AN ESKIMO HERO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 304, 12 September 1918, Page 9

AN ESKIMO HERO

JOHN SHIWACK, SOLDIER OF THE EMPIRE KILLED AT CAMBRAI The Eskimo swayed, bent a little, then slowly sank. But even as he lay there they saw his hand point ahead. And then he lay still. They passed lum on the bridge, lying straight and peaceful, gone to a better huntingground than ho ever anticipated. Thus died John Shiwack, Eskimo and soldier of the British Empire—the first of his race to give his life in tho cause of liberty.

Try to visualise a desolate, awe-in-spiring,. icebound country; barren, rugged shores; a land wherein God never intended that man should dwell —Labrador, tho only homeland that John Shiwack ever knew. He was a hunter in the far interior by winter, a handy-man in his district by summer. Ho Loved the winter best. He thrived in the winter. A silver fox skin atone brought him four hundred and sixty-nine dollars on one of his frequent bunting trips. A turnover of three, four or five thousand dollars was nothing unusual with this wizard hunter, of the icy north, whose fame quickly sped to the ears of a large circle of traders in St. John's. Newfoundland, the nearest centre or civilisation. During his spare time Shiwack wrote diaries, from which friends with whom ho came in contact from time to time gathered fragments of his interesting life. (John had taught himself to read and write from the scraps of paper which reached the shores of Labrador.) Ho had left home when only ten years old to eke out his own fortune, but his fatherland little sisters were still to him his home, though he never saw them during latter years. Ho was everybody's friend, grateful always for their kindnesses, ever ready to lend a helping hand, contemptuous of the lazy Indian whom he detested. He loved art, and was no mean craftsman with the brush. Music he adored with a passion, and he possessed a poetio Boul which he poured forth into his many writings. Not long before his final trip to the civilisation of his beloved St.- John's when he enlisted, |John manytimes expressed strong desires to leave his own great land of silence, biit they never came to anything. An ambition to become a Labrador merchant was only baulked by lack of funds. ; . In 1914, Shiwack received word of the great war in Europo, and he developed a new longing to become a soldier. Early in 1915, he attested at St. John's and swore on oath to fight the battles of the British Empire,' to which he had always given 'his allegiance. He joined the valiant regiment of Newfoundland. Consider it awhile. A lone Eskimo,, a. thousand miles from tho nearest civilisation, no outside life but the Newfoundland fishermen, and for only seven or eight weeks of the year, no industry but hunting and fishing, eight months in the snowbound silenceß of the most desolate country oni earth, j John Shiwack, swarthy little Eskimo, was going to fight for his country, whoso tangible- benefits could mean nothing to him. Ho • was prepared to givo his all for a cause. Before many weeks, John was in France with his regiment. A sjjoll of eleven months of hard plugging in the muddy trenches, and he hvas given bis I first leave. Upon his return to tha firing-line a great sorrow came to Shiwack. He had induced two other Eskimos to join up' with him, but they had be6u unable-to stand the life, and were Bent home. But his real grief was this death in action of his hunting mate, who had ok'ten shared his wintors in Labrador, a white man. "I am tho only ono left from Labrador," he moaned in a letter to a friend in England, and the longing to got' back to his old life was evident in evor,v, line. However, ho brightened up at length, and in his next letter wrote that he was "hanging on all right," and was game to see it [through to n finish. He did—to his own glorious death. A sergeant who was near Shiwack at the time that he fell, and who knew the Eskimo well', wrote afterwards that ho was a "white man through and through." The 'field of Cambrai saw his end. The tanks of the British were held up by the canal Cefore Masnieros, and John's company was ordered to rush a narrow bridge that had unaccountably been left standing. John, lancecorporal now, and chief sniper for his battalion, outpaced his comrades. It was a ncck-and-neck race between he and another. ( Who would reach, the bridge firstp It was ShiwackVtriumph in a deadly corner of tho battlefield. The enemy, gfanted a breathing space by the obstacle of the oanal, was rallying. Big shells were dropping everywhere; machine-guns chattered across the- narrow stretch of intervening water. Just beyond the bridgehead, in among the trees, the enemy*' had erected platforms'in tiers, bearing maI cliine-guns. ,As John stood, his helmet awry, his arms flung high overhead, waving encouragement to his comrades, the guns broke loose. That was why the bridge had been left. And there John Shiwack died, riddled by many bullets, undaunted hero of his race.