The New York herald., 1922-10-01
EDITOR OF THE BOOK sEcr1oN-sir:

A N irksome duty devolves upon me, a
~ task that must be abhorrent to
every right minded mantle task
of impeaching and exposing a friend. My
Impeachment lies against Dr. Walter E.
Traprock, explorer, lecturer. discoverer of
the Filbert Islands and master mind Of all
the Kawa expeditions.
have just finished MY Northern Ex-
posure," DR.. Traprock's new book, In which
he claims to have spent six consecutive
months at the North Pole in my company.
and ere the impulse toward truth and duty
depart from me, feel compelled solemnly
to impeach him on four grave and separate
counts.
AS one who regards ladies as sacrosanet
beings. 1 impeach him as a philanderer.
AS total abstainer, 1 impeach him as an
archN enemy of excise enforcement. AS a
vegetarian, I impeach him as a common
cannibal. And. finally, as student of
astronomy, 1 impeach him as a slipshod
and wholly inaccurate scientist.
Before substantiating these sinister
charges 1 beg your permission to outline
the bare skeleton of our tragical trip to the
North.
First of all, brief word about myself.
My name is Herman Swank. 1 am a
cubist or modernist artist. 1 paint much
in the manner of Pablo Picasso-even a
little more So I have known DR.. Traprock
since he left Il do not employ the words
graduated from') Yale and have accom-
panied him on all his voyages; over the
sunlit spaces of the South Seas to the far
flung forests of Formosa, on the hazardous
heights of the Himalayas and, finally on
his six months oarouse Il can bestow upon
it no softer name) in the Arctic night. My
title on all of these cruises was that of
"Official Painter and Landscapist."
Well, sir, late in the month of May, 1921,
the Kawa steamed from New York and
headed north with a party of ten men. in
cluding DIR. Traprock himself, Warburton
Plock, our anthropologist who, you will
learn later on, finished the cruise as a
tist, who was stricken with snow blindness
before we reached the Arctic Circle; also
a magnetician photographer, a snow ex-
pert. an Egyptologist, an entertainer, a
sea captain and a cubist painter-mysef.
At st. Johns our company was augmented
by sewing woman, Sausalito by name
(alleged to be the wife of our stalwart sea
captain), to whom the Doctor Immediately
became markedly attentive. When we
reached the Arctic Circle we were Joined
according to the author, and may Heaven
forgive him for so wilful perversion of
the truth) by group of Eskimo ungna or
girls Of the Klinka tribe. These girls were
named. respectively, Snak. Xix, Yalok,
Kliptok and Lapatok They were young,
innocent, pleasure loving and beautiful.
After many delays and hardships we
reached. on July 8. what seemed like an
excellent i0loo noond, or camping ground.
This spot DIR. Traprock, without the slight
est scientific verifcation, Immediately pro-
nounced the Polei We accepted his dictum
without question, and forthwith proceeded
to pitch camp. build igloos for the ladies'.
hold a record breaking Christmas celebra-
ton, withstand the scurvy, kill or capture
many musk OK, arctic foxes and other
game, suffer a violent mutiny, lose two
members of our party by natural death
and one by eating, and finally. to sleep
fitfuf1y during the better part of a six
months arctic night.
In March, 1922. we left our camp, sailed
south and sighted Fire Island on April 20.
eleven months and three days after leaving