TIB’S MOVING PICTURES

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 4, 27 July 1907, Page 39

TIB’S MOVING PICTURES

By

HUGH PENDEXTER.

IT was a crowd of college boys singing as they passed my windows that suggested the yarn to Billy Campbell, a strolling aetor and world-wide wanderer. “D’ye hear them?” he asked eagerly, pausing with lighted match half raised to his pipe, and cocking his ear, jealous to cateh every note. “They’re singing ‘Stars of a Summer Night,’ and say, sir, it may be a far cry from Longfellow's serenade to the tag-end of the Pelly River up in the Northwest Territory, but the ‘warbling, sweet the nuptial lay’ by ■those hoidens affects me keenly, sir.” “Did Tiberius Smith figure in it?” I asked anxiously, for I was now strongly in sympathy with the old showman’s resourceful and indomitable spirit.

“Bless you, yes. You don’t suppose, do you,” and Billy’s voice took on an injured tone, “that I’d go loafing about the edge of the aretic circle without Tib?

Yes, he was in that little experience; in fact, he created it out of raw material. That my epidermis is not tanning tonight on a tall totem-pole of the Toad tribe is due only to his savoir faire. I’ll admit that that offshoot of the Athabascans with their odd ways nearly cured me of chasing alter the old fellow in his many trails, yet when I hear that song I almost wish I was up there again with him—Tend people be blowed —with the Pelly rippling softly as it gathers in the Glenlyon Hills, waiting for its cue to rush viciously down into the Yukon. But I’m getting soft and side-stepping the story. “It was early in the Yukon’s thirtyminute summer that we became stranded in Dawson. We had invaded the place with a good show, but as all the skirts marriwl themselves off to aborigines who had struck it rich, we found ourselves completely isolated from good tablc-

board, and, like Othello, with no job. What hastened the depletion of oui locker was Tib’s insistence on giving each bride a cash present. You couldn’t buy much up there in the line of gewgaws, you know, once you abandoned canned goods and wooncr. underwear; so it was cash, and the old ehap pushed himself and me into bankruptcy. I'itially it came to us to choose between starving and working, and we decided to increase the gold reserve by tapping nature’s mint. . "We were aided to this conclusion by the entrance of old Roberts, the father of the Yukon, a wizened-up patriarch who. 1 reckon, would have to delve in the relies of the stone age to find his birthplace; Tib said he was born before coal was made in Pennsylvania, but. his primeval past notwithstanding, he could sit down and chat about geology, and tell more of its innermost secrets than were ever tossed together between two covers. And he was that hearty and spry you couldn't kill him with a spike maul. “And he cottoned to Tib like a mustard plaster. He’d.been prospecting for years, he said, and had several likely places napped out for snatching nuggets. One. place in particular, at the inception of the Pelly River, down near the Athabascan country, he was most anxious to visit. The crowd as yet had trampled down but few elderberry bushes in that precinct, he represented,- and once there we would only have to take a rake and clean Up the clutter of yellow dross. So it was under his tuition that we used the last of the box-oltiee receipts in buying outfits. His plan had this recommendation: we could cover nearly the whole jaunt in his boat. “And, say, whnt do you suppose wo suffered most from on that little cruise? Mosquitoes, sir. Why, they got so laid that Tib produced a small tube of metallic paint and wanted to give us new hands and faces. But as the directions said it would never wear off, we de“clincd. Yet the paint surprised me until Tib explained he’d brought it along to teach a new colour scheme to ‘Poor Lo.’ He thought the natives might be bribed into telling us- nature stories if presented with his new cosmetic. Then he grinned in his inimitable, happy way. and, resting his paddle, tapped his bosom and informed us that snugly sewe-d in his coatlining were several packages of dyes. “ 'lf we can’t find gold, my children,* he explained, ‘I will teach the tenants

of the region how to gild the lily by colouring furs and skins, and in return we may separate them from gome trea-Bure-trove secret.’ “Old Roberts was deeply interested until lie tried to smoke some of the powder. Then he got rid of a characterization that Tib said an anrient man ought to be ashamed of. And in this simple, happy manner we threaded the Belly and entered the rugged Glenlyon hill country, where we caught our first glimpse of the Campbell -Mountains. Tib was from Vermont, you KdnwV«u«d loved the high places, but I was especially elated to find a namesake up there in that vast region. “It was on the day after we sighted my clansman that our first streak of trouble asserted itself.) Our boat, while we were discussing some subtle point in connection with serving canned beef on bark, tried to knock a rock out of the river, and in a trice the water swamped us. and Tib alone managed to do the Eliza act, and reach shore with a dry skin, via boulders. And there we were in a lonesome land, with all our baggage and provisions at the bottom of the foaming, relentless stream. “ ‘We should strike a stratum of Indians hereabouts, if the signs of the drift don’t mislead me,’ observed Old Roberts, pausing to rub a bit of quartz on his ■hi rt-sleeve. “Tib said he was agreeable, if we eoull Only eat them, and following the river upstream we tramped along until our guardian said he smelled smoke. I suggested that we turn and go back, as you can’t always teH how those folks up North will look on unexpected guests. Old Roberts, however, protested he knew all the tribes, and could ehatter in their languages, and that we had naught to fear. So we pressed on for about two miles, when a dog orchestra caused a dozen dark-complexioned, big-nosed men to emerge carelessly from the underbrush and form a circle about us. “ ‘Not the kind of top-soil I expected,’ whispered old Roberts. These are a hybrid growth of the Athabascans, whose hearts are three degrees harder than flint. I’ve only had a long-distance ac-

quaintance with them. They are the Toad people.'

“ ‘The Toad has cause for action in a libel suit,’ declared Tib gloomily, as CTie circle narrowed and allowed us to observe they carried old-fashioned firearms, an influence, I suppose, radiating from the Hudson Bay Fur Company’s em ; ployees. “On my inquiry old Roberts said he could talk their patter, and Tib asked him to stifle his pride and beg a little food. After he had exchanged a series of grunts-and had had a handful thrown in his face, he declared one of us must have been wearing the unlucky opal, as the ensemble insisted on treating us as captives for seven moons. “ ‘That will be inconvenient,’ mused Tib; but we’ll get something .to eat, and at the end of the week we’ll go back.’ “ ‘I fear not,’ sighed old Robe'rts. From what they say I believe we are weathering fast and will soon be dust. A week

from now they offer a sacrifice to tfie Toad, and have decided that as a hecatomb our arrival is very opportune.’ “Our neighbours now pressed in close and with exceeding poor form began shouldering us off to their camp, chanting betimes a paean of gladness. They resembled stray Athabascans we had seen along the Yukon, only their features were more openly villainous. The professor explained they were a cross between the American Innuit and Athabascan. As we jogged along we learned through our interpreter that their chief, Alfalfa, or some such name, was ill, and that the medicine-men opined the sacrifice of the first strangers met with -was the only panacea licensed to cause him to sit up and notice things. “The village we found to be composed of hide tepees and lean-tos, while from the number of the latter we decided the Toad clan was somewhat distant from its original habitat. While

surmising this, we were taken to payj our devoirs to ths old chief, who was miraculously painted and who reclined on some skins, wasting his strength in trying to beat his squaws. I reckon from our reception he didn’t exactly look upon us as love-philters, although our guards explained we were a great spring tonic, when killed. Ix>rd, sir! he wanted to free our spirits instanter, but happily the head doctor had proclaimed wo must be kept a week, in order to break joints with other prophecies. “ ‘Offer to paint his lace with your, dyes,’ I whispered-to TiK “‘Dyes? Hum, I’d forgotten ’em. No, my child, I’ll keep ’em for perhaps a nobler purpose.’ “Then, through old Roberts, we said that although we should be pleased to die to benefit the sachem, we couldn’t possibly last a week unless we had a little food. Instantly they led us to a homely kind of stew, and although we had to use our fingers we got along nicely. Af#er tea Tib waltzed to tha river bank and slyly procured a handful of clean sand, and when he’d thrust his clenched fist into a bark dish of water and then pulled it out and scattered the dry grains about they were simply staggered, sir. One old hag wanted him to do it again, and -as he had no more sand ■he pulled out a safety-pin and gave it to her. She was greatly pleased, and hurried aside and carefully poured out the water to get more treasure. When she failed to find colour she wanted to scalp Tib, but the males came to the rescue. I could see that they were puzzled by his magic, and I suggested he do a few more stunts to save us. “But Lord, sir! although he was as neat as most professionals and could work in a crowd, the more he did the more decided they became that the Toad would be greatly felicitated to receive us into the spirit-land. The medicinemen, too, were jealous of his growing reputation, and after easting a few horoscopes, announced they had erred by three days and that we should pass out that much sooner. “ ‘The erosion of their kindly qualities is not noticeable on a costal plain,’ ob-

•arvod. the proleesor mildly, stooping to examine a seam in the rock.

“‘I was actuated by the purest motives, children/ protested Tib, 'but I guess my legerdemain has only hastened the mourners.’

“ ‘Let us make a run tor it,* I cried, for it seemed ridiculous that we should tamely submit to their unnatural inclination and thereby create a boom in Idol-worship. “ ‘We’d be gathered in before we could make two jumps,’ sighed Tib. ‘We’ll wait until the last minute.*

“You see, we were so Hemmed in by the river and outlying guards that escape was about as probable as the Prohibition ticket in certain Southern states; and for this reason our captors had allowed us the freedom of the camp. Well, did you ever stop to think how stingy time is when every sixty seconds is pushing you another step toward your own funeral? I never had appreciated the worth of time before. Old Roberts was so ancient that I don’t think he sensed it, but Tib and 1 felt it keenly. “ ‘Can it be, Tib, that to-morrow is Our last oneT* I groaned, as we sat outside our skinny boudoir and watched the professor at his everlasting scrutiny of the rocks.

“ ‘Hush, child,’ remonstrated Tib, ‘J have one card left. I’ll play it to-night. Don’t ask me anything about it, for it will be time enough for you to know when it succeeds. If it fails then it’s cut and run or go down fighting.’ “That night,” our last night, the medicinemen let down their back hair, and

singing the death-song pranced in gay aerenade about our tepee. “ ‘lt reminds me of the carol singers at Yule-tide,’ murmured Tib reflectively. “ ‘The channel of a torrent is enclosed -by walls, of course,’ muttered the professor from his uneasy cot, and I threw a roll of birch bark at him; for his geological observations just uow made me think of the tomb. “Then Tib aroused him fully, and told trim to address the. ballet chorus and explain we wanted large dishes of water and privacy for the night, so that we might attain a condition of chemical purity in anticipation of meeting the Toad. They demurred at first, and said they were supposed to remain at our Bide until sunup, but Tib kicked over the traces and promised to raise Cain to such an extent once he was a spirit that the Toad wouldn’t appreciate our arrival a little bit. Tliis caused them to compromise. They agreed to fetch the water and leave us alone, providing we would sing all night to demonstrate we were alive and happy, and not trying t® evade our illustrious future. To elimi-

nate further any chance of our leaving the prescribed circle, they stationed their dogs, short-haired, mangy curs, all about our villa. “ ‘That’s bully. I like dogs,’ cried Tib, once the songsters had retreated. ‘Now hark ye, children. Don’t bother to watch me, but open your ruby lips and peal out some simple chorus. What we must have is the one continuous fracture of the welkin.’ “And with that he threw off his coat and began ripping open the lining. ‘Sing! Sing!’ he yelled. ‘A feast of song!’ And although neither of us understood his game, the professor in reedy treble began piping ‘On the Green Grassy Banks of the Dee,” and I caught the lilt and began throwing ill a barber-shop tenor that would aggravate the average wren to assault a rattlesnake.

“ ‘1 can’t carry the tune if he assays as flat as that,’ protested the professor. “ "po —— Well, never mind the tune,’ roared Tib, from without. ‘The birds sing as they used to sing, but Annie for your lives, sing!’ “And unmindful of the professor’s inaccurate ear I gave a few back-yard chords, all on one string, and got a jujutsu mouthhold on “Ben Bolt.” And outside in the murky half-light, between assaults, I could hear the sound of snarling and yelping, and the voice of my patron talking deep and earnestly in a heart-stirring monologue. There may be sweeter-voiced warblers than Tib and me, sir, but when it comes to endurance, we hadn’t been in the black-faced business for just our clothes. I could, you

see, count on the professor’s relieving me only at odd intervals. For some reason the old fossil refused to sing the same number twice. “ ‘Now, Billy,' .oared Tib, ‘l’m going to sneak away a few feet, and if you love me let all that's gone before be passive melody and akin to quietude to what you must do now. It’s tough, but I feel worse about it than you do.’ “And as I jumped both feet into the next bit of poesy, I again caught the sound of splashing water, and the plaintive bleat of a tame buffalo calf, hitched near our shack. I certainly swept the echoes off their feet, sir. It was a vocal homicide. “ ‘ln God's mercy let granther take the next round,’ groaned Tib, on returning to my ken. ‘The last bar you butchered, deliberately butchered, child. It goes like this,’ and the old chap’s voice wandered in a mellow, golden tenor that on rare occasions he could throw off, and I reckon the I’elly stopped to listen to the first real music its bank had heard in many years. Then he glided into ‘Stars of a Summer Night,’ and it wouldn’t have surprised me a bit if the gang had rushed up and given him a ticket home, while cutting my throat. I actually shed tears, sir, as that old gem was tossed fourteen stories high, and at the close I heard loud grunts down the line, and the voice of a nymph yelping. Old Roberts said they wanted more, as they believed it possessed a rich savour for the Toad. Tib delivered a little homily on the tribal spirit and its servants, but complied with something about ‘An old home, that is all.’ “When I presumed to follow with a contralto effect, the guards swore we could go to sleep for the rest of our lives, several hours, but that if anyone besides the ‘sweet gjng-bird’ burst into tune again, the morning obsequies would be anticipated quite materially. “We enjoyed the respite more than you can imagine. As I couldn’t sleep, Tib sat in the tepee opening, and at times rushed a few minors down the

river, where some appreciative bluff

caught them and tossed them back with silver variations. 1 reckon, sir, it was the greatest open-air concert ever pull ed off in the Northland. “Just as we began to gel a bit oil' colour froiii hoarseness the sun crawled over the Campbell Hills, and 1 drew myself together, and told old .Roberts to show ’em how a Roman could die. “ ‘Listen, Billy,’ warned Tib, thrusting coloured hands into his pockets; 'if 1 see my masquerade isn’t going to work grab Prof, with me, and we’ll all rush to the river. Here they come." And the grave notes of the tom-toms told me that our mortgage on Hie sunshine was about to be foreclosed. ‘“Oh, Lord! What’s that? See!’ ejaculated old Roberts shrilly. “I looked, and hang me, sir! if I didn't go weak as a rag in a second. ‘First as sistant devil to the Toad!’ 1 cried to Tib. “To my surprise he grinned and cried, ‘lt agitated you, eh’ Then it will jar the optic nerve of the heathen. It’s only a minor portion of the masquerade I’ve kept tethered all night. Difficult to do fine work by moonlight, but. the proofs seem to show up nicely. Now to loose the others.’ “And what I saw, sir. was a quadru ped, but so fiercely attired 1 at first thought it was the Toad himself. The

•ecret of the birchbark utensils, the water, and the ripped eoat-lining wax out. He had dyed the dog! But, bless you, ■ir, such an effect. It was a wild, fantastic phantasy of a green dog, embroidered in white stars and a red anchor. It ran, sir, to meet the approaching tribesmen, but one glance at its illustrated countenance spelled panic for them, and with shrieks of fear they drew aside, and the poor beast, now thoroughly frightened, dashed on to scare the squaws and little ones into the cupboard. “ ‘l’m glad he’s gone,’ groaned the professor. “ ‘Cheer up, the worst is yet to come,’ soothed Tib, refusing to take advantage of our elegant opportunity to drift away. “Then it happened all in one terrible, Indecorous assault on harmony of colour. Jt seems he had adorned every dog within reach with the contents of bis dye packages, and the tout ensemble was simply astounding. This second pup to appear was a chromatic crea-

tion in blue, with hand-painted white eyebrows; and the next cur was illumined in red and purple, with an nose. ; “ I guess the lilies of the field have Bicdals to waste in rivalling those valen.es, eh? Gif, yes,’ yoninwnted Tib complacently, beaming on the scuttling and prostrated throng of hybrids with a merry twinkle in his smooth brown eye. “ ‘ They haven’t killed ur, and this isn’t ——gasped the professor. ‘Gehenna? No; we're still on the Felly with Freedom dancing in welcome down yon,’ reassured Tib. ‘ But don’t, my worthy friend, don't squander your enthusiasm on these lighter characters. iWait till you feast your Paleozoic orbs on my chef d’oeuvre. It ought really to be hung in the Salon.’ Saying this, be ran to the rear of our tepee, to be back again in a few seconds. “ ‘ I've cut the rope,’ he explained. JAud out into the full glare of the sun

marched the tribe’s pet bear, onee brown ImH w>w ho giddy that in comparison he had the- dizziest circus postersthat ever ate up relegated to a monotonous and indistinct background. “ Tib called it a ‘ Study in Passions,’ and said the proper perspective was fifteen feet, f believe ten feet would have caused death to the spectator by concussion. Why, sir, the cry of anguish front the poor, unsophisticated beggars would have caused the Sphinx to wipe away tears of pity. For Brer Bruin had little pink devils peeping out from between his navy-blue shoulders, and his red vest was relieved by green comets and a white death’s head, while all the discordant skill of a master-hand had graced the rest of his person with nightmares and fancies, the tints of which never shone on land or sea. You could have heard that bears’ effulgence down in Honduras. He simply radiated jarring, rasping visions that would cause a burning fireworks factory to seem a chaste study in sombre shading. He

was a galaxy of eyesores, but it demonstrated what Tib could do with a large canvas. “ ‘ I should say, my child, that they are deeply touched,’ mused Tib, as with moist eyes we gazed on the astounded foe. “ ‘ Will Hark-e-wah-nah go back to his home and leave his children in peace ’ begged the head dope-doctor through our bewildered Roberts. The professor added that the stage name, interpreted, meant the ‘ Little Fat Alan Who Builds Devils.’ “ In replying in the affirmative we explained that the four-legged rainbows were demons conjured up by Hark at the command of the Toad, who was angry because the wrong strangers had been detained. Just then a little pup, so new he could hardly stand, merely a thumbnail sketch, staggered up to the chief’s redoubtable wolf-dog, and waved his stubby tail in token of good-fellow-ship. Mr. Ugly Dog gave just a fleeting

glance at the delicate green and yellow delirium tremens tints that- encircled the baby’s eyes and with one long, elastic howl of craven fear ran fcr the woods. By this time Tib had unloosed the buffalo calf, and say, Jack Frost at his merriest on the susceptible maple is crude alongside the calf’s eye-dazzling hide. “To add to the intoxication of the scene, sir, each of those decorated artsquares was perpetually in motion and, weaving in and out, formed a kaleidoscope that was worse on the nerves than the curse of drink. You see, whenever a pup paused in meeting another pup he would cast just one timid glance and shoot off at a gallop. And whenever the bear would turn and meet a midsummer night’s dream he’d give a frightened ‘ woof ’ and toe-nail it for seclusion. A bird’s-eye view of the Felly at that point would have revealed a fan of variegated canines and other shuddering fourfooted things streaking it for some quiet, lonesome place, each

wishing to gain a lonely side-road in life. “ ‘ Will Hark-e-wah-nah leave his children now?’ repeated the grovelling magic-man. “ ‘ Tell ’m, Prof,’ commanded Tib, as we began to stalk slowly toward the river, ‘ tell 'em the Toad is still angry at their detaining the white men, and will frown on ’em if they ever do it again. Tell ’em we will go away for a little while and the demons will follow us, but that we have our spirit-eye on ’em.’ “ They began to chant a ilttle ballad, that sounded like ‘ hineh yah nah nah,’ each threw his whole soul into the concluding groan. But by this time we had reached the Felly, where Tib quickly dropped a big rock through all the canoes but one. Piling into this we pushed off and were soon hitting swift water. As we got nicely under weigh a fierce outcry behind us caused us tq look around. It was a cry of rage, not

of fear, and at once Tib appreciated the situation. The buffalo calf in disgust had wandered , into the river, and consequently lost his designs-, and decorations. “ They then decided the strange gods possessed only, a veneer of immortality and were extremely suspicious of the bluff Tib had worked on nature. “ ‘ And if you love quartz, pull, Frof, pull! And, Billy, yard-arm and yardarm, and all together! ’ shouted Tib, as in a whirl of leaden rain, we jumped the birch down the river. We hardly paused to rest or sleep until we had left the Glenlyon Hills far behind. That was the only bit of palette work Tib was ever known to do, but the memory of it and its rough Northland setting will always abide with me, and whenever I hear ‘ Stars of a Summer Night ’ I can again see the land of the Toad people, and hear Old Medicine calling Hark-e-wah-nah to quit the game.”