Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-29

VI all tu6 SAplOTeTS Ol tuc dltliS Commander Robert E. Peary has been the most consistent, persistent, and systematic, and thereby has won the universal sympathy of the people of the United States, as well as of other countries, and as he announces his plans and prepares for another ad- vance upon the elusive pole which lies 174 miles beyond the far northern most point he has been able to reach yet, 1t finds the public interest even keener than ever. To some degree this may be due to the other expedi- tions which have started out or are about to start out in quest of the north pole, notably, of course, the Wellman balloon venture, and the question is being asked: "ls the prize to be stolen right from under the nose of the intrepid Peary, after he has tried so bravely four times to gain 1t for himself and while he is oc- cupied with his fifth expedition?' For an answer we must wait develop ments, one year, two years, perhaps more.
 But one discovery which Peary made on his last expedition gives en- couragement for the belief that sue cess will crown his last venture, and that was the finding of the course of drift in the arctic basin. Peary un- questionably is the best equipped man who ever sought the pole. He was bitterly disappointed, indeed, in not having success crown his efforts on his fourth trip. That he went further than man ever went before; that he had to turn back at time when 1t seemed that the great triumph was so near. is not enough. Out of that fall ure he believes he discovered the road to victory.
 He does not predict success. He is not of that kind. He knows better than perhaps any other man the tre- mendous odds that must be overcome, but he banks on the experience he has gained, and If good fortune attends him there is a chance, just a chance, that he will bring back to America a story that will thrill the world and put his name in letters big on his tory's page.
 Few persons realize how minutely Commander Peary looks after the smallest details of the equipment for the sledge journey that marks the final advance across the ice of the Polar basin. From the time he put the Roosevelt against the ice foot on the north coast of Grant land in Sep tember, 1905, until he made the actual start across the Ice in February. 1906. there was not a waking moment of all the days in that interval that he was not studying the problem and working 1t out at the same time of just how little he could take across the ice on the sledges of his several parties and sustain their lives and those of the necessary dogs.
 He knew the stern necessity of get ting the outfit down to the smallest compass and the lightest possible weight. A matter of few pounds on the sleds would make all the differ ence in the world at the crucial mo- ment. It might swing the balance between success and failure. life and death. And 1t was to eliminate just such an over-hurden that he worked for so long. How vital this matter of weight Is he shows in his story of the escape across the open lead that stretched It's Styx-like width of black water between his party and the solid ice beyond on their enforced retreat from their furthest north last spring.
 One of his Eskimos discovered that a thin coating of ice had formed across this expanse of water that he believed would support the party. It was that or death, in all probability. and SO Peary resolved to try it. With their eyes fixed on the ice before them, ice SO thin that 1t swayed with their weight as they advanced across 1t, they moved their snowshoes steadi- ly forward. not knowing when the next step might be their last. as 1t surely would have been If anyone had gone through into the water beneath When Peary finally reached the solid ice to the southward he echoed the