New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-10-15

IN 1909 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB. BY Rob
ert z. Peary. With Introduction by
Theodore Roosevelt and foreword by
Gilbert II. Grosvenor. director and cd
Hor National Geographic Society. With
eight full-page illustrations. reproducing
Photographic engagements colored By
hand; 100 illustrations in black-and-
white from photographs: and with a
map in colors 10y Gilbert H Grosvenor
Large Svo. PIP xxi, 373. The Frederick
A Stokes Company.
y more positive, a more assertive word
than discovery" would have fitted far
better and more appropriately in the
title of Commander Peary's narrative
of his ultimate success. 1t was a con-
quest by storm. after siege of a quar-
ter of a century; a victory of brain as
we'll as of Drawn and endurance; above
all. a victory of the most intelligent
utilization Of the fruits of experience
Mr.. Peary himself describes his exploit
as a game Of chess with an antagonist
who must be expected to break all the
rules at any moment. and not the least
interesting part of this book is the
thoroughness with which he planned and
equipped his expedition for all breaches
of the rules that could possibly be fore
seen. The Frozen North played fair Cor
once from first TO last. 1t may recon-
Quer it's inaccessibility at the next at
tempt to plant another faG beside ours
on its icy battlement.
The last great geographical prize. the
elimination of four hundred years Of
heroism and sacrifice. We live in an
age of wonders. we pass so rapidly from
one achievement to another, that we
hardly have time 10 stop TO realize the
significance. the magnitude. of d single
one Of them. Perhaps we have taken
the pole too much as a matter Of course:
we must step back into the past to see
it in its real importance, and for this
purpose Mr.. GrosvenOr's history of the
siege beginning nearly four hundred
years ago. which precedes Mr.. Peary's
narrative. is suggestive and illuminative
Introductory reading. British, Dutch.
Scandinavians. French, Russians, Ital-
ians. Austrians and Americans have
striven for the trophy, starved for it
and laid down their lives. The road to
nameless graves. whose cenotaphs are
set in history by the side Of the names
OF men whom the victor allowed to es-
cape with their lives, among them
Parry the first TO see that the approach
must he made on foot, and not by ship.
In 1.-The North Pole" Commander
Peary bids a reluctant farewell to the
scene OF his lifewOTk. The task accom-
plished leaves him without an occupa-
,.xultation of achieveme mt The mood
will not last, but il is recorded here. and
not altogether involuntariy or uncon-
sciously II is part OF the price we pay
for high achievement:
The lure of the North. II is Il strange
and powerful thing. More than once /
have come back from the great frozen
.uures battered and worn and baftied,
Aomrtines manned, telling myself that
had made my last journey thithor, eager
Tor M. society OF my kind. the comforts of
civilization and the peace ana serenity ct
home Eut somehow IL was never many
months before the old restless feeling came
over me civilization began 10 lose its zest
for me. | began to long for the great white
d.solation the battles with the ice and the
gales. me long. iong Arctic night, the long.
long Arctic day. the handful OF odd but
faithful Esquimaus who had been my
friends for wears the silence and the vast
ness of the great. white. lonely North.
And mack went accordingly. time after
time until AT last my dream OF years came
true
ono wonders If success has slenced
he call and weakened its lure. The
retrospective note, stretching back
.Ysrter of century. - highly in
etyuctive. however. especially in the
earlier chapters, before tho narrative Of
the Anal dash. with its hsrdShps and
,r,.eI demands upon the mind and the