Evening journal., 1913-02-11
BY The United Press.

By The United Press.
CHICAGO, Feb. lin this. my first
and only signed statement regarding
the. terrible but superlatively heroic
death Of Captain Robert f. Scott and
his four companions in the Antarctic
regions, | wish, first of all before I
paint the picture, as | conceive it Of
this most awful of all the tragedies
ever enacted on the wastes of the
Polar ice fields, to bow before the
great character of my companion dis
coverer. Robert +. Scott, by the
declarations in his diary, has left as
monument a record Of a man,
man as sincere, as honest and as mod
est IS the world has ever seen-a
greater record than any mere dis
coVerer' could ever hope to equal.
Captain Scott indeed. far +. )m ever
assuming too much-a trait quite com
mon to many pioneers of the ice
iands-took rather too little credit to
plmselt. He seemed to content his
epirit, in his diary, to simply verify
ing my findings. And this, although
ne reached the pole but a little over
a month later.
The last news we heasd Of Captain
Scott and his pole party" was on
April !, 1912. This news came from
tnose VINO returned on Scott's shin.
the Terra Nova" They had left Scott
and four companions in latitude 81
uegrees, three minutes south. This
party, reported, on arriving i'm New
zealand that they brought back All
the dogs, leaving Scott without any
traction power at all. This meant
tnat tnese men had to haul the
sieds' filled with provisions them
selves.
MS IS a thing that our party never
uld We figured that provisions we're
the most important thing and we fear
ed TO trust their carriage to any hu-
man beings. Dogs hold out long af-
ter mems strength has failed lust
what circumstances resolved Scott
70 undertake to transport his own
sledges, / do not know. However
MS reason must have been a good one.
Ior he Yas an experienced explorer
ano had tranversed the snow fields
before
1t was January 3, 1912, when the
Terra Nova party took leave of Scott
According TO the diary, Scott reached
the pole January IS, Just fifteen davs
later. We had discovered the Pole
december IA, 1911-only a month and
four days previously.
Immediately upon setting his flag
at the Pole and verifying our find
ngs, Scott turned back The record
OF that returning flight will never
be told. It is beyond the power
OF man so to do.
imagine! He was a man who had
reached one of the Poles-one of that
scarce and honored company The
world was ready to welcome him and
10 do him homage as it has so gen
erously done homage to me. His was
a pure scientific spirit and he was
anxious, as his diary shows, to corro-
borate what had reported on my own
word
He started up from the end of the
world towards-hOme. Towards civil
ization, warmth, friends. glory chill
dren and wifel And then-across
this bright horizon of hope and long
ing, Just across the lowest corner. the
SHADOW Of defeat. indeed, perhaps.
death appeared. Il was horrible and
OF course brave spirit like that of
SCOTS would NOT for a second toler-
ate the presence of such a vision. He
was used to hard things and he brush /
ed this aside as he had brushed other /
encroaching perils aside many times /
before. But the black shadow kent
sweeping up over that bright horizon
ahead
First OF all. as I picture It, scurvy-.- I
that most horrible Of all diseases, be-
gan to attack the returning victors.
They had been cutting down on food.
because they had perhaps not taken (
adequate supplies in the first place,
owing to the fact that they themselves
we're dragging the loaded sleds. This
lack of sufficient nourishment, coupled
with the expected hardships of trek
king through an ice-bound land, re-
duced their resistance and quite natu-
rally the scurvy followed / suggest |.
this because Captain Evans of the
Terra Nova party, was attacked by the
scurvy a few days after his return.
This showed that the germs we're
present. Starved constitutions were
all that was necessary to give these
headway.
The scuryy, the -be-conceiyed-
of cold and low provisions began their
deadly work. The scurvy Stacked the
circulation. The blood, heavy with
poison. did not do its work and the
cold penetrated right through. One of
the men finally fell exhausted There
were no dogs to pull him on the now