The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-04-07
LONDON BEST
PLACE TO HIDE
LOOK Tells the Story OF His Wan,
behring's for Thirteen
Months.

DR.. Cook, in his article in Hamp-
tons Magazine for April, tells of his
~anderings over the world in the
thirteen months during which his
whereabouts were unknown. Some
six months after leaving New York,
che doctor and his wife were IN
Beunos Ayres. He writes:
Mrs. Cook and had agreed on
trip up the Pacana river. At Monte
vldeo We received a number of let
tiers and newspaper clippings which
had been forwarded by relatives.
These caused us to change our plans.
One letter was from Mrs. Cooks sis
ter. 1t was about our children. They
had been placed in a private school
"nere, so the letter ran, reporters
were annoying outrageously not only
them but also the school authorities.
In all the world there is nothing
love so much as my children; the
thought of them is the tenderest spot
in my heart. Perhaps a parent who
mas seen loved little one abused
may realize the unutterable woe that
grlpped my heart when ! read that
letter. Nothing that had happened
to me, no slur or implied enormity,
had affected me so much as this.
Mrs. Cook prepared at once to
return to New York, where she
would get the children quietly and
take them to Europe. At Montevideo,
where she sailed, l received among
my mail copies of the New York pa
pers containing accounts of my
flight, the Dunkle and Loose expose
and the Copenhagen verdict. Until
| opened these pages my widest i'm
aginings had pictured nothing so ut
terly shameful as this. l stared at
the awful black headlines in a trance
of unbelief and horror. A man
reading his death warrant, and feel
ing life slipping from him, might
experience something of what 1 did
then.
81 boarded steamer bound for
the Mediterranean. My intention
was to go to Italy-where I never
arrived. We were approaching the
Canary Islands. I got my luggage
together and landed there.
In few hours another steamer
arrived. This I boarded. No one
recognized me on the voyage. l was
left alone with my inconsistencies and
the unhappy company of my
thoughts. Some time early in April
| landed at Plymouth and thence
went to London. 1t occurred to me
as l walked the streets the first
night of my arrival that seclusion in
the English metropolis was more Sc
cure than in a desert. Who would
search for me out here?
1T is singular thing how utterly
alone man can be among a cheer
full boisterous crowd of human be-
ings.
with the exception of a beard
which l had grown, never wore any
disguise.
"For a while I lived at the Cecil,
where many Americans usually stop.
One evening while in the lobby en-
gagged in conversation with a pleas
ant fellow who told me he was a
newspaper man on one of the Lon
don dailies. We exchanged names
and in the days that followed became
very friendly. often wondered how
l might amaze him if told him who
was. On the lookout for news,
here was one story that escaped
him.
my life was aimless and futile.
Since leaving New York l had not
laid pen to paper. I read little. Day
by day l sat Notwithstanding until
1t seemed my brain must exhaust it.
self repeating the rigmarole of un-
happy, unsatisfactory thoughts. The
verdict of the world regarding ME
became each day, more uncomfortable,
and, although my case seemed hope
less, the old questions required in
sistently. What can I do? Can 1
explain? Will people believe me?
During the entire summer this
wrought upon my mind, and while it
made my life more uncomfortable, it
gave birth to new courage. l want
ed the people of my country to be-
lieve in my honesty; l wanted to be
able to go home, to take my children
home. think it is chiefly because
of them that I have resolved to
state my case, whatever the result
may be. and to face my countrymen.
With my two little girls, Mrs. Cook
arrived in London early in. June.
1910.
During the summer of 1910. with
our children, we travelled through
Holland, Germany and Switzerland.
We stopped at Oberammergau and