Evening Star Newspaper, June 3, 1923, Page 82

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6 How a Young Journalist Staked All on His Exposure of Dr BY SIR Pilllz. GIBBS. N spite of my long and fairly sue- | cessfufl’ career as a journalist, I have rarely achieved what Is knowu as a “scoop’—that is to say, an exclusive story of sensational interest. The only important “scoop” that I can claim, as far as I remember, was my discovery of 'Dr. Cook aftér his pretended discovery of the north pole. That was”due to a lucky sequence of events which led me by the hand from first to last. The story {samus- ing for that reason and this is the first time I the narra- of in’ affair My first have strange written tive experiences that my luck, my stroke ¢ was strange | starting | tinguist. covered later, was half Eskimo, buti highly educated and extremely hand- ome, spoke a little French, a little | Gorman, and a very little English In a mixture of these three tongues we understobd each other, helped out by the young Dane, who was Peter Freuken, a well known traveler in [tho arcyic reglons, and a very good | * ok % ¥ ‘\ RS. RASMUSSEN was friendly h\ /[ angd amused. She told me it was true her husband was a great friend | of Dr. Cook, and that he was the last who had seen him before he| toward the north pole. F’r! that reason she wanted to be one of the 4irst to greet him. A launch, or tug. belonging to the director of the man went as it may seem, twenty-four hours later than forty.| other correspondents In search of the explorer at Copenhagen. If I had stafted st the same time 1 should have done what they did and per- haps taken the same line as they aid. As it was. 1 had to play a lone | hand and form my own judgment T had ‘arrived at the Daily Chron- | fele office from some countiry place when E. A. Perris, the news editar,’| the managing editor, din al Lasual way o “There's a fellow ed Dy Cook who has discovered the north pole. | He may arrive at Copenhagen morrow. Lots of other men have the start on but see if you can get some kind of a story.’ 1 uttered the usual groan & bag of gold from the cashier and set out for Copenha by way of the North long and tire- some journey 1 repeated the name | “Dr. Cook,” lest T should forget it; | wondered if 1 knew anything out srctic exploration and decided 1| didn’t, and accepted the probability that I should be too nd the great explorer, and shouldn't know what to ask him if I found him. 1 arrived in Copenhagen. dirty. tired and headachy, in the evening. 1 wanted strong now to- vou, obtained gen eea. On a 1 to e the Germa my desire took me to a filled with | men and women and tobacco smoke. | That was my second stroke of luc for if 1 had not gone to that particu- ‘ lar cafe I should never have Dr. Cook in the : with nguage, communicated to = taxi driver. He rather low-icoking cafe m in way that happened, VER my cup of coffee I looked at the Danish paper and could rcndl only two words, “Dr. Cook.” A Young ADMIRAL PEARY ON THE BRIDG waiter served me, and when I found that he spoke English, I asked him if Dr. Cook, the explorer, had arrived in Copenhagen. No,” safd the waiter. to have been here at midday. But there's a fog in the Cattegat and his boat will not come in until to- morrow morning. All Denmark Is waiting for him.” So he had not arrived! might be in time after ali. T looked | round for any journalist I might know, but did not see a familiar face. Presently, as 1 sat smoking a cigarette, I percelved a suddenly awakened Interest among the people in the cafe. It was due to the arrival of a very pretty lady in a white fur toque, with a white foxskin round her neck, accompanied by another young lady, and a tall Danish fellow with tousled hair. They took their seats at the far end of the cafe. The young waiter came up to me and whispered with some excitement: “Did you see that beautiful lady? That is Mrs. Rasmussen!” The name meant nothing to me, and when I told him so he was shocked. “She's the wife of Knud Rasmus- sen, the famous explorer. It was he who provided Dr. Cook with his dogs before he set’ out for the north pole. They are great friends.” 1 was aware that luck was be- friending me. From that lady, If I had the pluck to speak to her, I could at least find out something about the mysterfous Dr. Cook, and perhaps get a good story about him, whether I could meet him or not. 1 struggled with my timidity, and then went across the cafe and made my bow to the pretty lady, explain- ing that I was a newspaper man from London, who had come all the way to interview Dr. Cook, who was, I un- stood, a friend of her distingulshed “He ought Well, I} | vou above all things a cup of | in hand | Gnea | asked | venture Da: h-Greenland Company, had made ready to go down the Cattegat | {to meet the Hans Egede with Dr.| Cook on board, and she had hoped to | make that journey. But the fog had| spoiled everyghing, and the launch would leave in the morning instead at a earty hour. It was very sappointing! | Surely,” 1 said, “if you really want to go. it would be excellent to travel | to Elsinore tonight, put up at a hotel, | and get on board the launch at dawn. If you would allow me to accompany | very Mrs. Rasmussen laughed at my ad-| venturous plan According o her. ad gone to Elsinore. “Let us a there! She told me that no motor war was to drive at night beyond a distance from Copenhagen e imprison- without special the last train have taxi and drive owed certain 1t would ment, license. 1t scem 1 summoned waiter, and asked him | taxi driver. 1In less than a minute | a burly fellow stood before me, cap Through the waiter I asked he wanted to drive a to Eisinore. He mean a the dri or for er ed incredible. my ifriendly youn® to bring in a much night | nim how party that k his head, and, according to the | waiter, replied that he could not risk | the journey, as he might be heunly‘i “How much, including the fine?" I If he had demanded fifty pounds I should have paid ~T=with Daily | Chronicle money. To my amazement, he asked the modest sum of £5, including the fine. | | expre: | | E OF HIS SHIP IN THE ARCTIC. 1 turned to Mrs. Rasmussen, Peter Freuken and the Sther lady, and in- vited them all to make the journey in “my” motor car. They hesitated, laughed, whispered to each other, and were, as I could sec, tempted by the lure of the ad- “But,” said Mrs. Rasmussen, “when we get there supposing you were not allowed on the launch by the direc- tor of the Danish-Greenland Com- pany? He is our friend. But ‘you are, after all, a_stranger!” “I should have had an amusing drive,” I sald. “It would be worth while. Ferhaps you would tell me what Dr. Cook says when you re- turn.” They laugted again, hesitated quite a time, then accepted the invitation. It was arranged that we should start at 10 o'clock, when few people would be abroad outside the city, where we should have to travel with lights out to avold the police. There still re- mained anghour or so. We had dip- ner, talked of Dr. Cook, and at 10 o'clock started out in the taxi, and I thought how incredible it was that T should be sitting there, opposite a beautiful lady with a white fox around her throat, with a laughing &irl by her side, and a young Danish explorer next' to the driver, riding through Denmark with lights out, to meet a man who had discqvered the North Pole, and whose name I had never heard two days before. These things only happen in joyrnalism and romance. i * ® % % E had not gone very far when, driving through a village, we knocked over a man on a bicycle. People came running up through the darkness. Peter Freuken leaped down from his seat to pick up the man, who seemed tol be uninjured, and there was a great chatter in the husband. Could she tell me how to find him? ' Mrs. Rasmussen, Who, \ as I _dis- Danish tongue, while I kept on shout- ing to Freuken: “How much to pay?" After a while he resumed his seat and mussen THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. JUNE 3 1923—PART 5. In, First of Series of Fifteen Articles, Writer Whose Fame Has Become World-Wide Tells How Luck Brnuiht Him Into Contact With Ex plorer in Advance of the Other Corréspondents. Late in Starting to Greet Returning Voyager Froin Nc:rth. ButHad Long Interview, Which Aroused His Suspicions—Honest Reports Which Are Denied. ] THE FL. WHICH REALLY WENT TO THE NORTH POLE. IT WAS sald: “Nodings to pa So we went on again, and after a long, cold drive without rther incident ched Elsinore, where Hamlet saw his father's ghost At the Itotel there we had somethin hot to drink, and then Mrs. Rasmu sen caught sight of a dapper little man, who was the director the Danish-Greenland Compan the owner of the launch to meet Dr. Cook I was left in the background my companions entered conversation him on on their faces, that they were disappointed, and 1 resigned myself to the thought that 1 had the poorest chance of meeting the explorer's ship at sea Presently Mrs. Rasmussen back “He won't take us” she said “Hard luck!" “But.” That scunded ridiculous. but it was The pompous little man, seemed, had had applications from half the ladles of Copenhagen, cluding his own wife, perhaps, take them on his tug to meet the hero of the morth pole. He had re- fused them all, in order to favor noue at the expense of others. It was impossible for him to take Mrs. Ras- and her friends. He very much regretted that. But when they told him that T was an English jour- nalist he said thers would be a place for me with two or three Danish correspondents. Amazing chance! But hard on the little party I had brought to Eisi- nore! They were very generous about mile of and which was while three into with came added, "he will take true the matter and wished me good luck | when I embarked on the small tug which was to.steam out to, a light- | ship in the Cattegat and at dawn go out to medt the Hans Egede, as Cook’s ship was called. Like a fool, 1 left my overcoat behind and nearly perished of cold until, an hour later, I had climbed up an iron ladder to the lightship in a turbulent sca and descended into the skipper's cabin, where there was a joyous “fugg” and some hot cgcoa splced with a touch of paraffin.” “At dawn we saw, far away up the Cattegat, a little ship all gay with bunting. It was the Hans™ Egede. We steamed toward it, lay ‘alongside and climbed to its top deck up a rope ladder. There I saw a sturdy, hand- some Anglo-Saxon-looking man, in furs, surrounded by a group of hairy and furry men, Europeans and Eski- mos, and some arctic dogs. There was no journalistic rival of mine aboard except the young Danes with us. I went up to the 'central figure, whom 1 guessed to be Dr. Cook, in- troduced myself as an English press man, shook hands with him and con- gratulated him on his herolc achieve- ment. He took my arm in a friendly way and sald: “Come and have some breakfast, young man.” 1 sat next to him in the dining sa- loon of the Hans Egede, which was crowded with a strange-looking company of men and women, mostly in furs and oilskins, with their faces burned by sunlight on snow. The women were missionaries and the wives of missionaries, and their men- folk wore unkempt beards. In response to my request for his “story” he evaded a direct reply, until, later in the morning, the Danes and I pressed him to give us an hour tn his cabin. * ok ok x T was in the saloon, however, that he delivered himself, unwillingly, 1 thought, iInto our hands. As the two or three young Danes knew but little English, the interview was mainly a dislogue between Dr. Cook and myself. I had no suspicion of him, no faint shadow of a thought that all was not straightforward. Being vastly ignorant of Arctic explora- tion, I asked a number of simple questions to extract his narrative and to save myself troudble and get good “copy.” I asked very soon whether he would allow me to see his diary. To my surprise, he replied with a strange defensive look that he had no,diary. His papers had been put on a yacht belonging to & man named BROUGHT BACK TO THE UNITED STATES ON ADMIRAL PEARY'S SHIP, ROOSEVELT. WILLIAM T. STEAD, ENGLISH JOURNALIST, WHO DISAGREED WITH PHILIP GIBBS ABOUT HIS PUBLICATIO? MR. STEAD STA! DR. COOK. IN THE PAGES OF HLY DEFENDED BR. ~ COOK FOR A TIME, BUT LATER ADMITTED HIS MISTAKE. Whitney, who would take them to| New York. | “When will he get there?" I asked. “Next year,” said Dr. Cook ‘But surely,” 1 said, still without suspicion, “you have brought your journal with you? The essential papers?’ “I have no papers,” his mouth hardened. “Perhaps I could see your astro- nomical observationes?’ T said, and was rather pleased with that sug- gostion. “Haven't 1 told you that I have brought no papers?” he said. He spoke with a sudden violence of anger which startled me. Then he sald somthing which ‘made sus- picion leap into my brain. “You believe ‘Nansen,” he said, “and Amundsen, and Sverdrup. They had only their story to tell. Whey don't you believe me?” I had believed him. But at that strange, excited protest and some un- easy, almost guilty look about the man, I thought, “Huilo! What's wrong? This man protests too much.” From that moment I had grave doubts of him. T pressed him several times about his papers. Surely he was not coming to Europe, to claim the greatest prize_of exploration, without a scrap of bis notes, or any of his observations? He became more and more angry with ‘me. until, for the sake of getting some narrative| from him, I abandoned that inter- rogation, and asked him for his per- sonal adventures, the manner of his journey, the welghts of his sledge the number of his dogs, and so on. As I scribbled down his answers, the story appeared to me more and more fantastic. And he contradicted himself | several times, and hesitated over many of his answers, like a man building up a delicate case of self- defense. By intuition, rather than evidence, by some quick instinct of taclal expression, by some sensibility to mental and moral dishonesty, I was convinced, absolutely, at the end of an hour, that this man had not been to the north pole, but was at- tempting to bluff the world. he sald, and * X % X N sight 6f Copenhagen the Hans Egede was recelved by marvelous demonstrations of enthusiasm. The water was crowded with craft of| every size and type, from _steam yachts to rowing boats, tug to pin- naces, with flags a-flutter. Cheers shrieked a wailling homage, whistles blew. Bands on pleasure steamers played “Se¢ the Conquering’ Hero Comes, Dr. ook, the Wero, was hiding in his cabin. He had to be almost drag- ged out by a tall and splendid Dane named Norman Hansen, poet and ex- plorer, who afterward constitued himselt Dr. Cook’s champion and de- clared himself my enemy, because of my accusations. Dr. Cook came out of his cabin with a livid look, almost green. I never saw guilt and fear more clearly written on any human face. He could hardly pull himself together when the Crown Prince of Denmark board- ed his ship and offered the homage of Denmark to his glorious achieve- ment. 3 But that was the only time in which I saw Cook lose his nerve. Landing on the quayside, I had to fight my way through an immense surg- ing crowd which almost killed the object of their adoration by the terrific pressure of thelr mass, in which each individual struggled to get near him. I heard afterward that W. T. Stead, the famous ‘old journalist of the Review of Reviews, which afterward I edited, flung his arms round Dr. Cook, and called upon fellow \journalists to form his body guard, lest he should be crushed to death. On the edge of the crowd I met the first English jaurnalist T had seen. It was Alphonse Courlander, a very bril- liant and amusing fellow, with whom I had a close friendship. When he heard that I had been on Cook’s ship and had interviewed him for a couple of hours, he had a wistful look which I knew-was a plea for me to impart my story. But this was one of the few times when I played a lone hand, and 1 ran from him, and jumped in a taxl in order to avold the call of com- radeship. I knew that I had the story of the world. 2 In a small hotel, distant from the center of the city, I wrote it to the extent of seven cblumns, and the whole of it amounted to a case of libel, making a definite challenge to Cook's clatm and ridiculing the narrative which I set forth as he had told it to me. When I had handed it into the telegraph office I knew that I had burned my boats, and that my whole journalistic career would be made or marred by this message. During the time I had been writing, Dr. Cook had been interviewed by forty journalists in one assembly. W. T. Stead, as doyen of the press, asked the spoke on behalf of the whole body journalists in paying his tribute admiration and homage to the discoverer of the north pole. Spéll-bound by ead's enthustasm, and not having had advantage of that experlence or the Hans Esede, there was not a ma {among that forty who suggested a single | word of doubt about the achievement | claimed by Cook. By a supreme chance of luck, I was alone in my attack | \I anxiety I had a deep conviction {that my Jjudgment was rigt, but ‘whelher I should ba'able to maintain my position by direct evidence and proof, | was not so certain in my mind. I | knew next day that my dispatch had | been published by my paper. for great | extracts from it were cabled back to | the Danish press, and they caused an Immense sensation in Copenhagen. | and as the daxs ed in an astound- | ing fortnight, when I continued m | attack by further and damning ac- | cusations against Cook, I the subject of hostile demonstrations in the restaurants and cafes, and the Danish newspaper Politiken published a murderous-looking portrait of me and described me as “the liar Gibbs” —a designation which afterward they withdrew with handsome apologies. The detalls of the coil of evidence I wove about the feet of Cook not be told in full. he had told his full drup, a famous hagen, and that his own honor achievement. Afterward and that Cook had given mo proof what- ever of his claim. h ™ He professed to have handed his written narrative and astronomical observations to the University of Co- penhagen, and it was claimed on' his behalf by the Danish press that these papers had been examined by as- tronomical and geographical experts who were absolutely satisfied that Cook had reached the north pole. From the head of the university I obtafned a statement that Cook had submitted no such papers and had advanced no scientific proof. Using his own narrative to me, which I had scribbled down as he talked, T enlisted the help of Peter Freuken and other arctic travelers, to analyze his statements about his distances, his sledge-welghts, the amount of food drawn by his dogs, and his timetable. They proved to be absurd, and when he contradicted himself to other interviewers, I was able, with further expert advice, to contradict his contradictions. It was a great game, which I thoroughly en- joyed, though I worked day and night, with only snatches of rest for food and sleep. But T had some nasty moments. One was when a statement was | published in every newspaper of the world that the rector of the Copen- hagen University had flatly denied my interview with him and reiterated { his satisfaction with the proofs sub- mitted by Dr, Cook. ¥ . The Dally Chronicle telegraphed | this denial to me and said: “Please explain.” | 1remember receiving that telegram shortly after reading the same denial in the Danish newspapers, brought to me by Mr. Oscar Hansen, the Dan- of of my * % x % WILL not disgulse my sense of was need He claimed that story to Sver- explorer in Copen- in proof of his I interviewed Sverdrup who was immensely helpful to me. I was thunderstruck and dismayed, for 1t the rector of the university denied what he had told me, and maintained a bellef in the bona fides of Cook I was utterly undone. * X ok ok proached me and put his hand on my shoulder. He, too—still the ar- | dent champlon of Cook—had read that denial. “*Young man,” he cried, in his sono- rous velce, “you have not only ruined yourself, which does not matter very much, but you have also ruined the Daily Chronicle, for which I have had a great esteem. ' “Mr. Stead,” I said, “I am a young and obscure man, compared with you, |and I appeal to your chivalry. Will you come with me to the rector of Copenhagen University and act as my witness to the question I shall put to came in gusts, unceasingly. Sirens|questions, and at the end of the uulo-lmm. and the answers he glves?” gbtained a statement from him | ish correspondent of my own paper, | T that moment W. T. Stead ap-| “By all means,” he sald, “and to make things quite beyond doubt, we will take two other witnesses—the correspondent who issued the state- ment about the denial, and another of established character.” The two other witnesses were a French count, acting as the corre- spondent of a great French newspa- per—the Comte d'Hesdin—and the representative of a news agency who had {ssued the university statement, and belfeved in its truth. It was a strange and exciting inter- | view with that rector. For a long time he refused to open his lips to say a single word one way or the oth- | er about the Cook case. He relented | slowly whep W. T. Stead made an | eloquent plea on my behalf. and%sata that my honor was at stake on his word. The correspondent who had puh- lished the denfal of my Interview tried to intervene, speaking in rapld | German, which I could hardly follow, | endeavoring to persuade the rector to | uphold the statement issued with re- { ard to the university, But the Comte d'Hesdin, acting as my second, as it | lish or French, which all could under- | stand. and to give me the right of putting my questions. This was up- held by Stead. | I put my question exactly word for | word as I had done in the first inter- view Had Dr. Cook submitted any journal of his travels to the university? | Had he submitted any astronomical observations? Had he presented of his claim to have reached the pole? The rector hesitated long answering each question in the nega- tive. The man was profoundly -dis turbed. Undoubtedly, as I knew later, the university, with the king as its president, had deeply involved itself by offering an honorary degree to Cook. As its chief representative, this man was in a difficult and dan- gerouy position, if he turned down Cook’s claim. It was at lefst five minutes before he answered the last question. Then, as an honest man, he answered, as he had done beforc | when I saw him alone. No! f breatied a deep sigh of r he had been a dishonest reputation and career been utterly ruined ed him to Sign the que: any proof at all lief. If man. my would have Sverdrup pledged | | and answers as I had written them down, but for a long time he re- fused to put his signature. Then he signed, but as he handed me the paper, he said: “Of course, that must not be published In the newspapers.” T protested that in that case it was useless, and both Stead and the Comte d'Hesdin argued on my behalf. I had | the paper in my breast pocket, and I 'when the rector gave a timorous con- sent to its publication, I left the room with deep words of thanks, and fair- 1y ran out of the gates of the uni- versity lest he should change his mind, or the paper should be taken from me. It was published in the Daily Chronicle, and in hundreds of other papers. * %ok % BANQUET was given to Dr. Cook and T attended in the dress clothes of my yvoung friend. the waiter. It was a historic evening, for, in the middle of_ that dinner came the famous message from Peary, in which he announced his own arrival at the pole and repudiated Cook’s claim. I stood close to Dr. Cook when that message was handed to him, and T am bound to pay a tribute to his cool nerve. He.read the message on the bit of flmsy, handed it back, and sald: “It Peary says he reached the pole, I believe him His manner at all times, after that temporary ' breakdown on the Hans Egede, was convincing. It was mar- velous on the day when the doctor’s degree—the highest honor of the uni- versity—was conferred upon him, and before all the learned men there he ascended the pulpit of the university chapel, and in a solemn oration stretched out his arms and sald: “T show you my hands—they are clean!” At that moment I was tempted to believe that Cook belleved he had been to the North pole. Sometimes, remembering the manner of the man, Iam tempted to think so still—though now there is*no doubt that he never I went anywhere near his goal. before | Cook I used .to meet him on neutral ground at the American minister's house in Copenhagen, where I hand- ed round Miss Egan's tea cakes. Dr. Cook would never accept any cake from me! Maurice Egan, the min- ister, was immensely courteous and kind and Miss Egan confided to me that if I proved to be right about Dr. Cook, in whom she believed, she would lose her fajth in'human n ture. Since then, though I was proved right, she has regained her faith in human nature, as I know from her happy marriage in the United States. One other slight shock disturbet. my mental poise in this fortnight of sensation. It was when I read in the Politiken a challenge to a duel, publicly addressed to me by Norman Hansen, the poet and explorer. He was a tall man, six feet three or so in his socks and very powerful. I am five feet six or 8 in my boots. If we met I should die. I did not answer that challenge! But on the day when Dr. Cook left Copenhagen, with a wreath of roses round his H | bowler hat, and when I had done my | were, sternly bade him speak in Eng- | job with him. the crowd which had gone down to the quayside to ses the last of him parted and I found myself face face with Norman Hansen. Some one in the crowd said “When is that duel to be fought?" Norman Hansen came toward me and held out his hand, with a great Jolly laugh. “We wi sword,” he rald pen!” with the with the fight “but never * ¥ x % ‘\vx: didn’t even fight with the pen, i for he lost all in Cook and sometimes from lati- tudes T get kind and generous mes- ges from him. W. T. Stead maintained his belief In Cook until the University of Copenhagen formally rejected Cook's claim and cancelled his honory de- gree when the evidence of his own papers, which afterward arrived, and the story of his own Eekimos left no shred of doubt in his favor, Then I had a note from the great old journalist “I have lost and you have won." he wrote, and after that used gen- erous which I need not pub- lsh. Truly faith northern words was a queer, exciting in- ADMIRAL PEARY UPON HIS HETURN TO COVERING THE NORTH POLE. PHOTO TAKEN ON DECK OF HIS SHIP WHEN HE ARRIVED IN life and, marvel at cident in my looking back upon my luck. (Copsrighr, journalistic it, I 1923, br Sir Philip Gibbs. All Tights reserved. ) Quaint Festival. HE spring festival of Pontresina, a lovely village in the Grisons, Switzerland, 5910 feet above the sea, traces its origin back to the days when this part of Switzerland was under Roman influence, and records indicate that spring in that early period actually came into the land around the 1st of March. Spring to the children of those at that time very solitary alpine realms naturally meant liberation from indoors; the joys of winter sport were not known as yet and everybody was anxlous| awalting the glorious season of na- ture's reawakening. As practically all the boys of that region belonged to peasant homes. the arrival of spring, moreover, sug- gested to them the approaching de- parture for those blossom-bestrewn pastures higher up, where the cattle under the supervision of their owners spent the summer months. The Pontresina spring festival to- day still expresses the same ide: AN the boys of the village gather early in the morning. ,Some of them are clad in the regular dairyman's garb, others content themselves with varied fancy decorations and cowbells, and cne of the tallest boys Is chosen at leader of the procession, and is meant to represent the Swiss cowkeeper. This boisterously happy crowd of youngsters marches from door to door and their joyous greetings that “Spring has arrived!” are acknowl- edged with many substantial gifts. Sausages, ples, cakes, apples, nuts and other delicacies appreciated by the proverbial “hungry boy” are handed over to them at every home, and these manifold gifts are later in the day shared with the girls in true banquet style with the donors look- ing on and celebrating in a somewhat more quiet manner.

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