CHAS. BROWER
NOT ABDICATE
PT. BARROW
ALASKA HAS A KING WHO
WILL NEVER ABDICATE, TOO
MANY TIES KEEP BROWER
IN ALASKA
SEATTLE, —They’ve been say
ing for weeks that Charlie Brow
er of Point Barrow, the "White
Kig of the Arctic”, was going to
abdicate.
An airplane pilot told some-,
body up in the endless wilder-!
ness of the North and somebody 1
else heard, and soon the word
filtered out to the coastwise ships
along the jagged Alaskan shore..
They said the man who has
lived on the roof of the world so1
long he has become an almost
legendary figure; the man who
has been trader and whaler, re-.
presentative of the law, and bear
er of the white man’s buTden" i
north of Wainwright for fifty-1
three years, /was going to come
outside to live the rest of his
days at Santa Monica or Pasadena
They Ddn’t Tell Charlie
But they didn’t tell Charlie
Brower about it He didn’t hear
until recently when the steam-:
ship Yukon tied up at Pier 2. He
thought about it whlie he rode >
uptown, with the rattle and clat
ter of civilization in his ears, to:
the Frye Hotel. And then he de
cided the rumors were wrong.
He sat on a bed in his room,
a white-haired, chunky man with
the edges of the long woolen un
derwear they wear in the North
peeping out at the edges of his
cuffs, and rubbed hsi face with
a square, muscular hand, and
squinted at the ceiling.
“What the hell do I want to
retire for?” he asked himself.
“I'm 76 years old. all right. But
I don’t feel it—though a doctor
told me to take taxis when I wasi
in a hurry to go up hills.. I don’t;
think I look it. I’ll stay outside j
the winter. Maybe I’ll stay out-1
side longer. But I’ll be going back 1
to Barrow. That’s my home. I’m
not old enough yet to like civil
ization, for longer than a few
minutes at a time I left New
York to get away from it when
I was a kid and I still feel the
same way.”
The urge to move on has made
his life story read like fiction;
has brought him adventure and
brushes with death, and fame and
has won him fortunes and lost
them for him.
Sailor at Age 17
When he was 17 years old
Brower was a sailor on a ship
moving down the coast of South
America. He was in Australia at
17. He was fleeing South Ameri
ca at 19 to keep from being press
ed into the Chilean navy for ser
vice in a war with Peru. He was
in San Francisco a little later,'
trying out the business of being
a newspaper reporter.
In 1883, while collecting news
for The San Francisco Call, he
heard of an expedition to Point
Barrow. Steam whalers going in
to the Arctic needed coal and
the party was bound north to the
top of the world to look for it in
frozen ground. Brower went al
ong. He came outside after a
year, coUected an outfit, and went
back to establish a whaling sta
tion. He’s been there ever since.
Survived Journey
In the autumn of 1897 he lived
through one of the most terri
ble journeys men have endured
in the Arctic.
The steam whaler Narach was
partly crushed in the floes off
Icy Cape, and drifted north with
the ice pack. Brower was aboard
When she was near Point Barr- j
ow the crew, with Brower ab
andoned her, and started drag
ging the ship’s boats over the ice J
:
IB >■ B iII«jB ’Illil "I M
toward open water. The boats
were battered to pieces and the
crew was forced to return to the
derelict.
Brower shot five polar bears,
built a canoe and covered it with
their hides, fur side out. With
thirty-two men he started again
across the ice. The captain of the
vessel promised to follow with
the skin boat. Jfe did not. At
nightfall Brower and his band,
without the boat, were cut off
from retreat by an open lead.
The pack was drifting north, and
Brower and the men began to
walk to stay near open water in
the hope that a sihip would pick
them up.
Clothes Unfit
He talked about it yesterday:
‘The men didn’t have clothes
fit for the Arctic—just old things
out of the Ship’s slop-chest, and
the cold got them. We walked for
eight days and most of eight
nights, and sixteen, of the men
died. Their shoes came off, and
their clothes tore. We had noth
ing to eat but pieces of ice. Twice
I shot seals, but they both sank
before we could get to them. One
man committed suicide. Others
went insane. Others couldn’t go
any further, and we had to leave
them behind. We had all agreed
that there was no chance for any
of us unless we kept walking
and everybody knew that a mar
who went down was gone.
‘We Left Him’
“One big fellow, who hod been
a blacksmith in Minnesota, stay
ed on his feet almost to the end.
His dhoes came off, and his knees j
were out to the bone from fall
ing, and he left a trail of blood. |
God, he was game! But finally he
couldn’t walk any farther. We!
left him.
“We got out to a point where
the ice was crumbling. I knew
there was nothing to do hut get
on a big piece of ice and hope
it went out in open water. We
oated Bhat way for four days and
nights. And then a steam whaler,
the Thrasher, found us, and took
us back to Barrow.”
The same year Brower, who
has saved the lives of countless
other men gave the crews of
seven other whalers—about 300
men—food and lodging for a year
when the vessels were crushed
or caught in the ice packs.
He has earned his title—King
of the Arctic.
He has too many memories and
too many ties—he cannot abdi
cate.
BULBS
NOW ON SALE AT
POLETS STORES
—. ■ . ■ - ' . ■
How Fafther Kniekj
erbocker looked tol
the American Leg-1
ion Convention, asl
more than 500,00o!
veterans of the worl
Id war marched inn
their five day meet!
ing Down 5th Av-1
enue where they!
marched 20 years!
ago on their way |
to war, the veterans!
paraded again in a B
procession lasting 18 8
hours. Music from g
5'M) bands echoed
through the sky
scraper canyons. It
was the biggest con
vention the Ameri
can Legion ever
held said Command
er Colmery. A new §
national command- |
er was elected to
take the place Col
mery stepped down
from.
—— r ■
THE RISING SUN'S WESTWARD PATH since Japanese and Chinese forces started
lighting three months ago is indicated by dotted areas on this map. Numbers indicate chronological
highspots: (1) Marco Polo bridge, west of Peiping, where fighting began July 7; (2) Tientsin, where
Japanese control was establishes by July 30; (3) Peiping, taken by Jap forces August 8; (4) Shanghai,
where an airport skirmish Ang. 9 precipitated heaviest fighting of the conflict; (5) Nankow Pass near
Kalgan, captured Sept. 2: (6) Nanking, target of repeated aerial bombardments; (7) Paotlngfu, which
fell to Japanese Sept 25; (t) Penmen Pan, captured by Japanese October 1 in the far northwest.
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