The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-23
FUSS OVER DR.. COOK.
His Fellow Passengers on Ocean Voy-
age Nearly Come to Blows.

New York. Dec. 23.-Dr. Frederick
A. Cook came back to his native land
on the steamship George Washington
as calmly as if there had never been
North pole controversy. He said lit
tie. typewriter interview, handed
to reporters. embraced all that he had
to say. with the exception of the nee
essary formalitfes of conversation
thrust upon him by interviewers.
Of far more dramatic interest was a
heated controversy among the steam
ship passengers concerning the impress
sion he had made on them. The doc
tor asserted that he believed he was at
the pole. His statement in part fol-
lows:
81 have no statement to make other
than that which 1 carefully prepared.
Any interview I might give would nee
essarily be fragmentary and doubtless
misleading also, so I shall not now
give out any interviews and any pur-
porting to come from me will not be
authorized. I spent weeks carefully
preparing my story, and have frank
ly said in it all that there is to say.
Every charge against me is taken up
and answered in it's proper place in
my narrative.
"I do not know what my plans for
the future will be. I have not return ed
to America with the intention of max
ing money out of my Arctic expert
ences. Money did not prompt the writ
ing of my story as has been suggested
in certain newspapers. AS have said,
I have come back solely for the pur-
pose of rehabilitating myself and my
family by setting matters right with
my countrymen."
The argument among the George
Washington's passengers arose when
the doctors sympathizers aboard
wished it understood that he was re-
ceived with no shadow of discrfmina-
ton by the other passengers His enc
mics wished it made clear that he had
been Stunned The minute the report
ers who had gone down the harbor on
a revenue cutter, stepped into the sa-
sailed them. Persons who, in ordinary
circumstances. dodge publicity as they
would the plague, buttonholed the re-
porters in their eagerneSs to present
their case first.
Men elbowed one another trampled
on toes, shook their fingers in one an
others faces and shouted unqualified
contradictions at one another. Women
gave up pouring tea to stand on the
brocaded chairs and peer over the ring
| of men into the vortex of the discus
sion.
Cook was spared the embarrassment
of this hubbub. He met the reporters
at the ladder when they boarded the
ship, perfectly poised. 1t was the
same DR.. Cook, little less tanned and
! WOIH OuL Will Tic SdII10 lOCR VI nan
| hanging down over the forehead, the
same reticent half smile and the same
stubby moustache.
I'm half an hour, gentlemen, I will
| have a statement for you. Just make
yourselves at home in the ladies' sa-
LOOM" he said, and he led the way
! himself. He spoke few words here
and there to a friend, shook hands
and excused himself without trace OF
seli-consciousness.
While the dispute in the ladies' sa-
loon boiled, more temperate passen-
gers elsewhere found time to tel
without heat of the doctors trip. He
came aboard at Bremen, they said
wearing a full beard, but had it shaw
! ed off on the first day. His name die
not appear on the passenger list al
first, but later was placed as Herr DIR
Frederick A. Cook, on a supplements
list He was an transformations pas
senger, playing cards evenings with {
few friends. Once when the toast!
were going round before bedtime, ani
it came his turn to name health HI
was quick to propose the stars and
stripes.
! one time passenger. who had no
remarked him before. asked brusque
ly: "Are you DIR. Cook ?" he answered
my name is Cook"
'sAre you the DR.. Cook who went tt
the north pole?" persisted the ques
toner.
Il have been there asserted tn,
doctor, gravely.
The typewriter interview did no
satisfy the reporters They piled hin