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We called at the house of the Greek Church priest and were received with fine civility, ushered into a room which for fineness of taste in furniture and fixtures might well challenge the very best in S.F. or New York. The wall paper, the ceiling, the floor, the pictures on the walls of Yosemite and the Czar, the flowers in the window, the books on the tables, the window curtains white and gauzy, tied with pink ribbon, the rugs, and odds and ends, all proclaimed exquisite taste of a kind that could not possibly originate anywhere except in the man himself or his wife. This room would have made a keen impression upon me wherever found, and is, I am sure, not dependent upon the squalor of most other homes here, nor upon the wilderness and remoteness of Unalaska, for the interest it excites. He spoke only Russian, so that I had but little conversation with him, as I had to speak through our interpreter. We smoked and smiled and gestured and looked at his beautiful home. Bishop Nestor who has charge of the Alaskan diocese is said to be charming and most venerable man. He now resides in S.F. but is having a house built in Unalaska. He is empowered to build and support, at the certain number of parish churches, expense of the home church. Two out of seven of these are located among the Aleuts - at Unalaska and at Belkofski. The other Aleutian villages which have churches, and nearly all have, build and support them at their own expense. The Russian Church claims about 11,000 members in all Alaska. About one half of these are Aleuts, 1000 creoles, and the rest Indians of Mushagak, Yukon, and Kenai missions, over which
Date Original
1881
Source
Original journal dimensions: 11 x 18.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel27Journal01P15-16.tif
Publisher
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
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Keywords
John Muir, journals, drawings, writings, travel, journaling, naturalist
