The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-06
HOUSE IS S. PACKED
Immense Audience Turns Out
TO Herr Cook
When He Delivers His Pole Lee
ture at Pittsburg.
LETTER MADE PUBLIC
Which He Wrote to Another
Explorer ON May %.
Complained OF UnfairTreatment
by Commander Peary.

Pittsburg, Pa, Oct. 6.-Facing an
audience which packed Du Quesne
gardens from pit to dome, Dr. FRED
erick A. Cook, the Brooklyn arctic ex-
plorer, last night talked from notes
concerning his trip to the North Pole'
and commented on his reception IN
Pittsburg, which declared rivaled In
warmth any previous event OF the
kind. DR.. Cook was very hoarse WINE
delivering his lecture.
During the evening the Brooklyn
physician refused to see newspaper
men or talk concerning his intentions
toward proving his claims to having
visited the North Pole.
1t was reported that DR.. Cook ana
Harry Whitney, the Connecticut sports
man, would meet here for a CONFER
ence, but the rumor could not pc
verified.
Back From Northwest Passage.
Quebec, Oct. 6.-Captain Bernier
with the steamer Arctic has arrived
here from a cruise in the Arctic re-
gionS.
Captain Bernier said the Northwest
Passage had been navigated. FIRST
Mate Green, in May of this year, with
a party of six selected men, drove over
the ice westward, but before returning
to Etah suffered terrible hardsh1ps:
Their dogs all had to be killed for food
and the men arrived at the winter
and in the last stage of exhaustion.
Gives Out a Cook Letter.
ottawa, Ont, Oct. 6.-Captain Bernier
of the Canadian steamer Arctic mas
made public letter written TO MN al Dy
DR.. Frederick A. Cook, on May g. and
delivered to Captain Bernier on Sep
TENDER /, at Upernavik, Greenland.
The letter opens:
MY Dear Captain: 1 have to write
you the first letter after having been
sealed behind ice barriers for two years
1t was your supplies, so kindly left IN
charge Of Mr.. Whitney which aided me
greatly in getting to UpernaV1k. All
NV other property, had been taken by
Peary under the guise of a relief sta
ton for DIR. Cook Murphy, the man In
charge of the station. however, was in
structed not to engage In any relief eff
forts; not to allow Eskimos to cross III
search until March of the year 1909
MY large store of supplies and my
station was used for barter with ma
tives to satisfy Peary's commercial
greed.
out our problem without relief efforts
except as you offered. We have pushed
into the boreaI center and picked up
the polar prize, but the effort was dan
gerous beyond conception.
THE splendid assistance which you
have given and the nberality of the
Canadian government in sending the
ship is a happy contrast to the hin
drance and injustice of one of my own
countrymen."
Captain Is Noncommitta1.
Montreal, Oct. Captain Bernier
has q letter which he received from
DR.. Cook, dated Upernavik. May %,
in which the latter says Peary sold
his supplies, but that, with the aid of
the provisions brought by Bernier, he
was able to work to his problem"
The letter says:
I'VE have pushed into the barest
center and have picked the polar
prize, but the effort was dangerous
beyond all conception"
A special from Quebec to the Her
old says Captain Bernier was asked
today if he thought either Cook or
Peary had reached the Pole. The cap
tain answered:
1T would not admit that either has
been to the pole before have had
sufficient proof. Both men are very
persistent"
The captain did not want to say
any more, because, as he said, he
expected to be a witness in the Cook
Peary controversy.