The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-10-30

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treated shamefully by whippersnap-
per officer.
This was naval discipline. Collins
was "a literary feller" as Simon Cam
eron would have said. He might want
to write a book, and there was another
man who had the same bug in his
head. In short, Jerome Collins had
no statue aboard ship which his en-
ployer, Mr.. Bennett, had given for the
purpose of science. 49,.
That. ship was differed by a mart
met. The Jeanette expedition,
more thoroughly equipped than any
Arctic vessel that ever sailed from
an American port, failed. The jean
nette was sailed deliberately into an
Ice pack from which, under the best
conditions, there could not have been
hope of escape for five or six years.
She was not built as was the Roose-
welt, TO Withstand lateral pressure
OF 500 pounds to the square foot. She
finally collapsed, more than two hum
dred miles from the mainland. Then,
what happened is a very dark page in
the history of Polar search.
Struggling over ice hummocks, led
by the intrepid Melville, the surviv.
ors reached the Siberian coast near
the mouth of the Lena river. One
would have said that the strong ought
to have been put to the front. They
ought, at least, to have had chance
to survive. But no. That was not
naval discipline.
The man who had been appointed by
the secretary of war, in far away
United States, to fix the destinies ut
that little band of struggling men in
sisted that his authority was stin
paramount.
Melville saved himself and his COM
panions. He knew the Arctic. But the
others persisted miserably in the SHOWS
of Siberia.
A>OSAAAAAo "eAo CNCA LOuIN VI JcIOIlI
Collins diary or his meteorological o.
servations. Was that another part of
the service? The log of, The COM
mander was brought back.
John p. Jackson, sent by James
Gordon Bennett to the last death sta
ton, far beyond Yakoutsk. could have
told many things about that starva-
ton camp. at which able bodied, heal
thy men were condemned to sit down
and endure the terrible headaches
that precede death by starvation, be-
cause their commander on the sea,
but not their dictator upon land, had
ordered them to die.
Jerome Collins would have. survived
that terrible march to Yokoutsk tina. l
heard Melville describe after his re-
turn-seated in his cottage out on the
Wilmington railway ff0m philadelphia.
Why was Collins hot permitted to
go with Melville? Because he had
manuscript for the Herald that
would be published ahead of another
one and would destroy the fame Of q
man of brief authority
Therefore, Collins was command
ed" to remain behind and to die.
Jackson tald me the party that finally
reached that camp of dead men found
Collins sitting upright, whereas all
others were stretched prone.
He died for the naval system.
Do you wonder that a man vino
knows such facts is disinclined to put
himself into the power Of any naval
officer. who, in a desolate, lawless land.
has power of life and death in his
hands?
The editor of the Irish Standard
met Jerome Collins in Minneapolis a
short time before the Inflated Jean
nette sailed to the polar regions. He
was on brief visit to his mother
and brother, DR.. Collins, who then re
sided in this city. DR., Collins sub
sequently settled at West Superior
where he practiced his profession UNI
til his death about ten years ago.
Jerome Collins was a fine specimen
Of Irish manhood and in the prime
Of life. He had achieved fame as a
scientist. being the first to send
weather warnings across the Atlantic.
His specially was meteorology, and
he was selected by James Gordon
Bennett to accompany the expedition
In quest Of the pole. He wrote one
letter to the Herald after the expedi-
ton started. and that was all. His un-
timely death was loss to science
and also to Irish nationality. He was
native of Cork and most patriotic
1rishman. His remains were brought
to Ireland from Siberia and now re-
pose in churchyard outside the city
on the Lee.