The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-27
WHY NANSEN QUITS.
Explorer Claims His Managers Were
Not Keeping Their Contract.

NEW YORK, Jan. 27.-The Sun gives
some interesting facts regarding Nam
sens sudden change Of plans and his
determination to return to Norway,
leaving his course Of lectures in Ameri-
ca unfinished. The Sun says:
The dispute with his managers grew not
directly out of his original contract with
them, although 1t is understood that they
the terms of which the principals differ. It
is set forth that Dr.. hansen entered into
agreement with his managers at his home in
Norway on Dec. 80, 1896, to deliver in this
country and Canada fifty lectures, he to have
90 per cent Of the gross receipts of each
lecture, to be paid Immediately after the lee
share should be in no instance less than f100,
or about $500 a lecture. There was q clause
providing for renewal of the contract for
hfty lectures more. The start in this country
was so favorable that the renewal provided
Tor was agreed to at an early date, and all
went well until the audiences began to fall
OF. AT the first lecture in Brooklyn the
Norwegian colony Of this section furnished
large percentage of the attendance. At the
second lecture there, however, the house was
not full and the lecturers fellow countrymen
were not markedly in evidence. The doctor
went as for West st. Paul. and there 1t
was expected that the Scandinavians would
turn out in large numbers to greet him,
but the Doctors secretary, Mr.: Chaplain, IS
authority for the statement that there, as
at the second lecture in Brooklyn, he auditors
were not so many as it had been supposed
they would be.
DR.. Nansen has up to date delivered seven
teen Of the second fifty lectures, or sixty
seven lectures in all. Really it should be said
that he has given siXtyseven repettions of
the same lecture. In this point lies, perhaps,
one cause Of the falling off of interest in
his appearances. His agents have in some
instances gone to newspaper offices and COM
planned that DR.. hansen thought that he
did not receive much space" in the news
columns as he should receive; that the papers
did not publish his lectures fully as he
felt himself justified in believing that they
would. A reminder that papers publishing
news, telegraph and local, could not be ex-
pected to print the same lecture twice, was
without effect.
When it came to the making of payments
to the doctor on his second series of lectures
dispute arose as to the f100 guarantee. AS
long as he drew So, 900 or $4,000 houses or
better this question did not come up, but
when the receipts fell off it did. DR.. hansen
claimed his guarantee under the continuance
of the original agreement 1t was said in
his behalf yesterday that his managers held
that under the renewal he was to receive
only the 55 per cent of the gross receipts,
asserting that there was no agreement to
pay the guarantee after the first fifty lee
lures; and it is added that when he was not
paid as he thought he ought to be he cut
loose from the managers, and, refusing to
deliver any more lectures under their direc-
ton. took the train for New York, with the
intention of sailing for home as prac-
ticable.
It is said in some Norwegian circles that
Narsen has found some fault with the hotels
ing to the contract the managers paid all
the expenses of himself and his secretary and
valet-ard that he has been made the object
of some Yankee guying, jollying or roasting
By them or at their instance. His secretary
Mr.. Chaplain, denied that the managers had
put the doctor in any hotels that were not
of high enough class to be satisfactory, al
though he said that perhaps the most fashion
able had not been selected.
In the suit which Hathaway and Heard
have brought in the supreme court, and in
which the attachment was issued, the plant
IFS say that the agreement with hansen pro-
yided that if he failed to perform his part of
the contract he should pay $4,000 liquidated
damages. They say that on JAM. 10 he re-
fused TO deliver another lecture on the terms
of the contract. The attachment was OBJ
tanned on the ground that Dr. Nansen is
resident of Lysaker. a suburb of Chrlstiania,
Norway. s.,
DR.. Nansen can hardly depart from the
United States broken hearted, or purse-broken
either, for, as the proceeds Of his first fifty
lectures. he must have received S25, coo. even
If he got only his guarantee for each lecture.
For the first Brooklyn lecture and those in
this city, at least he received. of course
very much more than the guarantee