The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-26
GOING TO THE NORTH POLE
s'Becky Sharp Talks With Explorer
Dyche About 1t.
WHY CAN'T 4 WOMAN GO?

Mr.. Dyche Docs Not Take Kindly to
the Idea. When Pressed Upon Him
Something About Mrs. Dyche.
Sand SO you think you would like to
go to the north pole, Ell?
swell. you are only one of about 200
who think the same thing"
prof. Dyche drops his rs in some
places and puts them in in others, proba-
bly, because he was born in West Vir-
ginia).
nor at least I've had that many
applications, all told. think" said Prof.
Lewis Lindsay Dyche, at his home Mon
day afternoon, as he leaned back in his
tip-tilted chair and looked at me quiZzi-
cally, from under a mop of heavy hair,
| which, though still thick, has been cut at
least once since his return from the
abode of the Arctic Highlander.
AS Mr.. Dyche talks to me, q hope he'll
excuse me for calling him Mr., like the
term better than professor), / sit on one
side and he on the other. of the immense
polar bear skin which almost covers the
sitting room.
| The three months old baby, Lewis
Lindsay Dyche, Jr., lies On the soft rug
and coos to his own fingers. The little
| daughter Ruth, two auU half years old,
climbs down from off my lap to 60 and
keep baby company. Walter, the oldest
child, a bright boy of four, stands near
and listens to his father talk. or goes
back and forth, with the avowed lauda-
bic ambition of helping mother, one
member of the Dyche family who disa-
VOWS any interest in the north pole.
As l sat in the sitting room an hour or
more waiting for MIR. Dyche, explained
to her that / really would like to go to
! the north pole, or at least to the arctic
to reach that point, not only because of
| an inherent love of exciting adven-
ture, but in my capacity as newspaper
woman.
Mrs. Dyche is a dear little home body,
with the most domestic tastes imagin-
able. Very evidently the baby on her
knee and the two children playing
around her, both most deeply Interested
| in all mother says, form circle more in
terestino to her mother heart than any
undiscovered meridian.
| Mrs. Dyche has a pleasant, kindly
| face. framed by tendrils of dark hair,
which is coiled plainly at the back. Her
blue eyes are most expressive.
| She has a sweet mouth, the corners of
which witch nervously and her eyes fill
with tears as she says, 81 don't like to
talk about the north pole. 1t makes me
a widow and my children fatherless.
WHY should II" l had been thong htless
before, but Immediately in my minds
eve l went back a few months, and could
imagine Mrs. Dyche waiting in breath
less suspense day after day, hoping, yet
fearing news of her husband. The hus-
| bands own reference in his lecture to
his eager watching for a letter from
home, paled into insignificance beside
her anxiety, and 1 could readily under
stand why she would rather the north
pole would remain undiscovered whllei
it is her only rival in her husbands re-
gard, and she feels it dangerous and
attractive one. Other people have
been led TO believe with Mrs. Dyche
that the pole is attractive. il
seems especially so to her hus
band, and she naturally is
fearful of the dangers he has already en-
countered in looking for the interesting
article.
Every wife will sympathze with Mrs
Dyche in her wish that her husband
might remain ITO fortune and to fame
unknown" rather than rest his feet "upoE
the top of earth," supposed to be founc
in the middle of the Arctic ocean.
Mrs. Dyche and l talked of Other
| things while we waited for her husband
the baby's teeth, the beautiful Gala lily
in the window, the weather, in fact any
| thing rather than her husbands skill al
a hunter and desire for adventure which
| taxes lI1 IEOKl HIS db LluI6S.
Later in the evening when he told mi
that husbands were chosen by the Arctic
Highland women according to their skill
as hunters, knew Mrs. Dyche woulC
not.share in that sentiment.
But Mrs. Dyche is proud of her clever
famous husband, if she hasn't heard hi
Greenland lectures.
That Mr.. Dyche himself is man will
domestic tastes is plain by the cage
school boy manner with which he bound
in and begins to make his excuses 70
being late.
"I'm always late, though" he say
rather alphabetically as he shakes hand
with me, disclaiming the suggestion tina
he has forgotten me, though never me
him but once before.
80, know; Miss Sharp. You are tn
young woman who is being guyed abou
going to the north pole on my next arcti
expedition"
tsDo you know l call this the guyin,
age? Everything is made an opportunit
for US to guy each other.
Nov, tho you never said anythin
about it to me, Pm constantly asked
when are you and Becky Sharp going t
start to the north pole?'
II always say, not this week, anyway
or something like that"