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Show I j PEOPLE UN THE PUBLIC EYE I They're off at Spitsbergen. The third Arctic Aorlnl Handicap got away to a rood start with 'Walter Weihimn in the load, talking easily. Last seen of the irrcat dirigible balloon America, Mr. Well-innn's Well-innn's thrcu companions seemed to ho michlng for ear imifTs. This is 10 he onsldered as a side light upon the weather conditions, and not upon Mr. Wcllman's conversational powers, though lie is one of our most talkative little explorers. ex-plorers. The Duke of tho Abruznl has a little edgo upon Mr. Wollinuu hi this, but that la because o! tho dukr's Intermittent j lumblnpr. When that nobleman sots uti-rior uti-rior a full head of steam, the only thins loft for the other party to do is to put on his water wings. Under the duke's management man-agement tho language of romance resembles resem-bles a storm at sea. But this is getting away from Mr. Well-man, Well-man, who really did mako a start for tho pole or at least for a point north of the Fire" Island light-In his dirigible. The bono and sinew of our common heritage is not apt to hold its breath until It Is learned whether Mr. Wcllnmn is still dashing for the pole, or whether lie tied tho b:Ulonn to a hummock somewhere out of sight of land, and is now dashing back toward the souphouse. A certain skepticism skepti-cism is bound to be manifested about Mr. Wcllman's poling until he comes bound-in',' bound-in',' out or the ice with the manifold copies of'hls interview ready for the first report -c rs. He lias had two previous tries, and Is still a maidmt. Worso than that, there was a general feeling that tho polo was mver half so glasslly eongealfd as Mr. Wellinan's pedals on both occasions. In which it may bo that an injustice Is 1;- ins- done that intrepid dlalogisf. Hr ):ns '"onductcd three really expeditions over tho great ice on one occasion almost running out of fudge before the relief expedition got back to where ho had mado fnip. No one could ever have thought tii" roller rxpi'ditlon was going to prowl n.-ounI so far north, anyhow. Mr. W.1-5i W.1-5i -n is not to bianic. Still, it must hae been annovhig to watch the southern horl-;:on horl-;:on for woary days, ami then have the re-Hovers re-Hovers encnk down on one from tho north. It wasn't clubby, (hat's all. In the second sec-ond expedition ho fell into a crack In tho ico and hurt ids leg, and did have a prcttv tough time of It. the far north being be-ing almost totally destitute of home comfort:!. com-fort:!. That is probably why he has dls-plaved dls-plaved a certain caution in trying to ilcklo (ho polo with his balloon. He knows what It in to be miles and miles from a corner grocery. Since ho took up with tho idea that tho polo Is to bo reached by a dirigible balloon bal-loon he has been busy as a bird dog up there In the north. The season of 100G "ho held a first page position on every newspaper In the world, and sold a lot of Kood iiiagazlno stuff about his plans. Being Be-ing hampered because one of his stenographers stenog-raphers broko down, lie was delayed so that he couldn't make the start that year. Tho next year he started, all right: but having ascertained that the balloon could be turned around with really remarkable case ho came back to his base uf operations, opera-tions, And then tho public ceased to tnko notice. If Wellman had announced that he was going to Invade the region of eternal ice with a team of trained canary birds lie might have won some attention. Dot in no other possible way. This year he went at It pussy footed. Ills previous experiences had reminded observers of that famous steamer on the Kentucky river, tho whistle of which was so large and the bolle.r so small that whenever it looted for a landing it. slid two miles down stream. So he ceased tooting and went at it. The dangers of such an undertaking as the one on which he has engaged are not to be mlnhni.ed. Scientists and aeriallsts alike declare that (ho chances are five to one acalnst the successful navigation of the balloon, letting let-ting alone finding the pole. Hut there will likely be a certain public apathy toward tho whole works until Mr. Well-inan Well-inan has demonstrated. That's a nasty trait of the American peoplo. so many uf thorn seem to have their summer homos In tho Ozarks. Wollman isn't a sprlntr chicken any more, either. Horn In lSfiS, hi Mentor. O., the home town of President Garfield, ho became a newspaper man at the age of 16. When he reached his majority he established a paper in Cincinnati, which Is still at largo. Then he becamo a Washington Wash-ington correspondent and a good one, although somo statesmen displayed a rop-rehenelble rop-rehenelble ludiirctviico to the good advlco tliey might read dally on the front page, signed liy Walter's full name. That was bud Judgment, too; for Wellnmn dldn t have a chance to lose. If they dldn t take his advice and nothing happened, all he had to do was lo go on giving more. And If anything did happen, because be-cause thev overlooked the hunch well, listen to Wellman. that's all. Ho made the welkin sound like tho Swiss bell ringers. Ho Is married, has five daughters and a game leg. Also he Is perfectly willing to sit down over n cup of tea and tell you all about It. He knows all tho correspondents cor-respondents and Is perfectly camera broke. All this will be forgiven, however, how-ever, if he gets back with the groceries this time or even If ho slays away long enough to be convincing. Bui, lor goodness' good-ness' sake, Walter don't let, any one catch you peeking over a hummock while you're dashing for the pole. Dash and dash hard while you're about it. New-York New-York Globe. |