Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1920-02-20
ADMIRAL PEARY,
.DISCOVERER OF
NO. POLE, dies
Famous Explorer asses Away
After Long Career as Ex-
plorer in Far North

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Feb. 90
Rear Admiral Robert f. Peary died
at his home here today from perni-
cious anemia.
Admiral Peary was Ga years old,
and entered the navy as civil en-
gineer in 1881. He made seven 9TH
err expeditions into the Arctic before
he finally was successful in reaching
the Pole, returning in 1909 to find
that DR.. Frederick Cook was being
praised as the discoverer.
1t was on the afternoon of Sept.
6, 1909, that the following few words
reported TO the civilized world for
the first time this crowning achieve
ment of three centuries of effort:
Indian Harbor, via Cape Ray,
N. r., Sept 6..-To the Associated
Press, New York: Stars and
Stripes nailed to the North Pale.
-PEARY."
Peary's actual attainment Of the
pole had been just five months be
fore. on April q, 1909.
When this dispatch came the world
was. quite unknown to Peary, already
praising DIR. Frederick Cook as the
disooverer. Only four days previous
to the Peary announcement, Cook,
who was on his way back to Vopen-
hagen on board Danish steamer,
had telegraphed the claim that he
reached the Pole on April 81, 1905
nearly year ahead of Peary.
While DR.. Cooks claim did not 20
unquestioned from the first. he had
for four days at least been widely ac-
claimed as the discoverer Of the Pole.
With Peary's message there arose one
Of the greatest controversies Of all
ages over the honor Of actual first
discovery. There can be no one who
has forgotten the dispute. Peary's as
sertions were not seriously question
ed, but among newspaper readers
there came to be two great camps,
for and against Cook.
Peary, with his record Of seven
successful trips to the Arctic. his Of
fetal standing in the United States
navy and in scientific circles, easily
held the commanding position in the
controversy. But it was only after
the scientific bodies one by one had
sifted the evidence and proclaimed
Cooks claims unfounded that Peary's
title as discoverer of the Pole was
really won.
The bitterness Of this episode is
only one item in the price which
Peary paid for the immortal fame
that is now acknowledged TO be his.
He spent practically all he had in
money, gave all that was in him for
hard-work, and suffered all that the
human frome could endure from hnn-
ger. cold and disappointment. He
made eight journeys to the Arctic,
spent upwards of half million doi-
4 lars and several times he barely es-
capped the death which in various
forms had been the fate Of more than
700 explorers before him.
The first step that led Peary to-
NdTu the L ott NhS tdNtI 81 w oShAhS-
ton one day when he walked into a
book store TO browse, and picked up
fugitive account of Greenland. He
became an Unsuitable reader on the
subject of the Arctic.
He was then 80 years old. He was
born in Cresson. Pa, in 1856. His
father died when he was three years
old, and his mother took him to Port
land. Maine, where he spent his boy
hood, roaming about Casco Bay. He
went to Bowdoin College. won fame
there as a runner and jumper, and
stood i'm the honor column of scholar
shin. Ii was little later that he hac
gone TO Washington to work as a
draughtsman in the Coast and Geo
detic survey offices. He spent his
spare time studying civil engineer
! ing and passed in that branch into
the naval service. He became Lieu
tenant Peary, u. s. N.
His first assignment was to the
tropics. He was leader of the sur
veyinc for the Nicaraguan canal
route. II was when he returned e
Washington that he fell upon the
book about Greenland, and thereafter
virtually consecrated himself to polar
exploration.
Obtaining leave from the naval
service, he led an expedition into
Greenland, to determine the extent