Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-02-26

II was on the afternoon of September
g. 1909 that the following few words re-
ported to the civilized world for the first
time this browning achievement OF three
centuries of effort
Indian Harbor. via Cape Ray. Y. F..
September S--To the Associated Press.
New York
stars and Stripes nailed to North
Pole.
"PEARy"
Peary's actual attainment of the Pole
had been just five months before. on
April 8. 1909.
When this dispatch came. the world
was. quite unknown to Peary, already
praising DR.. Frederick A. Cook as the dis
coverer. Only four days previous to the
Peary announcement. Cook. who was on
his way back to Copenhagen on board
Danish steamer. had telegraphed the
claim that he reached the Pole on April
q, 1sos-nearly year ahead OF Peary.
While DR.. Cooks claim did not go I'M
questioned from the first. he had for four
days at least been widely acclaimed as the
discoverer Of the Pole. With Peary's mes
sage there arose one Of the greatest con-
troversies of all ages over the honor of
actual first discovery. There can be no
.
assertions were not seriously questioned,
but among newspaper readers, there came
to be two great camps, for and against
Cook.
Peary with his record OF seven sue
cessful trips to the Arctic, his official
standing In the United States Navy and
in scientific circles, easily held the COM
handing position in the controversy. But
it was only after the scientific bodies one
by one had sifted the evidence and pro-
nounced Cooks claim 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 ac-
knowledged 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 frame could endure from
hunger. cold and disappointment. He made
eight journeys into the Arctic. spent up
wards OF half million dollars and sew
eral times he be rely escaped death which
In various forms had been the fate OF
more than 100 explorers before him.
The first step that led Pesry toward
the pole was taken in Washington one
day when he walked into q 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 1865. His
father died whom he WAS three years
old and his mother took him to Port
land. Me-, whore he spent his boyhood,
roaming about Casco Bay. He went TO
Bowdoin College. won fame there as a
runner and Jumper and stood in the
honor column Of schola rship. 1t was
4 little later that he had gone to Wash
inGton to work as draughtsman In
tho Coast and Geodetic Survey offices.
He spent his spare time stdying civil
engineering and passed in that branch
into the naval service. He became
Lieut. Peary. L. s. n
His first assignment was to The
tropics. He was A leader OF the survey
ing for the Nicsraguan canal route. IL
was when he returned TO Washington
that no fell upon the book about
Greenland, and thereafter virtually
consecrated himself to polar explora-
ton.
Obtaining leave from the naval
service, he led an expedition into
Greenland, 10 Determine the extent of
this mysterious land. He determined