Evening Star Newspaper, February 24, 1894, Page 17

es THE EVENING STAR. Pate PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. aT THE STAR SUILDINGS, Avenue. corner 11th St, by nol Evening Star Newspaper Compan’ _ S. H. XAUFFMANN, Pres't. . ———.—__—_—— New York Oifics, 88 Potter Building. —_——-— ‘THE EVENING STAR is served to subscribers in the eity by carriers, on their own account, at 10 cents week. or 4c. per month. Coples at the counter cents each. By mail—aaywhers in the United States or Canads—postaze prepaid—30 cents per jonth. SATURDAY QUINTUPLY SHEFT Stan 81.00 per year, With foreizn postage adled, $3.00. (Entered at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., as second-class mail matter. ) $i €@-All mai! sabscriptions inst be paid in at Kates of a!vertising made known on applic Part 3. Che F pening Star. Pages 17-20. MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE TO BE FOLLOW! D TO THE NORTH POLE AWashington Newspaper Man's ‘Exploring Expedition aes MONTHS JN THE ICE FIELDS. To Begin Where Most Expeditions | Have Stopped. A SUMMER DASH 10 TRE NORTH POLE The Probability of Solving the | Arctic Problem. THE SCIENCE OF SLEDGING ‘Written for The Evening Star. (Copyrighted.) O: THE M4TH DAY of March I shall sail | from New York by the steamer Britanic en route for the | frozen regions of the far north. I am go- ing toward the north pole, and to it if that | shall prove possible. There will be in my three Ameri- party cans besides myself —Prof. Owen B. 2 French, who comes from the United States coast and geodetic survey, with high reputation as a scientific man and for work in the field in Alaska and the west; Thomas B. Mohun, M. D., who has been in success- ful practice for some years in Washington, and who is admirably equipped in learn- ing and experience for the responsible work before him, and Charles C. Dodge of the Navy Department, a capable photographer and artist. These three young men have been selected from among scores of appli- cants, and it is believed none but good ac- counts will be given of them during the coming summer's campaign in the arctics. In Norway ten more men join my party— hardy young Norwegians, enthusiastic in | exploration as were their ancestors, and @ number of them university men devoted to the pursuit of knowledge in the fields of botary, geology and other sciences. A number of our Norwegians have had ex- perience in the ice fields of the Arctic ocean as whale and seal hunters, and are adepts in the arts of navigation and travel inci- dent to that hazardous calling. No people in the world are more resourceful and in- Senious than the Americans; none more brave or steadfast in the face of difficul- es than the Norsemen. I think the com- bination will be a good one. The True Road to the Pole. Most aretic expeditions with which Amer- feans are familiar approach the pole by the way of Smith Sound. Even the English have chosen the Greenland route for most of their efforts. But we do not go that way, strewn with wrecks of ships, bleach- ing bones and dead hopes as it. is. We} choose, rather, that true highway to the| far north carved out of the ice by the in- fluence of the gulf stream in the Norwegian | sea. The same warm waters from the south at give to Norway a comparatively mild | climate, with ports open the year round in latitudes, which, in Greenland, are frozen fast nine or ten months of the year, wash the western shores of tne islands of Spitz- bergen and leave them moderately free of ice, except in midwinter. Nor do we plan to reach the north pole in a ship. The ves- sel has not yet been built that will sail nearer it than five hundred on to the pole has failed to be abandoned till airships = place of marine vessels. ing the finishing touches upon f Troms far urteen men sail, for the island of lies to the east of north- Dane's Island, . We shall establish our headquart be under the shad al f north la | the map which m explorers have ne reach-1, but few have passed. For all but the most | rtunate or persistent it has marked the mit of progress to the nortaward. The Polar Half-Wry Station. Doubtless many people will be sur to learn that in less than a week we e pect to steam in our staunch little ice- working sealer from civilizatio to this high northern latitude. Barring accident we shall make the voyage in four da: Tromsoe, which has the Atlantic cable and . @ tri-weekly mail to the south, is very near- ly in latitude 70. Dane’s Island lac a few miles of the S0th paralle The ter is, therefore, the half-way house to the pole—ten degrees or 7) statute miles from civilization, and exactiy the same d tance from that northern termination o the axis of our earth known as the north pole. This western coast of Spitzbergen is every year accessible to steam or sailing vessels early in the season. It is the only point in the circum-polar region which aifords ti tremendous advantage. By the Spitzverg: route we shall, unless extraordinary condi tions present themselves, reach without effort or loss of time, without the necessity of a previous wintering in the arctic region. | with our vitality unimpaired and our men and equipment fresh and strong, the same latitude at which Greely wintered, as far north as De Long went, almost as near to the pole as Hail penetrated, hundreds of miles farther north than Franklin or any of the early explorers progressed, and with- in about three degrees as far as the farthest ever achieved by man. In other words, our journey proper begins at Spitzbergen, sub- stantially at the latitude in which other efforts have come to an end. Our business is not at Spitzbergen. That is only our half-way house, our point of departure, our stepping stone to the inner polar region. Though an uninhabited land of wonderful scenery, of romantic and tragic history, of rare sport with ice bear, walrus, reindeer, seal, toxes and birds, we shall not tarry on its shores longer than a few days in which to land our stores and establish a headquarters sta in a com- fortable house already standing there. Leaving a couple of trusty men in charge of our station, and with a safe harbor near by for our steamer, we push on. Crossing the Desert of Ice. Whither? And over what sort of a road? Straight to the north, toward the pole, to- ward the ice-locked secret of the unknown region, over and through the dreadful pack ice of the Arctic ocean. The edge of the ice pack or the frozen surface of the sea will be found between latitude 80 and S81. The farther north it is the better we shall be pleased, tor our steamer, iitted for ice working, commanded by a broazed and fearless master, to whom the danger of ice navigation is an old story, quickly car- ries us to the margin of the ice and depes- its us, with our boats, sledges, dogs and accouterments, upon its surface. our steamer is not to enter the ice. It is not to engage in combat with the all-conjuer- ing king of the north, which has vanquis ed craft innumerable and which like a stone wall, barring all pr: means of ships into his de ship which carries us is not to be any danger at al!l—at least not in m dan- ger than is incident to navigation of the ocean in any part of the world. Its duty is to advantage by the opening caused by the gulf stream, by the lee shore of Spitz bergen, to run us early and speedily to tie frontier of the inaccessible region and then turn back to the headquarters which we have established at the land near by. to serve during the remainder of sum- mer as a dispatch boat to and trom Nor- way and in the autumn to pick us up and return us to civilization and home. Between the 10th and the !5th day of May we expect to be placed upon the mar- gin of the ice. There will be sad hearts in our party no doubt when the ship» turns her prow to the south and we are left alone in the desert of ice. But there will be no time for rets. At this moment cur active work begins; now commences that campaign which is to carry us to victory or defeat. Here and now we start on that dash for the pole which promises so much and may result in so little. Through the months of May. June, July, August end a part of September this ice pack is to be our home. We leave the land at our backs and strike out boldly across the sea. In something more than 100 days we propose to go as far north a what we can disco uarters. we can go, er and return How far we shall discover to our go end we shall find there no one has much Better than gues 1. of an idea. is to wait for the seq ‘ar From Land, Wit While we make no predictions, we know what the facts are. We have by no means underrated the difficulties which iie be fore us. We know that the pack is h but an easy road to travel. We rough and uneven; that where the tlo.s and fields have crashed together during the storms of the preceding autuma and win- ter an almost irresistible force has crum- bled their margins or upheaved theta into what is known as hummocks. that as the season advances and the power of the sun, always in the heavens, be stronger and more effective, leads or oy ings form in the ice, narrow, sinuous 1 will be found at frequent interval: ing about it in “The Pack.” it is We kaow come more or less covered with sl water. We know that we shall be tr much by deep snow few w under the sun's rays, will become difficult to traverse do not for; down through this region sweeps 1 considerable outlet of the Arctic great current which Dr. Nan hopes to reach, the current wh tween Spitzbergen and Greenland, Cape Farewell, down past it is finally ming! gulf stream off the b It is this current v round Labrador until 4 with the waters of the nks of > adiand ich carries from the very inner regions of the far north which we hope to penetrate the ice fi bergs encountered by our tra steamships. The English Record May Re Beaten. We do not forget. either, that this cur- rent defeated the effort which Sir Edward Parry made in this direction and. by means similar to ours, as far back as 1827, in time carrying his men to the south as fast as they could travel to the north, so that their progr at which a horse m upon the endless belt of the old-fashioned | power machine. If we could not improve | upon Party's methods we should have no right to hope to excel his achievement. But we do improve vastly upon him ia plan equipment, as T shell pr ordinary fortune we his evement. If we de rea s, for Parry, de art of a month later, notwithstanding ais unneces- sarily heav. | ed latitude 82 degr: god for half a century; hich tu this day has bei In more than s , 2 of st with great improvement in the art of si. jing, with adaptation | burdens which Parry his achievement has stripped. We know this pack ¢ men, With more or le most ¢ true, becau ersed the p ersed it, the Rus: for thousands of mile yer and V neis tid aten n be traversed by speed and with al- know this to be thor awhoie wit miles on [in the » ring | rescued ing women and children of the part ly alive, but in pertect healt traversed the restless 7 that n. k of trap-like water, Smith 1 e of 500 miles, cnly to k of time from the stz ried off two-thirds le. ‘The pack is not with ers, but there is no record in tic exploration experience of a life in it. | A Rough Road to Trav. ng ali | the temperature is not likely to fall as low as 20 above zero, and after June, which is the spring of the arctics, the mercury will hover about the freezing point in the shade, row a degree or two above and again be- low, but with fiuctuations within the nar- row limits of ten degrees. In the sun the mercury will frequently rise to 60, 70 or 80 degrees, and in July and August we shail | probably work many a day as men are | working in the harvest and haying fields | home—in our shirt sleeves. This delight- | ful working temperature is to our advan- | tage in many ways. It raises the value of our energy 50 per cent above that shown by sledging parties in the frightful cold of | rly spring or late autumn, It does not | quire us to carry furs, and but little in | the wa f heavy clothing and bedding will be needed. We shall not be often or storms, though now and st, and more often dense | use] by the enormous evaporation suiting from the constant action of the sun's rays, may interfere with our pro- gress, j The Caravan in the Ice. We shall set out fn our march across the ice with fourteen men, forty draught dogs and a total weight of about 5,500 pounds in boats, sledges, instruments, clothing, | fuel and food. In round numbers we shall | | have about 100 pounds per unit of power, or | to erch man and dog. Such a load, expe has shown, can be taken forward at a single march without the necessity of re- ersing, except now and then where the Meulties of the road are extraordinary. s shall prove to be the case with us, ve might hope to advance at the rate from twelve to twenty miles per da: If we can do the smailer distance, or even | but ten miles per 4 ten days will carry l into the pack, beyond the region y summ breaking up and driftage. will carry us perhaps to lands never before been explored, have which | The region which we are to traverse dur- ing the coming summer, over which we are to make our dash for the pole, may, after e more forbidding and uncomfort- dangerov ed by a sledging pe y admits of no doubt. to do in years, remains to be seen. mas to wh bh must ne ly be of little value, and facts may prove of interest to the The pack has been traveled at arying rates, from three or four to thirty miles in a day, according to weight of equipment, strength of men and conditions of road. Parry traveled from sixtecn to twenty miles per day, but made only four or five net advance on account of the ne- ty of breaking his loads into from three to four parts and going from five to seven times over most of the road. DeLong and Melville often traveled a total distance of from twenty-five to thirty-two miles in a day, and at the close of this long d) toil had the satisfaction of knowing that they had made a net advance of but two or two and a half mil to carry th loads forward in seven parts and thus going thirteen times over the whole road. How the Pole May Be Conquere Our effort is organized upon the assump- an hour, or twenty per day, over the pack. At this rate of speed he could easily, within a hundred » march from Spitzbergen to the pole back. The question, therefore, becomes The road, though difficult, The problem is how to carry out a journey of this sort, away from known lands, with but doubtful de- pendence to be placed upon game secured to twenty-five miles and pi iss TRAVELING route, and yet with burdens fight ugh, or energy great enough, to permit antially of the whole load being car. forward all the time without the ne- ty of constant retraverses. Solve this . and the problem of approach to » pole from such a base of operations us that which Spitzbergen affords is a problem no tonger. It only remains to be demon- ated. ‘e believe we have found the theoretical solution, and we are now about to attempt the demonstration. Our plan is based upon the belief that with an early start and fair- ly rapid travel we can. p: region of drift before the drift sets in, en and then whilst on our return to the south in the latter part of the summer have the drift in our favor. Our method of opera- tions is purely and distinctively that of a sledging party. We believe that we are about to reduce the art of sledging to a greater state of perfection than was ev before known. Our practice is founded upon the theory that with the use of aluminum for lightness of equipment, of the scien- tifieally concentrated foods ‘of this day for smallest possible weight of provisions, with the use of the most available and adapt able animal power as a supplement to the trength of the men, and all these in com- bination with special devices designed to apply this energy to advantage or to con- serve it, we shall be able approximately to attain the end in view. Aluminum in the Arcties. We cannot pause here to describe these features of our equipment fuily, but will do so in future articles in The Star, and very interesting articl will find them. to s I believe the reader It is enough for the present out that our outfit contains no innovations, nothing that ul, every detail of ted by the arcti All arctic effort point artling both simple and pract which has t expeditions, as well as to mistakes of p profit by those featur which proved dvantageous. We believ: and in this view are supported by men whose experience makes their judgment worth more than ours, that we shall enter upon our task with the best equipment for sing expedition that was ever em- ployed in the arctic: If our outfit has di ny inguishing feat- it the free use of aluminum in the on of sledges and other Aluminum is a wonderful metal, little und. 1 It has its gr. and also its limitations. It { self especially adi to is shown by the fact that v » first aluminum boats in Amer at they are the strongest, most nd lightest boats of their size ever n the world. Warmth At « -mendou: the Polar Summer. advantage which we shall in our summer dash for the pole is we do not have to go prepared for treme cold weather. We shall encounter a temperature that is rather too warm than too cold. We shall suffer more from h and from the brightness of the sun than from frost. The arctic summer is like the f the latitude of Washington, ( n= ti and St. Louis, with this strikin: difference, that the arctic summer has 1 night and a surprisingly equable ature. In all the time that we on this journey we do expect to the mercury 1 s Fahrenheit. If it approaches zero at all it will be during the first half of May, just as we are enter-* ing upon our work. After the first of June That it can be cross- | 2 Whether or not it can be traveled at a sufficient rate J to enable us to do | single summer what others have failed | S| » having been forced | tion that a man or dog carrying or drawing | but a moderate load can travel two miles | OVER THE $s not | of their equipment | at | but which are believed to ¢ and ist to the north little east of Spitzbergen. will carry us to a point north than man has ever reached, only one-half of the time which we prudent in the advance will have With twenty-five days son for the northward |march, how near to the pole do you think we ? We will give you the answer w return next autumn, | Aretic Work Not Extremely Danger- ous. The only thing that we feel certain of is perhaps | | w that we shall return—not only to Spitz- bergen in September, but to Norway and to America before Thanksgiving day. As a winte resort Washington has more attrac- ess for the members of our party than Even the north pole as the far end of an excursion has no fascina- tions for us without return tickets and a chance to use them. Of what use to solve the problem without living to tell the story? Doubtless it is true the public is weary of critice of life in the northern regions. The people have read enough of arctic horrors, of starvation, of perishing with 1 and disease. Fond of adventure and ds of daring as they are, many men come to the conclusion that the ar tic mystery is not worth the candle that burned in human life. Yet the truth that three conspicuous those of | . is arctic disasters, anklin, of Greely and of DeLong, have filled the popular mind with exagger- :ated ideas of the dangers of the far north, ‘The pubiie forgets the hundreds of expedi- | tions that have gone out and returned in | safety, and overlooks the fact that of all arctic expeditions known to history, those well and those ill planned, those which went on such foolish errands as a search for the north pole in a ship and also those which lost their men from scurvy, that now dethroned terror of the seas—the mor- tality was not as great as it is every year among a similar number of men engaged the merchant marine in the tropical seas. The risk of life in a party like ours, soundly planned, well-equipped, with a base | Seandinaviens, 5 al Z PACK. 1c of supplies properly placed for falling back upon, is so small as scarcely to deserve consideration. And yet we go, as men should always go in the arctics, prepared for a great va- riety of emergencies. While cur plan is to return home in the autumn, we have not lost sight of the possibility of being cempelled to winter at Spitzbergen. We expect to return to Spitzbergen from our dash for the pole about the middle of Sep- | tember, though the little hunting vessels | of the daring Norwegians often leave Spitz- |bergen as late as the first or even. the | middle of October, reaching Tromsoe or Hammerfest soon afterward. But if some urforeseen delay or accident shculd render wirtering in that cheerless region un- avoidable, we shall have at hand the means of doing it. At Dane's Island we shall have house, food, fuel. But these are placed there only as a precaution, and with the expectation that there fs ‘no more than one chance in a hundred of their use. | Must Return to Headquarters. | We are often asked what will happen to | us if we Go not get back to Spitzbergen. Just what happens to a man who goes down in a coal mine and has the shaft cave in on him; precisely the same thing that happens |to the man who suifers a stroke of com- | plete final heart failure, or to the passenger fn the last seat of the rear coach when | there is a tail-end collision. In other words, je must return to our headquarters. If | We make the pole or our farthest north in | fifty days, when our loads are heaviest, [aad when whatever drift there is works |against us, why can we not return over | the same road in the ame number of days is growing lighter all the time consumption of food and fuel, and with drift which sets in to the scuth about’ middle of the summer carrying us p? Nor is this even fifty-five there is we shall’still have or more days in which to reach our quarters in ample time to leave for before the west coast of Spitz- sen is crowded with the autumn. {tce. jSimply to reach Spitzbergen, which will |be safety, even at the inconvenience of a | tedious wintering, we shouid have for the | return journey at least eighty days before the setting in of winter. Again, on our return from the far north in September it jis probable we shall tind the sea compara- | tively free of ice for a distance of 100 miles |to the north of the shores of Spitzbergen. The highest latitude ever reached with a ship was made in this same region. Wherever the edge of the ice is there our stanch little steamer is to be waiting for us, thus shortening by so much the length of our return journey upon the pack. | ‘The Question of Food. It 1s true that we are going provisioned for only 110 days, and should our journey | be extended beyond that period we might |run short of supplies. But there is enough | elasticity in our equipment to provide for such an emergency. We count on a bear ow and then, for ice bear have been found as far north in the pack as.man has ever been. An occasional bear would be a great agiition to our larder, for he weighs from ™) to 1,000 pounds. There are seal in the the toward safety while we s all, a or ys in our northward adva If we consume fifty 'y reason to believ pack ice, too, and though seal blubber is not the most appetizing of meat, hunger is which makes the palate easy Then there are our dogs me, long-eared di our ught hounds from jum and Holland, which it would be a pity to lead to the mbles, and which we would much rather bring to America. But necessity knows no law, and we might WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. TO ADVERTISERS. Advertisers are urgently re- quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, im order that insertion may be as- sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of the day °f publication, precedence being given to those first réceived. —— find it necessary, indeed, it is probable we shall, to put into operation the rule of dog eat dog. We may try a few fresh dog Steaks ourselves. A great advantage of the use of dog power is the ease with which your power can be transformed into food for the remaining dogs or the men. If a ; man falls ill you cannot leave him behind. If he dies, or his services in the drag-ropes are no longer needed, you cannot put him in the pot. To the Heart of the Unknown Region. Many people find it difficult to perceive wherein one polar expedition differs from another, cither in plan or purpose. Having now briefly described the plan of this ex- pedition, leaving some of the features to be more adequately presented in future papers, it is pertinent to ask the question, whyfore? What is it that we propose to accomplish? The answer is—not to explore a bit of coast somewhere in the aretics; not to determine whether a certain land ex- tends a few miles more or less in oue di- rection; not to wander about the frontiers of the unknown region; not to nibble at the edge of the quest! Our ambitions’ are higher than any of these, worthy and in some respect important though they are. Our aim is to drive straight for the heart of the mknown region, to the spot which contains within its icy breast the mystery of the arctics, to solve, if possible, what is known to geographers and scien- tists as the polar problem. Mankind set out centuries ago to accom- plish this task. He long ago determined that the great white sphynx should speak. It is safe to say that he will persist in his efforts till some adventurous traveler, more fortunate than his predecessors,will achieve what has been so long struggled for. If we fail therein it shall not be for lack of ambition or effort. For two centuries this arctic problem has engaged the attention of adventurous men of all northern races. The two great Eng- lish-speaking peoples, the Germans, the the Dutch, the Russians, have sent almost innumerable expedition: to the azctics. The French and Austria’ have at times joined the hunt, while even the sons of sunny Italy have had thei> trial at the ice-beleaugered mystery. If any one imagines that man is going to stop in this effort beause now and then a few lives are lost, he is very much mistaken. It is the history of the race that it never goes back- ward. Having set his face toward the pole, man will never wholly abandon the quest. Until human nature fs radically changed these efforts will be continued,and until man becomes more than human there will be the keenest popular interest in these attempts to penetrate the region of the unknown, The search after knowledge, as Prof. Hetlprin has said, “has no limits and knows ro time.” What earnest desire for knowledge does not prompt is found in love.of adven- ture. The two aspirations are ier in the human breast that it is di! It to say where one ends and the other begins. Kin ly critics will say of us, no doubt, that love of adventure is a stronger incentive than pursuit of knowledge. Possibly this is true. It is useless to argue the point. The main thing Is not the ambition which impels us, but what we accomplish, how much of contribution we make to the world’s know! edge of the world; and as to that neither the critics nor ourselves can now say, but the results must determine. Science Awnits the Answer. Every important science which has for its object knowledge of our earth runs against a great blank space beyond the Sth paral- lel of north latitude. Until we know what exists beyond that line these sciences raust remain incomplete, unsatisfactory. Already the theorists have done their best, or their worst, to solve the problem, On one side is the belief in an open polar sea, the theory that owing to the action of the gulf stream, which is supposed to dive under the fice and reappear farther north, there Is formed in the region of the pole a land of climate comparatively mild, habitable and possibiy inhabited by a race of men who have for- ever lived isolated from the the world. At the other extreme we find the theory that the region of the pole is covered with an eternal ice cap, some 600 miles in diameter, resting upon both land and sea, and thousands of feet in vertical thickness! Who shall say that either of these theories is right or wrong? Both ere or have been supported by men of leerning. Who shall decide between them, cr declare, ‘h more probable, that the truth y their extremes, and that the pole is surrounded by lands which are glacier pped, while the sea is covered with a network of pack ice, frozen solid in win- tes and drifting about in summer? Who shall close the gaps for science, prepare the way for completing the circle of knowledge? None but the man who penetrates far enough within the unknown area to find the answer, and lives to bring It back. Can the Arctic Problem Be Solved? When we say that the north pole is the ideal objective point of our journey we mean thereby that the pole is symbolical of the central part of the unknown region. It is at the pole or in Its neighborhood that the solution of the arctic problem is to be found, Geographers and men of science agree that penetration beyond the Sth cr perhaps to the 86th parallel is, for the pur- pose of solving the arctic mystery, as good as reaching that precise point at which the northern axis of our earth terminates, where all lines of longitude converge and where there is no direction but south. Our success from a geographical and scientific point of view therefore will be in crossing the circle which surrounds the pole at a distance of 350 statute miles from it. Our greatest suc- cess from the popular standpoint will be in reaching the pole itself, or at least in ap- proaching near enough to it to be able to say that it has been substantially within our grasp. From our headquacters at Dane's Island to the pole, in a direct line, the distance is 700 statute miles; to the S5th parallel, which at least we hope to pass, it is 350 miles. this parallel marks the farthest north yet achieved by man, and that was done by two brave Americans, Lockwood and Brainard. It is further agreed by the best students | of the polar question, both in England and America, that the first expedition to enter this unknown region need not and perhaps should not be wholly of a scientific charac- ter. It should, be practical rather than scientific. It should be an exploring party, simply—a_ pioneering party. If it can find the practicable road to the pole and show the means of traveling it, larger parties more fully equipped for careful scientitic inquiry will surely follow in its track. To do this much is the aim of the present ex- pedition. At the same time, while holding the character of a pioneering party, w: shall endeavor, in case we are successful in reaching high latitudes, to make studies and observations of meteorological and phys- ical conditions that will prove of value to science. For this purpose we take out an admirable set of ins benefit of the coun: of the coast survey entific men. A Newspaper ploring Expeditio: Exploration, valuable additions to man’s knowledge of his earth, important scien- tific observations, possible solution of what is known as the polar problem—these are not the only purposes of this expedition. It is a newspaper effort. For the first time, it is believed, a newspaper writer leads an expedition into the arcties. I have always believed that if the north pole were worth discovering at all, if the arctic mystery were worth solving, it should be a news- paper man that does it. Who has a better right to solve mysteries, to discover that which man has so long found undiscoverable and inaccessible? The enterprise and en- ergy of the American S are proverbial throughout the world. Some of the greatest feats of travel and exploration have been accomplished by American journalists. If we should be so fortunate as to succeed in a field where so mé none will be more glad therefor than the generous, manly newspaper makers of America. So far as I am personally concerned, this effort is in line with my profession. It is worthy and dignified, and the honor of it does not consist in good fortune and great success, but in doing the best one can. I shall at least do my best to give the readers of The Star interesting and accurate accounts of el of Prof. Mendenhall nd other eminent sci- what we are trying to do and how we pro- | gress in the effort. Dispate! From the Farthest North. Not only shall we write the story of our adventures in real life, illustrated from photographs, but we shall, if our plans car- mainder of | One hundred miles short of | ruments, and have the | that is to send dispatches from the inner regions of the arctic world. Ordinarily an arctic expedition is not heard from till its return—one, two or three years after its departure. We shall do better. We have a line of communication which is designed to enable us to send The Star descriptive mat- ter and photographs from the farthest north while we are still in the field. Our supporting party of seven men ac- companies us to the north from our head- quarters only some twenty or twenty-five days In this time we shall hope to accom- plish from 250 to 300 miles of northing. If we do only 250, or even less, we shall, about turns back, reaching Spitzbergen about July Ist. There our steamer awaits them, and carries to Norway the dispatches, let- ters, photographs and artists’ sketches, which they bear from our perch away up on the top of the big globe. In three or four days, if all goes right, our steamer will be at Trom- soe, and the Atlantic cable will bear you a dispatch announcing tnat we have been | heard from, and that when heard from we were nearer the pole than man had before penetrated, and were still going north! An In ational Race for the Pole. There are other expeditions in the field, and this is to be a momentous year in ;aretic work. Dr. Nansen, bravest of the brave, the ideal arctic explorer, is now in the ice in his stanch Fram, to the north of the Siberian the 10th of June, be farther north than man | ever was before. Our supporting party now | little ship the | ry well, do what was never done before, and | He is the president of the National Capital Press Club. Owen B. French, the astronomer end scientist of the expedition, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, twenty-eight years o)d, After leaving the common schools he de- cided to become a civil engineer, and in 1SSS graduated from the Case School of plied Science, one of the best Schools in this country. He then took to the field, and served as topographer on @ railway survey in Tennessee, North Caro- lina and Georgia. In 1889 he joined the coast survey, and was assigned to field duty near Pensacola, Fla. He was them placed in charge of a topographical at work on Perdido bay, and also jin the hydrography. The three summer Seasons of "90, "Yl and "2 were spent cm the primary transcontinental triangulation in Utah, Colorado and Nevada, where all the work is at an elevation of from 10,000 | to 15,000 feet above the sea. In "90 and "SL he assisted at the astronomical work, mag- netic observations and the trigonometrical en entire charge of important parts of the work. During the winter of "91 and "92 he was assigned to duty in the party detailed to“locate astro- nomically a number of points along the Mexican boundary between El Paso Pacific, his share of the work observations for latitude and the elements. The winter of "92 and "93 again spent in field work in Florida, | in March, "93, he was assigned to di astronomer on the determination of | boundary between Alaska and British up ii bi & 5 9% lumbia. Having completed this work returned to Washington and took Islands, near where the Jeannette was | sunk. Lieut. Peary, persistent, successful, resourceful, is at his house in McCormick Bay, West Greenland, whence he will set out in about six weeks for northernmost | Greenland and the pole, if the land shall |Jead him so far. Mr. Stein of this city is the projector of a commendable and deserv- ing plan for further exploration of Elles- mere Land, which is now only in part known. In May we shall be in the eternal ice, pressing northward as fast as we can so. Of the three important parties, ours is the one of which the world will naturally expect the least in the way of results. Nansen and Peary are the veterans, we the amateurs. They have writtten their names high on the roll of honor, while we have done nothing. Not one of us has ever been nearer the pole than Norway or Alaska. We have yet to be tried amid the difficulties and dangers of arctic travel, and before we can claim or expect confi- dence must earn it in the field. Until we have done this we ask no other considera- tion than fair play and a willingness to await results before passing judgment. Between Peary, Nansen and ourselves there will this year be an international face for the pole. Frederick Jackson, an Englishman, talks of starting by way of Francis Joseph Land, and we sincerely hope he may enter the field. The more of The pole is worth winning, not only in the desire for fame, notoriety or whatever motives mingled with these. For those with a search after truth it is not neces- sary to argue the value of arctic explora- tion. That question was answered a half century ago by that stern friend of knowl- edge. Sir John Barrow, when he wrote: “The north pole is the only thing in the world about which we know nothing: and that want of all knowledge ought to operate as a spur to adopt the mears of wiving away that stain of ignorance from this enlightened age.” WALTER WELLMAN. MEMBERS OF THE POLAR PARTY. Something About the Make This Sensati Walter Wellman, leader of this expedition, is one of the best-known newspaper men in Washington, where he has served for five years as the correspondent of the Chicago | Herald and also as a letter writer for the American Press Association. He is thirty. five years of age, and a native of the west- ern reserve. While a boy his parents re- moved to the backwoods of Michigan, and after some years of residence among the prairies of Nebraska. Wellman left home own living; first as clerk in a coun store, where the Indians were the principal customers, and later as apprentice in a frontier printing office. When only fourteen he started his own paper at a county seat with a capital of thousands of hopes and a score or two of dollars. He made a success of it, too. Later he drifted east. Was for three years editor of the Repository at friend of Gov. McKinley. With his brother he started the and sold out, cess, to the Scripps syndicate. Established and sold a newspaper at Akron, Ohio. In 1884 joined the staff of the Chicago Herald as political writer, his wor r the sig- nature of “Mentor” tention. Except a few months with the Chicago Tribune has been with the Heraid Walter Wellman. ever since as city editor, editorial writer, staff correspondent and Washingte 1 sentative. Mr. Wellman has had rat |more than his share of the new | Washington during the last five ye is noted for the amount of work h jturn out apparently without much on his part. For five years, probably, has written more matter than any other [newspaper man in Washington. hree ears ago he was sent by the Chicago Herald to find the spot at which Columbus had first landed upon he beats in Owen B, French. erect a monument there. The manner in which he performed this task attracted }location of the spot has since been indorsed | by Clements R. Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society,and other geog- raphers. Mr. Wellman has for years been student of the arctic problem, and ar visited Europe to pursue ais in- | ions and to make preliminary ar- |rangements for this expedition. Mr. Well- man is married, and the father of five girls. us the merrier, and may the best man win. | the spirit of friendly rivalry, not alone tn | |¥ou choose to call it, but from higher | who identify the progress of civilization | and school as a lad of twelve to earn his | Canton, Ohio, where he became the warm | Svening Post at Cincinnatt, | fter making the paper a suc- | attracting much at- | wide attention, and the correctness of his | age reduction of observations at the office the coast survey. In January last he | @ppointed . member yi T=? conf ence now in progress ashington. | French has the confidence of Superintend- ent Mendenhall of the coast survey to am unusual extent, and his reputation as field worker, as a scientist and as is all that could be desired. He married. 5 | Dr. Thomas B. Mohun, Dr. Thomas B. Mohun, the physician an@) surgeon of this expedition, is forty years old and a native of Washington. His father was a lumber merchant and one of the early residents of the capital. Dr. Mohun was educated for business, but in 1882 re- tired from commercia! life and tock up medicine, graduating from the medical de- partment of Columbian University. He was for year resident physician of the Washington Asylum Hospital, when his de- sire for travel and change of scenes led him to the far northwest. He practiced for a year at Seattle, and then made a profes- sional trip to Alaska and return.He retarn- ed to Washington three years ago, and has been in general practice ever since. Ma spent nearly all his life in this city he is well known here, and as generally ‘iked. He was house surgeon of the hospital main- tained at the G. A. R. camp in Washing- ton during the summer of 182, and through an arluous service of six days and nights, practically without sleep, won the admira- tion of all concerned. Dr. Mohun's profes- sional experience has been of such varied and responsible character that the members ‘of the Waiter Wellman North Polar Expe- dition of 1894 confidently place their lives and limbs in his keeping. Dr. Mohun is ume married. swamps and forests removed again to the | Charies C. Dodge. Charles C. Dodge, the artist and photoge rapher of the expedition, is thirty years oli and a native of on. He was edu- cated in the public schools there and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While a boy he ran away from home and served for a tim on a fishing schooner on jthe banks of Newfoundland. 4 time employed in Chic tions for new a@ number of y sh tion division of the } designer and draughtsm: good deal of work on the of the new nav chis D. nd other private firms. er of the boats He is an enthusiastic not and experienced in all and exposure. Many of e iustrat » been ased in the Cosmopolitan and other 1 to the art of 7 hy h a great deal of atten ts to develop bh n while the sun is per day. Mr. Dodg one chil twenty-four ‘s married and Married With | From the K. Father or story: “You never he couple before th | ter I was m as City Ti n of ichita was in town @& d told the following V two 1 of the time I married & knew it? Well, soon af- 1 was engaged to priest, | perform a marriage ceremony. It was tobe | & swell wedding. I arrived at the house | rather earl cording to request, and was taken upstairs at There I laid aside my hat and overcoat then the bride’s mother k 1 7 and said her daughter wishe see me f course, I but was surprised to ated the marriage an upstairs Troom I thought it was very queer, immediately but omy, _ ried them fast and sure right there. Wher ceremony was over, the bride eaid we will go down into the parlor and be married.” “But you claimed. “I ca again. | “And then T 1 was ‘to prac’ are married already,’ I ex- "t go through the ceremony arned that all they wante¢ the ceremony, so as tog | through it properly when in the midst oj their friends. But there was no help for it Married they were, and I couldn't repeat the ceremony, which, with us, is @ sacra- ment.” ————_+e2—____ The Stumper Stumped. From Puck. Mrs. Spouter—“Where are you going to night, John?” Mr. Spout j ‘I am due, my Gear, to ad« dress the Consolidated Cohorts of the Hom@ Industries of Hohokus.” Mrs. Spouter—“If you would stop your | talking and do more working several home industries I know of would prosper betten Hustle down, now, and bring up the coal!”