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Show COOK NOT SURE ABOUTjOCCESS Arctic Explorer May or May Not Have Reached the North Pole. HALF MAD AT TIME OF HIS ALLEGED DISCOVERY i i Seeks Now to Set Himself Once More Aright With American Ameri-can People. NEW YORK, Nov. 30 Dr. Frederick A. Cook, the Brooklyn explorer, in an article which will he published iu Hampton's Magazine, confesses that ho does not know whother he reached tho north pole or not. Dr. Cook, who has been in hiding for moro than a year, i iias informed the editors of the magazine maga-zine publishing his story that he will return to the United States with his 'wife nDl children December 22 in order : to spend Christmas here. Dr. Cook, in his story, deals with the psychology of his adventure, and says- "Did I gel to the north pole? Por-1 ,11.11)8 Igtundc a mistake iu thinking thatt I did. Perhaps I did not make a mistake. mis-take. After mature thought I. confess that I do not know absolutely whethor I reached tho pole or not. This may come as an amazing statement, but I a willing to startle tho world, if, by so doing. I can get an opportunity to present niv case. "By my case I moan not my case as a geographical discoverer, but my case as a man. Much as the attainment of tho nortli pole once meant lo me, the sympathy and confidence of my follow men mean more. "Fully, freely and frankly I shall tell on everything. Tell you everything and leave the decision with you. If, after reading mv story, you s.iy 'Cook is sincere and honest: ha 1 f crazed by p-onths of isolntion and hunger, ho believed be-lieved ho ronched the pole: ho is not a fakir.' then I shall be satisfied." Region of Insanity. Dr. Cook tells the slory of his lifo and pictures what he calls the overpowering overpow-ering ambition for exploration that beset be-set him, until he finally culminated in his oft'ort to reach the north pole. Dr. Cook declared that at tho timo he convinced con-vinced himself he had discovered the polo he wns hnlf mad. He spent two yenrs in his quest, during that time endured en-dured hunger and privation that, be su.vs, would unbalance any mind. The explorer stales that it would be impossible for airy man to demonstrate beyond question that he had been to the north pole. He characterizes tho region re-gion as a region of insanity, where ono cannot believe the evidence gathered by one's own eyes. He snid he hud always looked on the discovery of tho pole as an achievement for his own personal satisfaction, for tho satisfaction of a craving and tic sire that was greater than any other factor in his life. When he foiind how tremendous a sensalion his statement that ho had attained tho pole created, he was overcome with bewildermont Dr. Cook then tells tho story of the days in Copenhagen, and later in New York, and of the crisis in his life that caused his flight from New York and his voluntary exile from the United States. The explorer says that notwithstanding notwithstand-ing tho fact that ho was followed by tho shrewdest newspaper men in the world day nftor day. and thnt sums ranging upwards of several thousands of dollars were offered for a clue as to his whereabouts, he has never worn a disguise and has never taken any unusual precautions to conceal his identity. iden-tity. Part of the lime, ho says, his wife has been with him, and part of the lime his children. Concealment Was Easy. Dr. Cook and his wife lire now in Europe- and the children are in a convent con-vent in France. Most of the timo during his exile Dr. Cook has been in London. Ho says he has gone about among Americans there -with the utmost freedom, and .it times hns registered under his own name, and that only a fow havo guessed his idontity. Those who did guess it, Dr. Cook snys. were turned away with ease by the remark, "Why, "yes, I havo boon told that before."" Wil.h the opportunities for thought that his exile has given him Dr. Cook says he never even had time lo sleep more than three or four hours at a time between his arrival at Copenhagen Copenha-gen and his arrival at New York ho has been growing stronger and stronger in tho desire to return to his own country coun-try to bn understood by his own people. peo-ple. Ho realizes better than anyone else tho esteem in which ho was lield. "I have been called tho greatest liar in Ihe world, the most monumental impostor im-postor in history," says Dr. Cook. "1 bcllovo that in every undesirable way I stand iiuitue, the object of such sus-j sus-j plclon and vituperation as have assailed i few men." I With this realization. Dr. Cook wroto i his story? ana fays that to him tho honor i of discovering 'he north pole no longer menus anything. The explorer hns been working on bis story since last August. and says, aecortltng to tho. editor of Hampton's Magazine, that "his solo tie-sire tie-sire la to make the people of the United Unit-ed States realize Just what ho went through during his two and a half years in tho nrcilc fastnesses, and to make them seo what processes of thinking, or lack of thinking. It was that lod him lo do the thing which confirmed to tho average mind tho worst suspicions against him." Tho publishers of the article issued a Btntomcnt lonlghl thnt nowhere In his narrative does Dr. Cook cast any reflections reflec-tions on Penry or question Peary's claims. |