines to the Government +which aggregated some eight hundred dollars—which sum was largely paid +by others for them.</p> + +<p>There was no way, however, definitely to stop the steady decrease in +the numbers of the herd; and though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>we moved them to new pastures +around the coast, and fenced them in such small mobile corrals as we +could afford, they were not safe. On several occasions we found dead +deer with buckshot in them, which had "fallen over the cliffs." Twice +we discovered that deer had even been killed within our own corral. One +had been successfully removed, and the other trussed-up carcass had +been hidden until a good opportunity offered for it to follow suit. I +do not wish to leave the impression on the minds of my readers that +every man on this part of the coast is a poacher. Far from it. But the +majority of the best men were against the reindeer experiment from the +moment that the first trouble arose. A new obligation of social life +was introduced. This implied restraint in such trifling things as their +having to fence their tiny gardens, protect small stray hay-pooks, and +discriminate into what they discharged their ubiquitous blunderbusses.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the steadily increasing demand for meat, especially since the +war began, caused outside interest in the experiment; and both the +owners of Anticosti Island, and a firm in the West who were commencing +reindeer farming on a commercial basis, opened negotiations with us for +the purchase of our herd. In the original outlay, however, the Canadian +Dominion Government had taken an interest to the amount of five +thousand dollars, so it was necessary to get their opinion on the +subject. Their Department of Indian Affairs happened to be looking for +some satisfactory way of helping out their Labrador Indian population. +They sent down and made inquiries, and came to the conclusion that they +would themselves take the matter up, as they had done with buffalo, +elk, and other animals in the West.</p> + +<p>In 1917 all preparations for transferring the deer were made, but war +conditions called their steamer away and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>transport was delayed until +1918. Again their steamer was called off, so we decided to take the +deer across ourselves in our splendid three-masted schooner, the George +B. Cluett. She, alas, was delayed in America by the submarine scare, +and it was the end of September instead of June when she finally +arrived. It was a poor season for our dangerous North coast and a very +bad time for moving the deer, whose rutting season was just beginning. +My herders, too, were now much reduced in numbers. Most of them had +gone to the war, and as one had been sick all summer, practically only +two were available. To add to the difficulty, many small herds of +reindeer were loose in the country outside the corral.</p> + +<p>However, we felt that the venture must be attempted at all hazards, +even if it delayed our beautiful ship taking a cargo of food to the +Allies—as she was scheduled to do as soon as possible—and though it +was a serious risk to remain anchored in the shallow open roadstead off +the spot where the deer had to be taken aboard. The work was all new to +us. The deer, instead of being tame as they had previously been, were +wild at best, and wilder still from their breeding season. The days +went by, and we succeeded in getting only a few aboard. We were all +greenhorns with the lassoes and lariats which we improvised. A gale of +wind came on and nothing could be done but lie up.</p> + +<p>Then followed a fine Sunday morning. It was intensely interesting to +note the attitude which my crew could take toward my decision to work +all day after morning prayers. We talked briefly over the emphasis laid +by the four Evangelists on Christ's attitude toward the day of rest, +and what it might mean, if we allowed a rare fine day to go by, to that +long section of coast which we had not yet this year visited, and which +might thus miss the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>opportunity of seeing a doctor before Christmas. +As since this war has begun I have felt that the Christ whom I wanted +to follow would be in France, so now I felt that the Christ of my ideal +would go ashore and get those deer in spite of the great breach of +convention which it would mean for a "Mission" doctor to work in any +way, except in the many ways he has to work every Sunday of his life. +The whole crew followed me when I went ashore, saying that they shared +my view—all except the mate, who spent his Sunday in bed. Idleness is +not rest to some natures, either to body or mind, and when at night we +all turned in at ten o'clock, wet through—for it had rained in the +evening—and tired out, we were able to say our prayers with just as +light hearts, feeling that we had put sixty-eight deer aboard, as if we +had enjoyed that foretaste of what some still believe to be the rest of +heaven. Rest for our souls we certainly had, and to some of us that is +the rest which God calls His own and intends shall be ours also. When +later I spoke to some young men about this, it seemed to them a +Chestertonian paradox, that we should actually hold a Sunday service +and then go forth to render it. They thought that Sunday prayers had to +do only with the escaping the consequences of one's sins.</p> + +<p>I still believe that we were absolutely right in our theory of the +introduction of the deer into this North country, and that we shall be +justified in it by posterity. That these thousands of miles, now +useless to men, will be grazed over one day by countless herds of deer +affording milk, meat, clothing, transport, and pleasure to the human +race, is certain. They do not by any means destroy the land over which +they rove. On the contrary, the deep ruts made by their feet, like the +ponies' feet in Iceland, serve to drain the surface water and dry the +land. The kicking and pawing of the moss-covered ground with their +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>spade-like feet tear it up, level it, and cut off the dense moss and +creeping plants, bring the sub-soil to the top, and over the whole the +big herd spreads a good covering of manure.</p> + +<p>Reindeer-trodden barrens, after a short rest, yield more grass and +cattle food than ever before. No domesticated animal can tolerate the +cold of this country and find sustenance for itself as can the deer. It +can live as far north as the musk-ox. Peary found reindeer in plenty on +the shores of the polar sea. The great barren lands of Canada, from +Hudson Bay north of Chesterfield Inlet away to the west, carry tens of +thousands of wild caribou. Mr. J.B. Tyrrell's photographs show armies +of them advancing; the stags with their lordly horns are seen passing +close to the camera in serried ranks that seem to have no end.</p> + +<p>Our own experiment is far from being a failure. It has been a success, +even if only the corpse is left in Newfoundland. We have proved +conclusively that the deer can live, thrive, and multiply on the +otherwise perfectly valueless areas of this North country, and furnish +a rapidly increasing domesticated "raw material" for a food and +clothing supply to its people.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>On Easter Sunday, the 21st of April, 1908, it was still winter with us +in northern Newfoundland. Everything was covered with snow and ice. I +was returning to the hospital after morning service, when a boy came +running over with the news that a large team of dogs had come from +sixty miles to the southward to get a doctor to come at once on an +urgent case. A fortnight before we had operated on a young man for +acute bone disease of the thigh, but when he was sent home the people +had allowed the wound to close, and poisoned matter had accumulated. As +it seemed probable that we should have to remove the leg, there was no +time to be lost, and I therefore started immediately, the messengers +following me with their team.</p> + +<p>My dogs were especially good ones and had pulled me out of many a +previous scrape by their sagacity and endurance. Moody, Watch, Spy, +Doc, Brin, Jerry, Sue, and Jack were as beautiful beasts as ever hauled +a komatik over our Northern barrens. The messengers had been anxious +that their team should travel back with mine, for their animals were +slow at best, and moreover were now tired from their long journey. My +dogs, however, were so powerful that it was impossible to hold them +back, and though I twice managed to wait for the following sledge, I +had reached a village twenty miles to the south and had already fed my +team when the others caught up.</p> + +<p>That night the wind came in from sea, bringing with it both fog and +rain, softening the snow and making the travelling very difficult. +Besides this a heavy sea began <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>heaving into the bay on the shores of +which lay the little hamlet where I spent my first night. Our journey +the next day would be over forty miles, the first ten lying on an arm +of the sea.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep304a" id="imagep304a"></a> +<a href="images/imagep304a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep304a.jpg" width="95%" alt="A Spring Scene at St. Anthony" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A SPRING SCENE AT ST. ANTHONY<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep304b" id="imagep304b"></a> +<a href="images/imagep304b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep304b.jpg" width="95%" alt="Dog Race at St. Anthony" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">DOG RACE AT ST. ANTHONY<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>In order not to be separated too long from my friends I sent them ahead +of me by two hours, appointing as a rendezvous the log tilt on the +other side of the bay. As I started the first rain of the year began to +fall, and I was obliged to keep on what we call the "ballicaters," or +ice barricades, for a much longer distance up the bay than I had +anticipated. The sea, rolling in during the previous night, had smashed +the ponderous layer of surface ice right up to the landwash. Between +the huge ice-pans were gaping chasms, while half a mile out all was +clear water.</p> + +<p>Three miles from the shore is a small island situated in the middle of +the bay. This had preserved an ice bridge, so that by crossing a few +cracks I managed to get to it safely. From that point it was only four +miles to the opposite shore, a saving of several miles if one could +make it, instead of following the landwash round the bay. Although the +ice looked rough, it seemed good, though one could see that it had been +smashed up by the incoming sea and packed in tight again by the +easterly wind. Therefore, without giving the matter a second thought, I +flung myself on the komatik and the dogs started for the rocky +promontory some four miles distant.</p> + +<p>All went well till we were within about a quarter of a mile of our +objective point. Then the wind dropped suddenly, and I noticed +simultaneously that we were travelling over "sish" ice. By stabbing +down with my whip-handle I could drive it through the thin coating of +young ice which had formed on the surface. "Sish" ice is made up of +tiny bits formed by the pounding together of the large pans by the +heavy seas. So quickly had the wind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>veered and come offshore, and so +rapidly did the packed slob, relieved of the inward pressure of the +easterly breeze, "run abroad," that already I could not see any pan +larger than ten feet square. The whole field of ice was loosening so +rapidly that no retreat was possible.</p> + +<p>There was not a moment to lose. I dragged off my oilskins and threw +myself on my hands and knees beside the komatik so as to give a larger +base to hold, shouting at the same time to my team to make a dash for +the shore. We had not gone twenty yards when the dogs scented danger +and hesitated, and the komatik sank instantly into the soft slob. Thus +the dogs had to pull much harder, causing them to sink also.</p> + +<p>It flashed across my mind that earlier in the year a man had been +drowned in this same way by his team tangling their traces around him +in the slob. I loosened my sheath-knife, scrambled forward and cut the +traces, retaining the leader's trace wound securely round my wrist.</p> + +<p>As I was in the water I could not discern anything that would bear us +up, but I noticed that my leading dog was wallowing about near a piece +of snow, packed and frozen together like a huge snowball, some +twenty-five yards away. Upon this he had managed to scramble. He shook +the ice and water from his shaggy coat and turned around to look for +me. Perched up there out of the frigid water he seemed to think the +situation the most natural in the world, and the weird black marking of +his face made him appear to be grinning with satisfaction. The rest of +us were bogged like flies in treacle.</p> + +<p>Gradually I succeeded in hauling myself along by the line which was +still attached to my wrist, and was nearly up to the snow-raft, when +the leader turned adroitly round, slipped out of his harness, and once +more leered at me with his grinning face.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>There seemed nothing to be done, and I was beginning to feel drowsy +with the cold, when I noticed the trace of another dog near by. He had +fallen through close to the pan, and was now unable to force his way +out. Along his line I hauled myself, using him as a kind of bow +anchor—and I soon lay, with my dogs around me, on the little island of +slob ice.</p> + +<p>The piece of frozen snow on which we lay was so small that it was +evident we must all be drowned if we were forced to remain on it as it +was driven seaward into open water. Twenty yards away was a larger and +firmer pan floating in the sish, and if we could reach it I felt that +we might postpone for a time the death which seemed inescapable. To my +great satisfaction I now found that my hunting knife was still tied on +to the back of one of the dogs, where I had attached it when we first +fell through. Soon the sealskin traces hanging on the dogs' harnesses +were cut and spliced together to form one long line. I divided this and +fastened the ends to the backs of my two leaders, attaching the two +other ends to my own wrists. My long sealskin boots, reaching to my +hips, were full of ice and water, and I took them off and tied them +separately on the dogs' backs. I had already lost my coat, cap, gloves, +and overalls.</p> + +<p>Nothing seemed to be able to induce the dogs to move, even though I +kept throwing them off the ice into the water. Perhaps it was only +natural that they should struggle back, for once in the water they +could see no other pan to which to swim. It flashed into my mind that +my small black spaniel which was with me was as light as a feather and +could get across with no difficulty. I showed him the direction and +then flung a bit of ice toward the desired goal. Without a second's +hesitation he made a dash and reached the pan safely, as the tough +layer of sea ice easily <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>carried his weight. As he lay on the white +surface looking like a round black fuss ball, my leaders could plainly +see him. They now understood what I wanted and fought their way bravely +toward the little retriever, carrying with them the line that gave me +yet another chance for my life. The other dogs followed them, and all +but one succeeded in getting out on the new haven of refuge.</p> + +<p>Taking all the run that the length of my little pan would afford, I +made a dive, slithering along the surface as far as possible before I +once again fell through. This time I had taken the precaution to tie +the harnesses under the dogs' bellies so that they could not slip them +off, and after a long fight I was able to drag myself onto the new pan.</p> + +<p>Though we had been working all the while toward the shore, the offshore +wind had driven us a hundred yards farther seaward. On closer +examination I found that the pan on which we were resting was not ice +at all, but snow-covered slob, frozen into a mass which would certainly +eventually break up in the heavy sea, which was momentarily increasing +as the ice drove offshore before the wind. The westerly wind kept on +rising—a bitter blast with us in winter, coming as it does over the +Gulf ice.</p> + +<p>Some yards away I could still see my komatik with my thermos bottle and +warm clothing on it, as well as matches and wood. In the memory of the +oldest inhabitant no one had ever been adrift on the ice in this bay, +and unless the team which had gone ahead should happen to come back to +look for me, there was not one chance in a thousand of my being seen.</p> + +<p>To protect myself from freezing I now cut down my long boots as far as +the feet, and made a kind of jacket, which shielded my back from the +rising wind.</p> + +<p>By midday I had passed the island to which I had crossed on the ice +bridge. The bridge was gone, so that if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>I did succeed in reaching that +island I should only be marooned there and die of starvation. Five +miles away to the north side of the bay the immense pans of Arctic ice +were surging to and fro in the ground seas and thundering against the +cliffs. No boat could have lived through such surf, even if I had been +seen from that quarter. Though it was hardly, safe to move about on my +little pan, I saw that I must have the skins of some of my dogs, if I +were to live the night out without freezing. With some difficulty I now +succeeded in killing three of my dogs—and I envied those dead beasts +whose troubles were over so quickly. I questioned if, once I passed +into the open sea, it would not be better to use my trusty knife on +myself than to die by inches.</p> + +<p>But the necessity for work saved me from undue philosophizing; and +night found me ten miles on my seaward voyage, with the three dogs +skinned and their fur wrapped around me as a coat. I also frayed a +small piece of rope into oakum and mixed it with the fat from the +intestines of my dogs. But, alas, I found that the matches in my box, +which was always chained to me, were soaked to a pulp and quite +useless. Had I been able to make a fire out there at sea, it would have +looked so uncanny that I felt sure that the fishermen friends, whose +tiny light I could just discern twinkling away in the bay, would see +it. The carcasses of my dogs I piled up to make a windbreak, and at +intervals I took off my clothes, wrung them out, swung them in the +wind, and put on first one and then the other inside, hoping that the +heat of my body would thus dry them. My feet gave me the most trouble, +as the moccasins were so easily soaked through in the snow. But I +remembered the way in which the Lapps who tended our reindeer carried +grass with them, to use in their boots in place of dry socks. As soon +as I could sit <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>down I began to unravel the ropes from the dogs' +harnesses, and although by this time my fingers were more or less +frozen, I managed to stuff the oakum into my shoes.</p> + +<p>Shortly before I had opened a box containing some old football clothes +which I had not seen for twenty years. I was wearing this costume at +the time; and though my cap, coat, and gloves were gone, as I stood +there in a pair of my old Oxford University running shorts, and red, +yellow, and black Richmond football stockings, and a flannel shirt, I +remembered involuntarily the little dying girl who asked to be dressed +in her Sunday frock so that she might arrive in heaven properly +attired.</p> + +<p>Forcing my biggest dog to lie down, I cuddled up close to him, drew the +improvised dogskin rug over me, and proceeded to go to sleep. One hand +being against the dog was warm, but the other was frozen, and about +midnight I woke up shivering enough, so I thought, to shatter my frail +pan to atoms. The moon was just rising, and the wind was steadily +driving me toward the open sea. Suddenly what seemed a miracle +happened, for the wind veered, then dropped away entirely leaving it +flat calm. I turned over and fell asleep again. I was next awakened by +the sudden and persistent thought that I must have a flag, and +accordingly set to work to disarticulate the frozen legs of my dead +dogs. Cold as it was I determined to sacrifice my shirt to top this +rude flagpole as soon as the daylight came. When the legs were at last +tied together with bits of old harness rope, they made the crookedest +flagstaff that it has ever been my lot to see. Though with the rising +of the sun the frost came out of the dogs' legs to some extent, and the +friction of waving it made the odd pole almost tie itself in knots, I +could raise it three or four feet above my head, which was very +important.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>Once or twice I thought that I could distinguish men against the +distant cliffs—for I had drifted out of the bay into the sea—but the +objects turned out to be trees. Once also I thought that I saw a boat +appearing and disappearing on the surface of the water, but it proved +to be only a small piece of ice bobbing up and down. The rocking of my +cradle on the waves had helped me to sleep, and I felt as well as I +ever did in my life. I was confident that I could last another +twenty-four hours if my boat would only hold out and not rot under the +sun's rays. I could not help laughing at my position, standing hour +after hour waving my shirt at those barren and lonely cliffs; but I can +honestly say that from first to last not a single sensation of fear +crossed my mind.</p> + +<p>My own faith in the mystery of immortality is so untroubled that it now +seemed almost natural to be passing to the portal of death from an +ice-pan. Quite unbidden, the words of the old hymn kept running through +my head:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My God, my Father, while I stray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far from my home on life's rough way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, help me from my heart to say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy will be done."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I had laid my wooden matches out to dry and was searching about on the +pan for a piece of transparent ice which I could use as a +burning-glass. I thought that I could make smoke enough to be seen from +the land if only I could get some sort of a light. All at once I seemed +to see the glitter of an oar, but I gave up the idea because I +remembered that it was not water which lay between me and the land, but +slob ice, and even if people had seen me, I did not imagine that they +could force a boat through. The next time that I went back to my +flag-waving, however, the glitter was very distinct, but my +snow-glasses having been lost, I was partially snow-blind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>and +distrusted my vision. But at last, besides the glide of an oar I made +out the black streak of a boat's hull, and knew that if the pan held +out for another hour I should be all right. The boat drew nearer and +nearer, and I could make out my rescuers frantically waving. When they +got close by they shouted, "Don't get excited. Keep on the pan where +you are." They were far more excited than I, and had they only known as +I did the sensations of a bath in the icy water, without the chance of +drying one's self afterwards, they would not have expected me to wish +to follow the example of the Apostle Peter.</p> + +<p>As the first man leaped on my pan and grasped my hand, not a word was +spoken, but I could see the emotions which he was trying to force back. +A swallow of the hot tea which had been thoughtfully sent out in a +bottle, the dogs hoisted on board, and we started for home, now forging +along in open water, now pushing the pans apart with the oars, and now +jumping out on the ice and hauling the boat over the pans.</p> + +<p>It seems that the night before four men had been out on the headland +cutting up some seals which they had killed in the fall. As they were +leaving for home, my ice-raft must have drifted clear of Hare Island, +and one of them, with his keen fisherman's eyes, had detected something +unusual on the ice. They at once returned to their village, saying that +something living was adrift on the floe. The one man on that section of +coast who owned a good spy-glass jumped up from his supper on hearing +the news and hurried over to the lookout on the cliffs. Dusk though it +was, he saw that a man was out on the ice, and noticed him every now +and again waving his hands at the shore. He immediately surmised who it +must be; so little as I thought it, when night was closing in the men +at the village were trying to launch a boat. Miles of ice lay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>between +them and me, and the angry sea was hurling great blocks against the +land. While I had considered myself a laughing-stock, bowing with my +flag at those unresponsive cliffs, many eyes were watching me.</p> + +<p>By daybreak a fine volunteer crew had been organized, and the boat, +with such a force behind it, would, I believe, have gone through +anything. After seeing the heavy breakers through which we were guided, +as at last we ran in at the harbour mouth, I knew well what the wives +of that crew had been thinking when they saw their loved ones depart on +such an errand.</p> + +<p>Every soul in the village was waiting to shake hands as I landed; and +even with the grip that one after another gave me, I did not find out +that my hands were badly frostburnt—a fact which I have realized +since, however. I must have looked a weird object as I stepped ashore, +tied up in rags, stuffed out with oakum, and wrapped in the bloody +dogskins.</p> + +<p>The news had gone over to the hospital that I was lost, so I at once +started north for St. Anthony, though I must confess that I did not +greatly enjoy the trip, as I had to be hauled like a log, my feet being +so frozen that I could not walk. For a few days subsequently I had +painful reminders of the adventure in my frozen hands and feet, which +forced me to keep to my bed—an unwelcome and unusual interlude in my +way of life.</p> + +<p>In our hallway stands a bronze tablet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"To the Memory of<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Three Noble Dogs<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Moody<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Watch<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Spy<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whose lives were given<br /></span> +<span class="i6">For mine on the ice<br /></span> +<span class="i6">April 21st, 1908."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>The boy whose life I was intent on saving was brought to the hospital a +day or so later in a boat, the ice having cleared off the coast +temporarily; and he was soon on the highroad to recovery.</p> + +<p>We all love life, and I was glad to have a new lease of it before me. +As I went to sleep that night there still rang through my ears the same +verse of the old hymn which had been my companion on the ice-pan:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"Oh, help me from my heart to say,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Thy will be done."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THEY THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Contrary to her ungenerous reputation, even if vessels are lost on the +Labrador, her almost unequalled series of harbours—so that from the +Straits of Belle Isle to those of Hudson Bay there is not ten miles of +coast anywhere without one—enables the crew to escape nearly every +time.</p> + +<p>In 1883, in the North Sea in October, a hurricane destroyed twenty-five +of our stout vessels on the Dogger Bank, cost us two hundred and +seventy good lives, and left a hundred widows to mourn on the land. In +1889 a storm hit the north coast of Newfoundland, but too late in the +season to injure much of the fishing fleet, which had for the most part +gone South. But it caused immense damage to property and the loss of a +few lives. As one of the testimonials to its fury, I saw the flooring +and seats of the church in the mud of the harbour at St. Anthony at low +tide even though that church had been founded entirely on a rock. We +now concede that it is good economy on our coast to have wire stays to +ringbolts leaded into rocky foundations, to anchor small buildings. Our +storms are mostly cyclones with wide vortices, and coming largely from +the southwest or northwest, are offshore, and therefore less felt.</p> + +<p>We were once running along at full speed in a very thick fog, framing a +course to just clear some nasty shoals on our port bow. There was +nothing outside us and we had seen no ice of late, so I went below for +some lunch, telling the mate to report land as soon as he saw any, and +instructing the man at the wheel, if he heard a shout, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>port his +helm hard. The soup was still on the table when a loud shouting made us +leap on the deck to see the ship going full tilt into an enormous +iceberg, which seemed right at the end of the bowsprit. This unexpected +monster was on our starboard bow, and the order to avoid the shoal was +putting us headfirst into it. Our only chance was full speed and a +starboard helm, and we actually grazed along the side of the berg. It +seemed almost ludicrous later to pick up a large island and run into a +harbour with grassy, sloping sides, out of which the fog was shut like +a wall, and then to go ashore and bargain over buying a couple of cows, +which were being sold, as the settler was moving to the mainland.</p> + +<p>Among the records of events of importance to us I find in 1908 that of +the second real hurricane which I have ever seen. It began on Saturday, +July 28, the height of our summer, with flat calm and sunshine +alternating with small, fierce squalls. Though we had a falling +barometer, this deceived us, and we anchored that evening in a shallow +and unsafe open roadstead about twenty miles from Indian Harbour +Hospital. Fortunately our suspicions induced us to keep an anchor +watch, and his warning made us get steam at midnight, and we brought up +at daylight in the excellent narrow harbour in which the hospital +stands. The holding ground there is deep mud in four fathoms of water, +the best possible for us. Our only trouble was that the heavy tidal +current would swing a ship uneasily broadside against an average wind +force.</p> + +<p>It was blowing so strongly by this time that the hospital yawl Daryl +had already been driven ashore from her anchors, but still we were able +to keep ours in the water, and getting a line to her, to heave her +astern of our vessel with our powerful winch. The fury of the breeze +grew worse as the day went on. All the fishing boats in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>harbour +filled and sank with the driving water. With the increase of violence +of the weather we got up steam and steamed to our anchors to ease if +possible the strain on our two chains and shore lines—a web which we +had been able to weave before it was too late. By Sunday the gale had +blown itself entirely away, and Monday morning broke flat calm, with +lovely sunshine, and only an enormous sullen ground sea. This is no +uncommon game of Dame Nature's; she seemed to be only mocking at the +destruction which she had wrought.</p> + +<p>Knowing that there must be many comrades in trouble, we were early +away, and dancing like a bubble, we ran north, keeping as close inshore +as we could, and watching the coast-line with our glasses. The coast +was littered with remains. Forty-one vessels had been lost; in one +uninhabited roadstead alone, some forty miles away from Indian Harbour, +lay sixteen wrecks. The shore here was lined with rude shelters made +from the wreckage of spars and sails, and the women were busy cooking +meals and "tidying up" the shacks as if they had lived there always.</p> + +<p>We soon set to work hauling off such vessels as would float. One, a +large hardwood, well-fastened hull, we determined to save. Her name was +Pendragon. The owner was aboard—a young man with no experience who had +never previously owned a vessel. He was so appalled at the disaster +that he decided to have her sold piecemeal and broken up. We attended +the auction on the beach and bought each piece as it came to the +hammer. Getting her off was the trouble. We adopted tactics of our own +invention. Mousing together the two mastheads with a bight of rope, we +put on it a large whoop traveller, and to that fastened our stoutest +and longest line. Then first backing down to her on the very top of +high water, we went "full speed ahead." Over she fell on her side and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>bumped along on the mud and shingle for a few yards. By repeated jerks +she was eventually ours, but leaking so like a basket that we feared we +should yet lose her. Pumps inside fortunately kept her free till we +passed her topsail under her, and after dropping in sods and peat, we +let the pressure from the outside keep them in place. When night fell I +was played out, and told the crew they must let her sink. My two +volunteer helpers, Albert Gould, of Bowdoin, and Paul Matheson, of +Brown, however, volunteered to pump all night.</p> + +<p>While hunting for a crew to take her South we came upon the wreck of a +brand-new boat, only launched two months previously. She had been the +pride of the skipper's life. He was an old friend of mine, and we felt +so sorry for him that we not only got him to take our vessel, but we +handed it over for him to work out at the cost which we had paid for +the pieces. He made a good living out of her for several years, but +later she was lost with all hands on some dangerous shoals near St. +Anthony on a journey North.</p> + +<p>With fifty-odd people aboard, and a long trail of nineteen fishing +boats we eventually got back to Indian Harbour, where every one joined +in helping our friends in misfortune till the steamer came and took +them South. They waved us farewell, and, quite undismayed, wished for +better luck for themselves another season.</p> + +<p>The case of one skipper is well worth relating as showing their +admirable optimism. He was sixty-seven years old, and had by hard +saving earned his own schooner—a fine large vessel. He had arranged to +sell her on his return trip and live quietly on the proceeds on his +potato patch in southern Newfoundland. His vessel had driven on a +submerged reef and turned turtle. The crew had jumped for their lives, +not even saving their personal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>clothing, watches, or instruments. We +photographed the remains of the capsized hull floating on the surf. Yet +this man, in the four days during which he was my guest, never once +uttered a word of complaint. He had done all he could, and he "'lowed +that t' Lord knew better than he what was best."</p> + +<p>"But what will you do now, Skipper?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, get another," he replied; "I think them'll trust me."</p> + +<p>One of our older vessels started a plank in a gale of wind in the +Atlantic and went to the bottom without warning. In an open boat for +six days with only a little dry bread and no covering of any sort, the +crew fought rough seas and heavy breezes. But they handled her with the +sea genius of our race; made land safely at last, and never said a word +about the incident. On another occasion two men, who had been a +fortnight adrift, had rowed one hundred and fifty miles, and had only +the smallest modicum of food, came aboard our vessel. When I said, "You +are hungry, aren't you?" they merely replied, "Well, not +over-much"—and only laughed when I suggested that perhaps a month in +the open boat might have given them a real appetite.</p> + +<p>One October, south of St. Anthony, we were lying in the arm of a bay +with two anchors and two warps out, one to each side of the narrow +channel. The wind piled up the waters, much as it did in Pharaoh's day. +We were flung astern yard by yard on the top of the seas, and when it +was obvious that we must go ashore, we reversed our engines, slipped +our line, and drove up high and dry to escape the bumping on the beach +which was inevitable. There we lay for days. Meanwhile I had taken our +launch into the river-mouth and was marooned there. For the launch blew +right up on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>bank in among the trees, and strive as we would, for +days we could not even move her out again.</p> + +<p>Another spring we had a very close squeak of losing the Strathcona. +While we were trying one morning to get out of a harbour, a sudden gale +of wind came down upon us and pinned us tight, so that we could not +move an inch. The pressure of the ice became more severe moment by +moment, and meanwhile the ice between us and the shore seemed to be +imperceptibly melting away. Naturally we tried every expedient we could +think of to keep enough ice between us and the shore rocks to save the +vessel being swept over the rocky headland, toward which the +irresistible tidal current was steadily forcing us. To make matters +worse, we struck our propeller against a pan of ice and broke off one +of the flanges close to the shaft. It became breathlessly exciting as +the ship drew nearer and nearer to the rocks. We abandoned our boat +when we saw that by trying to hold on to it any longer we should be +jeopardizing the steamer. Twisting round helplessly as in a giant's +arms, we were swept past the dangerous promontory and to our infinite +joy carried out into the open Atlantic where there is room for all. Our +boat was subsequently rescued from the shore, and we were able to screw +on a new blade to the propeller.</p> + +<p>Just after the big gale in 1908 His Excellency, Sir William MacGregor, +then Governor, was good enough to come and spend a short time surveying +on our north coast. He was an expert in this line, as well as being a +gold-medallist in medicine. Later he changed over from the Strathcona +to the Government steamer Fiona. I acted as pilot among other +capacities on that journey, and was unlucky enough to run her full tilt +onto one of the only sandbanks on the coast in a narrow passage between +some islands and the mainland! The little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>Strathcona, following +behind, was in time to haul us off again, but the incident made the +captain naturally distrust my ability, and as a result he would not +approach the shore near enough for us to get the observations which we +needed. Although we went round Cape Chidley into Ungava Bay I could not +regain his confidence sufficiently to go through the straits which I +had myself sounded and surveyed. So we accomplished it in a small boat, +getting good observations. Our best work, however, was done when His +Excellency was content to be our guest. The hospital on board was used +for the necessary instruments—four chronometers, two theodolites, +guns, telescopes, camp furniture, and piles of books and printed forms. +Mr. Albert Gould of Bowdoin was my secretary on board that year, and +was of very great value to us.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep320" id="imagep320"></a> +<a href="images/imagep320a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep320a.jpg" width="90%" alt="Iceberg 1" /></a><br /> + +<a href="images/imagep320b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep320b.jpg" width="90%" alt="Iceberg 2" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ICEBERGS<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Though the work of an amateur, Sir William's surveying was accepted by +the Admiralty and the Royal Geographical Society—his survey in Nigeria +having proved to have not one single location a mile out of place when +an official survey was run later.</p> + +<p>Many a time in the middle of a meal, some desired but unlucky star +would cross the prime vertical, and all hands had to go up on deck and +shiver while rows of figures were accumulated. Sir William told us that +he would rather shoot a star any time than all the game ever hunted. +One night my secretary, after sitting on a rock at a movable table from +5 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span> till midnight, came in, his joints almost creaking with +cold, and loaded with a pile of figures which he assured us would crush +the life out of most men. My mate that year was a stout and very short, +plethoric person. When he stated that he preferred surveying to +fishing, as it was going to benefit others so much, and that he was +familiar with the joys of service, he was taken promptly at his word. +It was a hot summer. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>The theodolite was a nine-inch one and weighed +many pounds. We had climbed the face of a very steep mountain called +Cape Mugford, some three thousand feet high—every inch of which +distance we had to mount from dead sea-level. When at last Israel +arrived on the summit, he looked worried. He said that he had always +thought surveying meant letting things drop down over the ship's side, +and not carrying ballast up precipices. For his part he could now see +that providing food for the world was good enough for him. He +distinctly failed to grasp where the joy of this kind of service came +in—and noting his condition as he lay on the ground and panted I +decided to let it go at that.</p> + +<p>The Governor was a real MacGregor and a Presbyterian, and was therefore +quite a believer in keeping Sunday as a day of rest. But after morning +prayers on the first fine day, after nearly a week of fog, he decided +that he had had physical rest enough, and to get good observations +would bring him the recreation of spirit which he most needed. So he +packed up for work, and happened to light on the unhappy Israel to row +him a mile or so to the land. "Iz" was taken "all aback." He believed +that you should not strain yourself ever—much less on Sundays. So from +religious scruples he asked to be excused, though he offered to row any +one ashore if he was only going to idle the hours away. After all, +however, our Governor represented our King, and I was personally +horrified, intending to correct Israel's position with a round turn, +and show him that we are especially enjoined to obey "Governors and +Rulers"—as better also than the sacrifice of loafing. But the Governor +forbade it, quietly unpacked, put his things away, and stayed aboard. +Israel subsequently cultivated the habit of remaining in bed on +Sundays—thereby escaping being led into temptation, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>as even Governors +would not be likely to go and tempt him in his bunk.</p> + +<p>I have had others refuse to help in really necessary work on Sunday. +One skipper would not get the Strathcona under way in answer to a +wireless appeal to come to a woman in danger of dying from hemorrhage +forty miles distant. When we prepared to start without him, he told me +that he would go, but that it would be at the price of his soul and we +would have to be responsible for that loss. We went all the same.</p> + +<p>Our charts, such as they were, were subsequently accepted by the Royal +Geographical Society of England, who generously invited me to lecture +before them. They were later good enough to award me the Murchison +Prize in 1911. Much of the work was really due to Sir William, and as +much of it as I could put on him to the Sabbatarian "Iz."</p> + +<p>In connection with the scientific work on the coast I well remember the +eclipse of October, 1905. All along the land it was perfectly visible. +A break in the clouds occurred at exactly the right moment: one +fisherman, to console the astronomers, said that he was very sorry, but +that he supposed it did not much matter, as there would be another +eclipse next week. The scientific explorer, who was devoting his +attention to the effect on the earth's magnetism, spent the time of the +eclipse in a dark cellar. Most wonderful magnetic disturbances had been +occurring almost every night, and the night before the event a far from +ordinary storm had upset his instruments, so that the effect of the +eclipse on the magnetic indicators was scarcely distinguishable. He had +just time after the thing was over to peep out and see the light +returning. He had watched his thermometer and found that it fell three +degrees during totality.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>The year 1908 at the mill we had built a new large schooner in honour +of that devoted friend of Labrador, our secretary in Boston, and had +named the vessel for her, the Emma E. White. She fetched Lloyd's full +bounty for an A 1 ship. This was a feather in our caps, since she was +designed and built by one of our own men, who was no "scholard," having +never learned to read or write. Will Hopkins can take an axe and a few +tools into the green woods in the fall, and sail down the bay in a new +schooner in the spring when the ice goes. To see him steaming the +planking in the open in his own improvised boxes on the top of six feet +of snow made me stand and take off my hat to him. He is no good at +speech-making; he does not own a dress-suit, and he cannot dance a +tango; but he is quite as useful a citizen as some who can, and his +type of education is one which endears him to all. He gave me the great +pleasure of having our friend come sailing into St. Anthony in the +middle of a fine day, seated on the bow of her namesake, the beautiful +and valuable product of his skill, just when we were all ready on the +wharf to "sketch them both off," as our people call taking a +photograph.</p> + +<p>Our increasing buildings being all of wood, and as the two largest were +full of either helpless sick people or an ever-increasing batch of +children, we wanted something safer than kerosene lamps to illuminate +the rooms. The people here had never seen electric light "tamed," as it +were, and to us it seemed almost too big a venture to install a plant +of our own. Home outfits were not common in those days even in the +States, and we feared in any case that we could not run it regularly +enough. No one except the head of the machine shop, a Labrador boy and +Pratt graduate, knew the first thing about electricity, and he would +not always be available.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>However, with the help of friends we were able to purchase a hot-head +vertical engine to generate our current; for our near-by streams freeze +solid in winter. That engine has now been running for over ten years, +and has given us electricity in St. Anthony Hospital for operating and +X-ray work as well as all our lighting. Until he died, it was run the +greater part of the time by an Eskimo boy whom we had brought down from +the North Labrador, and who was convalescing from empyema. The +installation was efficiently done by a volunteer student from the Pratt +Institute, Mr. Hause.</p> + +<p>On my lecture trip the previous winter a gentleman at whose house I was +a guest told me that when quite a youth he had fought in the Civil War, +been invalided home, and advised to take a sea voyage for his health. +He therefore took passage with some Gloucester fishermen and set sail +for the Labrador. The crew proved to be Southern sympathizers, and one +day, while my friend was ashore taking a walk, the skipper slipped out +and left him marooned. He had with him neither money, spare clothing, +nor anything else; and as British sympathies were also with the South, +he had many doubts as to how the settlers would receive a penniless +stranger and Northerner. So seeing his schooner bound in an easterly +direction, he started literally to run along the shore, hoping that he +might find where she went and catch her again. Mile after mile he went, +tearing through the "tuckamore" or dense undergrowth of gnarled trees, +climbing over high cliffs, swimming or wading the innumerable rivers, +skirting bays, and now and again finding a short beach along which he +could hurry. At night, wet, dirty, tired, hungry, penniless, he came to +a fisherman's cottage and asked shelter and food. He explained that he +was an American gentleman taking a holiday, but hadn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>a penny of +money. It spoke well for the people that they accepted his story. He +told me that they both fed and clothed him, and one kind-hearted man +actually the next day gave him some oilskin clothing and a sou'wester +hat—costly articles "on Labrador" in those days. So on and on and on +he went, till at last arriving at Red Bay he found his schooner at +anchor calmly fishing. He went aboard at once as if nothing had +happened, and stayed there (having enjoyed enough pedestrian exercise +for the time being) and no one ever referred to his having been left +behind. He was now, however, forty years later, anxious to do something +for the people of that section of the shore, and he gave me a thousand +dollars toward building a small cottage for a district nurse. Forteau +was the village chosen, and Dennison Cottage erected as a nursing +station and dispensary. The people at first each gave a week toward its +upkeep; and even now every man gives three days annually. The house has +a good garden, little wards for in-patients, and is the centre of much +useful industrial work, especially the making of artificial flowers. +For twelve years now, Miss Florence Bailey, a nurse from the Mildmay +Institute in London, has presided over its destinies, endeared herself +to the people, and done most unselfish and heroic work in that lonely +station, which she has greatly enlarged and improved by her untiring +efforts. It forms an admirable halfway house between Battle and +Harrington Hospitals, each being about a hundred miles distant. A local +trader once wrote me: "Sister Bailey did good work last year. That +cottage hospital is a blessing to the people of this part of the shore. +Who would think that by a little act of kindness done forty-odd years +ago to an old soldier, we would now be reaping the benefit of such an +act."</p> + +<p>Only one longer journey on foot on the Labrador coast <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>is on record. +The traveller started from Quebec and walked to Battle Harbour. There +he turned north and walked to Nakvak Bay. The distance as the crow +flies is about fourteen hundred miles. But the man had no boat of his +own and only in one or two places accepted a passage. One bay on the +east coast runs in for some hundred and fifty miles. Over this he got a +boat fifty miles from the mouth. Round Kipokak and Makkovik, and the +bays south of Hopedale, he walked most of the way, and these run in for +forty miles. He carried practically nothing with him, and depended on +what boots and clothing the people gave him, eating berries and +whatever else he could find while he was in the country. Those who +housed him told me that they did not see any signs of madness about +him, except his avoidance of men and refusal to go in boats or mix with +others if he could in any way avoid it. He carried no gun. No one knew +who he was nor why he went on such a "cruise." Long before he reached +the North the theory that he was a murderer fleeing from justice got +started, and at some places a very careful watch was kept over him. +Arrived at Nakvak, he went to the house of everyone's friend, George +Ford. That is one of the most inaccessible places in the world. No mail +steamer ever goes there, and no schooner ever anchors nearer than a few +miles. It is at the bottom of a fjord twenty-five miles long, with very +precipitous cliffs two thousand feet high on each side and bottomless +water below. It was then thirty miles from the nearest house, with +ranges of mountains between, and was the most northerly house on the +Labrador. Here this phenomenon celebrated his arrival by climbing up +onto the ridge of the house, when lo! most prosaic of accidents, he +fell off and broke his neck. The puzzle has always been why he elected +to carry an unbroken neck at such cost all that long distance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>Many inexplicable things happen "on Labrador." Thus, one year while +visiting at the head of Hamilton Inlet, a Scotch settler came aboard to +ask my advice about a large animal that had appeared round his house. +Though he had sat up night after night with his gun, he had never seen +it. His children had seen it several times disappearing into the trees. +The French agent of Révillon Frères, twenty miles away, had come over, +and together they had tracked it, measured the footmarks in the mud, +and even fenced some of them round. The stride was about eight feet, +the marks as of the cloven hoofs of an ox. The children described the +creature as looking like a huge hairy man; and several nights the dogs +had been driven growling from the house into the water. Twice the whole +family had heard the creature prowling around the cottage, and tapping +at the doors and windows. The now grown-up children persist in saying +that they saw this wild thing. Their house is twenty miles up the large +Grand River, and a hundred and fifty miles from the coast.</p> + +<p>An old fellow called Harry Howell was one winter night missing from his +home. He had been hunting, and only too late, after a blizzard set in, +was it discovered that he was absent. In the morning the men gathered +to make a search, but at that moment in walked "old Harry"! He told me +later that he was coming home in the afternoon when the blizzard began. +It was dirty, thick of snow, and cold. Suddenly he heard bells ringing, +and knew that it was fairies bidding him follow them—because he had +followed them before. So off he went, pushing his way through the +driving snow. When at last he reached the foot of a gnarled old tree in +the forest, the bells stopped, and he knew that was the place where he +must stay for the night. So he laid some of the partridges which he had +killed into a hole in the snow close to the trunk, crawled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>down and +used them for a seat, and placed the rest of the frozen birds at his +feet. Then he pulled up his dickey, or kossak, over his head, and with +his back to the tree, went to sleep while the snow was still driving. +There was no persuading that man that the ringing bells were in his own +imagination.</p> + +<p>Many years ago a Norwegian captain on the Labrador told me the +following story. One day the carpenter of his schooner, a man whom he +had known for three voyages, and trusted thoroughly, was steering on +the course which the mate had given him. All at once the mate came and +found the man steering four points out. When he upbraided him, he +answered, "He came and told me to." "Nobody did," replied the mate. "Go +northwest."</p> + +<p>Three times the experience was repeated, and at last the mate reported +the matter to the skipper. He immediately suggested, "Well, let us go +on running in the direction he insists on taking for a while and see if +anything happens." At the end of two hours they came upon a +square-rigger with her decks just awash, and six men clinging to her +rigging. As they came alongside the sinking vessel the carpenter +pointed aghast to one of the rescued crew and cried out, "There's the +man who came and told me the skipper said to change the course."</p> + +<p>In medicine, too, things happen which we professional men are just as +unable to explain. A big-bodied, successful fisherman came aboard my +steamer one day, saying that he had toothache. This was probable, for +his jaw was swollen, his mouth hard to open, and the offending molar +easily visible within. When I produced the forceps he protested most +loudly that he would not have it touched for worlds.</p> + +<p>"Why, then, did you come to me?" I asked. "You are wasting my time."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>"I wanted you to charm her, Doctor," he answered, quite naturally.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear friend, I do not know how to charm, and don't think it +would do the slightest good. Doctors are not allowed to do such +things."</p> + +<p>He was evidently very much put out, and turning round to go, said, "I +knows why you'se won't charm her. It's because I'm a Roman Catholic."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense. If you really think that it would do any good, come along. +You'll have to pay twenty-five cents exactly as if you had it pulled +out."</p> + +<p>"Gladly enough, Doctor. Please go ahead."</p> + +<p>He sat on the rail, a burly carcass, the incarnation of materialism, +while the doctor, feeling the size of a sandflea, put one finger into +his mouth and touched the molar, while he repeated the most mystic +nonsense he could think of, "Abracadabra Tiddlywinkum Umslopoga"—and +then jumped the finger out lest the patient might close his ponderous +jaw. The fisherman took a turn around the deck, pulled out the quarter, +and solemnly handed it to me, saying, "All the pain has gone. Many +thanks, Doctor." I found myself standing alone in amazement, twiddling +a miserable shilling, and wondering how I came to make such a fool of +myself.</p> + +<p>A month later the patient again came to see me when we happened to be +in his harbour. The swelling had gone, the molar was there. "Ne'er an +ache out of her since," the patient laughed. I have not reported this +end result to the committee of the American College of Surgeons, though +much attention is now devoted to the follow-up and end-result +department of surgery and medicine.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MARRIAGE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>It was now the fall of 1908, and the time had come for me to visit +England again and try and arouse fresh interest in our work; and this +motive was combined with the desire to see my old mother, who was now +nearing her fourscore years. I decided to leave in November and return +<i>via</i> America in the spring to receive the honorary degree of LL.D. +from Williams College and of M.A. from Harvard, which I had been +generously offered.</p> + +<p>My lecture tour this winter was entrusted to an agency. Propaganda is a +recognized necessity in human life, though it has little attraction for +most men. To me having to ask personally for money even for other +people was always a difficulty. Scores of times I have been blamed for +not even stating in a lecture that we needed help. The distaste for +beating the big drum, which lecturing for your own work always appears +to be, makes me quite unable to see any virtue in not doing it, but +just asking the Lord to do it. If I really were convinced that He would +meet the expenses whether I worked or not, I should believe that +neither would He let people suffer and die untended out here or +anywhere else. Indeed, it would seem a work of supererogation to have +to remind Him of the necessity that existed.</p> + +<p>The fact that we have to show pictures of the work which we are doing +is tiresome and takes time, but it encourages us to have pictures worth +taking and to do deeds which we are not ashamed to narrate. It also +stimulates others to give themselves as well as their money to similar +kinds of work at their own doorsteps, to see how much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>like themselves +their almoners are. Only to-day my volunteer secretary told me that he +honestly expected to meet "a bearded old fogey in spectacles," not a +man who can shoot his own dinner from the wing or who enjoys the +justifiable pleasures of life.</p> + +<p>The religion of Christ never permitted me to accept the idea that there +is "nothing to do, only believe." Every man ought to earn his own bread +and the means to support his family. Why, then, should you have only to +ask the Lord to give unasked the wherewithal to feed other people's +families?</p> + +<p>Lecturing for philanthropies, only another word for the means to help +along the Kingdom of God on earth, is in England usually carried on +through the ordinary missionary meetings; and in my previous experience +they were not generally much credit to the splendid objects in view. +The lectures were often patronized by small audiences largely composed +of women and children.</p> + +<p>That particular winter in England I had the privilege of addressing all +sorts of workmen's clubs and city lecture-course audiences, people who +would have "the shivers" almost if one had asked them to attend a +"missionary" lecture. The collection, or even the final monetary +outcome, is far from being the test of the value of the address. To +commend Christ's religion by minimizing in any way the prerogative He +gave men of carrying on the work of His kingdom in their human efforts +is to sap the very appeal that attracts manhood to Him. I never wanted +to sing, "Oh! to be nothing, nothing." I always wished to sing, "Oh! +make me something, something"—that shall leave some footprints on the +sands of time, and have some record of talents gained to offer a Master +whom we believe to be righteous.</p> + +<p>When spring came and the lectures were over, a new <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>idea suddenly +dawned upon me. If I were going to America to festive gatherings and to +have some honours conferred, why leave the mother behind? Seventy-eight +years is not old. She was born in India, had lived in England, and +suppose anything did happen, why not sleep in America?—she would be +just as near God there. The splendid Mauretania not only took us safely +over, but gave me also that gift which I firmly believe God designed +for me—a real partner to share in my joys and sorrows, to encourage +and support in trouble and failures, to inspire and advise in a +thousand ways, and in addition to bring into my distant field of work a +personal comrade with the culture, wisdom, and enthusiasm of the +American life and the training of one of the very best of its +Universities.</p> + +<p>We met on board the second day out. She was travelling with a Scotch +banker of Chicago and his wife, Mr. W.R. Stirling, whose daughter was +her best friend. They were returning from a motor tour through Europe +and Algeria. The Mauretania takes only four and a half days in +crossing, and never before did I realize the drawbacks of "hustle," and +yet the extreme need of it on my part. The degrees of longitude slipped +by so quickly that I felt personally aggrieved when one day we made +over six hundred miles, and the captain told us in triumph that it was +a new record. The ship seemed to be paying off some spite against me. +My mother kept mostly to her cabin. Though constantly in to see her, I +am afraid I did not unduly worry her to join me on the deck. When just +on landing I told her that I had asked a fellow passenger to become my +wife, I am sure had the opportunity arisen she would have tumbled down +the Mauretania's staircase. When she had the joy of meeting the girl, +her equanimity was so far upset as to let an unaccustomed tear roll +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>down her cheek. That, at least, is one of the tears which I have cost +her which brings no regrets. For she confesses that it often puzzles +her to which of our lives the event has meant most.</p> + +<p>The constant little activities of my life had so filled every hour of +time, and so engrossed my thoughts, that I had never thought to +philosophize on the advisability of marriage, nor stopped to compare my +life with those of my neighbors. There is no virtue in keeping the +Ninth Commandment and not envying your neighbour's condition or goods +when it never enters your head or heart to worry about them; and when +you are getting what you care about no halo is due you for not falling +victim to envy or jealousy of others. I have not been in the habit of +praying for special personal providences like fine weather in my +section of the earth, or for head wind for the schooners so as to give +me a fair wind for my steamer, except so far as one prays for the +recognition of God's good hand in everything.</p> + +<p>I can honestly protest that nothing in my life ever came more "out of +the blue" than my marriage; and beyond that I am increasingly certain +each day that it did come out of that blue where God dwells.</p> + +<p>I knew neither whence she came nor whither she was going. Indeed, I +only found out when the proposition was really put that I did not even +know her name—for it was down on the passenger list as one of the +daughters of the friends with whom she was travelling. Fortunately it +never entered my head that it mattered. For I doubt if I should have +had the courage to question the chaperon, whose daughter she presumably +was. It certainly was a "poser" to be told, "But you don't even know my +name." Had I not been a bit of a seaman, and often compelled on the +spur of the moment to act first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>and think afterwards, what the +consequences might have been I cannot say. Fortunately, I remembered +that it was not the matter at issue, and explained, without admitting +the impeachment, that the only question that interested me in the least +was what I hoped that it might become. Incidentally she mentioned that +she had only once heard of me. It was the year previous when I had been +speaking at Bryn Mawr and she had refused in no measured terms an +invitation to attend, as sounding entirely too dull for her +predilections. I have wondered whether this was not another "small +providence."</p> + +<p>A pathological condition of one's internal workings is not unusual even +in Britons who "go down to the sea in ships," but such genius as our +family has displayed has, so history assures us, shone best on a +quarter-deck; and on this occasion it pleased God ultimately to add +another naval victory to our credit. It is generally admitted that an +abnormal mentality accompanies this not uncommon experience of human +life, and I found my lack of appreciation of the rapid voyage +paralleled by a wicked satisfaction that my mother preferred the brass +four-poster, so thoughtfully provided for her by the Cunard Company, to +the risks of the unsteady promenade deck.</p> + +<p>When the girl's way and mine parted in that last word in material +jostlings, the custom-house shed in Manhattan, after the liner arrived, +I realized that it was rather an armistice than a permanent settlement +which I had achieved. Though there was no father in the case, I learned +that there was a mother and a home in Chicago. These were formidable +strongholds for a homeless wanderer to assault, but rendered doubly so +by the fact that there was neither brother nor sister to leave behind +to mitigate the possible vacancy. The "everlasting yea" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>not having +been forthcoming, under the circumstances it was no easy task for me to +keep faith with the many appointments to lecture on Labrador which had +been made for me. The inexorable schedule kept me week after week in +the East. Fortunately the generous hospitality of many old friends who +wanted the pleasure of meeting my mother kept my mind somewhat +occupied. But I confess at the back of it the forthcoming venture +loomed up more and more momentous as the fateful day drew near for me +to start for Chicago.</p> + +<p>This visit to my wife's beautiful country home among the trees on the +bluff of Lake Michigan in Lake Forest was one long dream. My mother and +I were now made acquainted with the family and friends of my fiancée. +Her father, Colonel MacClanahan, a man of six feet five inches in +height, had been Judge Advocate General on the Staff of Braxton Bragg +and had fought under General Robert E. Lee. He was a Southerner of +Scotch extraction, having been born and brought up in Tennessee. A +lawyer by training, after the war, when everything that belonged to him +was destroyed in the "reconstruction period," and being still a very +young man, he had gone North to Chicago and begun life again at his +profession. There he met and married, in 1884, Miss Rosamond Hill, who +was born in Burlington, Vermont, but who, since childhood and the death +of her parents, had lived with her married sister, Mrs. Charles Durand, +of Chicago. The MacClanahans had two children—the boy, Kinloch, dying +at an early age as the result of an accident. Colonel MacClanahan +himself died a few months later, leaving a widow and one child, Anna +Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan. She and her mother had lived the +greater part of the time with Mrs. Durand, who died something more than +a year before our engagement.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>The friends with whom my fiancée had been travelling were almost +next-door neighbours in Lake Forest. They made my short stay doubly +happy by endless kindnesses; and all through the years, till his death +in 1918, Mr. Stirling gave me not only a friendship which meant more to +me than I can express, but his loving and invaluable aid and counsel in +our work.</p> + +<p>In spite of my many years of sailor life, I found that I was expected +among other things to ride a horse, my fiancée being devoted to that +means of progression. The days when I had ridden to hounds in England +as a boy in Cheshire stood me in some little stead, for like swimming, +tennis, and other pastimes calling for coördination, riding is never +quite forgotten. But remembering Mr. Winkle's experiences, it was not +without some misgivings that I found a shellback like myself galloping +behind my lady's charger. My last essay at horseback riding had been +just eleven years previously in Iceland. Having to wait a few days at +Reikkavik, I had hired a whole bevy of ponies with a guide to take +myself and the young skipper of our vessel for a three days' ride to +see the geysers. He had never been on the back of any animal before, +and was nevertheless not surprised or daunted at falling off +frequently, though an interlude of being dragged along with one foot in +the stirrup over lava beds made no little impression upon him. Fodder +of all kinds is very scarce in the volcanic tufa of which all that land +consists, and any moment that one stopped was always devoted by our +ponies to grubbing for blades of grass in the holes. On our return to +the ship the crew could not help noticing that the skipper for many +days ceased to patronize the lockers or any other seat, and soon they +were rejoicing that for some reason he was unable to sit down at all. +He explained it by saying that his ponies ate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>so much lava that it +stuck out under their skins, and I myself recall feeling inclined to +agree with him.</p> + +<p>The journey from Lake Forest to Labrador would have been a tedious one, +but by good fortune a friend from New York had arranged to come and +visit the coast in his steam yacht, the Enchantress, and was good +enough to pick me up at Bras d'Or. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who had +previously shown me much kindness, permitted us to rendezvous at his +house, and for a second time I enjoyed seeing some of the experiments +of his most versatile brain. His aeroplanes, telephones, and other +inventions were all intensely interesting, but among his other lines of +work the effort to develop a race of sheep, which had litters just as +pigs do, interested me most.</p> + +<p>Francis Sayre, whom I had heard win the prize at Williams with his +valedictory speech, was again to be my summer secretary. On our arrival +at St. Anthony we found a great deal going on. The fame as a surgeon of +my colleague, Dr. John Mason Little, had spread so widely that St. +Anthony Hospital would no longer hold the patients who sought +assistance at it. Fifty would arrive on a single mail boat. They were +dumped down on the little wharf, having been landed in small punts from +the steamer, as in those days we had no proper dock to which the boats +could come. The little waiting-room in the hospital at night resembled +nothing so much as a newly opened sardine tin; and to cater for the +waiting patients was a Sisyphean task without the Hercules. Through the +instrumentality of Dr. Little's sister a fund of ten thousand dollars +was raised to double the size of the hospital, and the work of building +was begun on my return. Although the capacity was greatly increased +thereby we have really been unable ever to make our building what it +ought to be to meet the problem. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>first part, constructed of green +lumber hauled from the woods, and other wings added at different +periods of growth, the endeavour to blast out suitable heating-plant +accommodations—all this has left the hospital building more or less a +thing of rags and patches, and most uneconomical to run. We are +urgently in need of having it rebuilt entirely of either brick or +stone, in order to resist the winter cold, to give more efficiency and +comfort to patients and staff and to conserve our fuel, which is the +most serious item of expense we have to meet.</p> + +<p>But at that time with all its capacity for service the new addition was +rising, sounding yet one more note of praise in better ability to meet +the demands upon us.</p> + +<p>And <i>pari passu</i> came the beautiful offer of my friend, Mr. Sayre, to +double the size of our orphanage, putting up the new wing in memory of +his father. This meant that instead of twenty we might now accommodate +forty children at a pinch. Life is so short that it is the depths of +pathos to be hampered in doing one's work for the lack of a few +dollars. Of great interest to my fiancée and myself was the selection +of a piece of ground adjoining the Mission land, and the erection for +ourselves of the home which we had planned and designed together before +I had left Lake Forest. We chose some land up on the hillside and +overlooking the sea and the harbour, where the view should be as +comprehensive as possible. But we feared that even though our new house +was very literally "founded upon a rock," the winds might some day +remove it bodily from its abiding-place, and therefore we riveted the +structure with heavy iron bolts to the solid bedrock.</p> + +<p>One excitement of that season was Admiral Peary's return from the North +Pole. We were cruising near Indian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>Harbour when some visitors came +aboard to make use of our wireless telegraph, which at that time we had +installed on board. It proved to be Mr. Harry Whitney. It was the first +intimation that we had had that Peary was returning that year. Whitney +had met Cook coming back from the polar sea on the west side of the +Gulf, where he had disappeared about eighteen months previously. I had +met Dr. Cook several times myself, and indeed I had slept at his house +in Brooklyn. He had visited Battle Harbour Hospital in 1893 when he was +wrecked in the steamer in which he was conducting a party to visit +Greenland. We had again seen him as he went North with Mr. Bradley in +the yacht, and he had sent us back some Greenland dogs to mix their +blood with our dogs, and so perhaps improve their breed and endurance. +These, however, I had later felt it necessary to kill, for the +Greenland dogs carry the dangerous tapeworm which is such a menace to +man, and of which our Labrador dogs are entirely free so far.</p> + +<p>The picture of this meeting on the ice between Cook and Whitney gave us +the impression of another Nansen and Jackson at Spitzbergen. Whitney +had welcomed Cook warmly, had witnessed his troubles at Etah, and his +departure by komatik, and had taken charge of his instruments and +records to carry South with him when he came home. But his ship was +delayed and delayed, and when Peary in the Roosevelt passed on his way +South, fearing to be left another winter Whitney had accepted a passage +on her at the cost of leaving Cook's material behind. He had met his +own boat farther south and had transferred to her. He left the +impression very firmly on all our minds that both he and Dr. Cook +really believed that the latter had found the long-sought Pole.</p> + +<p>A little later, while cruising in thick weather in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>Gulf of St. +Lawrence, my wireless operator came in and said: "There can be no harm +telling you, Doctor, that Peary is at Battle Harbour. He is wiring to +Washington that he has found the Pole, and also he is asking his +committee if he may present the Mission with his superfluous supplies, +or whether he is to sell them to you." Seeing that it is not easy to +know whence wireless messages come if the sender does not own up to his +whereabouts, I at once ordered him to wireless to Peary at Battle the +simple words: "Give it to them, of course," and sign it "Washington." I +knew that the Commander would see the joke, and if the decision turned +out later to be incorrect, it could easily be rectified by purchasing +the goods. A tin of his brown bread now lies among my curios and one of +his sledges is in my barn.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep340" id="imagep340"></a> +<a href="images/imagep340.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep340.jpg" width="48%" alt="Commodore Peary on His Way Back from the Pole, 1909" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">COMMODORE PEARY ON HIS WAY BACK FROM THE POLE, 1909<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>On our arrival at Battle Harbour we found the Roosevelt lying at the +wharf repainting and refitting. A whole host of newspaper men and other +friends had come North to welcome the explorer home. Battle was quite a +gay place; but it was living up to its name, for Peary not only claimed +that he had found the Pole, but also that Cook had not; and he was +realizing what a hard thing it is to prove a negative. We had a very +delightful time with the party, and greatly enjoyed meeting all the +members of the expedition. Among them was the ill-fated Borup, destined +shortly to be drowned on a simple canoe trip, and the indomitable and +athletic Macmillan who subsequently led the Crocker Land expedition, +our own schooner George B. Cluett carrying them to Etah.</p> + +<p>My secretary, Mr. Sayre, was just about to leave for America, and at +Peary's request he transferred to the Roosevelt with his typewriter, to +help the Commander with a few of his many notes and records. I dare say +that he got an inside view of the question then agitating the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>world +from Washington to Copenhagen; but if so, he has remained forever +silent about it. For our part we were glad that some one had found the +Pole, for it has been a costly quest in both fine men and valuable +time, energy, and money. It has caused lots of trouble and sorrow, and +so far at least its practical issues have been few.</p> + +<p>Our wedding had been scheduled for November, and for the first time I +had found a Labrador summer long. In the late fall I left for Chicago +on a mission that had no flavour of the North Pole about it. We were +married in Grace Episcopal Church, Chicago, on November 18, 1909. Our +wedding was followed by a visit to the Hot Springs of Virginia; and +then "heigho," and a flight for the North. We sailed from St. John's, +Newfoundland, in January. I had assured my wife, who is an excellent +sailor, that she would scarcely notice the motion of the ship on the +coastal trip of three hundred miles. Instead of five days, it took +nine; and we steamed straight out of the Narrows at St. John's into a +head gale and a blizzard of snow. The driving spray froze onto every +thing till the ship was sugared like a vast Christmas cake. It made the +home which we had built at St. Anthony appear perfectly delightful. My +wife had had her furniture sent North during the summer, so that now +the "Lares and Penates" with which she had been familiar from childhood +seemed to extend a mute but hearty welcome to us from their new +setting.</p> + +<p>We have three children, all born at St. Anthony. Our elder son, Wilfred +Thomason, was born in the fall of 1910; Kinloch Pascoe in the fall of +1912, two years almost to a day behind his brother; and lastly a +daughter, Rosamond Loveday, who followed her brothers in 1917. In the +case of the two latter children the honours of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>name were divided +between both sides of the family, Kinloch and Rosamond being old family +names on my wife's side, while, on the other hand, there have been +Pascoe and Loveday Grenfells from time immemorial.</p> + +<p>Nearly ten years have now rolled away since our marriage. The puzzle to +me is how I ever got along before; and these last nine years have been +so crowded with the activities and worries of the increasing cares of a +growing work, that without the love and inspiration and intellectual +help of a true comrade, I could never have stood up under them. Every +side of life is developed and broadened by companionship. I admit of no +separation of life into "secular" and "religious." Religion, if it +means anything, means the life and activities of our divine spirit on +earth in relation to our Father in heaven. I am convinced from +experience of the supreme value to that of a happy marriage, and that +"team work" is God's plan for us on this earth.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>NEW VENTURES</h4> +<br /> + +<p>No human life can be perfect, or even be lived without troubles. Clams +have their troubles, I dare say. A queer sort of sinking feeling just +like descending in a fast elevator comes over one, as if trouble and +the abdominal viscera had a direct connection. Some one has said that +it must be because that is where the average mind centres. Thus, when +we lost the little steamer Swallow which we were towing, and with it +the evidence of a crime and the road to the prevention of its +repetition, it absolutely sickened me for two or three days, or, to be +more exact, during two or three nights. It was all quite unnecessary, +for we can see now that the matter worked out for the best. The fact +that troubles hurt most when one is at rest and one's mind unoccupied, +and in the night when one's vitality is lowest, is a great comfort, +because that shows how it is something physical that is at fault, and +no physical troubles are of very great importance.</p> + +<p>The summer of 1910 brought me a fine crop of personal worries, and +probably deservedly so, for no one should leave his business affairs +too much to another, without guarantees, occasionally renewed, that all +is well. Few professional men are good at business, and personally I +have no liking for it. This, combined with an over-readiness to accept +as helpers men whose only qualifications have sometimes been of their +own rating, was really spoiling for trouble—and mine came through the +series of coöperative stores.</p> + +<p>To begin with, none of the stores were incorporated, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>their +liabilities were therefore unlimited. Though I had always felt it best +not to accept a penny of interest, I had been obliged to loan them +money, and their agent in St. John's, who was also mine, allowed them +considerable latitude in credits. It was, indeed, a bolt from the blue +when I was informed that the merchants in St. John's were owed by the +stores the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, and that I was being +held responsible for every cent of it—because on the strength of their +faith in me, and their knowledge that I was interested in the stores, +having brought them into being, they had been willing to let the +credits mount up. Even then I still had all my work to carry on and +little time to devote to money affairs. Had I accepted, on first +entering the Mission, the salary offered me, which was that of my +predecessor, I should have been able to meet these liabilities, and +very gladly indeed would I have done so. As it was I had to find some +way out. All the merchants interested were told of the facts, and asked +to meet me at the office of one of them, go over the accounts with my +agent, and try and find a plan to settle. One can have little heart in +his work if he feels every one who looks at him really thinks that he +is a defaulter. The outcome of the inquiry revealed that if the agent +could not show which store owed each debt, neither could the merchants; +some had made out their bills to separate stores, some all to one +store, and some in a general way to myself, though not one single penny +of the debt was a personal one of my own.</p> + +<p>The next discovery was that the manager of the St. Anthony store, who +had been my summer secretary before, and was an exceedingly pious +man—whose great zeal for cottage prayer meetings, and that form of +religious work, had led me to think far too highly of him—had +neglected his books. He had given credit to every one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>who came along +(though it was a cardinal statute under his rules that no credit was to +be allowed except at his own personal risk). The St. John's agent +claimed that he had made a loss of twelve thousand dollars in a little +over a year, in which he professed to have been able to pay ten per +cent to shareholders and put by three hundred dollars to reserve. +Besides this, the new local store secretary had mixed up affairs by +both ordering supplies direct from Canada and sending produce there, +which the St. John's agent claimed were owed to the merchants in that +city.</p> + +<p>These two men, instead of pulling together, were, I found, bitter +enemies; and it looked as if the whole pack of cards were tumbling +about my ears. I cashed every available personal asset which I could. +The beautiful schooner, Emma E. White, also a personal possession, +arrived in St. John's while we were there with a full load of lumber, +but it and she sailed straight into the melting-pot. The merchants, +with one exception, were all as good about the matter as men can be. +They were perfectly satisfied when they realized that I meant facing +the debt squarely. One was nasty about it, saying that he would not +wait—and oddly enough in ordinary life he was a man whom one would not +expect to be ungenerous, for he too was a religious man. Whether he +gained by it or not it is hard to say. He was paid first, anyhow. The +standard of what is really remunerative in life is differently graded. +The stores have dealt with him since, and his prices are fair and +honest; but he was the only one among some twenty who even appeared to +kick a man when he was down. I have nothing but gratitude to all the +rest.</p> + +<p>I should add that the incident was not the fault of the people of the +coast. Often I had been warned by the merchants that the coöperative +stores would fail and that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>people would rob me. It is true that +there was trouble over the badly kept books, and a number of the +fishermen disclaimed their debts charged against them; but with one +exception no one came and said that he had had things which were not +noted on the bills. I am confident, however, that they did not go back +on me willingly, and when my merchant friends said, "I told you so," I +honestly was able to state that it was the management, not the people +or the system, that was at fault. Indeed, subsequent events have proved +this. For five of the stores still run, and run splendidly, and pay +handsomer dividends by far than any investment our people could +possibly make elsewhere.</p> + +<p>With the sale of a few investments and some other available property, +the liability was so far reduced that, with what the stores paid, only +one merchant was not fully indemnified, and he generously told me not +to worry about the balance.</p> + +<p>This same year, on the other hand, one of our most forward steps, so +far as the Mission was concerned, was taken, through the generosity of +the late Mr. George B. Cluett, of Troy, New York. He had built +specially for our work a magnificent three-masted schooner, fitted with +the best of gear including a motor launch. She was constructed of +three-inch oak plank, sheathed with hardwood for work in the +ice-fields. She was also fitted with an eighty horse-power Wolverine +engine. The bronze tablet in her bore the inscription, "This vessel +with full equipment was presented to Wilfred T. Grenfell by George B. +Cluett." He had previously asked me if I would like any words from the +Bible on the plate, and I had suggested, "The sea is His and He made +it." The designer unfortunately put the text after the inscription; so +that I have been frequently asked why and how I came to make it, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>seeing that it is believed by all good Christians that in heaven "there +shall be no more sea."</p> + +<p>To help out with the expenses of getting her running, our loved friend +from Chicago, Mr. W.R. Stirling, agreed to come North on the schooner +the first season, bringing his two daughters and three friends. Even +though he was renting her for a yachting trip, he offered to bring all +the cargo free and make the Mission stations his ports of call.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cluett's idea was that, as we had big expenses carrying endless +freight so far North, and as it got so broken and often lost in +transit, and greatly damaged in the many changes involved from rail to +steamer, and from steamer to steamer, if she carried our freight in +summer, she could in winter earn enough to make it all free, and +possibly provide a sinking fund for herself as well. There was also +good accommodation in her for doctors, nurses, students, etc., who +every summer come from the South to help in various ways in the work of +the Mission.</p> + +<p>All our freight that year arrived promptly and in good condition, which +had never happened before. Later the vessel was chartered to go to +Greenland by the Smithsonian. On this occasion her engine, never +satisfactory, gave out entirely, which so delayed her that she got +frozen in near Etah and was held up a whole twelvemonth. Meanwhile the +war had broken out, and when she at last sailed into Boston, we were +able to sell her, by the generous permission of Mrs. Cluett, and use +the money to purchase the George B. Cluett II.</p> + +<p>Illustrating the advantage of getting our freight direct, among the +many instances which have occurred, that of the lost searchlight for +the Strathcona comes to my mind. As she had often on dark nights to +come to anchor among vessels, and to nose her way into unlit harbours, +some friends, through the Professor of Geology at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>Harvard, who had +himself cruised all along our coast in a schooner, presented me with a +searchlight for the hospital ship and despatched it <i>via</i> Sydney—the +normal freight route. Month after month went by, and it never appeared. +Year followed year, and still we searched for that searchlight. At +length, after two and a half years, it suddenly arrived, having been +"delayed on the way." Had it been provisions or clothing or drugs, or +almost anything else, of course, it would have been useless. It has +proved to us one of the almost <i>de luxe</i> additions to a Mission +steamer.</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>For a long time I had felt the need of some place in St. John's where +work for fishermen could be carried on, and which could be also +utilized as a place of safety for girls coming to that city from other +parts of the island. My attention was called one day to the fact that +liquor was being sent to people in the outports C.O.D., by a barrel of +flour which was being lowered over the side of the mail steamer rather +too quickly on to the ice. As the hard bump came, the flour in the +barrel jingled loudly and leaked rum profusely from the compound +fracture. When our sober outport people went to St. John's, as they +must every year for supplies, they had only the uncomfortable schooner +or the street in which to pass the time. There is no "Foyer des +Pêcheurs"; no one wanted fishermen straight from a fishing schooner in +the home; and in those days there were no Camp Community Clubs. As one +man said, "It is easy for the parson to tell us to be good, but it is +hard on a wet cold night to be good in the open street" and nowhere to +go, and harder still if you have to seek shelter in a brightly lighted +room, where music was being played. The boarding-houses for the +fishermen, where thousands of our young men flocked in the spring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>to +try for a berth in the seal fishery, were ridiculous, not to say +calamitous. Lastly, unsophisticated girls coming from the outports ran +terrible risks in the city, having no friends to direct and assist +them; and the Institute which we had in mind was to comprise also a +girls' lodging department. No provision was made for the accommodation +of crews wrecked by accident, and our Institute has already proved +invaluable to many in such plights.</p> + +<p>Seeing the hundreds of craft and the thousands of fishermen, and the +capital and interest vested against us as prohibitionists, it would +have been obviously futile to put up a second-rate affair in a back +street. It would only be sneered at as a proselytizing job. I had +almost forgotten to mention that there was already an Old Seamen's +Home, but it had gradually become a roost for boozers, and when with +the trustees we made an inspection of it, it proved to be only worthy +of immediate closure. This was promptly done, and the money realized +from the sale of it, some ten thousand dollars, was kindly donated to +the fund for our new building.</p> + +<p>After a few years of my collecting funds spasmodically, a number of our +local friends got "cold feet." Reports started, not circulated by +well-wishers, that it was all a piece of personal vanity, that no such +thing was needed, and if built would prove a white elephant, to support +which I would be going round with my hat in my hand worrying the +merchants. We had at that time some ninety thousand dollars in hand. I +laid the whole story before the Governor, Sir Ralph Williams, a man by +no means prejudiced in favour of prohibition. He was, however, one who +knew what the city needed, and realized that it was a big lack and +required a big remedy.</p> + +<p>A letter which I published in all the St. John's papers, describing my +passing fifteen drunken men on the streets <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>before morning service on +Christmas Day, brought forth angry denials of the actual facts, and my +statement of the number of saloons in the city was also contradicted. +But a saloon is not necessarily a place licensed by the Government or +city to make men drunk—for the majority are unlicensed, and a couple +of experiences which my men had in looking for sailors who had shipped, +been given advances, and gone off and got drunk in shebeens, proved the +number to be very much higher than even I had estimated it.</p> + +<p>Sir Ralph thought the matter over and called a public meeting in the +ballroom of Government House. He had a remarkable personality and no +fear of conventions. After thoroughly endorsing the plan for the +Institute, and the need for it, he asked each of the many citizens who +had responded to his invitation, "Will you personally stand by the +larger scheme of a two hundred thousand dollar building, or will you +stand by the sixty thousand dollar building with the thirty thousand +dollar endowment fund, or will you do nothing at all?" It was proven +that when it came to the point of going on record, practically all who +really took the slightest interest in the matter were in favour of the +larger plan—if I would undertake to raise the money. My own view, +since more than justified, was that only so large a building could ever +hope to meet the requirements and only such a comprehensive institution +could expect to carry its own expenses. I preferred refunding the +ninety thousand dollars to the various donors and dropping the whole +business to embarking on the smaller scheme.</p> + +<p>That meeting did a world of good. It cleared the atmosphere; and it is +only fresh air which most of these things really need—just as does a +consumptive patient. The plan was now on the shoulders of the citizens; +it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>no longer one man's hobby. Enemies, like the Scribes and +Pharisees of old, knew better than to tackle a crowd, and with the +splendid gift of Messrs. Bowring Brothers of a site on the water-side +on the main street, costing thirteen thousand dollars, and those of Job +Brothers, Harvey and Company, and Macpherson Brothers of twenty-five +hundred dollars each, the fund grew like Jonah's gourd; and in the year +of 1911, with approximately one hundred and seventy-five thousand +dollars in hand, we actually came to the time for laying the foundation +stone. The hostility of enemies was not over. Such an institute is a +fighting force, and involves contest and therefore enemies. So we +decided to make this occasion as much of an event as we could. Through +friends in England we obtained the promise of King George V that if we +connected the foundation stone with Buckingham Palace by wire, he +would, after the ceremony in Westminster Abbey on his Coronation Day, +press a button at three in the afternoon and lay the stone across the +Atlantic. The good services of friends in the Anglo-American Telegraph +Company did the rest.</p> + +<p>On the fateful day His Excellency the Governor came down and made an +appropriate and patriotic speech. Owing to the difference in time of +about three hours and twenty minutes, it was shortly before twelve +o'clock with us. The noonday gun signal from the Narrows was fired +during His Excellency's address. Then followed a prayer of invocation +by His Lordship the Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda—and then, a +dead silence and pause. Every one was waiting for our newly crowned +King to put that stone into place. Only a moment had passed, the +Governor had just said, "We will wait for the King," when "Bing, bang, +bang," went the gong signifying that His Majesty was at the other end +of the wire. Up went <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>the national flag, and slowly but surely the +great stone began to move. A storm of cheering greeted the successful +effort; and all that was left for our enemies to say was, "It was a +fake." They claimed that we had laid the stone ourselves. Nor might +they have been so far off the mark as they supposed, for we had a man +with a knife under that platform to make that stone come down if +anything happened that the wire device did not work. You cannot go back +on your King whatever else you do, and to permit any grounds to exist +for supposing that he had not been punctual was unthinkable. But +fortunately for all concerned our subterfuge was unnecessary.</p> + +<p>I have omitted so far to state one of the main reasons why the +Institute to our mind was so desirable. That was because no +undenominational work is carried on practically in the whole country. +Religion is tied up in bundles and its energies used to divide rather +than to unite men. No Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A. could exist in the Colony +for that reason. The Boys' Brigade which we had originally started +could not continue, any more than the Boy Scouts can now. Catholic +Cadets, Church Lads Brigade, Methodist Guards, Presbyterian Highland +Brigade—are all names symbolic of the dividing influences of +"religion." In no place of which I know would a Y.M.C.A. be more +desirable; and a large meeting held in the Institute this present +spring decided that in no town anywhere was a Y.W.C.A. more needed.</p> + +<p>In another place in this book I have spoken of the problem of alcohol +and fishermen. A man does not need alcohol and is far better without +it. A man who sees two lights when there is only one is not wanted at +the wheel. The people who sell alcohol know that just as well as we do, +but for paltry gain they are unpatriotic enough to barter their earthly +country as well as their heavenly one, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>and to be branded with the +knowledge that they are cursing men and ruining families. The +filibuster deserves the name no less because he does his destructive +work secretly and slowly, and wears the emblems of respectability +instead of operating in the open with "Long Toms" under the shadow of +the "Jolly Roger."</p> + +<p>As a magistrate on this coast I have been obliged more than once to act +as a policeman, and though one hated the ill-feeling which it stored +up, and did not enjoy the evil-speaking to which it gave rise, I +considered that it was really only like lancing a concealed +infection—the ill-feeling and evil-speaking were better tapped and let +out.</p> + +<p>On one occasion at one of our Labrador hospitals a beardless youth, one +of the Methodist candidates for college who every year are sent down to +look after the interests of that denomination on our North coast, came +to inform me that the only other magistrate on the coast, the pillar of +the Church of England, and shortly to be our stipendiary, who had many +political friends of great influence in St. John's, was keeping a +"blind tiger," while many even of his own people were being ruined body +and soul by this temptation under their noses.</p> + +<p>"Well," I replied, "if you will come and give the evidence which will +lead to conviction, I will do the rest."</p> + +<p>"I certainly will," he answered. And he did. So we got the little +Strathcona under way, and after steaming some fifteen miles dropped +into a small cove a mile or two from the place where our friend lived. +In the King's name we constrained a couple of men to come along as +special constables. Our visit was an unusual one. To divert suspicion +we dressed our ship in bunting as if we were coming for a marriage +license. When we anchored as near his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>stage as possible, we dropped +our jolly-boat and made for the store. The door was, however, locked +and our friend nowhere to be seen. "He is in the store" was the reply +of his wife to our query. We knew then that there was no time to be +lost, and even while we battered at the door, we could hear a +suspicious gurgle and smell a curious odour. Rum was trickling down +through the cracks of the store floor on to the astonished winkles +below. But the door quickly gave way before our overtures, and we +caught the magistrate <i>flagrante delicto</i>. We were threatened with all +sorts of big folk in St. John's; but we held the trial on board +straightaway just the same. When court was called, the defendant +demanded the name of the prosecutor—and to his infinite surprise out +popped the youthful aspirant to the Methodist ministry. When he learned +that half of his fine of seventy dollars had to be paid to the +prosecutor and would be applied toward the building of a Methodist +school, his temper completely ran away with him; and we had to threaten +auction on the spot of the goods in the store before we could collect +the money. We left him breathing out threatenings and slaughter.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep354" id="imagep354"></a> +<a href="images/imagep354.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep354.jpg" width="95%" alt="The Institute" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE INSTITUTE<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Only once was I really caught. Two mothers in a little village had +appealed to me because liquor was being sold to their boys who had no +money, while people were complaining simultaneously that fish was being +stolen from their stages. No one would tell who was selling it, so we +had a systematic search made of all the houses, and the guilty man was +convicted on evidence discovered under the floor of his sitting-room. +The fine of fifty dollars he paid without a murmur and it was promptly +divided between the Government and the prosecutor. It so happened, +however, that he had obtained from us for a close relative a new +artificial leg, and there was fifty dollars <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>owing to us on it. Unknown +to us at the time, he had collected that fifty dollars from the said +relative and with it paid his fine. To this day we never got a cent for +our leg, and so really fined ourselves. Nor could we with any propriety +distrain on one of a poor woman's legs!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The year 1912 was a busy season. The New Year found us in Florida with +the donor of the ship George B. Cluett, consulting him concerning its +progress and future. Lecturing then as we went west we reached +Colorado, visited the Grand Canyon, and lectured all along the Pacific +Coast from San Diego to Victoria—finding many old friends and making +many new ones.</p> + +<p>At Berkeley I was asked to deliver the Earle Lectures at the University +of California; and I also spoke to an immense audience in the open +Greek theatre—a most novel experience. At Santa Barbara a special +meeting had been arranged by our good friend Dr. Joseph Andrews, who +every year travels all the way from California to St. Anthony at his +own expense to afford the fishermen of our Northern waters the +inestimable benefits of his skill as a consulting eye specialist. Many +blind he has restored to sight who would otherwise be encumbrances to +themselves and others. Only last year I received the following +communication from an eager would-be patient: "Dear Dr. Grandfield, +when is the eye spider coming to St. Anthony? I needs to see him bad."</p> + +<p>While we were at Tacoma a visitor, saying that he was an old +acquaintance of mine, sent up his card to our room. He had driven over +in a fine motor car, and was a great, broad-shouldered man. The grip +which he gave me assured me that he had been brought up hard, but I +utterly failed to place him. With a broad grin he relieved the +situation by saying: "The last time that we met, Doctor, was on the +deck of a fishing vessel in the North Sea. I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>second hand aboard, +sailing out from Grimsby." The tough surroundings of that life were +such a contrast to his present apparently ample means that I could only +say, "How on earth did you get out here?"</p> + +<p>"A friend," said he, "gave me a little book entitled 'One Hundred Ways +to Rise in the World.' The first ninety-nine were no good to me, but +the hundredth said, 'Go to Western America,' so I just cleared out and +came here." He was exceedingly kind to us, even accompanying us to +Seattle, and his story of pluck and enterprise was a splendid stimulus.</p> + +<p>Six weeks of lecturing nearly every single night in a new town in +Canada gave me a real vision of Canadian Western life, and a sincere +admiration for its people who are making a nation of which the world is +proud.</p> + +<p>In April a large meeting was held in New York to reorganize the +management of the Mission. The English Royal National Mission to +Deep-Sea Fishermen was no longer able or willing to finance, much less +to direct, affairs which had gone beyond their control, and was hoping +to arrange an organization of an international character to which all +the affairs of the enterprise could be turned over. This organization +was formed at the house of Mr. Eugene Delano, the head of Brown +Brothers, bankers, whose lifelong help has meant for Labrador more than +he will ever know.</p> + +<p>The International Grenfell Association was incorporated to comprise the +Labrador branches of the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen +as its English component, the Grenfell Association of America and the +New England Grenfell Association to represent the American interests, +the Labrador Medical Mission as the Canadian name for its Society, and +the Newfoundland Grenfell Association for the Newfoundland branch. Each +one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>of these component societies has two members in the Central +Council, and together they make up the Board of Directors of the +International Grenfell Association. These directors ever since have +generously been giving their time and interest in the wise and +efficient administration of this work. To these unselfish men Labrador +and northern Newfoundland, as well as I, owe a greater debt than can +ever be repaid.</p> + +<p>On the 1st of May I was due to speak at the annual meeting of the +English Mission in London, and the swift heels of the Mauretania once +more stood us in good stead; for we reached England the evening before +May 1, arrived in London at 2 <span class="fakesc">A.M.</span>, and I spoke three times +that day. After a day or so at my old home with my mother we ran about +in a Ford car for a fortnight, lecturing every evening. The little +motor saved endless energy otherwise lost in endeavouring to make +connections, and gave us the opportunity to see numbers of old friends +whom we must otherwise have missed. One day we would be at a meeting of +miners at Redmuth in Cornwall, on another at Harrow or Rugby Schools. +At the latter, an old college friend, who is now head master there, +gave us a royal welcome. During the last fortnight at home a splendid +chance was afforded me to visit daily the clinics of an old friend, Sir +Robert Jones, England's famous orthopedic surgeon. He is one of the +most wonderful and practical of men, and he opened our eyes to the +possibility of medical mission work in the very heart of England—for +if ever there was an apostle of hope for the deformed and paralyzed he +certainly is the man. His Sunday morning free clinics crowded even the +street opposite his office door with waiting patients of the poorest +class. Equally beneficent also is the large and wonderful hospital +built specially for derelict children on the heather-covered hills +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>just above our home in Cheshire. But most unique of all was his +Basschurch Hospital, constructed mostly of sheet iron, standing in the +middle of a field in the country forty miles away from Liverpool. Every +second Sunday, Sir Robert Jones used to motor over there and operate +"in the field." No expedition have I ever enjoyed better in my life +than when he was good enough to pick us up on his way, and we saw him +tackle the motley collection of halt and lame, whom the lady of the +hospital, herself a marvellous testimony to his skill, collected from +the neighbouring town slums between his visits. The hospital was the +nearest thing I know to our little "one-horse shows" scattered along +the Labrador coast; and there was a homing feeling in one's heart all +the time at these open-air clinics.</p> + +<p>As commander-in-chief of the orthopedic work of the British Army in the +war, I am certain that Colonel Sir Robert Jones has found the +experiences of his improvised clinics among the most valuable assets he +could have had. One day he has promised that he will bring his magic +wand to Labrador; for he is a sportsman in the best sense of the word +as well as a healer of limbs.</p> + +<p>The quickest way back to St. John's being <i>via</i> Canada, we returned by +the Allan Line, and lectured in the Maritime Provinces as we passed +North.</p> + +<p>It would appear that one must possess an insatiable love of lecturing. +As a matter of fact, nothing is farther from the truth. But the brevity +of life is an insistent fact in our existence, and the inability to do +good work for lack of help that is so gladly given when the +reasonableness of the expenditure is presented, makes one feel guilty +if an evening is spent doing nothing. The lecturing is by far the most +uncongenial task which I have been called upon to do in life, but in a +mission like ours, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>is not under any special church, the funds +must be raised to a very great extent by voluntary donations, and in +order to secure these friends must be kept informed of the progress of +the work which their gifts are making possible.</p> + +<p>For the first seven years of my work I never spent the winters in the +country—nor was it my intention ever to do so. Besides the general +direction of the whole, my work as superintendent has meant the raising +of the necessary funds, and my special charge on the actual coast has +been the hospital ship Strathcona. Naturally, owing to our frozen +winter sea this is only possible during open water. Since 1902 it has +been my custom when possible to spend every other winter as well as +every summer in the North. The actual work and life there is a +tremendous rest after the nervous and physical tax of a lecture tour. +At first I used to wonder at the lack of imagination in those who would +greet me, after some long, wearisome hours on the train or in a crowded +lecture hall, with "What a lovely holiday you are having!" Now this +oft-repeated comment only amuses me.</p> + +<p>It was just after the first of June when again we found ourselves +heading North for St. Anthony, only once more to be caught in the jaws +of winter. For the heavy Arctic ice blockaded the whole of the eastern +French shore, and we had to be content to be held up in small ice-bound +harbours as we pushed along through the inner edge of the floe, till +strong westerly winds cleared the way.</p> + +<p>Having reached St. Anthony and looked into matters there, we once again +ran south to St. John's to inspect the new venture of the Institute. To +help out expenses we towed for the whole four hundred miles a schooner +which had been wrecked on the Labrador coast, having run on the rocks, +and knocked a hole in her bottom. She had a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>number of sacks of "hard +bread" on board. These had been thrown into the breach and planking +nailed on over them. The bread had swelled up between the two casings +and become so hard again that the vessel leaked but little; and though +the continual dirge of the pumps was somewhat dismal as we journeyed, +we had no reason to fear that she would go to the bottom.</p> + +<p>Flour resists water in a marvellous way. On one occasion our own vessel +in the North Sea was run into by another. The latter's cutwater went +through her side and deck almost to the combing of the hatch, and the +water began to pour in. By immediately putting the vessel on the other +tack, the rent was largely lifted out of water. A heavy topsail was +hastily thrown over her side, and eventually hauled under the keel—the +inrushing water keeping it there. Then sacks of flour were rammed into +the breach. The ship in this condition, favoured by the wind which +enabled her to continue on that tack, reached home, two hundred miles +distant, with her hand-pumps keeping her comparatively free, though +there was the greatest difficulty to keep her afloat directly she was +towed into the harbour and lay at the wharf.</p> + +<p>On another occasion when a Canadian steamer, loaded with provisions, +ran into a cliff two hundred feet high in a fog on the northeast end of +Belle Isle, and became a total wreck, her flour floated all up and down +the Straits. I remember picking up a sack that had certainly been in +the water some weeks; and yet only about a quarter of an inch of +outside layer was even wet.</p> + +<p>The opening of the Institute was a great day. Dr. Henry van Dyke had +come all the way from New York to give an address. Sir William +Archibald, chairman of the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea +Fishermen, had travelled from England to bring a blessing from the old +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>home country; and the merchants and friends in St. John's did their +best to make it a red-letter day. Sir Edward Morris, the Prime +Minister, and other politicians, the Mayor and civic functionaries were +all good enough to come and add their quota to the launching of the new +ship. There were still pessimistic and croaking individuals, however, +as well as joyful hearts, when a few days later we again ran North.</p> + +<p>We started almost immediately for our Straits trip after reaching St. +Anthony. On our way east from Harrington, our most westerly hospital, +commenced in 1907, a telegram summoning me immediately to St. John's +dropped upon me like a bolt from the blue. Without a moment's delay we +headed yet again South, full of anxiety as to what could be the cause +of this message.</p> + +<p>On arrival there we found that trouble had arisen concerning the funds +of the Institute and a prosecution was to follow. It was the worst time +of my life. Things were readjusted; the money was refunded, punishment +meted out—but such damage is not made right by reconstruction. It left +permanent scars and made the end of an otherwise splendid year anxious +and sorrowful.</p> + +<p>The work on East Labrador was also extended this year. While walking +down the street in New York with a young doctor friend who had once +wintered with me, we met a colleague of his at the College of +Physicians and Surgeons. In the conversation it was suggested that he +should spend a summer in Labrador, and we would place him in a virgin +field. As a result Dr. Wiltsie, now in China, came North, started in +work with a little school, club, and dispensary, at a place called +Spotted Islands, in a very barren group of islands about a hundred +miles north of the Straits of Belle Isle. His work became permanent as +the summer mission of the Y.M.C.A. of the College, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>organization +now carries all its expenses. It has a dwelling-house, school, +dispensary, small operating room, and accommodation for a couple of +patients, all under one roof, and owns a fast motor boat called the P. +and S., which has made itself known as an angel of mercy, every summer +since, over a hundred miles of coast and islands. It is only a summer +work, and is mainly among a schooner population; but as a testimonial +to the value of pluck and unselfishness I know of no better example.</p> + +<p>Among other ways to help Labrador we had always tried to induce +tourists and yachtsmen to come and visit us. Mr. Rainey's Surf, Mr. +McCready's Enchantress, Dr. Stimson's Fleur de Lys, Mr. Arthur James's +Aloha, and a few other yachts had come part of the way, but no one had +yet explored north of Hopedale—the latitude at which the fine Northern +scenery may be said only to begin. The large power vessels or even the +best type of yacht are by no means necessary for a visit to Labrador. +For the innumerable fjords and islands make it much more interesting to +be in a smaller boat, which allows one to go freely in and out of new +by-ways, even when the survey is only that of your own making. The most +sporting visits of that kind have been the honeymoon of a Philadelphia +friend, who, with his wife, one man, and a canoe, went by river to +James's Bay, then <i>via</i> Hudson Bay to Richmond Gulf, then by portage +and river to Ungava Bay, and thence home by way of the Hudson Bay +Company's steamer; the canoe trips of Mr. Kennedy all along the outside +eastern coast, and those of Mr. William Cabot on the section of the +northeastern coast between Hopedale and Nain. In this year of 1912 a +new little yacht appeared, the Sybil, brought down from Boston by her +owner, Mr. George Williams. I had promised that if ever he would sail +down to see us in his own boat, we would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>escort him up a salmon river +for a fishing expedition—a luxury which we certainly never anticipated +would materialize. But on arriving North, there was the beautiful +little boat; and in it we sailed up into the fine salmon stream in the +bay close to the hospital. Subsequently Mr. Williams came year after +year, pushing farther North each time. The Sybil he eventually gave to +the Mission, and built a large boat, the Jeanette, in which I had the +pleasure later of exploring with him and roughly charting three +hitherto unrecorded bays.</p> + +<p>One unusual feature of our magisterial work in 1912 was the settlement +of a fisherman's strike "down North." It would at first seem difficult +to understand how fishermen could engineer a strike, they are so +good-natured and so long-suffering. But this time it was over the price +of fish, naturally a matter of immense importance to the catcher. The +planters, or men who give advances to come and fish around the mouth of +Hamilton Inlet, were to ship their fish on a steamer coming direct from +England and returning direct—thus saving delay and very great expense. +But the price did not please the men, and they knew if they once put +the fish on board at $3.50 per quintal, the amount offered, they would +never recover the $5, which was the price for which fish was selling in +St. John's that year. The more masterful men decided that not only +would they not put the fish on board till they had cash orders or +Révillon agreements for their price, but they would not allow any of +the weaker brethren to do so either. There were but few hard words and +no violent deeds, but when one blackleg was seen to go alongside the +waiting steamer, which was costing a hundred dollars a day to the +fish-carrying merchant, a crowd of boats dashed out from creeks and +corners and pounced like a vulture on the big boat, fat with a fine +load of fish, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>and not only towed her away and tied her up, but hauled +her out of the water with the cargo and all in her, and dragged her so +far up the side of a steep hill that the owner was utterly unable +without assistance to get her down again.</p> + +<p>Each day we had a conference with one side or the other, the Government +having asked us to remain and see things settled. While each side was +fencing for an advantage, a good-sized schooner sailed into the +harbour, brought up alongside the steamer, and was seen to begin +unloading dry fish. A dash was made for her by the boats as before; +only this time it was the attack of Lilliputians on Gulliver. We on the +shore could not help laughing heartily when shortly we saw a string of +over a dozen fishing boats harnessed tandem in one long line towing the +interloper—as they had the blackleg—away up the inlet where they +moored and guarded her. It appeared that the buyer had sent her to a +far-off anchorage, and unknown to the strikers had had fish put into +her there. The steamer might have followed and got away with the ruse. +But the skipper underestimated the enemy, always a fatal mistake, and +lost out.</p> + +<p>The agreement made a day or so later was perfectly peaceful, and +perfectly satisfactory to both sides, for the fish turned out a good +price, and the buyer did not lose anything on the transaction but the +demurrage on his steamer and a little kudos, which I must confess he +took in very good spirit. Even if he did have a grasping side to his +character, he was fortunate in possessing a sense of humour also.</p> + +<p>The fall brought yet another call to go South to St. John's, and once +more in the little Strathcona we ploughed our way through the long +miles to the southward. This time it was for the reorganization of the +Institute <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>government, to form a council and to install the new manager +from England. This was Mr. Walter Jones, a man whose wide experience +among naval "Jackies" had been gained in a large institute of much the +same kind. This gave him the credentials which we needed, for he had +made it not only a social but an economic success. He has been much +sought by the various churches in St. John's as a speaker to men, and +his Sunday evening lantern services and lectures at the Institute are a +real source of uplift and help to men of every religious denomination.</p> + +<p>The fall of the year was very busy. Dr. Seymour Armstrong, formerly +surgical registrar at the Charing Cross Hospital in London, an able +surgeon, and a man of independent means, joined me for that winter at +St. Anthony. He had already wintered twice at our Labrador hospitals, +and was fully expecting to give us much further help, but two years +later the great war found him at the front, where he gladly laid down +his life for his country.</p> + +<p>One sick call that winter lives in my memory. It was a case where a +nurse was really more needed than a doctor. The way was long, the wind +was cold, and the snow happened to be particularly deep. One of the +nurses, however, volunteered for the journey, and I arranged to carry +her on a second komatik, while my driver broke the path with our +impedimenta. Things did not go altogether well. Since I have enjoyed +the luxury of a driver, or a "carter" as we call them, my cunning in +wriggling a komatik at full speed down steep mountain-sides through +trees has somewhat waned. Comparatively early in the day we looped the +loop—and we were both heavy weights. It was nearly dark when we +reached the last lap—an enormous bay with a direct run of seven miles +over sea ice. We should probably have made it all right, but suddenly +fog drifted in from the Straits of Belle Isle, and steering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>with a +small compass and no binnacle, while attending to hauling a heavy nurse +over hummocky sea ice in the dark, satisfied all my ambition for +problems. At length the nature of the ice indicated that we were +approaching either land or the sea edge. We stopped the komatiks, and +it fell to my lot to go ahead and explore. Finding nothing I called to +the driver, and his voice returned out of the fog right ahead of me, +and almost in my ear. I had told them not to move or we might miss our +way, and I reminded him of that fact. "Haven't budged an inch" came the +reply from the darkness. I had been describing a large circle. I can +still hear that nurse laughing.</p> + +<p>At last we struck the huge blocks of ice, raised on the boulder rocks +by the rise and fall of tide in shallow water, and we knew that we +should make the land. The perversity of nature made us turn the wrong +way for the village toward which we were aiming, and we found ourselves +"tangled up" in the Boiling Brooks, a place where some underground +springs keep holes open through the ice all winter. Suddenly, while +marching ahead with the compass, seeking to avoid these springs, the +ground being level enough for the nurse to act as her own helmsman, a +tremendous "whurr! whurr!" under my feet restored sufficient leaping +power to my weary legs to leave me head down and only my racquets out +of the snow—all for a covey of white partridges on which I had nearly +trodden. At length we made a tiny winter cottage. The nurse slept on +the bench, the doctor on the floor, the driver on a shelf. Our generous +host had almost to hang himself on a hook. The dogs went hungry. But as +we boiled our kettle, all agreed that we would not have exchanged the +experience for ten rides in a Pullman Car.</p> + +<p>Largely through the zeal of my colleague, Dr. Arthur Wakefield, of +Kendal, England, and that of my cousin, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>Mr. Martyn Spencer, of New +Zealand, a band of the Legion of Frontiersmen had been brought into +being all along this section of coast, in spite of the scattered nature +of the population. The idea was that having to depend so largely on the +use of their guns, and being excellent shots with a bullet, the men +would make good snipers and scouts if ever there were war. True, most +of our people called it "playing soldiers," and no one took seriously +that we were ever likely to be called upon to fight; but all Dr. +Wakefield's hopes and fears were realized and our lads made both brave +soldiers and excellent marksmen.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep368" id="imagep368"></a> +<a href="images/imagep368a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep368a.jpg" width="60%" alt="On The Way Home" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">On the Way Home</p> + +<a href="images/imagep368b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep368b.jpg" width="60%" alt="Carrying A Sick Dog" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Carrying a Sick Dog</p> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">DOG TRAVEL<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Dr. and Mrs. Wakefield have given several years of both medical and +industrial work for the people of this coast, both in St. Anthony, +Forteau, Mud Lake, and Battle Harbour.</p> + +<p>Alas, the functions of superintendent involved executive duties, and I +had once again to run to St. John's, during the following summer, for a +meeting of the Board of Directors. With true Christian unselfishness +these men come all the way from Ottawa, New York, and Boston, to help +with their counsel so relatively unimportant a work as ours. Sir Walter +Davidson again lent his heartiest coöperation. The people owe him, Sir +Herbert Murray, Sir Henry MacCallum, Sir William MacGregor, Sir Ralph +Williams, Sir Alexander Harris, and all the long line of their +Governors, more than most of them realize. They bring all the +inspiration of the best type of educated, widely experienced, and +travelled Englishmen to this Colony. They are specially trained and +specially selected men, and can give their counsel and leadership +absolutely untrammelled by any local prejudices.</p> + +<p>One excellent outcome of this particular meeting was the reorganization +on a larger scale of the Girls' Committee for the Institute. The +success of it has been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>phenomenal. Together with its protective work +it has aimed at that most difficult task of creating in them sufficient +ambition to make the girls receiving very small wages want to pay for a +better environment. The committee has always been strictly +interdenominational, with Mrs. W.C. Job and Mrs. W.E. Gosling as its +presidents. It has made a "show place" of the Girls' Department of the +Institute, and that department has become self-supporting—a most +desirable goal for every philanthropy.</p> + +<p>The lumber mill and schooner building work were in slings. Our men, +made far better off by the winter work thus provided, had acquired gear +so much better for fishing than their former equipment that they could +not resist engaging in the more remunerative work of the fishery in the +summer months. For two years previous they had left before the drive +was complete and the logs out of the woods. Now the local manager had +also decided to fish during the three summer months—which is really +the only time available for mill operations also. I was fortunate +enough on my way North to persuade an expert lumber operator from +Canada, and an entirely kindred spirit, Mr. Harry Crowe, to come down +and help me out with the problem. We spent a few delightful days +together, in which he taught me as many things that every mill man +should know as he would have had to learn had he been dabbling in +pills. Like myself, Mr. Crowe is an ardent believer in Confederation +with Canada for this little country. Before Mr. Crowe's efforts on our +behalf had materialized, a new friend, Mr. Walter Booth, of New York, +well known in American football circles as one of the best of +all-American forwards, came North and carried the mill for a year. The +one and only fault of his régime was that it was too short. The field +of work was one for which he was admirably equipped, but home reasons +made him return <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>after his time expired. He has often told me since, +however, that he has fits of wishing that he could have put in a life +with us in the North, rather than spending it in the more civilized +circles of the New York Bar.</p> + +<p>Many invitations to speak, especially at universities in America, and +through a lecture agency in England to numerous societies and clubs, +led me to devote the winter of 1913-14 to a lecture tour. My wife +induced me also to renew my youth by a holiday of a month on the +Continent.</p> + +<p>A lecture tour includes some of the most delightful experiences of +life, bringing one into direct personal contact with so many people +whom it is a privilege to know. But it also has its anxieties and +worries, and eternal vigilance is the price of avoiding a breakdown at +this the most difficult of all my work. One's memory is taxed far +beyond its capacity. To forget some things, and some people and some +kindnesses, are unforgivable sins. A new host every night, a new home, +a new city, a new audience, alone lead one into lamentable lapses. In a +car full of people a man asked me one day how I liked Toledo. I replied +that I had never been there. "Strange," he murmured, "because you spent +the night at my house!" On another occasion at a crowded reception I +was talking to a lady on one side and a gentleman on the other. I had +been introduced to them, but caught neither name. They did not address +each other, but only spoke to me. I felt that I must remedy matters by +making them acquainted with each other, and therefore mumbled, "Pray +let me present to you Mrs. M-m-m." "Oh! no need, Doctor," he replied. +"We've been married for thirty years." Shortly after I noticed at a +reception that every one wore his name pinned onto his breast, and I +wondered if there were any connection.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>It is my invariable custom in the North to carry a water-tight box with +matches and a compass chained to my belt. One night, being tired, I had +turned into bed in a very large, strange room without noting the +bearings of the doors or electric switches. My faithful belt had been +abandoned for pyjama strings. It so happened that to catch a train I +had to rise before daylight, and all my possessions were in a +dressing-room. I soon gave up hunting for the electric light. It was +somewhere in the air, I knew, but beating the air in the dark with the +windows wide open in winter is no better fun in your nightclothes in +New York than in Labrador. A tour of inspection discovered no less than +five doors, none of which I felt entitled to enter in the dark in +<i>déshabille</i>. The humour of the situation is, of course, apparent now, +but even one's dog hates to be laughed at.</p> + +<p>An independent life has somehow left me with an instinctive dislike for +asking casual acquaintances the way to any place that I am seeking. The +aversion is more or less justified by the fact that outside the police +force very exceptional persons can direct you, especially if they know +the way themselves. On my first visit to New York I could see how easy +a city it was to navigate, and returned to my host's house near Eighth +Street in good time to dress for dinner after a long side trip near +Columbia University and thence to the Bellevue Hospital. "How did you +find your way?" my friend asked. "Why, there was sufficient sky visible +to let me see the North Star," I answered. I felt almost hurt when he +laughed. It is natural for a polar bear not to have to inquire the way +home.</p> + +<p>The aphorism attributed to Dr. John Watson, of "Beside the Bonnie Briar +Bush," suggests itself. "My fee is one hundred dollars if I go to a +hotel, two hundred if I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>am entertained, because in the latter event +one can only live half so long." I conclude that he made the choice of +Achilles, for he died on a lecture tour. So far fate has been kinder to +me.</p> + +<p>The greatest danger is the reporter, especially the emotional reporter, +who has not attended your meeting. I owe such debts to the press that +this statement seems the blackest of ingratitude. On the contrary, I +must plead that doctors are privileged. My controversy with this class +of reporters is their generosity, which puts into one's mouth +statements that on final analysis may be cold facts, but which, +remembering that one is lecturing on work among people whom one loves +and respects, it would never occur to me to slur at a public meeting. +No one who tries to alter conditions which exist can expect to escape +making enemies. I have seen reports of what I have said at advertised +meetings, that were subsequently cancelled. I have followed up rumours, +and editors have expressed sorrow that they accepted them from men who +had been too busy to be present. But "qui s'excuse, s'accuse"; and my +conclusion is that the lecturer is practically defenceless.</p> + +<p>Since our marriage my wife has generously acted as my secretary, having +specially learned shorthand and typewriting in order to free me from +carrying such a burden, and has helped me enormously ever since on this +line. But lecture tours used to make me despair of keeping abreast of +correspondence. I sometimes was forced to treat letters as Henry +Drummond did—who allowed them to answer themselves—if I wished free +mornings in which to visit the hospitals, just at the time that all +their professional work was in progress. These clinics are invaluable +and almost unique experiences. They persuaded me more than ever how +much depends in surgery as well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>as in medicine on "the man behind the +gun"; and that mere mileage is not the real handicap on members of our +profession whose fields of work lie away from the centres of learning. +They also imbued me with the profoundest spirit of respect for the +leaders of the healing art.</p> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<p>To no one but myself did it seem odd that a plain Englishman should be +invited to perform the function of best man at the wedding of the +daughter of the President of the United States of America at the White +House. The matter was never even noticed either in the press or in +conversation. The only citizen to whom I suggested the anomaly merely +said, "Well, why not?"</p> + +<p>My long-time fellow worker and one of my best of friends, Francis B. +Sayre, was to be married on November 25, 1913, to Miss Jessie Wilson. +Her father, who, when first I had had the honour of his acquaintance, +happened to be the President of Princeton University, was now the +President of the United States. So we had all the fun of a White House +wedding. Not less than fifty of our fishermen friends from Labrador and +North Newfoundland were invited, and some members of our staff were +present.</p> + +<p>We started the wedding procession upstairs, and came down to the +fanfare of uniformed trumpeters. Our awkwardness in keeping step, +though we had rehearsed the whole business several times, only relieved +the tension that must exist at so important an event in life.</p> + +<p>Trying to dodge the reporters added heaps of fun, which I am sure that +they shared, for they generally got the better of us; though the thrill +of escape from the White House and Washington, so that the honeymoon +rendezvous should not be known, was practically a victory for the +wedding party. As it would never be safe to use <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>the tactics again, I +am permitted after the lapse of many years to give them away. As soon +as dark fell, and while the guests were still revelling, the bride and +groom were hustled into a secret elevator in the thickness of the wall, +whisked up to the robing chambers, and completely disguised. Meanwhile +a suitable camouflage of automobiles had arrived ostentatiously at the +main entrance, to carry and escort the illustrious couple in fitting +pomp to the great station. From the landing the couple were dropped +direct to the basement to a prearranged oubliette. The password was the +sound of the wheels of an ordinary cab at the kitchen entrance. The +moments of suspense were not long. At the sound of the crush on the +gravel a silent door was opened, two completely muffled figures crept +out, and the conspirators drove slowly along round a few corners where +a swift automobile lay panting to add <i>liberté</i> to <i>égalité</i> and +<i>fraternité</i>.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>After the fall spent in America in raising the necessary funds, it was +the now famous Carmania which carried us to England. In spite of a few +days' rest at my old home, and the stimulus of a Grenfell clan +gathering in London, my wife and I were both in need of something which +could direct our minds from our problems, and Boxing Day found us bound +for Paris, Turin, Milan, and Rome.</p> + +<p>Just before Christmas I had had a meeting at the famous office of the +Hudson Bay Company in London, and attended another of their interesting +luncheons where their directors meet. My old friend Lord Strathcona +presided. I could not help noting that after all the lapse of years +since we first met at Hudson Bay House in Montreal, he still retained +his abstemious habits. He was ninety-three, and still at his post as +High Commissioner for a great people, as well as leading councillor of +a dozen companies. His memory of Labrador and his days there, and his +love for it, had not abated one whit. Hearing that the hospital steamer +Strathcona needed a new boiler and considerable repairs, he ordered me +to have the work undertaken at once and the bill sent to him. He, +moreover, insisted that we should spend some days with him at his +beautiful country house near London, an invitation which we accepted +for our return, but which we were never fated to realize, for before +the appointed date that able man had crossed the last bar.</p> + +<p>It is said to be better to be lucky than rich. We had expected in Rome +to do only what the Romans of our pocket-book do. But we fell in with +some old acquaintances <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>whose pleasure it is to give pleasure, and New +Year's night was made memorable by a concert given by the choir of the +Sistine Chapel, to which we were taken by the editor of the "Churchman" +and later of the "Constructive Quarterly," an old friend of ours, Dr. +Silas McBee. A glimpse into the British Embassy gave us an insight into +the problem of Roman modern politics and the factions of the Black and +White.</p> + +<p>Rome is always delightful. One is glad to forget the future and live +for the time in the past. Sitting in the Coliseum in the moonlight I +could see the gladiators fighting to amuse the civilized man of that +period, and gentle women and innocent men dying horrible deaths for +truths that have made us what we are, but which we now sometimes regard +so lightly.</p> + +<p>I confess that religious buildings, religious pictures, religious +conventions of all kinds very soon pall on my particular temperament. +It is possibly a defect in my development, like my inability to +appreciate classical music. On the other hand, like Mark Twain, I enjoy +an ancient mummy just because he is ancient; and were it not for the +irritation of seeing so much religious display associated with such +miserable social conditions in so beautiful a country, I should have +more sympathy with those who would "see Rome and die." The sanitation +of the one-time Mistress of the world suggests that it could not be +difficult to accomplish that feat in the hot weather.</p> + +<p>Brindisi is a household word in almost every English home, especially +one like ours with literally dozens of Anglo-Indian relatives. I was +therefore glad to pass <i>via</i> Brindisi on the road to Athens. Patras +also had its interest to me as a distributing centre for our Labrador +fish. We actually saw three forlorn-looking schooners, with cargoes +from Newfoundland, lying in the harbour.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>One poignant impression left on my mind by Greece, as well as Rome, was +its diminutive size. I almost resented the fact that a place civilized +thousands of years ago, and which had loomed up on my imagination as +the land of Socrates, of Plato, of Homer, of Achilles, of Spartan +warriors, and immortal poets, all seemed so small. The sense of +imposition on my youth worried me.</p> + +<p>In Athens one saw so many interesting relics within a few hundred yards +that it left one with the feeling of having eaten a meal too fast. The +scene of the battle of Salamis fascinated me. When we sat in Xerxes' +seat and conjured up the whole picture again, and saw the meaning to +the world of the great deed for which men so gladly gave their lives to +defeat a tyrant seeking for world power, it made me love those old +Greeks, not merely admire their art.</p> + +<p>On Mars Hill we stood on the spot where, to me, perhaps the greatest +man in history, save one, pleaded with men to accept love as the only +durable source of greatness and power. But every monument, every +bas-relief, every tombstone showed that the fighting man was their +ideal.</p> + +<p>The idea of sailing from the Piraeus reconciled us to the very mediocre +vessel which carried us to Smyrna. Our visit to Asia Minor we had +inadvertently timed to the opening of the International College at +Paradise near Smyrna. This college is the gift of Mrs. John Kennedy of +New York. Mr. Ralph Harlow, our host and a professor at the college, +with Mr. Cass Reid and other friends, made it possible for us to enjoy +intelligently our brief visit. It was just a dream of pleasure. Time +forbids my describing the marvellous work of that and other colleges. +Men of ambition, utterly irrespective of race, colour, creed, or sect, +sit side by side as the alumni. The humanity, not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>the +other-worldliness, of the leaders has made even the Turks, steeped in +the blood of their innocent Christian subjects, recognize the untold +value of these Christian universities, and kept them, their professors, +and buildings, safe during the war.</p> + +<p>Dr. Bliss, of Beyrout, once told us a humorous story about himself. He +had just been addressing a large audience in New York, when immediately +after his speech the chairman rose and announced, "We will now sing the +one hundred and fiftieth hymn, 'From the best bliss that earth imparts, +we turn unfilled to Thee again.'"</p> + +<p>The preservation of Ephesus was a surprise to us, though of late the +Turks have been carrying off its precious historic marble to burn for +lime for their fields. One large marble font in an old Byzantine +baptistry was broken up for that purpose while we were there. We stood +on the very rostrum in the theatre where St. Paul and the coppersmith +had trouble—while at the time of our visit, the only living inhabitant +of that once great city was a hungry ass which we saw harboured in a +dressing-room beneath the platform.</p> + +<p>The anachronism of buzzing along a Roman road, which had not been +repaired since the days of the Cæsars, on our way to Pergamos, in the +only Ford car in the country, was punctuated by having to get out and +shove whenever we came to a cross-drain. These always went over instead +of under the road—only on an exaggerated Baltimorian plan. One night +at Soma, which is the end of the branch railroad in the direction of +Pergamos, we were in the best hotel, which, however, was only half of +it for humans. A detachment of Turkish soldiers were billeted below in +the quarters for the other animals. Snow was on the ground, and it was +bitterly cold. The poor soldiers slept literally on the stone floor. We +were cold, and we felt so sorry for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>them, that after we had enjoyed a +hot breakfast, in a fit of generosity we sent them a couple of baskets +of Turkish specialties. Later in the day we noticed that wherever we +went a Turkish soldier with a rifle followed us. So we turned off into +a side street and walked out into the country. Sure enough the soldier +came along behind. As guide to speak the many languages for us, we had +a Greek graduate of International College, a very delightful young +fellow, very proud of a newly acquired American citizenship. At last we +stopped and bribed that soldier to tell us what the trouble was. "Our +officer thought that you must be spies because you sent gifts to +Turkish soldiers."</p> + +<p>At Pergamos, a Greek Christian—very well off—invited us to be his +guests on Greek Christmas Eve. It was the occasion of a large family +gathering. There were fine young men and handsome, dark-eyed girls, and +all the accessories of a delightful Christian home. When the outer +gates had been locked, and the inner doors bolted and blinds drawn +down, and all possible loopholes examined for spies, the usual +festivities were observed. These families of the conquered race have +lived in bondage some four hundred years, but their patriotism has no +more dimmed than that of ancient Israel under her oppressors. Before we +left they danced for us the famous Souliet Dance—memorial to the brave +Greek girls who, driven to their last stand on a rocky hilltop, jumped +one by one over the precipice as the dance came round to each one, +rather than submit to shame and slavery. From our friends at Smyrna we +learned subsequently that when, a few months later, and just before the +war, the German general visited the country, making overtures to the +Turks, the blow fell on this family like many others, and they suffered +the agony of deportation.</p> + +<p>At Constantinople the kindness of Mr. Morgenthau, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>the American +Ambassador, and the optimism bred by Robert College and the Girls' +School, left delightful memories of even the few days in winter that we +spent there. The museum alone is worth the long journey to it, and when +a teacher from the splendid Girls' School, herself a specialist on the +Hittites, was good enough to show it to us, it was like a leap back +into the long history of man. It seemed but a step to the Neanderthal +skull and our Troglodyte forbears.</p> + +<p>Owing to shortage of time we returned to England through Bulgaria, +passing through Serbia, and stopping for a day at Budapest and two at +Vienna. We would have been glad to linger longer, for every hour was +delightful.</p> + +<p>The month's holiday did me lots of good and sent me back to England a +new man to begin lecturing again in the interests of the distant +Labrador; and with the feeling that, after all, our coast was a very +good place for one's life-work.</p> + +<p>We helped to lessen the tedium of the lectures by doing most of the +travelling in an automobile of my brother's, in which we lived, moved, +and had our meals by the roadside. The lectures took us everywhere from +the drawing-room of a border castle on the line of the old Roman +Wall—which Puck of Pook's Hill had made as fascinating for us as he +did for the children—to the Embassy in Paris.</p> + +<p>Once more the Mauretania carried us to America. April was spent partly +in lecturing and partly in attending surgical clinics—a very valuable +experience being a week's work with Dr. W.R. MacAusland, of Boston, at +his orthopedic clinics in and around that city. He and his brother +"Andy" had passed a summer with us in Labrador. May found us in Canada +visiting our helpers, and stimulating various branches by lectures. +While <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>loading the George B. Cluett in early June in St. John's, +Newfoundland, we organized an education committee to work with the +Institute Committee, to give regular educational lectures throughout +the winter. Dr. Lloyd, our present Prime Minister, and Sir Patrick +McGrath, always a stanch friend of the Mission, helped materially in +this new activity.</p> + +<p>The Institute at the time was housing some of the crew of the +Greenland, who had come through the terrible experiences at the seal +fishery in the spring of 1914. Caught on the ice in a fearful blizzard, +almost all had perished miserably. Some few had survived to lose limbs +and functions from frostburns. The occasion gave the Institute one of +the many opportunities for a service rather more dramatic than the +routine, which did much to win it popularity.</p> + +<p>Midsummer's Day and the two following days we were stuck in a heavy +ice-jam one hundred miles south of St. Anthony. My wife and boys had +arrived in St. Anthony before me, and to find them in our own house, +and the hospital full of opportunity for the line of help which I +especially enjoy, afforded all that heart could wish.</p> + +<p>Early in July the Duke of Connaught, the Governor-General of Canada, +paid us a long-promised visit. It was highly appreciated by all our +people, who would possibly have paid him more undivided attention had +he not been kind enough to send his band ashore—the first St. Anthony +had ever heard. The resplendent uniforms of the members totally +eclipsed that of the Duke, who was in "mufti"; but he readily +understood that the division of attention was really not attributable +to us. He proved to be a thorough good sport and a most democratic +prince.</p> + +<p>The war having broken out in August, we had only one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>idea—economy on +every side, that we might all be able to do what we could. We had not +then begun to realize the seriousness of it sufficiently to dream that +we should be welcome ourselves. We closed up all activities not +entirely necessary, and even the hospital ship went into winter +quarters so early that my fall trip was made from harbour to harbour in +the people's own boats or by mail steamer or schooner, as opportunity +offered.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE WAR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>In the fall of 1915, I was urged by the Harvard Surgical Unit to make +one of their number for their proposed term of service that winter at a +base hospital in France. Having discussed the matter with my directors, +we decided that it was justifiable to postpone the lecture tour which +had been arranged for me, in view of this new need.</p> + +<p>We sailed for England on the Dutch liner New Amsterdam and landed at +Falmouth, passing through a cordon of mine-sweepers and small patrols +as we neared the English shores. My wife's offer to work in France not +being accepted, since I held the rank of Major, we ran down to my old +home, where she decided to spend most of her time. My uniform and kit +were ready in a few days; and in spite of the multitudinous calls on +the War Office officials, I can say in defence of red tape that my +papers were made out very quickly. I was thus able to leave promptly +for Boulogne, near which I joined the other members of my Unit, who had +preceded me by a fortnight.</p> + +<p>It was Christmas and the snow was on the ground when I arrived in +France. There was much talk of trench feet and the cold. Our life in +the North had afforded experiences more like those at the front than +most people's. We are forced to try and obtain warmth and mobility +combined with economy, especially in food and clothing. At the request +of the editor, I therefore sent to the "British Medical Journal" a +summary of deductions from our Northern experiences. Clothes only keep +heat in and damp out. Thickness, not even fur, will warm a statue, and +our ideal has been to obtain light, wind-and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>water-proof material, and +a pattern that prevents leakage of the body's heat from the neck, +wrists, waist, knees, and ankles. Our skin boots, by being soft, +water-tight, and roomy, remove the causes of trench feet. Later when I +returned to England I was invited to the War Office to talk over the +matter. The defects, either in wet and cold or in hot weather, of +woolen khaki cloth are obvious, and when subsequently I visited the +naval authorities in Washington about the same subject, I was delighted +to be assured that on all small naval craft our patterns were being +exclusively used. Who introduced them did not matter.</p> + +<p>I had also advocated a removable insert of sheet steel in a pocket on +the breast of the tunic, this plate to be kept in the trenches and +inserted on advancing; and a lobster-tail steel knee-piece in the +knickers. Of this latter Sir Robert Jones, the British orthopedic +chief, appreciated the value, knowing how many splendid men are put +<i>hors de combat</i> by tiny pieces of shell splinters infecting that +joint. But the "Journal" censored all these references to armour. A +wounded Frenchman at Berck presented me with a helmet heavily dented by +shrapnel, and told me that he owed his life to it. Later at General +Headquarters, General Sir Arthur Sloggett showed me a collection of a +dozen experimental helmets, each of which stood for a saved life.</p> + +<p>One of the soldiers who came under my care had a bullet wound through +the palm of his hand. I happened to ask him where his hand had been +when hit. He said, "On my hip. We were mending a break in our barbed +wire at night, and a fixed rifle got me, exactly where it got my chum +just afterwards, but it went through him."</p> + +<p>"Where did your bullet go?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he answered.</p> + +<p>An examination of his trousers showed the bullet in his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>pocket. It was +embedded in three pennies and two francs which he happened to be +carrying there, and which his wounded hand had prevented his feeling +for afterwards.</p> + +<p>Pathos and humour, like genius and madness, are close akin. One of the +boys told me of a chum who was very "churchy," and always carried an +Episcopal Prayer Book in his pocket—for which he was not a little +chaffed. For a joke one day he was presented with a second that a +messmate had received, but for which he had no use. His scruples about +"wasting it" made him put it in his pocket with the other. Soon after +this, in an advance, he was shot in the chest. The bullet passed right +through the first Prayer Book and lodged in the second, where it was +found on his arrival at hospital for another slight wound. He at least +will long continue to swear by the Book of Common Prayer.</p> + +<p>One day, walking with other officers in the country, we stumbled across +a tiny isolated farm. As usual the voice of the inevitable Tommy could +be heard from within. They were tending cavalry horses, which filled +every available nook and corner behind the lines at a period when +cavalry was considered useless in action. Having learned that one of +these men had been body servant to a cousin of mine, who was a V.C. at +the time that he was killed, I asked him for the details of his death. +The Germans had broken through on the left of his command, and it was +instantly imperative to hold the morale while help from the right was +summoned. Jumping on the parapet, my cousin had stood there encouraging +the line amid volleys of bullets. At the same time he ordered his +servant to carry word to the right at once. Suddenly a bullet passed +through his body and he fell into the trench. Protesting that he was +all right, he declared that he could hold out till the man should come +back. On his return he found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>that my cousin was dead. But help came, +the line held, and the German attack was a costly failure. His servant +had collected and turned in all the little personal possessions of any +value which he had found on the body.</p> + +<p>"I think that you should have got a Military Cross," I said.</p> + +<p>"I did get an M.C.," he answered.</p> + +<p>"I congratulate you," I replied.</p> + +<p>"It was a confinement to barracks. A bullet had smashed to pieces a +little wrist watch which the captain always carried. It was quite +valueless, and I had kept the remnants as a memento of a man whom every +one loved. But a comrade got back at me by reporting it to +headquarters, and they had to punish me, they said."</p> + +<p>It is true, "strafing" was at a low ebb at the time that I arrived in +France; but even I was not a bit prepared for the amount of leisure +time that our duties allowed us. There were in France hundreds of sick +and wounded for every one in the lonely North; but in Labrador you are +always on the go, being often the only available doctor. Our Unit had +at the time only some five hundred beds and a very strong staff, both +of doctors and nurses. In spite of lending one of our colonels and +several of our staff to other hospitals, we still had not enough beds +to keep us fully occupied. It gave me ample time to help out +occasionally in Y.M.C.A. activities, and to do some visiting among the +poor French families and refugees in Boulogne, close to which city our +hospital was located. I could also visit other Units, and give lantern +shows, which had, I thought, special value when psychic treatment was +badly needed. Shell-shock was but very imperfectly understood at the +beginning of the war. The football matches and athletic sports did not +need the asset of being an antidote to shell-shock to attract my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>patronage. Never in my life had I realized quite so keenly what a +saving trait the sporting instinct is in the Anglo-Saxon—a strain of +it in the Teuton might have even averted this war.</p> + +<p>My stay in France enabled me to enjoy that which life on the Labrador +largely denies one—the contact with many educated minds. It was the +custom, if an officer needed a lift along the road, to hail any passing +motor. While walking one day, I took advantage of this privilege, and +found myself driving with Sir Bertrand Dawson, the King's physician, +with whom I thus renewed a most valued acquaintanceship. On another +occasion our host or guest might be Sir Almroth Wright, the famous +pathologist, or Sir Robert Jones would pay us a visit, or Sir Frederick +Treves. In fact, we had chances to meet many of the great leaders of +our profession. Sir Arthur Lawley, the head of our Red Cross in France, +gave me some delightful evenings. Unquestionably there is an intense +pleasure in hearing and seeing personally the men who are doing things.</p> + +<p>Food grew perceptibly scarcer in Boulogne even during my stay. The +<i>petits gâteaux</i> got smaller, the hours during which officers might +enter restaurants for afternoon tea became painfully shorter. But they +were not a whit less enjoyable, reminding one as they did of the dear +old days, long before the war was thought of, and before the war of +life had taken me to Labrador. If one had hoped that a life in the +wilds had succeeded in eradicating natural desires, those relapses in +the midst of war-time completely destroyed any such delusion. Every day +was full of excitement. Bombs fell on the city only twice while I was +there, and, moreover, we were bitterly disappointed that we did not +know it till we read the news in the morning paper. But every day +flying machines of all sorts <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>sailed overhead. My interest never failed +to respond to the buzzing of some hurrying airship, or the sight of a +seaplane dropping out of heaven into the water and swimming calmly +ashore, waddling up the beach into its pen exactly like a great duck.</p> + +<p>One day it was the excitement of watching trawlers from the cliffs +firing-up mines; another, hunting along the beach among the silent +evidences of some tragedy at sea, or riding convalescent horses that +needed exercise, flying along the sands to see some special sight, such +as the carcass of a leviathan wrecked by butting into mine-fields.</p> + +<p>Close to us was a large Canadian Unit. They were changing their +location, and for three months had been in the sorry company of those +who have no work to do. The matron, however, told me that she found +plenty to occupy her time—in such a beehive of officers, with +seventy-five nurses to look after.</p> + +<p>When at the close of the period for which I had volunteered I had to +decide whether to sign on again, my whole inclination was to stay just +another term; but as my commandant, Colonel David Cheever, informed me +that he and a number of the busier men felt that duty called them home, +and that there were plenty of volunteers to take our places, my +judgment convinced me that I was more needed in Labrador.</p> + +<p>I shall not say much of the Y.M.C.A. They need no encomium of mine, but +I am prepared to stand by them to the last ditch. They were doing, not +talking, and were wise enough to use even those agents whom they knew +to be imperfect, as God Himself does when He uses us. The folly of +judging for all cases by one standard is common and human, but it is +not God's way. This conviction was brought home to me in a very odd +manner. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>had gone to lecture at an English Y.M.C.A. hut at the +invitation of the efficient director, who knew me only for a "medical +missionary." On my arrival he most hospitably took me to the cupboard +which he called "his rooms." It was a raw, cold night, and among other +efforts to show his gratitude for my help, to my amazement he offered +me "a drop of Scotch." Astonishment so outran good-breeding that I +unwittingly let him perceive it. "I am not a regular 'Y' man, Major," +he explained. "I'm an Australian, and was living on my little pile when +the war began. They turned me down each place I volunteered on account +of my age. But I was crazy to do my bit, and I offered to work with the +Y.M.C.A. as a stopgap. The War Office has commandeered so many of their +men that they had to take me to 'carry on.' I'm afraid I'm a poor +apology, but I'm doing my best."</p> + +<p>The freedom from convention lent another peculiar charm to the life in +France. The mess sergeant of a headquarters where I was dining one +night, close behind the lines, presented the colonel with a beautifully +illustrated monograph on a certain unmentionable and unwelcome member +of war camps and trench life. The beautiful work and the evidences of +scientific training led me to ask who the mess sergeant might have been +in civil life. "Professor of Biology at the University of ——," was +the reply.</p> + +<p>The most inspiring fact about the Channel ports at that time was the +regularity with which steamers arrived, crowded with soldiers, and +returned with wounded. We could see England on clear days from our +quarters, and could follow the boats almost across. The number of +trawlers at work all the year round, even in heavy gales that almost +blew us off the cliffs, was enough to tell how vigilant a watch was +being kept all the while. One morning only we woke to find a large +stray steamer, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>had entered the roads overnight, sunk across the +harbour mouth, her decks awash at low water—torpedoed, we supposed. +Another day a small patrol, literally cut in half by a mine, was towed +in. But though both in the air and under the sea all the ingenuity of +the enemy from as near by as Ostend was unceasingly directed against +that living stream, not one single disaster happened the whole winter +that I was out. Our mine-fields were constantly being changed. The +different courses the traffic took from day to day suggested that. But +who did it, and when, no one ever knew. The noise of occasional +bomb-firing, once a mine rolling up on the shore, exploding and +throwing some incredibly big fragments onto the golf links, the +incessant tramp of endless soldiers in the street, the ever-present but +silent motors hurrying to and fro, and the nightly arrival of convoys +of wounded, were all that reminded us that any war was in progress. Had +it been permitted, the beach would have been crowded as usual with +invalids, nursemaids, and perambulators.</p> + +<p>The second marvel was that in spite of the enormous numbers of people +coming and going, no secrets leaked out. We gave up looking for news +almost as completely as in winter in Labrador. We seemed to be shut off +entirely in an eddy of the stream, as we are in our Northern wastes.</p> + +<p>The spirit of humour in the wounded Briton was as invaluable as the +love of sport when he is well. On one occasion a small party were going +to relieve a section of the line. The Boches had the range of a piece +of the road over which they had to pass, and the men made dashes singly +or in small numbers across it. A lad, a well-known athlete, was caught +by a shell and blown over a hedge into a field. When they reached him, +his leg was gone and one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>arm badly smashed. He was sitting up smoking +a cigarette, and all he said was, "Well, I fancy that's the end of my +football days." One very undeveloped man, who had somehow leaked into +Kitchener's Army, told me, "Well, you see, Major, I was a bit too weak +for a labouring man, so I joined the army. I thought it might do my +'ealth good!" One of the English papers reported that when a small +Gospel was sent by post to a prisoner in Germany the Teuton official +stamped every page, "Passed by the Censor."</p> + +<p>The practice of listening to the yarns of the wounded was much +discouraged, chiefly for one's own sake, for their knowledge was less +accurate than our own, while shell-shock led them to imagine more. The +censor had always good yarns to tell. The men showed generally much +good-humour and a universal light-heartedness. Our wounded hardly ever +"groused." They hid their troubles and cheered their families, seldom +or never by pious sentiments. One man writing from a regimental camp +close to Boulogne, after a painfully uneventful Channel crossing, +announced, "Here we are in the enemies' country right under the muzzles +of the guns. We got over quite safely, though three submarines chased +us and shelled us all the way. Food here is very short. I haven't +looked at a bun for weeks. A bit more of that cake of yours would do +nicely, not to talk o' smokes. Your loving husband." Another letter was +quoted in the "Daily Mail." It ran: "Dear Mother—This comes hoping +that it may find you as it leaves me at present. I have a broken leg, +and a bullet in my left lung. Your affectionate son."</p> + +<p>Yet the men were far from fatalists, and the psychic stimulus of being +able to tell your patient that he was ordered to "Blighty" was +demonstrable on his history chart. One poor fellow whose right arm was +infected with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>gas bacillus was so anxious to save it that we left it +on too long and general blood poisoning set in. He was on the dying +list. The Government under these circumstances would pay the expenses +of a wife or mother to come over and say the last good-bye. After the +message went, it seemed that our friend could not last till their +arrival, and the colonel decided as a last chance to try intra-venous +injections of Eusol, the powerful antiseptic in use at that time in all +the hospitals. On entering the ward the next morning the nurse told me +with a smiling face, "B. is ever so much better. I think that he will +pull through all right." "Then the Eusol injection has done good, I +suppose?" "His wife and mother came last night and sat up with +him"—and I saw a twinkle in the corner of her eye. Eusol injections +are now considered inert.</p> + +<p>With so many patients who only remained so short a time, there was an +inevitable tendency to relapse into treating men as "cases," not as +brothers. To get through their exterior needed tact and experience. But +if love is a force stronger than bayonets and guns, it certainly has +its place in modern—and all time—surgery. I have a shrewd suspicion +that it is better worth exhibiting than quite a number of the drugs +still on the world's pharmacopœias. Many of the nurses kept +visitors' books, and in these their patients were asked to write their +names or anything they liked. The little fact made them feel more at +home, as if some person really cared for them. One could not help +noticing how many of them broke out into verse, though most of them +were labouring men at home. Although some was not original, it showed +that they liked poetry. Some was extempore, as the following:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Good-bye, dear mother, sister, brother,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drive away those bitter tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For England's in no danger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While there are bomb throwers in the Tenth Royal Fusiliers."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>The following effusion I think was doubtless evolved gradually. It +runs:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There's a little dug-out in a trench,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which the rainstorms continually drench.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the sky overhead, and a stone for a bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And another that acts for a bench.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"It's hard bread and cold bully we chew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is months since we've tasted a stew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Jack Johnsons flare through the cold wintry air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er my little wet home in the trench.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So hurrah for the mud and the clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which leads to 'der Tag,' that's the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we enter Berlin, that city of sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And make the fat Berliners pay."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have never been in any sense what is generally understood by the term +"faith healer," but I am certain that you can make a new man out of an +old one, can save a man who is losing ground, and turn the balance and +help him to win out through psychic agencies when all our chemical +stimulants are only doing harm. That seemed especially true in those +put <i>hors de combat</i> by the almost superhuman horrors of this war. It +seemed to me to pay especially to get the confidence of one's patients. +Thus one man would be drawn out by the gift of a few flowers, a little +fruit, cigarettes, as so many of the kindly visitors discovered. One +man with shrapnel splinters in his abdomen expressed a craving for +Worcester sauce. It appeared to him so unobtainable in a hospital in +France. From the point of view of his recovery I am convinced that the +bottle which we procured in Boulogne was a good investment.</p> + +<p>We eagerly awaited the illustrated papers each week for the same +reason. But personal interest shown in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>themselves, by the time spared +for chatting, was far the most appreciated. We had been very rightly +warned against listening to the wounded men. It was with them in the +base hospitals that the story of the angels of Mons originated. I never +met any one personally who saw anything nearer the supernatural than +that marvellous fight itself—the pluck and endurance of our +"contemptible little army." But some claimed to have seen a spirit but +visible army, such as Elijah at Dothan showed to his servant, or Castor +and Pollux at Lake Regillus, fighting in front of our lines. A Canadian +in command of the C.A.M.C. contingent, who treated thousands of the +wounded as they came back from the front, told me that early in the day +he heard the rumour, and ordered his men to ask as many as possible if +they had seen any such phenomenon. Not one claimed to have done so. Yet +a few days later from the base he heard a great many of these same men +had declared that they had seen the "angels." He considered that the +whole matter arose originally through some hysterical woman, and then +was augmented by the suggestion of the question which he himself had +put to them, made to men shell-shocked and in abnormal mental +conditions.</p> + +<p>Among other deductions from voluminous notes I judged that the Saxons +really did not want to fight, the impression coming from so many +different sources. Some said that they let us know, shouting across "No +Man's Land," that they did not wish to fight, that they were +Christians, had wives and children of their own, that they did not want +to kill any one, and would fire in the air when forced to fire, were +keen to renew the Christmas "pour-parlers." Our men claimed that it was +comparative peace when the Saxons were in the trenches opposite, and +they made friendly overtures as often as they dared. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>They were capable +of attributing honour to others, and those who came over into our lines +asserted that hundreds were anxious to do so, only they were so watched +from behind. Moreover, the outrages committed by the Prussians under +flags of truce had made it impossible for our men to allow any one to +approach. To sit opposite a Saxon regiment for a month and not exchange +shots appeared to be not uncommon. One man told me that they poked up a +notice on their bayonets saying, "We are not going to fight"; and +another said that once when "strafing" somehow commenced, they shouted +from the opposite trenches: "Save your bullets. You'll need them +to-night when the Prussian Guard relieves us"—which proved perfectly +true. One day an elderly man crawled out of their trench, came to our +barbed wire, and called out for bread. We threw him a loaf. He wrapped +up something in his cap and threw it over. We tossed it back with more +bread, but when he went back he left the watch behind.</p> + +<p>After an especially brutal piece of treachery, our men were too +maddened to give quarter, and one said, "A Saxon might have had a +chance with us even then, but a Prussian would have had about as little +as a beetle at a woodpecker's prayer meeting!" The Saxons, on the other +hand, displayed the individual courage of the Anglo-Saxon that helped +to lessen our losses by enabling us to attack in open formation. Every +animal will fight when forced to do so. The cowardly wolf will attack +only in packs; and one of the main reasons for the wholesale holocausts +of mass attacks seems to have been that same lack of real courage in +the boastful and militarist element. He dare not advance alone.</p> + +<p>A colonel in command at the first battle of the Aisne described to me +an incident that I at least did not hear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>elsewhere. He said that the +Germans opposite him came on sixteen abreast, arm in arm, rifles at the +trail or held anyhow. They were singing wildly, and literally jumping +up and down, as if dancing. Fire was reserved till they came within a +few hundred yards, when machine guns started to mow them down. +Hay-pooks, or rather man-pooks, were immediately formed, and the +advancing column, instead of coming straight on, went round and round +the ever-increasing stacks. He believed that they had been filled with +too much dope or too much doctored grog of some kind.</p> + +<p>It was my great desire before returning from France to see the +conditions at the front. I was told that members of American Units were +discouraged from visiting the trenches. Dr. Carrel had twice most +kindly invited me to Compiègne to see his new work on wounds, but +permission to accept had been denied me. Being a British subject and +wearing a British decoration on an American uniform only seemed to +worry the authorities. I had almost abandoned hope, when one day an +automobile stopped at our headquarters, just at the close of my term of +service, and a colonel, a distinguished scientist, jumped out. He told +me if I could get to Medical Headquarters, then at St. Omer, he could +arrange for me to visit each of the four armies I wished to see. I had +no permission to leave the base, though my term of service expired the +next day. I had no passes, and our British commandant would not on his +own responsibility either give me leave or lend me the necessary +outfit. He would only agree to look the other way if I went.</p> + +<p>Passing the sentries was not difficult, but once arrived in St. Omer, +it was essential to have permission from Headquarters before one could +enter any house or hotel. I was accordingly dumped in the dark streets +of a strange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>town and told to be at that exact spot again in two +hours, waiting my sponsor's return. Nor did he say where he was going, +in case we failed to meet, for no one was allowed to mention the +whereabouts of the G.H.Q. After two hours were over, I was at the +appointed spot with that pleasurable sense of excitement that seldom +comes after one has settled down in life. I could then understand +better how a spy must feel. The town naturally was unlit for fear of +aircraft, and yet there was a queer feeling that every one was looking +at you as you walked up and down in the dark. My colonel friend was at +the rendezvous with all the precision of a soldier, not only with the +necessary papers and arrangements for the tour of inspection, but also +a genial invitation to dine at Headquarters. General Sir Arthur +Sloggett and his exceedingly able staff opened my eyes very +considerably before the evening was out as to the methods of the +R.A.M.C. in war-time. It was such a revelation to me that I felt it +would be an infinite comfort to those with loved ones in the trenches +to realize how marvellously efficient the provision for the care of the +soldier's health had become. The main impression on my mind was the +extraordinary developments since the days of the Lady of the Lamp. +Formerly, so long as he was fit to fight, the soldier was always looked +after. Now the soldier unfit to fight had exactly the same rights, just +as after the war let us trust that the broken soldier will be "seen +through" back into civil life. I was honestly surprised that he no +longer depended on voluntary gifts to a charitable society for a +bandage when he lay wounded or for a nurse if sickness overtook him. +The marvellous system of the medical intelligence department, even the +separate medical secret service, worked so efficiently that in spite of +the awful conditions the health of the men in the line was twice as +good as that when at home in civil <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>life. Even disease approaching from +the enemy's side was "spied," and as far as possible forestalled. All +sanitary arrangements, all water supplies, and all public health +matters from the North Sea to the Swiss border were handled by regular +army officers. For the first time in history the medicals were +considered so intimate a part of the fighting force that doctors held +the same rank as executive officers. I was a major—no longer a surgeon +major or just a sanitary official. Those in command were even trusted +in advance with information as to what would likely be required of them +on any part of the front by some manœuvre or attack, though I do not +think that even the general of the R.A.M.C. was admitted to the council +of war.</p> + +<p>The chart-room of the G.H.Q. was another revelation. The walls from +ceiling to floor were occupied with the usual large-scale maps, with +flags on pins; while long, weird, crooked lines of all colours made +elaborate tracings over the charts, like those used in hospitals. These +flags and lines indicated the surgical and medical front, where battles +with typhoid, trench feet, and wounds were being waged by the immense +army of workers under General Sloggett's direction. Laboratories in +motor cars, special surgeons and ambulances were racing here and there, +new hospitals for emergencies were being pushed in different +directions, so that though within range of the enemies' guns, men +wounded in the chest or abdomen could be treated in time to give them a +chance for their lives. Typhoid recurring in any section of the line +might mean the reprimand of the medical officer there; trench feet +became a misdemeanour, so excellent were the precautions devised and +carried out by the N.C.O.'s.</p> + +<p>I ventured at table to say quite truthfully that I, a surgeon from a +base hospital, where we saw endless Red <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span>Cross motor ambulances, and +received so many kindnesses in supplies, and especially luxuries for +our wounded from the Red Cross officials, had been under the impression +that the R.A.M.C. was a sort of small tail to a very large Red Cross +kite, owing to our little army and general unpreparedness when the war +broke out. I could see that to my surprised hosts I appeared to be +mentally deficient, but I was able to assure them that there were tens +of thousands who knew even less than that, and thought that the chances +still were that if their loved ones were hurt, they might be left to +die because some one had not given their annual contribution to a +society. It seemed a very serious omission that the public had not the +information that would carry so much consolation with it. The British +Red Cross has every one's love and support, but its function in war, as +one officer said, must increasingly become, in relation to the +R.A.M.C., that of a Sunday-school treat to the staff of the school.</p> + +<p>The officialdom of Germany and even of France had always contrasted +very unfavourably in my mind with our English methods. I was surprised +in America that so many hospitals were Government institutions, and yet +worked so well.</p> + +<p>At Melville we turned aside to inspect what was apparently a second +Valley of Hinnom. It was a series of furnaces, built out of clay and +old cans, efficiently disposing of the garbage of a town and a large +section of the line. At West Outre an officer found time to show us his +ingenious improvised laundry. His share was to fight the enemy by +keeping our boys decently clean; and for this purpose he collected +their dirty linen into huge piles. He had diverted the only available +brook so as to put a portable building over it. His battalion consisted +of the whole female strength of the country-side, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>had to be +prepared to advance or retire <i>pari passu</i> with the other fighters. The +chattering, shouting crowd, almost invisible in the fog of steam as we +walked through, made me realize how difficult a command this regiment +of washerwomen constituted. The triumph was that they all appeared to +be contented and fraternal.</p> + +<p>As every one knows one of the worst problems of the trenches was +vermin. We entered a huge building used in peace-time for the purposes +of dyeing. A Jack Johnson had only just exploded in the moat that +brought the water to the tanks, but provision was made for trifles of +this kind. When we peered over the edge of a steaming vat, it was to +discover a platoon of Tommies enjoying the "time of their lives," +before they joined the line of naked beings, each scrubbing the now +happy man ahead. An endless stream of garments advanced through +electric superheaters in parallel columns. There seemed as much +excitement about the chance of every man getting his own clothing back +as there is in the bran pie at a children's Christmas party.</p> + +<p>While visiting the mud and squalor of a front trench in Flanders, only +a few yards from the enemy's lines, the cheery occupants offered to +brew some tea, exactly as we "boil our kettle" and have a good time in +the safety of our Northern backwoods. One day I picked up some bright +blue crystals. They proved to be "blue-stone," or sulphate of copper. +When my pilot noticed that its presence puzzled me, he remarked +casually, "There was a regimental dressing-station there a day or so +ago. Probably that is the remains of it."</p> + +<p>On a siding at Calais station a veritable pyramid of filth met my eyes. +On inspection it proved to be odd old boots dug from the mud of the +battle-fields, and, sorted out from the other endless piles of débris, +brought back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>as salvage. To attack one pair of such boots is +depressing. Melancholia alone befitted the pile. Yet I saw close at +hand, through a series of sheds, this polluted current entering and +coming out at the other end new boots, at the rate of a thousand pairs +a day—the talisman not being a Henry Ford of boot-making, but just a +smiling English colonel in the sporting trousers of a mounted officer.</p> + +<p>The ground was still under snow, and we drove over much ice and through +much slush as we returned to our base at Boulogne. My colleagues had +gone back to America and it was a terribly lonely journey to London, +though both steamer and train were crowded. The war was not yet won, +and I could not help feeling an intense desire to remain and see it +through with the brave, generous-hearted men who were giving their +lives for our sakes. Loneliness scarcely describes my sensations; it +felt more like desertion. One road to despair would be the awful +realization that one is not wanted. The work looming ahead was the only +comforting element, with the knowledge that the best of wives and +partners was waiting in London to help me out.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>FORWARD STEPS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>My return to the work after serving in France was embittered by a +violent attack made upon me in a St. John's paper. It was called forth +by a report of a lecture in Montreal where I had addressed the Canadian +Club. The meeting was organized by Newfoundlanders at the Ritz Carlton +Hotel, and the fact that a large number from the Colony were present +and moved the vote of thanks at the end should have been sufficient +guarantee of the <i>bona fides</i> of my statements. But the +over-enthusiastic account of a reporter who unfortunately was not +present gave my critics the chance for which they were looking. It was +at a time when any criticism whatever of a country that was responding +so generously to the homeland's call for help would have been +impolitic, even if true. It subsequently proved one factor, however, in +obtaining the commission of inquiry from the Government, and so far was +really a blessing to our work. In retrospect it is easy to see that all +things work together for good, but at the time, oddly enough, even if +such reports are absolutely false, they hurt more than the point of a +good steel knife. Anonymous letters, on the contrary, with which form +of correspondence I have a bowing acquaintance, only disturb the +waste-paper basket.</p> + +<p>The Governor, the representatives of our Council, the Honourable Robert +Watson and the Honourable W.C. Job, and my many other fast friends, +however, soon made it possible for me to forget the matter. If protest +breeds opposition, it in turn begets apposition, and a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>good line of +demarcation—a "no man's land" between friend and foe—and gives a +healthy atmosphere in so-called times of peace.</p> + +<p>In the year 1915 a large coöperative store was established at Cape +Charles near Battle Harbour, which bred such opposition amongst certain +merchants that it proved instrumental also in obtaining for us the +Government commission of inquiry sent down a few months later. After a +thorough investigation of St. Anthony, Battle Harbour, Cape Charles, +Forteau, Red Bay, and Flowers Cove, summoning every possible witness +and tracing all rumours to their source, the commissioners' findings +were so favourable to the Mission that on their return to St. John's +our still undaunted detractors could only attribute it to supernatural +agencies.</p> + +<p>My colleague at Battle Harbour, Dr. John Grieve, who with his wife had +already given us so many years' work there, and whose interest in the +coöperative effort at Cape Charles was responsible for its initial +success, had worked out a plan for a winter hospital station in Lewis +Bay, and had surveyed the necessary land grant. Through the resignation +of our business manager, Mr. Sheard, and the selection of Dr. Grieve by +the directors as his successor, only that part of the Lewis Bay scheme +which enables us to give work in winter providing wood supplies has so +far materialized.</p> + +<p>In 1915 also, at a place called Northwest River, one hundred and thirty +miles up Hamilton Inlet from Indian Harbour, a little cottage hospital +and doctor's house combined was built, called the "Emily Beaver +Chamberlain Memorial Hospital." Thus the work of Dr. and Mrs. Paddon +has been converted into a continuous service, for formerly when Indian +Harbour Hospital was closed in the fall, they had no place in which +they could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>efficiently carry on their work during the winter months. +Before Dr. Paddon came to the coast, Dr. and Mrs. Norman Stewart gave +us several years of valuable service, spending their summers at Indian +Harbour and returning for the winter to St. Anthony, according to my +original plan when I first built St. Anthony Hospital.</p> + +<p>An old friend and worker at St. Anthony, Mr. John Evans of +Philadelphia, who had helped us with our deer and other problems, +having married our head nurse, the first whom we had ever had from +Newfoundland, found it essential to return and take up remunerative +work at home.</p> + +<p>The increasing number of patients seeking help at St. Anthony made it +necessary to provide proportionately increasing facilities. As I have +stated elsewhere, the sister of my splendid colleague, Dr. Little, in +1909 had raised the money for the new wing of the hospital for the +accommodation of the summer accession of patients. The clinic which had +now grown so tremendously, due to Dr. Little's magnificent work, was +maintaining a permanent house surgeon, Dr. Louis Fallen, who had +faithfully served the Mission at different times at other stations. We +had also regular dental and eye departments.</p> + +<p>The summer of 1917 was saddened for us all by the loss to the work of +my beloved and able colleague, Dr. John Mason Little, Jr., who had +given ten years of most valuable labour to the people of this coast. He +had married, some years before, our delightful and unselfish helper, +Miss Ruth Keese, and they now had four little children growing up in +St. Anthony. The education of his family and the call of other home +ties made him feel that it had become essential for him to terminate +his more intimate connection with the North, and he left us to take up +medical work in Boston. The loss of them both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>was a very heavy one to +the work and to us personally, and we are only thankful that we have +been able to secure Dr. Little's invaluable assistance and advice on +our Board of Directors in Boston. This coast and this hospital owe him +a tremendous debt which can never be repaid, for it was he who put this +clinic in a position to hold up its head among the best of medical +work, and offer to this far-off people the grade of skilled assistance +which we should wish for our loved ones if they were ill or in trouble. +For Dr. Little offered not only his very exceptional skill as a +surgeon, but also the gift of his inspiring and devoted personality.</p> + +<p>The winter of 1917-18 was extremely severe, not only in our North +country, but in the United States and Canada also. I was lecturing +during this winter in both these latter countries, though during the +months of December and January travelling became very difficult owing +to the continuous blizzards. I was held up for three days in Racine, +Wisconsin, as neither trains, electric cars, or automobiles could make +their way through the heavy drifts. Had I had my trusty dog team, +however, I should not have missed three important lecture engagements. +Life in the North has its compensations.</p> + +<p>At Toronto I was unfortunate enough to contract bronchitis and +pleurisy, and I understand from competent observers that I was an +"impossible patient." Be that as it may, so much pressure was brought +to bear on me that at last I was forced to obey the doctors and leave +for a month's rest in a warmer climate.</p> + +<p>Owing to ice and war conditions we did not arrive in St. Anthony until +the first of July. In arriving late we were all spared a terrible +shock. The previous day some of the boys from the Orphanage had gone +fishing in the Devil's Pond, about a mile away, and a favourite +resort <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>with them. Unfortunately that afternoon they were seized with +the brilliant idea of kindling a fire with which to cook their trout. +Greatly to the astonishment of the would-be cooks, the fire quickly got +beyond the one desired for culinary purposes, and, panic-stricken, they +rushed home to give the alarm. Every man ashore and afloat came and +worked, and the obliteration of the place was saved by a providential +change in the wind and wide fire-breaks cut through few and +ill-to-be-spared trees. Everything had been taken from our house—even +furniture and linen—and dragged to the wharf head, where terrified +children, fleeing patients, and heaps of furnishings from the orphanage +and elsewhere were all piled up. Schooners had been hauled in to carry +off what was possible, and the patients in the hospital were got ready +to be carried away at a moment's notice. Only the most strenuous +efforts saved the entire station. Now all our beautiful sky-line is +blackened and charred. All day long the gravity of the debt was in our +hearts, for if the wooden buildings had once had the clouds of fiery +sparks settle upon them, the whole of those dependent upon us would +have been homeless. Surely in a country like this, the incident of this +fire puts an added emphasis upon our need of brick buildings. Gratitude +for our safe return, for all God's mercies to us, and joy over the +outcome of the at one time apparently inevitable disaster, made our +first day of the season a never-to-be-forgotten event.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep406" id="imagep406"></a> +<a href="images/imagep406.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep406.jpg" width="55%" alt="The Labrador Doctor in Winter" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE LABRADOR DOCTOR IN WINTER<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Mr. W.R. Stirling, our Chicago director, who had personally visited the +hospitals, insisted that a water supply must at all costs be secured +both for hospital and orphanage. This was not only to avert the +reproach of typhoid epidemics, two of which had previously occurred, +but also to better our protection for so many helpless lives in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>old +dry wooden buildings, and to economize the great expense of hauling +water by dogs every winter, when our little surface reservoir was +frozen to the bottom. This water supply has only just been finished; +and now we cannot understand how we ever existed without it. But it is +an unromantic object to which to give money, and the total cost, even +doing the work ourselves, amounted to just upon ten thousand dollars. +According to the Government engineer's advice we had a stream to dam +and a mile and a quarter of piping to lay six feet underground to +prevent the water freezing. It is only in very few places that we boast +six feet of soil at all on the rock that forms the frame of Mother +Earth here. Hence there was much blasting to do. But the task was +accomplished, and by our own boys, and has successfully weathered our +bitter winter. The last lap was run by an intensely interesting +experiment. The assistant at Emmanuel Church in Boston brought down a +number of volunteer Boy Scouts to give their services on the +commonplace task of digging the remainder of the trench necessary to +complete the water supply. When they first arrived, our Northern +outside man, after looking at their clothes of the Boston cut, +remarked, "Hm. You'd better give that crowd some softer job than +digging." But they did the work, and a whole lot more besides. For +their grit and jollity, and above all their readiness to tackle and see +through such side tasks as unloading and stowing away some three +hundred tons of coal were real "missionary" lessons.</p> + +<p>The ever-growing demand for doctors as the war dragged on made it +harder and harder to man our far-off stations. The draft in America was +the last straw, doctors having already been forbidden to leave England +or Canada. Dr. Charles Curtis had taken over Dr. Little's work at St. +Anthony, and stood nobly by, getting special <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>permission to do so. Dr. +West, who had succeeded our colleague, Dr. Mather Hare, at Harrington, +when his wife's breakdown had obliged him to leave us, had already +given us a year over his scheduled time, for he had accepted work in +India at the hands of those who had specially trained him for that +purpose.</p> + +<p>We had been having considerable trouble in the accommodation of the +heavy batches of patients that came by the mail boat. They were left on +the wharf when she steamed away, and only the floors of our treatment +and waiting-rooms were available for their reception. For all could not +possibly go into the wards, where children, and often very sick +patients, were being cared for. The people around always stretched +their hospitality to the limit, but this was a very undesirable method +of housing sick persons temporarily. Owing to the generosity of a lady +in New Bedford and other friends, we were enabled to meet the problem +by the erection of a rest house, with first and second class +accommodation. This was built in the spring of 1917, and has been a +Godsend to many besides patients. It makes people free to come to St. +Anthony and stay and benefit by whatever it has to offer, without the +feeling that they have no place to which they can go. Moreover, this +hostel has been entirely self-supporting from the day that it opened, +and every one who goes and comes has a good word for the rest house. It +is run by one of our Labrador orphan boys, whose education was finished +in America, and "Johnnie," as every one calls him, is already a feature +in the life of the place.</p> + +<p>Among the advances of the year 1918 must also be noted that more +subscribers and subscriptions from local friends have been received +than ever before. Our X-ray department has been added to. We have been +able also to improve the roads, a thing greatly to be desired.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>Look where we will, we have nothing but gratitude that in the last year +of a long and exhausting war, here in this far-away section of the +world, the keynote has been one of progress.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION</h4> +<br /> + +<p>What is the future of this Mission? I have once or twice been an +unwilling listener to a discussion on this point. It has usually been +in the smoking-room of a local mail steamer. The subtle humour of W.W. +Jacobs has shown us that pessimism is an attribute of the village "pub" +also. The alcoholic is always a prophet of doom; and the wish is often +father to the thought.</p> + +<p>In our medical work in the wilds we have become a repository of some +old instruments discarded on the death of their owners or cast aside by +the advancing tide of knowledge. Seeing the ingenuity, time, and +expense lavished on many of them, they would make a truly pathetic +museum. Personally I prefer the habits of India to those of Egypt +concerning the departed. If the Pharaoh of the Persecution could see +his mummy being shown to tourists as a cheap side show, I am sure that +he would vote for cremation if he had the choice over again.</p> + +<p>It sounds flippant in one who has devoted his life to this work to say, +"Really I don't care what its future may be." I am content to leave the +future with God. No true sportsman wants to linger on, a wretched +handicap to the cause for which he once stood, like a fake hero with +his peg leg and a black patch over one eye. The Christian choice is +that of Achilles. Nature also teaches us that the paths of progress are +marked by the discarded relics of what once were her corner-stones. The +original Moses had the spirit of Christ when he said, "If Thou wilt, +forgive their sin—and if not, I pray Thee, blot me out of Thy book." +The heroic Paul was willing to be eliminated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>for the Kingdom of God. +It seems to me that that attitude is the only credential which any +Christian mission can give for its existence. If I felt that my work +had accomplished all it could, I would "lay it down with a will."</p> + +<p>As in India and China the missionaries of the various societies are +uniting to build up a native, national Church which would wish to +assume the responsibility of caring for its own problems, so when the +Government of this country is willing and able to take over the +maintenance of the medical work, this Mission would have justified its +existence by its elimination. All lines along which the Mission works +should one day become self-eliminating. Until that time arrives I am +satisfied that the Mission has great opportunities before it. I am an +optimist, and feel certain that God will provide the means to continue +as long as the need exists.</p> + +<p>Some believe that the future of this population depends solely on the +attention paid to the development of the resources of the coast. Not +only are its raw products more needed than ever, but even supposing +that unscientific handling of them has depleted the supply, still there +is ample to maintain a larger population than at present. This can only +be when science and capital are introduced here, combined with an +educated manhood fired by the spirit of coöperation.</p> + +<p>In large parts of China a famine to wipe out surplus population is +apparently a periodical necessity. An orphanage in India for similar +reasons does not seem to be as rationally economic as one for the +Labrador children. I never see a cliff face from which an avalanche has +removed the supersoil and herbage without thinking in pity of the +crowded sections of China, where tearing up even the roots of trees for +fuel has permitted so much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>arable land to be denuded by rains that the +food supply gets smaller while the population grows larger.</p> + +<p>The future of all medical work depends on whether people want it and +can arrange to get it paid for. If all the world become Christian +Scientists, scientific—which we believe to be also Christian—healing +will everywhere die a natural death—and possibly the people also. But +history suggests that the healing art is one of considerable vitality. +My own belief is that in the apparently approaching socialistic age, +medicine will be communized and provided by the State free to all. If +education for the mind is, why not education for the body?</p> + +<p>Certain subtle and very vital psychic influences are probably the best +stock in trade of the "Doctor of the old school." These qualities +appear at present less likely to be "had for hire" in a Government +official. The Chinese may yet return the missionary compliment by +teaching us to adopt their method of paying the doctor only when and as +long as the patient is cured.</p> + +<p>Out of the taxes, the major part of which is paid by the people of the +outport districts in this Colony, the Government provides free medical +aid in the Capital, presumably because those who have the spending of +the money mostly reside there. The Mission provides it in the farthest +off and poorest part of the country, Labrador and North Newfoundland, +because there is no chance whatever at present for the poor people to +obtain it otherwise. Our <i>pro rata</i> share of the taxes, if judged by +the paltry Government grant toward the work, would not provide anything +worth having. The people here pay far better in proportion to their +ability for hospital privileges than they do in Boston or London; the +Government pays a little, and the rest comes from the loving gifts of +those who desire nothing better, when they know of real need, than to +make sacrifices to meet it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>One feels that the Chinese and Japanese and all nations will be able +some day to pay for their own doctors, whether they do it on +individualistic or communistic principles. In the present state of the +world I believe the missionary enterprise to be entirely desirable, or +I would not be where I am. But being a Christian with a little faith, I +hope that it may not be so forever. If anything will stimulate to +better methods, it is example, not precept, and perhaps the best work +of this and all missions will be their reflex influences on Governments +through the governed.</p> + +<p>To carry on the bare essentials of this work an endowment of at least a +million dollars is necessary. Toward this a hundred and sixty thousand +dollars is all that has been contributed, and in addition we can count +annually upon a small Government grant. Even if this million dollars +were given, it would still leave several thousand dollars to be raised +by voluntary subscription each year, a healthy thing for the life of +any charitable work. On the other hand, the certainty of being able to +meet the main bills is an economy in nerve energy, in time and in +money.</p> + +<p>Among our patients brought in one season to St. Anthony Hospital was +the mother of ten children on whom an emergency operation for +appendicitis had to be done—the first time in her life that a doctor +had ever tended her. She came from a very poor home, for besides her +large family her husband had been all his life handicapped by a serious +deformity of one leg caused by a fall. She reminded me of how some +years before a traveller had left her the rug from his dog sledge, as, +without any bedclothes, she was again about to give birth to a child; +how she had actually been unable at times to turn over in bed, because +her personal clothing had frozen solid to the wall of the one-roomed +hut in which she lived.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>In April, 1906, in northern Newfoundland I found a young mother near +St. Anthony. She was twenty-six years old, suffering from acute +rheumatic fever, lying in a fireless loft, on a rickety bedstead with +no bedclothes. She had only one shoddy black dress to her name, and no +underwear to keep her warm in bed in a house like that. The floor was +littered with débris, including a number of hard buns which she could +not now eat, but which some charitable neighbour had sent her. She had +a wizened baby of seven months, which every now and then she was trying +to feed by raising herself on one elbow and forcing bread and water +pap, moistened with the merest suspicion of condensed milk, down its +throat. None of her four previous children had lived so long. She had +been under my care three years before for sailor's scurvy. Her present +illness lasted only a week, and in spite of all that we could do, she +died.</p> + +<p>The desire of the people to be mutually helpful is undoubted, whether +it is to each other or to some "outsider" like ourselves. I question if +in the so-called centres of civilization the following incident can be +surpassed as evidencing this aspect of their character.</p> + +<p>In a little Labrador village called Deep Water Creek I was called in +one day to see a patient: an old Englishman, who was reported to have +had "a bad place this twelvemonth." As I was taken into the tiny +cottage, a bright-faced, black-bearded man greeted me. Three children +were playing on the hearth with a younger man, evidently their father. +"No, Doctor, they aren't ours," replied my host, in answer to my +question. "But us took Sam as our own when he was born, and his mother +lay dead. These be his little ones. You remember Kate, his wife, what +died in hospital."</p> + +<p>After the cup of hot tea so thoughtfully provided, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>said, "Skipper +John, let's get out and see the old Englishman."</p> + +<p>"No need, Doctor. He's upstairs in bed."</p> + +<p>Upstairs was the triangular space between the roof and the ceiling of +the ground floor. At each end was a tiny window, and the whole area, +windows included, had been divided longitudinally by a single thickness +of hand-sawn lumber. Both windows were open, a cool breeze was blowing +through, and a bright paper pasted on the wall gave a cheerful +impression. One corner was shut off by a screen of cheap cheesecloth. +Sitting bolt upright on a low bench, and leaning against the partition, +was a very aged woman, staring fixedly ahead out of blind eyes, and +ceaselessly monotoning what was meant for a hymn. No head was visible +among the rude collection of bedclothes.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Solomon, it's the Doctor," I called. The mass of clothes moved, +and a trembling old hand came out to meet mine.</p> + +<p>"No pain, Uncle Solomon, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No pain, Doctor, thank the good Lord, and Skipper John. He took us in +when the old lady and I were starving."</p> + +<p>The terrible cancer had so extended its ravages that the reason for the +veiled corner was obvious, and also for the effective ventilation.</p> + +<p>"He suffers a lot, Doctor, though he won't own it," now chimed in the +old woman.</p> + +<p>When the interview was over, I was left standing in a brown study till +I heard Skipper John's voice calling me. As I descended the ladder he +said: "We're so grateful you comed, Doctor. The poor old creatures +won't last long. But thanks aren't dollars. I haven't a cent in the +world now. The old people have taken what little we had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>put by. But if +I gets a skin t' winter, I'll try and pay you for your visit anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Skipper John, what relation are those people to you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no relation 'zactly."</p> + +<p>"Do they pay nothing at all?"</p> + +<p>"Them has nothing," he replied.</p> + +<p>"What made you take them in?"</p> + +<p>"They was homeless, and the old lady was already blind."</p> + +<p>"How long have they been with you?"</p> + +<p>"Just twelve months come Saturday."</p> + +<p>I found myself standing in speechless admiration in the presence of +this man. I thought then, and I still think, that I had received one of +my largest fees.</p> + +<p>Ours is primarily a medical mission, and nothing that may have been +stated in this book with reference to other branches of the work is +meant in any way to detract from what to us as doctors is the basic +reason for our being here, though we mean ours to be prophylactic as +well as remedial medicine.</p> + +<p>St. Anthony having so indisputably become the headquarters of the +hospital stations, there can be but one answer to the question of the +advisability of its closing its doors summer or winter in the days to +come. For not only is our largest hospital located there—its scope due +in great measure to the reputation gained for it by Dr. Little's +splendid services, and continued by Dr. Curtis—but also the Children's +Home, our school, machine shop, the headquarters of various industrial +enterprises, and lastly a large storehouse to be used in future as a +distributing centre for the supplies of the general Mission. Moreover, +the population of the environs of St. Anthony, owing to their numbers +and the fact that they can profit by the employment given by the +Mission, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>should be able increasingly to assist in the maintenance of +this hospital, though a large number of its clinic is drawn from +distant parts. These patients come not only from Labrador, the Straits +of Belle Isle, and southern Newfoundland, but we have had under our +care Syrians, Russians, Scandinavians, Frenchmen, and naturally +Americans and Canadians, seamen from schooners engaged in the Labrador +fishery.</p> + +<p>Harrington Hospital, located on the Canadian Labrador, must for many +years to come depend on outside support. I am Lloyd Georgian enough to +feel that taxation should presuppose the obligation to look after the +bodies of the taxed. The Quebec Government gives neither vote, +representation, adequate mail service, nor any public health grant for +the long section of the coast which it claims to govern, that lies west +of the Point des Eskimo. It is to my mind a severe stricture on their +qualifications as legislators. That hospital should, we believe, be +adequately subsidized and kept open summer and winter. At present we +have to thank the Labrador Medical Mission, which is the Canadian +branch of the International Grenfell Association, for their generous +and continued support of this station.</p> + +<p>Battle Harbour and Indian Harbour Hospitals can never be anything but +summer stations, owing to their geographical positions on islands in +frozen seas, on which islands there is practically no population during +the winter months. But gifts and grants sufficient to maintain a doctor +at Northwest River Cottage Hospital, and one if possible in Lewis Bay, +winter supplements to these summer hospitals, are to my thinking more +than justifiable.</p> + +<p>As to the future of our hospital stations at Pilley's Islands, Spotted +Islands, and Forteau, that will depend upon the changing demands of +local conditions. That the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span>need of medical assistance exists is +unquestionable, as is evidenced from the many appeals which I receive +to start hospitals or supply doctors in districts at present utterly +incapable of obtaining such help.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep418" id="imagep418"></a> +<a href="images/imagep418.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep418.jpg" width="95%" alt="Entrance to St. Anthony Harbour" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ENTRANCE TO ST. ANTHONY HARBOUR<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>One still indispensable requisite in our scattered field of work is a +hospital steamer. In fact, not a few of us think that the Strathcona is +the keystone of the Mission. She reaches those who need our help most +and at times when they cannot afford to leave home and seek it. Her +functions are innumerable. She is our eyepiece to keep us cognizant of +our opportunities. She both treats and carries the sick and feeds the +hospitals. She enables us to distribute our charity efficiently. The +invaluable gifts of clothing which the Labrador Needlework Guild and +other friends send us could never be used at all as love would wish, +unless the Strathcona were available to enlarge the area reached. In +spite of all this, those who would quibble over trifles claim that she +is the only craft on record that rolls at dry-dock! Her functions are +certainly varied, but perhaps the oddest which I have ever been asked +to perform was an incident which I have often told. One day, after a +long stream of patients had been treated, a young man with a great air +of secrecy said that he wanted to see me very privately.</p> + +<p>"I wants to get married, Doctor," he confided when we were alone.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's something in which I can't help you. Won't any of the +girls round here have you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! it isn't that. There's a girl down North I fancies, but I'm +shipped to a man here for the summer, and can't get away. Wouldn't you +just propose to her for me, and bring her along as you comes South?"</p> + +<p>The library would touch a very limited field if it were not for the +hospital ship. She carries half a hundred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>travelling libraries each +year. She finds out the derelict children and brings them home. She is +often a court of law, trying to dispense justice and help right against +might. She has enabled us to serve not only men, but their ships as +well; and many a helping hand she has been able to lend to men in +distress when hearts were anxious and hopes growing faint. In a +thousand little ways she is just as important a factor in preaching the +message of love. To-day she is actually loaned for her final trip, +before going into winter quarters, to a number of heads of families, +who are thus enabled to bring out fuel for their winter fires from the +long bay just south of the hospital.</p> + +<p>Her plates are getting thin. They were never anything but +three-eighths-inch steel, and we took a thousand pounds of rust out of +her after cabin alone this spring. She leaks a little—and no iron ship +should. It will cost two thousand dollars to put her into repair again +for future use. Money is short now, but when asked about the future of +the Mission I feel that whatever else will be needed for many years to +come, the hospital ship at least cannot possibly be dispensed with.</p> + +<p>The child is potential energy, the father of the future man, and the +future state; and the children of this country are integral, +determining factors in the future of this Mission. The children who are +turned out to order by institutions seem sadly deficient, both in +ability to cope with life and in the humanities. The "home" system, as +at Quarrier's in Scotland, is a striking contrast, and personally I +shall vote for the management of orphanages on home lines every time. +This is not a concession to Dickens, whose pictures of Bumble I hope +and believe apply only to the dark ages in which Dickens lived; but +historically they are not yet far enough removed for me to advocate +Government orphanages, though our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>Government schools are an advance on +Dotheboys Hall.</p> + +<p>The human body is the result of physical causes; breeding tells as +surely as it does in dogs or cows, and the probability of defects in +the offspring of poverty and of lust is necessarily greater than in +well-bred, well-fed, well-environed children. The proportion of +mentally and morally deficient children that come to us absolutely +demonstrates this fact; and the love needed to see such children +through to the end is more comprehensive than the mere sentiment of +having a child in the home, and infinitely more than the desire to have +the help which he can bring.</p> + +<p>The Government allows us fifty-two dollars a year toward the expense of +a child whose father is dead; nothing if the mother is dead, or if the +father is alive but had better be dead. It would be wiser if each case +could be judged on its merits by competent officials. But we believe it +is a blessing to a community to have the opportunity of finding the +balance.</p> + +<p>Tested by its output and the returns to the country, our orphanage has +amply justified itself. One new life resultant from the outlay of a few +dollars would class the investment as gilt-edged if graded merely in +cash. The community which sows a neglected childhood reaps a whirlwind +in defective manhood.</p> + +<p>In view of these facts—to leave out of consideration my earnest +personal desire—there can never be any question in my mind as to the +imperative necessity of the Mission's continuance of the work for +derelict children. This conclusion seems to me safeguarded by the fact +that all nations are placing increasing emphasis on "the child in the +midst of them."</p> + +<p>When Solomon chose wisdom as the gift which he most desired, the Bible +tells us that it was pleasing to God. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>St. Paul holds out the hope that +one day we shall know as we are known. But there is a vast difference +between knowledge and being wise. In fact, from the New Testament +itself we are led to believe that the devils knew far more than even +the Disciples.</p> + +<p>The school is an essential part of the orphanage. Seeing that the +village children needed education just as much as those for whom we +were more directly responsible, and realizing the value to both of the +coöperation, and that the denominational system which still persists in +the country is a factor for division and not for unity, it became +obviously desirable for us to provide such a bond. Friends made the +building possible. The generosity of a lady in Chicago in practically +endowing it has, we feel, secured its future. We have now a proper +building, three teachers, a graded school, modern appliances for +teaching, and vastly superior results. In these days when the +expenditure of every penny seems a widow's mite, one welcomes the +encouragement of facts such as these to enable one to "carry on."</p> + +<p>Modern pedagogy has brought to the attention of even the man in the +street the realization that education consists not merely in its +accepted scholastic aspect, but also that training of the eye and hand +which in turn fosters the larger development of the mind. In the latter +sense our people are far from uneducated. Taking this aptitude of +theirs as a starting-point, some twelve years ago we began our +industrial department, first by giving out skin work in the North, and +later started other branches under Miss Jessie Luther, who subsequently +gave many years of service to the coast.</p> + +<p>The coöperative movement is the same question seen from another angle, +and is almost contemporaneous with our earliest hospitals.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span>It is not unnatural that man, realizing that he is himself like "the +grass that to-morrow is cast into the oven," should worry over the +permanency of the things on which he has spent himself. Though Christ +especially warns us against this anxiety, religious people have been +the greatest sinners in laying more emphasis upon to-morrow than +to-day. The element which makes most for longevity is always +interesting, even if longevity is often a mistake. Almost every old +parish church in England maintains some skeleton of bygone efforts +which once met real needs and were tokens of real love.</p> + +<p>The future is a long way off—that future when Christ's Kingdom comes +on earth in the consecrated hearts and wills of all mankind, when all +the superimposed efforts will be unnecessary. But love builds for a +future, however remote; and at present we see no other way than to work +for it, and know of no better means than to insure the permanency of +the hospitals, orphanage, school, and the industrial and coöperative +enterprises, thus to hasten, however little, the coming of Christ in +Labrador.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MY RELIGIOUS LIFE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>No one can write his real religious life with pen or pencil. It is +written only in actions, and its seal is our character, not our +orthodoxy. Whether we, our neighbour, or God is the judge, absolutely +the only value of our "religious" life to ourselves or to any one is +what it fits us for and enables us to do. Creeds, when expressed only +in words, clothes, or abnormal lives, are daily growing less acceptable +as passports to Paradise. What my particular intellect can accept +cannot commend me to God. His "well done" is only spoken to the man who +"wills to do His will."</p> + +<p>We map the world out into black and white patches for "heathen" and +"Christian"—as if those who made the charts believed that one section +possessed a monopoly of God's sonship. Europe was marked white, which +is to-day comment enough on this division. A black friend of mine used +often to remind me that in his country the Devil was white.</p> + +<p>My own religious experiences divide my life into three periods. As a +boy at school, and as a young man at hospital, the truth or untruth of +Christianity as taught by the churches did not interest me enough to +devote a thought to it. It was neither a disturbing nor a vital +influence in my life. My mother was my ideal of goodness. I have never +known her speak an angry or unkind word. Sitting here looking back on +over fifty years of life, I cannot pick out one thing to criticize in +my mother.</p> + +<p>What did interest me was athletics. Like most English boys I almost +worshipped physical accomplishments. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>I had the supremest contempt for +clothes except those designed for action or comfort. Since no saint +apparently ever wore trousers, or appeared to care about football +knickers, I never supposed that they could be the same flesh as myself. +It was always a barrier between me and the parsons and religious +persons generally that they affected clothing which dubbed my ideals +"worldly." It was even a barrier between myself and the Christ that I +could not think of Him in flannels or a gymnasium suit. At that time I +should have considered such an idea blasphemous—whatever that meant. +As soon as religious services ceased to be compulsory for me, I only +attended them as a concession to others. The prime object of the +prayers and lessons did not appear to be that they might be understood. +So far as I could see, common sense and plain natural feelings were at +a discount. A long heritage of an eager, restless spirit left me +uninterested in "homilies," and aided by the "dim religious light," I +was enabled to sleep through both long prayers and sermons. Justice +forces me to add that the two endless hours of "prep" lessons after tea +had very much the same effect upon me.</p> + +<p>At the request of my mother I once went to take a class at the Sunday +School. These were for the "poor only" in England in those days. Little +effort was expended on making them attractive. I recall nothing but +disgust at the dirty urchins with whom I had to associate for half an +hour. An incident which happened on the death of one of the boys at my +father's school interested me temporarily in religion. The boy's father +happened to be a dissenter, and our vicar refused to allow the gates of +the parish churchyard to be opened to enable the funeral cortège to +enter. My chum had only a legal right to be buried in the yard. The +coffin had therefore to be lifted over the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span>wall and as the church was +locked, father conducted the service in the open air. His words at the +grave-side gave a touch of reality to religion, and still more so did +his walking down the aisle out of church the following Sunday when the +vicar referred to the destructive influence of anything that lent +colour to dissent. Later when father threw up the school for the far +more onerous and less remunerative task of chaplain at the London +Hospital, even I realized that religion meant something. Indeed, it was +that tax on his sensitive, nervous brain that brought his life to its +early close. No man ever had a more generous and soft-hearted father. +He never refused us any reasonable request, and very few unreasonable +ones, and allowed us an amount of self-determination enjoyed by few. +How deeply and how often have I regretted that I did not understand him +better. His brilliant scholarship, and the friends that it brought +around him, his ability literally to speak Greek and Latin as he could +German and French, his exceptionally developed mental as compared with +his physical gifts, were undoubtedly the reasons that a very ordinary +English boy could not appreciate him.</p> + +<p>At fourteen years of age, at Marlborough School, I was asked if I +wished to be confirmed. Every boy of that age was. It permitted one to +remain when "the kids went out after first service." It added dignity, +like a football cap or a mustache. All I remember about it was bitterly +resenting having to "swat up" the Catechism out of school hours. I +counted, however, on the examiner being easy, and he was. I am an +absolute believer in boys making a definite decision to follow the +Christ; and that in the hands of a really keen Christian man the rite +of confirmation is very valuable. The call which gets home to a boy's +heart is the call to do things. If only a boy can be led to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>see that +the following of Christ demands a real knighthood, and that true +chivalry is Christ's service, he will want all the rites and ceremonies +that either proclaim his allegiance or promise him help and strength to +live up to it.</p> + +<p>What I now believe that D.L. Moody did for me was just to show that +under all the shams and externals of religion was a vital call in the +world for things that I could do. This marks the beginning of the +second period of my religious development. He helped me to see myself +as God sees the "unprofitable servant," and to be ashamed. He started +me working for all I was worth, and made religion real fun—a new field +brimming with opportunities. With me the pendulum swung very far. The +evangelical to my mind had a monopoly of infallible truth. A Roman +Catholic I regarded as a relic of mediævalism; while almost a rigour +went down my spine when a man told me that he was a "Unitarian +Christian." Hyphenation was loyalty compared to that. I mention this +only because it shows how I can now understand intolerance and +dogmatism in others. Yes, I must have been "very impossible," for then +I honestly thought that I knew it all.</p> + +<p>About this time I began to be interested in reading my Bible, and I +learned to appreciate my father's expositions of it. At prayers he +always translated into the vernacular from the original of either the +Old or the New Testament. To me he seemed to know every sense of every +Greek word in any setting. Ever since I have been satisfied to use an +English version, knowing that I cannot improve on the words chosen by +the various learned translators.</p> + +<p>Because I owed so much to evangelical teachers, it worried me for a +long while that I could not bring myself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>to argue with my boys about +their intellectual attitude to Christ. My Sunday class contained +several Jews whom I loved. I respected them more because they made no +verbal professions. I have seen Turkish religionists dancing and +whirling in Asia Minor at their prayers. I have seen much emotional +Christianity, and I fully realize the value of approaching men on their +emotional side. A demonstrative preacher impresses large crowds of +people at once. But all the same, I have learned from many +disillusionments to be afraid of overdoing emotionalism in religion. +Summing up the evidence of men's Christlikeness by their characters, as +I look back down my long list of loved and honoured helpers and +friends, I am certainly safe in saying that I at least should judge +that no section of Christ's Church has any monopoly of Christ's spirit; +and that I should like infinitely less to be examined on my own +dogmatic theology than I should thirty-five years ago. Combined with +this goes the fact that though I know the days of my stay on earth are +greatly reduced, I seem to be less rather than more anxious about "the +morrow." For though time has rounded off the corners of my conceit, +experience of God's dealing with such an unworthy midget as myself has +so strengthened the foundations on which faith stood, that Christ now +means more to me as a living Presence than when I laid more emphasis on +the dogmas concerning Him.</p> + +<p>This chapter would not be complete without an endeavour to face the +task of trying to answer the questions so often asked: "What is your +position now? Do you still believe as you did when you first decided to +serve Christ?" I am still a communicant member "in good standing" of +the Episcopal Church. One hopes that one's religious ideas grow like +the rest of one's life. It is fools who are said to rush in where +angels fear to tread. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>most powerful Christian churches in the +world, the Greek and the Roman, recognizing the great dangers +threatening, have countered by stereotyping the answer for all time, +assuming all responsibility, and permitting no individual freedom in +the matter. The numbers of their adherents testify to how vast a +proportion of mankind the course appeals. And yet we are sons of +God—and at our best value freedom in every department of our +being—spirit as well as mind and body. George Adam Smith says: "The +great causes of God and humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults +of the Devil, but by the slow, crushing, glacier-like mass of thousands +and thousands of indifferent nobodies. God's causes are never destroyed +by being blown up, but by being sat upon. It is not the violent and +anarchical whom we have to fear in the war for human progress, but the +slow, the staid, the respectable; and the danger of these lies in their +real skepticism. Though it would abhor articulately confessing that God +does nothing, it virtually means so by refusing to share manifest +opportunities for serving Him."</p> + +<p>Feeble and devious as my own footsteps have been since my decision to +follow Jesus Christ, I believe more than ever that this is the only +real adventure of life. No step in life do I even compare with that one +in permanent satisfaction. I deeply regret that I did not take it +sooner. I do not feel that it mattered much whether I chose medicine +for an occupation, or law, or education, or commerce, or any other way +to justify my existence by working for a living as every honest man +should. But if there is one thing about which I never have any +question, it is that the decision and endeavour to follow the Christ +does for men what nothing else on earth can. Without stultifying our +reason, it develops all that makes men godlike. Christ claimed that it +was the only way to find out truth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>To me, enforced asceticism, vows of celibacy, denunciation of pleasures +innocent in themselves, intellectual monopoly of interpretation of +things past or present, written or unwritten, are travesties of common +sense, which is to me the Voice within. Not being a philosopher, I do +not classify it, but I listen to it, because I believe it to be the +Voice of God. That is the first point which I have no fear in putting +on record.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary revelations of some Power outside ourselves leading +and guiding and helping and chastening are, I am certain, really the +ordinary experiences of every man who is willing to accept the fact +that we are sons of God. Only a child, however, who submits to his +father can expect to enjoy or understand his dealings. If we look into +our everyday life we cannot fail to see that God not only allows but +seeks our coöperation in the establishment of His Kingdom. So the +second fundamental by which I stand is the certainty of a possible real +and close relationship between man and God. Not one qualm assails my +intellect or my intuition when I say that I know absolutely that God is +my Father. To live "as seeing Him who is invisible" is my one ideal +which embraces all the lesser ideals of my life.</p> + +<p>It has been my lot in life to have to stand by many death-beds, and to +be called in to dying men and women almost as a routine in my +profession. Yet I am increasingly convinced that their spirits never +die at all. I am sure that there is no real death. Death is no argument +against, but rather for, life. Eternal life is the complement of all my +unsatisfied ideals; and experience teaches me that the belief in it is +a greater incentive to be useful and good than any other I know.</p> + +<p>I have read "Raymond" with great interest. I am neither capable nor +willing to criticize those who, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>the deductive ability of such men +as Sir Oliver Lodge, are brave enough and unselfish enough to devote +their talents to pioneering in a field that certainly needs and merits +more scientific investigation, seeing that it has possibilities of such +great moment to mankind.</p> + +<p>The experiences on which rest one's own convictions of continuing life +are of an entirely different nature. Even though the first and personal +reason may seem foolish, it is because I desire it so much. This is a +natural passion, common to all human beings. Experience convinces me +that such longings are purposeful and do not go unsatisfied.</p> + +<p>No, we do not know everything yet; and perhaps the critic is a +shallower fool than he judges to be the patient delvers into the +unknown beyond. The evidence on which our deductions have been based +through the ages may suddenly be proven fallible after all. It may be +that there is no such thing as matter. Chemists and physicists now +admit that is possible. The spiritual may be far more real than the +material, in spite of the cocksure conceit of the current science of +1918. Immortality may be the complement of mortality, as water becomes +steam, and steam becomes power, and power becomes heat, and heat +becomes light. The conclusion that life beyond is the conservation of +energy of life here may be as scientific as that great natural law for +material things. I see knowledge become service, service become joy. I +see fear prohibit glands from secreting, hope bring back colour to the +face and tone to the blood. I see something not material make Jekyl +into Hyde; and thank God, make Hyde over into Jekyl again, when birch +rods and iron bars have no effect whatever. I have seen love do +physical things which the mere intellectual convictions cannot—make +hearts beat and eyes sparkle, that would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>not respond even to digitalis +and strychnine. I claim that the boy is justified in saying that his +kite exists in the heaven, even though it is out of sight and the +string leads round the corner, on no other presumption than that he +feels it tugging. I prefer to stand with Moses in his belief in the +Promised Land, and that we can reach it, than to believe that the +Celestial City is a mirage.</p> + +<p>This attempted analysis of my religious life has revealed to me two +great changes in my position toward its intellectual or dogmatic +demands, and both of them are reflections of the ever rightly changing +attitude of the defenders of our Christian faith. "Tempora mutantur et +nos mutamus in illis." Christians should not fret because they cannot +escape adapting themselves to the environment of 1918—which is no +longer that of 918, or 18. The one and only hope for any force, +Christianity no less than others, is its ability to adapt itself to all +time.</p> + +<p>I still study my Bible in the morning and scribble on the margin the +lessons which I get out of the portion. I can only do it by using a new +copy each time I finish, because it brings new thoughts according to +the peculiar experiences, tasks, needs, and environments of the day. I +change I know. It does not—and yet it does—for we see the old truths +in new lights. That to me is the glory of the Scriptures. Somehow it +suits itself always to my developing needs. Christ did not teach as did +other teachers. He taught for all time. We find out that our attitude +to everything changes, to the things that give us pleasure and to those +that give us pain. It is but a sign of healthy evolution (in this +chapter, I suppose I should call it "grace") that the great churches +have ceased to condemn their leaders who are unsound on points which +once spelt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>fagot and stake. To-day predestination no longer involves +the same reaction, even if dropped into a conference of selected "Wee +Frees." The American section of the Episcopal Church has omitted to +insist on our publicly and periodically declaring that we must have a +correct view of three Incomprehensibles, or be damned, as is still the +case in our Church of England.</p> + +<p>I am writing of my religion. The churches are now teaching that +religion is action, not diction. There was a time when I could work +with only one section of the Church of God. Thank God, it was a very +brief period, but I weep for it just the same. Now I can not only work +with any section, but worship with them also. If there is error in +their intellectual attitudes, it is to God they stand, not to me. +Doubtless there is just as much error in mine. To me, he is the best +Christian who "judges not." To claim a monopoly of Christian religion +for any church, looked at from the point of view of following Jesus +Christ, is ridiculous. So I find that I have changed, changed in the +importance which I place on what others think and upon what I myself +think.</p> + +<p>Unless a Christian is a witness in his life, his opinions do not matter +two pins to God or man. Of course, to-day <i>we</i> should not burn +Savonarola, any more than we should actually crucify that brave old +fisherman, Peter, or ridicule a Gordon or a Livingstone, or assassinate +a Lincoln or a Phillips Brooks, even with our tongues, though they +differed from us in their view of what the Christian religion really +needs. Oh, of course we shouldn't!</p> + +<p>Perhaps my change spells more and not less faith in the Saviour of the +world. As I love the facts of life more, I care less for fusty +commentators. As I see more of Christ's living with us all the days, I +care less for arguments about His death. I have no more doubt that He +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>lives in His world to-day than that I do. Why should I blame myself +because more and more my mind emphasizes the fact that it is because He +lives, and only so far as He lives in me, that I shall live also?</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>INDEX</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span><br /> +<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>INDEX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<ul><li>Agriculture, in Labrador, unsuccessful, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li>Alaska, reindeer experiment in, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-295</a>.</li> + +<li>Albert, the, hospital ship of Dr. Grenfell, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Among the Deep-Sea Fishers</i>, magazine, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Andrews, Dr. Joseph, eye-specialist, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li>Archibald, Sir William, chairman of the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li>Armstrong, Dr. Seymour, his work at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Arnold, Thomas, of Rugby, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + +<li>Athletics, Grenfell's fondness of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Bailey, Florence, nurse, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + +<li>Barnett, Samuel, of Mile End, head of Toynbee House, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Barter system, the evils of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133-138</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215-217</a>.</li> + +<li>Bartlett, Captain, father of "Captain Bob," <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Battle Harbour, Newfoundland, site of hospital, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + +<li>Beattie, Arthur, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li>Beetz, Mr., <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> + +<li>Begbie, Harold, <i>Twice-Born Men</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + +<li>Bell, Dr. Alexander Graham, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Belle Isle, the Straits of, Labrador, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li>Besant, Mrs. Annie, associated with Charles Bradlaugh, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Blandford, Captain Samuel, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + +<li>Bobardt, Dr. Arthur, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159-162</a>.</li> + +<li>Booth, Walter, of New York, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> + +<li>Bowditch, William, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + +<li>Boys' Brigade, the, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Bradlaugh, Charles, religious radical, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Cabot, John, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li>Carpenter, Rev. C.C., <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + +<li>Carrel, Dr. Alexis, in France, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Cartier, Jacques, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Cartwright, George, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Catholic Cadet Corps, the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Cattle-raising in Labrador unsuccessful, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li>Cawardine, Miss, nurse, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li>Charity, prophylactic, more important than remedial, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> + +<li>Cheever, Colonel David, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li> + +<li>Chester, England, birthplace of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> + +<li>Chidley, Cape, Labrador, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Children's Home, the, <a href="#Page_244">244-253</a>.</li> + +<li>Church Lads Brigade, the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Clark, Sir Andrew, doctor, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li>Cluett, George B., of Troy, N.Y., <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li> + +<li>Cook, Captain, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>Coöperative system, the, <a href="#Page_215">215-225</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Corner</i>, the, magazine, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> + +<li>Crookhaven, seat of a dispensary and social centre, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + +<li>Crowe, Harry, lumber operator, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Curtis, Dr. Charles, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li> + +<li>Curtis, Lieutenant Roger, quoted, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Curwen, Dr. Elliott, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li>Curzon-Howe, Lady, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Curzon-Howe, Lord, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Cutter, Marion, librarian, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Daly, Professor Reginald, head of Department of Geology at Harvard University, quoted, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> + +<li>Dampier, William, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Davis Inlet, Labrador, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li> + +<li>Dawson, Sir Betrand, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Dee, the River, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li>Delano, Eugene, head of Brown Brothers, bankers, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> + +<li>Denominationalism, evils of, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Dogs, Labrador, ferocity of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li>Domino Run, Labrador, natural harbour, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li>Drake, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></li> + +<li>Durand, Mrs. Charles, aunt of Mrs. Grenfell, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Education in Labrador: schools denominational, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Grenfell's school, <a href="#Page_257">257-264</a>;</li> + <li>moving libraries, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> + <li>founding of undenominational boarding school, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Edward VII, King, Grenfell's private audience with, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li>Edwards, Antiguan lecturer of the Christian Evidence Society, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + +<li>Emily Beaver Chamberlain Memorial Hospital, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li>English, Robert, of Yale College, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> + +<li>Eskimos, the, Grenfell's work with, <a href="#Page_129">129-136</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>original natives of Labrador, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> + <li>Valentine, king of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li> + <li>suffering of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Evans, John, worker at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Fallon, Dr. Louis, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + +<li>Faroë Islands, the, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + +<li>Fenwick, Harry, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + +<li>"Fisher Lads' Letter-Writing Association," <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> + +<li>Fishermen's Institute, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> + +<li>Ford, George, factor of Hudson Bay Company, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li>Fox Farm, at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_238">238-240</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>George V, King, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Gladstone, W.E., <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + +<li>Gosling, Mrs. W.E., <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Gould, Albert, volunteer helper of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> + +<li>Great Cop, the, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li>Greenshields, Julia, editor of <i>Among the Deep-Sea Fishers</i>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Algernon, brother of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Algernon Sydney, father of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Cecil, brother of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Kinloch Pascoe, son of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Maurice, brother of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Pascoe, of Bank of England, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Rosamond Loveday, daughter of W.T.G., <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>ancestry, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li> + <li>early days, <a href="#Page_2">2-14</a>;</li> + <li>school life, <a href="#Page_15">15-36</a>;</li> + <li>study of natural objects, <a href="#Page_34">34-36</a>;</li> + <li>choice of medical profession, <a href="#Page_37">37-39</a>;</li> + <li>college life, <a href="#Page_41">41-44</a>;</li> + <li>interest in athletics, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> + <li>religious awakening, <a href="#Page_44">44-46</a>;</li> + <li>Sunday-school class and slum work, <a href="#Page_46">46-53</a>;</li> + <li>summer cruises, <a href="#Page_53">53-57</a>;</li> + <li>camping with boys, <a href="#Page_57">57-63</a>;</li> + <li>germination of democratic tendencies, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> + <li>interne in London Hospital, <a href="#Page_64">64-87</a>;</li> + <li>father's death, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li> + <li>humanitarian ideals, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li>hatred of liquor traffic, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li> + <li>association with religious radicals in East London, <a href="#Page_81">81-86</a>;</li> + <li>cosmopolitan life, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li>member of College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons of England, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li>first work in fisheries of North Sea, <a href="#Page_88">88-98</a>;</li> + <li>his religion intensely social, <a href="#Page_99">99-101</a>;</li> + <li>medical officer in boys' summer-camps, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li>development of work in North Sea and off Irish coast, <a href="#Page_104">104-114</a>;</li> + <li>preparation and departure for America, <a href="#Page_113">113-118</a>;</li> + <li>first summer in Labrador, <a href="#Page_119">119-125</a>;</li> + <li>success in Labrador, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li> + <li>return to England, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>second voyage to Labrador, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>founding of cottage hospitals, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> + <li>visits to Moravian Brethren and work among Eskimos, <a href="#Page_128">128-138</a>;</li> + <li>lecturing and soliciting in southern Newfoundland and Canada, <a href="#Page_159">159-162</a>;</li> + <li>cruising north, <a href="#Page_163">163-170</a>;</li> + <li>experience with seal fishery, <a href="#Page_173">173-182</a>;</li> + <li>trip to Iceland, <a href="#Page_183">183-187</a>;</li> + <li>holiday with Treves on Scilly Islands, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> + <li>third voyage to Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li> + <li>requested to establish a winter station at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li>winter at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_197">197-214</a>;</li> + <li>institution of coöperative system, <a href="#Page_218">218-225</a>;</li> + <li>institution of saw-mill in North Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_226">226-238</a>;</li> + <li>fox farm at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> + <li>founding of The Children's Home, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li>founding of common school, <a href="#Page_257">257-265</a>;</li> + <li>moving libraries, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> + <li>arrangement of two-cent postal rate, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</li> + <li>awarded honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine of Oxford, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</li> + <li>received honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in America, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li> + <li>received Companionship in the Order of St. Michael and St. George, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></li> + <li>reindeer experiment, <a href="#Page_288">288-303</a>;</li> + <li>propaganda lecturing in England, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</li> + <li>courtship, <a href="#Page_333">333-337</a>;</li> + <li>enlargement of St. Anthony Hospital, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>;</li> + <li>marriage and family, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</li> + <li>assumption of coöperative store debt, <a href="#Page_344">344-347</a>;</li> + <li>founding of Institute at St. John's, <a href="#Page_349">349-353</a>;</li> + <li>lecture tour in U.S. and England, <a href="#Page_357">357-361</a>;</li> + <li>lecture tour again, <a href="#Page_371">371-374</a>;</li> + <li>holiday in Asia Minor, <a href="#Page_376">376-382</a>;</li> + <li>winter at base hospital in France (1915), <a href="#Page_384">384-402</a>;</li> + <li>attacked by a St. John's newspaper, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;</li> + <li>growth and development of Mission, <a href="#Page_404">404-410</a>;</li> + <li>religious life, <a href="#Page_424">424-434</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, Jr., <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell Association of America, the, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Grenfell Town, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Grieve, Dr. John, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Haldane, Lord, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li>Halifax, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> + +<li>Hare, Dr. Mather, work at Harrington, <a href="#Page_275">275-276</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</li> + +<li>Harrington Hospital, Canadian Labrador, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> + +<li>Hause, Mr., of Pratt Institute, volunteer student helper, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li>Hearn longliners and trawlers, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> + +<li>Heligoland, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + +<li>Henley, or Château, Labrador, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Henson, Dr. Hensley, Bishop of Hereford, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Home, the Children's, <a href="#Page_244">244-253</a>.</li> + +<li>Hopedale, Labrador, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + +<li>Horsley, Sir Victor, doctor, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + +<li>Hot-heads, launches used in open sea, <a href="#Page_275">275-279</a>.</li> + +<li>Hudson Bay Company, the, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + +<li>Huxley, Professor, his criticism of English public school teaching, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + +<li>Hyères, France, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Iceland, <a href="#Page_183">183-187</a>.</li> + +<li>Illiteracy, in Newfoundland and Labrador, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +<li>Indian Harbour, site of one of Grenfell's hospitals, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li>Indian Tickle, Labrador, site of a church built by Labrador Mission, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> + +<li>Ingram, Rt. Rev. A.F. Winnington, Bishop of London, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>International Grenfell Association the, formation of, <a href="#Page_358">358-359</a>.</li> + +<li>Ireland, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + +<li>Irish Poor-Relief Board, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> + +<li>Irving, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Jackson, Rev. Dr. Sheldon, Presbyterian missionary in Alaska, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> + +<li>Job, the Honourable W.C., <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li>Job, Mrs. W.C., <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Rev. Dr. Edgar, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Sir Robert, orthopedic surgeon. <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li>Jones, Mr. Walter, manager of Institute at St. John's, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Julia Sheriden, the, Mission steamer, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Kean, Captain, of the S.S. Wolf, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + +<li>Keese, Ruth (Mrs. John Mason Little, Jr.), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + +<li>Kingsley, Charles, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li>Komatik, description of a, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li><i>Labrador, the Country and the People</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + +<li>Labrador, inhabitants of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>climate of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;</li> + <li>fishing industry, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li>poverty of people, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148-153</a>;</li> + <li>superstition of people, <a href="#Page_142">142-145</a>;</li> + <li>natural characteristics of, <a href="#Page_156">156-158</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Lake Forest, on Lake Michigan, Mrs. Grenfell's home, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>Lapps, <a href="#Page_292">292-294</a>.</li> + +<li>Leacock, Stephen, his essay, <i>How to Become a Doctor</i>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> + +<li>Leslie, Olive, kindergartner, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> + +<li>Lewis Bay, Labrador, winter hospital station at, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li>Lighthouses, at Battle Harbour, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>at White Point, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> + <li>at Indian Harbour, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Liquor traffic, the, Grenfell's hatred of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>his suppression of, at St. Anthony, <a href="#Page_209">209-214</a>;</li> + <li>at St. John's, <a href="#Page_353">353-356</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Lister, Sir Joseph, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +<li>Little, Dr. John Mason, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> + +<li>Lloyd, Dr., Prime Minister of Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></li> + +<li>Lodge, Sir Oliver, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li> + +<li>London Hospital and University, Grenfell's father chaplain of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Grenfell's alma mater, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Loti, Pierre, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> + +<li>Luther, Jessie, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>MacAusland, Dr. W.R., of Boston, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> + +<li>MacClanahan, Anna Elizabeth Caldwell (Mrs. W.T. Grenfell), <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>MacClanahan, Colonel, father-in-law of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>MacGregor, Sir William, Governor of Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320-323</a>.</li> + +<li>Mackenzie, Sir Stephen, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + +<li>Marlborough School, <a href="#Page_15">15-24</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30-33</a>.</li> + +<li>Marquis of Ripon, Minister to the Colonies, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> + +<li>Mason, A.E.W., novelist, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li>Matheson, Paul, volunteer helper of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> + +<li>McCook, Colonel Anson G., <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> + +<li>McGrath, Sir Patrick, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li>Methodist guards, the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Meyer, Hon. George von L., Postmaster-General, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> + +<li>Mill, the, on the "French Shore," Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_326">326-238</a>.</li> + +<li>Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + +<li>Montreal, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Moody, Dwight L., evangelist, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li> + +<li>Moravian Brethren, the, their work with the Eskimos, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + +<li>Moravian Mission, <a href="#Page_129">129-132</a>.</li> + +<li>Muir, Ethel Gordon, teacher, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li> + +<li>Murchison Prize, awarded Grenfell by the Royal Geographical Society, in 1911, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Nain, Labrador, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li>Nakvak, Labrador, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>remains of Tunits there, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Napatuliarasok Island, Labrador, noted for its Labradorite, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Nasson Institute, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + +<li>Needlework Guild of America, the, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li> + +<li>Newfoundland, independent colony of England, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Labrador owned by, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li> + <li>difference between North and South Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Nielsen, Adolph, Superintendent of Fisheries off Labrador, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>O'Brien, Sir Terence, governor at St. John's, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Paddon, Dr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + +<li>Parkhurst, Dr. Charles H., of New York, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Peary, Admiral, return of from North Pole, <a href="#Page_339">339-342</a>.</li> + +<li>Pomiuk, Prince, Eskimo, <a href="#Page_241">241-243</a>.</li> + +<li>Pratt Institute, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + +<li>Presbyterian Highland Brigade, the, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Prince Edward Island, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + +<li>Princess May, the midget steam launch, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> + +<li>Public School Camps, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>R.A.M.C., efficiency of in France, <a href="#Page_398">398-400</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Raymond</i>, Sir Oliver Lodge, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li> + +<li>Red Bay, Labrador, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li>Red Bay Coöperative Store, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Reed, William Howell, of Boston, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + +<li>Reikyavik, capital of Iceland, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + +<li>Reindeer experiment, the, <a href="#Page_290">290-303</a>.</li> + +<li>Ripon, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> + +<li>Rivington, Sir Walter, surgeon, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +<li>Roddick, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li>Roosevelt, the, Peary's ship, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>Rowland, John, of Yale College, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>St. Anthony, Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>poverty of people, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li> + <li>Grenfell's first winter in, <a href="#Page_197">197-214</a>;</li> + <li>Grenfell's fight against liquor traffic, <a href="#Page_209">209-214</a>;</li> + <li>headquarters of hospital stations, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>St. John's, burning of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>seat of Newfoundland government, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Sands of Dee, the, <a href="#Page_1">1-7</a>.</li> + +<li>Sayre, Francis B., secretary of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li>Scilly Islands, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li>Seal Fishery, the, <a href="#Page_172">172-182</a>.</li> + +<li>Seyde Fjord, Iceland, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li>Sheard, Mr., <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li>Sir Donald, the, mission steamer, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Skiff, Captain, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></li> + +<li>Sloggett, Sir Arthur, general, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li>Smith, George Adam, quoted, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> + +<li>Southborough, Lord (Mr. Francis Hopwood), <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> + +<li>Spalding, Katie, of The Children's Home, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + +<li>Spencer, Martyn, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Stewart, Dr. and Mrs. Norman, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li> + +<li>Stirling, W.R., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> + +<li>Storr, Eleanor, of The Children's Home, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + +<li>Strathcona, Lord (Donald Smith), patron of Labrador Mission, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>donor of the Strathcona, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Studd, J.E. and C.T., <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li>Sutton, Dr., London Hospital, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Terschelling, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + +<li>Tickle, the Grenfell, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> + +<li>Tigris, the S.S., of the Polaris expedition, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + +<li>Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Toilers of the Deep, The</i>, magazine, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Tralee, on Kerry coast, seat of a dispensary, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + +<li>Treves, Sir Frederick, lecturer in anatomy and surgery in London Hospital and University, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67-69</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li><i>The Cradle of the Deep</i>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Trevize, skipper, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> + +<li>Truck Acts, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Ungava Bay, Labrador, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li>Vestmann Islands, Iceland, visited by Grenfell, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> + +<li>Victoria, Queen, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li>Victoria Park, London, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Wakefield, Dr. Arthur, of England, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Wall Street Journal</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li>Watson, the Honourable Robert, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li>Wellington, Duke of, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li>West, Dr., <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</li> + +<li>White, Emma E., secretary of Labrador Mission in Boston, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> + +<li>White Bay, Labrador, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + +<li>Whitechapel Road, site of London Hospital, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + +<li>Whitney, Harry, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li> + +<li>Williams, Miss, nurse, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li>Williams, George, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> + +<li>Williams, Sir Ralph, governor of Newfoundland, <a href="#Page_350">350-352</a>.</li> + +<li>Willway, Dr., colleague of Grenfell, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> + +<li>Wilson, Jessie, daughter of President Wilson, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li>Wiltsie, Dr., his work in Labrador, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li> + +<li>Wolf, the S.S., wreck of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Yarmouth, institute for fishermen ashore, and dispensary vessel, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + +<li>Y.M.C.A. in St. John's, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in France, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> +</ul> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>The Riverside Press<br /> +CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS<br /> +U . S . A</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +Page 13: comimg replaced with coming<br /> +Page 96: vicitms replaced with victims<br /> +Page 162: sudddenly replaced with suddenly<br /> +Page 256: runnng replaced with running<br /> +Page 303: Reinder replaced with Reindeer<br /> +Page 332: aften replaced with often<br /> +Page 441: Slogget replaced with Sloggett<br /> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LABRADOR DOCTOR***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22372-h.txt or 22372-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/3/7/22372">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/3/7/22372</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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