The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-08-21
Arctic Horrors.

Arctic Horrors.
Again the country is to be treated
to sickening doses about arctic horrors
The stories told as to the terrible
s; rats to which the Greedy explorers
were reduced and the inhuman prac
tices to which they were driven to
preserve life, are of nature, the reci-
tation of which, it was hoped, the pub
lie would be spared. Heretofore we
have been told of exhaustion, of star
walton, of death amid the polar ice
fields, but this time the sickening fact
leaks out. that these men who have
been sent to barren fields
to seek barren rewards, were driven
through necessity TO the horrible
practice of eating the bodies of their
comrades. Authentic cases of canni-
balism are reported, ahd official in
quiry Is to be made. 1t is even limited
at that a more terrible thing than
cannibalism was resorted to; that
factions grew up among the men, and
that those belonging to one sacrificed
the other for the preservation of
lives. BE this as it may,
dead mems bodies have been
carved up as the butcher carves his
beef, and the meat of men used as food
for men. 1t must be regarded as very
singular that while the officers of the
Bear and Thetis maintain a strict ST.
lence they have allowed several of the
sailors to be interviewed on the
subject. Commander Schley evades
any discussion of the horrors
reported on the ground, that from a
military point of view it is improper
for him to speak except before a
properly constituted tribunal of inves-
tigation. The other officers of the re-
lief expedition shield themselves be-
hind the same excuse, although it is
stated in one New York paper that
they admit they believe there is sub
stance of truth in the revelations.
While the sickening horrors of an in
vestigation are to berepulsive enough,
still it may be hoped they will be pro-
ductive of good, that they will stop
this foolish annual search after moth
ing, this enlisting of wreckless men in
cause which can be productive
of no earthly good to humanity or to
nations. Secretary Chandler has been
appealed to to say whether the cases OF
reported Cannibalism are real or i'm
aginary, and he refuses to state any
thing as to their truth or falsity. 1t Is
of very little weight, in party sense,
to blame the administration for en-
couraging the polar expedi'
tiuns, for they have been fitted
out often, while the results have been
alike, at all times, worthless. In this
case, however, the administration is
responsible for the dire straits to
which these misguided men were re-
duced. Had rations' been left at
points, as directed by Lieutenant
Greedy, the conversion of refined,
civilized men into cannibals
would never have resulted. Gen.
Hazen and other officials are as reti-
cent as Commander Schley and Secre-
tary Chandler. This reticense can
not be because of the facts charged
against the survivors of the Greedy
expedition, but it is proof of wretch
ed, unwatchful administration of af-
fairs at Washington. These dead
mems ghosts rise up like Banquo's
and point to Chandler as an official
murderer. Greeley told him where to
deposic rations, and, when the doom
ed men sought life through civil
lied modes of preserving it and were
confronted with disappointment and
consequnt starvation, they were driv-
en- to inhumanities. Let US have the
investigation; let the fate of those
men be warning to others to engage
in no such senseless, reckless under
takings in the future; and, by all
means, let the responsibility of these
mems fates and their acts rest where
it belongs, upon an incompetent ex-
ecutive department at Washington.