Show ARCTIC EXPLORATION Colonel Gilder the newspaper man who gained some unpleasant notoriety recently through a suit to recover money by a lady friend of his has at last started in earnest for his trip to northern lands and though his attempt at first looked very like a farce he has placed it among the facts of the day and may yet succeed in doing more than other adventurous men who went before him with greater means and far greater noise That these periodical trips will be taken by adventurous men is as certain cer-tain as the movement of the earth they seek to investigate and proves that the spirit of enterprise and daring inherent in the American character is not dying out but expanding with the growth of the race and will eventually lead them to the uttermost corners of the earth The side of the polar question which furnishes material for the objections ob-jections of the skeptic doubter and everyday business man is unfortunately however just as assailable now as it was a hundred years ago and men will ask in vain for an answer to their question i what good can accrue to the human race by unlocking the mysteries of the frozen ends of the earth The religious man claims that the Omnipotent never intended in-tended that man should go there or the country would have been made possible for him to exist in and turn to his uses while the dollarsandcents man says Even if we prove there is a rmssarre there and a continent above it the cost of getting through the passage with the chances of loss of tile and property would never permit its use by the commercial world It is the scientist however who stands in the breech of public opinion and tells the people that a thorough knowledge knowl-edge of the formation of the globe at or near its axis would reveal many things of incalculable benefit to mankind and be sure to still that feverish anxiety which characterizes the human family to bring all the earth under domination Colonel Gilder starts out with the best wishes of every lover of bravery and daring dar-ing and should he make a success of his trip will be entitled to the x ii plaudits of mankind but ifas the chances decidedly portendhe should make a miserable failure his trip will be classed among the many foolish undertakings under-takings of mankind and soon drop from public notice There is a growing feeling feel-ing among the large majority of the I Christian world as evidenced by the I utterances of the religious press that this searching after what was not intended for human knowledge is a direct flying in the face of Provicence and is bound I to meet defeat and disaster and bring j confusion on those who try it just as it j I was brought on the builders of Babel I Let us hope it may not be so for the I safety of the adventurous man who has j gone to brave the dangers of an Arctic j season in the interests of science |