WELCOME FROM ESKIMOS 47 



them are taken care of as a matter of course. They are 

 healthy and pure-blooded; they have no vices, no in- 

 toxicants, and no bad habits — not even gambling. 

 Altogether, they are a people unique upon the face of 

 the earth. A friend of mine well calls them the philo- 

 sophic anarchists of the North. 



I have been studying the Eskimos for eighteen years 

 and no more effective instruments for arctic work could 

 be imagined than these plump, bronze-skinned, keen- 

 eyed and black-maned children of nature. Their very 

 limitations are their most valuable endowments for 

 the purposes of arctic work. I have a sincere interest 

 in these people, aside from their usefulness to me; and 

 my plan from the beginning has been to give them such 

 aid and instruction as would fit them more effectively 

 to cope with their own austere environment, and to 

 refrain from teaching them anything which would 

 tend to weaken their self-confidence or to make them 

 discontented with their lot. 



The suggestions of some well-meaning persons that 

 they be transported to a more hospitable region would, 

 if carried out, cause their extermination in two or 

 three generations. Our variable climate they could not 

 endure, as they are keenly susceptible to pulmonary 

 and bronchial affections. Our civilization, too, would 

 only soften and corrupt them, as their racial inheritance 

 is one of physical hardship; while to our complex en- 

 vironment they could not adjust themselves without 

 losing the very childlike qualities which constitute their 

 chief virtues. To Christianize them would be quite 

 impossible; but the cardinal graces of faith, hope, and 

 charity they seem to have already, for without them 



