The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1912-01-09
How DR.. Cook Got There.
Charlotte Observer.

title of DR.. Frederick A. Cooks final
authoritative narrative of his discov-
cry of the North Pole and it is most
engaging volume, and written with all
the spirit of the man who has accom-
plished the highest ambition of his
life.
81 stood alone and apart from my
two Eskimo companions, simmer
ing waste of purple ice on every side;
alone in a dead world-a world of
angry winds, eternal cold and desola-
ton for hundreds of miles in every
| direction as the planet was before
man was made. Over and
over again I repeated to myself that
I had reached the North Pole and the
thought thrilled through my nerves
and veins like the shivering sound Of
der that the prophet feels in his Wis
ion, with which the poet thrills in his
dream. The shifting mirages
seemed like the ghosts of dead armies,
huge and spectral, moving along the!
! horizon and bearing the windtossed
phantoms of golden blood-stained
banners. I had scaled the
world, and stood at the Pole! :.
1t seemed that the souls of these dead
exulted with me and that in some sub
strata of the air, in notes more subtle
than the softest notes of music, they
sang paean in the spirit with me.
We lad reached our destination. My
relief was indescribable. The prize
Of an international marathon was
ours. Pinning the Stars and Stripes
to tent-pole, I asserted the achieve
ment in the name of the ninety mil
lions of countrymen who swear fealty
to that flag. And I felt a. pride, as I
gazed at the white-and-crimson bar
red pinion, a. pride which the claim
of no second victor has ever taken
from me-"
DR.. Cook has had hard sledging
since Commander Peary came back to
the United States claiming that he
was the original discoverer Of the
Pole and that, year after DR.. Cook
had accomplished his great achieve
ment, he, with Matt Hensen, colored,
had reached the Pole and tha. DR..
Cook had not been there at ALL The
world is familiar with the contro-
versy; but DR.. Cook persists in his
claim that he was the first white man
in all the history of the world to stand
at the top of the earth. In this book
he tells the story Of his awful jour-
ney to the Pole and back again TO
civilization; of his fearful sufrerings;
of the even mor2 fearful m;srepresen-
talions by which it has been hoped to
rob him of his g!ory, and i'll his r''ok
he says: "AlthougA Mr.. Peaiy dill not
scruple to lie about me, I still hesi-
tate to tell the full truth about him"
Nearly the whole world has 'GTned
against DR.. Cook, but he is confident
of himself and confident also to rest
his claims to immortal distinction up
On the plain merits Of his work as
! compared with that Of Mr.. Peary.
MY case rests" he says, mot with
any body of armchair explorers or
kitchen geographers but with Arctic
travellers who can see beyond the
mist of selfish interest, and with my
fellow countrymen who breathe nor
NAL air and view without bias the
large open fields Of honest human en-
deavor.''
DR.. Cook is coming to Charlotte and
will speak for himself at the auditor
ium in this city next Thursday even
ing, January II. Three days later,
on January IA, 1908, when there was
about an hour of feeble twilight at
midday, DR.. Cook and his three COM
panions Jumped On the sledges and
soon the dogs were rushing toward
the Polar pack of Smiths Sound" and
on the first Of April, 1908, at noon his
journey was ended. His journey end
ed in the greatest triumph of discoV-
cry i'll the history of the human race
and DR.. Cook is coming to Charlotte
to tell the people about it; coming to
community which stands for the
truth in history.