The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-21
TRIP TO ICE FIELDS
DIR. FRIDTJoF NANsEN GUIDES ST.
PAUL PEOPLE THROUGH ARC
TIC SEAS.
LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
IS SHOWN IN MAGNIFICENT PHOTO
GRAPHIC REPRODUCTION BY
THE EXPLORER.
AURORA BOREALIs AND ICE
In Combination Present Some Thrill
ling Views to Tempt Lovers of
Picturesque North.

In Combination Present Some Thrill
ling Views to Tempt Lovers of
Picturesque North.
With DR.. F'ridtjof Nansen as guide
and an excellent one he made-6OO St.
Paul people took a trip yesterday at
ternoon. A trip to the far North. 1t
was visit to the country as far north
as ever man penetrated, and, although
it is to be regretted that the affair had
to be given in the afternoon with linn
tied attendance, those who were pres
emit enjoyed 1t not a whit less.
They sat in the comfortable seats in
the Peoples church, listened to the
Arctic explorers story, and looked at
pictures telling more forcibly than
words the terrors Of the land of snow,
ice and silence. DR.. Nansen is a
strange admixture of the character
istics usually found in man. When he,
in semi-humorous vein, told his listen
ers that he even now sometimes long
ed for the peace of the long winter
nights where there were neither adver-
tisements nor party strife, he forgot
for the moment that without the ad-
vertiser's aid he would not be lectur-
ing to thousands of people who fill the
big buildings to hear the story Of his
adventures.
When the people found their way into
the church, DR.. Nansen was seated on
one side of the platform and later was
introduced briefly by S. G. Smith, who
read a statement which had been writ
ten by st. Paul admirer of the tall
traveller. 1t was as follows:
For 1900 years the story of Alexander
has helped boys to become better men.
For 400 years the story Of Columbus has
inspired men with fortitude to dare and
patience to endure, and now, in our
own times, God has placed upon this
planet, once more, man whose story
for centuries to come will spur "on-
ward the growing youth in the pur-
suit of the good and true.
AS DR.. Nansen rose, he instantane-
ously impressed as a man of command
ing personality and indomitable will.
Considerably over six feet in height,
1.-the, slender, yet firmly knit, broad
shouldered, he presents all the physical
qualifications that indicate endurance.
He has blue eyes, light hair and we'll
modelled head with the sharp, clear-c
features that tradition gives the vikings
and the Morse sea kings, minus their
matted growth of beard. hansen has
an astonishingly good command of
English, and his voice is musical and
resonant. The adulation that has been
showered upon him has not affected
his naturalness and modesty, and this
naive trait was observable throughout
the lecture. His own daring role in
the expedition, after he left the Fran
and started with Johansen, was ever
consistently subordinate to that of his
companion, and his references to his
fellow voyagers and scientists were af-
fectionate, indicating the unity of in
tent among that band of daring men
who lived and labored three years drift
ing in the ice pack Of the silent north.
To say that the audience was in
itiated Into the mysteries of Arctic
geography would be to transgress the
bounds of truth. But as a spirit of
scientific inquiry was not, In all prob
ability, the sole reason of the presence
of most of the people in the audience,
it was fortunate that the lecturer
brought with him a really excellent
collection Of pictures, and a foreign
accent which lent a delightful air of
naivety to his discourse
The enormous auditorium was wrap
ped in darkness as the late arrivals
stumbled into their seats to find them
selves confronted with the brilliant re-
Election of a series of delicately- tinted
pictures Of the polar regions Out of
the depth of the sepulchral gloom came
the voice of Nansen himself, with a
perfectly clear though foreign enuncia-
ton.
When the speaker read passages
from his diary, full of sentimental long
ings for home and Christmas bells. the
audience responded, as in duty bound;
but when, with more unconscious art,
Nansen went on to describe his life
in hut ten feet by six, where he and
his faithful lieutenant lived during a
whole winters darkness, he was fire.
quently greeted by those ripples of
laughter which are a greater trsibute
to a speaker than the loudest burst of
applause.
For more than two hours the house
was held in spellbound attention, while
the explorer gave his simple and ht-
morouS account of a most romantic
| experience; and when the lights were
put out IN earnest it was hard to be-
consumed in the telling.
1t is only when one is brought face
to face with actual pictures and lis
tening to the voice of the man who
has really gone through these eXtraor-
binary experiences that it is possible
to realize what is meant by day that
lasts five whole months and a night
that is just as long. Existence under
such conditions seems almost impossi-
BILE, even when there are the advan-
tages of company and books, but it is
beyond comprehension when this long,
dreary night has to be passed by two
men cut off from all communication
with their fellow creatures with little
beside a book of logarithms to read
and only bears flesh to eat-boiled
bears flesh for breakfast, roast bears
flesh for luncheon, and, for variety's
sake, nothing for dinner.
Even to suggest the horrors of this
pilgrimage, which seem most humorous
in the telling, is extremely difficult, and
yet DR.. Nansen succeeded in convey
ing wonderfully vivid impression in a
short space of time. The adventure
with the bear. for instance which
might have ended most disastrously
for his lieutenant. had its humorous
side because the bear, after standing
over his victim for Soma tiroa uo G