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YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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ALBERT H CHILDS
YALE '61
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A LABRADOR DOCTOR
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL

A LABRADOR DOCTOR
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
) THOMASON GI
M.D. (OXON.), C.M.G.

WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
(Sl^ Hiibttfiitie ^teffi {Tambtibge
1919

COPYRIGHf, ^919, BY *1LFRKD T. GRBNFELX.
ALL RIGHTS RES£RVCD

PREFACE
I HAVE long been resisting the strong pressure from
friends that would force me to risk having to live along
side my own autobiography. It seems still an open ques
tion 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.
Thirty-two years spent in work for deep-sea fishermen,
twenty-seven of which years have been passed in Labra
dor 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.
To the many helpers who have cooperated with me at
one time or another throughout these years, I owe a debt
of gratitude which wUl never be forgotten, though it has
been impossible to mention each one by name. Without
them this work could never have been.
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.

CONTENTS
I. Early Days 1
II. School Life 15
III. Early Work in London 87
IV. At the London Hospital 64
V. North Sea Work 99
VI. The Lure of the Labrador 119
VII. The People of Labrador 139
VIII. Lecturing and Cruising 159
IX. The Seal Fishery 171
X. Three Years' Work in the British Isles 183
XI. First Winter at St. Anthony 197
XII. The Cooperative Movement 215
XIIL The Mill and the Fox Farm 226
XIV. The Children's Home 241
XV. Problems of Education 254
XVI. "Who HATH desired THE Sea?" 270
XVII. The Reindeer Experiment -288
XVIII. The Ice-Pan Adventure 304
XIX. They that do Business in Great Waters 315
XX. Marrlage 331
XXI. New Ventures 344
XXII. Problems on Land and Sea 357
XXIII. A Month's Holiday in Asia Minor 376
XXIV. The War 384
¦ XXV. Forward Steps 403
XXVI. The Future of the Mission 411
XXVIL My Religious Life 424
Index 435

ILLUSTRATIONS
Wilfred Thomason Grenfell Frontispiece
View from Mostyn House, the Author's Birthplace,

Parkgate, Cheshire

2

Oxford University Rugby Union Football Team

44

The Labrador Coast

120

Eskimo Woman and Baby

128

Eskimo Man

128

Eskimo Girls

132

Battle Harbour

140

A Labrador Burial

156

The Labrador Doctor in Summer

164

The Strathcona

192

Three op the Doctor's Dogs

198

A KoMATiK Journey

202

The First Cooperative Store

218

St. Anthony

226

Inside the Orphanage

250

Fish on the Flakes

272

Drying the Seines

272

A Part of the Reindeer Herd

296

Reindeer Teams meeting a Dog Team

296

A Spring Scene at St. Anthony

304

Dog Race at St. Anthony

304

Icebergs

320

Commodore Peary on his Way back from the Pole,

1909

' 340

The Institute, St. John's

354

Dog Travel

368

The Labrador Doctor in Winter

406

Entrance to St. Anthony Harbour

418

A LABRADOR DOCTOR
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS
To be born on the 28th of February is not altogether
without its compensations. It affords a subject of con
versation when you are asked to put your name ia birth
day 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 nar
rowly missed, of growing up with undue deliberation. |
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 sig
nalled 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.
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 King of Spain's beard,
men whose exploits never fail to stir the best blood of
Englishmen, and among whom my direct ancestors had

2 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 pre
cipitous chffs are a handicap to the development of
youth, compared with the broad expanses of tempting
sands, which are after all associated with another kins
man, whose songs have helped to make them famous,
Charles Kingsley.
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.
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 bills of HeswaU,
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.
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 mysftery in the blue hiUs 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

VIEW FROM MOSTYN HOUSE, THE AUTHOR'S BIRTHPLACE, PARKGATE, CHESHIRE

EARLY DAYS 3
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. 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.
The men of the opposite shores were shopkeepers and
miners. Somehow we knew that they could n'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 my
self 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

4 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 diplo
macy, we were not only delivered from justice, but gained
the freedom of the green as well.
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 neverfinished 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 con
victed of the impiousness of trying to fill the Bottomless
Pit. To my childish imagination the upturned wheel
barrows 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.
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 sun
shine as I went, and all ready for my scanty garments
when I reached my clothing once more.
Then came the great days when the heavy nor' westers
howled over the Sands — our sea-front was exposed to

EARLY DAYS 5
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 care
fully 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 an
other 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 some
times 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.
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 retumed again in whirUng 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

6 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 usfed 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.
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 vidth 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 unob
served. 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.

EARLY DAYS 7
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. Fortu
nately, drifting with the spar, he again found bottom, and
was eventually rescued, half full of salt water, I remem
ber how he fell in my estimation as a seaman — though
I was only a boy at the time.
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 un
toward accident, of which I was the unwitting cause, left
my yoimger brother unable to share our play for many
years. Having no sisters, and scarcely any boy friends,
in the hoHdays, 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

8 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
such was not the case, for our temperaments being en
tirely 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 cooperative affairs. Though I
am only anxious to shoulder my share of the responsi
bility in the escapades, as well as in every other Ime 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 pubhshed
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 approach-
ingVlassics, 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 Geo
graphical Society. Here is quite a pretty little effusion
of his written at eight years of age :
O, Glorious Sun, in thy palace of light.
To behold thee methinks is a beautiful sight.
O, Glorious Sun, come out of thy cloud.
No longer thy brightness ia darkness shroud.
Let thy glorious beams like a golden Flood
Pour over the hills and the valleys and wood.
See! Moimtains of light around him rise,
While he in a golden ocean lies :
O, Glorious Sun, in thy Palace of Light
To behold thee methinks is a beautiful sight.
Algernon Sydney Grenfell
Aged eight years

EARLY DAYS 9
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 Rat
tle," 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 re
plying 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.
My father having a very great deal of responsibihty
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 un
usual 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.
One time, when we had been acquiriag some new lines
of thought from some trashy boys' books of the period,
we became fired with the desire to enjoy the ruling pas-

10 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
sion 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 our
selves 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 ovsm sanctum. In the
moming the remainder was turned over to fishermen
friends who were passing along shore on their way to
catch the early tide.
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.
During the time that my parents were away we never
found a moment in which to be lonely, but on one occa
sion it occurred to us that the company of some friends
would add to our enjoyment. Why we waited tiU my
father and mother departed I do not know, but I re
call 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 hoHdays. Our message read:

EARLY DAYS 11
"Dear Sid. Come down and stay the holidays. Father
has gone to Aix." We were somewhat chagrined to re
ceive 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
accepted the invitation to my father. It was character
istic of my parents that Sid. came duly along, but they
could not keep from sharing the joke with my uncle.
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.
WTiether some of our pranks were suggested by those
of which we heard, I do not remember. One of my father's
yams, 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.

12 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
who had come to see about her son's entering my grand
father's "House." It so happened that quite uncon
sciously the lady in question had seated herself on an old
cane-bottomed armchair in which father had been play
ing, thus depriving him temporarily of a toy with which
he desired to amuse himself. He never, even in later life,
was noted for imdue 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 sud
denly in dislodging his enemy.
Our devotions on Sunday were carried out in the parish
church of the village of Neston, there being no place of
worhip 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 moming to represent
the house, we were permitted to stay home in the eve
ning. But even the mornings were a time of great weari
ness, 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.
On the way to church we had generally to pass by
those who dared even the avsrful fate of the latter. It was
our idea that to tantaHze us they wore especially gor
geous 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

EARLY DAYS 13
through a door in a high waU, over which we could not
see; and my youthful brain used to conjure up unright
eous 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 would serve Baal and Moloch, when
it obviously paid so much better not to do so. But al
though we counted the numbers which we saw going in,
and sometimes met them comimg out, they seemed never
to lessen perceptibly. On this account our minds, with
the merciless logic of childhood, gradually discounted
the threatened calamities.
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 im
piety that awaited us when a most unchristian sexton
reported to our father that the pew in front of ours had
been found chalkedj on the back, so as to make its oc
cupants 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.
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

14 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 altemative of detention, we invariably
"plumped" for the rod, and got it over quickly, and, as
we considered, creditably — taking it smiHng 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 had n'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."
At fourteen years of age my brother was sent to Rep-
ton, to the house of an xmcle by marriage — an arrange
ment which has persuaded me never to send boys to
their relatives for training. My brother's pranks were un
doubtedly 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.
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.

CHAPTER II
SCHOOL LIFE
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 im
pressed 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 coach
ing 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,
The separate dwelling-houses were named A, B, and C.

16 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 ap
proach to that dignified insignia.
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. WThat useful purpose it could
have served in those far-off days I never succeeded in
deciding. The room most nearly Hke 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 be
ing 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 win
dow which looked out over the beautiful gardens below.
I cannot remember that I experienced any of those hegrt-

SCHOOL LIFE 17
searchings or forebodings which sentiment deplores as
the inevitable lot of the unprotected innocent.
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 imdue copiousness of my
hair. The fact that I was placed in the upper fourth form
condemned me to do my "prep" in the intolerable bar
rack 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 buildilig 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.
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 hved 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 ex
ceptionally poor; so much so that we boys at the be
ginning of term formed what we called brewing com
panies — which provided as far as possible breakfasts

18 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 hoHdays, divided into
equal portions by the number of weeks in the term. Once
one was in the fifth form, brevdng 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 aroimd the house class-room facing
the centre, in which as a rule the fifth form boys were
lazily cooking and devouring their suppers. Certam
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 tiU
the doors were opened again. It was a kind of roU-caU;
and the penalty for being late was fifty fines 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 occa
sions 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."
' The great desire of every boy who could hope to do'so
was to excel in athletics. This fact has much to commend

SCHOOL LIFE 19
it in such an educational system, for it undoubtedly kept
its devotees from innumerable worse troubles and dan
gers. All athletics were compulsory, unless one had ob
tained permanent exemption from the medical officer. If
one was not chosen to play on any team during the after
noon, 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 dis
tant. 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.
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 would n't
deny their guilt. Their condign punishment was to be
"fives -batted" pubhcly in Big School — in which, how
ever, they regained very considerable popularity by the
way they took a "spanking" without turning a hair.

20 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
though it cost no less than a dozen bats before it was
over. The pubUcity 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 ten, it was the cus
tom 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 ar
ranged 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.
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 "bolKes" 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 "surpes," 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 "surpes" served to them
freely through the buttery window. Both practices, I
believe, have long since fortunately fallen into desuetude.
To encourage the budding athlete there was an ex
cellent custom of classifying not only the players who
attained the first team; but beyond them there were "the

SCHOOL LIFE 21
Forty" who wore velvet caps with tassels, "the Sixty"
who wore velvet caps vrith 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.
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 svpimming 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 incrim
inate ourselves by replying to leading questions.
"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 un
toward 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

22 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 detour 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 vdll 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 Uttle
he called out, "Night, night, Jones," and got by without
discovery. 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 fines, besides losing
your chapel half-holiday. So the extraordinary zeal ex
hibited to be marked off as present should not be attri
buted 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.
During prayers each form master sat opposite his form,
all of which faced the central aisle, and marked off those

SCHOOL LIFE 23
present. Almost every moming half-dressed boys, with
shirts open and collars imbuttoned, boots unlaced, and
jumping into coats and waistcoats as they dashed along,
could be seen rushing towards the gate during the omi
nous 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 natu
rally 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 imder 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 discov
ered of saving their chapel half — when it was a very
close call. 9
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 ad
dressing the old gentleman as Dr. Fungi — an error I
always fancied to be rather appreciated.
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

24 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 comer,
out of which "cough mixture" flowed as "a heafing 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 httle 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.
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, more
over, 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.
One of my aunts, a Miss Hutchinson, Uving at Hyeres
in the South of France, was delighted to receive me. With
a widowed friend and two charming and athletic daugh
ters, she had a very pretty villa on the hiUs overlooking
the sea. My orders — to Uve out of doors — were very
Uterally obeyed. In light flannel costumes we roamed the
hills after moths and butterffies, early and late. We kept
the frogs in miniature ponds in boxes covered with net
ting, providing them with bamboo ladders to climb, and
so teU 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

SCHOOL LIFE 25
their clever artifices. To these we added the breeding of
the more beautiful butterflies and moths, and so, with
out knowing that we were leaming, we were taught many
and valuable truths of Ufe. There were horses to ride
also, and a beautiful "plage" to bathe upon. It was al
ways 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 clovra, and then as a priest, with the
abandon 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 cUmbing 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 flnd that the ovraer was an old friend of my
family, one Sir WilUam Hut. He at once carried me to
his home for the rest of the Carnival, and, of course,
made it doubly enjoyable.
A beautiful expedition, made later in that region,
which Uves in my memory, was to the gardens at La
Mortola, over the ItaUan Une, made famous by the fre
quent visits of Queen Victoria to them. They were
owned by Sir Thomas Hanbury, whose wife was my
aunt's great friend.
The quaintness of the memories which persist longest
in one's mind often amuse me. We used, as good Episco-
paUans, to go every Sunday to the Uttle English Church
on the rue des Palmiers. Alas, I can remember only one
thing about those services. The clergyman had a pe-
cuUar impediment in his speech which made him say his
h's and s's, both as sk. Thus he always said s/rnman for
^uman, and invariably prayed that God might be pleased

26 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
to "shave the Queen." He nearly got me into trouble
once or twice through it.
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 Uttle tutoring, and forthvdth I was despatched
every moming to a Mr. B., an EngUshman, whose house,
called the "Hermitage," was in a thick wood. I soon dis
covered that Mr. B. was obUged to Uve abroad for his
health, and that the coaching of small boys was only a
means to that end. He was a good instructor in mathema
tics, a study which I always loved, but he insisted on my
taking Latin and French Uterature, 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 en
joyed — and the enormous number of Uzards on the waUs,
which could disappear with Ughtning rapidity when seen,
though they would stay almost motionless, waiting for
a fly to come near, which they then swallowed aUve.
They were so Uke the stones one could almost rub one's
nose against them without seeing them. Each time I
started, I used to cut a Uttle 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 impos
sible to accomplish. But if you did they scored a buU'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 cmelty. At the same time I have no wish
to pose as a protector of flies.

' SCHOOL LIFE 27
Retuming to Marlborough School the following sum
mer, 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 Uked by those
whom he Uked. 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.
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, Uke many scientific teachers, was far too good-
natured, and half-enjoyed himself the diversion which
his experiments gave. WTien obUged to punish a boy
caught "flagrante deUcto," 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, flve o'clock" —
which proved eventually the most effective part of the
correction. To children there always appears a gap between them

28 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 aU 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 Ue in us, not in things; and in childhood
imagination is so big, its joys so entirely uncloyed.
Sometimes gro-wn-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, punctu
ated 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.
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 com
panion 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

SCHOOL LIFE 29
her tail, no one can record. She always waited for you to
remount, so it did n't much matter; and we were taught
that great lesson in Ufe, 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 gaUops 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.
Having funds at our disposal, we were allowed to pur
chase material, and under the supervision of a local car
penter, 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 indig
nation aroused in me by a cousin's remark, "It looks
awful Uke 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 caUed it the "Reptile," and painted it red —
all of which suggestions were followed. But still I remem
ber feeUng a Uttle 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

30 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
lower estuary while we were stalking some curlew. I had
to run home dripping. My friend's gun, moreover, hav
ing been surreptitiously borrowed from my cousin's
father, was recovered the foUovsing day, to our unutter
able relief. Out of the balance of the money spent on the
boat, we purchased a pin-fire, breech-loading gun, the
pride of my Ufe 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." A Uttle 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.
A large boarding-school in England is Uke 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, prob
ably 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 friend
ship all the world over, it is the Uttle oddities which one
remembers best.
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 eamed our class
more than one "hour off," as rewards for the required
number of stars given for good pieces of work. My friend

SCHOOL LIFE 31
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 some
what 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 ap
pearance, 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-steer
ing 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 — tiU
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 comer 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"

32 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
My friendship for "Mad G." was largely tempered by
my ovTn 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 Uved
the Ufe of hermits in the midst of the crowd. I well re
member one other boy, made eccentric by his pecuUar
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 baUoon, and mak
ing 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 Une, the last round
being always "expressed" — that is, unless you started
instantly the boy above you finished, the next boy be
gan, and took your place, I can stiU see and hear the un
fortunate J. getting up steam for his Une 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 Une; but that was

SCHOOL LIFE 33
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.
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 ap
parently 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 wander
ing boy to "arise" and do things.
Like everything else this fastidiousness can be over
done, and I remember once a boy's legal guardian show
ing 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

34 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
and even surpassed us in these. It was, however, a very
potent influence, and we were always ridiculously sensi
tive about breaches of it. Thus, on a certain prize day
my friend "Mad G.," having singularly distinguished
himself in his studies, his parents came aU 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 Uke a pea
cock, I suppose, for I remember feeUng as if the bottom
had suddenly fallen out of the earth. The sequel, how
ever, 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
Uvely 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 for
get, 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.
. 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 stiU adom the old house. Every bit had to
be done by ourselves, my brother making the cases, and

SCHOOL LIFE 35
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"
famiUarity with all of them, which has enUvened many
a day in many parts of the world as we have journeyed
through Ufe. 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 burret" with "flve eyes" captured as we
raced through the bracken on Clifton Downs; and there
are "purple emperors" wired down to "meat" baits on
the Surrey Do'wns. i
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

36 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
on the grass. The dark lantern, the sugaring of the tree
stems with intoxicating potions, and the subsequent ex
citement of searching for specimens, fascinated me ut
terly. Our breeding from the egg, through the cater-
piUar stage, taught us many things without our knowing
that we were learning.
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 ex
pecting 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 con
temptuous — it would have saved us boys much good-
humoured teasing afterwards, for the matron would
have been mum and no one the wiser.

CHAPTER III
EARLY WORK IN LONDON
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 mov
ing 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 conun
drum. 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 Ri-
•viera, 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 vrith a bucket handle. These were
fiUed 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.

38 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
usually attended these seances, 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 -svith 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.
Wnhile I was in France the mother of my best chum in
school had been passing through MarseiUes on her way
home from India, and had most kindly taken me on a
jolly trip to Aries, 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 aU her life, they being Anglo-Indians ia
the army service.
About the time of my father's question, my friend's
mother was staying in Chester ¦with her brother-in-law,
the Lieutenant-Governor of Denbighshire. It was decided
that as she was a citizeness of the world, no one could
suggest better for what profession my pecuUar 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 attrac
tion for me, and I decided against it.
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

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 39
an enormous practice, in which he was eminently suc
cessful. 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 remain
ing 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 en
tirely 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 Ufe, that it made one into "Mad G."
and another into me — why, it was absolutely marvel
lous. It attracted me as did the gramophone, the camera,
the automobile.
My father saw at once on my return that I had found
my real interest, and put before me two altemative plans,
one to go to Oxford, where my brother had just entered,
or to join him in London and take up work in the Lon
don 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, especiaUy 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.
The school had been leased for a period of seven years
to a very deUghtful successor, it being rightly supposed
that after that time my brother would wish to assume
the responsibility.
Some of the subjects for the London matriculation

40 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
were quite new to me, especially "English." But with
the fresh incentive and new vision of responsibiUty I set
to work with a wiU, and soon had mastered the ten re
quired subjects sufficiently to pass the examination with
credit. But I must say here that Professor Huxley's criti
cisms of English pubUc school teaching of that period
were none too stringent. I wish with aU 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 Ufe, except that
which we picked up incidentally.
I now followed my father to London, and found every
subject except my chemistry entirely new. I was not
familiar vrith one word of botany, zoology, physics, phys
iology, orlcomparative anatomy. About the universe
which I inhabited I knew as Uttle as I did about cunei
form 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 pre^vious education; I did not even know
how to study wisely. Again, as Huxley showed, medical
education in London was so di-dded, there being no
teaching university, that the curriculum was ridiculously
inadequate. There were stiU being foisted upon the world
far too many medical men of the type of Bob Sawyer.
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 poor
est 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

EARLY WORK EN LONDON 41
Tilbury Docks to BilUngsgate 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.
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 neces
sity. It afforded an unrivalled field for cUnical 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 Cam
bridge, who are obUged to come to London for their last
two or three years' hospital work — the scope in those
small university to^wns being decidedly limited. /
Looking back I am grateful to my ahna 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 estabUshment 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 suf
fered 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.
To begin with, there was no supervision of our lives
whatever. We were flung into a coarse and evil environ-

42 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
ment, 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 knovra 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 examin
ations successfully passed he fully accepted; and the
non-return of his son at vacation times he put down to
professional zeal. It was not tiU the time came for the
boy to get his degree and return that the father discov
ered that he had lived exactly the Ufe of the prodigal
in the parable, and had neither attended college nor at
tempted a single examination of any kind whatever. It
broke the father's heart and he died.
Examinations for degrees were held by the London
University, or the Royal College of Physicians and Sur
geons, never by the hospital schools. These were practi
cally 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 kiU" — often only too
Uterally so.
It is ob-vious on the face of it that this could be no
proper criterion for so important a decision as to qualifi
cations; 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 them
selves justice in examinations, others were exactly the
reverse. Thus I can remember one resident accoucheur

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 43
being "ploughed," as we called it, in his special subject,
obstetrics — and men to whom you would n't trust your
cat getting through with flying colours.
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 prac
tical joker had spilled a solution of carbon bisulphide all
over the professor's platform, and the smeU was so in
tolerable 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 six
pence secured me my sign-up for the remainder of the
course. 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.
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 amphi
theatre in despair. I weU remember also an unpopular
student being pushed down from the top row almost on
to the experiment table.
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 dissect
ing-room, where we could easily obtain all the work we
needed. But not till Sir Frederick Treves became our

44 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
lecturer in anatomy and surgery was it worth while do
ing more than pay the necessary sum to get signed up.
In the second place we had to attend in the dispensary,
actually to handle drugs and leam about them — an
admirable rule. Personally I went once, fooled around
making egg-nogg, and arranged ¦with a considerate drug
gist 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.
In the athletic Ufe 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' ro^wing 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.
It was in my second year, 1885, that retuming 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 evangel-

OXFORD UNIVERSITY RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL TEAM
W. T. GrenfelJ at left of bottom row

EARLY WORK m LONDON 45
istlc 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 inter
ested me, and I stayed the service out. WThen eventually
I left, it was with a determination either to make reli
gion 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 stiU Uved 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 Ustened 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 foUow 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 himdred 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.
' $Ve were Church of England people, and I always at-

46 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
tended service ¦mth my mother at an Episcopal church
of the evangeUcal type. At her suggestion I asked the
minister if I could in any way help. He offered me a class
of smaU 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 unin-viting title of the "Epis
copal 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 o^wn 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.
One instance of a baptism I have never forgotten. I
was then living in the court, ha^raig 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 strolUng in
the court when the clergyman came rushing out of the
church and called to me in great excitement, "The
church is fuU of Jews. They are going to carry off Abra
ham. Can't you go in and help while I fetch the poUce?"
My friend and I therefore rushed in as directed to a

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 47
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,"
tiU after very Uttle 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 pre"vious convert. We therefore accompamed him
personaUy through the mean streets, both to and fro,
spoiling for more fun. But they displayed more discre
tion than valour, and to the best of my belief he escaped
their machinations.
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 ser-^ces on Sunday nights in half
a dozen of the underground lodging-houses along the
RadcUffe Highway. He was a good musician, so he pur
chased 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," out
side of which an open-air ser-vice 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

48 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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, wait
ing 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 foimd
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 pre
served it as a much-prized possession.
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 den
izens 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

EARLY WORK m LONDON 49
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. .
We soon found that there were no depths of con
temptible treachery which some among these new ac
quaintances would not attempt. We became gradually
hardened to the piteous tales of ill luck, of malignant per
secution, 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.
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 accoimts tiU we
sorrowfully abandoned that convenient way of helping
often a really deser-dng case.
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 w&s

50 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 recaU one clergyman, one doctor, and many men
from the business world and clerk's life in the flotsam
and jetsam.
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 o^wn 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.
In this lodging-house work a friend, now a weU-known
artist and successful business man, often joined us two
doctors. My growing experience had shown me that there was
a better way to the hearts of my Sunday-School boys
than merely taUdng to them. Like myself, they wor-

EARLY WORK m LONDON 51
shipped 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 ar
ranged to clear our dining-room every Saturday evening,
and give boxing lessons and paraUel-bar work: the ceiling
was too low for the horizontal. The transformation of the
room was easily accompUshed. 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.
This is no place to discuss the spiritual influences of
the "noble art of boxing." Personally I have always be-
Ueved 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 for
ward to Saturday night and Sunday aftemoon with an
entirely new joy. We aU learned to respect and so to love
one another more — indeed, lifelong friendships were
developed and that irrespective of our hereditary credal
affiUations. The well-meaning clergyman, however, could
not see the situation in that Ught, and declining all in-
Aatations 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 re
signed from his school.
My AustraUan friend was at that time wrestUng with
a real ragged school on the Highway on Sunday after
noons. 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.
Our school-room this time owed no aUegiance to any

52 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
one but ourselves, and the work certainly proved a real
labour of love. If the boys were allowed in a minute be
fore 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 hap
pened 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 ac
quiesced, though it involved my eventually abandoning
the ragged school, which was at least two miles distant.
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

EARLY WORK m LONDON 53
greatly overrated their own stock of fltness and equally
underrated my good training, for the scrimmage went all
my own way in a very short time.
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 cooperate; 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 WTutechapel Road from the
hospital, the clergyman was a fine athlete and good
boxer. He was a brother of Lord Wenlocks, and was one
night retuming from a mission service in the Highway
when he was set upon by footpads and robbed of every
thing, including the boots off his feet. Meantime "Jack
the Ripper" was also giving our residential section a
most unsavoury reputation.
My long vacations at this time were always taken on
the sea. My brother and I used to hire an old fishing
smack caUed the "Oyster," which we rechristened the
"Roysterer." This we fitted out, pro-dsioned, and put
to sea in with an entirely untrained crew, and without
even the convention of caring where we were found 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 abiUty to satisfy our appetites and cater to our
desires out of so iU-suppUed a galley. We always took our
departure from the north coast of Anglesea — a beauti
ful 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

54 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Lon
don parson, whom we always knew as "the Puffin," be
cause 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 taU undergraduate
as second mate had the 12 p,m. to 4 a.m. 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 A.M. to 8 A.M. watch. I found the second mate sitting
up rubbing his eyes as I emerged from the companion
hatch, "Well, where are we now? How is her head.'' WHiat's
my course?"
"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,"
"What's that?" I asked innocently.
"Well," he repUed, "when I sat down to steer the
course you gave brought a bright star right over the top
mast 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.
It is a wonder that we ever got anywhere, for we had

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 55
not so much as a chronometer watch, and so in spite of
a decrepit sextant even our latitude was often an uncer
tain 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 home
ward 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.
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 Ryde 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 feUows out for a holiday, but he had
the last word before- a crowd of sight-seers who had
gathered on the quay above us. -
"Pleasure yacht, pleasure yacht, indeed ! " he shouted
as he rode away. "I can prove to any man with half an

56 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
eye that you are nothing but one of them old coal or mud
barges." The following year the wind suited better the other
way. We were practically aU 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 did n't really interest
him, especially when the weather was Uvely. On one
occasion I reported to the gaUey, though I was the skip
per 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
hehnet. It proved to be rice. He had fiUed the saucepan
with dry rice, crowded in a little water, forced the Ud on
very tight and left it to its own devices !
Nor, in his subsequent capacity as deckhand, did he
redeem in our eyes the high qualities of seamanship
which we had anticipated from him.
Our tour took us this time through the Menai Straits,
via Carnarvon and the Welsh coast, down the Irish
Channel to Milford Haven. In the region of very hea^vy
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 termi
nate 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

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 57
lighted candle. WTien asked what he was doing, he ex
plained, "WThy, looking for those bishops, of course."
No hoUday anywhere could be better sport than those
cruises. There was responsibiUty, yet rest, mutual de
pendence, and a charming, unconventional way of getting
acquainted with one's own country. We ¦visited Car
narvon, Harlech, and other castles, lost our boat in a
breeze of ¦wind off Dynllyn, cUmbed Snowden from
PwUheU 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 Uttle as you liked.
Another amusing memory which still remains with me
was at one Uttle 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 pro
testing. 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 to^wn cage-
lings share our hoUdays? Thirteen accompanied me the
foUo^wing summer. We had three tents, an old deserted
factory, and an uninhabited gorge by the sea, all to our
selves on the Anglesea coast, among people who spoke
only Welsh, Thus we had all the joys of foreign travel at
very little cost.
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

58 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 de
scribed. 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 Umited.
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 e^vil hour till
as near midday as possible. No one was allowed in the
boats who could n'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 Ufeboat, 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 fines, and a
skipper for the day being pro^vaded, 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.
WThen our numbers grew, as they did to thirty the
second year, and nearly a hundred in subsequent sea
sons, 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

EARLY WORK m LONDON 59
the appearance to their unfamiUar eyes of being a sailing
vessel, but the real work was done with twelve huge oars,
two boys to an oar being the mle. At nights they used to
come drifting homeward on the returning tides singing
their dirges, Uke some historic barge of old. There was
one famiUar hymn called "Bringing in the Sheaves,"
which Uke everything else these rascals adapted for the
use of the moment; and many a time the retuming 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: "Pulling at the sweeps,
Pulling at the sweeps;
Here we come rejoicing.
Pulling at the sweeps."
As soon as the old boat's keel sUd 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.
An aimual expedition was to the top of Mount Snow-
don, 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 hospital
ity 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 aroimd 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, travelUng by Bethesda and
the famous slate quarries, and retuming for the second
evening at Treborth. We then found that they had been

60 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 chiUy manner
in old bathing machines by the land wash, and supped
off the superfluous hard biscuit which they had been re
serving 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 entertain
ment. 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 Uking 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.
These hoUdays 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 rail
way and other friends, and by very simple U^song, 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

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 61
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 Ufe
in Australia and bought a nice house in one of the sub
urbs 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. AU 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 con
genial associations of a costermonger's life, where I be
Ueve he died in harness.
The last two years of my stay in London being occu
pied 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.
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 pic
turesque 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 flne regatta and picnic at his cottage. Our water

62 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
polo games were also a great feature here, the water
being warm and enabUng us easily to play out the games.
There are also numerous beautiful castles and country
houses aU 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.
We always struck camp at the end of a fortnight, hav
ing 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 mem
ory 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 pos
sible — 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 joUy you about not shooting straight, and
you had to take refuge in a thousand "ifs."
As one looks back on it aU from Labrador, it breathes
the aroma of an old ci-\alization 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 CUve on his return from India, and
was now in the hands of his descendant, an old bache
lor who shot very Uttle, riding from one good stand

EARLY WORK IN LONDON 63
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. ,
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 modem summer hotel seem never able to
compete. It is right, however, that such eras should pass.
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 un-
deser^ving persons. Being of royal idescent they stiU 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 de
fending himseff from the gibes and jeers of grooms and
'ostlers whom he had made his companions, rose with iU-
assumed dignity and with an oath declared that he was
their king by di-dne right if only he had his dues. Look
ing back it seems to me that the germs of democratic
tendencies were sown in me by just those very incidents.

CHAPTER IV
AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL
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" to
gether, 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 cele
brated 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.
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 aU
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
bathmg 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.
Having now finished my second year at hospital and

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 65
taken my preliminary examinations, including the sci
entific 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.
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 aU
developments, and to be ready to be quizzed and queried
by our resident house physician, or our visiting con
sultant on the aftemoon when he made his rounds, fol
lowed 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," '
Compared with the methods of diagnosis to-day those
then were very limited, but Sir Andrew's message was
the more important, sho^wing the greatness of the man,
who, though at the very top of the tree, never for a mo
ment tried to convey to his foUowers that his knowledge
was final, but that any moment he stood ready to aban
don his position for a better one. On one occasion, to iUus-
trate this point, while he was in one of the largest of our
wards (one with four divisions and twenty beds each) he

66 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
was examining a lung case, while a huge class of fifty
young doctors stood around. s
"What about the sputum, Mr. Jones?" he asked.
"What have you observed coming from these lungs? "
"There is not much quantity, sir. It is greenish in
colour." "But what about the microscope, Mr. Jones? WTiat
does that show?"
"No examination has been made, sir."
"Gentlemen," he said, "I wiU 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." t
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
boiUng, 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 re
minds one of the Glasgow professor who, in order to
emphasize the same point of the value of observation,
prepared a Uttle 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 stu
dents 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," 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

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 67
be said against the teaching of our coUege, in this much
more important field of learning, the London Hospital
was most signally fortunate, and, moreover, was famed
not only in London, but aU 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 uni
versal, 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.
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 mes
sage was seff-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 :
"It might be a fracture, sir, or it might be only
sprained," "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 wiU go to a quack who will inform
hinj at once,"

68 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
AU his teachings were, Uke Mark Twain's, enhanced
by such over-emphasis or exaggeration. He could make
an article in the "British Medical Journal" on Cholecys-
tenterostomy 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 appear
ance 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.
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 deUrium
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 psy
chical influence he had the jacket removed as "a reUc
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.

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 69
Among other celebrated men who were admired and
revered was Mr. Harry Fenwick on the surgical side, for
whom I had the honour of iUustrating 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 pa
tient proved to be one of the men who was handling the
meat in London's greatest market at Smithfield. A tre
mendous hue and cry spread over London when some
how 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.
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 hos
pitals, he was naturally scientific and strictly profes
sional. He was very far, however, from being the con
ventionalist of those days, and the younger students
used to look greatly askance at him. His message always
was: "Drugs are very Uttle use whatever. Nature is the
source of healing. Give her a chance." Thus, a careful

70 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 mto 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 reaUze 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.
Truly one has Uved 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 remp-dng
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 tuming 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 wiU not Uve."

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 71
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 fisher
man 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 cir
cumstance arises."
The falUbility of diagnosis was at this very impres
sionable time fixed upon my mind — a fact that has
since served me in good stead. For what can be more
reactionary in human Ufe than the man who thinks he
knows it all, whether it be in science, philosophy, or
reUgion? During my Christmas vacation I was asked to go
north and visit my father's brother, a well-known cap
tain in Her Majesty's Na-vy, 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. AU 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 sup
posed to quaUfy 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.

72 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 com
pany 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 kiU him any minute. His preparations were
accordingly all made, and personally I fuUy anticipated
that he would fall dead before I left. He put up a won
derful fight against excruciating pain, of which I was
frequently a witness. But the days went by and nothing
happened, so I retumed 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 super
vened, and the famous neurologist at once diagnosed a
tumour in the spinal canal. Such a case had never pre
viously been operated on successfully, but there was no
altemative. The operation was brilUantly performed
and a wonderful success obtained. The case was quoted
in the next edition of our surgical textbooks.
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 agi-eed
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

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 73
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 dis
ease 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 mom
ing I had the trunks packed and conveyed aboard, and
we sailed together for one of the most enjoyable hoUdays
I ever spent. We traveUed much afoot and in the Uttle
native carriages caUed " stolkjaerre," just jogging along,
staying anywhere, fishing in streams, and Uving an
open-air Ufe 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. -
My father's death a year later made a great difference
to me, my mother removing to Uve 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 Simday. 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 foUowing them through the window by
which they had entered. Shortly afterward I happened

74 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 ring
ing with the tale of a barefaced murder at Murray Hill in
North London, where an exceedingly clever piece of de
tective 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 viUains I ever saw. The trial pre
ceded ours and we had to -witness it. One of the gang
had turned "Queen's e^ddence" 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 Uttle
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, gi-vTug
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.
The giving of expert e-vidence 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 "Pop
lar," at both of which I did interne work, to see a police
man always sitting behind the screen at the foot of the
patient's bed. One man, quite a nice feUow when not
occupied in crime, had when furiously drunk killed his
wife and cut his own throat. By the curious custom of

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 75
society aU the skiU 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.
Many of these poor fellows were only prevented from
ending their o-wn Uves 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 inter
ested me considerably was that of a professional burglar
who had been operated upon in almost every part of the
kingdom, and was incUned 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

76 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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, cUmbed through a sky
light 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 tum
ing a hair, but he was brought up by a narrow side street
on which he had not counted, not ha-ving 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 skyUght, and he entered a
house in a way new even to him. His faUing 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 Ufe. 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. '
"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

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 77
Uttle space between the bar and the waU that with my
stiff back I could n't for the Ufe of me get back, I was
jammed like a stopper in a bottle."
Among many interesting experiences, one especially
I shall never forget. Like the others, it occurred during
my ser-vice for Sir Frederick Treves as house-surgeon,
and I beUeve 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 flre.
Her terribly extensive bums 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 inter
ested. A magistrate was brought to the bedside and the
husband sent for. The nature of the evidence, the mean
ing 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, fac
ing his mangled wife. The magistrate, after preUminary
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 stimuU 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.
Tragedy and comedy ran hand in hand even in this
work. St. Patrick's Day always made the hospital busy.

78 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
just as Christmas was the season for bumed 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 hea-vy
bottom rim, a wound which bled horribly. A woman was
brought in on one St. Patrick's Day, her scalp turned for
ward 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. "'T was just an
accidint, yer know. Sure, me an' another loidy was just
havin' a few words."
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 sub
scriber to this hospital, and I have never had my dues
yet," he kept protesting. A new drug to produce im
mediate 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.
I have digressed, but the intimacy which grew up be
tween 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

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 79
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 serv
ice 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 thou
sands 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 per
petrated, jails and hospitals filled, misery, want, starva
tion, 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 Ufe it was
to speak out against this accursed trade. I have seen
men driven from the profession of priests of God, mak
ing 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 pre
tend 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.
My parents having gone, it became necessary for me
to find lodgings — whiich 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

80 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 con
clusion 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 pubUc who demanded clean
plays and good conditions both in front and behind the
screen. W^en 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. Vaude-villes are better than in
those days. The censor does good work, but it is stiU the
demand which creates the supply, and whatever im
provement has occurred has been largely due to the taste
of the patrons. Medical students need all the open air

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 81
they can get in order to keep body and soul fit, and our
contempt for the theatre fan was justifiable.
My new lodgings being close to Victoria Park afforded
the opportunity for training if one were unconventional.
To practise throwing the sixteen-pound hammer re
quires 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 ham
mer. 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. - r. ^ > ;
A number of the boys in my class were leaming to
swim. There was only one bathing lake and once the
waters were troubled we drew the Une at going in to give
lessons. So we used to meet at the gate at the hour of
opening in the moming, and thus be going back before
most folks were mo-ving. 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 da-wning on me. ' '
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

82 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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
Uttle disturbance. Hanging on their skirts were a whole
crowd of ignorant, dogmatic atheists, who pubUshed 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 reaUy
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 weU fiUed. I particularly re
member among his efforts the weekly parish dance. My
religious acquaintances were apt to class aU such simple
amusements in a sort of general category as "works of
the De-vil," and turn deaf ears to every invitation to
point out any evil results, being satisfied with their o^wn
statement that it was the "thin edge of the wedge." This
good man, however, was very ob^viously driving a wedge
into the hearts of many of his poor neighbours who in
those days found no opportunity for reUef in innocent
pleasures from the sordid round of Ufe in the drab pur
lieus 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 pre-

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 83
sided over Toynbee House, the first big university settle
ment 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 did n't
believe in the Creed, and stumbled over aU our funda
mentals. At first it amazed me that such men would pay
their own expenses to live in a place Uke Whitechapel,
only to work on drain committees, as delinquent land
lord 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.
Eicactly 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 Uttle time and gives much exercise, we used to
have an aftemoon 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

84 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
liked both of these men because they were unconven
tional 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 haU fuU of opponents and ¦with a fairness and
infinite restraint, con^vincing 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 aU sound very silly when one knows
that by human minds, or to the human mind, the In
finite 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 beUeved in themselves and their
message, who deserved the Uving which they were sup
posed 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.
Indelibly impressed on my mind still is an occasion
when one of the most blatant and ¦vicious of these op
ponents of religion feU ill. A Salvation Army lass found
him deserted and in poverty, nursed and looked after
him and eventually made a new man of him.
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

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 85
his Hibernian origin very markedly. Having been com
pletely 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." "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,"
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 smaU
salary and incessant generosity left him nothing for
hoUdays, 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 tubercu
losis long ago got its grip upon him, and removed a val
uable life from East London,
It was a queer Uttle beehive in which we lived in those
days, and a more cosmopolitan crowd could hardly have
been foimd: 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 Ufe, besides several others who for shorter
or longer periods were allotted rooms in our house.

86 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 med
ical 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.
As I write this I am at Charleston, South Carolina,
and I see how hard it wiU be for an American to under
stand the possibiUty 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 per
sonally 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.
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 vaude
ville, 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-devel
opment 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 after
ward sent him an autographed photograph of herself.

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 87
He kept it in his room, which was kno^wn as the "ele
phant 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 Uttle 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 disposi
tion 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 Uft up.
In 1886 I passed my examinations and duly became a
member of the College of Physicians and of the Royal
CoUege 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 Uved 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 per
mitted, 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 haz
ardous 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
stiU sinking portion of Europe, so much so that the
coasts on both sides are constantly receding, and when
HeUgoland was handed over by the EngUsh to the
Kaiser, it was said that he would have to keep jacking

88 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
it up or soon there would be none left. ShaUow 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.
There being no skiUed 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 facul
ties were often thus lost. It so happened that Sir Fred
erick 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 Box
ing 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 fisher
men, had chartered a small flshing smack, sent her out
among the fishermen to hold religious services of a simple,
unconventional type, in order to afford the men an al
temative 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 ad-vice 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,"
I therefore appUed to go out the foUo-wing January,
and that fall, while working near the Great London

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 89
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.
"WTiere is the ship?" I asked.
"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."
"Heavens!" I thought; "she's no tea clipper, any
how." I climbed up the bank and peered do-wn in the dark
ness at the hull of a smaU craft, a little larger than our
old Roysterer. She was just discernible by the dim rays
of the anchor Ught. I was hesitating as to whether I
should n't drive back to Yarmouth and return to London
when a cheery voice on deck called out a hearty welcome.
WTiat 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 smaU. The
crew were all stocky, good-humoured, and independent.

90 A LABRADOR DOCTOR ;
Democratic as East London had made me, they im
pressed me very favourably, and I began to look forward
to the venture with real pleasure.
Drink was the worst enemy of these men. The quay
sides 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.
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. So bitter was the cold that in the harbour we got frozen
in and were able to skate up the canals. We had event
ually 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 SkiUing, as the fishermen called it —

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 91
far away in the offing. Nor was our deck once clear of ice
and snow during all the time.
Our duty was to visit as many fleets as we could, and
arrange with some reliable vessel to take a stock of to
bacco 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.
These deep-sea flsheries 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, cheerfuUest lot which I had ever met. They
were hail-fellow-well-met with every one, and never
thought of deprivation or danger. Clothing, food, cus
toms, 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 re
sourcefulness 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 six
teenth-century period.
Each fleet had its admiral and vice-admiral, appointed
partly by the owner, and partly by the skippers of the

92 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 indi
cating 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 ad
miral, 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 con
sider policies and hear complaints.
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 chro
nometer 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 west
ward, 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
do-wn below, and he could teU 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.

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 93
Skippers were only just being obliged to have certificates.
These they obtained by viva voce 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.
a and W. point of the island [Heligoland] to Barkum
S. i 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 imag
inable to Blind Tom, the famous slave musician.
Our long round only occupied us about a month, and
after that we settled do-wn 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. Some
times 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 en
tangled 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 to-

94 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
gether 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.
The relation of my new friends to religion was a very
characteristic one. WTiatever 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 moming 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 hea-vy boxes of fish, and send her to put these
over the rail of a steamer wallo-wing in the trough of a
mountainous sea.
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 droMmed boarding fish, unless the admiral had sho-wn
his flags to give the fleet permission to do so. In those
days, however, I often saw twenty to thirty boats all

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 95
tied up alongside the cutter at one time, the hea-vy seas
every now and again rolUng 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.
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 HuU by a fisher lad from that
port being picked up with his hands tied behind his back
and a hea-vy 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. ^
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
Umit of trouble and irritation. On the whole, however,
the system worked well, and a most exceUent class of

96 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
capable seamen was developed. At times, however, they
were badly exploited. During then 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 feU -vicitms to drink and made the
acquaintance of the remedial measures of our penal sys
tem of that day were only further brutalized by it. Re
ligion 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 dur
ing 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.
Occasionally skippers devised punishments with a view
to remedying the defects of character. Thus one lad,
who through carelessness had on more than one oc
casion cooked the "duff" for dinner badly, was made to
take his cinders on deck when it was his time to turn

AT THE LONDON HOSPITAL 97
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 do-wn 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, dro-wned 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.
A very practical outcome in the mission work was the
organization of the Fisher Lads' Letter- Writing Associa
tion. The members accepted so many names of orphan
lads at sea and pledged themselves to write regularly to
them. Also, ii 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 selflsh lives.
I remember one lady whose whole care in life had been
her own health. She had nursed it, and worried over it,
and enjoyed iU health so long, that only the constant re
course to the most reflned stimulants postponed the end
which would have been a merciful relief — to others. The
effort of letter-writing remade her. Doctors were forgot
ten, 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.

98 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
who were some of those whom she was being blessed by
helping. 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 singu
larly 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 affec
tionate than she would have wished for under the cir
cumstances which developed. For in writing to me she
enclosed a ferocious letter from a lady of BiUingsgate
threatening, not death, but mutilation, if she continued
making overtures to "her John."^

CHAPTER V
NORTH SEA WORK
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 beUef
that man is not of the earth, but only a temporary so
journer upon it. This belief, that he is destined to go on
U-ving elsewhere, makes a vast difference to one's esti
mate of values. Life becomes a school instead of a mere
stage, the object of which is that our capacities for useful
ness should develop through using them until we reach
graduation. WTiat 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 Ue beyond this world. The
most valuable asset for this assumption is love for the
people among whom one Uves.
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, be
cause we share His nature.
These convictions, anyhow, were the mental assets
with which I had to begin work, and no others. A scien
tific 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 ap
pears to be great, but is merely diffuse, will be temporary
an(^ ineffective. Experience has taught me that one

100 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
human life has its limits of direct impetus, but that its
most lasting value is its indirect influence. The greatest
Life ever Uved was no smaller for being in a carpenter's
shop, and largely spent among a few ignorant fishermen.
The Scarabee had a vaUd apologia pro vita sua 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.
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 caU 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 kno-wing a man. It breaks down
conventional barriers, and indeed almost compels feUow-
ship and thus an inteUigent understanding of the diffi
culties 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 pro
portion to the sacrffice which we make.
In plain words the field of work offered me was at
tractive. 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 sacri
fice was balanced by the fact that I never cared very
much for the frills of life so long as the necessities were
forthcoming.

NORTH SEA WORK 101
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.
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 relation
ships of life, got together to discuss the question. They
recognized that the formation of the Boys' Brigade in
our conservative social Ufe only touched the youth of
the poorer classes. Like our EngUsh Y,M,C.A., it was not
then aristocratic enough for gentlemen. They saw, how
ever, that athletic attainments carried great weight, and
that all outdoor accomplishments had a strong attrac
tion for boys from every class. Thus it happened that an
organization caUed the PubUc School Camps came into
being. Its ideal was the uplift of character, and the move
ment has grown with immense strides on both sides of
the Atlantic.

102 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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-
kno-wn 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 gym
khana, 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 al
lowed 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 — unkno-wn 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

NORTH SEA WORK 103
carriage, he ventured into the refreshment stall of the
waiting-room. Unfortunately, however, he came out
only to find his train departed and himseff in his night-
clothes 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. 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, WTien the bishop had gone,
he asked his two boys one day. "Well, which do you
Uke 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

104 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
drill in my bedroom, by a great mischance I missed a
straight-arm-balance on a chair, feU over, and nearly
brought the chandelier of the drawing-room do-wn 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. 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 RockefeUer 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 in
crease of education.
Our North Sea work grew apace. Vessel after vessel
was added to the fieet. 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 Uttle 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. The journey to them was a far more serious under
taking than a winter voyage on the Dogger Bank. How
ever, 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

NORTH SEA WORK 105
been exploring new fishing grounds around the North
Cape in the White Sea, "Nothing to complain of, boys,
tiU 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 some
thing of a lady."
At this time we had begun two new ventures, an in
stitute at Yarmouth for fishermen ashore and a dis
pensary 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,
The south Irish spring fishery is wonderfully interest
ing. 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 rendez
vous. The vessels come from aU 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 Uttle Ulster boats from Belfast and
Larne, Loch Swilling 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

106 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
enough, alas, for Paddy is not a saflor, 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.
There was one year when we ourselves were trying out
the trawling in Clew Bay and Blackwood, and getting
marvellous catches; so much so that I remember one
smaU 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 organiza
tion 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.
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 Corn
wall 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 num
bers and take one of their boats to sea.

NORTH SEA WORK 107
One day we had landed on the Arran Islands, and I
was hunting fems in the rock crevices, for owing to the
warmth of the Gulf current the gro-wth 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 dan
gling 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.
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 magnfficent coast from Queenstown to Donegal
Cliffs, and from there all along West Scotland to the
Hebrides, 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 con
versational addresses. Many would take some part in the
service, and my memories of those gatherings are still
very pleasant ones.
On this wild coast calls for help frequently came from

108 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Une 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 tum
bling boat until caught and pulled in by the oarsmen, fi
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 da-vit
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, any
how, 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

NORTH SEA WORK 109
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.
One of our Council, being connected at this time with
the Irish Poor-Relief Board and greatly interested in
the Govemment 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 con
siderable 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 hea^vy 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 Ufe, 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 accept
ing aU that they could secure. Yet one steam trawler

110 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 accus
tomed to toil over the long-combed-out and stormy banks
of the North Sea. The variety of fish taken alone made
the voyage of absorbing interest, numbering cod, had
dock, 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 pro-videntiaUy point down his throat, there
is seldom any returning.
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 MuUet,
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 eve
ning, 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
manoeuvring 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 re-

NORTH SEA WORK 111
deemed 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 accommo
dated the live-stock as weU 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 en
croached 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 experi
enced 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.
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 London
derry, where we saw the old gun Morris Meg, which once
so successfuUy roared for King WiUiam, still in its place
on the old battlements. By a packet steamer plying
to Glasgow, w^ 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 Rath-
lin 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

112 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 aU 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 swal
low 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 extermi
nation. 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 phoenix-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 fertiUzer, 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

NORTH SEA WORK 113
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 quan
tities 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.
The opportunities for both holding simple reUgious
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 So
ciety established a small mission room in the harbour.
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.
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 ser^vice
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? Some of my older friends have thought that my de-

114 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
cision to go was made under strong religious excitement,
and in response to some deep-seated con-viction that
material sacrifices or physical discomforts commended
one to God. I must, however, disclaim aU such lofty
motives. I have always beUeved 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 weU that I
did not. On the contrary, there is everything about such
a venture to attract my type of mind, and making prep
arations for the long voyage was an unmitigated deUght.
The boat which I selected was ketch-rigged — much
Uke 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 fore
mast, 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.
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 be
fore. The skipper was a Corrushman, Tre-vize by name,
and a martinet on discipline — an entirely new experi
ence to a crew of North Sea fishermen. He was so par
ticular about everything being just so that quite a few
days were lost in starting, though weU spent as far as

NORTH SEA WORK 115
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 comer were al
most 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 Ught of the moon had -witnessed.
As we were not fortunate in encountering fair winds,
it was not until the twelfth day that we saw our first ice
berg, almost running into it in a heavy fog. The fall in
the temperature of the sea surface had wamed 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 dis
cover 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 head
lands. For the third time in its history the city of St.
John's was in flames.

116 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
^ 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 dis
comfitures. On the hiUside stood a solitary house almost
untouched, which, had there been any reason for its
being held sacred, might well have served as a demon
stration 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 con
genial environment. I hope never again to see the sight
that might well have suggested Gehenna to a less active
imagination than Dante's.
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 comer of house-room left
was crowded to overflo-wing 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 ui
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 hospitaUty and wel-

NORTH SEA WORK 117
come which we as strangers received was as wonderful
as if we had been a relief ship laden with supplies to re
place the immense amount destroyed in the ships and
stores of the city. Moreover, the cheerfulness of the to-wn
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 to-wn water-supply had been tem
porarily 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 reUef 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 Govemor Sir Terence
O'Brien, and the Prime Minister, Sir William WThiteway,
to the humblest stevedore on the wharves.
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
ad-vised that o-wing 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 flshermen, women,
and children which had just sailed North for summer
work along the coast of Labrador. To better aid us the
Government pro-vided a pilot free of expense, and their
splendid Superintendent of Fisheries, Mr. Adolph Niel
sen, also accepted the in-vitation 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 weU as of the fishermen. NaturaUy a good

118 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
deal of delay had occurred owing to the unusual con
gestion 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, eventuaUy
ran in on a parallel and made the Labrador coast on the
4th of August.
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 famiUar and
strange left the dense shoals of rippling fish, over which
great flocks were hovering and quarrelling in noisy en
joyment, to wave us welcome as they swept in joyous
circles overhead.

CHAPTER VI
THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR
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 stiU
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 moming, rose in a setting of the
purest azure blue. For the first time I saw the faces of
its ruddy cUffs, 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 sweU lazily hurled
immeasurable mountains of water against its titanic
bastions, evoking peals of sound Uke thunder from its
cavernous recesses — a very riot of magnfficence. The
great schools of whales, noisily slapping the calm surface
of the sea with their huge tails as in an abandon 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 moming 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 smaU to hold its riches.
WThen we reaUzed that practically no man had ever
Uved there, and few had even seen it, it seemed to over
whelm us, coining as we did from the crowded Island of
our birth, where notices not to trespass haunted even
the dreams of the average man.
A serried rank of range upon range of hiUs, reaching

120 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 accus
tomed to our English and North Sea coast-lines.
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 hu
manity of this great land still practically untouched.
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 greet
ing were run up to all mastheads, and boats from all
sides were soon aboard inquiring into the strange phe
nomenon. 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 ex
pected to have a knowledge of medicine.
One impression made on my mind that day undoubt
edly 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 haff-clad,
brown-haired, brown-faced figure. After long hesitation,
during which time I had been watching him from the
rail, he suddenly asked:
"Be you a real doctor?"

Cape Uivuk

The Tickle Anchorage
THE LABRADOR COAST

THE LURE OP THE LABRADOR 121
"That's what I call myself," I replied,
"Us has n't got no money," he fenced, "but there's a
very sick man ashore, if so be you'd come and see him,"
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 comer, 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 ex
cept a small stove with an iron pipe leading through a
hole in the roof.
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.
^ hospital and a trained nurse was the only chance for
this bread-winner — and neither was available.
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

122 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
twenty dollars a year. This, moreover, had to be taken
up m goods at a truck store, less debts if she owed any.
Among the nine hundred patients that stiU show on
the records of that long-ago voyage, some stand out
more than others for their peculiar pathos and their
utter helplessness. I shaU never forget one poor Eskimo.
In firing a cannon to salute the arrival of the Moravian
Mission ship, the gun exploded prematurely, blowmg 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.
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 mod
em 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 Umb.
One mere boy came to me -vrith 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.
Deformities went untreated. The crippled and blmd
halted through Ufe, -victims of what "lie blessed Lord
saw best for them." The torture of an ingrowing toe-nail,
which could be reUeved in a few minutes, had incapaci
tated one poor father for years. Tuberculosis and rickets

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 123
carried on their e-vil work unchecked. Preventable pov
erty was the efficient handmaid of these two latter
diseases. There was also much social work to be done in con
nection with the medical. Education in every one of its
branches — especially pubUc health — was almost non
existent — as were many simple social amemties which
might have been so easily induced.
At one -viUage 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 aU 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, beUs were rung and flags flown, guns flred,
and at night distress rockets were sent up. We kept in
touch with the happy couple for years, tiU once more
they moved away to try their luck elsewhere.
Ob-viously 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 aU our best sea tra
ditions. They exhibited manyaof the attractive char
acteristics which, even when buried beneath habits and
customs the outcome of their environment, always en
dear men of the sea to the genuine Anglo-Saxon. They
were uncomplaining, optimistic, splendidly resourceful,
cheerfid and generous — and after all in one sense soap
and water only makes the outside of the platter clean.

124 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
I confess that we had greatly enjoyed the adventure
qua adventure. Mysterious fjords which wound out of
sight into the fastnesses of unknown mountains, and
which were entirely uncharted, fairly shouted an in
vitation to enter and discover what was round the next
corner. Islands by the hundred, hitherto never placed
on any map, chaUenged one's hydrographic skiU. Fam
ilies of strange birds, which came swinging seaward as the
season advanced, suggested a virgm field for huntmg.
Berries and flowering plants, as excellent as they were
unfamiUar, 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 flsherman, to
gether 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 abound
ing in every river valley, and the exquisite streams with
trout and salmon and seals attracted one whose famil
iarity with sport and forests was inseparably connected
with notices to trespassers.
It only wanted an adventure such as we had one day
while saiUng up a fjord on a prosaic professional caU,
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,
I am far from being the only person from the outside
world who has experienced what Wallace describes as

THE LURE OP THE LABRADOR 125
"the Lure of the Labrador." It was a genuine surprise
to me one moming to find ice on deck — a scale of spark
ling 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 fuU of incident, had
passed away like ships in the night. WTiither 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 stem lines and be bowling homeward before
the faU nor'westers to dear old England.
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 Govemor made our
path plain by calUng a meeting in Government House,
where the following resolution was passed :
"That this meeting, representing the principal mer
chants and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially
on the Labrador coast, and others interested in the wel
fare 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.
"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 leams of the amount of medical and surgical
work done. . . .
"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

126 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
of the earnest cooperation of all classes of this com
munity." When at last we said good-bye on our homeward voy
age, 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.
Our report to the Council in London, foUowed by the
resolution sent by the Newfoundland Committee, in
duced the Society to repeat the experiment on a larger
scale the foUowing spring. Thus, with two young doctors,
ElUott Curwen of Cambridge and Arthur Bobardt
from Australia, and two nurses, Miss Cawardine and
Miss WilUams, we again set out the folio-wing June.
The voyage was uneventful except that I was nearly
left behind in mid-Atlantic. WTiile playing cricket on
deck our last ball went over the side, and I after it, shout
ing to the helmsman to tack back. This he did, but I
failed to cut bim off the first time, as he got a bit rattled.
However, we rescued the ball.
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. La-wrence (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, as
sembled 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.

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 127
this building was not completed and ready for use until
the folio-wing 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.
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 humiUation, she had been slung up
onto the deck of an Allan liner for her trans-Atlantic
passage, as ff 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 flne Christian seaman, but only a
year or two later he perished with his large steamer while
I stiU rove this rugged coast.

128 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 homoeopathic pills, and at
least those do no harm; while one old German house
father had really performed with complete success crani
otomy and delivery of a child en morcellement, in the case
of a coUeague's wife. Durmg 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 Com
mittee. As there was no chart of any use for the coast north of
Hopedale, few if any corrections ha-ving 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 com
moner 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.

s

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 129
Among the Eskimos I found a great deal of tubercu
losis 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 pro-vided, and the spaces
between the houses were simply indescribable garbage
heaps, presided over by innumerable dogs. The average
Ufe 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 unmoraUty was some off
set to the existing conditions. The features of the native
life which appealed most to us were the universal opti
mism, the laughing good-nature and contentment, and
the Sunday cleanliness of the entire congregation which
swarmed into the chapel ser-vice, 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 Uterature 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 lan
guage, Uke "God," "love," etc., were substituted by
Grerman words. Nearly every Eskimo counted "ein,
zwei, drei." In one of my lectures, on returning to Eng
land, I mentioned that as the Eskimos had never seen a
lamb or a sheep either aUve or in a picture, the Mora-vians,
in order to offer them an intelUgible 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 follow
ing summer, from the barrels of clothing sent out to the

130 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Labrador, was extracted a dirty, distorted, and much-
mangled and wholly sorry-looking woolly toy lamb. Its
raison d'etre was a mystery until we read the legend
carefuUy pinned to one dislocated leg, "Sent in order
that the heathen may know better."
Their love for music and abiUty 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 exceed
ingly 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 sUdes of themselves,
and I shall never forget their joyful excitement. The fol
lowing season, in giving them some lantern views, we
chanced to show a sUde of an old Eskimo woman who
had died during the winter. The subsequent commotion
caused among the "Uttle people" was unintelUgible to
us until one of the Moravian Brethren explained that
they thought her spirit had taken visible form and re
turned to her own haunts.
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 Uttle people went off into convulsions of laugljter.

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 131
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. 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 sha-ving 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 cUmate 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 marveUous thing how superstition
StiU clings around the very best of native Christian
communities. The Moravian Mission is a trading mission. This trad
ing poUcy in some aspects is in its favour. It is unques
tionably part of a message of real love to a brother to put
within his reach at reasonable rates those adjuncts of
civiUzed 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 Mora-vian Mission stations also, practically
every Eskimo was in debt to them. In reaUty this caused
a -vicious circle, for it encouraged directly the outstand
ing 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 neces-

132 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
sity 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 aU very
sincerely as individuals, though their mission policies are
their own and not mine.
I remember once in Nain the slob ice had already
made balUcaters and the biting cold of winter so far
north had set in with aU 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 aU 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 disap
pear. The Eskimos gathered together to see what could
be done and then decided that it was kismet — and went
their way. The foUowing evening a tiny light was seen
on the far shore of the bay — some one must be aUve
there. There was no food or shelter there, and it was
ob-vious that help was needed. The gale was stiU 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. WThen their boat had capsized, one
man, a woman, and a lad had been dro-wned, but two
men had succeeded in getting into their kajaks and
floated off when the disaster happened.
With October came the necessity for retuming South,

ESKIMO GIRLS

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 133
and the long dark nights spent at the Uttle fishing sta
tions as we journeyed from place to place proved all too
short. The gatherings for lantern meetings, for simple
services, for spinning yams, together -with medicine and
such surgery as we could accompUsh under the circum
stances, 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 e-vil effects in ensla-ving and demoralizing the
poor are impossible to realize.
AU 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 ha-ving
any "settling up" given them — so they Uved and died
in debt to their merchant. They never knew the inde
pendence of a doUar in their pockets and the consequent
incentive and value of thrift.
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 Ufe should be stiU able to hold free men in economic
bondage. It seemed a veritable chapter from "Through
the Looking Glass," to hear the "grocer" and "haber
dasher" 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.
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 deUghted with the chance to buy
them, but had spread them all aroundkthe cabin and

134 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
taken a picture of him in the middle. Later in the season,
while showing my photograph album to a trader, he had
suddenly remarked, "W^y, what's  doing here?"
"Selling me some beautiful furs," I replied.
"Oh! was he?" said the man, "I'll make him sing for
seUing the furs for which I supplied him."
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 sys
tem 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.
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 EngUsh lady to secure for her. As fulfilling such
a request would involve me in hostiUties (which, how
ever, I do not think were useless), I asked the man, who
was wretchedly poor, if he owed the skin to the trader.
"I am in debt," he replied, "but they will only allow
me eight doUars off my account for this skin, and I want
to buy some food."
"Very well," I answered. "If you -wiU promise to go
at once and pay eight dollars off your debt, I wiU give
you eight gold sovereigns for this skin."
To this he agreed, and faithfully carried out the agree
ment — while the English lady scored a bargain, and I
a very black mark in the books of my friend jthe trader.
On another occasion my little steamer had tempora
rily 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 tuber
culosis the pre-vious year, and to whom the Mission had

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 135
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 Uttle excuse
that it was no larger; but the father, a most excellent,
honest, and faithful worker, was ob-viously 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 dwell
ing; the whole family was going to pieces from sheer dis
couragement. 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.
WTien 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. WTien
I asked, a Uttle 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."
Early in the morning I made a boUing 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 look
ing, and replace it with cold spring water. "I 'lows I'se
not accustomed to no sweetness" was his simple ex
planation. It was raw and damp as we rowed into the
estuary at sunrise in search of the seals. I was chilly even

136 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 joUy 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
civiUzation, and "to endure hardness" is the best prep
aration for a "good soldier." On lea-ving, 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!
WThen 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 caUed in
at D  B  's house. The same famine in the land
seemed to prevail; the same lack of apparently every
thing which I should have wanted. But the old infective
smile was still presented with an almost religious cere
monial, 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 int' house. I know'd
you'd do better 'n we with he."
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.
"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 Uttle house. It was a veritable fuU load for the
smaU carrying capacity of my Uttle craft.

THE LURE OF THE LABRADOR 137
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, pUe 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" tiU we came along, if he wanted a chance to get
ahead. This he did almost Uterally. 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 reseUing at cash prices. This he
did tiU the day of his death, when he left me, as his ex
ecutor, with a couple of hundred good dollars in cash to
di-vide among his children.
It was experiments like this which led me in later years
to start the small cooperative 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 under
fed children by pills, whUe one feels that practical teach
ing in home economics is what one would most wish if in
their position? The more broad-minded critics them
selves privately acknowledged this to me. One day a
Northem 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, via the mail steamer.
When asked to act as a justice of the peace for the

138 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Colony, I had thought it my duty to accept the respon
sibility. 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 poUceman 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 satis
faction the trader immediately turned round and said:
"You are quite right. The money shaU 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: " It 's Sunday to-morrow. Would you lend us your big
room for prayers in the moming?"
"WTiy, 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.

CHAPTER vn
THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR
Since the publication of the book "Labrador, the Coun
try 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 condi
tions, that it seems wise at this point to try and answer
a few questions which are so familiar to us who Uve on
the coast as to appear almost negligible.
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 govemment, 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 arrange
ment 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 o-wned by Newfoundland, so that
legally the Labradormen are Newfoundlanders, though
they have no representation in the Newfoundland Gov
emment. 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
Pro-vince of Ungava is also a Canadian possession.
The original natives of the Labrador were Eskimos

140 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
and bands of ro-dng Indians. The ethnologist would find
fruitful opportunities in the country. The Eskimos, one
of the most interesting of primitive races, have stiU 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 Montaignais 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 stiU continue to rove the interior, occasionally
coming out to the coast to dispose of their furs, and ob
tain 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 reUgion — men of the sea and
dear to the Anglo-Saxon heart.
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 Newfound
land is a prosperous island. WTiy is it necessary to carry
on a charitable enterprise there?"
There is a sharp demarcation between main or south
ern Newfoundland and the long finger of land jutting
northward, which at Cape Bauld spUts the polar current,
so that the shores of the narrow peninsula are contin
uously bathed in icy waters. The country is swept by

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 141
biting winds, and often for weeks enveloped in a chilly
and dripping blanket of fog. The cUmate 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 ex
treme 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
Uke that kind of cold, and that they reaUy 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 northem peninsula of Ne-wf oundland. 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 BeUe 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.
The dominant industry of the whole Colony is its fish
eries — the ever-recurrent pursuit of the luckless cod,
salmon, herring, haUbut, and lobster in summer, and the
seal fishery in the month of March. It is increasingly dif
ficult 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
ser-vice 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 stiU active mines which would
render such an attempt disproportionately hazardous.

142 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
From this point of view, if from no other more disinter
ested 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.
The conditions prevailing among some of the people
at the north end of Newfoundland and of Labrador itseff
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.
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 civiUzation,
have had varying effects on the residents of the coast to
day. WhUe a resourceful and kindly, hardy and hospitable
E>eople 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 ff he
were to alight here some crisp moming in one of his un
earthly machines. For we are a reactionary people in
matters of reUgion 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.
The people are, naturally. Christians of a devout and

THE PEOPLE OP LABRADOR 143
simple faith. The superstitions stiU 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 U-ving by the harvest of the sea, and finally set
tled on these rocky shores, were those when -witches
and hobgoblins and charms and amulets were accepted
beUefs. 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 ex
plained that the pecuUar fact was due to the nature of
the animals, which in Iffe always went to -windward of
others; but ff 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.
"I never gets sea boils," one old chap told me the
other day.
"How is that?" I asked.
"Oh! I always cuts my nails on a Monday, so I never
has any."
There is a great belief in fairies on the coast. A man
came to me once to cure what he was determined to be
Ueve was a balsam on his baby's nose. The birthmark to
him resembled that tree. More than one had given cur
rency ff not credence to the belief that the reason why
the bull's-eye was so hard to hit in one of our running
de^ rifle matches was that we had previously charmed

144 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
it. If a woman sees a hare -without cutting out and keep
ing a portion of the dress she is then wearing, her child
will be born with a hare-lip.
WThen 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, especiaUy the
boat. Any one who has seen a trawl hauled knows how
difficult a task this would be, with the jumping, squirm
ing fish to cope -with.
Protestant and Catholic alike often sew up bits of
paper, with prayers written on them, in Uttle 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.
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 famiUes
down and leave them in summer tilts on the land near the
fishing grounds during the season. WTien 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.
We were much surprised one day to notice a family
moving their house in the middle of the fishing season,
especiaUy when we learned that the reason was that a
spirit had appropriated their dwelling.
, Stephen Leacock would have obtained much valuable

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 145
data for his essay on "How to Become a Doctor" if he
had ever chanced to sail along "the lonely Labrador."
In a certain viUage one is confidently told of a cure for
asthma, as simple as it is infaUible. It consists merely of
taking the tips of all one's finger-nails, carefully aUowed
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.
A coUeague 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 aU 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 doc
tor's clinic was long and busy that night. The following
moming 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 con
sensus of opinion ob-viously was that the stakes were too
high for a man to offer up both eyes on the altar of
modem medicine.
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

146 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
Although there have been clergyman of the Church of
England and Methodist denominations on the coast for
many years past — devoted and seff-sacrificing men who
have done most unseffish work — stiU, their -visits must
be infrequent. One of them told me in North Newfound
land 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 repUed. "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.
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 moming will find
these seats still available. On ascending the companion-
way, however, one's gaze is met by a heterogeneous col
lection of impedimenta. The benches are buried as ir
retrievably 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, des
tined, let us say, for the Rogues' Roost Bight.

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 147
As the sturdy Uttle 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 sculUng 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 bob
bing little craft. The hatch of the steamer is opened, a
most unmusical -winch commences operations — and a
sewing machine emerges de profundis. 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 vertebrae of that
machine. One's sympathies, however, are almost imme
diately enlisted in the interest and fortunes of a young
and voiceful pig, which, poised in the blue, un-wilUngly
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 comer of
the burlap sack, out of which trickles a white and omin
ous 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 un
expected consideration ha-ving escaped the ministrations
of the winch, — is passed from one pair of fishy hands
to another, tiU it finds a resting-place by the side of the
now quiescent pig.
We pass out into the open again, bound for the next
port of call. If the weather chances to be "dirty," the
sufferers from mal-de-mer lie about on every avaUable
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

148 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 flsherman, 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.
But the cheerful kindliness and capabiUty of the cap
tain, 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."
Life is hard in WTiite 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, ansemia, and
dyspepsia, of beri-beri and scurvy, all largely attribut
able to poverty of diet, is very great; and the relative
poverty, even compared with that of the countries
which I have been pri-vileged to -visit, is piteous. The so
lution of such a problem does not, however, lie in re
moving a people from their environment, but in trying
to make the environment more fit for human habitation.
The hospitality of the people is unstinted and beauti
ful. They wiU tum 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 subUme
and the ridiculous go hand in hand. On one of my dog

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 149
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 moming, 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 bet
ter 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.
A visit to one house on the French shore I shall not
easily forget. The poor lad of sixteen years had hip dis
ease, and lay dying. The indescribable dirt I cannot here
picture. The bed, the house, and everything in it were
fuU 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 traveUing with me
at the time, the lad was chloroformed and washed. We
then ordered the bedding to be bumed, 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.
Although at the time it often seemed an unnecessary
expenditure of effort in an already overcrowded day.

150 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
one now values the records of the early days of one's
Iffe on the coast. In my notebook for 1895 I find the
foUowing: "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, haff-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 accu
rate description of the furnishings. Inside were four
teen persons, sleeping there, at any rate for a night or
two. The ordinary regular family of a man and wffe 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 as
sure 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 tiU spring. The man,
they tell me, ate his only dog as his last resource."
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

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 151
water — no flour, no tea, nothing. Two winters be
fore 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.
A man, having failed to catch a single salmon be
yond 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 Uttle flour to sustain Ufe
on the way, he had to seU his anchor before he left.
The Iffe 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 environ
ment, 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 aU 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." 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 moming 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 arti
cle, had broken into the church iUicitly one night, and
not only destroyed the cloth, but had actually torn up

152 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 do-wn 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 re
quired. I found her in a rude bunk in a dark comer
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 help
less 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 al
ways 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,

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 153
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. WTien night fell, the old captain and I were through
with the hardest part of our work. We had new bed
ding 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 cUff,
we set a Ught 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 Ufe and safety by means of the blazing and
poor discarded "properties" of the soul preceding us to
our last port.
Although our work has lain almost entirely among
the white population of the Labrador and North New
foundland coasts, still it has been our privilege occa
sionally 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 Gov
emment as Indian Agent.

154 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Once, when my own boat was anchored in Da-vis In
let, a band of ro-ving 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 In
dians 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 hiUs 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 wood
pile. An elaborate search failed to reveal its where
abouts, 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 ro-wing 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 satis
fied. Indeed, on the wharf he was the envy of the whole
band. At night they slept in the bimkhouse, and they pre
sented a sight which one is not likely to forget — es
pecially one lying on his back on the table, with his
arms extended and his head hanging Ustlessly 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.
We had among the garments on board three not ex
actly suited to the white settlers, so I told the agent
to let the Indians have a rifle shooting match for them.

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 155
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.
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, ha-ving 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 re
mains of them. In Hebron, the same year that we
met the Indians at Da-vis 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.
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 pa
thetic sight as the lighter received its load of rude coffins
from the wharf, with aU 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

156 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 com
mendation; though I understand that at their little
hospital in Okkak they have not always been able to
have a qualified medical man in residence.
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 Ught, had fainted, and left me in
darkness. I had previously had no idea that their
sensibiUties were so akin to ours.
At NapatuUarasok 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 un-
remunerative. On one of the old maps of Labrador this terse de
scription 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 sev
enth 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

s «
o Q
PS

THE PEOPLE OF LABRADOR 157
North its ice treasures, and lends them with no nig
gard 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.
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 -wiU come to its own among
the countries of the world. Not only the ethnologist
and botanist, but the archaeologist 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. ReUcs of rovers of the sea, who sought
shelter on this uncharted coast with its million is
lands, are still to be found, A friend of mine was one
day looking from his boat into the deep, narrow chan
nel 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.
My friend. Professor Reginald Daly, head of the Depart
ment of Geology at Harvard University, after having
spent a summer with me on the coast, wrote as follows:

158 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
"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 Lieu
tenant Roger Curtis wrote of it as a ' country formed of
frightful mountains, and unfruitful valleys, a prodigious
heap of barren rock'; and George Cart-wright, in his
gossipy journal, summed up his impressions after five
and twenty years on the coast. He said, 'God created
this country last of aU, and threw together there the
refuse of his materials as of no use to mankind,'
"We have learned at last the -vital fact that Nature
has set apart her o-wn picture galleries where men may
resort if for a time they would forget human contri
vances. Such a wilderness is Labrador, a kind of men
tal 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 strffe and revolu
tions of distant ages."

CHAPTER VIII
LECTURING AND CRTHSING
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 ad-visable, therefore, to try and
raise money in southern Ne-wfoundland and Canada.
So under the wing of the most famous seal and fish
killer. Captain Samuel Blandford, I next visited and lec
tured in St. John's, Harbour Grace, and Carbonear.
The towns in Newfoundland are not large. Its sec
tarian schools and the strong denominational feeling
between the churches so greatly divide the people that
united efforts for the Eangdom 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 impor
tance, into the Church Lads Brigade, the Catholic
Cadet Corps, and the Methodist Guards.
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 uni
versity; and when finally we sat at breakfast at the
HaUfax hotel we felt like fish out of water. Such suc
cess as we obtained subsequently I attribute entirely
to what then seemed to me my coUeague's colonial

160 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
"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 aU the leading clergymen. There have
been times when I have hesitated about getting my an
chors for sea, when the barometer was faUing, 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 com
mittee to keep a couple of cots going in our hospital,
to coUect supplies, and sent us to Montreal with in
troductions and endorsements. Some of these people
have since been Ufelong helpers of the Labrador Mis
sion. By the time we reached Montreal, our funds were
getting low, but Dr. Bobardt insisted that we must
engage the best accommodations, even ff it prevented
our travelling farther west. The result was that re
porters insisted on inter-viewing 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
pubUshed in the morning papers, stating that his pur
pose was to materialize the AU Red Line and arrange
closer relations between Australia and Canada. Ac
cording to his report my object was to mspect my
ranch in Alberta. Life to him, whether on the Labrador
Coast, in an EngUsh school, or in his AustraUan home,
was one perpetual picnic.
Naturally, our most important inter-view was with
Lord Strathcona. He was President of the Hudson
Bay Company, the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and the

LECTURING AND CRUISING 161
Bank of Montreal. As a poor Scotch lad named Donald
Smith he had lived for thirteen years of his early Ufe
in Labrador. There he had found a wffe and there his
daughter was bom. From the very first he was thor
oughly interested in our work, and all through the years
untU 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.
We hired the best hall and advertised Sir Donald as
our chairman. To save expense Dr. Bobardt acted in
the ticket-box. WTien Sir Donald came along, not
ha-ving seen him pre-viously, he insisted on collecting
fifty cents from him as from the rest. WTien Sir Don
ald 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 hoUday 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 farm
land on which no one lived. I promised that I would
send the hotel-keeper the Grenfell crest.
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.

162 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
We went back to England very weU satisfied with
our work. Dr. Bobardt left me and entered the Na-vy,
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 sudddenly. Buff — Bur-^ —
Buff, we rose, staggered, and fell over on a horrible
submerged shoal. Our side was gored, our propeUer
and shaft gone, our keel badly spUntered, and the ship
left high and dry. WTien 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 fish
erman 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 aU
impatiently waiting to see our fine new steamer speed
in with all her flags up — when, instead, two bedrag
gled-looking tramps, crestfallen almost to weeping,
Uterally crept aboard.
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 aU the three hundred miles to the nearest dry-
dock at St. John's.
Meanwhile Sir Thomas Roddick, of Montreal, an
old Newfoundlander, had presented us with a splendid

LECTURING AND CRUISING 163
twenty-foot jolly-boat, rigged with lug-sail and centre-
boom. In this I cruised north to Eskimo Bay, har
bouring 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 im
possible. 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 misunder
standings of small isolated places bias the mind and
make one censorious and resentful. But from the po
sition of a tight corner, that of needing help and hospi
tality from entire strangers, one leams 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 Newfound
land 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 float
ing 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.
That year I was late retuming 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

164 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 ff 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 reluc
tant 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 Uttle group on the island. Next moming the
first thing on which our eyes lighted was the belated
trader, actually driven north again by the storm, an
chored right in the harbour. Of course Uncle Jim
knew that it would be there. PersonaUy, I did not
expect her, so can claim no credit for the telepathy;
but if faith ever did work wonders it was on that oc
casion. 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.
The gallant Uttle 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.
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

THE LABRADOR DOCTOR IN SUMMER

LECTURING AND CRUISING 165
numerous opportunities for service to one's fellow
men.i>- 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 mast
heads 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 Uttle 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.
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, him-
dreds of schooners and thousands of men, women, and
children are coming into or passing through this har
bour on their way to the southward. By a nice ar
rangement 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

166 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
reflectors throw a Ught 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.
WTiile cruising near Cape Chidley, a schooner sig
nalling 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.
Ha-ving 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. WTiile
walking over the hill near the hospital that faU 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? "
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 hav
ing 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

LECTURING AND CRUISING 167
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 Uve. "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 re-visited the grave
of this poor girl, marked by the simple wooden cross
which we had then put up, and bearing the simple in
scription : Suzanne
" Jesus said. Neither do I condemn thee."
The fall trip lasted till late into November, without
our even realizing the fact that snow was on the ground.
Indeed the ponds were aU frozen and we enjoyed drives
with dog teams on the land before we had finished
our work and could think of lea-ving. We had scarcely
left Flowers Cove and were just burying our little
steamer — loaded to the utmost with wood, cut in re
turn for winter clothing — in the dense fog which al
most universally maintains in the Straits, and were
rounding the hidden ledges of rock which Ue half a
mile offshore, when we discovered a huge trans-Atlantic

168 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 hehn 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.
The last port of call was Henley, or Chateau, where
formerly the British had placed a fort to defend it against
the French. We had carried round with us a prospec
tive 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. WTien 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 ship-wreck 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,

LECTURING AND CRUISING 169
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 diff.
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 " wonder
ful" 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.
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.
One of my first operations had been rendered abso
lutely 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. WiUway, 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. WTien the following
summer we approached the coast, it was with real

170 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
trepidation that I scanned the land for signs of my
derelict friend. We felt that he would be gravely al
tered at least, possibly having grown hair all over his
face. When an alert, tanned, athletic figure, neatly ton
sured and barbered, at last leaped over our rail, all
our sympathy vanished and gave way to jealousy.
One detaU, however, had gone wrong. We had an
chored our beautiful Sir Donald in his care in a har
bour off the long bay on the shores of which he was winter
ing. 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 tiU 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,
weU out in a hea-vy ice-pack, and right in amongst a
big patch of seals, away off on the Atlantic. The whole
of the bay ice had e-vidently 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 im
possible, we decided to seU her and try and raise the
funds for a more seaworthy and capable craft.
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."

CHAPTER IX
TEffi SEAL FISHERY
Returning South in the fall of 1895, business ne
cessitated 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 Col
ony, called respectively the Union and the Commercial.
These issued all the notes used in the country and ex
cept 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
moming. This was early on Saturday. Business went
on as usual, but among the leaders of the country con
sternation 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 knowl
edge, 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 ha-ving any experience of
finance. WTien the coUection came around at the cathe
dral 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 aU our efforts, and his tremendously
serious view of the jwsition 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.

172 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 direc
tors of the banks were all local merchants, and many
were hea-vily 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 dif
ficult to carry on because we had no medium of ex
change. Even the Govemor to pay his gardener had to
give I.O.U. orders on shops — there simply being no
currency available.
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.
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
Neptime.

THE SEAL FISHERY 173
I look back on this as one of the great treats of my
life; though I believe it to be an industry seriously de
trimental 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 bom 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
weU as the young "fat," if the latter is not obtainable
in sufficient quantities. Meanwhile the poor scattered
people of the northem 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
kiUed, by not carrying them at once to the ship and leav
ing 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.
At twelve o'clock of March 10, 1896, the good ship
Neptune hauled out into the stream at St. John's Har
bour, Newfoundland, preparatory to weighing anchor for
the seal fishery. The law allows no vessels to sail before
2 P.M. on that day, under a penalty of four thousand dol
lars fine — nor may any seals be killed from the steamers
untU March 14, and at no time on Sundays. The whole
city of St. John's seemed to be engrossed in the one ab
sorbing topic of the seal fishery. It meant if successful
some fifty thousand pounds sterUng 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

174 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
crowds, and all the wharves where there was any chance
of a "berth" to the ice were fairly in a state of siege.
Now let us go down to the dock and -visit the ship be
fore 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 sUts
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 Uttle
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 ice
bergs frozen in; and again the smoother, whiter variety
known as "whelping ice" — that is, the Arctic shore ice,
bom probably in Labrador, on which the seals give bn:th
to their pups.
The masters of watches are also called " scunners" —
they go up night and day in the forebarrel to "scun" the

THE SEAL FISHERY 175
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. When the moming of the 10th arrives, all is excitement.
Fortunately this year a southwest wind had blo-wn the
ice a mile or so offshore. Now aU 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 gaUantly goes out,
the leader of the sealing fleet for the year.
! 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. WTien 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. Fin
ally, they dragged their boats ten miles over the ice to
the land, where they arrived at last more dead than alive.
It is the physical excitement of travelUng over broken
loose ice on the bosom of the mighty ocean, and the skiU
and athletic qualities which the work demands, that
makes one love the voyage. Jumping from the side of the

176 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
ship as she goes along, skurrying and leaping from ice-pan
to ice-pan, and then having kiUed, "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 Ufe.
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 drffted off again.
That night the father and the 'prentice lad died, and
next moming the other man also. The son dressed him
self 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 kiUed
a white-coat, and thinking that he saw a ship he walked
five miles over the fioe, lea-ving 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 imme
diately 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 shout
ing was of supernatural origin. He and his boat with its
pitiful load were picked up and sent back home by a
passing vessel.
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

THE SEAL FISHERY 177
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-bUndness or conjunctivitis
— very painful and disabling, though not fatal to sight.
One moming we had been kept late relieving these
various sUght 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 aftemoon, when the strong wind, which had
kept the loose ice packed together, dropped, and in less
than no time it was aU "running abroad." The result
naturaUy is that one cannot get along except by floating
on one piece to another, and that is a slow process with
out 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 proflcient. We ate our sugar
and oatmeal, mixed with some nice clear snow; and then,
sha-ving 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. It was weU 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
reUeved by our safe return that he was scarcely conscious

178 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
of what he said. Indeed, any words which might have
been considered as unparliamentary he asked me to
construe as gratitude to God.
Our captain was a passenger on and prospective cap
tain 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 dayUght 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, bom 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.
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 roUing
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 durmg the first part of
the day. Once down, however, one shouts out, "Is there

THE SEAL FISHERY 179
any one here?" No answer. Louder stiU, "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 systematicaUy, 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 pecuUarity about the men, that though they
wiU lie up, they wiU not always say anything about it.
The holds were very damp and dirty, but the men
seemed to improve in health and fattened Uke 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
eatmg — far more palatable than the dried codfish,
which, when one has any ice work, creates an intolerable
thirst. 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 moming, and we decided perforce
the rats were e-vidently a little previous.
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 ffippers 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
comers 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 weU-ascertained fact that Nature
makes the marveUous provision that in storm and snow

180 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Uke paws over their chests.
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 off
shore 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 im
pelled 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 walk
ing and rowing and camping before they could get home.
One hundred miles would be the least, two and even

THE SEAL FISHERY 181
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.
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 under
stood how an iceberg goes to wind. For it acted exactly
like a steam plough, crashing down onto one large pan
as it roUed, 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.
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

182 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
men had just left it, when a furious breaking sea took
hold of the pan and threw it completely upside down,
I am never Ukely 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, un-
worried by callers and the thousand interruptions of the
land. Then we had evening prayers together, CathoUc
and Protestant aUke; and for my part I felt the near
ness of God's presence as really as I have felt it in the
mysterious en-vironment of the most magnfficent ca
thedral. Eternal Ufe seemed so close, as if it lay just over
that horizon of ice, in the eternal blue beyond.

CHAPTER X
THREE YEARS' WORK IN THE BRITISH ISLES
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 long-
liners and trawlers, who were just beginning their vast
fishery in those waters from Hull and Grimsby.
Having chosen a smaller vessel, so as to leave the hos
pital 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
stiU continued its filibustering work in the Scotch sea
ports. 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.
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 huU 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; tiU she made way for the present
homely Uttle Fishermen's Institute exactly across the
road from the docks before you came to the saloons,
I shaU not soon forget our first -view of the cliffs of the
southern coast of Iceland. We had caUed at Thorshaven

184 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
in the Faroe group to see what we could leam 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. We brought up under the shadow of the mighty cUffs
and were debating our whereabouts, when we saw an
English sailing trawler about our o-wn 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."
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 homy thumb that was nearly
large enough to cover the whole historic island, and
"guess we were somewhere just about here."
Our cruise carried us aU 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 Ues, It was off these islands that Eric the Red
threw his flaming sticks into the sea. The flrst brand
which alighted on the land directed him where to locate
his new headquarters, Reikyavik means "smokmg vii-

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 185
lage," so called from the vapours of the hot streams
which come out of the ground near by.
There is no night on the coast in summer; and even
though we were a Mission ship we found it a real diffi
culty to keep tab of Sundays, The first aftemoon 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 a.m.
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 aU left swimming
upside down. A pathetic wake of white-belUed fish would
stretch away for haff 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.
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 ouly tyrannize the lives of those who Uve for them.

186 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
They were a simple, kindly, helpful people, living in a
country barren and frigid beyond all others, -with no
trees except in one extreme comer 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 coun
try is its fisheries, and of these the whale and seal fish
eries were practically handed over to Norwegians; while
large French and English boats fell Uke wolves on the
fish, which the poor natives had no adequate means of
securing for themselves.
i-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 Uttle pirates, which Uved 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.
The mention of Iceland brings to every one's mind
the name of Pierre Loti. We saw many of the "p^cheurs
d'islande" whom he so effectively portrays; and often
felt sorry enough for them, fishing as they stUl 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.

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 187
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. 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 Iffe
he had been the means of sa-ving, I found myself for a
time his guest on the Scilly Islands. There we could
divert our minds from our different occupations, con
juring 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.
Treves, with his usual insatiable energy, had organ
ized a grand regatta to be held at St. Mary's, at which
the Govemor 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-sa-ving ex
hibition 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 feU off the pier head with a loud scream

188 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
— when, disguised as an aged clergyman, wildly gestic
ulating, and cramming my large beaver hat hard down
on my head, I dived in to rescue him. A real scene en
sued. 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 follow
ing evening.
Only parts of the winter seasons could be devoted to
raising money. The general Mission budget had to be
taken care of as weU 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 faU of 1898 were occupied by
the long Irish trip, which estabUshed work among the
spring herring and mackerel men from Crookhaven.
On lea-ving England for one of these North Sea trips I
was delayed and missed the hospital ship, so that later
I was obUged 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

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 189
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.
It was on this same voyage that a man, badly dam
aged, 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 re-
Ueve the monotony. So we booted and oil-skinned, sou'-
westered and life-jacketed, till we looked Uke Tweedle
dum and Tweedledee, and felt much as I expect a
German student does when he is bandaged and padded
tiU 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 tiU the boat bounces in some
where 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
Uttle 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._
While the skipper was at work in the tobacco locker
one moming he heard a fisherman say that he had taken
poison. "Where did you get it?"
"I got it from the Albert."

190 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
"WTio gave it to you?"
"Skipper  " mentioning the skipper's name.
At this the skipper came out trembling, wondering
what he had done -wrong now.
"WeU, 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."
"How long ago did you get the medicine ?"
"About a fortnight."
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 reaUy began to
think he was on the mend, and remarked that "he began
to feel real hungry like." It was just marveUous 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.
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 Uttle of any kind in her, but even the
hardy crew of Newfoundland sealers who found her, as
they wandered over the floatmg ice-fields in search of
seals, did not fail to appreciate the weird and romantic
suggestions of a dereUct Mission steamer, keeping her
lonely watch on that awful, deathlike waste. She had

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 191
been left at Assizes Harbour, usuaUy 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 rolUng
ocean beneath her once more, and soon lay safely en
sconced 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.
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 subse
quently named.
On June 27, 1899, the Strathcona was launched, and
christened by Lady Curzon-Howe. When the word was
given to let go, without the sUghtest hitch or roll the ship
slid steadily do-wn the ways into the water. The band
played "Etemal Father," "God save the Queen," and
"Lffe 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.
She arrived at Gorleston July 18, pro-ving an excellent
sea-boat, with Ught 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.

192 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
In the fall of, 1899 the huU of the Strathcona was com
pletely finished, and I brought her round, an empty sheU,
to fit her up at our Yarmouth wharf; after which, in com
pany 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 "roar
ing forties" can certainly give points to the others. Her
slippery iron decks and the involuntary sideways ex
cursions 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 kiU time by playing tennis in the huge empty
hold. This occupation, under the circumstances, supplied
every kind of diversion.
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. CommuniGation 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 aHowed
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 ha-ving 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 retumed. 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

tou M
H<
COa

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 193
which she was due arrived, there was no sign of the doctor
and his wife. It was a kind of Damon and Pythias ex
perience — 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 per
mitted me to proceed.
The narrow road around the cavernous basin in the
cUffs 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 Eng
land had come to the village, and every one took
advantage of it. The plan there was to pay so much
per month, well or iU, for the doctor. The work was
easy at first, but by the time I left every U-ving being
seemed to me to have contracted some disease. For each
succeeding day my surgery got fuller, until on the last
moming even the yard and road contained waiting pa
tients. WTiose 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 outU-ving one's
reputation. 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."
Here we boarded the Uttle Mission steamer, but no
human agency is perfect, and even the JuUa Sheriden

194 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
had her faults. Her gait on this faU voyage was sugges
tive 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.
WTiile in England we had received letters from the
north coast of Ne-wfoundland, begging us to again in
clude their shores in our visits, and especially to estabUsh
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 weU, 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 Newfound
land. 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.
Life on the French shore has been a struggle with too
many famiUes to keep off actual starvation. For in
stance, one winter at St. Anthony a man -with a large
family, and a fine, capable, seff-respecting feUow, 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 kiUed 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 deUghtfid semi-community
of goods.

IN THE BRITISH ISLES 195
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 suppUer
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 spUt 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.
I had once spent a fortnight at St. Anthony, having
taken refuge there in the Princess May when I was sup
posed to be lost by those who were cut off from communi
cation with us. I had also looked in there each summer
to see a few patients. My original idea was to get a winter
place estabUshed for our Indian Harbour staff, and I pro
posed opening up there each October when Indian Har
bour closed, and closing in June when na-vigation was
reopened. Battle Harbour again accessible, and when the
man-of-war doctors are more on this section of the coast.
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 hea-vy 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
m the winter sky, aU make one forget the petty worries
of the daily round.
^ 4s Beattie agreed to stay with me it was with real

196 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.

CHAPTER XI
FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY
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 relation
ships with the people on whom one was so often abso
lutely 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 knowl
edge that we were shut off from the outside world rather
a pleasure than a cause for regret.
CaUs 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.
The Eskimo dog is so strong and enduring that he is
the doyen of traction power in the North, when long
distances and staying quaUties 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 cross
breeding 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.
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 wiU scale a hundred pounds. The hair is thick

198 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 woff, with no distinctive mark
ings. 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 mised 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 up
turned. The Labrador wolf has never been known to
kiU 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 unUke the wolves, wiU un
hesitatingly attack even the largest polar bear.
No amoimt of dry cold seems to affect the dogs. At
50° F. below zero, a dog wUl Ue out on the ice and sleep
without danger of frost-bite. He may cUmb out of the
sea -with ice forming aU 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.
The dogs have a wonderful instinct for finding their
way under almost insurmountable difficulties, and they
have oftentimes been the means of saving the Uves of
their masters. Once I was dri-ving 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

THREE OF THE DOCTOR'S DOGS

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 139
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.
The distance travelled and the average speed at
tained 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 Ues in its infinite variety of experiences, the
personal study of each dog, and the need for one's
strength, courage, and resourcefulness.
South and north of the Uttle -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 or
ders 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, ha-ving 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.
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

200 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 liigh, and about twenty-six inches apart, the
bottoms rising at the back haff an inch, as weU 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 wiU "work"
Uke a snake, adapting itself to the inequalities of the
ground, and wiU 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 be
tween 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 bow
line. Dog food must be distributed along the komatik
trail in summer — though the people -will make great
sacrifices to feed "the Doctor's team."
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 imper-vious, light, dressed can
vas 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 boimd
with fur, especially about the hood, so as to be soft and
tight about the face, and to keep the air out. The Es
kimo cuts his own hair so as to fiU that function. Light
sealskin boots are best for all weathers, but in very cold.

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 201
dry seasons, deerskin dressed very soft is warmer. The
skin boot should be se-wn with sinew which sweUs 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 se-wing
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 haAong invariably lost
their teeth at a very early age.
A Ught rifle should always be lashed on the komatik,
as a rabbit, a partridge, or a deer gives often a Ught to
the eyes with the fresh proteids they afford, like Jona
than'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 unroman-
tic 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 particu
lar occasion, ha-ving hitched up the team we crept out to
the ice edge. Podge following at my heels. Lying still
on the ice, and just occasionally Ufting 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 re
trieved, to the unbounded joy both of ourselves and his
four-footed chums, who more than gladly shared the
carcasses with him later.

202 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
A friend, retuming 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. WTiilst 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
conffict. 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 e-vidently 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. WTien, how
ever, they sent a relief team to find the komatiks, they
discovered the boy still "standing by" his charge.
WTien crossing wide stretches of country we are often
obliged to camp ff it comes on dark. It is quite impossible
to navigate rough country when one cannot see stumps,
windfaUs, or snags; and I have more than once, while
caught in a forest looking for our tilt, been obUged to

A Hilly Trail

A KOMATIK JOURNEY

Crossing a Brook

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 203
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, hav
ing 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 cUffs 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 cUffs, though we could see the village lights
t-winkling 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 per
pendicular bluff, thinking that I was just coming out
into the open. Oddly enough, when after much struggling
we had mounted the hiU, 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 ade
quate shelter. Moreover, we had perspired with the
violent exercise and our clothes were freezing from the
inside out.
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 bum 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

204 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
ahead of your dogs. Then there is, of course, the un
fortunate 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 sub
stance when it was turned out into the dish.
Winter travelUng 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.
One great joy which comes with the work is the sym
pathy one gets with the reaUy poor, whether in inteUi-
gence, physical make-up, or worldly assets. One learns
how simple needs and simple Uves preserve simple -vir
tues that get lost in the crush of advancing civilization.
Many and many a time have the poor people by the way
side 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 lantem to feed my dogs, while
his wife, after he had lit a fire in the freezing cold room,
busied herself making me some cocoa. MiUi and sugar
were provided, and not tiU long afterwards did I know
that it was a special Uttle hoard kept for visitors. Later

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 205
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
feUow assured me.
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.
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 hos
pitality to strangers even in our kitchens, after they
had awakened us in the middle of the night by slinging
snowballs at our bedroom windows?
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

206 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Eng
lish Episcopal skin on the pahn of his hand and Scotch
Presbyterian skin on the back, the rest of him stiU re
mained a devout Roman Catholic.
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 hun
dred dollars for a new leg — for her disposition, even
more than her necessity, compelled her to move about.
WTiile 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 pos
sessor of two good wooden Umbs, 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 EpiscopaUan, and I had the
joy of seeing it a real blessing to as good a Roman Ca
tholic as I know. As the priest says, there is now at least
one Protestant leg estabUshed in his parish.
We once reached a house at midnight, found a boy
with a broken thigh, and had to begin work by thawing

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 207
out frozen board in order to plane it for splints, then
pad and fix it, and fiinally 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 soUtary 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. The following winter I lectured in England and then
crossed in the early spring to the United States and lec
tured both there and in Canada, receiving great kind
ness and much help for the work.
As I have stated in the pre-vious 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.
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.
This northem end of Labrador is extremely interesting
to cruise. The great Appalachian Mountain Range runs

208 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
out here right to the water edge, and forms a marveUous
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 repre
sent old valleys scooped out by ice action, are dominated
all along by fro-wning peaks, whose pointed summits
betray the fact that they overtopped the ice stream m
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 unkno-wn vistas that keep constantly opening up
as one steams along the almost fathomless fjords, afford
a fascination beyond measure.
Once before in the Sir Donald we had tried to navi
gate 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.
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 foimd against us, as we
neared the narrowest part, which is scarcely one hun
dred yards wide. The current carried us bodily astern,
however, and glad enough we were to drive stem fore
most into a cove on one side and find thirteen fathoms
of water to hold on in till the tide should tum. When
at last it did tum, and got under way, it fairly took us
in its teeth, and we shot through, an impotent plaything

FIRST WINTER AT ST, ANTHONY 209
on the heaving bosom of the resistless waters. We re
tumed safely, with a site selected and a fair chart of
the "Tickle" (GrenfeU Tickle).
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. WTien early spring came the hospital question re
vived. 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
pro-viders. Our kitchen was dug do-wn 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 a la Newburg at Delmonico's or
Sherry's. The next summer we had trouble with a form of self
ishness which I have always heartily hated — the li
quor traffic. Suppose we do allow that a man has a right
to degrade his body with swallowing alcohol, he cer
tainly 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

210 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
people — girls and men. One girl found drunk on tbe
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.
This man and I had had several disagreements, and
I had been wamed 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-bom hospi
tality 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 o-wn table — where
his painful efforts to con-vince me that he was right
absolutely demonstrated the exact opposite.
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 in
tended 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 for
gotten. I told him certainly not. Just before sunrise the
watch called me and said that the wrecked crew had

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 211
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
retumed. They were fuU of bluff at what they would do
for having their liberties thus interfered with, but ob
viously uneasy at heart.
With some labour we discovered that the water only
entered the wreck at low tide and forward; so by buoy
ing 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 immedi
ately 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, seUing me the steamer for flfty cents. I still see
the look in his eyes as he gave me fifty cents change from
a doUar. He was a self-made man, had acquired con
siderable 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.
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,

212 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 insur
ance, threatened to sue me for the value.
The sequel of the story may as well be told here. A
year or so later I had just retumed 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 Uttle 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.
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. WTiy not take one in the
cause of righteousness? That night in a chartered steam
trawler, with a trusty diver, we steamed out of the har
bour, 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 dri-ving
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.

FIRST WINTER AT ST. ANTHONY 213
WTien our distance was run do-wn we hauled in for
the land, but had to lay "hove to" (with the ship
sugared Uke 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 top
masts over the land." It was the wreck we were looking
for. 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 com
pletely 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.
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,"
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

214 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Nar
rows of St. John's, the cynosure of all eyes. The skipper
and our friend had gone to England, so the Govern
ment had them extradited. The captain, who was ill
with a fatal disease, made a full confession, and both
men were sent to prison.
That was how we "went dry" in our section of La
brador.

CHAPTER XII
THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
Being a professional and not a business man, and
ha-ving 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 bar
ter 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 en
slaves the -victims, and then makes them love their chains.
As a magistrate I once heard a case where a poor man
paid one hundred doUars 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 !
Lord Strathcona told me that in his day on this coast,
when a man had made so good a hunt that he had pur
chased 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 tumed in all their
catch to the merchant, and took what was coming to
them as a matter of course. Many even were afraid to

216 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
ask for certain suppUes. This fact often became evident
when we were trying to order special diets — the pa
tient 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 pre
cautions 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 in
sured their securing all the fur caught, because legally a
share of the catch belonged to them in retum for the
loan of the trap. They thus completely minimized the
chance for competition, which is "the life of trade."
Soon after my arrival on the coast I saw the old Hud
son 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.
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 fiock of eiders which
went right over our heads. "WTiat's the matter, Jim?"
I asked. "I settled -with the merchant to-day," he re
plied, "and he won't give me nothing for powder. A
duck or two won't matter. 'T is the children I'm mind
ing." 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 Uke milk which he would

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 217
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
sho-wn 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 bank
rupt 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 retumed as value nil. The whole thing seemed
a nightmare to any one who cared about these people.
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 famiUes
who remain at the heads of the long bays all summer,
far removed from the polar current. Furthermore, un
til some one invents a way to extract the fishy taste
from our fish oils, we must import our edible fats; for
the Labrador dogs wiU not permit cows or even goats
to Uve near them. I have heard only this week that a
process has just been discovered in CaUfomia 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. Fire
wood, lumber, fish and game, boots or clothing of skins,
are all that we can pro-vide for ourselves. On the other
hand, we must export our codfish, salmon, trout, whales,
oil, fur, and in fact practically all our products. An ex
change medium is therefore imperative; and we must
have some gauge like cash by which to measure, or else

218 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
we shaU lose on aU 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.
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 cooperative plan which
had proved so successful in England. I still beUeve 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.
Things went from bad to worse as the years went by.
The fact of the sealing steamers kiUing the young seals
before they could swim greatly impoverished the Lab
rador 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.
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. WTien 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 o-wn merchants, accepting
the risks and sharing the profits. The fisherman's and
trapper's life is a gamble, and naturaUy, therefore,
they like credit advances, for it makes the other man
carry the risks. We then and there decided, however,
to venture a cooperative 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,

THE FIRST COOPERATIVE STORE

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 219
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 weU from the beginning. That was in 1905, He
is StiU 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 cooperative store.
Due to it, the people have been able to tide over a series
of bad fisheries; and every family is free of debt.
At the time of the formation one most signfficant
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. How
ever, I chalked all over its face "Red Bay Cooperative
Store," 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 suc
cess, only Umited 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 de
leted by the people being forced to leave through ina
bility to meet their needs.
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

220 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
where we were staying on ours, and the subject of co
operation 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.
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 ser-vice. 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 in
genious suggestion was made — "He doesn't know the
way. Persuade his driver, after starting out, to gradually
work round and end up at the cooperative meeting."
This was actually done, and our friend was present
wiUy-nilly. He proved a broken reed, however, for in
the face of the traders he went back on cooperation.
As fortune would have it, our o-wn 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 e-vidently we had made a
mistake and were reaUy at Cape Norman, the place to
which he had intended to go.
It was a dark evening, crisp and cold, and hundreds of
dogs that had hauled people from all over the country
side to the meeting made night dismal outside. We be
gan our meeting with prayer for guidance, wisdom, and
good temper, for we knew that we should need them all

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 221
— and then we came down to statistics, prices, debts,
possibilities, and the story of cooperation elsewhere.
The little house was crammed to overflowing. But
the fear of the old regime was heavy on the meeting.
The traders occupied the whole time for speaking. Only
one old fisherman spoke at all. He had been an over
seas 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." 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
tune no one could be found who would take the manager
ship; 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.
That little store has been preaching its vital truths
ever since. It is a still small text, but it has had vast in
fluences for good. There has proved to be one difficulty.
It is the custom on the coast to give all meals to travel
lers free, both men and dogs, and lodging to boot. Cus
tomers came from so far away that they had to stay over
night 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 there
fore printed, mounted, framed, and sent to our friend
the legend, "No more free meals. Each meal will cost

222 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
Our third store was seventy-five miles to the west
ward 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 seU 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. " 'T is 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."
That store is now a limited liability company with a
capital of ten thousand dollars o-wned entirely by the
fishermen, it has paid consistently a ten per cent divi
dend every year, and is located in fine premises which
it bought and owns outright.
A fourth store followed near the lumber mill which
we started to give winter labour at logging; but owing

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 223
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 confi
dence in the ability of the store to succeed, and retum
ing 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.
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 sim
ply small stores under the care of one settler, who guar
anteed to charge the people only a fixed percentage
over St. John's prices for goods, as the retum for his
responsibility. Number eight was the result of a night
spent in a miserable shack on a lonely promontory called
Adlavik. 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. 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 diffi
culties, stiff continues to preach a gospel and speU much

224 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 them
selves. 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 lffe 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 traveUing
struck a rock off Battle Harbour, and most of his goods
were lost uninsured, he himself gladly enough escaping
with his life.
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 oppo
sition hitherto had been that of rats behind a wainscot.
They secured from their friends a Government commis
sion 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 aU told me that they were pre
judiced against the whole Mission by hearsay and mis
interpretations, before they even began their exhaustive
inquiry. Their findings, however, were a complete refu
tation of all charges, and the best advertisement possible.

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT 225
It would not be the time to say that the whole co
operative venture has been an unquaUfied success; but
the causes of failure in each case have been perfectly
obvious, and no fault of the system. Lack of business
abUity has been the main trouble, and the lack of cour
age and unity which everywhere characterizes mankind,
but is perhaps more emphasized on a coast where fail
ure means starvation, and where the cooperative spirit
has been rendered very difficult to arouse owing to mis
trust bom 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.
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 seff -development — if ever these pro
ducers 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.

CHAPTER XIII
THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM
The argument for cobperation had been that Ufe on the
coast was not worth U-ving 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 Ufe had enough to
offer in character as well as in maintenance to attract a
permanent population, especiaUy 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.
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 smaU, and many therefore
could not go furring. Moreover, the polar current, enter
ing 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 coSperative pro
ductive as well as distributive enterprise.
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 some
thing 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

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 227
sawmiUs paid in Ne-wfoundland. 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.
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 ne
cessity of having poor-relief biUs. 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.
The people had no money to start a mill, and the cir
cumstances 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.
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

228 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
had ever seen a mill either, we all felt a bit uneasy about
our capacities. I had left orders with the captain of the
Cooperator (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 communica
tion whatever with them as we were six hundred miles
farther north on our summer cruise; and we had not
the sUghtest control over the circumstances in which we
might become involved.
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.
The big boiler, the "bugaboo" of my dreams aU sum
mer, 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 sUd the boiler, aU hands
hauUng it up with our tackles."
Ha-ving left the few supplies which we had with us, for
the Strathcona has no hold or carrying space, we re-

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 229
tumed to the hospital, mighty grateful for the successful
opening of the venture. The survey had been completed
and accepted by the Government, and though unfor
tunately 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.
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 dis
tant 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 ob
stacle 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
Uterally 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
actuaUy 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

230 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
there were stiU eight miles to go stiU haunted me. On
that occasion we had cut do-wn 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 teU. Not
so long before a man named Casey, bringing his komatik
do-wn the steep hiU at Conche, missed his footing and fell
headlong by a bush into the snow. The heavy, loaded
sledge ran over him and pressed him stiU farther into the
bank. StruggUng only made him sink the deeper, and an
hour later the poor fellow was discovered smothered to
death. 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 Uved 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. Occasion
ally we would stop, climb a tree, and try to get a view.
But climbing a conifer whose boughs are hea-vily laden
with ice and snow is no joke, and gave very meagre re
turns. 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 HiUs which towered over the south side of the
bay in which the mill stood.
A very high, densely wooded hiU lay, however, directly
in our path; and which way to get round it best none of

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 231
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 ff 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 im
passable 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 exceed
ingly slow process.
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 feU through the ice. There was
a biting wind blowing, and it was ten degrees below zero.

232 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
WTien 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 moming to bathe, I had never run in a coat of
mail. 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 for
get 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 diffi
cult 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, ff the joys of efficiency and accomplish
ment are the durable pleasure of life.
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 boiUng cocoa

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 233
and pork buns, we all agreed that it had been a day
worth living for.
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.
When next we saw the miU 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 de-
Uver the goods to the rotary saw. Later, with the knowl
edge that the whole apparatus was upside down, it did
not seem so surprising after all. One accident also marred
the year's record. WTiile 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 EngUsh 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 Ueu of a hot-water bottle, to restore his
circulation. The second fall was our hardest period. The bills for
our lumber sold had not been paid in time for us to pur
chase 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

234 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
of pro-visions gave out, and when all communication was
cut off by the frozen sea.
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 coining of the King
dom of God on earth recognize that to give the oppor
tunity 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 vic
tims of semi-starvation. The inculcation of the par
ticular 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, stiU con
sidered far the most important line of effort. The em
phasis on hospitals is second, partly at least because, so
it has seemed to me as a doctor of medicine, the more
ob-vious 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 Uttle 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 dis
eases, and especially the chronic malnutrition of poverty
fills your clinic -with suffering childr^i, 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 KeUer, can never be rightly

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 235
estimated by any purely material conception of human
Ufe, 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.
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 per
sonal 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 super-vised by the
auditors. WTiile 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 aU-important in the ordinary business of
the world. No money, however, from this fund has ever
gone into the mill or in assisting the cooperative stores.
Sorry as one feels to confess it, I have seen money
wasted and lost through red tape in the mission business.
And after aU 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 Ufe 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 beUeve, a fact of paramount importance for efficiency

236 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Ufe's
enigma. When at last our food and freight were purchased for
the loggers for the winter and landed by the maU steamer
nine miles from the mill, the whole bay was frozen and
five miles of ice already over six inches thick. The huU 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 im
practicable method.
It was decided that as we could not possibly butt
through the ice, we must butt over it. The whole com
pany 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, fiour, sugar, molasses,
etc., together with boats and all hea-vy weights, so that
her fore foot came above the water level and she looked
as if she were sinking by the stem. 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 aU 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 BibUcal fashion, literally "reeling to and fro Uke
drunken men."
While the mill was in its cradle, we in the Strathcona
were cruising the northern Labrador waters. We wit
nessed that year, off the mighty Kaumajets, the most

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 237
remarkable storm of lightning that I have ever seen in
those parts. Inky masses hid the hoary heads of those
tremendous cUffs. Away to the northwest, over the high
land called Saeglek, a lurid Ught just marked the sharp
outline of the miUs. Ahead, where we were trying to
make the entrance to Hebron Bay, an apparently im
penetrable wall persisted. Seaward night had already
obscured the horizon; but the moon, hidden behind the
curtain of the storm, now and again fitfuUy iUuminated
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 gUmpse 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.
An amusing incident took place in one isolated har
bour. 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, ha-ving paid for it, positively re
fused 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." At the mill we found that quite a large part of the
timberland was over Umestone, 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.

238 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
conifers, and a very Umited 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 o-wn enterprise.
For ten years the little mill has run, giving work to the
locality, better houses, a new church and school, and in
deed created a new village.
The only trouble with this North country's o-wn pe
culiar 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 doUars. Beaver, lynx, wolverine,
wolves, bears, and other skins were priced proportion
ately. Still, some men lived very well out of furring. We
came to the conclusion that the only way to improve
conditions in this Une 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 zoological gardens
at Washington seeing a healthy batch of young fox
pups bom in captivity.
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 re
joice 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

THE MILL AND THE FOX FARM 239
pups were very tame, for I flnd 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 Uttle creatures to St. Anthony. He describes the
state of affairs as foUows: "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 Uttle
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 ha-ving
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.' "
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
Uke a child when you took notice of it. The whites, and
stiU more the silvers, were always very shy; and though
we never reared a single pup, there were some bom and
destroyed by the old ones.
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 de
stroyed three of the animals which were especial pets.
We then converted the farm into a garden with a glass
house for our seedling vegetables.
Meanwhile the industry had been developed by a Mr.
Beetz in Quebec Labrador -with very marked economic

240 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
success; and in Prince Edward Island with such tre
mendous profit that it soon became the most important
industry in the Pro-vince. 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 Uve slut in pup, sold her
with her little brood for ten thousand doUars. We at
once started an agitation to encourage the industry
locally, and the Govemment 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 de
Ughtful little broods, also some mink and marten (sables),
the prettiest Uttle 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 do-wn 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 gen
erally 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.

CHAPTER XIV
THE CHILDREN'S HOME
"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.
"I guess. Doctor, that that's the Yankee what's been
down North for a load of Huskeymaws. WTiat do they
want with them when they gets them?"
"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."
People of every sort crowded to see the popular Es
kimo Encampment on the Midway. The most taking
attraction among the groups displayed was a little boy,
son of a Northem Chieftain, Kaiachououk by name;
and many a nickel was thro-wn into the ring that little
Prince Pomiuk might show his dexterity -with the thirty-
foot lash of his dog whip.
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.
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

242 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 far
ther that season.
Meanwhile in June, 1895, we again steamed out
through the Narrows of St. John's Harbour, deter
mined 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
reechoed 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. It was George Ford, factor of the Hudson Bay Com
pany at that post. During the evening's talk he told
me of a group of Eskimos still farther up the fjord ha-ving
with them a dying boy. Next day I had my first glimpse
of little Prince Pomiuk. We found him naked and hag
gard, lying on the rocks beside the tiny "tubik."
The Eskimos were only too glad to be rid of the re
sponsibility 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 treas
ured 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."
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'
wiU become his guardians." Thus the "Comer Cot" was

THE CHILDREN'S HOME 243
founded, and occupied by the Uttle Eskimo Prince for
the brief remainder of his life.
On my return the following summer the child 's joyful
laughter greeted me as he said, "Me Gabriel Pomiuk
now." A good Mora-vian Brother had come along during
the winter and christened the child by the name of the
angel of comfort.
In a sheltered corner of a little graveyard on the La
brador 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.
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 sum
moned to a lonely headland, fifty miles from our hos
pital 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. WTien we
anchored off the promontory we were surprised to re
ceive no signs of welcome. WTien 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,

244 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Uttle
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 ex
pected more. An uncle volunteered to assume one Uttle
boy and we sailed away with the remainder of the chil
dren. 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 wffe
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.
We had everything to learn in the rearing of chUdren,
ha-ving 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 Eng
land did well, the superior discipUne of their foster
mother being no doubt responsible. The foUowing fall I
made a special journey to see the latter. It was a small
farm on which they Uved, and a Uttle baby had just ar
rived. Only high ideals could have persuaded the woman
to accept the added responsibiUty, The chUdren were
as bright and jolly as possible.
Among the other functions which have faUen to my
lot to perform is the ungrateful task of unpaid magis
trate, or justice of the peace. In this capacity a Uttle
later I was called on to try a mother, who in a Labrador

THE CHILDREN'S HOME 245
•viUage had become a -widow and later married a man
with six children who refused to accept her three-year-
old Uttle girl. When I happened along, the baby was
Uving 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 per
manently 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 hus
band to jail. I could not fine him, for he had no money.
There was no jail in Labrador, anyhow. My special con
stable 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 re
ceived it right to her heart.
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 obUged 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

246 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
her into Government House at HaUfax, where one of our
nurses had taken her to school temporarily, and she
ran into the room with two other little girls, the Gov
ernor could scarcely tell which was our Uttle cripple
Kirkina. 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 aud find them and help them with some warm
clothing. Having steamed round the island and seen no signs
of life, we were on the point of lea-ving when a tiny smoke
column betrayed the presence of human Ufe — and with
my family-man mate we landed as a search party.
Against the face of a sheer rock a single sheet of light cot
ton 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.
It was just beginning to snow, a wet sleet. Eight

THE CHILDREN'S HOME 247
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
do-wn 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 sym-
boUc 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 WilUe. 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 himseff. 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 kick
ing violently in the vice of each of his powerful arms.
The grasping strength of our men, reared from child
hood to haul hea-vy strains and ponderous anchors, is
phenomenal. WTiatever sins Labrador has been guilty of, Malthu-
sianism 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 Labra
dor thinking, the Giver of all children. Main's responsi-
bUity 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

248 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
that is kismet. It is the animal philosophy and makes
women's lives on this coast terribly hard. The oppor
tunity for service along child-weffare lines is therefore
not surprising from this angle also.
One day, passing a group of islands, we anchored in
a bight kno-wn 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 coUection pro
duced. "She would n'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." WTien after
the long summer's work we landed and went up to her
Uttle 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 Westem Front. The girls have both
been educated, the elder having had two years finishing
at the Pratt Institute in New York.
A grimy note saying, "Please call in to Bird Island as

THE CHILDREN'S HOME 249
you pass and see the sick," brought me our next dona
tion. "There be something wrong with Mrs. B's twins.
Doctor," greeted me on landing. "Seems as if they was
like kittens, and could n't see yet a wink." It was only
too true. The little twin girls were bom blind in both
eyes. WTiat could they do in Labrador? Two more for
our fannly without any question. After leaving our Or
phanage, these two went through the beautiful school
for the bUnd at HaUfax, and are now able to make their
own Uving in the world.
So the roll swelled. Some came because they were or
phans; 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-do-wn shed.
Inside there appeared to be but one room, which meas
ured 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 a-wful. 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

250 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 New
foundland and Labrador that I am constantly asked:
"But why do you have a Children's Home in New
foundland? Can't the Newfoundlanders look out for
themselves and their dependent children?" As I have
tried to make clear in a pre-vious chapter North and
South Ne-wfoundland should be sharply differentiated
as to wealth, education, climate, and opportunity.
Though for purposes of efficiency and economy the ac
tual building of the Home is situated in the north end
of the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, the chil
dren 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 New
foundland family on the south side of BeUe Isle makes it
impossible to leave children under such conditions.
It is obvious that something had to be built to accom
modate the galaxy; and some one secured who under
stood 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 build
ing during the years grew with the faimly, so that it is
reaUy 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

INSIDE THE ORPHANAGE

THE CHLLDREN'S HOME 251
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 crSche for babies. Miss Storr was
obliged to leave us, and now for over six years a splendid
and unselfish EngUsh lady. Miss Katie Spalding, has
been helping to solve this most important of all prob
lems — 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 un
ceasing 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 in
valuable. 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 Labra
dor 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 bro-wn
bare legs and tough, well-shaped feet are a great asset
to their resistance to tuberculosis, their arch-enemy, and

252 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
no small addition to the attraction of their merry faces
and hatless heads.
Even though Gabriel, Prince Pomiuk, never Uved
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.
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. Cer
tainly it is the gauge of the outlay in child Ufe. WTiat is
the good of it aU? 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 lffe here
in every branch the better.
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
flt them for wise citizenship have been cruelly neglected
in this "outpost of Empire."
Another menace to the future welfare of the coast has
been the lack of careful instruction and suitable oppor
tunities for the development, physical, mental, and spir
itual, of its girls. Without an educated and enUghtened
womanhood, no country, no matter how favored by ma
terial prosperity-, can hope to take its place as a factor in
the progress of the world. In our orphanage and educa
tional work we have tried to keep these two ideas con
stantly before us, and to offer incentives to and oppor
tunities for useful life-work in whatever branch, from
the humblest to the highest, a child showed aptitude.

THE CHILDREN'S HOME 253
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 gffts — useful and con
secrated personalities.

CHAPTER XV
PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION
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 j-our energies to accomplishing something.
WTien secretary for our hospital ro-wing club on the
Thames, a flne cup was given for competition by Sir
Frederick Treves on terms symboUc of his attitude to
life. The race was to be in ordinary punts with a cox
swain "in order that every ounce of energy should be
devoted to the progress of the boat."
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.
The denominational spirit, fostered by these sec
tarian 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 first —

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 255
so much so that once a rickety, crippled child, easily
cured, though he actually came to the harbour, was for
bidden to land and retumed home to be a cripple for life.
The salaries available offer no attraction to enter the
teaching profession in this island; and there is no com
pulsory 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 U-ving wage to all who render service to the
world in whatever Une.
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 stiU another "institution
of leaming " menaced us at one time — almost like a
new Egyptian plague, with more permanency of results
thrown in.
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 fisher
men as "able to read and write"; but as a matter of fact
the iUiteracy and ignorance of North Newfoundland and
Labrador is the greatest handicap in the lives of the
people. 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 hos
pital 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 aU the rest of the time

256 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
in retum 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 o-wn which fiUs a most
valuable purpose on the shore, is general consultant for
the coast in matters of engineering, as weU 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.
As each transferred indi-vidual has come back North
for ser-vice, desire has at once manifested itself for simi
lar pri-vileges in young people who had not previously
sho-wn 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 easUy traced
than in these concrete examples carrying the infection
which could come from no other quarter into our isola
tion. It has been in very humble Ufe an example of the
return of the "Yankee to the Court of King Arthur."
There was a time when Lord Haldane proposed that
every EngUsh child, who in the Board schools had proved
his ability to profit by it, should be given a coUege or
university education at the expense of the State — as
a remunerative outlay for the nation. This proposal
was tumed down as being too costly, though the expend
iture for a single day's runnng of this war would have

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 257
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.
America has already honoured herself forever by
being a pioneer in this movement for the higher educa
tion of the people. Religion surely need not fear mental
enUghtenment. 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 sec
tarian teaching," which was one of the concessions de
manded of us in our fight for a free public or common
school at St. Anthony? My o-wn mental picture of myseff
at the age of seven sitting on a bench for forty minutes
twice every week leaming to be "religious" made me
sympathize with Scrooge when the Ghost of the Past
was paying him a -visit.
One thing was certain. The young lives entrusted to
us were having as good medical care for their bodies
as we could pro-vide; and if we could compass it, we
were going to have that paraUeled 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 treat
ment of physical ailments the prejudices of what Dr.
Holmes called "Homoeopathy and Kindred Delusions"
always are strong in proportion as they are impreg
nated with some religious bias.
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

258 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
days of peace on earth shall be permitted in our com
munity, 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 wiU have con-vinced the world that the
loftiest aspirations of mankind are no more to save your
self hereafter than here. Is it not as true as ever that if
we are not ourselves possessors of Christ's spirit, our
selves we cannot save?
The only schoolhouse available, anyhow, was not
nearly so good a building as that which we have since
pro-vided 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 enter
prise in that Une. {Pace our vegetarian friends.)
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. Ha-ving
at the beginning no funds whatever for current expenses,
we had to look for volunteer teachers. One denomina
tion helped with part of its harbour grant, but the Gov
ernment 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 or
phanage children, had by law to go to the denomination
to which their parents had belonged. This was not al
ways easy to decide correctly. On the occasion of taking
the last census in Labrador, a well-dressed stranger sud
denly 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

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 259
resided there, was not so loyal to his church as we are
taught we ought to be. WTien the stranger entered his
tilt a vision of material favours to be obtained was the
dominant idea in the fisherman's mind. He was there
fore 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
"WTiat 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 un
washed 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 Metho
dist!" 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.
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 col
lected from aU quarters. The former afforded the stimu-

260 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
lus which entertainments given by the children could
carry, and also space for physical driU; the latter, that
greatest incentive of all, access to books which lure peo
ple 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.
The generous help of summer volunteers, especiaUy
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 im
agination into the service as well.
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 doUs had so impressed
itself upon us that the second season we had brought out
a trunkful. Even then we found later that the doUs were
perched high up on the walls as ornaments, just out of
reach of the children. In one Uttle 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 skipp'er
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 ff I could h§ve
found them on the ice."

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 261
The pathos of the lack of toys and games appealed
especially to the Anglo-Saxon, who beUeves that ff 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. So organized play was carefully introduced on the
coast. It caught like wfldfire among the children, and it
was deUghtful to see groups of them naively memorizing
by the roadside school lessons in the form of "Ring-of-
Roses," "Looby-Loo," "AU 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 in
competence. 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 con
demned by local oracles is dancing. The laxity of "for
eigners" 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 trans-

262 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
pired, and we were next successfully piloted clear of
condemnation through a game entitled " Piggie-wig and
Piggie-wee." Our circulation was just beginning to oper
ate 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 leam 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.
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 six
teen at that. He was engaged at a more generous salary

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 263
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 wait
ing 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 neigh
bours 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.
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 endo-wment 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.
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, there
fore, 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
deUghtful lady who holds the best percentage record for

264 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
passing children through the requirements of the local
examinations of any in the country.
So much more deeply, however, do idle words sink
into some natures than even deeds, that one family pre
ferred 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.
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 ci-vilization alone can give them. The
faculty of Pratt Institute gave us a scholarship, and later
two of them; and with no Uttle fear as to their abiUty to
keep up, we sent two young men there. The ne-wness 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 lffe altogether. Doctor"; and
she is making a splendid retum in ser-vice to her own
people here.
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 relation
ship to his country, any more than he is anything beyond
a learned animal if he knows nothing of his opportunities
and responsibiUties as a son of God. But though example

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 265
is a more impelling factor than precept, undoubtedly the
most permanent contributions conferred on the coast by
the many coUege students, who come as volunteers every
summer to help us in the various branches of our
work, is just this gift of their own personaUties. 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 Uves, have not been the sons of the
wealthy, but those working their way through the col
leges. These men are just splendid to hold up as inspira
tional to our o-wn.
The access to books, as well as to sermons, may not
be neglected. Our faculties, like our jaws, atrophy ff 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 hos
pitals. We were running south some years ago on our
long northem trip before a fine leading wind, when sud
denly we noticed a small boat with an impro-vised 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 soUtary, white-haired old man cUmbed
with much difficulty over our rail. "Good-day. WTiat'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 es
caped my lips for delaying a steamer for such a pur
pose. But a strange feeling of humiliation replaced it
almost immediately. WTiich is really charity — skilfuUy

266 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
"Haven't you got any books?"
"Yes, Doctor, I've got two, but I've read them
through and through long ago."
"What kind are they?"
"One is the 'Works of Josephus,'" he answered, "and
the other is 'Plutarch's Lives.'"
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 himdred books," selected
by Mr. Ruskdn and Dr. EUot, -without even so much as
a sigh for the "ten best seUers."
He was soon bounding away over the seas in his Uttle
craft, the happy possessor of one of our moving Ubra-
ries, containing some fifty books, ranging from Henty's
stories to discarded tomes from theological libraries.
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 Ufe of
books, since we have only rarely enjoyed the help of a
trained librarian enabUng us to make the most use of
these always welcome assets for our work. Later, some
Ubrarian friends from Brooklyn, chief among whom was
Miss Marion Cutter, came down to help us; but our in
ability 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 ser-vice, we feel confident that some
how we shall be able to fiU the gap, and some one wiU be
found to come and help us again to meet this great need.
The cooperation of teachers and Ubrarians more than

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 267
doubles the capacity of each alone, and we believe sin
cerely that they do that of doctors, as they unquestion
ably do that of the clergy. AU the world's workers have
infinitely more to gain by cooperation than they often
suspect. And indeed we who are apostles of cooperation,
as essential for economy in distribution and efficiency
in production, reaUze that groups of workers pulling
together always increase by geometrical progression the
result obtained.
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 Ufe had been spent in teaching, and who would
have been excused for discontinuing that function dur
ing her long vacations, came down at her own cost and
charges to carry the light to one of these lonely settle
ments. 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 Edu
cation, 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 pupUs daily wherever
seems best. Lack of proper accommodation and pioneer
conditions throughout in no way deter them. We ex
pected 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 beUef
in the value of the effort. Some have given promising

268 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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."
The only real joy of possession is the power which
it confers for a larger Ufe of service. Has it been the
reader's good fortune ever to save a human lffe? 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 aU his Ufe
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. 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, WTien the Episcopal
clergyman for Labrador, whom we had been influential
in bringing out from England, decided to start an un
denominational boarding-school on his section of the
coast, we began to hope that we might yet Uve to see
our sporadic effort become a poUcy. Laymen in St.
John's, led by the Rev. Dr. Edgar Jones, a most pro
gressive clergyman, sympathized in dollars, and we
were able to back the effort. A splendid volunteer head
teacher wiU arrive in the spring to begin work. The ef
fort stiU needs much help; but I am persuaded that a
chain of undenominational schools can be started that
wUl react on the whole country. Already a scheme for
a similar uplift for the west coast is being promulgated.
In a letter written to my wife some years ago I find

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION 269
that my con-victions on the subject of education were no
less firm than they are to-day. One came to the conclu
sion 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 leaming 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
traming — it is all so-called 'arts' and Creeds."

CHAPTER XVI
"WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA?"
We are somewhat superstitious do-wn here still, and not
a few believe that shoals and submerged rocks are like
sirens which charm vessels to their doom.
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 do-wn, and with a strong
onshore wind we gradually drifted in toward the high
cliffs. It was a hea-vy 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, coining
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, in
continently tacked, and, making for the open sea, soon
left us far astern. We fired our guns, we shouted in
unison, we lit flares. AU 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 dis
membered the motor, got a faint kick out of one cylinder
— a second — a third, then two, three, and then a sol
itary one again. It was exactly Uke a case of blocked

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 271
heart. But it was enough with our oars to make us move
slowly ahead. By much stimulating and watchful nurs
ing we limped along on the one cylinder, and about mid
night found ourselves alongside the phantom ship,
which we had foUowed 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
Ught 's been seen there than ever any man lit. When us
saw you'se Ught flashing round right in on the cUffs, us
knowed it was no place for Christian men that time o'
night. Us guessed it was just fairies or devils trying to
toU us in."
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 un
necessarily lost as a result.
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 do-wn 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

272 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
leaving before dawn ff the night proves "civil." Yet
many a time I have seen these Uttle 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 threaten
ing. As there were no Ughts on the land, it would have
been madness to try and make harbours after sundown.
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 dis
tress. I can stiU 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 stem only a few yards from the
cliffs under his lee, and aU his loved ones, as weU as his
freighters, a good deal nearer heaven than he wished
them to be.
We had frequently written to the Govemment of this
neglect of lights for the coast. But Labrador has no
representative in the Newfoundland ParUament, and
legislators who never visited Labrador had unimagina
tive 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 Northem 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 comer of land. I have seen a
hundred vessels come and anchor near by in a single
evening. WTien 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

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 273
we were politely told that the Govemment could not
permit private ownership of lights — a very proper de
cision, 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 weU as to thousands of others many times since that
day. One hundred miles north of Indian Tickle, a place also
directly in the run of all the fishing schooners, a Ught
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 do-wn suddenly before nightfall
with a blanket of fog which you could almost cut with
a kmf e, and being inside many reefs, and unable to make
the open, we were all forced to anchor. WTiere 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-
Ughts -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 stem. Our patients were dressed
and our boats gotten ready, though it all had only a
psychological value. Gradually we missed flrst 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, tumed 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

274 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 dayUght. 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 teU-tale in our little wheel-house. The Govern
ment has since put a fine little light in summer on WTute
Point, the point off which we lay.
Farther north, right by our hospital at Indian Har
bour, is a narrow tickle known as the "WTiite Cockade."
Through this most of the fleet pass, and here also we had
planned for a lighthouse. WTien 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 Ughthouse
to the Government for some new place each year.
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 Do
minion of Canada could and ought to give to her long
shore from Quebec to the eastern "Newfoundland"
boundary on the Straits Labrador.
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,

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 275
had she years ago buUt a railway to the east coast, short
ening the steamer communication with England to only
two nights at sea, and sa-ving 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 Ger
man prisoner labour in so invaluable a direction.
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. The fact that a thing possesses vitality is a guarantee
that it will grow if it can. Each new focus will expand,
and caterpiUar-Uke 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 reUable means of pro
gression. 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 Northem Messenger num
ber 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 beautfful boat which now serves Harrington,
our most westerly hospital. We are largely indebted for
her to Mr. WilUam Bowditch, of Milton, Massachusetts.
Dr. Hare, our first doctor at that station, never wrote

276 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
Once, running home before a wind in the Gulf, the
doctor suddenly missed his little son Pat, and looking
round saw him struggUng in the water, already many
yards astern. Dr. Hare, who was at the tiUer at the time,
instantly jumped over after him. The chfld 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 manoeu-vred 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 Ufe had made his famiUar
ideal. 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 avail
able 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 reaUzed this fact and
that therein lies the real secret of Christianity. The im
pression 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

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 277
steamer bound for Montreal on which I took passage
should stop and drop me off BeUe Isle if the crusaders
who were to take this launch on her long voyage North
would stand out across our pathway. Mr. Marconi per
sonally 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 passen
gers 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
do-wn upon from the liner's rail. The sensation was all
the more marked as we disappeared over the rail cling
ing to two large pots of geraniums — an importation
which we regarded as very much worth while.
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 com
munication. 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 ex
pedition; so Yale decided that they were men enough to
do without any outside help.
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

278 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
factory, the Northem mail steamer came in. On board
were our retumed wanderers, and papa, who had gone
do-wn 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 Wolstenhohne,
navigated Stupart's Bay — northeast of Ungava — and
finally retumed to Baffin's Land, coming back to Cart
wright 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 ha-ving
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.
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 tum 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."
It was near this same spot that in November, 1905,
a very old vessel, while trying to cross the Straits in a

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 279
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
Uttle 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 over
whelm them, they eventually reached land safe and
sound. 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 inter
ested. 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. 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 WTiite, 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 associa
tion now and again published little brochures of our
work, or ordered out a few copies of the English mag-

280 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
azine called "The Toilers of the Deep." It was suggested
that we might with advantage pubUsh 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 per
sonally 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 help
ing to raise many of the funds to enable us to "carry on."
We had also begun to get friends in New York. Dr.
Charles Parkhurst, famous especiaUy for his plucky ex
posure of the former rottenness of the police force of that
city, had asked me to give an iUustrated 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 Ufelong friend
ship with one who has, for all the succeeding years,
given far more than money, namely, the constant in
spiration 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 GrenfeU Asso
ciation 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.
This spread of interest in the United States greatly
increased our correspondence, with an odd result. Amer
icans apparently aU beUeved 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

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 281
others go back. That one contained a cheque for a hun
dred dollars for the Mission. I naturally took the rest,
and found every one of them to be bills, gossip, or from
autograph-hunters. 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, how
ever, commend my efforts to the Govemment, 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. WTien 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.
It suddenly flashed upon me that Americans had equal
fishmg 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 Post
master-General at the time, said that it made all the
difference if the reduced rate would in any way encour
age 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.
^ 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

282 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 behaff, left for Washington the
following day, and wired me on the next morning, "AU
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."
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 Univer
sity had ever given that particular degree to any one, I
was naturally not a little gratified. The day of the con
ferring 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.
The words vnth 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:
"Insignissime Vice-Cancellarie vosque egregii Pro-

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 283
curatores: Adest civis Britannicus, hujus academise olim
alumnus, nunc Novum Orbem incolentibus quam nos-
tratibus 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, quae ibi formidosis-
sima sunt, contempsit dum miseris et mserentibus so
latium 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
omatur. "Prsesenta ad vos Wilfredum Thomassum Grenfell,
ut admittatur ad gradum Doctoris in Medicina Honoris
Causa." As we, the only two Doctors Grenfell extant, marched
solemnly back do-wn 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 siUc for the occasion, never ex
pecting to wear them again. But some years later, when
yet another honorary Doctorate, of Laws, was most gen
erously conferred upon me by a University of our Ameri
can cousins, I felt it incumbent on me to uphold if pos
sible the British end of the ritual. A cable brought me
just in time the box-cloth surtout. Commencement cere
monies 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

284 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 grad
ually 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.
About this time King Edward most graciously pre
sented me, as one of his birthday honours, with a Com
panionship 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 de-vils. My American friends im
mediately 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 myseff being dubbed poseur.
I have protested at meetings when the chairman has
knighted me; at banquets, when the master of ceremo
nies has knighted me. I gave it up lest accusation should
arise against me, when at a semi-reUgious meeting I ut
tered 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."
There was attached to the conferring of the Order one
elective latitude — it could either be sent out or wait tiU
I retumed to England and attended a levee with the
other recipients. I had a great desire to see the King, and,

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 285
though it meant a year's waiting, I requested to be al
lowed 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 Chamber
lain, 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 beUeve, to be presented to the United States
of America.
At last Sir Frederick Treves, who kindly acted as my
introducer, took me up to the King's study — that King
whose lffe his skill had saved. There a most courteous gen
tleman made me perfectly at home, and talked of Lab
rador and North Newfoundland and our work as if he
had Uved there. He asked especially about the American
helpers and interest, and laughed heartily when I told
him how many freebom 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 Col
ony I had noticed interested him very much, and all ref
erences 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 har
rowing the feelings of my more tuneful neighbours.
When later, as a major in an American surgical unit in
France, I was serving the R.A.M.C., the ribbon of the

286 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Order was actuaUy 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 permis
sion 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.
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 ques
tion 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, what
ever current science may say. As for the giving of hered
itary titles, it is significant that they do not as a rule go
to scholars or even scientific men, but to physical fight
ers, 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.
To make a man a hereditary duke for being humble and
modest, or hereditary marquis for being unseffish and
generous, or an earl for being a man of peace, and a bene
factor 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-caUed lesser honours,
such as knighthood, are reserved for these. However, an
order of knightly citizens, so long as they are real knights,

WHO HATH DESIRED THE SEA? 287
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 un
doubted stimulating value in the present stage of our
development, to an Englishman seem permissible.

CHAPTER XVII
THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT
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 dol
lars, Labrador will, like Norway and Sweden, produce
Vikings, and it is said that the man behind the gun is stiU
of some moment.
In past years we have made quite extensive experi
ments 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 Fin
nish oats. All the seeds came from the experimental sta
tion at Rampart, Alaska, and were grown in latitude
63° 30', which is two degrees north of Cape Chidley.
I find in the notes of one of my earUest 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 Govemor to carry do-wn to Battle
Harbour, and I was very eager that it, my first agricul
tural venture, should not fail.
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.
"Have you got a hen?" I asked her.

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 289
"No, Doctor; I had one, but she died last year."
" Then why ever do you keep that rooster?"
"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 be
cause of the dogs, so I just keeps he under that settle."
Pathetic as were her efforts at stock farming, I must
admit that my sympathies were all -with the incarcerated
rooster. The problem of the dogs seemed an insurmountable
one. The Mora-vians' 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 sho-wn 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 kflled and
eaten a good part of him. A fuU-grown man, dri-ving to
Battle Harbour Hospital, was killed by his dogs almost
at our doors.
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 cor
rect to speak of a doggish woff 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.
A visitor retuming to New York after a summer on
the coast wrote as follows: "One of my lasting remem
brances of Battle Harbour will be the dreadful dogs. The
Mission team were on an island far removed, but there

290 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
were a number of settlers' dogs which delighted in making
the nights hideous. Never before have I seen dogs stand
up Uke men and grapple with each other in a fight, and
when made to move on, renew the battle round the corner. "
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 Agricul
ture, gave us two years' work. His experience showed that
whUe dogs continued to be in common use, cattle-raising
was impossible. Of a flock of forty Herdwick sheep given
by Dr. Wakefield, the dogs kflled 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 inad-vis-
able. 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 Wash
ington did well, and potatoes also gave a fair retum,
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 mfles 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.
On the other hand, when we looked at the hundreds
of thousands of square miles on which caribou could Uve
and increase without any help from man, and indeed in
spite of aU his machinations, our attention was naturally
turned to reindeer farming, and I went to Washington to
consult Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Presbyterian mission-

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 291
ary from Alaska. It was he who had pioneered the intro
duction by the United States Govemment 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.
The skins are very valuable — there is no better non
conductor 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-
sa-ving 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.
Sir William MacGregor, the Governor of Newfound
land at the time, had samples of the mosses collected
around the coast and sent to Kew Botanical Gardens for
positive identffication. 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.
As long ago as the year 1903 my interest in the domes
tication 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 easfly 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 flrst raid there he

292 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
had found an apple just magnanimously sent us from the
shore as a delicacy.
Friends, mspired by Mr. William Howell Reed, of Bos
ton, 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
do-wn to the beach enough moss to feed them on their pas
sage across the Atlantic. Between two hundred and fifty
and three hundred were purchased, and three Lapp fam
ilies 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 aU day
around the North Cape.
Fifty years hence in aU probability the Lapps -wiU be
an extinct race, as even within the past twelve or fifteen
years, districts in which thousands of domesticated rein
deer grazed, now possess but a few hundreds.
The good ship Anita, which conveyed the herd to us,
steamed in for southern Ne-wfoundland 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 CremaUUere, some three miles to the
southward of St. Anthony Hospital, and though many
fell through into the sea, they proved hardy and resource
ful enough to reach the land, where they gathered around
the tinkling beUs of the old deer without a single loss
from land to land.
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

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 293
on to the ice, drawn to the shore, and transferred to one
of Dr. GrenfeU'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. WTien she had it safely in
her arms she allowed the men to lift her and put her on
the komatik." WTien 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 does n't need a
very good leg much longer." She was thirty-five!
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 retum 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. To us it seemed strange that these Lapps always con
tended 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

294 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 nat
ural enemy to fear; and one told me, "Money no good.
Doctor, if herd no increase." Reindeer seemed to be the
complement of their souls.
Meanwhile the Alaskan experiment was realizing aU
of Dr. Jackson's happiest hopes; but it had a strong
Government grant and backing and plenty of skUled
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 haff 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 exceUent in quality and
sweet, and preserved perfectly weU in rubber-capped
bottles. The cheese was nourishing and a welcome addi
tion to the local diet. At the close of the fourth year we
had a thousand deer.
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 criti
cism at the time. Subsequent developments, however,
have justified the attempt. The herds have now increased
to about forty thousand animals, and are rapidly be
coming still more numerous. The natives o-wn about two
thirds of the number. Shipments of meat have been made

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 295
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 authori
ties 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." WTiat can be done in Alaska can be
done in Labrador, and -with its better facUities for ship
ping and handling the product, the greater future ought
to be the prize of the latter country.
In the spring of 1912 there were five hundred fawns,
and at one time we had gathered into our corral for tag
ging no less than twelve hundred and fifty reindeer. Of
these we sold fifty to the Govemment 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 to
ward 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 faff to succeed.
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

A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 un
known to us; and finally we caught one hidden in a man's
woodpile, and several offenders were sent to jail.
We appealed to the Ne-wfoundland Govemment 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 o-wn the deer. The section of
land on which we had the animals is a peninsula of ap
proximately one hundred and fifty square nules. It is cut
off by a narrow, low neck about eight nules 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 na
tional preserve, that no deer at aU 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 wfld when they crossed their
path, and they claimed that the herd "led men into temp
tation," because if there were no reindeer to tempt men
to kiU 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 Une
of the neck for which we had applied, and which we

A PART OF THE REINDEER HERD

REINDEER TEAMS MEETING A DOG TEAM

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 297
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.
The deer had cost us, landed, some fifty-one dollars
apiece. Three years of herding under the adverse condi
tions of lack of support from either Govemment 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 dis
cover the nature, though we thou^t that it resembled
a kind of pneumonia.
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.
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 piUar 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 feUow, we were often able to send him
gffts. 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

298 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
It was about this year that the Govemment for the first
time granted us a resident poUceman — pre-viously we had
had to be our own police. Fortunately the man sent was
quite a smart fellow. A dozen or so deer had been kiUed
along the section of our coast, and so skilfully that even
though it was done under the noses of the herders no evi
dence to con-vict could be obtained. It so happened, how
ever, that whfle 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 stfll 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 retumed with three, which was really
the whole stock.
A piece of meat was now placed at a reasonable dis
tance, also some bags of snow, flour, etc, and a number
of bullets flred into them. These bullets were then all pri
vately 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 espe
cially, 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 pUe of bul-

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 299
lets, and told to try and sort them, by the groove marks,
into those flred 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 flred 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 con
demned to jaff for six months or two hundred dollars fine
— the latter altemative 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
jaU, 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, A few days passed by. The prisoner did not like im
proving 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. There was no way, however, definitely to stop the
steady decrease in the numbers of the herd; and though

300 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 successfuUy
removed, and the other trussed-up carcass had been hid
den untU 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 trffling
things as their having to fence their tiny gardens, protect
small stray hay-pooks, and discriminate into what they
discharged their ubiquitous blunderbusses.
Meanwhile the steadily increasing demand for meat,
especially since the war began, caused outside interest in
the experiment; and both the o^wners 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 doUars, 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,
In 1917 all preparations for transferring the deer were
made, but war conditions called their steamer away and

THE RELNDEER EXPERIMENT 301
transport was delayed until 1918, Again their steamer
was called off, so we decided to take the deer across our
selves in our splendid three-masted schooner, the George
B, Cluett, She, alas, was delayed in America by the sub
marine 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.
However, we felt that the venture must be attempted
at all hazards, even ff 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 impro
vised. A gale of wind came on and nothing could be done
but lie up.
Then followed a fine Sunday moming. 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, ff 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

302 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 na
tures, either to body or mind, and when at night we aU
tumed 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 Ught hearts, feeling that we had put
sixty-eight deer aboard, as ff we had enjoyed that fore
taste of what some stiU beUeve 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 shaU 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 ser-vice 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.
I still believe that we were absolutely right in our the
ory of the introduction of the deer into this North coun
try, and that we shall be justffied in it by posterity. That
these thousands of miles, now useless to men, wiU be
grazed over one day by countless herds of deer affording
milk, meat, clothing, transport, and pleasure to the hu
man 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, Uke the ponies' feet m Iceland,
serve to drain the surface water and dry the land. The
kicking and pawing of the moss-covered ground with their

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT 303
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.
Reinder-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 sus
tenance 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.
Our own experiment is far from being a failure. It has
been a success, even ff only the corpse is left in Newfound
land. We have proved conclusively that the deer can
Uve, thrive, and multiply on the otherwise perfectly
valueless areas of this North country, and furnish a rap
idly increasing domesticated "raw material" for a food
and clothing supply to its people.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE
On Easter Sunday, the 21st of April, 1908, it was stiU
winter with us in northem Ne-wfoundland. Everything
was covered with snow and ice. I was returning to the hos
pital after moming ser-vice, 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 op
erated 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 folio-wing
me with their team.
My dogs were especially good ones and had pulled me
out of many a previous scrape by their sagacity and en
durance. 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 foUowing sledge,
I had reached a -village twenty mfles to the south and had
already fed my team when the others caught up.
That night the wind came in from sea, bringing with
it both fog and rain, softening the snow and making the
traveUing very difficult. Besides this a heavy sea began

A SPRING SCENE AT ST. ANTHONY

-.Ii

^- -ij^

-^^-'i^-p-t-,...

.t

"St

DOG RACE AT ST. ANTHONY

THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE 305
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 mfles, the first ten lying on
an arm of the sea.
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 "balUcaters," 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, whfle half a mile out all was clear water.
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 oppo
site shore, a sa-ving of several miles if one could make it,
instead of following the landwash round the bay. Al
though 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. There
fore, without gi-ving the matter a second thought, I flung
myself on the komatik and the dogs started for the rocky
promontory some four miles distant.
All went well till we were within about a quarter of a
mile of our objective point. Then the wind dropped sud
denly, and I noticed simultaneously that we were travel
ling over "sish" ice. By stabbing dovra 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 hea-vy seas. So quickly had the wind

306 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
There was not a moment to lose. I dragged off my oil
skins 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.
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.
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 Uke a huge snowball, some twenty-flve 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.
Gradually I succeeded in hauUng myseff along by the
line which was still attached to my wrist, and was nearly
up to the snow-raft, when the leader tumed adroitly
round, slipped out of his harness, and once more leered
at me with his grinning face.

THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE 307
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 myseff, using him as a kind of bow anchor —
and I soon lay, -with my dogs around me, on the Uttle
island of slob ice.
The piece of frozen snow on which we lay was so small
that it was e-vident 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 flrmer pan
floating in the sish, and if we could reach it I felt that we
might postpone for a time the death which seemed ines
capable. To my great satisfaction I now found that my
hunting knife was stfll 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 di
vided 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 sepa
rately on the dogs' backs. I had already lost my coat, cap,
gloves, and overalls.
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 strug
gle 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

308 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 foUowed them, and all but one
succeeded in getting out on the new haven of refuge.
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.
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 aU, but snow-
covered slob, frozen into a mass which would certainly
eventually break up in the heavy sea, which was mo
mentarily 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.
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 inhab
itant 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.
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.
By midday I had passed the island to which I had
crossed on the ice bridge. The bridge was gone, so that if

THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE 309
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 thunder
ing 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 Uve the night out without freezing. With some
difficulty I now succeeded in killing three of my dogs —
and I en-vied 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 my
self than to die by inches.
But the necessity for work saved me from undue philos
ophizing; and night found me ten mfles on my sea
ward 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 vrind-
break, 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

310 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
down I began to unravel the ropes from the dogs' har
nesses, and although by this time my flngers were more
or less frozen, I managed to stuff the oakum into my
shoes. 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, yeUow, and black Richmond football stockings, and
a flannel shirt, I remembered involuntarfly the little dying
girl who asked to be dressed in her Sunday frock so that
she might arrive in heaven properly attired.
Forcing my biggest dog to lie down, I cuddled up close
to him, drew the impro-vised 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. Sud
denly what seemed a miracle happened, for the wind
veered, then dropped away entirely lea-ving it flat calm.
I turned over and feU 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 dayUght came. WTien the legs were at last tied to
gether with bits of old harness rope, they made the crook-
edest 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.

THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE 311
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 dis
appearing on the surface of the water, but it proved to be
only a small piece of ice bobbing up and down. The rock
ing of my cradle on the waves had helped me to sleep, and
I felt as weU 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.
My own faith in the mystery of immortality is so un
troubled 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 :
"My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home on life's rough way.
Oh, help me from my heart to say,
Thy will be done."
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 Ught. 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

312 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 ff 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 wa-ving. 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.
As the first man leaped on my pan and grasped my
hand, not a word was spoken, but I could see the emo
tions 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 haul
ing the boat over the pans.
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 some
thing 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
vfllage were trying to launch a boat. Miles of ice lay be-

THE ICE-PAN ADVENTURE 313
tween 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 unrespon
sive cUffs, many eyes were watching me.
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.
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 reaUzed 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.
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 re
minders of the adventure in my frozen hands and feet,
which forced me to keep to my bed — an unwelcome and
tausual interlude in my way of life.
In our hallway stands a bronze tablet:
"To the Memory of
Three Noble Dogs
MoodyWatch SpyWhose lives were given
For mine on the ice
AprU 21st, 1908."

314 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
The boy whose life I was intent on sa-ving was brought
to the hospital a day or so later in a boat, the ice having
cleared off the coast temporarfly; and he was soon on the
highroad to recovery.
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 :
"Oh, help me from my heart to say.
Thy will be done."

CHAPTER XIX
THEY THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS
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. In 1883, in the North Sea in October, a hurricane de
stroyed 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 econ
omy on our coast to have wire stays to ringbolts leaded
into rocky foundations, to anchor small bufldings. Our
storms are mostly cyclones with wide vortices, and coming
largely from the southwest or northwest, are offshore, and
therefore less felt.
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,
teUing the mate to report land as soon as he saw any, and
instructing the man at the wheel, ff he heard a shout, to

316 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 tflt 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 ludi
crous later to pick up a large island and run into a har
bour 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.
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 falUng barometer,
this deceived us, and we anchored that evening in a shal
low and unsafe open roadstead about twenty mfles 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 hea-vy tidal current would swing a
ship uneasily broadside against an average -wind force.
It was blo-wing so strongly by this time that the hospi
tal yawl Daryl had already been driven ashore from her
anchors, but stiU 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 har-

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS, 317
hour 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 morn
ing 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.
Knowing that there must be many comrades in trouble,
we were early away, and dancing Uke a bubble, we ran
north, keeping as close inshore as we could, and watch
ing 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 mfles away from
Indian Harbour, lay sixteen wrecks. The shore here was
Uned with rude shelters made from the wreckage of spars
and safls, and the women were busy cooking meals and
" tidying up " the shacks as if they had lived there always.
We soon set to work hauUng off such vessels as would
float. One, a large hardwood, well-fastened hull, we de
termined 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 in
vention. 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 "fuU speed ahead." Over she fell on her side and

318 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 tUl 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, how
ever, volunteered to pump all night.
WTiile hunting for a crew to take her South we came
upon the wreck of a brand-new boat, only launched two
months pre-viously. She had been the pride of the skip
per'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.
With fifty-odd people aboard, and a long trail of nine
teen fishing boats we eventually got back to Indian Har
bour, 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.
The case of one skipper is well worth relating as show
ing 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 re
tum trip and live quietly on the proceeds on his potato
patch in southern Newfoundland. His vessel had driven
on a submerged reef and tumed turtle. The crew had
jumped for their lives, not even saving their persopal

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 319
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."
"But what will you do now. Skipper.'"' I asked.
"WTiy, get another," he replied; "I think them '11 trust
me. 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 hea-vy 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 occa
sion 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,
" WeU, not over-much " — and only laughed when I sug
gested that perhaps a month in the open boat might have
given them a real appetite.
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
pfled 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. Meanwhfle I
had taken our launch into the river-mouth and was
marooned there. For the launch blew right up on the

320 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
bank in among the trees, and strive as we would, for
days we could not even move her out again.
Another spring we had a very close squeak of losing
the Strathcona. WTifle 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 meanwhfle the ice between us and the shore
seemed to be imperceptibly melting away. NaturaUy we
tried every expedient we could think of to keep enough
ice between us and the shore rocks to save the vessel be
ing 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. T-wisting 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 aU. Our boat was
subsequently rescued froni the shore, and we were able
to screw on a new blade to the propeller.
Just after the big gale in 1908 His ExceUency, Sir Wil
Uam 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 fuU tflt onto one of
the only sandbanks on the coast in a narrow passage be
tween some islands and the mainland! The Uttle Strath-

ICEBERGS

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 321
cona, following behind, was in time to haul us off again,
but the incident made the captain naturally distrust my
abUity, 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 Un
gava 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.
Though the work of an amateur. Sir William's survey
ing was accepted by the Admiralty and the Royal Geo
graphical 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.
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 mov
able table from 5 p.m. till midnight, came in, his joints
almost creaking with cold, and loaded with a pile of fig
ures which he assured us would crush the life out of most
men. My mate that year was a stout and very short,
plethoric person. WTien he stated that he preferred sur
veying to fishing, as it was going to benefit others so
much, and that he was famiUar with the joys of service, he
was taken promptly at his word. It was a hot summer.

322 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
The theodolite was a nine-inch one and weighed many
pounds. We had climbed the face of a very steep moun
tain called Cape Mugford, some three thousand feet high
— every inch of which distance we had to mount from
dead sea-level. WTien at last Israel arrived on the sum
mit, he looked worried. He said that he had always
thought surveying meant letting things drop down over
the ship's side, and not carrying baUast up precipices. For
his part he could now see that pro-viding food for the
world was good enough for him. He distinctly fafled 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.
The Governor was a real MacGregor and a Presby
terian, and was therefore quite a beUever in keeping Sun
day as a day of rest. But after moming 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 observa
tions 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 "aU 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 aU, 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 sacri
fice of loafing. But the Govemor forbade it, quietly un
packed, put his things away, and stayed aboard. Israel
subsequently cultivated the habit of remaining in bed on
Sundays — thereby escaping being led into temptation,

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 323
as even Governors would not be likely to go and tempt
him in his bunk.
I have had others refuse to help in really necessary
work on Sunday. One skipper would not get the Strath
cona 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.
Our charts, such as they were, were subsequently ac
cepted 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." In connection with the scientific work on the coast I
weU remember the eclipse of October, 1905. All along the
land it was perfectly visible. A break in the clouds oc
curred 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 scientffic 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 occur
ring 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 totaUty.

324 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
The year 1908 at the mfll 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. WTiite. She fetched Lloyd's full bounty
for an A 1 ship. This was a feath'er 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
takeoff 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 ha-ving 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 aU ready
on the wharf to "sketch them both off," as our people
call taking a photograph.
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 in
stall a plant of our o-wn. 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.

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 325
However, with the help of friends we were able to pur
chase a hot-head vertical engine to generate our current;
for our near-by streams freeze solid in winter. That en
gine has now been running for over ten years, and has
given us electricity in St. Anthony Hospital for operating
and X-ray work as weU 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 instaUa-
tion was efficiently done by a volunteer student from the
Pratt Institute, Mr. Hause.
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 fisher
men 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 sympa
thies 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, hop
ing that he might find where she went and catch her
again. MUe after mile he went, tearing through the "tuck
amore" 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 cot
tage and asked shelter and food. He explained that he
was an American gentleman taking a hoUday, but had n't

326 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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, anx
ious to do something for the people of that section of the
shore, and he gave me a thousand dollars toward buflding
a small cottage for a district nurse. Forteau was the village
chosen, and Dennison Cottage erected as a nursing sta
tion and dispensary. The people at flrst 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 indus
trial work, especially the making of artificial flowers. For
twelve years now. Miss Florence Bafley, a nurse from the
Mildmay Institute in London, has presided over its des
tinies, endeared herself to the people, and done most un
selfish 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 mfles
distant. A local trader once wrote me: "Sister Bafley 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."
' Only one longer journey on foot on the Labrador coast

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 327
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 four
teen hundred miles. But the man had no boat of his o-wn
and only in one or two places accepted a passage. One bay
on the east coast runs in for some himdred and fifty mfles.
Over this he got a boat fifty miles from the mouth. Round
Kipokak and Makkovik, and the bays south of Hope-
dale, 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 every
one's friend, George Ford, That is one of the most inac
cessible places in the world. No mafl steamer ever goes
there, and no schooner ever anchors nearer than a few
miles. It is at the bottom of a fjord twenty-five mfles long,
with very precipitous cliffs two thousand feet high on
each side and bottomless water below. It was then thirty
mfles from the nearest house, with ranges of mountains
between, and was the most northerly house on the Lab
rador, Here this phenomenon celebrated his arrival by
cUmbing 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 un
broken neck at such cost all that long distance.

328 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 ReviUon
Freres, 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 Uke a huge
hairy man; and several nights the dogs had been driven
growling from the house into the water. T-wice the whole
family had heard the creature prowling around the cot
tage, and tapping at the doors and vrindows. 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 flfty mfles from the coast.
An old feUow 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 aftemoon
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

THAT DO BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS 329
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. 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. WTien he up
braided him, he answered, "He came and told me to."
"Nobody did," replied the mate. "Go northwest."
Three times the experience was repeated, and at last
the mate reported the matter to the skipper. He imme
diately suggested, "Well, let us go on running in the
direction he insists on taking for a while and see if any
thing happens." At the end of two hours they came upon
a square-rigger with her decks just awash, and six men
cUnging 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."
In medicine, too, things happen which we professional
men are just as unable to explain. A big-bodied, success
ful 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. WTien I produced the forceps he
protested most loudly that he would not have it touched
for worlds.
"Why, then, did you come to me?" I asked. "You are
wasting my time."

330 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
"I wanted you to charm her. Doctor," he answered,
quite naturally.
"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."
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 CathoUc."
"Nonsense. If you really think that it would do any
good, come along. You'll have to pay twenty-five cents
exactly as ff you had it pulled out."
"Gladly enough. Doctor. Please go ahead."
He sat on the rail, a burly carcass, the incarnation
of materialism, while the doctor, feeling the size of a
sandflea, put one flnger into his mouth and touched the
molar, while he repeated the most mystic nonsense he
could think of, "Abracadabra Tiddly winkum Umslo-
poga" — 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 amaze
ment, twiddling a miserable shiUing, and wondering how
I came to make such a fool of myself.
A month later the patient again came to see me when
we happened to be in his harbour. The sweUing 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 CoUege of Surgeons,
though much attention is now devoted to the follow-up
and end-result department of surgery and medicine.

CHAPTER XX
MARRIAGE
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 via
America in the spring to receive the honorary degree of
LL.D. from WilUams CoUege and of M.A. from Har
vard, which I had been generously offered.
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 dis
taste 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.
The fact that we have to show pictures of the work
which we are doing is tiresome and takes time, but it en
courages 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

332 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
like themselves their almoners are. Only to-day my vol
unteer 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 justiflable pleasures of life.
The religion of Christ never permitted me to accept
the idea that there is "nothing to do, only beUeve."
Every man ought to earn his own bread and the means to
support his family. WTiy, then, should you have only to
ask the Lord to give unasked the wherewithal to feed
other people's families?
Lecturing for philanthropies, only another word for the
means to help along the Kingdom of God on earth, is in
England usuaUy carried on through the ordinary mis
sionary meetings; and in my pre-vious expmence they
were not generaUy much credit to the splendid objects
in view. The lectures were aften patronized by smaU
audiences largely composed of women and children.
That particular -winter in England I had the privilege
of addressing all sorts of workmen's clubs and city lec
ture-course audiences, people who would have "the
shivers" almost if one had asked them to attend a "mis
sionary " lecture. The collection, or even the final mone
tary outcome, is far from being the test of the value of the
address. To commend Christ's reUgion 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.
When spring came and the lectures were over, a new

MARRIAGE 333
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 Eng
land, 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 de
signed 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 Ameri
can lffe and the training of one of the very best of its
Universities. We met on board the second day out. She was travel
ling with a Scotch banker of Chicago and his vrife, 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 personaUy aggrieved when one day we made over
six hundred mfles, 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. WTien just
on landing I told her that I had asked a fellow passenger
to become my wffe, I am sure had the opportunity arisen
she would have tumbled dovm the Mauretania's stair
case. When she had the joy of meeting the girl, her equa
nimity was so far upset as to let an unaccustomed tear roll

334 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Uves the event
has meant most.
The constant Uttle activities of my lffe had so fifled
every hour of time, and so engrossed my thoughts, that
I had never thought to phflosophize on the ad-visabffity
of marriage, nor stopped to compare my Ufe with those of
my neighbors. There is no -virtue in keeping the Ninth
Commandment and not en-vying your neighbour's con
dition 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 faUing victim to
envy or jealousy of others. I have not been in the habit
of praying for special personal providences Uke 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.
I can honestly protest that nothing in my lffe 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 dweUs.
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 Ust as one of the daughters
of the friends with whom she was traveUing. Fortu
nately 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 cer
tainly 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 compeUed on the spur of the moment to act first

MARRIAGE 335
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
entu-ely too duU for her predflections. I have wondered
whether this was not another "small providence."
A pathological condition of one's internal workings is
not unusual even in Britons who "go down to the sea
m 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 ad
mitted that an abnormal mentality accompanies this
not uncommon experience of human lffe, 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 pro-vided for her by the
Cunard Company, to the risks of the unsteady prome
nade deck.
When the girl's way and mine parted in that last word
in material jostlings, the custom-house shed in Man
hattan, 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 wan
derer 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"

336 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 hos
pitality 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.
This visit to my wffe's beautfful 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 famUy and friends of my flancee.
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, ha-ving been born and brought up in Ten
nessee. A la-wyer by training, after the war, when every
thing that belonged to bim was destroyed in the "re
construction period," and being stfll a very young man,
he had gone North to Chicago and begun Ufe again at
his profession. There he met and married, in 1884, Miss
Rosamond HiU, who was born in Burlington, Vermont,
but who, since chfldhood and the death of her parents,
had Uved with her married sister, Mrs. Charles Durand,
of Chicago. The MacClanahans had two chfldren — the
boy, Kinloch, dying at an early age as the result of an
accident. Colonel MacClanahan himseff died a few
months later, leaving a -widow and one chfld, Anna Eliza
beth CaldweU 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.

MARRUGE 337
The friends with whom my flancee had been travel-
Img were almost next-door neighbours in Lake Forest.
They made my short stay doubly happy by endless
kindnesses; and all through the years, tfll 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.
In spite of my many years of saflor lffe, I found that
I was expected among other things to ride a horse, my
fiancee 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 swim
ming, tennis, and other pastimes calUng for coordination,
riding is never quite forgotten. But remembering Mr.
Winkle's experiences, it was not without some misgivings
that I found a shellback Uke myseff galloping behind my
lady's charger. My last essay at horseback riding had
been just eleven years pre-viously in Iceland. Ha-ving to
wait a few days at Reikkavik, I had hired a whole be-vy
of ponies with a guide to take myseff 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 faUing 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
m 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 aU. He explained it by saying that his ponies ate

338 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
so much lava that it stuck out under their skins, and
I myseff recall feeling inclined to agree with him.
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 BeU,
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 ver
satile brain. His aeroplanes, telephones, and other in
ventions were aU intensely interesting, but among his
other Unes of work the effort to develop a race of sheep,
which had litters just as pigs do, interested me most.
Francis Sayre, whom I had heard win the prize at
Wflliams 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. Fffty would arrive
on a single maal boat. They were dumped down on the
little wharf, having been landed in smaU punts from the
steamer, as in those days we had no proper dock to
which the boats could come. The Uttle 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 Sisj^phean 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 buflding was begun on
my retum. Although the capacity was greatly increased
thereby we have really been unable ever to make our
buflding what it ought to be to meet the problem. The

MARRUGE 339
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 — aU this has left the hospital
buflding more or less a thing of rags and patches, and
most uneconomical to run. We are urgently in need of
having it rebuflt entirely of either brick or stone, in order
to resist the winter cold, to give more efficiency and
conffort to patients and staff and to conserve our fuel,
which is the most serious item of expense we have to
meet. But at that time with aU its capacity for service the
new addition was rising, sounding yet one more note of
praise in better abflity to meet the demands upon us.
And pari passu came the beautfful 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, Lffe 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 flancee
and myseff was the selection of a piece of ground adjoin
ing 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 hiUside 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 there
fore we riveted the structure with hea-vy iron bolts to
the solid bedrock.
One excitement of that season was Admiral Peary's
return from the North Pole. We were cruising near Indian

340 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Harbour when some visitors came aboard to make use
of our wireless telegraph, which at that time we had
instaUed on board. It proved to be Mr. Harry Whitney.
It was the flrst intimation that we had had that Peary
was returning that year. WTiitney had met Cook coming
back from the polar sea on the west side of the Guff,
where he had disappeared about eighteen months pre
viously. I had met Dr. Cook several times myseff, 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 tape
worm which is such a menace to man, and of which our
Labrador dogs are entirely free so far.
The picture of this meeting on the ice between Cook
and Whitney gave us the impression of another Nansen
and Jackson at Spitzbergen. WTiitney had welcomed
Cook warmly, had witnessed his troubles at Etah, and
his departure by komatflc, 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 WTiitney 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 aU our minds that both he and Dr. Cook really
beUeved that the latter had found the long-sought Pole.
A little later, whfle cruising in thick weather in the

COMMODORE PEARY ON HIS WAY BACK FROM THE POLE, 1909

MARRMGE 341
GuM of St. Lawrence, my wireless operator came in and
said: "There can be no harm teUing 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 com
mittee ff he may present the Mission with his superfluous
suppUes, or whether he is to seU them to you." Seeing that
it is not easy to know whence wireless messages come ff
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 "Wash
ington." I knew that the Commander would see the joke,
and ff the decision turned out later to be incorrect, it
could easfly be rectffied by purchasing the goods. A tin
of his brown bread now Ues among my curios and one
of his sledges is in my bam.
On our arrival at Battle Harbour we found the Roose
velt 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 iU-
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.
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

342 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
world from Washington to Copenhagen; but ff so, he
has remained forever sflent 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. 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 foUowed by a -visit to the Hot
Springs of Virginia; and then "heigho," and a ffight for
the North. We sailed from St. John's, Newfoundland, in
January. I had assured my -wffe, 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 dri-ving 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 d^ghtful. My wffe had had
her furniture sent North during the summer, so that
now the "Lares and Penates" with which she had been
famiUar from childhood seemed to extend a mute but
hearty welcome to us from their new setting.
We have three children, all bom at St. Anthony. Our
elder son, Wiffred Thomason, was born in the faU of
1910; Kinloch Pascoe in the fall of 1912, two years al
most 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

MARRIAGE 343
name were di-vided between both sides of the famfly,
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.
Nearly ten years have now rolled away since our
marriage. The puzzle to me is how I ever got along be
fore; 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
inteUectual 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 lffe into "secular" and "reUgious." Religion, ff it
means anything, means the Ufe 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.

CHAPTER XXI
NEW VENTURES
No human Ufe can be perfect, or even be Uved without
troubles. Clams have their troubles, I dare say. A queer
sort of sinking feeling just Uke descending in a fast
elevator comes over one, as ff 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 Uttle steamer Swallow
which we were towing, and with it the e-vidence 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 aU 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. 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 weU. Few
professional men are good at business, and personally I
have no liking for it. This, combined with an over-read
iness to accept as helpers men whose only qualffications
have sometimes been of their own rating, was reaUy
spoiUng for trouble — and mine came through the series
of cooperative stores.
To begin with, none of the stores were incorporated, and

NEW VENTURES 345
their liabflities 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
doUars, 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,
ha-ving 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 af
fairs. 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 ff he feels every one who looks at him really thinks
that he is a defaulter. The outcome of the inquiry re
vealed that if the agent could not show which store owed
each debt, neither could the merchants; some had made
out their bflls 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.
The next discovery was that the manager of the St.
Anthony store, who had been my summer secretary be
fore, and was an exceedingly pious man — whose great
zeal for cottage prayer meetings, and that form of reUg
ious work, had led me to think far too highly of him —
had neglected his books. He had given credit to every one

346 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Uttle 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 secre
tary had mixed up affairs by both ordering suppUes direct
from Canada and sending produce there, which the St.
John's agent claimed were owed to the merchants in that
city. These two men, instead of puUing together, were, I
found, bitter enemies; and it looked as ff the whole pack
of cards were tumbling about my ears. I cashed every
available personal asset which I could. The beautiful
schooner, Emma E. WTiite, also a personal possession,
arrived in St. John's whfle we were there with a fuU load
of lumber, but it and she sailed straight into the melting-
pot. The merchants, with one exception, were aU 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 Ufe he was a
man whom one would not expect to be ungenerous, for he
too was a reUgious 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.
I should add that the incident was not the fault of the
people of the coast. Often I had been warned by the mer
chants that the cooperative stores would fail and that the

NEW VENTURES 347
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 biUs, I am confident,
however, that they did not go back on me willingly, and
when my merchant friends said, "I told you so," I hon
estly was able to state that it was the management, not
the people or the system, that was at fault. Indeed, sub
sequent events have proved this. For flve of the stores
stiU run, and run splendidly, and pay handsomer divi
dends by far than any investment our people could pos
sibly make elsewhere.
With the sale of a few investments and some other
avaflable property, the liability was so far reduced that,
with what the stores paid, only one merchant was not
fully indemnffied, and he generously told me not to
worry about the balance.
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 con
structed 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 equip
ment 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 unfortu
nately put the text after the inscription; so that I have
been frequently asked why and how I came to make it.

348 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
seeing that it is believed by all good Christians that in
heaven "there shaU be no more sea."
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 flrst season, bringing
his two daughters and three friends. Even though he was
renting her for a yachting trip, he offered to bring aU the
cargo free and make the Mission stations his ports of call.
Mr. duett'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 sum
mer, she could in winter earn enough to make it all free,
and possibly provide a sinking fund for herself as weU.
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.
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 Smith
sonian. 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 twelve
month. 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.
IUustrating 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 unUt harbours,
some friends, through the Professor of Geology at Har-

NEW VENTURES 349
vard, who had himself cruised all along our coast in a
schooner, presented me with a searchlight for the hos
pital ship and despatched it via 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 de hixe additions to a
Mission steamer.
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. WTien
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 P^cheurs"; no one wanted flshermen
straight from a flshing 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 flshermen,
where thousands of our young men flocked in the spring

350 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
to try for a berth in the seal fishery, were ridiculous, not
to say calamitous. Lastly, unsophisticated girls coining
from the outports ran terrible risks in the city, ha-ving no
friends to direct and assist them; and the Institute which
we had in mind was to comprise also a girls' lodging de
partment. No pro-vision was made for the accommodation
of crews wrecked by accident, and our Institute has al
ready proved invaluable to many in such pUghts.
Seeing the hundreds of craft and the thousands of fish
ermen, and the capital and interest vested against us as
prohibitionists, it would have been obviously futfle to
put up a second-rate affair in a back street. It would only
be sneered at as a proselytizing job. I had almost forgot
ten to mention that there was already an Old Seamen's
Home, but it had graduaUy 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.
After a few years of my collecting funds spasmodically,
a number of our local friends got "cold feet." Reports
started, not circulated by weU-wishers, that it was aU 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 Govemor, Sir Ralph WiUiams, a man by no
means prejudiced in favour of prohibition. He was, how
ever, one who knew what the city needed, and reaUzed
that it was a big lack and required a big remedy.
A letter which I pubUshed in all the St. John's papers,
describing my passing fifteen drunken men on the streets

NEW VENTURES 351
before moming 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
Govemment or city to make men drunk — for the ma
jority 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.
Sir Ralph thought the matter over and called a public
meeting in the baUroom 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, "WiU you personally stand
by the larger scheme of a two hundred thousand dollar
buflding, or -wfll you stand by the sixty thousand dollar
building with the thirty thousand dollar endowment
fund, or wiU you do nothing at all?" It was proven that
when it came to the point of going on record, practically
aU who reaUy 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 justi
fied, 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 pre
ferred refunding the ninety thousand dollars to the vari
ous donors and dropping the whole business to embarking
on the smaller scheme.
That meeting did a world of good. It cleared the at
mosphere; 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

352 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 gfft of Messrs. Bo-wring 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 hun
dred dollars each, the fund grew lUce Jonah's gourd; and
in the year of 1911, with approximately one hundred and
seventy-flve thousand dollars in hand, we actually came
to the time for laying the foundation stone. The hostflity
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 ff we connected the foun
dation stone with Buckingham Palace by wire, he would,
after the ceremony in Westminster Abbey on his Corona
tion 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.
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 Newfound
land and Bermuda — and then, a dead silence and pause.
Every one was waiting for our newly cro-wned King to
put that stone into place. Only a moment had passed, the
Governor had just said, "We wfll wait for the King,"
when "Bing, bang, bang," went the gong signffying that
His Majesty was at the other end of the wke. Up went

NEW VENTURES 353
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 knffe under
that platform to make that stone come down ff anything
happened that the wire device did not work. You cannot
go back on your King whatever else you do, and to per
mit any grounds to exist for supposing that he had not
been punctual was unthinkable. But fortunately for aU
concerned our subterfuge was unnecessary.
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 practi-
caUy 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, Metho
dist Guards, Presbyterian Highland Brigade — are aU
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.
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 seU 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.

354 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
and to be branded with the knowledge that they are
cursing men and ruining famflies. The filibuster de
serves the name no less because he does his destructive
work secretly and slowly, and wears the emblems of re-
spectabflity instead of operating in the open with "Long
Toms" under the shadow of the "JoUy Roger."
As a magistrate on this coast I have been obliged more
than once to act as a poUceman, and though one hated
the fll-feeling which it stored up, and did not enjoy the
evfl-speaking to which it gave rise, I considered that it
was really only Uke lancing a concealed infection — the
Ul-feeling and evfl-speaking were better tapped and let
out. On one occasion at one of our Labrador hospitals a
beardless youth, one of the Methodist candidates for col
lege who every year are sent do-wn to look after the inter
ests of that denomination on our North coast, came to in
form me that the only other magistrate on the coast, the
pfllar of the Church of England, and shortly to be our
stipendiary, who had many poUtical friends of great in
fluence in St. John's, was keeping a "blind tiger," whfle
many even of his own people were being ruined body and
soul by this temptation under their noses.
"WeU," I repUed, "ff you wiU come and give the
evidence which wiU lead to conviction, I wiU do the
rest." "I certainly wiU," he answered. And he did. So we got
the little Strathcona under way, and after steaming some
fifteen mfles dropped into a small cove a mfle or two
from the place where our friend Uved. 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 sus
picion we dressed our ship in bunting as ff we were coming
for a marriage Ucense. When we anchored as near his

THE INSTITUTE

NEW VENTURES 355
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 wffe to our query. We knew then that there
was no time to be lost, and even whfle we battered at the
door, we could hear a suspicious gurgle and smeU 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 flagrante delicto. We were threat
ened with all sorts of big folk in St. John's; but we held
the trial on board straightaway just the same. When
court was caUed, the defendant demanded the name of
the prosecutor — and to his infinite surprise out popped
the youthful aspirant to the Methodist ministry. WTien
he learned that haff 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. Only once was I reaUy caught. Two mothers in a little
village had appealed to me because Uquor was being sold
to their boys who had no money, whfle people were com
plaining simultaneously that fish was being stolen from
their stages. No one would teU who was selling it, so we
had a systematic search made of all the houses, and the
guflty man was convicted on evidence discovered under
the fioor of his sitting-room. The fine of fifty dollars he
paid without a murmur and it was promptly divided be
tween the Government and the prosecutor. It so hap
pened, however, that he had obtained from us for a close
relative a new artificial leg, and there was fifty dollars

356 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
owing to us on it. Unknown to us at the time, he had col
lected that fifty doUars from the said relative and with it
paid his fine. To this day we never got a cent for our leg,
and so reaUy fined ourselves. Nor could we with any
propriety distrain on one of a poor woman's legs I

CHAPTER XXII
PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA
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. Lec
turing 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.
At Oaklands I was asked to deUver the Earle Lectures
at the Umversity of Calffomia; 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 Calffornia to St.
Anthony at his o-wn expense to afford the fishermen of
our Northem waters the inestimable benefits of his skill
as a consulting eye speciaUst. Many blind he has restored
to sight who would otherwise be encumbrances to them
selves and others. Only last year I received the following
communication from an eager would-be patient: "Dear
Dr. Grandfleld, when is the eye spider coming to St.
Anthony? I needs to see him bad."
Whfle 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 as
sured me that he had been brought up hard, but I utterly
failed to place him. With a broad grin he relieved the sit
uation by saying: "The last time that we met. Doctor,
was on the deck of a fishing vessel in the North Sea. I was

358 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
second hand aboard, safling out from Grimsby." The
tough surroundings of that lffe were such a contrast to his
present apparently ample means that I could only say,
"How on earth did you get out here?"
"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.
Six weeks of lecturing nearly every single night in a
new town in Canada gave me a real vision of Canadian
Western lffe, and a sincere admiration for its people who
are making a nation of which the world is proud.
In Aprfl a large meeting was held in New York to re
organize the management of the Mission. The English
Royal National Missien to Deep-Sea Fishermen was no
longer able or wflling to finance, much less to direct,
affairs which had gone beyond their control, and was hop
ing to arrange an organization of an international char
acter to which aU 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 Ufelong help has meant for Labrador
more than he wiU ever know.
The International GrenfeU Association was incorpo
rated to comprise the Labrador branches of the Royal
National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen as its English
component, the GrenfeU Association of America and the
New England GrenfeU Association to represent the Amer
ican interests, the Labrador Medical Mission as the Cana
dian name for its Society, and the Newfoundland Gren
feU Association for the Newfoimdland branch. Each one

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 359
of these component societies has two members in the
Central CouncU, 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 adminis
tration of this work. To these unseffish men Labrador
and northern Newfoundland, as weU as I, owe a greater
debt than can ever be repaid.
On the 1st of May I was due to speak at the annual
meeting of the English Mission in London, and the swfft
heels of the Mauretania once more stood us in good stead;
for we reached England the evening before May 1, ar
rived in London at 2 a.m., 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 Uttle 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 CornwaU, on another
at Harrow or Rugby Schools. At the latter, an old coUege
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 dafly 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 possibiUty of med
ical mission work in the very heart of England — for ff
ever there was an apostle of hope for the deformed and
paralyzed he certainly is the man. His Sunday moming
free clinics crowded even the street opposite his office
door with waiting patients of the poorest class. EquaUy
beneficent also is the large and wonderful hospital buflt
speciaUy for derelict chfldren on the heather-covered hflls

360 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
just above our home in Cheshire. But most imique of aU
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 lffe 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, herseff a
marvellous testimony to his skill, coUected 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 aU the time at these
open-air cUnics.
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 impro-vised
clinics among the most valuable assets he could have had.
One day he has promised that he wifl 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.
The quickest way back to St. John's being via Canada,
we retumed by the Allan Line, and lectured in the
Maritime Pro-vinces as we passed North.
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 bre-vity 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 reasonable
ness 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
caUed upon to do in Ufe, but in a mission like ours, which

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 861
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. 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 lffe there is a tremendous rest after
the nervous and physical tax of a lecture tour. At first
lused 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 haU, with "WTiat a lovely
hoUday you are ha-ving!" Now this oft-repeated com
ment only amuses me.
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, tfll strong westerly winds cleared the way.
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, ha-ving run on
the rocks, and knocked a hole in her bottom. She had a

362 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
number of sacks of "hard bread" on board. These had
been thrown into the breach and planking nafled on over
them. The bread had sweUed up between the two casings
and become so hard again that the vessel leaked but lit
tle; 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.
Flour resists water in a marveUous way. On one occa
sion our o-wn vessel in the North Sea was run into by an
other. 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 Iffted out of water.
A heavy topsail was hastily thrown over her side, and
eventuaUy 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 mfles 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.
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.
The opening of the Institute was a great day. Dr.
Henry van Dyke had come aU the way from New York
to give an address. Sir WflUam Archibald, chairman of
the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen, had
traveUed from England to bring a blessmg from the old

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 363
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 ci-vic functionaries were all good enough to
come and add their quota to the launching of the new
ship. There were stiU pessimistic and croaking individuals,
however, as weU as joyful hearts, when a few days later
we again ran North.
We started almost immediately for our Straits trip
after reachmg St. Anthony. On our way east from Har
rington, 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 anx
iety as to what could be the cause of this message.
On arrival there we found that trouble had arisen con
cerning the funds of the Institute and a prosecution was
to foUow. It was the worst time of my lffe. Things were
readjusted; the money was refunded, punishment meted
out — but such damage is not made right by reconstruc
tion. It left permanent scars and made the end of an other
wise splendid year anxious and sorrowful.
Thework on East Labradorwas also (extended this year.
Whfle walking down the street in New York with a young
doctor friend who had once wintered with me, we met a
coUeague 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, dub, 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

364 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
organization now carries aU its expenses. It has a dwelUng-
house, school, dispensary, small operating room, and ac
commodation for a couple of patients, all under one roof,
and owns a fast motor boat caUed the P. and S., which has
made itself known as an angel of mercy, every summer
since, over a hundred mfles of coast and islands. It is only
a summer work, and is mainly among a schooner popu
lation; but as a testimonial to the value of pluck and
unseffishness I know of no better example.
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 Northem scenery may be said only to be
gin. 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 PhUadelphia
friend, who, with his wffe, one man, and a canoe, went
by river to James's Bay, then via Hudson Bay to Rich
mond Guff, 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. Wiffiam Cabot
on the section of the northeastern coast between Hope-
dale 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 ff ever
he would safl down to see us in his own boat, we would

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 365
escort him up a salmon river for a fishing expedition — a
luxury which we certainly never anticipated would ma
terialize. But on arriving North, there was the beautfful
Uttle boat; and in it we sailed up into the fine salmon
stream in the bay close to the hospital. Subsequently Mr.
WilUams 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 pleas
ure later of exploring with him and roughly charting three
hitherto unrecorded bays.
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 fisher
men 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 ff they once put the fish on board at $3.50 per quin
tal, 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 ReviUon 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 vio
lent deeds, but when one blackleg was seen to go along
side 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 comers and pounced
like a vulture on the big boat, fat with a fine load of fish.

366 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 hiU that the
owner was utterly unable without assistanqe to get ber
down again.
Each day we had a conference with one side or the
other, the Government ha-ving asked us to remain and
see things settled. WTiile each side was fencing for an ad
vantage, 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 LiUiputians
on GulUver. We on the shore could not help laughing
heartily when shortly we saw a string of over a dozen fish
ing boats harnessed tandem in one long Une towing the
interloper — as they had the blackleg — away up the in
let where they moored and guarded her. It appeared that
the buyer had sent her to a far-off anchorage, and un
kno-wn 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.
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.
The fall brought yet another caU to go South to St.
John's, and once more in the Uttle Strathcona we ploughed
our way through the long miles to the southward. This
time it was for the reorganization of the Institute govern-

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 367
ment, 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.
The fall of the year was very busy. Dr. Seymour Arm
strong, formerly surgical registrar at the Charing Cross
Hospital in London, an able surgeon, and a man of inde
pendent 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.
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 hap
pened 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 do-wn 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 enor
mous 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

368 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 retumed 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. "Have n't budged an inch"
came the reply from the darkness. I had been describing
a large circle. I can still hear that nurse laughing.
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 perver
sity of nature made us tum the wrong way for the -vfllage
toward which we were aiming, and we found ourselves
"tangled up" in the BoiUng Brooks, a place where some
underground springs keep holes open through the ice all
winter. Suddenly, while marching ahead with the com
pass, 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 — aU
for a covey of white partridges on which I had nearly trod
den. 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 himseff
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.
Largely through the zeal of my colleague. Dr. Arthur
Wakefield, of Kendal, England, and that of my cousin,

On the Way Home

Carrying a Sick Dog
DOG TRAVEL

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 369
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 dei>end
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
caUed it "playing soldiers," and no one took seriously
that we were ever likely to be called upon to flght; but
aU Dr. Wakefleld's hopes and fears were realized and our
lads made both brave soldiers and excellent marksmen.
Dr. and Mrs. Wakefleld 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.
Alas, the functions of superintendent involved execu
tive 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 unselflshness 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 co
operation. The people owe him. Sir Herbert Murray, Sir
Henry MacCaUum, Sir WflUam MacGregor, Sir Ralph
Wflliams, Sir Alexander Harris, and all the long line of
their Governors, more than most of them realize. They
bring aU the inspiration of the best type of educated,
widely experienced, and traveUed EngUshmen to this
Colony. They are specially trained and specially selected
men, and can give their counsel and leadership abso
lutely untrammelled by any local prejudices.
One exceUent outcome of this particular meeting was
the reorganization on a larger scale of the Girls' Commit
tee for the Institute. The success of it has been phenom-

370 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
enal. Together -with its protective work it has aimed at
that most difficult task of creating in them sufficient am
bition to make the girls recei-ving very smaU wages want
to pay for a better environment. The committee has al
ways 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 seff-supporting — a
most desirable goal for every philanthropy.
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 fish
ery in the summer months. For two years pre-vious 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 reaUy
the only time avaflable for miU 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 deUghtful days to
gether, in which he taught me as many things that every
miU man should know as he would have had to learn had
he been dabbling in piUs. Lflce myseff, Mr. Crowe is an
ardent believer in Confederation with Canada for this Uttle
country. Before Mr. Crowe's efforts on our behaff had ma-
teriaUzed, a new friend, Mr. Walter Booth, of New York,
weU known in American football circles as one of the best
of aU-American forwards, came North and carried the miU
for a year. The one and only fault of his regime was that
it was too short. The field of work was one for which he was
admirably equipped, but home reasons made him return

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 371
after his time expired. He has often told me since, how
ever, that he has fits of wishing that he could have put in
a Ufe with us in the North, rather than spending it in the
more civilized circles of the New York Bar.
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 Conti
nent. A lecture tour includes some of the most delightful ex
periences of Ufe, 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 etemal vigilance
is the price of avoiding a breakdown at this the most
difficult of all my work. One's memory is taxed far be
yond 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 in
troduced 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 pre
sent 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.

372 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Ught. 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 dis
covered no less than five doors, none of which I felt en
titled to enter in the dark in deshabille. The humour of
the situation is, of course, apparent now, but even one's
dog hates to be laughed at.
An independent life has somehow left me -with an in
stinctive 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 poUce force very
exceptional persons can direct you, especiaUy ff they know
the way themselves. On my first visit to New York I
could see how easy a city it was to na-vigate, and retumed
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 BeUevue Hospital. "How
did you find your way?" my friend asked. "WTiy, 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. The aphorism attributed to Dr. John Watson, of "Be
side the Bonnie Briar Bush," suggests itself. "My fee is
one hundred dollars ff I go to a hotel, two hundred ff I

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA 373
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.
The greatest danger is the reporter, especially the emo
tional 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 pri-vileged. 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 ex
pect to escape making enemies. I have seen reports of
what I have said at advertised meetings, that were sub
sequently canceUed. I have foUowed 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 lec
turer is practically defenceless.
Since our marriage my wife has generously acted as my
secretary, having speciaUy learned shorthand and type
writing 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 — ff I wished free mornings
m 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

374 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Ue away from the centres
of leaming. They also imbued me with the profoundest
spirit of respect for the leaders of the healing art.
To no one but myseff did it seem odd that a plain Eng
Ushman 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 Whit6 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, "WeU, why not?"
My long-time feUow worker and one of my best of
friends, Francis B. Sayre, was to be married on Novem
ber 25, 1913, to Miss Jessie Wflson. Her father, who,
when first I had had the honour of his acquaintance, hap
pened 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 Newfound
land were invited, and some members of our staff were
present. We started the wedding procession upstairs, and came
down to the fanfare of unfformed trumpeters. Our awk
wardness 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 lffe.
Trying to dodge the reporters added heaps of fun,
which I am sure that they shared, for they generaUy got
the better of us; though the thrill of escape from the
WTiite 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

PROBLEMS ON LAND AND SEA .375
the tactics again, I am permitted after the lapse of many
years to give them away. As soon as dark fell, and whfle
the guests were stiU revelUng, the bride and groom were
hustled into a secret elevator in the thickness of the wall,
whisked up to the robing chambers, and completely dis
guised. Meanwhile a suitable camouflage of automobiles
had arrived ostentatiously at the main entrance, to carry
and escort the fllustrious 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 sflent
door was opened, two completely muffled figures crept
out, and the conspirators drove slowly along round a few
corners where a swfft automobfle lay panting to add
libertS to SgalitS and fratemitS.

CHAPTER XXIII
A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR
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 GrenfeU 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, MUan, and Rome.
Just before Christmas I had had a meeting at the fa
mous office of the Hudson Bay Company in London, and
attended another of their interesting luncheons where
their directors meet. My old friend Lord Strathcona pre
sided. I could not help noting that after all the lapse of
years since we first met at Hudson Bay House in Mon
treal, he still retained his abstemious habits. He was
ninety-three, and stiU at his post as High Commissioner
for a great people, as well as leading councfllor 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 bofler and
considerable repairs, he ordered me to have the work un
dertaken at once and the bfll sent to him. He, moreover,
insisted that we should spend some days with him at his
beautfful 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.
It is said to be better to be lucky than rich. We had ex
pected in Rome to do only what the Romans of our pock
et-book do. But we feU in with some old acquaintances

A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR 377
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 "Con
structive 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,
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 tmths that have made us what we are, but which we
now sometimes regard so lightly,
I confess that religious buildings, religious pictures,
reUgious conventions of all kinds very soon pall on my
particular temperament. It is possibly a defect in my
development, like my inabUity 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
beautfful 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.
Brindisi is a household word in almost every English
home, especially one Uke ours with literally dozens ot
Anglo-Indian relatives, I was therefore glad to pass via
Brindisi on the road to Athens. Patras also had its interest
to me as a distributing centre for our Labrador fish. We
actuaUy saw three forlorn-looking schooners, with car
goes from Newfoundland, lying in the harbour.

378 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
One poignant impression left on my mind by Greece,
as weU as Rome, was its diminutive size. I almost re
sented the fact that a place civiUzed thousands of years
ago, and which had loomed up on my imagination as
the land of Socrates, of Plato, of Homer, of AchiUes, of
Spartan warriors, and immortal poets, all seemed so smaU.
The sense of imposition on my youth worried me.
In Athens one saw so many interesting relics withm
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 ad
mire their art.
On Mars Hfll we stood on the spot where, to me, per
haps the greatest man in history, save one, pleaded with
men to accept love as the only durable source of great
ness and power. But every monument, every bas-relief,
every tombstone showed that the fighting man was their
ideal. The idea of safling from the Piraeus reconcUed 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 gfft of Mrs. John Kennedy of
New York, Mr, Ralph Harlow, our host and a professor
at the coUege, 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 marveUous work of that and other coUeges. Men
of ambition, utterly irrespective of race, colour, creed, or
sect, sit side by side as the alumni. The humanity, not

A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR 379
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 build
ings, safe during the war.
Dr. Bliss, of Beyrout, once told us a humorous story
about himseff. He had just been addressing a large audi
ence 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 tum unfilled to Thee again.' "
The preservation of Ephesus was a surprise to us,
though of late the Turks have been carrying off its pre
cious historic marble to bum for lime for their fields. One
large marble font in an old Byzantine baptistry was bro
ken 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.
' The anachronism of buzzing along a Roman road, which
had not been repaired since the days of theCsesars, 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 haff 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

380 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
them, that after we had enjoyed a hot breakfast, in a fit
of generosity we sent them a couple of baskets of Turk
ish specialties. Later in the day we noticed that wherever
we went a Turkish soldier with a rffie foUowed us. So we
tumed off into a side street and walked out into the coun
try. 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 citizen
ship. 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."
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
flne young men and handsome, dark-eyed girls, and all
the accessories of a delightful Christian home. WTien the
outer gates had been locked, and the inner doors bolted
and bUnds drawn do-wn, and all possible loopholes ex
amined for spies, the usual festivities were observed.
These famflies of the conquered race have lived in bond
age 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.
At Constantinople the kindness of Mr. Morgenthau,

A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR 381
the American Ambassador, and the optimism bred by
Robert CoUege 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.
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.
The month's hoUday 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 cbast was a very good place for one's
Iffe-work. We helped to lessen the tedium of the lectures by do
ing most of the traveUing in an automobile of my broth
er'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
fascmating for us as he did for the children — to the
Embassy in Paris.
Once more the Mauretania carried us to America.
Aprfl was spent partly in lecturing and partly in attend
ing surgical clinics — a very valuable experience being
a week's work with Dr. W. R. MacAusland, of Boston, at
his orthopedic cUnics 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 help
ers, and stimulating various branches by lectures. WTiUe

382 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
The Institute at the time was housing some of the
crew of the Greenland, who had come through the terri
ble experiences at the seal fishery in the spring of 1914.
Caught on the ice in a fearful bUzzard, almost all had per
ished miserably. Some few had survived to lose limbs
and functions from frostbums. The occasion gave the In
stitute one of the many opportunities for a service rather
more dramatic than the routine, which did much to win
it popularity. Midsummer's Day and the two following days we were
stuck in a hea-vy ice-jam one hundred mfles 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.
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 undi-vided attention had he not been
kind enough to send his band ashore — the flrst St. An
thony had ever heard. The resplendent unfforms of the
members totaUy eclipsed that of the Duke, who was in
"mufti"; but he readfly 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. Tbe war ha-ving broken out in August, we had only one

A MONTH'S HOLIDAY IN ASIA MINOR 383
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 en
tirely 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.

CHAPTER XXIV
THE WAR
In the faU of 1915, 1 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.
We sailed for England on the Dutch Uner New Amster
dam and landed at Falmouth, passing through a cordon
of mine-sweepers and small patrols as we neared the Eng
lish shores. My wffe'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 unfform and kit were ready in a few days; and
in spite of the multitudinous calls on the War Office offi
cials, 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.
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 lffe in the North had afforded ex
periences 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 "Brit
ish Medical Journal" a summary of deductions from our
Northem experiences. Clothes only keep heat in and
damp out. Thickness, not even fur, wfll warm a statue,
and our ideal has been to obtain Ught, wind- and water-

THE WAR 385
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, re
move the causes of trench feet. Later when I returned to
England I was in-vited to the War Office to talk over the
matter. The defects, either in wet and cold or in hot wea
ther, of woolen khaki cloth are obvious, and when sub
sequently 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.
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-tafl steel knee-piece in the knickers. Of this lat
ter Sir Robert Jones, the British orthopedic chief, appre
ciated the value, knowing how many splendid men are
put hors de combat by tiny pieces of sheU splinters infect-
mg that joint. But the "Journal" censored all these ref
erences to armour. A wounded Frenchman at Berck pre
sented me with a helmet hea-vfly dented by shrapnel, and
told me that he owed his Ufe to it. Later at General Head
quarters, General Sir Arthur Sloggett showed me a col
lection of a dozen experimental hehnets, each of which
stood for a saved Ufe.
One of the soldiers who came under my care had a bul
let 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."
"Where did your bullet go?"
"I don't know," he answered.
An examination of his trousers showed the bullet in his

386 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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.
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 mess
mate had received, but for which he had no use. His scru
ples about "wasting it" made him putitin 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
wfll long continue to swear by the Book of Common
Prayer. One day, walking -with other officers in the country, we
stumbled across a tiny isolated farm. As usual the voice
of the ine-vitable Tommy could be heard from within.
They were tending cavalry horses, which filled every
avaflable nook and comer behind the lines at a period
when cavalry was considered useless in action. Ha-ving
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
kiUed, I asked him for the detafls of his death. The Ger
mans 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 para
pet, my cousin had stood there encouraging the Une amid
voUeys of buffets. At the same time he ordered his serv
ant to carry word to the right at once. Suddenly a bullet
passed through his body and he fell into the trench. Pro
testing that he was aU right, he declared that he could hold
out tfll the man should come back. On his return he found

THE WAR 387
that my cousin was dead. But help came, the line held,
and the German attack was a costly faUure. His servant
had collected and tumed in aU the Uttle personal posses
sions of any value which he had found on the body.
"I think that you should have got a MiUtary Cross," I
said. "I did get an M.C.," he answered.
"I congratulate you," I repUed.
"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 rem
nants as a memento of a man whom every one loved.
But a comrade got back at me by reporting it to head
quarters, and they had to punish me, they said."
It is tme, "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 stfll had not enough beds to
keep us fuUy occupied. It gave me ample time to help
out occasionaUy in Y.M.C.A. activities, and to do some
vfeiting 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 lantem shows,
which had, I thought, special value when psychic treat
ment was badly needed. Shell-shock was but very imper
fectly understood at the beginning of the war. The foot-
baU matches and athletic sports did not need the asset
of ]?eing an antidote to sheU-shock to attract my patron-

388 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
age. Never in my lffe had I reaUzed quite so keenly what
a saving trait the sporting instinct is in the Anglo-Saxon
— a stram of it m the Teuton might have even averted
this war.
My stay m France enabled me to enjoy that which lffe
on the Labrador largely denies one — the contact with
many educated minds. It was the custom, ff an officer
needed a lift along the road, to hafl any passing motor.
While walking one day, I took advantage of this privflege,
and found myseff dri-ving with Sir Bertrand Dawson, the
King's physician, with whom I thus renewed a most val
ued acquaintanceship. On another occasion our host or
guest might be Sir Almroth Wright, the famous pathol
ogist, or Sir Robert Jones would pay us a -visit, or Sir Fred
erick 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. Food grew perceptibly scarcer in Boulogne even during
my stay. The petits gateaux 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 lffe 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 fuU of ex
citement. Bombs fell on the city only twice while I was
there, and, moreover, we were bitterly disappointed that
we did not know it tfll we read the news in the morn
ing paper. But every day flying machines of aU sorts

THE WAR 389
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 swim
ming calmly ashore, waddling up the beach into its pen
exactly like a great duck.
One day it was the excitement of watching trawlers
from the cUffs flring-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. 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.
When at the close of the period for which I had volun
teered I had to decide whether to sign on again, my whole
inclination was to stay just another term; but as my com
mandant. Colonel Da-vid 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.
I shaU 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 com
mon and human, but it is not God's way. This convic
tion was brought home to me in a very odd manner. I

390 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
bad gone to lecture at an EngUsh 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 hos
pitably 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 Uttle pile when the
war began. They turned me down each place I volun
teered 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 stop
gap. 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."
The freedom from convention lent another peculiar
charm to the life in France. The mess sergeant of a head
quarters 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 beautfful work
and the e-vidences of scientffic training led me to ask who
the mess sergeant might have been in ci-vil life. "Professor
of Biology at the University of  ," was the reply.
The most inspiring fact about the Channel ports at
that time was the regularity with which steamers ar
rived, crowded with soldiers, and returned with wounded.
W^e could see England on clear days from our quarters,
and could follow the boats almost across. The number
of trawlers at work aU the year round, even in heavy
gales that almost blew us off the cliffs, was enough to teU
how -vigilant a watch was being kept all the whfle. One
moming only we woke to find a large stray steamer, that

THE WAR 391
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 traf
fic 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 Unks, 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 aU that reminded us that any war was in prog
ress. Had it been permitted, the beach would have been
crowded as usual -with invalids, nursemaids, and peram
bulators. The second marvel was that in spite of the enormous
numbers of people coining 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 en
tirely in an eddy of the stream, as we are in our Northem

The spirit of humour in the wounded Briton was as in
valuable as the love of sport when he is well. On one occa
sion asmall party were going to relieve a section of the Une.
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 ath
lete, was caught by a sheU and blown over a hedge into
afield. WTien they reached him, his leg was gone and one

392 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
arm badly smashed. He was sitting up smoking a cigar
ette, and all he said was, "WeU, I fancy, that's the end
of my footbaU days." One very undeveloped man, who
had somehow leaked into Kitchener's Army, told me,
"WeU, you see, Major, I was a bit too weak for a labour
ing 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."
The practice of listening to the yams of the wounded
was much discouraged, chiefly for one's own sake, for their
knowledge was less accurate than our own, while sheU-
shock led them to imagine more. The censor had always
good yarns to teU. The men showed generaUy much good-
humour and a universal Ught-heartedness. Our wounded
hardly ever "groused." They hid their troubles and
cheered their fanuUes, seldom or never by pious senti
ments. One man writing from a regimental camp close
to Boulogne, after a painfuUy uneventful Channel cross
ing, 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 have n'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 "Dafly Mafl." 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."
Yet the men were far from fataUsts, 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 feUow whose right arm was infected with

THE WAR 393
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
dymg list. The Government under these circumstances
would pay the expenses of a -wffe or mother to come over
and say the last good-bye. After the message went, it
seemed that our friend could not last tfll their arrival, and
the colonel decided as a last chance to try intra-venous
injections of Eusol, the powerful antiseptic in use at that
tune in aU the hospitals. On entering the ward the next
moming the nurse told me with a smfling 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 wffe 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.
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 pharma
copoeias. 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:
"Good-bye, dear mother, sister, brother.
Drive away those bitter tears.
For England's in no danger
While there are bomb throwers in the Tenth Royal Fusiliers."

394 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
The following effusion I think was doubtless evolved
gradually. It runs :
"There's a little dug-out in a trench.
Which the rainstorms continually drench.
With the sky overhead, and a stone for a bed,
And another that acts for a bench.
"It's hard bread and cold bully we chew;
It is months since we've tasted a stew;
And the Jack Johnsons flare through the cold wmtry air,
O'er my little wet home in the trench.
"So hurrah for the mud and the clay,
Which leads to 'der Tag,' that's the day
When we enter Berlin, that city of sin,
And make the fat Berliners pay."
I have never been in any sense what is generaUy under
stood 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 aU our
chemical stimulants are only doing harm. That seemed
especially true in those put hors de combat 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 dra-wn 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 ab
domen expressed a craving for Worcester sauce. It ap
peared 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.
We eagerly awaited the iUustrated papers each week for
the same reason. But personal interest sho-wn in them-

THE WAR 395
selves, 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 origi
nated, 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 RegiUus, fighting in front of
our Unes. A Canadian in command of the C.A.M,C, con
tingent, 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 ff 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 de
clared that they had seen the "angels." He considered
that the whole matter arose originally through some hys
terical woman, and then was augmented by the sugges
tion of the question which he himself had put to them,
made to men shell-shocked and in abnormal mental con
ditions. 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 compara
tive peace when the Saxons were in the trenches opposite,
and they made friendly overtures as often as they dared.

396 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 be
hind. Moreover, the outrages committed by the Prus
sians 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 ap
peared 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 "straf
ing" somehow commenced, they shouted from the oppo
site 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 drawled out
of their trench, came to our barbed wire, and caUed out
for bread. We threw him a loaf. He wrapped up some
thing in his cap and threw it over. We tossed it back with
more bread, but when he went back he left the watch
behind. 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 wfll fight when
forced to do so. The cowardly wolf wifl 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 miUtarist element.
He dare not advance alone.
A colonel in command at the first battle of the Aisne
described to me an incident that I at least did not hear

THE WAR 397
elsewhere. He said that the Germans opposite him came
on sixteen abreast, arm in arm, rffies 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 fiUed with too much dope or too much doctored
grog of some kind.
It was my great desire before returning from France
to see the conditions at the front. I was told that mem
bers of American Units were discouraged from visiting
the trenches. Dr. Carrel had twice most kindly invited
me to Compiegne 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 Ameri
can unfform 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 ser-vice, and a colonel, a distinguished scientist,
jumped out. He told me ff I could get to Medical Head
quarters, 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 ff I went.
Passing the sentries was not diffictilt, 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

398 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
town and told to be at that exact spot again in two hours,
waiting my sponsor's retum. Nor did he say where he was
going, in case we failed to meet, for no one was aUowed to
mention the whereabouts of the G.H.Q, After two hours
were over, I was at the appointed spot with that pleasur
able sense of excitement that seldom comes after one has
settled down in lffe, I could then understand better how
a spy must feel. The town naturally was unUt 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 aU 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 sur
prised that he no longer depended on voluntary gffts 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 Une was twice as good as that when at home in ci-vil

THE WAR 399
life. Even disease approaching from the enemy's side was
"spied," and as far as possible forestaUed, All sanitary
arrangements, aU water suppUes, and aU pubUc health
matters from the North Sea to the Swiss border were
handled by regular army officers. For the first time in his
tory the medicals were considered so intimate a part of
the fighting force that doctors held the same rank as exec
utive 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
Ukely be required of them on any part of the front by
some manoeuvre or attack, though I do not think that
even the general of the R,A,M,C, was admitted to the
council of war.
The chart-room of the G.H.Q. was another revelation.
The walls from ceiUng 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 precau
tions devised and carried out by the N.C.O.'s.
I ventured at table to say quite truthfuUy that I, a
surgeon from a base hospital, where we saw endless Red

400 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Cross motor ambulances, and received so many kind
nesses in suppUes, and especiaUy luxuries for our wounded
from the Red Cross officials, had been under the impres
sion that the R.A.M.C. was a sort of small tail to a very
large Red Cross kite, owing to our Uttle army and gen
eral 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 ff 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 in
formation 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 increas
ingly become, in relation to the R.A.M.C, that of a
Sunday-school treat to the staff of the school.
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 Govemment institutions, and yet
worked so well.
At Melville we turned aside to inspect what was ap
parently a second VaUey of Hinnom. It was a series of
furnaces, built out of clay and old cans, efficiently dis
posing 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 impro-vised laundry. His share was to
fight the enemy by keeping our boys decently clean; and
for this purpose he collected their dirty Unen into huge
pfles. He had diverted the only available brook so as to
put a portable building over it. His battaUon consisted
of the whole female strength of the country-side, and

THE WAR 401
had to be prepared to advance or retire pari passu with
the other fighters. The chattering, shouting crowd, al
most 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 aU appeared to be contented and fraternal.
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 paraUel 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 chil
dren's Christmas party.
Whfle 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 Northem 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."
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 debris, brought back

402 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
as salvage. To attack one pair of such boots is depres
sing. 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 talis
man not being a Henry Ford of boot-making, but just
a smiling English colonel in the sporting trousers of a
mounted officer.
The ground was stiU 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, gen
erous-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 loom
ing ahead was the only comforting element, with the
knowledge that the best of wives and partners was wait
ing in London to help me out.

CHAPTER XXV
FORWARD STEPS
Mt return to the work after serving in France was em
bittered 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 bona fides of my statements. But the over-enthu
siastic 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 Govern
ment, 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. 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

404 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
good line of demarcation — a "no man's land" between
friend and foe — and gives a healthy atmosphere in so-
called times of peace.
In the year 1915 a large cooperative store was estab
lished at Cape Charles near Battle Harbour, which
bred such opposition amongst certain merchants that
it proved instrumental also in obtaining for us the Gov
emment 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 stfll undaunted detractors could
only attribute it to supernatural agencies.
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 cooperative 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
suppUes has so far materiaUzed.
In 1915 also, at a place caUed Northwest River, one
hundred and thirty miles up HamUton Inlet from Indian
Harbour, a little cottage hospital and doctor's house
combined was built, caUed the "Emily Beaver Cham
berlain Memorial Hospital." Thus the work of Dr. and
Mrs. Paddon has been converted into a continuous serv
ice, for formerly when Indian Harbour Hospital was
closed in the faU, they had no place in which they could

FORWARD STEPS 405
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 ser
vice, 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,
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 Ne-wfoundland, found
it essential to return and take up remunerative work at
home. 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 coUeague, 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 magniflcent work, was maintaining a
permanent house surgeon. Dr. Louis Fallon, who had
faithfully served the Mission at different times at other
stations. We had also regular dental and eye departments.
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

406 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
was a very hea-vy one to the work and to us personaUy,
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.
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
hea-vy drifts. Had I had my trusty dog team, however,
I should not have missed three important lecture en
gagements. Life in the North has its compensations.
At Toronto I was unfortunate enough to contract
bronchitis and pleurisy, and I understand from com
petent 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.
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 pre-vious day some
of the boys from the Orphanage had gone fishing in the
Devil's Pond, about a mile away, and a favourite resort

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THE LABRADOR DOCTOR IN WINTER
FORWARD STEPS 407
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 terrifled children, fleeing patients, and
heaps of furnishings from the orphanage and elsewhere
were afl 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 aU our beautiful sky-line is blackened and charred.
All day long the gra-vity 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 de
pendent 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 flrst day of the season a never-to-be-
forgotten event.
Mr. W. R. Stirling, our Chicago director, who had per
sonaUy visited the hospitals, insisted that a water supply
must at aU costs be secured both for hospital and orphan
age. 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

408 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
old dry wooden bufldings, 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 doflars. According to the Gov
ernment engineer's advice we had a stream to dam and a
mfle and a quarter of piping to lay sis feet underground
to prevent the water freezing. It is only in very few places
that we boast six feet of sofl at aU 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 o-wn boys, and has successfully weathered our bitter
winter. The last lap was run by an intensely interesting
experiment. The assistant at Emmanuel Church in Bos
ton 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 out
side 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 joUity, 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.
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 Can
ada. Dr. Charles Curtis had taken over Dr. Little's work
at St. Anthony, and stood nobly by, getting special per-

FORWARD STEPS 409
mission to do so. Dr. West, who had succeeded our col
league. Dr. Mather Hare, at Harrington, when his wffe's
breakdown had obUged him to leave us, had already
given us a year over his scheduled time, for he had ac
cepted work in India at the hands of those who had
specially trained him for that purpose.
We had been having considerable trouble in the accom
modation of the heavy batches of patients that came by
the mafl 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 buflt in the spring
of 1917, and has been a Godsend to many besides pa
tients. 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 seff-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 fin
ished in America, and "Johnnie," as every one caUs him,
is already a feature in the lffe of the place.
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.

410 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
Look where we wfll, 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.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION
What is the future of this Mission? I have once or twice
been an unwflling listener to a discussion on this point.
It has usually been in the smoking-room of a local mafl
steamer. The subtle humour of W. W. Jacobs has shown
us that pessimism is an attribute of the vfllage "pub"
also. The alcoholic is always a prophet of doom; and the
wish is often father to the thought.
In our medical work in the wflds we have become a re
pository 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 lav
ished on many of them, they would make a truly pathetic
museum. PersonaUy 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 ff he had the choice over again.
It sounds ffippant in one who has devoted his lffe to this
work to say, "ReaUy 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 AchiUes. 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 spnit of Christ when he said, "If Thou wilt, for
give their sin — and ff not, I pray Thee, blot me out of
Thy book." The heroic Paul was wflling to be eliminated

412 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
for the Kingdom of God. It seems to me that that atti
tude is the only credential which any Christian mission
can give for its existence. If I felt that my work had
accomplished afl it could, I would "lay it down with a
wifl." As in India and China the missionaries of the various
societies are uniting to bufld up a native, national Church
which would wish to assume the responsibility of caring
for its own problems, so when the Govemment of this
country is willing and able to take over the maintenance
of the medical work, this Mission would have justffied its
existence by its elimination. All lines along which the
Mission works should one day become seff-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 wifl provide the means to continue
as long as the need exists.
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 unscientffic
handling of them has depleted the supply, stiU 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 cooperation.
In large parts of China a famine to wipe out surplus
population is apparently a periodical necessity. An or
phanage in India for simUar reasons does not seem to be
as rationally economic as one for the Labrador chUdren.
I never see a cUff face from which an avalanche has re
moved the supersofl 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

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 413
arable land to be denuded by rains that the food supply
gets smaller whfle the population grows larger.
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, scientffic — which we
believe to be also Christian — healing will everywhere
die a natural death — and possibly the people also. But
history suggests that the heaUng art is one of considerable
vitality. My o-wn beUef is that in the apparently ap
proaching socialistic age, medicine wfll be communized
and provided by the State free to all. If education for the
mind is, why not education for the body?
Certain subtle and very vital psychic influences are
probably the best stock in trade of the "Doctor of the old
school." These quaUties 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.
Out of the taxes, the major part of which is paid by the
people of the outport districts in this Colony, the Gov
emment provides free medical aid in the Capital, pre
sumably 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 other
wise. Our pro rata share of the taxes, ff judged by the pal
try Government grant toward the work, would not pro
vide anything worth having. The people here pay far
better in proportion to their abflity for hospital privUeges
than they do in Boston or London; the Government pays
a little, and the rest comes from the loving gffts of those
who desire nothmg better, when they know of real need,
than to make sacrffices to meet it.

414 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
One feels that the Chinese and Japanese and all na
tions wiU 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
wffi stimulate to better methods, it is example, not pre
cept, and perhaps the best work of this and all missions
will be their reflex influences on Governments through
the governed.
To carry on the bare essentials of this work an endow
ment of at least a million doUars is necessary. Toward this
a hundred and sixty thousand doUars is all that has been
contributed, and in addition we can count annuaUy upon
a small Government grant. Even ff this mfllion dollars
were given, it would still leave several thousand dollars
to be raised by voluntary subscription each year, a
healthy thing for the lffe 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.
Among our patients brought in one season to St. An
thony Hospital was the mother of ten chfldren on whom
an emergency operation for appendicitis had to be done
— the first time in her lffe that a doctor had ever tended
her. She came from a very poor home, for besides her
large famfly her husband had been afl his lffe handi
capped 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 chfld;
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.

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 415
In Aprfl, 1906, in northem 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 debris, including a num
ber of hard buns which she could not now eat, but which
some charitable neighbour had sent her. She had a wiz
ened baby of seven months, which every now and then
she was trying to feed by raising herseff 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 saUor's scurvy. Her
present fllness lasted only a week, and in spite of afl that
we could do, she died.
The desire of the people to be mutually helpful is
undoubted, whether it is to each other or to some " out
sider" like ourselves. I question ff in the so-called centres
of civflization the following incident can be surpassed as
evidencing this aspect of their character.
In a little Labrador viUage 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 twelve
month." As I was taken into the tiny cottage, a bright-
faced, black-bearded man greeted me. Three chfldren
were playing on the hearth with a younger man, evi
dently their father. "No, Doctor, they are n't ours," re
plied my host, in answer to my question. "But us took
Sam as our o-wn when he was born, and his mother lay
dead. These be his little ones. You remember Kate, his
wffe, what died in hospital."
After the cup of hot tea so thoughtfully provided, I

416 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
said, "Skipper John, let's get out and see the old Eng
lishman." "No need. Doctor. He's upstairs in bed."
Upstairs was the triangular space between the roof and
the cefling of the ground floor. At each end was a tiny
window, and the whole area, windows included, had been
divided longitudinaUy 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 bed
clothes. "Uncle Solomon, it's the Doctor," I caUed. The mass
of clothes moved, and a trembling old hand came out to
meet mine.
"No pain. Uncle Solomon, I hope?"
"No pain. Doctor, thank the good Lord, and Skip
per John. He took us in when the old lady and I were
starving." The terrible cancer had so extended its ravages that
the reason for the veiled corner was obvious, and also for
the effective ventilation.
"He suffers a lot. Doctor, though he won't own it,"
now chimed in the old woman.
WTien the interview was over, I was left standing in a
brown study tffi 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 are n't doUars. I have n't a cent in the
world now. The old people have taken what little we had

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 417
put by. But ff I gets a skm t' winter, I 'U try and pay you
for your visit anyhow."
"Skipper John, what relation are those people to you? "
"WeU, no relation 'zactly."
"Do they pay nothing at aU?"
"Them has nothing," he replied.
"WTiat made you take them in?"
"They was homeless, and the old lady was aheady
blmd." "How long have they been with you?"
"Just twelve months come Saturday."
I found myseff 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.
Ours is primarfly 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.
St. Anthony having so indisputably become the head
quarters 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 Chfldren'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 suppUes of the general Mis
sion. Moreover, the population of the environs of St.
Anthony, owing to their numbers and the fact that they
can proflt by the employment given by the Mission,

418 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 BeUe Isle, and southern
Newfoundland, but we have had under our care Syri
ans, Russians, Scandinavians, Frenchmen, and naturally
Americans and Canadians, seamen from schooners en
gaged in the Labrador flshery.
Harrington Hospital, located on the Canadian Labra
dor, must for many years to come depend on outside sup
port. 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 mafl service, nor any pubUc
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 qualffications
as legislators. That hospital should, we beUeve, be ade
quately subsidized and kept open summer and winter.
At present we have to thank the Labrador Medical Mis
sion, which is the Canadian branch of the International
GrenfeU Association, for their generous and continued
support of this station.
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 win
ter months. But gffts and grants sufficient to maintain a
doctor at Northwest River Cottage Hospital, and one ff
possible in Lewis Bay, wmter supplements to these sum
mer hospitals, are to my thinking more than justffiable.
As to the future of our hospital stations at PiUey's
Islands, Spotted Islands, and Forteau, that wfll depend
upon the changing demands of local conditions. That the

ENTRANCE TO ST. ANTHONY HARBOUR

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 419
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
mcapable of obtaining such help.
One stfll indispensable requisite in our scattered fleld 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 func
tions are innumerable. She is our eyepiece to keep us
cognizant of our opportunities. She both treats and car
ries the sick and feeds the hospitals. She enables us to
distribute our charity efficiently. The invaluable gffts of
clothing which the Labrador Needlework Gufld and other
friends send us could never be used at afl as love would
wish, unless the Strathcona were avaUable to enlarge the
area reached. In spite of all this, those who would quibble
over trffies claim that she is the only craft on record that
roUs at dry-dock! Her functions are certainly varied, but
perhaps the oddest which I have ever been asked to per
form 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,
"I wants to get married, Doctor," he conflded when
we were alone,
"WeU, that's something in which I can't help you.
Won't any of the girls round here have you?"
"Oh! it is n't that. There's a gffl down North I fancies,
but I'm shipped to a man here for the summer, and can't
get away. Would n't you just propose to her for me, and
bring her along as you comes South?"
The library would touch a very Umited field ff it were
not for the hospital ship. She carries haff a hundred trav-

420 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
elling libraries each year. She finds out the derelict chil
dren 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 fam
flies, who are thus enabled to bring out fuel for their win
ter fires from the long bay just south of the hospital.
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 wfll be
needed for many years to come, the hospital ship at least
cannot possibly be dispensed with.
The child is potential energy, the father of the future
man, and the future state; and the chfldren of this coun
try are integral, determining factors in the future of this
Mission. The children who are tumed out to order by
institutions seem sadly deficient, both in abflity to cope
with lffe and in the humanities. The "home" system, as
at Quarrier's in Scotland, is a striking contrast, and per
sonally 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

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 421
Government schools are an advance on Dotheboys
HaU,
The human body is the result of physical causes; breed
ing tells as surely as it does in dogs or cows, and the prob-
abflity of defects in the offspring of poverty and of lust
is necessarfly greater than in well-bred, well-fed, well-
environed children. The proportion of mentally and mor
ally deflcient chfldren that come to us absolutely demon
strates this fact; and the love needed to see such children
through to the end is more comprehensive than the mere
sentiment of having a chfld in the home, and infinitely
more than the desire to have the help which he can bring.
The Govemment allows us fifty-two dollars a year
toward the expense of a child whose father is dead;
nothing ff the mother is dead, or ff the father is alive but
had better be dead. It would be wiser ff each case could
be judged on its merits by competent officials. But we
believe it is a blessing to a community to have the oppor
tunity of finding the balance.
Tested by its output and the returns to the country,
our orphanage has amply justffied itseff. One new lffe
resultant from the outlay of a few dollars would class the
investment as gilt-edged ff graded merely in cash. The
community which sows a neglected chfldhood reaps a
whirlwind in defective manhood.
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 chfldren.
This conclusion seems to me safeguarded by the fact that
all nations are placing increasing emphasis on "the chfld
in the midst of them."
When Solomon chose wisdom as the gfft which he most
desired, the Bible tells us that it was pleasing to God.

422 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 Testa
ment itseff we are led to believe that the devfls knew far
more than even the Disciples.
The school is an essential part of the orphanage. Seeing
that the vfllage children needed education just as much
as those for whom we were more directly responsible, and
realizing the value to both of the cooperation, and that
the denominational system which stiU persists in the
country is a factor for division and not for unity, it be
came obviously desirable for us to provide such a bond.
Friends made the buflding possible. The generosity of a
lady in Chicago in practicaUy endowing it has, we feel,
secured its future. We have now a proper buflding, three
teachers, a graded school, modem appliances for teaching,
and vastly superior results. In these days when the ex
penditure of every penny seems a widow's mite, one wel
comes the encouragement of facts such as these to enable
one to "carry on."
Modern pedagogy has brought to the attention of even
the man in the street the realization that education con
sists not merely in its accepted scholastic aspect, but also
that training of the eye and hand which in tum 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.
The cooperative movement is the same question seen
from another angle, and is almost contemporaneous with
our earliest hospitals.

THE FUTURE OF THE MISSION 423
It is not unnatural that man, realizing that he is him
self like "the grass that to-morrow is cast into the oven,"
should worry over the permanency of the things on which
he has spent himseff. Though Christ especially warns us
against this anxiety, religious people have been the great
est sinners in laying more emphasis upon to-morrow than
to-day. The element which makes most for longe-vity is
always interesting, even ff longe-vity 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.
The future is a long way off — that future when Christ's
Kingdom comes on earth in the consecrated hearts and
wflls of aU mankind, when all the superimposed efforts
wiU be unnecessary. But love builds for a future, how
ever 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 cooperative enterprises, thus to hasten,
however Uttle, the coming of Christ in Labrador.

CHAPTER XXVII
MY RELIGIOUS LIFE
No one can write his real religious life with pen or pencfl.
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 dafly growing less accept
able as passports to Paradise. WTiat my particular intel
lect can accept cannot commend me to God. His "well
done" is only spoken to the man who "wiUs to do His
wiU." We map the world out into black and white patches
for "heathen" and "Christian" — as ff those who made
the charts beUeved that one section possessed a monopoly
of God's sonship. Europe was marked white, which is to
day comment enough on this di-vision. A black friend of
mine used often to remind me that in his country the
Devil was white.
My o-wn religious experiences divide my lffe into three
periods. As a boy at school, and as a young man at hospi
tal, 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. Sittmg
here looking back on over fifty years of Ufe, I cannot pick
out one thing to criticize in my mother.
WTiat did interest me was athletics. Like most Eng
lish boys I almost worshipped physical accomplishments.

MY RELIGIOUS LIFE 425
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 footbaU
knickers, I never supposed that they could be the same
flesh as myseff. 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 myseff 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 blas
phemous — 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 feeUngs were at a discount. A long heritage
of an eager, restless spirit left me uninterested in "hom-
Uies," and aided by the "dim religious light," I was en
abled 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.
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 tempora
rily in reUgion. The boy's father happened to be a dis
senter, and our vicar refused to allow the gates of the
parish churchyard to be opened to enable the funeral cor
tege to enter. My chum had only a legal right to be buried
m the yard. The coffin had therefore to be lifted over the

426 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 stiU more so did his walk
ing down the aisle out of church the foUowing 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 reaUzed that reUgion 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 gener
ous and soft-hearted father. He never refused us any
reasonable request, and very few unreasonable ones, and
allowed us an amount of seff-determination enjoyed by
few. How deeply and how often have I regretted that I
did not understand him better. His briUiant scholarship,
and the friends that it brought around him, his abflity
literally to speak Greek and Latin as he could German
and French, his exceptionaUy developed mental as com
pared -with his physical gifts, were undoubtedly the rea
sons that a very ordinary English boy could not appreciate
him. 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 footbaU cap or
a mustache. All I remember about it was bitterly resent
ing ha-ving 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 confirma
tion is very valuable. The call which gets home to a boy's
heart is the caU to do things. If only a boy can be led to

MY RELIGIOUS LIFE 427
see that the following of Christ demands a real knight
hood, 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.
WTiat I now believe that D. L. Moody did for me was
just to show that under all the shams and externals of
reUgion was a -vital caU 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 myseff
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 evangeUcal to my mind had a monopoly of inf alUble
truth. A Roman Catholic I regarded as a relic of mediae-
vaUsm; whfle 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.
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 Testa
ment. To me he seemed to know every sense of every
Greek word in any setting. Ever since I have been satis
fied to use an English version, knowing that I cannot
improve on the words chosen by the various learned
translators. Because I owed so much to evangelical teachers, it
worried me for a long while that I could not bring myseff

428 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
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 danc
ing and whirUng 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 aU the same, I have learned from many dis-
illusionments to be afraid of overdoing emotionalism in
religion. Summing up the evidence of men's Christlike-
ness 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 con
ceit, 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.
This chapter would not be complete without an en
deavour to face the task of trying to answer the questions
so often asked: "WTiat is your position now? Do you
still believe as you did when you flrst 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

MY RELIGIOUS LIFE 429
most powerful Christian churches in the world, the Greek
and the Roman, recognizing the great dangers threaten-
mg, have countered by stereotyping the answer for all
time, assuming all responsibiUty, and permitting no indi
vidual freedom in the matter. The numbers of their ad
herents 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,
cmshing, 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 respect
able; and the danger of these lies in their real skepticism.
Though it would abhor articulately confessing that God
does nothing, it -virtuaUy means so by refusing to share
manifest opportunities for serving Him."
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 lffe 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 medi
cine for an occupation, or law, or education, or commerce,
or any other way to justffy my existence by working for
a living as every honest man should. But ff 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 aU that makes men godlUie. Christ
claimed that it was the only way to flnd out truth.

430 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
To me, enforced asceticism, vows of celibacy, de
nunciation of pleasures mnocent m themselves, intel
lectual monopoly of interpretation of things past or
present, written or unwritten, are travesties of common
sense, which is to me the Voice withm. Not being a
phflosopher, I do not classffy it, but I listen to it, be
cause I believe it to be the Voice of God. That is the
first pomt which I have no fear in putting on record.
The extraordinary revelations of some Power outside
ourselves leading and guiding and helping and chasten
ing are, I am certain, reaUy the ordinary experiences of
every man who is wflling to accept the fact that we are
sons of God. Only a chfld, however, who submits to his
father can expect to enjoy or understand his dealings. If
we look into our everyday lffe we cannot fafl to see that
God not only allows but seeks our cooperation in the
establishment of His Kingdom. So the second funda
mental by which I stand is the certainty of a possible
real and close relationship between man and God. Not
one qualm assails my inteUect 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 lffe.
It has been my lot in lffe 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 increas
ingly 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, lffe. Etemal lffe 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.
I have read "Raymond" with great interest. I am
neither capable nor wflling to criticize those who, with

MY RELIGIOUS LIFE 431
the deductive abflity of such men as Su* OUver Lodge,
are brave enough and unseffish enough to devote their
talents to pioneering in a field that certainly needs and
merits more scientffic investigation, seeing that it has
possibiUties of such great moment to mankind.
The experiences on which rest one's own convictions
of continuing lffe 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 aU human beings. Experience con
vinces me that such longings are purposeful and do not
go unsatisfied.
No, we do not know everything yet; and perhaps the
critic is a shaUower fool than he judges to be the patient
delvers into the unkno-wn beyond. The evidence on
which our deductions have been based through the ages
may suddenly be proven faUible after aU. 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 con
ceit 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 lffe beyond is
the conservation of energy of lffe here may be as scien
tffic 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 phys
ical things which the mere intellectual convictions can
not — make hearts beat and eyes sparkle, that would

432 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
not respond even to digitalis and strychnine. I claim
that the boy is justffied 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. This attempted analysis of my religious lffe has re
vealed 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 flUs." Christians should not fret because
they cannot escape adapting themselves to the envi
ronment 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 abffity to adapt itseff to all
time. I stfll 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, be
cause 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 itseff always to my de
veloping 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 caU it
"grace") that the great churches have ceased to condemn
their leaders who are unsound on points which once spelt

MY RELIGIOUS LIFE 433
fagot and stake. To-day predestination no longer involves
the same reaction, even ff dropped into a conference of
selected " Wee Frees." The American section of the Epis
copal Church has omitted to insist on our publicly and
periodicaUy declaring that we must have a correct view
of three Incomprehensibles, or be damned, as is still the
case in our Church of England.
I am -writing of my religion. The churches are now teach
ing 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.
Unless a Christian is a witness in his lffe, his opinions
do not matter two pins to God or man. Of course, to-day
we should not burn Savonarola, any more than we should
actuaUy crucffy that brave old fisherman, Peter, or ridi
cule a Gordon or a Livingstone, or assassinate a Lincoln
or a Phffiips Brooks, even with our tongues, though they
differed from us in their view of what the Christian re
ligion reaUy needs. Oh, of course we should n't!
Perhaps my change spells more and not less faith in
the Saviour of the world. As I love the facts of lffe more,
I care less for fusty commentators. As I see more of
Christ's living with us all the days, I care less for argu
ments about His death. I have no more doubt that He

434 A LABRADOR DOCTOR
lives in His world to-day than that I do. WTiy should I
blame myseff because more and more my mind empha
sizes the fact that it is because He lives, and only so far
as He lives in me, that I shaU live also?

THE END

INDEX

INDEX

Agriculture, in Labrador, unsuccess
ful, 217, 290.
Alaska,' reindeer experiment in, 291;
294-295.
Albert, the, hospital ship of Dr. Gren
fell, 125, 188, 189.
Among the Deep-Sea Fishers, maga
zine, 280.
Andrews, Dr. Joseph, eye-specialist,
357.
Archibald, Sir William, chairman of
the Royal National Mission to
Deep-Sea Fishermen, 362.
Armstrong, Dr. Seymour, his work at
St. Anthony, 367.
Arnold, Thomas, of Rugby, 14.
Athletics, GrenfeU's fondness of, 21,
32, 44, 50, 51, 53, 81, 424.
Bailey, Florence, nurse, 326,
Barnett, Samuel, of Mile End, head
of Toynbee House, 83,
Barter system, the evils of, 131, 132,
133-138, 215-217,
Bartlett, Captain, father of "Captain
Bob," 136.
Battle Harbour, Newfoundland, site
of hospital, 126, 162, 165, 169,
193.
Beattie, Arthur, 192.
Beetz, Mr., 239.
Begbie, Harold, Tioice-Bom Men, 101,
Bel], Dr. Alexander Graham, 338.
Belle Isle, the Straits of, Labrador,
126, 127, 140, 250,
Besant, Mrs, Annie, associated with
Charles Bradlaugh, 81, 82.
Blandford, Captain Samuel, 159, 172,
Bobardt, Dr, Arthur, 126, 159-162.
Booth, Walter, of New York, 370, 371.
Bowditch, William, 275,
Boys' Brigade, the, 101, 353.
Bradlaugh, Charles, religious radical,
81-82,
Cabot, John, 120,
Carpenter, Rev, C. C„ 241, 242.
Carrel, Dr. Alexis, in France, 397.

Cartier, Jacques, 158.
Cartwright, George, 158.
Catholic Cadet Corps, the, 159, 353.
Cattle-raising in Labrador unsuccess
ful, 290.
Cawardine, Miss, nurse, 126,
Charity, prophylactic, more impor
tant than remedial, 235.
Cheever, Colonel David, 389.
Chester, England, birthplace of Gren
feU, 1, 2.
Chidley, Cape, Labrador, 164, 207,
208.
Children's Home, the, 244-253.
Church Lads Brigade, the, 159, 353.
Clark, Sir Andrew, doctor, 65.
Cluett, George B., of Troy, N.Y., S47,
348.
Cook, Captain, 128, 340, 341.
Cooperative system, the, 215-225.
Corner, the, magazine, 242.
Crookhaven, seat of a dispensary and
social centre, 107.
Crowe, Harry, lumber operator, 370.
Curtis, Dr. Charles, 408.
Curtis, Lieutenant Roger, quoted,
158,
Curwen, Dr. EUiott, 126.
Curzon-Howe, Lady, 191.
Curzon-Howe, Lord, 191.
Cutter, Marion, librarian, 266.
Daly, Professor Reginald, head of De
partment of Geology at Harvard
University, quoted, 157, 158.
Dampier, William, 191.
Davis Inlet, Labrador, 154, 155.
Dawson, Sir Betrand, 388,
Dee, the River, 2, 4,
Delano, Eugene, head of Brown
Brothers, bankers, 358.
Denominationalism, evils of, 264, 269,
353,
Dogs, Labrador, ferocity of, 198, 289.
290,
Domino Run, Labrador, natural har
bour, 120.
Drake, Su- Francis, 191.

438

INDEX

Duke of Connaught, Governor-Gen
eral of Canada, 382.
Durand, Mrs. Charles, aunt of Mrs.
Grenfell, 336.
Education in Labrador: schools de
nominational, 254, 269; GrenfeU's
school, 257-264; moving libraries,
266; founding of undenominational
boarding school, 268.
Edward VII, King, GrenfeU's private
audience with, 284, 285.
Edwards, Antiguan lecturer of the
Christian Evidence Society, 82, 84,
85.
Emily Beaver Chamberlain Memorial
Hospital, 404.
English, Robert, of Yale CoUege, 277,
278,
Eskimos, the, GrenfeU's work with,
129-136; original natives of Labra
dor, 140, 141; Valentine, king of,
155; suffering of, 155,
Evans, John, worker at St. Anthony,
405,
FaUon, Dr. Louis, 405,
Faroe Islands, the, 184.
Fenwick, Harry, 69.
"Fisher Lads' Letter-Writing Asso
ciation," 97.
Fishermen's Institute, 183.
Ford, George, factor of Hudson Bay
Company, 141, 155, 242, 277, 327.
Fox Farm, at St. Anthony, 238-240.
George V, King, 352, 353.
Gladstone, W. E., 106.
Gosling, Mrs. W. E., 370.
Gould, Albert, volunteer helper of
Grenfell, 318, 321.
Great Cop, the, 4.
Greenshields, Julia, editor of Among
ihe Deep-Sea Fishers, 280,
Grenfell, Algernon, brother of W. T.
G., 7, 8, 9, 10.
Grenfell, Algernon Sydney, father of
W, T, G., 8, 9, 11, 12.
Grenfell, Cecil, brother of W. T. G., 7.
Grenfell, Kinloch Pascoe, son of W, T.
G., 342.
Grenfell, Maurice, brother of W. T, G.,
7.
Grenfell, Pascoe, of Bank of England,
161,

Grenfell, Rosamond Loveday, daugh
ter of W. T. G., 342,
Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, birth, 1;
ancestry, 1, 2; early days, 2-14;
school life, 15-36; study of natural
objects, 34-36; choice of medical
profession, 37-39; coUege life, 41-44;
interest in athletics, 44; religious
awakening, 44-46; Sunday-school
class and slum work, 46-53; summer
cruises, 53-57; camping with boys,
57-63; germination of democratic
tendencies, 63; interne in London
Hospital, 64-87; father's death, 73;
humanitarian ideals, 78, 79; hatred
of liquor traffic, 79; association with
religious radicals in East London, 81-
86; cosmopolitan life, 85; member
of College of Physicians and Royal
College of Surgeons of England, 87;
first work in fisheries of North Sea,
88-98; his religion intensely social,
99-101; medical officer in boys'
summer-camps, 102, 103; develop
ment of work in North Sea and off
Irish coast, 104-114; preparation
and departure for America, 113-118;
first Slimmer in Labrador, 119-125;
success in Labrador, 125; return to
England, 126; second voyage to
Labrador, 126; founding of cottage
hospitals, 126; visits to Moravian
Brethren and work among Eskimos,
128-138; lecturing and soliciting in
southern Ne^vfoundland and Can
ada, 159-162; cruising north, 163-
170; experience ¦n'ith seal fishery,
173-182; trip to Iceland, 183-187;
holiday with Treves on SciUy Is
lands, 187, 188; third voyage to
Newfoundland, 192, 193; requested
to establish a mnter station at St.
Anthony, 194; mnter at St. An
thony, 197-214; institution of coop
erative system, 218-225; institution
of saw-mill in North Ne^vfoundland,
226-238; fox farm at St. Anthony,
238, 239; founding of The Children's
Home, 244; founding of common
school, 257-265; moving libraries,
266; arrangement of two-cent postal
rate, 281, 282; awarded honorary
degree of Doctor of Medicine of
Oxford, 282; received honorary de
gree of Doctor ot Laws in America,

INDEX

439

283; received Companionship in the
Order of St. Michael and St. George,
284; reindeer experiment, 288-303;
propaganda lecturing in England,
331, 332; courtship, 333-337; en
largement of St. Anthony Hospital,
338, 339; marriage and family, 342,
343; assumption of cooperative
store debt, 344-347; founding of
Institute at St. John's, 349-353;
lecture tour in U.S. and England,
357-361; lecture tour again, 371-
374; holiday in Asia Minor, 376-
, 382; winter at base hospital in
France (1915), 384-402; attacked
by a St. John's newspaper, 403;
growth and development of Mission,
404-410; religious life, 424-434.
GrenfeU, Wilfred Thomason, Jr.,
342.
Grenfell Association of America, the,
280.
Grenfell Town, 161.
Grieve, Dr. John, 404,
Haldane, Lord, 256.
Halifax, visited by Grenfell, 159.
Hare, Dr. Mather, work at Harring
ton, 275-276, 409.
Harrington Hospital, Canadian Lab
rador, 418.
Hause, Mr., of Pratt Institute, vol
unteer student helper, 325,
Hearn longliners and trawlers, 183.
Heligoland, visited by Grenfell, 90.
Henley, or Chelteau, Labrador, 168.
Henson, Dr. Hensley, Bishop of Here
ford, 83, 84.
Home, the ChUdren's, 244-253.
Hopedale, Labrador, 128, 131.
Horsley, Sir Victor, doctor, 72.
Hot-heads, laimches used in open sea,
275-279.
Hudson Bay Company, the, 133, 216,
276, 376.
Huxley, Professor, his criticism of Eng
lish public school teaching, 40,
Hyeres, France, 24.
Iceland, 183-187.
Illiteracy, in Newfoundland and Lab
rador, 255.
Indian Harbour, site of one of Gren
feU's hospitals, 126.
Indian Tickle, Labrador, site of a

church built by Labrador Mission,
165.
Ingram, Rt. Rev. A. F. Winnington,
Bishop of London, 83, 84.
International Grenfell Association
the, formation of, 358-359.
Ireland, Archbishop, 268,
Irish Poor-Relief Board, 109.
Irving, Sir Henry, 80.
Jackson, Rev. Dr. Sheldon, Presby
terian missionary in Alaska, 290.
Job, the Honourable W. C, 403.
Job, Mrs. W. C, 370,
Jones, Rev. Dr. Edgar, 268.
Jones, Sir Robert, orthopedic surgeon,
359, 360, 385, 388.
Jones, Mr. Walter, manager of Insti
tute at St, John's, 367.
Julia Sheriden, the, Mission steamer,
193, 196.
Kean, Captain, of the S.S. Wolf, 180,
181.
Keese, Ruth (Mrs. John Mason Little,
Jr.), 405.
Kingsley, Charles, 2, 103, 187, 256.
Komatik, description of a, 202, 203.
Labrador, the Country and the People,
139.
Labrador, inhabitants of, 139, 140;
climate of, 140, 141; fishing industry,
141, 142; poverty of people, 142,
148-153; superstition of people, 142-
145; natural characteristics of , 156-
158.
Lake Forest, on Lake Michigan, Mrs.
GrenfeU's home, 336.
Lapps, 292-294.
Leacock, Stephen, his essay. How to
Become a Doctor, 144, 145.
Leslie, Olive, kindergartner, 260.
Lewis Bay, Labrador, winter hospital
station at, 404.
Lighthouses, at Battle Harbour, 273;
at White Point, 274; at Indian Har
bour, 274.
Liquor trafl5c, the, GrenfeU's hatred
of, 79; his suppression of, at St.
Anthony, 209-214; at St. John's,
353-356.
Lister, Sir Joseph, 70.
Little, Dr. John Mason, 338, 404, 406,
417.

440

INDEX

Lloyd, Dr., Prime Minister of New
foundland, 382.
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 430, 431.
London Hospital and University,
GrenfeU's father chaplain of, 37;
GrenfeU's alma mater, 39,
Loti, Pierre, 186,
Luther, Jessie, 422.
MacAusland, Dr. W. R., of Boston,
381.
MacClanahan, Anna Elizabeth Cald
well (Mrs, W. T. GrenfeU), 336.
MacClanahan, Colonel, father-in-law
of Grenfell, 336.
MacGregor, Sir WiUiam, Governor of
Newfoundland, 291, 320-323.
Mackenzie, Sir Stephen, 66.
Marlborough School, 15-24, 27, 30-33,
Marquis of Ripon, Minister to the
Colonies, 286.
Mason, A. E. W., novelist, 187.
Matheson, Paul, volunteer helper of
Grenfell, 318.
McCook, Colonel Anson G., 281, 282.
McGrath, Sir Patrick, 382.
Methodist guards, the, 159, 353.
Meyer, Hon, George von L,, Post
master-General, 281, 282.
MiU, the, on the "French Shore,"
Newfoundland, 226-238.
Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen, 90.
Montreal, visited by Grenfell, 160, 161.
Moody, Dwight L., evangelist, 45, 427.
Moravian Brethren, the, their work
with the Eskimos, 128, 129, 130, 132,
140, 156, 207.
Moravian Mission, 129-132.
Muir, Ethel Gordon, teacher, 267.
Murchison Prize, awarded Grenfell by
the Royal Geographical Society, in
1911, 323.
Nain, Labrador, 130, 132.
Nakvak, Labrador, 141; remains of
Tunits there, 155,
NapatuUarasok Island, Labrador, no
ted for its Labradorite, 156.
Nasson Institute, 264.
Needlework GuUd of America, the, 251,
419.
Newfoundland, independent colony
of England, 139; Labrador owned
by, 139; difference between North
and South Newfoundland, 250.

Nielsen, Adolph, Superintendent ot
Fisheries off Labrador, 117.
O'Brien, Sir Terence, governor at St.
John's, 117, 171.
Paddon, Dr. and Mrs., 404, 405.
Parkhurst, Dr. Charles H,, of New
York, 280.
Peary, Admiral, return of from North
Pole, 339-342.
Pomiuk, Prince, Eskimo, 241-243.
Pratt Institute, 256, 258, 264.
Presbyterian Highland Brigade, the,
353.
Prince Edward Island, 240.
Princess May, the midget steam
launch, 127, 128.
Public School Camps, 101.
R.A.M.C,, efficiency of in France,
398-400.
Raymond, Sir Oliver Lodge, 430, 431.
Red Bay, Labrador, 218.
Red Bay Cooperative Store, 219,
Reed, WiUiam HoweU, of Boston,
292.
Reikyavik, capital of Iceland, 184.
Reindeer experiment, the, 290-303.
Ripon, Marquis of, 159.
Rivington, Sir Walter, surgeon, 70.
Roddick, Su- Thomas, 162.
Roosevelt, the, Peary's ship, 340, 341,
Rowland, John, of Yale CoUege, 277,
278.
St. Anthony, Newfoundland, 141;
poverty of people, 194, 195; Gren
feU's first winter in, 197-214; Gren
feU's fight against liquor traffic, 209-
214; headquarters of hospital sta
tions, 417.
St, John's, burning of, 116, 116; seat
of Newfoundland government, 139.
Sands of Dee, the, 1-7.
Sayre, Francis B., secretary of Gren
feU, 250, 338, 339, 341, 342, 374,
375.
Scilly Islands, 187.
Seal Fishery, the, 172-182.
Seyde Fjord, Iceland, visited by
GrenfeU, 186, 187.
Sheard, Mr., 404.
Sir Donald, the, mission steamer, 161,
190, 191, 208.

INDEX

441

Skiff, Captain, 183.
Slogget, Sir Arthur, general, 386, 398,
399.
Smith, George Adam, quoted, 429.
Southborough, Lord (Mr. Francis
Hopwood), 113.
Spalding, Katie, ot The Children's
Home, 251, 253.
Spencer, Martyn, 290, 370.
Stewart, Dr. and Mrs. Norman, 405.
Stirling, W. R,, 333, 337, 348, 407.
Storr, Eleanor, of The ChUdren's
Home, 250, 253.
Strathcona, Lord (Donald Smith),
, patron ot Labrador Mission, 160,
161; donor of the Strathcona, 191,
376. ^
Studd, J. E. and C. T., 45.
Sutton, Dr., London Hospital, 69.
Terschelling, visited by GrenfeU, 90.
Tickle, the GrenfeU, 209.
Tigris, the S.S., of the Polaris ex
pedition, 178.
TUt Cove, Newfoundland, 192, 193.
Toilers cf the Deep, The, magazine,
280.
Tralee, on Kerry coast, seat ot a dis
pensary, 107.
Treves, Sir Frederick, lecturer in
anatomy and surgery in London
Hospital and University, 43, 67-69,
88, 187, 254, 285, 388; The Cradle of
the Deep, 187.
Trevize, skipper, 114.
Truck Acts, 96.

Ungava Bay, Labrador, 164, 208.
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, 362.
Vestmann Islands, Iceland, visited by
GrenfeU, 184.
Victoria, Queen, 104.
Victoria Park, London, 81-82.
Wakefield, Dr. Arthur, of England,
368, 369.
WaU Street Journal, quoted, 294, 295.
Watson, the Honourable Robert, 403.
Wellington, Duke of, 187.
West, Dr., 275, 409.
-White, Emma E., secretary of Labra^-
dor Mission in Boston, 279, 324.
White Bay, Labrador, 148.
Whitechapel Road, site ot London
Hospital, 40.
-Whitney, Harry, 340.
WiUiams, Miss, nurse, 126.
WUliams, George, 364, 365.
Williams, Sir Ralph, governor ot
Newfoundland, 350-352.
WiUway, Dr., colleague of GrenfeU,
169.
Wilson, Jessie, daughter ot President
Wilson, 374, 375.
Wiltsie, Dr., his work in Labrador,
363, 364.
Wolf, the S.S., wreck ot, 180, 181.
Yarmouth, institute for fishermen
ashore, and dispensary vessel, 105.
Y.M.C.A. in St, John's, 353; in France,
389, 390.

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