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The National Geographic Magazine 



farther. We dropped on a snow slope 

 a few hundred feet below the summit 

 and tried to rest, while we gasped for 

 breath; but the piercing air chilled us; 

 and so, with knees bent, and back bent, 

 and chests laboring like bellows, we 

 digged one foot after another over the 

 big blocks of granite at the top. The 

 summit at last — the top of the continent. 

 Our North Pole had been reached. To 

 an ice axe the flag was attached, and 

 Barrille stood on the brink, as near 

 heaven as he ever expects to get and live. 

 We had been eight days in ascending, but 

 we remained only twenty minutes. It 

 would, however, take me several hours 

 to tell you what we saw. This I will re- 

 serve for a future occasion. 



THE TOASTMASTER 



• The National Geographic Society is 

 honored by the presence of the Chief 

 Executive of the United States. 



The Board of Managers of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society, representing, 

 as was said earlier in the evening, 

 eighteen thousand members, widely scat- 

 tered over the civilized world, have by 

 unanimous vote ordered that a handsome 

 gold medal be presented to Commander 

 Robert E. Peary for distinguished 

 service in exploration, and for having 

 reached the farthest north, 87 degrees 

 and 6 minutes. Because of the many 

 distinguished achievements that stand to 

 his own personal credit, to add honor to 

 that medal, we are proud of having it 

 presented by the President of the United 

 States with his own hands. 



ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 



Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



I count myself fortunate in having 

 been asked to be present this evening at 

 such a gathering and on behalf of such a 

 society, to pay a tribute of honor to an 

 American who emphatically deserves well 

 of the commonwealth. (Applause.) Civ- 

 ilized people usually live under conditions 

 of life so easy that there is a certain ten- 

 dency to atrophy of the hardier virtues. 

 And it is a relief to pay signal honor to a 



man who by his achievements makes it 

 evident that in some of the race, at least, 

 there has been no loss of hardier virtues. 



I said some loss of the hardier virtues. 

 We will do well to recollect that the very 

 word virtue, in itself, originally signifies 

 courage and hardihood. When the Ro- 

 man spoke of virtue he meant that sum 

 of qualities that we characterize as man- 

 liness. 



I emphatically believe in peace and all 

 the kindred virtues. (Applause.) But 

 I think that they are only worth having 

 if they come as a consequence of pos- 

 sessing the combined virtues of courage 

 and hardihood. So I feel that in an age 

 which naturally and properly excels, as it 

 should excel, in the milder and softer 

 qualities, there is need that we should 

 not forget that in the last analysis the 

 safe basis of a successful national char- 

 acter must rest upon the great fighting 

 virtues, and those great fighting virtues 

 can be shown quite as well in peace as 

 in war. 



They can be shown in the work of the 

 philanthropist, in the work of the scien- 

 tist, and, most emphatically of all, in the 

 work of the explorer, who faces and over- 

 comes perils and hardships which the 

 average soldier never in his life knows. 

 In war, after all, it is only the man at the 

 very head who is ever lonely. All the 

 others, from the subordinate generals 

 down through the privates, are cheered 

 and sustained by the sense of companion- 

 ship and by the sense of divided respon- 

 sibility. 



You (turning to Commander Peary), 

 the man whom we join to honor to- 

 night — you, who for months in and 

 months out, year in and year out, had to 

 face perils and overcome the greatest 

 risks and difficulties, with resting on 

 your shoulders the undivided responsi- 

 bility which meant life or death to you 

 and your followers — you had to show in 

 addition what the modern commander 

 with his great responsibility does not 

 have to show — you had to show all the 

 moral qualities in war, together with 

 other qualities. You did a great deed, a 



