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Show H Mount McKinley Controver: M"TA I M I WH DI WC I A I IDPI C New World Record Made by j I I tSSzl IVIUUIN I AIIM LLIIVIdIINu LALJKlL5 js I IJTO tlie JfeiLLOUS Alb 01 AipmiblJl Copyright, 1309, by John ISlfreth Watkins. kM ma " !L To l.lio perilous art of mountaln-'climbing mountaln-'climbing public interest is now drown h)V HiiV ' ook Barrill dispute over Mount iMVl'inlov and thincw world record of "vM.Gt'O foot, jiifst attained by the Duke fof't lie bni?.7.i. t Alpinism was still an unknown art Fat the close of our revolution, tor it not have its birth until 1780, when Unbuilt and Paccard stirred Europe by cnlin' the top of Mont Blunt;, tho loft-iiist loft-iiist of tin' Alps, But tins first rooord Asct- tit appears small alongside tbe liciLlit- attained by later erngism. And ttli? extent to which interest in 'this fljin of exploration has spread may be measured by the membership of the mountain climbing clubs, which in Europe Eu-rope alone amounts to over 300,000 men uud women- In our own country there ore several thousand enrolled in similar organizations, notably tho American 'Alpine club, Philadelphia; tho Appa-iat'hian Appa-iat'hian Mountain club, Boston; the .Sierra club, San Francisco j tho Mount Wliitiuv club -of California, and tho Mawunas of 1'ortland, Oregon. Our northern neighbor also has its Canadian Alpine elnb. All of. these societies, hero i and abroad, contain expert climbers. New "Farthest Up.' The new "farthest up" record, .-just earned by the Duke of the Abruzzi, is a t row en do us honor, and whoovcr is awarded the laurels for arctic glory 2ook or Peary must vie with this royal Italian for rank as the chiof explorer of our generation. Tho altitudo of 24,000 feet "which he has ."just attained in the Himalayas means a height of four anil two-thirds miles, whereus Mont IJlnnc reaches ess than throe. The mountain upon which the new record was mado is Brido Peak, one o the northwestern Himalayas, in the neighborhood neigh-borhood of Mouut Godwin-Austin, vrhich latter is the second highest summit sum-mit of the world. Tho region is remote i and imporfoclly surveyed, and tho difficulties dif-ficulties of approach must be added to ' those of ascent. It was Abruzzi who hold the North American record, which Dr. Cook claims to have- broken by climbing Mount McKinley two years :'ico. This tho duke earned in 1S97' by hfimbing to the summit of our Mount St. Elias, in Alaska, which reaches 1S,-124 1S,-124 feet. Four unsuccessful attempts had been made to scale this summit before Abruzzi attempted it. To reach it he had to penetrate a subarctic waste far from civilization and ho found its untirc altitude, practically above the snow line? Upon its slopes the duke received the training which enabled him to attain his "farthest north'' a Jew years later. Again, in 190fi, Abruzzi Abruz-zi added to his laurels by ascending fourteen of the highest summits of tho nuircnzori, that snowy source of the JsMle which stands almost upon the equator. The highest of these peaks jlnnbcd bv Abruzzi is about 115,'Slo feet or about J. 000 feet loftier than Mont Blanc. To reach the summits the duke led an army of 220 nalivo porters and bthcr assistants from Victoria Nyauza 21 S miles to Fori. Portal, Uganda, tho very end of civilization. Then he climbed the slippery hills through jim-irloa jim-irloa of wiltl bensls to a foggy spot. "12,-, 1i)0 fcot up, where ho exchanged his lortcrs for a hardier lot. After ascending ascend-ing all of the higher peaks, ho named the two loftiest Margherita and Alexandra, Alex-andra, in honor of his queen and that at England. The expedition covered four months, and no lives wero lost. As to who held the record which Abruzzi Ab-ruzzi has just broken has been a matter D'f controversy oven more complicated llian the Peary-Cook imbroglio, and the alike has clarified the atmosphere by taking tho bone of contention away 1 from the other disputants. The last:1 claimant before him has been an Ameri-, pan woman. Miss Annie Smith Peck.' bf Providence, P. I., a graduate of the! University of Michigan, who, after; stndving music and German in the fath-j crland, became the first woman student' at the American school at Athens and roiiuncd to tho United Slates to Jecluro and to hold -professorships in several Colleges, including Smith. This indefatigable inde-fatigable woman climbed tho Matter-horn Matter-horn m 1.S95. and two vcara later Popocatepetl Pop-ocatepetl and Orizaba, 'in South America, Amer-ica, she being the first woman to ascend 1 tuo hitter. After other practice climbs in iho Alps she attempted tho summit I J -it Mount Sorala, in the Andes. This ran in 1003, and she took two Swiss! guides with her, "but tho -party foiled to reach the top. She rotumcd in 190-1, and accompanied only by a man of limited lim-ited mountain-climbing experience, reached approximated 20,500 fcot, or within GOO to S00 feet of tho summit. After this she decided that a still iall-er1 iall-er1 Andoan giant was Mount Huascaran, in Peru, and sho attempted it, wituout guides in 190(5. but failed. Then last year sho tried tho great Huascarnu again and reached the. summit, which she estimated to touch an altitude of "2.'i.S00-2-i,000 feet and porhnps higher," high-er," thus giving her, she claims, "nearly "near-ly or quite the world's record." "Tf, as seems probable, tho height is 2-1.000 fcot, I have tho honor of breaking the world's record for men as well as women," adds Miss Pock, "the greatest height previously claimed being 23,800 feet, attained some years ago 1)3' W. "W. Graham, in tho Himalayas.5 Hima-layas.5 ' But to this claim, Prof. Charles E. Fay of Tufts college president presi-dent of tho American Alpine club and sometime president of the Appalachian Mountain club, replies: "It is to be regretted that sho secured no hypsometric- reading at the summit of Iluascaran, -which is not generally recognized as holding so prominent a place as Miss Peck accords it." The. liypsomctcr, which is to tlie mountain climber what, the sextant is to the polar explorer, is a combination of the thermometer and barometer, for measuring altitudes. This W. W. Graham, who was generally gen-erally thought to have held for twenty-six twenty-six years the world record .just broken bv Abruzzi, is commonlj credited with 24,015 feet instead of the 23.S00 ae-cordod ae-cordod him by Miss Peck. Graham was a modest young Englishman of excellent excel-lent physique, who had gono to tbe Uimalayas for sport and recreation. 3u hSSl he described his climb of Gabru, a ueighbor of Mount Kveresl, before the British Ifoval Geographical society, whoso members were enthusiastic in hailing him as the champion mountain climber of tho world. But. an attack upon his story made soon .afterward divided alpinists the world over into two factions, thc one hailing him ns a hero, the other .branding him an impostor. im-postor. Previous lo his eljmb the record rec-ord was held by 1). V. Kreshlield, who in . 1SGS had won it bv a climb lo 1S.-I70 feet, oa Elbruz, the loftiest peak of the Caucasus. But even if Graham had been entirely eliminated. Miss Peck would have had to light lho championship matter out with two Norwegians, C. W. liubciison and Monrad-Aas, who in 1007 climbed to tho summit of this same- Ivabru, claimed by Graham twenty three .years before them. Besides gaining lho then highest -unchallenged rei-ord they established estab-lished tho highest camp in winch man has ever passed the night. This was 22,000 feet up. Thev also spent twelve days at a height of 1,5U0 feet, and tho fact that they suffered little from rarefied air has caused an, upward spurt in Graham slock, fur the chief count which Graham's critics made agaiust Ii i iii was that he could not have reached such an elevation ami retained the health which he claimed. And rating third or fourth on tho honor list it depending in part where Miss Peck belongs there is now Dr. T. G. Longstaff. who year before last conquered 23.-106 fect on Trisul, a peak of lho Garhwal, in thc Himalayas. Tho man upon whose brow thc anli-Grahaimtcs anli-Grahaimtcs in 1S02 placed the laurels for "faiihcrest up" was Sir William Martin Conway, the noted British, explorer, ex-plorer, who has traversed rhe Alps from end lo end, and has explored the interior in-terior of Spit'.bcrgcn, besides rhe. Bolivian Boli-vian Andes and the glaciers the Boli-del Boli-del Fnogo. The climb in which he was alleged to have made I he world record was 2.'!, (100 feet up Pioneer peak, , in the Himalayas. During that exnedi-tion exnedi-tion he passed eight-four dnvs on ice and snow. Sir Martin, as he is called, in 1SSI married a Miss Lambard of Maine, aud with their one daughter they now live at Arlington CastJc, Maidstone, hngiand. . Sir Martin's laurels wore claimed in 1 1897 by members of the expedition led by a young American cragsman. E. A. Fitzgerald, to explore Mount Aeonea gua, a giant of the Andes, which vi?es to 23,082 feet in Argentina. Fitzgcr aid was born in Connecticut thirtv-r-ight years ago, aud at the time of this ex jH podition wns but twenty-six. Two years previously he had explored some H of the snowy mountains of Nov.- Zea land. But as ill luck would have i H he fell ill before reaching this Andean summit, which was conquered by two H members of his part v. S. Vine,';, an jH Englishman, and Mnl:ias Zurbrigei., H an Alpine guide who had made his do-but do-but with Conway. Two "Women Head Our List. It is a remarkable fact that two women would have lo pass ou Dr. Cook's Mount McKinley claims if that H exploit of his should have io be sifted out by his American peers in the fine art of alpini-ni. For I he two mo:-successful mo:-successful mountain climbers of thn H United States belong to what, hns hill. erto been called thc weaker sex. H But whether our ranking alpinis! i-' Miss Peck or not remains to bo dnc- H mined. If the previous measurement of H 22.051 feet must stand as Ihe altitud H of Mount Iluascaran, then Miss Pcct-must Pcct-must be content with second place, ami H the American laurels must remain with fl her sister cragswomau. M.rs. Funny llu! lock Workman, of Worcester. "Mass., who gained them by reaching 2:;..'I0O feet, up Pinnacle peak of the Jl'ua alayas. Mrs. Workman is She daughter of ex-Governor ex-Governor Bullock of Massachusetts, and H after having been ethical ed in Franc" and Germany she married Dr. William Hunter Workman of Worcester, who, after taking degrees at Yale and 1 1 a -vard. had also studied abroad at Yieu-na. Yieu-na. Heidelberg and Munich. The ex tensive travels of this interesting eov-pie eov-pie commenced in 1SD2. when they set H out upon a bicycle tour of Euiopc and Algeria, lasting four years. Then thev cycled l.'iOO miles in Ceylon. 1500 mihs in Java and 1-1,000 in" India. In the H Himalaya country alone they covered 1300 miles in 1SS, and. remaining in, til ihe following year, climbed the Siegfried Horn (1S,(J00 feet). Tosi " WM Gunge (21.000 feet), and another grea' H peak, which thev named "Mount Bui- H lock-Workman'" (HU50 fcel)r In the Koser Gitngo climb Mrs. Workman mud H the woman's record for first ascents. After exploring some of the great Himalayan glaciers in 1002 and 1003. this indefatigable couple made "lirsr H nscenfs" of 'Mount f "lingo (21,50') feet), Mount Lungm.a- (22.5GS feet), ami gave the world the Jirst knowledge o" tho Nun 7un range of ihe Himalayas. wherein it was. in 1006. that Mrs. H Workman made her great climb of 2.V H 300 feet to thc summit of Pinnacle H For those exploits 'she has been deco-rated deco-rated bv the French government, and H by the Italian king, who has given her the Order of tho Golden Eagle Dr. Workman, who now holds the America ' H altitude record for men. has received H a grand medal from France, and hi' H ano1 Mrs. Workman together havo writ-ten writ-ten a number of books. Dr. Cook will rank next after thc -M Workmans aud Mips Pack ou the lit of American nlpinists if his claims to "H having won the North American "high- H est up"' be substantiated. H After the Mount McKinley and Mount St. Elins climbs rank uinm ilia (H list of American "first ascents'- tho conquest of thc summit of Mount Whitnoy (1-l.lOi) feet) in 3S7.'! by Ben- H gole. Lucas and Johnson: of Mount Ifaiuier (14,301 feel.) by General 7 la,- aril Stevens, in 1S715; of Pike's Tcak (M.H7 fect) bv 15. James, iu 1S20; of mw tlie' Grand Teuton (7H.S00 feet) bv mU Langford and Stevenson, in 1S72; oc Mount Abbott (LVOO fect) bv J. N. 7iO Conic, 011I3' last year, and of Mount Ril tor. in tho early'soventics. by John Muir, the sage of Martinez, Cal., who discovered I lie Muir glacier in Alaska, and who recently pilolod 75rosident Tuft through ihe Yosemito valley. H Our initial "first, ascent" record waa made when Darby lucid climbed Mount, "H Washington in I(H2, Ho reached 62P."! MM feet, or scarcely inoro than a quarter MM of Abruzzi 's new "farthest up." JOHN ELPIM5TII WATKLNS, |