The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-09-11
Y'SEXECUTION
Interesting Talk With Sergeant Fred.
ericks, Of the Greedy Expedi,;on.
Wh0 Did the sh0oting...Depiorahls Con.
ditfon of the Survivors.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND, September e-Ser.
geant Julius r. Fredericks, of the Greely
polar expedition, is here visiting his
brother. In conversation with some
friends to-day he said his normal weight
was 152 pounds, but weighed only 108 when
rescued. Referring to the reports which
charge himself and Long with selfishness,
and determination on their part to
live, Whatever became of the rest of the
party, he said: 'It is a lie from the
word co." said Fredericks, $50, too, is the
statement that there were two factions in
the Greedy party, I never saw a party SO
united and harmonious as was the Greedy
party. The only man who ever disobeyed
an order was shot. This was Henry, as
you know" $50 far as / know" he said,
there is no foundation for the charge. It
might have been that there was some can.
nibalism, but IL there was It resulted in
instant DEATH for the stomarhs of the men
were in no condition to take such food. To
speak definitely, myself saw no instance
of cannibalism." ibid YOU see Henry
shot?" was asked. 81 did. Theft of food
supplies was proven against him in several
instances and dfo four or 1 Ave times he
his life of Greely, but Greedy was
chicken.hearted-or, rather, too big hearted
-and begged him of. All the time Henry
kept in good physical condition, coming
out in the spring as sleek as he was in the
winter. One day saw him take food from
. man without arms or legs, and from
another who was drawing his last breath.
1upbraided him for his conduct, but he
was Indifferent, and afterwards to another
boasted that he was able to take care of
himself. The party became unit against
him and demanded that Greedy should
issue death warrant, or allow it to pro-
coed without. Greedy finally consented,
and the order was secretly issued. Now,
mind you, Henry was as supple as
ever, and if he had known that an order
for his death had been issued he
would have killed us all, for we
were so weak that we could not defend
ourselves, and could barely walk with
gun. Three guns were loaded, can't tell
who loaded them, two with balls, the other
with a blank cartridge. The three were
placed on the ground, and an equal num-
ber os men detailed to take them up for the
execution" "Who were the three menW
was further asked. "That dislike to say,
but / can't see, either, that any harm is
done by revealing it. Brainerd and Long
and myself were the three. We didn't
know who loaded the gun with a blank
cartridge. Nobody knew the man who
loaded the gun. We were then ordered to
proceed to the execution. We found
Henry down on the coast and alone,
about one hundred and fifty yards
sealskins which were designed for the sub
sistence of the the entire party. Henry did
not know that we were about to kill him,
but he knew that he had been warned time
and again that he would be killed If he
persisted in appropriating the food of the
party. We walked to within twenty yards
of him, and the ranking man said: Henry,
we are now compelled to carry out our or.
ders.' The order to fire was given, and
the man dropped dead. There was no miss
ing him at that range, and the aim from
each of the two men, whoever they were
who carried bullets in their guns, was fatal.
Henry did not say word before
or after we shot. When the
sound of the relief-boat whistle
was heard, refused to believe my senses.
said it was the whistling of the wind in
the muzzle of my rifle, and pointed out to
But he refused to be satisfied, and went to
the hilltop. believe from the bottom of
my heart he never would have returned If
the boats had not really been there, for he
was tottering with weakness, and it is abb
surd to think of his having game and food
lying away in safety. We could neither
shave nor wear long beard. To shave
would have caused our faces to chap to
pieces. Wearing beard caused solid
sheet of ice to form over the face. You
see the sealskin clothes were air-tight, and
all the vapors from the body escaped at the
neck and frosted upon touching anything.
They would soon catch and solidffy in
stantly on a beard. l never changed
clothes from August Z, 1888, TO June %,
1884, and all this time never washed. 1t
might be interesting to note that we suf>
fered as much from thirst as from hunger.
There was no water except as we got it
from melting snow and ice, and to do this
we had the wood-six or eight arm loads
of whaleboat to melt water throughout
the entire winter. We had no other fires"