The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-10
DR.. COOK A MYSTERY.
The Explorers Personal Lawyer With
draws From the Service.

New York, Dec 10.-Dr. Frederick A.
Cooks personal lawyer. Henry yelling
ton Wack, has severed relations with
his client Mr.. Wack refused to con-
firm or deny his withdrawal, but it can
be affirmed on competent authority that
Mr. Wack wrote DR.. Cook so long ago
as November 30 that he must seek legal
advice elsewhere.
II have not the remotest idea said
Mr.. Wack. where DIR. Cook is keeping
himself or why he persists in seclusion
when his presence is vital to his own
interests and his friends. I read that
he is in Brooklyn, in a sanitarium in
Maine, in a Philadelphia asylum, but
personally I incline to the belief that
he is abroad.
.'One thing. however. is certain--there
is an agreement for the first time
among those who have always believed
that DR.. Cook discovered the North
Pole, those who have never believed
and those VINO have waited to be in
formed on disinterested authority. Par
tisans and skeptics alike now conceda
certain cardinal facts which admit of
no argument, namely
DIR. Cook has sent his records to the
University of Copenhagen for the in
spection OF commission Two men
one broker who says he acted as 60
between and one skilled navigator
have sworn that they supplied the doc
tor with q complete set of false Obser-
vat:ons covering his trip northward
step by step to the pole in agreement
with his narrative as originally pub
iished. These sworn statements carry
within themselves their own proof or
disproof.
THAT is to say, if the papers now in
the hands of the University of Copen-
hagen contain any considerable portion
of the BOreaI observations, which Capt
August Loose says he worked out by
the reverse route no further north than
the Gramatar Inn. in Bronxvilic, N. Y,
the deduction is that Cock felt no con-
fidence in the adequacy of his own
proofs.
IF, on the other hand. the Copenha-
gen records show DR.. Cook made 10
evident use of the calculations Captain
Loose saws he supplied. it will be fair
to assume that he accepted them only
as checks on his own data The in
curry will then revert to its first status:
Are the original observations of DR..
Cook sufficient"
Refuses to Talk.
Asked fatty if lie had or had not with
drawn from DR.. Cooks affairs, Mr..
Wack said:
nouncement. 1t might be thought /
had deserted Doctor Cook in his need.
He may be delirious in a sanitarium
or on the ocean unable to defend him
self.
A close friend of Mr.. Wack reiter-
ated, however, that Mr.. Wack had
long ago decided to close dealings
with a client who did not keep his
counsel informed of his intentions or
movements. To this phase of the sit
uation Mr.. Wack made this contribu-
ton:
Doctor Cook" he said, has disap-
peared of his own volition and not by
the suasion of his friends. 1 last
heard from him by telephone on Tues
day, November %. I had seen him
personally two days before.
Last night Doctor Cooks friend,
Charles Wake, confessed to me that
he had not the faintest idea where
the doctor now is and that he had not
heard from him since Tuesday, No
vember %.
my very urgent letters to the doc
tor have remained unanswered, al
though they demanded q reply from
any man solicitous of his own af-
fairs"
Mr.. Wack, however. did receive a
letter from Mrs. Cook on December 6,
dated December and posted De-
cember in Brooklyn, asking him to
discontinue all expenses on the doc
tors account and to forward certain
papers which Mr.. Wack understood to
be affidavits bearing on the DOCTOR
disputed ascent of Mount Mckinley.
These affidavits the doctor had origin
ally intended to take with him to
Europe, where they could be available
for the University of Copenhagen if
desired.
Others of Doctor Cooks friends
granted that Captain Loose consulted
freely with him and even occupied
rooms adjoining his in the Gramatan
inn. Whether this propinquity served
as an opportunity for cooperation
merely or for collision is a point on
which not even Captain Loose cared
to pronounce positively.