The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
from the Louisville courier-Journal.

K1NN AT HENSON'S first lecture, in IVh which he was to have told Peary's story for the first time, was not an unqualified success. It was not lacking in features of amusement, however, for the $50 or more persons who bought tickets to the Hippodrome in New York. In the advertisements of the event that appeared in the New York papers it swer all questions. majority of those who attended seemed determined that the lecturer should make good on that part of the performance The questions began before Mat had fairly entered upon his narrative of the accomplishments of "me and Peary." They kept up at such rate that the lecture was lost in the fog and after some 55 minutes of animated dialogue the lights were turned out.
 'The nights entertainment" says one of the New York papers, "closed with a great burst of questions" It is unfor- tunate that the questioners were so in- sistent as otherwise 1t might have closed with burst of oratory and Mat Henson's elaborated opinion of that fellow Cook" would not have been lost to the world Unless Mat lectures at some other place, where audiences are not so inclined to hacking, no one ever will know exactly what it was he proposed to say when he ascended the platform. He barely had time to remark that he was new to the lecture business and would have to use notes, when the verbal fireworks began Before he had fully answered one ques- ton half a dozen more were propounded and the doughty African hero of the ice fields, to use the New York vernacular, was "blinking" Therefore he didn't need to make any reference to his notes.
 In only one instance did he refer to Dr. Cook in a manner entirely worthy of the great commanders intelligent understudy. Asked at one point in the fusilade of interrogation why he knew Cook did not reach the pole Henson answered.
 "Well. we knew that he had sneaked up north ahead of us and we knew that he had said he had climbed Mt. Mckinley when he hadn't. We knew that if he bluffed one time he would bluff another"
 That is statement illuminatingly il- illustrative of the views of Henson and Peary." Cook "sneaked up north" where he had no business without permit from Commander Peary-and, what is still worse. he was "ahead of us" In other words, north pole exploration is the ex- elusive privilege of a close corporation made up of we, us and company, other wise "Henson and Peary."
 It is regrettable that Mat was not al- lowed to pursue the even tenor of his lec- ture. It would have been richly worth hearing and those misguided persons who interrupted his discourse by their unseem- ly quest for information not only lost for themselves an intellectual treat, but de- prived the people of the country of some mighty interesting reading. At any rate we know why Mat knew that Cook didn't reach the pole and no one can doubt that Mat reflects the opinions of Commander Peary. Mat, to be sure, is somewhat lack ing in the broad, blunt and bludgeon- like style of his associate in the polar trust. His diction is rather more sub dued, but that possibly may be due to the fact that he has received more or less gentle hint from the great commander that the servant must not get above his master.
 It might have been said in stronger language if the commander had vocifer- ated 1t himself but Mat Henson has grasped the essential pitch of Peary logic