PEARY AS A LEADER 



317 



We steamed southward from Indian 

 Harbor, and upon our arrival at Battle 

 Harbor our Commander was met by a 

 flood of telegrams from the press and 

 from various geographical and scientific 

 societies at home and abroad, all request- 

 ing that he give them his honest opinion 

 as to Dr. Cook's achievement. 



What should he do? 



At this crucial point in his career the 

 average man believes that Peary failed. 

 But the average man has not slept with 

 his back against a sledge at fifty and sixty 

 degrees below zero, with biting winds 

 whipping the snow over his body, dead 

 tired with the day's work ; has not crossed 

 treacherous black ice on snow-shoes ; has 

 not staggered back beaten to his little hut, 

 followed by one shadow — of a dog; has 

 not returned to home, family, and friends 

 year after year with the one word failure 

 on his lips ; has not in the flush of victory 

 seen an impostor bowing to the plaudits 

 of the multitude. 



Was his one public telegram in answer 

 to urgent requests too severe in condem- 

 nation of one whose claims have since 

 been discredited by every scientific so- 

 ciety in the world : "Dr. Cook has handed 

 the people a gold brick. When he claims 

 to have discovered the Pole over his own 

 signature, I shall have something de- 

 cidedly interesting to say"? 



Peary could have shifted the responsi- 

 bility for that answer upon Captain Bart- 

 lett or any of his assistants ; but all who 

 know Peary know that the thought of 

 doing so never entered his mind, as he 

 restlessly paced the floor of his little cabin 

 in that northern port. 



That bitter controversy is dismissed 

 today with "most unfortunate" ! 



As we steamed southward on our last 

 lap with this great explorer, we often 

 reviewed the year that had gone so 

 quickly, and our relations with our 

 leader, all so pleasant. 



Ever kind and thoughtful and consid- 

 erate of his young and inexperienced 

 men, he treated them as a father would 

 treat his sons. He helped us lash and 

 pack our sledges, untangled and repaired 

 our frozen and knotted traces. 



\Yhen struggling along far in the rear, 

 with refractory dogs and heavy loads, an 

 Eskimo would often be detailed to re- 

 lieve us of a part of our load and pilot 

 us safely across an open lead, and if we 

 arrived with frost-bitten face, it was 

 often the Commander's warm hand that 

 brought the blood back to the surface. 



solicitude; for his associates' welfare 

 one; of peary's noteworthy traits 



I well remember falling through the ice 

 at 59 below zero. With sealskin boots 

 filled with water and rapidly stiffening 

 clothes, I arrived at our encampment of 

 snow houses. He beat the ice from mv 

 bearskin pants, pulled off my boots, and 

 wiped my feet and legs with the inside of 

 his warm shirt. And when covered with 

 blood, a heavy 40-82 bullet having passed 

 through my arm, into my shoulder, and 

 out through the back, and clipping the 

 side of one finger, he remarked : "I would 

 much rather had that thing happen to me 

 than to you !" 



This does not sound like "martinet" or 

 "tyrant" or "unkind to his men." His 

 last words to Marvin, lost on the return, 

 "Be careful of the leads, my boy," is 

 characteristic of the man. 



Is it any wonder, then, that we as as- 

 sistants, when we heard the blowing of 

 the whistles of Sydney, N. S. ; beheld the 

 line of craft circling out to escort us into 

 the harbor ; saw waving flags and docks 

 black with people, should be almost sorry 

 that he had won out ? 



We knew that never again would we 

 have the honor and the pleasure of serv- 

 ing under such a leader. 



