The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1910-03-01
REACTION NUMBER TWO.

expressions, utterances and demon
STATIONS there usually comes reac-
ton and more conservative adjust
ment of opinions as to the causes
which call forth such interest and yo-
ciferous notoriety. But it is rare that
two come at all, and rarer that two
come so quickly.
In the matter of the alleged discoy-
cry of the north pole by both Cook
and Peary the public went wild over
Cook and denounced Peary with un-
measured bitterness. For a time Cook
basked in the sunshine and favor of
public confidence and filled his peck
cts with the easy money of enth 1sias-
tic partisans. Then when his alleged
proofs were declared insufficient by a
competent set of real scientists he
disappeared from view and favor and
Peary for little season was regarded
by many as a real discoverer and
hailed by a number as the finder of
the long undiscovered pole. He en-
joyed the notoriety for time. got
what easy money Cook had failed to
set, his club. associates dubbed him
the only genuine and gave him GER.
tidcate Of worthiness and a medal for
the hardshirs endured and the object
attained This ran It's course until
the senate Of the United States passed
bill to make Peary rear admiral
and Note him a pension Then the
country became bitter and the smoth-
cred wrath Of an outraged public
Lroke loose. When the bill came 10
the house it was more contemptously
pat aside than was Cooks evidence at
Copenhagen. It was brought out that
Peary was a fakir of the first water,
was never higher in rank than civil
engineer, had resigned from the navy
and had been surreptitiously slipped
back upon the payroll and that it
would be an outrage upon real sea-
men and real naval officers to ium0
him over the heads Of old and deserv-
ing men to save his face and his al
legged Geographical Society" from ex-
posure and greater humiliation. That
his name was not Peary but Perry,
hat his evidence" was if like kind
and character as that offered by Co k |
and seen by NOBODY save and except
ais club, and that his description of
The polar conditions and scenery was
Identical with that sub1litted by Coos
before Pea1y had written his own.
Knowing all this and rot wishing to.l
make hlln self ridiculous The naval
Of the hoase cf representa-
ives has asked for more evidence and
demanded that Peary's alleged
proof be submitted to 1.-THE pro-
Ter tribunal to investigate such claims
and that more publicity and less
be had in the whole tang
eg skein Of arctic affairs. This has
set off a dangerous train of powder
and it may lead to magazine which
will explode with most disastrous
to the rocking chair"
admirals who for personal reasons
are bound now to endorse Peary and
proclaim him a pole discoverer.
While all this does not mean that
Cook win be again taken into favor it
means that Peary has no more-if as
much-right to claim to be discov-
erer than Cook Both may have been
to the apex of the earth, and either
may have been within 200 miles OF
it, 1t only goes to show that reac-
lions always come when hysteria sub
sides, and that in Pearys case it will
be far more damaging to him and his
friends than Cook has suffered or is
likely to suffer from anything Peary
did, does or can do. The second re-
action came and the last state of the
man was worse than thefirst.