Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-08-22
THE ARCTIC REGION.

Il Fr0fsSt against Further SIcrtJtce or LIFE.
To the Editor of the Globe:
"Engineer Melville, of the Jeannette Arctic
expedition, and his companions, are safe in
st. Petersburg"
In reading the morning paper the above
item met my eye, and while, with thousands
of Others, was glad to hear Of the safe re-
turn Of these men from the perils they have
passed through, conld not refrain asking
myself, did it pay? What have they to show
for the sufferings they have endured and the
dangers they have faced? Gould they not have
accomplished far greater practical results than
they have, mad their energies, time, property
and bravery been directed To some other end?
We can all see reason, as well
as courage, in the acts OF
those adventurous spirits, who dare danger,
suffer exile and even death itself in the effort
to open mp new lands of fertility and beauty,
wherein the human race may De enabled TO
extend its hands and increase its facilities for
Improvement ani happiness. We admire and
approve the action Of those who, leaving
home and kindred, face the trials and dangers
OF missionary work among savage tribes. A
worthy aim with chance of success renders
their actions reasonable and noble. But what
thoughtful man can approve the rash ex-
plolts of the sArctic explorer of the present
I,
regions to render it certain that nothing OF
real usefulness was to be gained from further
search in that direction; nothing but vain
glory and, perhaps, few scientific expert
mental facts; all of which must prove
but poor recompense for the suffering
endured and the life and treasure
sacrificed. Most certainly the time has ar
rived when, with the knowledge we have of
those regions, we may abandon the search for
that undefinable something. whichs IL found,
could be OF no use to man, imbedded, as it is,
in those bonds of eternal ice. If governments
or capitalists wish to increase human happi-
ness, either by extending the realm of knowl-
edge or the area OF territory, they can find far
pleasanter and more profitable fields on which
to expend their substance than on the ice foes
Of the north. Let them reclaim those por-
tons OF the otherwise valuable lands which
are now rendered useless simply for want of
drainage or irrigation, as the case may be, or
perhaps by lack OF suitable means OF com
nIinicatiOn.
How much valuable property and how
many lives could have been saved had the
money which, from time TO time, has been
appropriated for these Arctic ventures been
expended in strengthening the levees of the
Mississippi Or how much good it would
have done had it been given to some of the
many objects of real charity which constantly
call for relief! / would have it distinctly
or motives of those who undertake these voy-
ages merely as relief parties sent to rescue
men from peril; they are heroes inasmuch as
they dare death for others, but does not the
necessity of sending them to meet suffering
and perhaps death itself throw fearful re-
sponsibility upon those who first 60 forth of
their own free will to such
and for no other reas On than to
crafty amorbid estlessness or thirst for no.
toriety-it cannot be called glory where no
worthy object calls?
Centuries ago the adventurous Norseman,
in his small vessel subject to tickle winds,
with no compass to guide him iu his course,
dependent, alone, On the star of the north,
dared the perils of the wide and stormy At
lantic striving to solve the mysteries hidden
by the deep, to find what lands lay beyond the
ocean. His was a perilous venture, with the
facilities he had, perhaps as perilous as that of
the arctic explorer to-day. But the prospects
of reward! how different. A continuance in
the same temperate latitude, constant dis
coveries of habtable lands, Iceland, Green.
land, Labrador, and at last, the New England
coast.
Columbus, with the signs he saw in the
ocean, and the rumors he probably heard from
the north to aid his own reasoning in the
case, certainly had more chances in his favor,
more to warrant him In facing peril and caus-
ing others to face it with him, than those who
deliberately 60 forth to see how far from the
civilized world they can get, how great their
endurance, how much of the ice bound north
they can traverse and return alive.
Let this cease. There is certainly no land OF
promise, no fountain of life beyond that frozen
5 q; and there is as certainly a parent, wife,
brother or sister who must wait through the
tedious months and years for tidings of the
loved ones, buried, as it were, in
thos, dismal regions Of everlasting barrenness
and death. Gentlemen of arctic aspirations,
there is community to whom you owe a
better use of your time and substance; pause,
look about you; many field is open to just
such spirits as yours, where you may accom-
plish other results than the sinking of money,
! the sacrifice of life and the calling of Others
into peril, wherein your talents, your prop
erty and your lives may be spent to far greater
advantage than by cultivating the acq iaint.
| ance of walruses and polar bears amid the
arctic foes. Seek these other fields, try them;
glory, profit and happiness may await you
somewhere in them; 1t certainly has; been
proved beyonda doubt that neither lie beyond
the arctic circle.
If your adventurous nature absolutely de-
mands suicidal indulgence, 60 up in balloon,
| undertake the passage of the ocean in a log
| dug-out, attempt the descent of Niagara in a
| birch-bark canoe, anything reasonable, but
| only seek some path to glory which will not
| involve Others with you, which will leave
as few to mourn as possible, and, above all,
which will not require brave and true men to
waste their lives searching for your bones.
| As soon as it is reasonably certain that no
more remain to be rescued, call in the search
lug parties now ont, and then, il possible, by