The gold leaf., 1909-09-23
How Peary Befriended Cook.
Times-Disaatch

| Richmond Timas-Dis2atch
No one could mar the naval COM
ma,nIer'S splendid triumph except
himself, and he has done it. He fol-
lows the QUEEN with an excess of pro-
te, tntinn. In view of previous tele-
grams, the goll-brick remark was
quite suptrhuous Not even Mr..
Roosevelt in his busiest moments
thought it necessary to call the same
mau a liar every morning.
Pending those proofs which each
man promises, the world will turn in
stinctively TO scrutiny OF their two
narratives. The confident prediction
that a comparison would be all that
was needed to damn poor Cook at
once cnllapses miserably. If Peary
were Cooks foremost champion, in
stead of his readiest detractor, he
could hardly have succeeded in put
ting the latter's story in more ia
vorable light. To Cooks ''impossi-
BILE" speed, easily doubled in places
by Peary, We referred yesterday
Cooks vaguenpss in describing the
pole itself, which again ''proved" him
an impostor, is if anything surpassed
and outdone by the vagueness of
Pearg. Cooks statement that the
pole was in II great ice-field, and not
on land, appears To be warmly in
dorsed 10y his denouncer. Only the
other day a discriminating English
paper proved that Cook was faker
because he did not report a giant
whirlwind at the pole, while Shack1e-
| ton (of whom Cook knew nothing)
reported giant whirlwind at the
South Pole This esteemed contem-
porary must now eat it's own words
or apply the same language to Peary.
Cooks details of the march, the
smooth ice, the open water, the big
game and the like, are repeated by
Peary rs though both men conned
them from the same lessOn-book,
which they doubtless did And as to
| Cooks terrific cold, the two men were
n year apart, and we have the word
of Professor Willis L. Moore that a
temperature Of minus 1O7 degrees
Fahrenheit GA degrees under Cooks
minimum) is a fact of authoritative
record. Cook was crucified for taking
onl Y two EskimOs, and no white man,
with him to the final goal. Peary
took four EskimOs and Matt Han
son, his negro attendant Whose
witnesses deserve the greater cred
encp? Let the geographical societies
| give answer
Peary held the situation in the hol-
low of his hand. He has elected TO
kick it into the arena for miserable
sqnabble. The sentiment of the
world was drifting strongly against
his rival, and he himself was the vic
torious cavalier without reproach
There WAS no conceivable way in
which he could better his position by
able way in which lie could injure it,
and he has blundered on that. If
Cook is an impostor he needs only
enough rope and he will inevitably
hang himself Now the tide against
him has turned quite the other way,
and Peary's was the hand that did
it. No one doubts that Peary found
the pole, but his other sensational
messages out of the North have been
greeted in quite a different spirit. In
stead of discrediting his rival, these,
together with the internal confirma-
ton his own narrative gives, have in
trenched him more strongly than
ever. The haste and ill-nature dis
played in the commanders series of
liartelegramsh have made friends and
champions by the thousands for the
man he SO intenperately undertook
to unmask and ruin.