East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-10-01

The return of DR.. Frederick A
Cook from his victorious struggle for
the north pole to the faithful wife,
who had waited in patience, hope and
prayer all through the weary days,
when no word came to tell her of his
whereabouts; through those later
days of anguish, while vague rumors
whispered to her that he had per-
ished in the mysterious wastes of the
Arctic, and then through heart
breaking days of mourning, when no
argument seems convincing that it
was possible for him still to be alive
it is a modern romance of which
the present generation has seen but
few counterparts. 1t is the romance
of the wandering Ulysses and his
faithful Penelope retold.t
When as a barefoot country lad at
Callicoon, n. Y, young Cook had
watched the calm Delaware roll to-
ward the sea, little did he dream that
far down on the bank of the stream
there dwelt tiny girl who one day
would be the guiding light of his life.
She lived in Camden, and her name
was Marie Fidell-a name Angili-
cized from the French, 'fidele," mean
ing faithful. Like Cook, she came
from a stock proud, but poor. Like
him, she was ambitious.
She Was a Stenographer.
Miss Fidell studied stenography,
fr.
secretary to a Camden lawyer. Ad-
joining the lawyers office was that
of a surgeon, DR.. Willus Hunt, who
wooed and won her, and then in
year and a half died, leaving her a
daughter She moved to Brooklyn.
When Ruth was years old she
fell i'll in the night and physician
had to be called. DR.. Cook was near
est at hand. While attending the
little one he fell in love with the
mother and after the two years of
her mourning had passed she consent
ed to marry him.
The wedding took place on DR..
Cooks birthday, June 10, 1902, and !
he has always loved little Ruth Hunt
as though she were his own child, be-
cause it had been she who had |
brought him and his bride together. |
Then another little girl was given to |
the Cook home-Helen, who is now !
I.
Low upon the wall in the home of
the explorers wife his framed photo
graph had hung these two long years
past, and always her two little !
daughters have kissed it good night
before being tucked away in their
beds. Yet his own child has no rec
objection today of her long-absent
father.
Verify the name which the mother
of these little ones has borne has
yielded up the full abundance of its
magic. Surrendering not to despair
when word came that her husband
was lost in the frozen north, she va
Gated her comfortable quarters, sold
her private property, endured priva-
tions, and even pocketed her pride
to the extent of going from office to
office in Wall street to sell tickets
to the benefit which was to raise the ,
residue Of the fund necessary for the
relief expedition that now searches
the Arctic ice for the returned ex-
plorer. I
Heroes Conquer; Women Suffer.
It is the women left behind who ;
suffer while heroes conquer, and the y
physical tortures which Frederick g
Cook endured in the biting cold of his -
two years in the Arctic ice were no 7
more horrible than the mental an ,
guish Of the faithful wife who spent -
long, wakeful nights wondering and a
wondering after her little ones had +
kissed in the image him whom none
3f them could kiss in the flesh.
When at Copenhagen a few weeks
ago behind the most remarkable tab il
eau that the world has seen in many d
4 year-when a modern Rip Van b
Winkle, ragged and unshorn, was well h
,omed by a resplendent prince back a
% a world long lost, to give unto it y
perhaps a world newly found quite q
different drama was being enacted n
IN this side Of the deep The mod
.st wife Of him who was being hailed