Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-17
The First Intelligence From the
American Exploring Party.
NARROW ESCAPE OF A SCIENTIST.
Grip, the Fashionable Malady, Prevailing
Among the Exquimaux.
A DEMAND FOR TROUSERS In TRADE

On June % the Arctic exploring steame
Kite, with the Peary and Academy of Nat
ural Sciences Greenland expeditions, fotln,
herself firmly wedged in the field of ice a
the entrance to the Straits of Belle Isle
Newfoundland After making fruitles
effort TO force the passage on the Newfound
land side, Captain Pike determined to eros
over to the Labrador shore and ram the ice
there. -Four days were spent in the ice al
together. 1t was a period of hard work
For hours the Kite rammed the ice in wa,
that would have sent craft less stout t.
the bottom.
As we were about to start on trip tt
Labrador on the date named, a white-beardeG
fisherman came to the Kite after medicine
for his sick daughter He told us that hall
the population along the straits were down
with the grip. Dr. Keely gave him pre-
scription and he departed, feeling very
grateful, and taking with him our last mail
We had the cold comfort of learning from
him that if we had reached the straits day
sooner we could have got through perfectly
well, as they were then clear of ice. Sc
much ice as there was then is unusual fol
this time of year. He also said there had
been no southwark bound tide through the
straits for two days. A tide was due that
ought to clear things.
HUGE BLOCKS OF ICE.
Captain Pike took all this in, hitched his
trousers, pulled his cap over his starboard
eye, climbed on the bridge and gave the
order to go ahead quarter speed. We soon
began crunching into it. Blocks of ice as
big as houses and lots stood in in our way,
white as the driven snow What misery
would be relieved by even one of them in
some tenement district in Philadelphia or
New York. The solid prov of the Kite, a
mass OF timber five feet thick, pounded into
these One moment she would rise on the
foe and smash through it. and the next she
would hit it a glancing blow, and, stagger-
ing for moment, swerve as on pivot.
After making a mile in this way the
skipper varied the monotony of the work
by tying fast to good sized foe for fresh
supply of water. The watch on deck,
headed by the second mate, attacked the ice
with axes, and sailors, scientists and lub-
bers warmed their limbs and cooled their
finger tips in carrying armfuls and dump
ing it over the rails on to the decks. 1t
was then transferred to the tank and the
steam turned ON, and soon we had 700 more
gallons aboard. That steam pipe seems to
hold good deal of oil, for the ice water
bore distinct flavor of blubber.
Lookouts on the mast head agreed on the
impossibility Of making the passage of the
straits at present. We began to calculate
that the Belle Isle route to Greenland
wasn't what Mr.. Peary had cracked, it up to
be, and that if we had taken Captain Pixies
advice and skirted the east coast of New
foundland we should have been north of
this point already.
SCIENTISTS DRESSED LIKE PIRATES
Just before sunset someone sighted seal
100 yards aft A wild panic followed the
announcement. This was the only minute
during the day when the deck hadn't looked
like an arsenal, and all hands made dive
below for weapons. The seal GRAINED l1is
neck and gazed at us with unfeigped aston
ishment. No doubt he had never before
seen a party OF Philadelphia scientists
dressed like Malay pirates. Gibson and
Hdghes appeared with their guns and fired
simultaneously, both exclaiming, "We'H
match for the skin" One bullet hit the
ocean north and the other south of the
mark, and the seal giving what seemed to
be APPLYING smile vanished into the brine.
He and a comrade appeared some min
utes later, well out Of range, and they
ridiculed us till sunset. When all was
over DIR. Cooke made his appearance, armed
to the teeth. He had dived below with the
others, but the doctor has an idea that
nothing is done well by real explorers
unless they do it in costume, and he had
stayed below to put on toboggan suit, his
ideal of seal hunters outfit.
DR.. Cooke has fine assortment of Sara
toga trunks containing varieties of costume
enough to clothe a comic opera company en-
gagged in the production of a nautical piece.
When the transportation becomes little
harder it is strongly suspected that Mr..
Peary will feed these clothes to the polar
bears, and that certain young physician
will weep some hot weeps at the loss of his
dress suits.
ALL WEAR ICE GOGGLES.
All hands put on their ice goggles. The
effect on the face is to make it more hideous
than before. Professional scarecrows weren't
in it with us. But they were necessary, for
the glare of the bright sun on the white sur
face was more than our eyes could stand
There was temperature of 60 degrees in
the sun and SO degrees in the shade, and the
surface of the water Gt was probably fresh
on top) froze slightly over night 1t was
noticed and put down as an interesting psv-
Geological fact that on donning tle glasses
the wearer at once felt colder than before.
This, it was agreed, was due to the mental
impression of a cloudy day created by the
smoked glass As it is colder in cloudy
weather than in bright, the Imagination re-
sponded with chill.
We were on the verge of an exciting in
cident to-day. Messrs. Peary and Mengel
and DR.. Cooke, armed..with boat hooks, set
out over the ice for small berg aground
some three miles away. When they had
made their first mile we saw them drop
something on the way.
1t was MIR. Mengel. We made out with
long-range glasses that this inexperienced
and pious youth had tumbled in. He was
hauled out by the slack of the trousers and
dumped on an ice cake to dry, with orders
to remain where he was until the explorers
returned. They would then lead him home
by the hand. Poor Mengel, when the others
got out of range, found himself adrift on an
ice cake, wondering, as the preachers ex-
press it, what he should do to be saved.
Presently thick fog began to bank up
behind the berg and move in the direction
of the ship. 1t looked as if the two parties
would be betogged. Peary and Cooke hast
ened on their way back just as Mengel re-
lief party, consisting of two sailors, with
ice hooks, were starting out from the ship
to bring him in.
HIS FIRST SIN.
Mengel is a well-meaning but unsophisti-
Gated chaser of animalcula from Reading.
Pa, the limits of which borough he left for
the first time when he said his prayers
donned the uniform of abrigand and hired
q district messenger in Brooklyn to steer
him to the good ship Kite. On his return
he knelt on the deck and shouted hymn of
gratitude at his deliverance. He was next
dried in the engine room and hurled in his
bunk, where DR.. Keely poured hot rum
punches into him.
"My first sin, DOCTOR" he murmured as
he felt the warm alcohol sizzling in his
veins. The young man was more frightened