172 



THE OOLOOIST. 



Much easier to swallow Dr. Cook's 

 story than that yarn about 336 pounds 

 of Judge Taft getting really lost in 

 the woods. 



If the Prince of Wales wants to kill 

 big game on Roosevelt's African trail 

 he must give the baby lions time to 

 grow up. 



The Jealousy of Savants. 



The validity of Dr. Cook's inspira- 

 tion right at the pole that his story 

 might be declared a fake has been 

 challenged. It is said that that was 

 the last thing he would be thinking 

 about then. "I felt sure it would be 

 said that 1 bribed my two brave Eski- 

 mos and forged my diary containing 

 observations," he wrote to the Herald. 

 The explorer could well imagine that 

 his '. incomplete records and diary 

 might be found with his bones long 

 years after with no one to verify the 

 facts. As an educated man he well 

 knew that some of the most marvel- 

 ous narratives left by explorers were 

 scouted for years and even for centu- 

 ries. 



Marco Polo's statements of his jour- 

 neys overland to the far east waited 

 over GOO years for complete verifica- 

 tion. Even today he is caricatured as 

 a Munchausen before the populace of 

 his native city in Italy. James Bruce, 

 explorer of Abyssinia and searcher for 

 the sources of the Nile, was called a 

 riar for more than a hundred years be- 

 cause there were errors in his calcu- 

 lations, due to lack of scientific meth- 

 ods. The accounts brought back by 

 Abbe Hue from Tibet, "the roof of 

 the world." in the middle of the last 

 century were only verified by -white 

 men a few years ago, when a British 

 army penetrated the land of mystery. 

 Ever the sober and especially the sci- 

 entific world has been slow to accept 

 the tales of lone travelers until backed 



by indisputable proofs. Columbus' 

 own age neglected him and considered 

 his exploits a fake, although the ra 

 tundity of the earth was not then an 

 unknown theory. Fremont, "the Path- 

 finder." was court martialed. and when 

 Stanley reported the finding of Living- 

 stone he was bluntly told to produce 

 Livingstone in proof. 



Among the items sidetracked by the 

 dual discovery of the pole are the tar- 

 iff, benzoate of soda, conservation of 

 forests and that trifling incident be- 

 tween Fowler and Dncle Joe. 



Peaceful relations l-etween certain 

 neighboring towns and cities in the 

 land are likely to be strained as soon 

 as the next census is taken. 



Dr. Cook's narrative bicks one indis- 

 pensable bit of internal evidence. It 

 says not a word about Jack Frost. 



Allliough straii;ht fron) the arctic, 

 Dr. Cook's advent produced a hot 

 wave. 



It looks like a dispute which must 

 be referred to the north pole. 



Sticklers are disputing as to the 

 proper place to put the accent in auto- 

 mobile. A prefix rarely printed, but 

 most always understood, which begins 

 with a big, big D. is the syllable 

 usually made emphatic. 



The lid on the roosters crow de- 

 Tised for Washington doubtless has 

 strong backing from certain individ- 

 uals who want to do all the crowing 

 around that dunghill themselves. 



When the Rev. Edward Everett Hale 

 advised us to "look up" he wasn't 

 thinking of aeroplane wings overhead, 

 but of the kind so hard lo sprout. 



