Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-09
A Night Fixed.

A Night Fixed.
When she saw that / was strug-
Cling hard she reminded my husband
of his intention of asking Martin to
dinner, and thereupon a night was
fixed and a party invited.
Martin came, and ] was only too
happy to meet him in company,
though the pain and humiliation OF
the contrast between him and my
husband and his friends, and the diff
ference of the atmosphere in Whlch
he lived from that to which | thought
was doomed forever was almost
more than ] could bear.
/ think they must have felt II
themselves. for though their usual
conversation was of horses and dogs
and race meetings, / noticed they
We're silent while Martin in his
rugged, racy, poetic way Cfor all eX-
plorers are poets talked of the
beauty of the great Polar night the
cloudless Polar day the midnight
calm and the moonlight on the
glaciers, which was the loveliest
Weirdest, most desolate. yet most en-
tranciug light the world could snow.
81 wonder you don't think of going
back 10 the Antarctic, if it's so tas-
p
81 do Bet your life ! do said
Martin. and then he told them what
me had told mo on the launch, but
more fully and even more raptur-
ously-the story Of his great scheme
for saving life and otherwise bene-
fitting humanity
For hundreds of years man, prompt
ed merely by the love Of adventure
the praise of achievement, ana the
desire to know the globe he lived on,
had been shouldering his way to the
hitherto inviolable regions of the
Poles: but now the time had come to
turn his knowledge to account
"How?" said my husband.
"By putting himself into such po-
sition,' said Martin, that he will be
liable to predict, six, eight, ten days
iahead the weather of a vast part of
the navigable and habitable world
by establishing installations of wire
less telegraphy as near as possible 70
the long ice barrier about the Pole
from which ice foes and icebergs
and billiards. come, so that We can
say in ten minutes from the side of
Mount Erebus to half the Southern
Hemisphere. Look out. It's coming
down. and thus save millions Of lives
from shipwreck, and hundreds of mill
lions Of money"
splendid by Jove!" said Mr.. East
cliff
eyes. ripping, by jingo!' said Mr.,
Vivian.
"A ridiculous dream," muttered my
husband. but not until Martin had
gone, and then Alma, seeing that l
was all aglOw. said:
what a lovely man ! wonder
YOU don't see more OF him. Mary my
love Hen he going to the end Of the
earth soon, and then you'll be sorry
you missed the chance"
Her words hurt me like the sting
Of wasp. but I could not resist them,
and when some days later Martin
called to take me to the Geographi-
cal Society. where his commander,
Lieutenant , was to give an
account of their expedition. / could
not find it in my heart to refuse to
on. the difference Of this world
from that in which ! had been living
for the past six months. All that was
best in England seemed to be there,
the men who were doing the work OF
the world, and the women who were
their wives and partners
The theater was like the inside of
a dish and ! sat by Martins side on
the bottom row Of seats, just in front
of the platform and face to face with
the commander
His lecture. which was illustra ted
by many Photographic lantern slides
of the exploring party Including the
one that had been shown TO me on the
ship was very interesting, but terri
bly, pathetic: and when he described
the hardships they had gone through