St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-12

amount of preparation will prevent it.
We suffered great deal, but for my
part ain contented-contented that it
is all over, and that l came out with
nothing more serious than a frozen
foot"
"1s 1t true, as the men have stated in
Eastern interviews, that Lieut.. and
Mrs. Peary reveled in warmth and
luxury while the men subsisted on any
thing they could get and were without
a fire during the severest weather?'
"Well, now," replied Davidson re-
fectively. "Mrs. Peary is very charm
ing woman, and she had no more in
winter quarters than she should have
had. Peary himself is up North, and
not able to make reply to anything that
may be said of him. so you see it places
man who is asked to state the case in
rather peculiar position. AS 10 Lieut..
Peary's behavior at the winter quar-
tiers, think that under the crcum-
stances 1t could scarcely have been diff
ferent. think there is no doubt he
will admit that he made great mistake
in allowing Mrs. Peary to go on that
journey. The region up there is no
place for woman, but OF course, when
woman is there too much
cannot be done by men of
the party for her comfort.
Peary's mistake was in taking his wife
with him. The money available for the
purchase Of supplies was none too much
to provide simple necessaries, and of
this. from his previous knowledge of the
country. Lieut.. Peary must have been
aware. 1t took great part of the fund
which should have been expended in
providing ordinary comfort for the men
to furnish the luxuries which Mrs.
Peary needed. We started with short
supply of provisions, always remem-
berlng, OF course, that the supply we
had was expected to last us two seasons.
In short time we were placed on the
shortest rations ever allowed men on
an Arctic expedition, except the Greely
people. Our supply of oil was in.
sufficient. We started out with forty
barrels of kerosene, but the steam Yacht
burned about a barrel day when in
use. 1t has been stated that tidal
wave carried away third of the oil.
Now, all we lost by the tidal wave was
three barrels. Even if this had not
been lost we should have still been
short on the fuel ration that occasioned
the greatest part of our suffering, Oil
WAS our only fuel, you know. and with
one little oil stove, of the pattern some
people use here In the summer to avoid
heating up the house. you may imagine
what our condition was. Owing to the
short supply, we we're only allowed to
burn one burner of this lamp. and the
effect on the interior of our quarters
was not particularly cheering.
1.-The lack of fuel, having TO eat seal
meat that gags any but an EsqulmauX
stomach. and being compelled to spend
all our nights and days in wet clothes
because there was 10 fire to dry them,
made some of the men very discontent-
ed. For my part, being inexperienced,
perhaps, saw nothing in 1t to complain
of. l went up there expecting to suffer,
and took it all for granted.
"Did the men Complain to Peary of
their condition."
''Well, yes. suppose they did, but he
simply had to hold down rations and
fuel. OF course. that is not saying that
he should hot have HAD more to begin
under the circumstances that existed,
be did right. After q time the men
used to say nothing in particular, but
they took. various ways of showing
their displeasure. Lieut. Peary and
his wife had private quarters at one
end of the house in which good big
stove was kept going, and behind the
Peary sliding door there was glimpse
of comfort that made fellows crane
their necks just for glimpse of it to
remind them of home. On our side of
the partition the walls were two inches
thick in sheer Ice that had run from the
melting OF our breaths on the skylight
and covering everything. All we had
was our little one-bItner of an oil stove,
and of course we might nearly as well
have had nothing,
"Somss OF the fellows drew big pict-
ure Of stove on sheet of paper and
nailed it on the wall so that Peary could