42 THE NORTH POLE FOUND 



Brooklyn the joyous news, not only of success, but of health, was forwarded 

 with all speed to the explorer's wife, who was passing part of the summer 

 in Maine. The two words, "successful" and "well," were all she needed to 

 know. The one told her that her husband' had achieved what no man had 

 achieved before. The other contained the (for her) even more heartening 

 news that he had returned from the awful solitudes of the pole with health 

 and strength. 



Before the day was over still another message reached the world. It was 

 clearer and more conclusive than the others. It was addressed to the director 

 of the observatory at Brussels, Belgium, M. Lecointe, an old friend and 

 fellow-worker of Cook. It said : 



"I reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. I discovered land far north. 

 I return to Copenhagen by steamer." 



And so it had been done. A man had stood on "the top of the world" and 

 had gazed upon expanses never before glimpsed by human eyes; perhaps, 

 indeed, never seen by the eye of any living creature. More than kings and 

 princes of the mythical world, more than navigators of the new world in the 

 fifteenth century, has this tall, well built man who used to live at 670 Bushwick 

 avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., found a new thing under the sun. 



On that hour in April, 1908, that this man stopped his dog sledges, pulled 

 out his sextant, and with mittened fingers fixed the instrument on the north 

 star, shining out of the arctic night, he found himself — if the world will credit 

 his statement — at latitude 90 and longitude anything he pleased. 



He found that by shifting the position of his feet on the tip of the world 

 he could throw himself across a span of longitudinal lines that swiftest train 

 and steamer could not cover in forty days. 



Perhaps in a whimsical moment this Brooklyn explorer balanced himself 

 on the toe of one bearskin boot and whirled from right to left. Presto ! he had 

 added a day to his life. 



It took Dr. Cook months to work his way back from the region into which 

 he had penetrated. It took only a few hours for his deed to become known in 

 every city, every village, every spot on earth where civilized men hold com- 

 munication with one another. And the world gasped and smiled, and cried 

 out the questions: 



Who is Cook ? How did he do it ? What good is it ? What does it mean 

 to the world of the future? 



