Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-08-13
Foa cosoaxss. ssru DsraIcr,
R. r. DEL VALE,
The Last Act Of the Tragedy.
Of Los Angeles.

II the horrid story told In our tele-
graphic columns to-day In regard to the
cannibalsm Of the members Of the
Greedy exploring expedition should
provo to be true, 1t will but add an.
other fact to the weight of proof al
ready brought to bear on the judgment
Of the civilized world that expeditions
to the far north are not only useless and
foolish, but that they are more-that
they are barbarous and criminal, us we'll
Suicide, itself, is penal offence, on the
statute books of the land. II is true
that only the attempt to commit this
crime Is capable Of human punishment,
~ the completion Of tho act removes
the offender from tho jurisdiction OF
earthly tribunals; but 1t is crime,
nevertheless, and all who assist or abet
it, commission are accessories. Those
who voluntarily take upon themselves
the perils aud risks Of voyages
toward the North Pole" are simply
toying with death, and playing
the suicide's part, and any who encour-
age them are little better. Tho fate of
Sir John Franklin and command, of
Lieut.. De Long and party, and now of
Lieut.. Gresly's followers, all show that
10 undertake such an expedition is to
die--nothing more nor less. Here and
there solitary survivor may escape to
mark the exception and provo the rule,
but the rule is-death. And now that
this last cup OF horror has been added,
the measure il full. The vast, illimita-
bio and CHASTITY stretches Of ice and
snow, the ''cold and cruel winter"
which never ends, the dim phantasmal
day which is not day, and night which is
not night, lasting half a year, amid a
scenery Of ice- foes and cliffs and bergs,
with the freezing Arctic blasts cutting
like knives, and fierce storms of hail aud
snow aud sleet-in the midst of all this
a poor, starving band Of wretches, cover
ing and shivering and moaning, the soul
of man in them frozen and dead already,
glaring on each other, waiting impa-
tiently for the next to die, devouring the
dying as soon as dead-all this makes
up a sickening tragedy which may we'll
close this terrible drama.
And there never was, during the last
two hundred years, any good sense In
these expeditions. That long ago it was
fully demonstrated that those hyperbo-
rean regions were entirely given over by
the God of Nature to tho dominion Of
ice and snow, and that the Arctic belt is
i,npassable to man. Since then their
continuance has simply been a mania--a
form Of insanity. Since the theory Of
''the northwest passage was proven
impracticaLle, generations ago, there
has been no more reason for exploring
the regions of the north pole than those
of the south pole. But when some one
set the example of martyrizing himself
in fruitless and useless attempt to
reach the north pole, the fashion was
set; md since then the mania has
spfeadthrough generations. 1t is not
likely that another Arctic expedition
will be soon organized in this country
after the revelations of the Greedy party.
II adventurous spirits desire fields for
exploration, the world is yet full Of them.
Africa is still "dark continent" The
great vertebral column of the earth
the Himalaya mountains, are practically
impressed by the foot of civilized man.
The interior of Australia, Alaska, Brazil
the vast stretches to the north of China
ALI these are within the habitat of man,
and their exploration would add greatly
to thedomain OF useful knowledge.