News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-06-22
THE NORTH POLE
DIR. Talmage ON the Achievements
of the Explorers.

escaped mem DerS of the brave company J
of men who went forth to battle then
way toward the North Poie. Their COM
rades fallen in the kusterlitz OF Ice
bergs, these men come back wounded,
into the hospital of the worlds sympa-
thies. Their attempt vs. sublime, their
endurance terrific ag1 heir welcome
ought to be unanim. i enthusias-
tic. They went M crusade of
vain curiosity, but 1uer wider
realm for the poSs ,1astery of
the human - - with
excessive visl@ zen or the
everlasting frosts, down out
of the mountains O. I'D ice into
the valleys of our Al tspringtime.
Let them be greeted national fire.
side aglow with the "A sympathies of
our fifty million ped r. They have
endured enough for one lifetime, and
ought the rest of their days have moth
ing to do but receive the gratitude of
the people. We, whosat by stove and
register, with fannels on, and nervous
if slight draught came through the
keyhole, can have but incompetent ap-
probation of these men, who, to win
more knowledge and wider realm for the
race, fought starvation and chill death
on the northern edges of the world. A
few wiseacres stand around, hands in
their pockets, whistling in sort of de-
risive triumph, ard say, 81 told you SO.
1t can't be done. The North Pole will
never be discovered. Useless waste of
human life." So the world always says at
partially completed enterprises.
Five hundred times dill I hear the
same thing said when Livingstone was
lost in Africa. Never hear of him
again. Might better have stayed at
home with his family. No advantage
will ever come from it." But what fool
would say SO nov, since through Liv-
ingstone and Stanley the inside doors
OF Africa have been set wide open, in
viting civilization and Christianity to
enter, and estimates are being made for
the building of railroad across the
Great Sahara Desert? All great enter
prises have at different stages of pro-
gress been the target Of cai'icature.
The North Pole viii be reached. I
congratulate the Congress of the United
States on another bill now before it for
the fitting out of a new expedition for
the north. The human race cannot
| afford to stop short of cotnplete success
Arctic exploration viii have about
fifteen chapters before the fnis of the
great Book Of Crystals. The De Long
chapter is about the twelfth. Do you
reslize how ness the T,ss is done
Arctic explorers have come within four
hundred miles of it-only about as far
as from here to Rochester, or from here
to Portland. 1t will be done.
Ii the human race stop now and un-
hook its sledges and furl its sail within
four hundred miles of the magnificent
terminus, then it is not worthy of the
men who stood under the battle axes
of the Arctic ice-McKenzle and Ross,
and Willoughby, and Cabot, and Johu
franklin, and Kane, aud Schwatka, and
DeLon gand Danenhower. The goal is
SO near reached that the hero is now
born who will wear the coronal Of final
achievement. The ship may now be in
some cradle or dry dock which shall yet
glide over the bones of the dead feet of
Arctic vessels whose very names sug-
gest their perilous interchangeable
Terror, the Erebus, the Hecia, the
Dorothea, the Victory, the Advance,
the Rescue, the Rssolute, the Intrepid,
the North Star and the Jeanette.
Right over that eepulchre of dead ships
shall yet go some divineiy guided craft
carrying the Americanfag a5 her mast
head, to drop anchor at the consumma-
tion toward which the prowess and the
genius and the ambition of many na-
tions for centuries have been strug-
Cling. I urge no one to go on such an
expedition, but I protest against the
effort to belittle the heroism of those
who did go, or the philanthrophy aud
public spiritedness of those who for the
last fifty years have been fitting out
polar expeditions.
The world is full of do-nothings, who
with no grand attempts of their own are
maddened at the great undertakings of
others. TIE most NANCY and scabby
breed of ours on earth occupy the ken
mel OF "I told you so" They are the
pest of the Church d the world.
would like to fit then i out for an ex-
pedition to the ANT /, the regions
furthest off from WI pc brave men
of the north have genown, and
business that - \nprsin than
BY all our cities ke American
government let the 9arty welcome
to the navigators vi 10 come up our
harbor. All We ha kund at last how
the world is bounded& On the north,
on the south, on the east or the west by
the courage of man and the greatness
of God. It is not more what such ex'
plorers discover of the features of the
globe than what tlley discover of the
capacity of man when he sets out for
great achievement. The influence OF
such example is most salutary. Ii men
can endure so much for geography and
science what ought We to be willing to
endure for religion and humanity? God
is fitting out expeditions on all sides,
and men and women are wanted who
care little for their own comforts and
everything shout what they can Go for
others. Paul commanded such an ex-
pedition, Florence Nightingale another,
Alexander Duff another, John Howard
another, Bishop Asbury another. Ii
you cannot command an expedition you
can join one. Let us organize 1t now.
Expedition against Arctic seihshness'
against Arctic pride, against Arctic ex-
clusiveness. The whole ocean OF lie Is
covered with floating icebergs, running
down the good and the pure and the
true.
The day will arrive when oil the grea
Christian expeditions will come back In
the presence of many worlds. Not oniS
the leaders but the led, not only tne
commanders but the commanded not
only the celebrated but the obscure