The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-12-01
ubRsCOOK DOUBTS
OWN POLE STORY
Admits He May Have Made
Mistake.
WAS HALF MAD AT TINE

IN Magazine Article Brooklyn tx
plorer Describes Privstions En-.
dured While Seeking Top of Earth
~, and Effect on Mental Faculties.
Il. Wants to Regain Confidence Of
4, American People--Has Never Worn
Disguise Since His Disappearance.
New York, Dec. 1.-Dr. Frederick
A. Cook has confessed. This an
nouncement was made by Benjamin
Hampton, editor of the magazine
that paid $4,000 for Commander
Peary's story of his trip to the north
!. pole.
In his Gown story" the first install
ment OF which will appear in the
January number of the magazine, DIR.
Cook frankly admits that he does not
know whether he reached the north
pole. In the opening article, dealing
. particularly with the psychology of
bis adventure the man who has been
alternately lauded as the greatest ex-
plorer and denounced as the most
colossal fakir of the age, declares:
did l get TO the north pole? Per
haps ! made a mistake in thinking ]
did. Perhaps l did not make mis-
take. After mature thought | con
fess that l do not know absolutely
whether l reached the pole. This
may come as an amazing statement,
but I am willing to startle the world
81 by 80 doing l can get an opportu-
nifty to present my case. By my case
mean not my case as a geograph-
ical discoverer. but my case as a
man. Much as the attainment of the
north pole once meant to me. the
sympathy and confidence of my fell
low men mean more.
Fully. freely and frankly, | shall
tell everything leave the de-
clsion with you. If, after reading my
story, you say Cook is sincere and
honest; half-cra2ed by months Of iso-
lation and hunger, he believed that
he reached the pole, he is not a
fakir'-then l shall be satisfied"
DIR. Cook tells his life story and
pictures the overpowering ambition
for exploration that beset him until
finally 1t eliminated In his effort to
reach the pole. He declares that at
the time he convinced himself that
he had discovered the pole he was
half mad. He spent two and one-half
years in his quest and during that
period endured hunger and privation
that, he says, would unbalance any
mind.
Cook declares that II would be i'm
possible for any man to demonstrate
that he had been to the pole. He
characterizes the far north as a reign
OF insanity, where one can not be-
lieve the evidences gathered by ones
own eyes"
He says that he had always looked
upon the discovery of the pole as an
achievement for his own personal
satisfaction-for the satisfaction Of a
craving an6 desire that was greater
than any other factor in his life
When he found how tremendous a
attained the pole created he was
overcome with bewilderment.
One of the most remarkable facts
brought out by his story is that in
all the time he has been away, with
the shrevdest newspaper men in the
world on his trail, with newspapers
offering sums that ranged into the
thousands for the slightest definite
news OF his whereabouts, he has
never worn a Disguise and has never
taken any unusual precautions to
conceal his identity.
Part OF the time his wife has been
with him and part OF the time his
children, too. The children are now
IN retreat in France and DR.. Cook
and his wife are in Europe. Most Of
the time during his exile he has been
In London. He has gone about
among Americans there with the ut
most freedom and at times under his
own name. Only few guessed his
identity.