424 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



humanity here to-day. These Aleuts, who liave enjoyed as the price of 

 their good behavior the sol^ right to take and skin seals for the com- 

 pany, to the exclnsion of all other people, are known to and by their less 

 fortunate neighbors elsewhere in Alaska as the " bogatskie Aloutov," 

 or the ''rich Aleuts." The example of many of the agents of the Alaska 

 Commercial Comi)any on both islands, Irom the beginning of its lease, 

 and the course of some of the Treasury agents during the last twenty 

 years have been silent but powerful promoters of the welfare of these 

 people. They have maintained perfect order. They have directed neat- 

 ness and cleanliness, and stimulated industry such as those natives had 

 never before dreamed of, and have enforced sobriety. 



The agents of tbe Government and the company found so much diffi- 

 culty at first in getting the youth of the villages to attend their schools, 

 taught by our own peoj)le, especially brought up there and hired by 

 the company, that they adopted the plan of bringing one or two of the 

 brightest boys down every year and putting them into our schools, so 

 that they might grow up here and be educated in order to return and 

 serve as teachers there. This policy is warranted by the success attend- 

 ing the experiment made at the time when I was up there first, whereby 

 a son of the chief was carried down and over to Kutland, Vt., for his 

 education, remained tlierefour years, and then returned and took charge 

 of the school on St. Paul, which he served (until his death) with the 

 happiests results in increased attendance and attention from the chil- 

 dren. But, of course, so long as the Russian Church service is con- 

 ducted in the Russian language we will find on the islands more Russian- 

 sj)eaking people than our own. The nonattendance at school was not 

 and is not to be ascribed to indisjiosition on the part of the children 

 and parents. One of the oldest and most intelligent of the natives told 

 me, exjjlanatory of their feeling and consequent action, that he did not 

 nor did his neighbors have any objection to the attendance of their 

 children on our English school; but if their boys and young men neg- 

 lected their Russian lessons, he knew not who were going to take their 

 places when they died in his church, at the christenings, and at their 

 burial. To anyone familiar with the teachings of the (ireek-Catholic 

 faith, the objection of old Philip Volkov seems reasonable. I hope, 

 therefore, that in the course of time the Russian Church service may 

 be voiced in English; not that I want to sui)stitute any other religion 

 for it — far from it. In my opinion it is the best one we could have for 

 these people; but until this substitution of our language for the Rus- 

 sian is made, no very satisfactory work, in my opinion, will be accom- 

 plished in the way of an English education on the seal islands. 



As they are living to day up there, there is no restraint, such as the 

 presence of policemen, courts of justice, fines, etc., which we employ for 

 the suppression of disorder and maintenance of the law in our own land. 

 They understand that if it is necessary to make tliem law abiding, and 

 to punish crime, that such officers will be among them; and hence, per- 

 haps, is due the fact that from the time that tlie Alaska Commercial 

 Company's lease was made, in 1870, there has not been one single occa- 

 sion where the simplest functions of a justice of the peace would or 

 need have been called in to settle any difficulty. This speaks eloquently 

 for their docile nature and their amiable disposition. Surprise has 

 often been genuine among those who inquire over the fact tliat there 

 is no law officer here at either village, and wonder is expressed why 

 such provision is not made by the Government. But, when the follow- 

 ing facts relative to this subject are understood, it is at once clear that 

 a justice of the peace and his constabulary would be entirely useless, if 



