THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE 



69 



matter the soul within, and these are the 

 men who are entitled to the credit. And 

 so it is with all the money I give. 



When I gave Doctor Billings one 

 morning seventy-eight libraries for New 

 York — that was the biggest wholesale 

 order I have ever filled — I was met with 

 congratulations the next morning when 

 walking down the street. "What do you 

 congratulate me for?" I asked. "Why, 

 for giving New York seventy-eight libra- 

 ries," was the answer. "Cannot receive 

 your congratulations, gentlemen," was 

 my reply, "but if you will congratulate 

 me upon the bargain I made with New 

 York, by which she agreed to maintain 

 seventy-eight branch libraries free to all 

 the people, shake." 



I thank you for inviting me here. I 

 thank you gentlemen for your applause 

 and ladies for your smiles. I am the 

 happiest man in the world, because I 

 know that it is not what I have done that 

 I pride myself upon. It is rather upon 

 what I have induced others to do. Ladies 

 and gentlemen, let me assure you I make 

 splendid bargains with all the money that 

 I apparently give away for nothing. 



THE TOAST xM ASTER 



Mr Carnegie gives all the credit to 

 those who are doing the work under his 

 beneficence, but I would say to him that 

 that good old Scotch brain of his never 

 gave a dollar that he did not in his won- 

 derful divination see far at the end some 

 beneficent purpose, and I would say to 

 him that a stream never rises higher, sir, 

 than its source. 



We have on our Board of Manage- 

 ment, I am proud to say, a very wide 

 diversity of talent, and I shall introduce 

 now Admiral Chester, of the United 

 States Navy, formerly Director of the 

 Naval Observatory, who had charge of 

 the party that went to Africa several 

 years ago to view and to observe the 

 eclipse, and who has done a great deal 

 of highly creditable scientific work. We 

 shall ask him to say a few words with 

 regard to the work of Commander Peary 

 in the polar regions during the past 20 

 years. 



TWENTY years' service IN THE ARCTIC 



REAR ADMIRAE COLBY M. CHESTER, 

 U. S. NAVY 



My distinguished colleague has given 

 an account of the objects of the National 

 Geographic Society, and it is my privi- 

 lege to present a brief statement of the 

 work done by our doubly honored and 

 highly esteemed member, Commander 

 Peary, work that has resulted in such 

 signal success as to probably make him 

 the honorary member of nearly all geo- 

 graphic societies of the world.' 



Beginning back in 1886, Mr R. E. 

 Peary, then a young civil engineer of the 

 U. S. Navy, originated and put into oper- 

 ation an entirely new project for Arctic 

 exploration, and with a Dane, Maigaard,. 

 reached a point near Disco, Greenland,, 

 some 50 miles from the sea. With the 

 experience and whetted appetite for Arc- 

 tic exploration gained on this trip, he 

 soon organized a second voyage to the 

 Polar Seas and landed at McCormick 

 Bay, in August, 1891, and although his 

 leg was broken in crossing Melville Bay, 

 and he had nothing more than an Arctic 

 winter and its attendant discomforts be- 

 fore him, he persisted in his determina- 

 tion to go north, and but few people can 

 realize what he courageously must have 

 passed through during that long Arctic 

 night. 



His primary object was to study the 

 Esquimos with a view to utilizing them- 

 as a force with which to eventually reach 

 the North Pole, and he took upon himself 

 their habits and customs to better enable 

 him to gain their confidence and com- 

 mand them when ready for the campaign 

 quite on the same principle as our army 

 has organized Porto Rican and Philip- 

 pine Scouts to Jeal with military subjects 

 which the natives of the country can best 

 negotiate. 



Early the following spring Peary, now 

 able to travel, made a brilliant sledge 

 journey of 1,300 miles, crossing the di- 

 vide of 5,000 feet elevation between 

 Whale Sound and Kane Sea, in Green- 

 land, reaching the northern edge of the 

 inland ice, near 82° north latitude, and 

 discovering Independence Bay. 



