The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-11

May Il, 1JuJ.
How the Wife Heard the News.
NEW YORK, Sept. 1.-The follow
ing dispatch was the first notification
received in the United States of the
discovery of the North Pole. It was
received at $50 O'Clock this morning
by Mrs. DR.. Robert Tier Davidson of
No. 693 Bushwick avenue, Brooklyn,
to whom, by an agreement received
before DR.. Cook departed on his voy-
age, he was to send dispatches in
tended for his wife:
"LERWfCK, Sept. Mrs. Fred
rick A. Cook, No. 693 Bushwick avenue.
Brooklyn, n. Y: Successful and well.
Wire address to Copenhagen.
"FRED.,'
Mrs. Cook at the time of her hus
bands departure, two years ago, lived
at No. go Bushwick Sl1enue, Brook
lyn. She moved from there about a
year ago to smaller quarters. At pres
ent she is living with her two daugh-
tiers, Ruth and Helen, at South Hart
well, Me-, an island in Caseo Bay,
twenty-five miles from Portland
Mrs. Davidson, as soon as she re-
St1NNo thC HiC0odSC AlOHl LIE stOUhs
repeated it by telegraph to Mrs. Cook
Mrs. Cook by mail.
Mrs. Cook heard from her husband
last about year ago, through a mem
Der of the Peary relief expedition. AL
though she was anxious concerning
DR.. Cook S whereabouts, she never lost
confidence in him, and before starting
for Maine in June. told Mrs David
son that she felt she would soon hear
that he had been successful.
"My husband never believed in SEN
sationalism, Mrs. Cook said of him,
in an interview before she left the
city for the summer, "and his feeling
against Peary was pronounced. He saw
Peary's work in Greenland and didr t
like the way he treated the natives.
'EWhen he had a chance to come
home, DR.. Cook refused to do so. In
stead of returning with Peary, he de-
termined to make solitary effort to
gain the pole.
''He walked three days to get to
place from which he could send a let
ter to me. In the letter, which he
asked me to keep secret, Because he
did not believe in sensationalism. he
told me ne would reach the North Pole
or die in the attempt
''He said that one man, with deter
mination and the genuine love and re-
gard for natives. could do more than
whole expeditions.
''That was the last I heard of him.
But I knew if I did not get news of
his success, / would hear from him. -
Mrs. Cook IS youngest daughter
doesn t remember ever having seen her
father. On the wall of the Brooklyn
fat, in which Mrs. Cook lived with
the child last year, she hung, low on
the wall, photograph of her husband,
and it was one of the bedtime rites of
the children to kiss the picture.
do it, explained Mrs. Cook at
that time, "because I know positively
that my husband will succeed It may
take him a year, but l don t want the
children to forget him.
Mrs. Cook during the absence of her
husband, sold the family residence in
Brooklyn, and made many other sac.
rifiees to keep her family together
Her worries during the last few months
have been great.
''Some of the money 7 invested /
lost, - said Mrs. Cook, "but my hus-
band is making sacrifices, I know, and
l m going to do all | can to keep a
little home ready for him when he
gets back.
III feeling between the Cook and
Peary supporters in the United States
has existed ever since Cook announced
his determination to seek the pole alone.