The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-15
BEFORE MY BOOK CASE.
SOME PRIZES FROM THE SECOND
HAND MAR.
"Arctic service"-The In
imitable aIarmot and French Me-
Moirs in Generai-Themes That
Are Interesting.
written for The Salt Lake Herald]
BY A. CONAN DOYLE.
1Convrionted 1874 nv +

copyrighted, 1894, by the Author)
1t was a very long jump from Frois-
|sart and his successor, De Confines, to
Greeley's Arctic Service" and yet
you see that chance has drifted them
together upon my book shelf They
have at least this in common that they
all commemora tie the gallantry of man.
This book of Greeley's made deep
impression upon me when 1 read it.
There are incidents in it which a man
can never forget. The episode of those
twenty old men lying upon that horri-
bic bluff, and dying. one a day from
cold and hunger, and scurvy is one
which dwarfs ali the tragedies of ro-
nance. And the gallant starving lead
er giving lectures on abstract science
in an attempt to take the thoughts of
the dying men away from their suffer-
ings-what a picture! 1t is bad to suf-
fer from cold, and bad to suffer from
hunger, and bad to live in the dark
but that men could do all these for six
months on end and that some should
live to tell the tale is indeed a marvel
What a world of feeling lies in the ex-
clamation Of the poor dying lieutenant,
"Well, this is wretched! he groaned
as he turned his face to the wall.
The Anglo-Celtic race has always
run to individualism, and yet there is
none which is capable of conceiving
and carrying out higher ideal of dis
cipline. There is nothing in Greek or
Roman annals more sternly fine than
the story of the British regiment that
went down in their ranks in the ''Birk-
enhead" And this expedition of Gree
ley's gave rise to another instance
hardly less remarkable. You remembe
that when there were only about eight
of the unfortunates left, hardly able
to move for weakness and hunger, the
seven took the old man out upon the
ice and shot him dead for breach of
discipline. And the whole grim pro-
ceeding was carried out with as much
method and signing of papers as if
they were all within sight Of the CAPT
toll at Washington. His offence had
consisted, as far as I can remember,
Of stealing and eating the thong which
bound two portions of a sledge togeth-
er-something about as tempting as
boot lace It is only fair to the conn
mander, however to say that it was
one of a series OK petty larcenies, and
that the thong of a sledge might mean
life or death to the whole party.
THE GLAMOR OF THE ARCTIC.
Personally 1 must confess that any
thing bearing upon the Arctic sea is
always of the deepest interest to me.
He who has orce been within the Dor
ders of that mysterious region which
can be both the most lovely and the
most repellant rpon earth, must al
ways retain something of its glalnor.
The meory OF thu. inexps essible air of
ira e-Teaf fats ~ f{aoe bike water and
of spotless iee Of the cloudless sky
shading awav nro q light green and
then into a " owish white at the hori-
ION, of the sudden mists, and the
strange fantastic shapes seen through
them, of the swarming companionable
birds, of the huge water animals, of
the slug-like seals startlingly black
against the ice fields, it will all come
back to him in his dreams, and will
seem to him hardly more substantial,
so removed is it from the main stream
of his life. Ano then to play a fish a