San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-09

drops" said Bradley jeeringly.
This was as good as the re-
porter wanted. He rushed back to
his office and pounded out a
lengthy piece of fiction about my
gumdrop scheme to win the ma
tives' allegiance. The story was
printed as fact, and grew as only
such canards can.
As matter of fact, i had not
so much as one gumdrop in my
supplies for the successful Polar
expedition or at any other time
| visited the Arctic. / never saw a
gumdrop in Eskimoland, and doubt
that any of the candy had ever
been taken there up to the time of
my last departure from the North.
No doubt the Eskimos would rel
ish gumdrops had they an oppor-
tunity to sample them. While
sugar is entirely lacking in the
natives natural diet, being re-
placed by fats, they quickly ac-
auire a keen taste for sweets.
Meanwhile, while the Polar con-
troversy ragged and the Peary pro-
paganda campaign was getting well
under way, | was receiving offers
of huge sums for stories and lee
lures. | needed money and /
wanted to place my case squarely
before the American people, so ]
accepted a contract for a series
of lectures in the East and Middle
West, my itinerary including only
the larger cities. Huge crowds,
friendly without exception, packed
the auditoriums where spoke. Be-
fore | had nearly completed my
scheduled tour a severe attack of
laryngitis rendered me virtually
voiceless. At st. Louis a crowd
of 1900 persons gathered to hear
me. | could speak only in whis-
pers, but my audience favored me
with gratifying attention and SYM
patty.
But the vicious campaign of
Peary and his hackers to discredit
me grew in force and ingenuity,
and toward the end of 1909 |
found my health failing, and |
went abroad to escape the lying
attack on my honor.
had submitted an extended re-
port of my discovery expedition to
the University Of Copenhagen, not
because felt any foreign institu-
ton would give me more just
opinion than one of my native land,
but because this was the chief seat
of culture in the country which
first heard my claims, and | held
it due the Danes first to pass on
my report.
Like the cautious scientists they
were, the University of Copen-
hagen savants who examined my
evidence rendered a Scotch verdict
they opined that "in such ma
terial there was no absolute proof
that the Pole had been reached"
Of course, my notes and calcu-
lations were not positive proof |
had reached the Pole; there could
hardly be such a thing as positive
proof that anyone had reached the
Pole, save by the testimony of eX-
pert witnesses. But Peary's
prOpagandists seized upon this
equivocal verdict, distorted it to
suit their purposes and managed
to have me branded fakir in the
partisan newspapers.
This cut was the last straw for
me. | cancelled a quarter of a
million dollars worth of lectures,
took my fam& and vanished from
the world OF poisoned publicity
and jeering ignoramuses. | spent
year in this grateful obscuPity,
travelling in South America and
Europe, resting and healing my
sick soul, while the public won
dered where / had gone.
Then about the beginning of the
European war, in 1914, | formed
an expedition to attempt the as
cent of Mount Everest, in the
Himalayan Range, the only really
important feat of exploration not
yet accomplished. But the diff
. Guilty of moving about and cross
ing frontiers in war time and the
secret service activities of the va
rious nations finally upset our
plans, and l journeyed en- to
Borneo, the philippine Islands,
Japan, Siberia, across Russia to
Petrograd, and arrived in Copen-
hagen while Henry Ford and his
peace party were there.
Back home again after what
likely was my last long ramble
over the world, was infected with
a restlessness which would not per-
- nit me to settle down to medical
practice, or yet to resume the
grind of lecture touring. While |
was in this frame of mind a Chi
cago friend asked my aid in check
ing up on some oil property in
which he and his associates had
made large investments.
DOC, you're a pretty good prac-
teal geologist, and | believe you're
just the man to look over this
ground" said my friend.
. had in my explorations ac-
quired a good working knowledge
of geology, and | knew something
of oil formations, too. So | &C
copied the mission, and went to
Wyoming, where the property was
located.
Survey of the structure re-
vealed the land was barren of oil
indications. | reported accGding-
ly, and the investors fastened to