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Show COOK "INTERVIEWED C0NFIRM8 STORY OF HIS DISCOV. ERY OF THE NORTH POLE ON APRIL 21, 1908. Tells of the Discovery and the Burial of Brass Tube With Record of Journey Under Flag Which He HaU Planted. London. A Hpcclnl dispatch from Skngon tells of an Interview of a newspaper news-paper correspondent with Dr. Frederick Fred-erick A. Cook, discoverer of the North Polo, on tho steamer Kgede, when tho groat Amorlcnn explorer told of the success of his venture. Tho correspondent reports Dr. Cook In good health, but expressing the declaration dec-laration that ho Is glad to get back to civilization, and laughingly declaring that ho Is looking forward with an np-petlte np-petlte to nny festivities that may be promised, ns his dinners for tho past two years havo been very slim ones. After describing how, on the 121st of April, 190S, ho found that ho was six-teen six-teen miles from the Pole, Dr. Cook told of how, when ho stood on the Pole, ho laughed and shouted like a hoy, to tho surprise of his two Eskimo companions, who did not seem to share his Jov. Continuing, lie said: "I felt that I ought to bo there. 1 made my last observation and found that 1 was standing on tho polo. "My feelings well, I was too tired really to fool any sensation, i planted the Stars and Stripes In the Ice Held and my heart grow warm when I saw It wave in the wind." . "How does tho north polo look?' wns asked. "Well," said Dr. Cook, smiling, "It amounts to tho slzo of a twenty-flvo-cent pleco. There is notniug to so; hut lco, lco; no water, only ice. There were more holes hero than at the eighty-soventh degree, which shows thore is a movement nnd drift hero; but this and othor observations I made afterwards when I got more settled. I stopped two days at tho polo and 1 nssuro you it was not easy to say good-byo to tho spot. "As I was sitting nt the pole, I could hot help smiling nt tho peoplo wno on my return would call tho whole expedition ex-pedition a humbug. I was sure tht people would say that I had bought my two witnesses and that my notebook note-book with my dally observations lind been manufactured on board this ship. "Tho only thing I can put nr. ngalnst this is what the York Eskimos Eski-mos have told Knud Rasmusscn. Lot tho skeptics who disbelieve my story go to tho north pole. There they will find n small brass tube which I burled under the flag. That tube contains a short statement about my trip. I could not leavo my visiting card, because 1 did not hnppon to havo ono with mo. "Perhaps," the explorer added dryly, dry-ly, "I should have stayed there longer hnd It not begun to freeze us in our idleness. Tho Eskimos woro unensy and tho dogs howled fearfully. On April 23, therefore, I again, turned my noso southward, which was easy, as you cunnot turn your noso in any other direction whon you stnmt at the pole." Dr. Cook thon described his return, homeward bound, nnd tho hardships encountered, which would havo overwhelmed over-whelmed an ordinary man nnd prevented pre-vented the world from knowing of his great discovery. Tho correspondent's story quotes Dr. Cook as saying in conclusion: "Say, that day wo reached our provision stores nt Etali was a greater day than April 21. I long to got back to civilization, to move among my fellow fel-low mon: I long to press my wife to my heart. I am tho happiest man living. liv-ing. Toll tho whole world I thank Gpd I am back." |
