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About The Stayton mail. (Stayton, Marion County, Or.) 1895-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1913)
THE STHYTON MAIL PART TWO STAYTON. MARION COUNTY, OREGON. THURSDAY, 1'KHRUARY 13,*11)13. Dr. Cook Says He Isn’t “Colossal Liar’ and Attacks Rear-Admiral Peary T.horpe Lo*es Famous Polar Controversy Is Opened Again by Explorer W hose Claims o f Discovery Have Been Denounced as Fraudulent by His Enemies Amateur Rank i of bis reach, but was worth twenty plicate of mine; that, lieraiise of the cnuie forward, posing as experts to World’» Beat Athlete Confesses { five thousand dollars. Here was pariillcl material which it contained pass upon both cases, Mr. Peary’s and to Professionalism of Long thirty five thousand dollars to gain that it either proved my position at mine, to settle for all times and ail “ Accused uf being the most colossal liar in history, I some Standing and Loses and Mr. Peary changed heart. He the Pole, or it proved that he had peoples the question of distribution tunes (twl that morn lisa have been told about me than about called Frnuke aboard the ship, offered borrowed from the previously pule of Polar honors. But whenee their auyone ever burn. I have been guilty of many mistakes. His Medals I him a cup of eoffee and a square lished report. You are then asked to authority! Who are its members! Most m«u really true to themselves sdmit that. My claim to James Thorpe—Jim Thorpe to thuee meal and gave him two big goblets take this man’s report as the truth, For two dollars per, any man, woman tko North Pole may always be (pieetioned. Yet, when I re of whiskey. He then called Franke and to take mine as a lie. W ay! or child in this audience becomes a who follow athletic events— has ad gard tM lies great and small attached to me, 1 nm filled al to bis private cabin and there the Why was it neces-iary to put this geographer ia that society, for the mitted that he ia a professional. That most with indifference. following conversation took plaee: leprous sp o t u p o n the fnbrie of clean same money the man who sweeps the “ As a popular illustration o f the sort of yarns that were means that he has accepted money Mr. Penry said to Franke, 'Y ou are human endeavor! Yout cannot under- streets becomes with equal facility a told, let me refer to the foolish fake of the gum« drop. for his services in athletic compe a very sick man. If you stay here Hoineomi started the story that I exported to reach the Pole tition. That means that he is for you will die. I f you go home you by bribing the Eskimos with gum drops; perhaps the idea was muy live.’ Franke knew that. ’ You ever barred from taking part ia track that I was to lura them on from point to ;>oint with regularly Picture of Dr. Cook, j 4* He Is To-day may go home on one o f these ships, meets, football games or baseball issued rations of these roafeetions. bat before you do so you must turn games in which amateurs figure, and, “ Wherever I weal on my lecture tour after my return to over everything that belongs to your- j most especially, that he may not the I'nlted States, much to my irritation, I saw ’ C ook’ gum j self, aud everything that belongs to again show his wonderful prowess in drops conspicuously displayed in confectionery store windows. | Dr. (took. You will not be allowed i the Olympic games, that great inter Hundreds o f pounds of gum drops were sent to my hotel with to take any records home.’ There national congress ot athletes. Thorpe the compliments of the manufacturers. On all aides I heard : was no alternative, the man did it. is, undoubtedly, the greatest all- the gum drop story, aud ia almost every paper read the re ! Iiut what law o f what land would \ arouud athlete in the world. He is a iterated tale o f leading the Eskimos to the Pule by dangling 'grant itf Sac and Fox Indian, a student at the a gum drop on a string before them. I never denied this, Carlisle school for Indians. Within aa I never denied any o f the fakes printed about me. The “ Here is, first, a dastardly under a little more than half a year Thorpe, fact is that I never heard the gum drop yarn until I canio | handed trick to steal thirty five thou at Stockholm and in competition to New York. We took no gum .Imps with us on our Polar sand dollars, but that isn’t the worst.: against the world, established a new trip, and, to my knowledge, no Eskimo ate a gum drop while | It was a deliberate attempt at mur record and showed his supremacy. He with m e.’ '—Dr. Frederick A. Cook. j der. For in taking my camp, all o f ( was recently charged with having i my food supplies, he was attempting played professional baseball with the | to starve me out, to prevent my re Winston-Salem team in North Caro turn to civilization. Here Mr. Peary lina. Wh«n the charge was brought la the annals o f Arctic exploration needed help. He started south, aim j did a thing for which he would l>e home to him T hor;* confessed that there ia nothin« to compare with the ing to get some assistance from th e: hanged, and rightly so, in a mining he had been a professional since 1910; Danish whnlvsbips in North Star Bay. ramp, but he next did worse. Twen rase of Dr. Cook. He baa been ac that, technically, at least, be had With bunt and sled he fought an al ty five miles south o f Etah, in a claimed sad honored: be has been most iinhunian battle and reached taken Olympic honors under false region o f bleak rocka and glaeiera, pretenses. His confession was con denounced and condemned. lie baa North Htar, but too late. The last in a region o f death-dealing storms, tained in a letter to the registra been hailed as the first man to pone ship bad gone, there would not be an Mr. Penry deserted two innocent, tion committee of the Amateur Ath train the froxen North to the axle other for another year. He appealed lielplees children. Two little boys, letie Union, which organization has of the earth, aa the first to reach the to those ever kindly wild people. kis own flesh and blood, his own general supervision over the eligibil " B i g N ail” o f the Eskimos. Then, They nursed him as liest they could children, were left there to starve ity of all athletes who are not in Or. <look has been denounced as “ the and aided him to get back north, and freeze in that cheerless world. sports for n livelihood. This board most eoloeeal liar in history,” as he aiming to get him back to my earap Those poor little ones are there to was in session in New York City at says himself. at Anaoatoli. They did get him back day, crying for bread and milk and the time, convening to deeide The eareer o f 4 h , I'ook since his s i far aa Etah, only 2.1 miles south of a father. The meanest thief in all Thorpe’s ease. In extenuation of his claim to Arctic honors first thrilled my camp, but here Franke was ua- the world would not do that. Mr. conduct, Thorpe said that he did sat the world is too well known to need abla to go another step. He was Peary dit It. Can that man be honest know that he had done anything discussion here. It is enough to eav sick; he had not had a morsel of in anything! That is the kind of wrong, as on the same team with him that he was the center o f the most eivilized food in two months. Ue lay man yrho tried to stir heaven and in 1910 were several college men who sensational conflict ever known and down on the rocks and expected to earth and the other place, mostly the were spending their vacations playing that he, himself, now feels that he die. other place, to overthrow my elsim. baseball for pay. These, said Thorpe, must defend his achievements. It Is “ While he was lying on those “ One o f those ships went south, were regarded as amatewra, and ha ant lu the province of this article to rocks, two big ships came into that earrying Fntnke with it. ' The other could see do reason why he also espouse the cause of Dr. Cook, but harbor flying the American flag. went north, stayed for a' year, came should not retain bis sta g in g . Also, it cannot be amiss to give something Franks was glad; he was happy. He back on the following year to this the Indian stated that he did not play of what the explorer has to say. He pulled'himself together and went out same place at Etah, and there, from for the money offered him, bnt be is now making a lecture tour o f the and boarded the ship “ Roosevelt. ■ny Eskimos, Mr. Peary learned for cause he loved the game. United Mtatee, giving from the stage Hr went up to the galley and asked the first time that I had reached the His record is remarkable. His win his version of his case. for a rup of eoffee. That coffee was Pole a year ahead o f him. He gath ning of tke pentathlon and decathlon For Current Features Dr. Cook has refused, but that wasn’t the worst, he ered all the information he could and events at the Olympic games in Swe prepared an article which de*!» with was forcibly put o ff that ship in the then put on full speed and rushed to den and later his wonderful perform what he calls the “ Polar Contro presence o f n dozen other men. Here the wireless station at labrador. Here anee in winning the all-aronnd chain versy,” starting with the time he and was a sick, a hungry, dying man re he sent through a brief message say pionship o f the Amateur Athletic his two Eskimo companions started fused a cap o f coffee from an Ameri ing that he also had reached the Pole. Union at Celtic Park, New York, last back from the top o f the earth: can ship, fitted out at public expense! I had gotten to Copenhagen about a ¡September, stamped him aa the most “ On the return journey our d iffi “ Franke went bark to his rocks week previous to this, and had ¡marvelous athlete of modern times. culties were even greater than on the and prayed that he might die, to be promptly given to the world my com !lu addition, his prowess as a football upward march. The Ice began to relieved o f bis misery. Those two plete report. That report was public during tbe season o f 1912 break and separate; there was open ships stayed there two days. Then property, as all o f my material al stand that unless you understand this geographer in that society. Now, as «r player - . . . .. * ____ water with continuous fogs. With Mr. I’eary changed heart. In the ways has been. That report was at man, and I want you to understand an organization o f political shrimps, , brouKht to him ... - ” given a plaee on tbe All-American clouded skies, it wan impossible to meantime he had learned from the that wireless station in Labrador. Mr. j him. that ig right, but as a scientific ” football eleven, a “ paper” team determine the drift o f the ice under Eakimos that after nil Franke was Penry took it from the operator, went “ We next go down to Washington, body it is a colossal humbug, and picked by leading sporting experts our feet. We were carried uncon not n beggar. He had no money, but behind the rocks and stayed for n I the home of the “ Steam Roller. ’ ’ those of my readers who are mem- sciously far to the west and south he did have in his possession furs and week, digested that report and then Here we have the so-called National hers of that soceity are a party to from among the best in the great eol- o f our course, and, when skies finally ivory worth ten thousand dollars. He esme forth and issued his report. Ueographieal Society, an organization that humbug. Two-thirds o f the news lege game. Thorpe will be required to return cleared and we got an observation, had under his direction my camp Every Arctic sxplorer at once said which is no more national than the paper editors o f this country are two- alt of the medals and insignia of wo found ourselves away down in north of there, which ramp was out thc Peary report was a scientific d u -1 National © Register, but they (Continued on page three) honor that he has won in competition Crown Prince Oustav 8ca. After a with amateurs since the time ha long and tedious journey, with starv played baseball for hire. Foreign ation staring us in the fare, we M o r e P o w er to Y o u Colum bia R iüer sporting men, however, are reported finally ranched Jones Round, and here, as believing that Thoi pe should be on Cape Hparbo, we stayed through allowed to retain his medals, cvea if out another long winter night. We he won them under pretenses o f being ate the meat o f the musk-ox and an amateur. This, too, means that used their fat for fuel and their skins tbe points won by Thorpe for America for clothing. Wc spent the winter in i may not be counted for this country. an old rave. Early in March we 5 Their loss, however, does not take started for the long return march to victory from Uncle Sam. Tbe cor our Greenland camp. After many de rected score gives the United States tours, to avoid open water, and many 79 points, with Finland second with narrow escapes from starvation, we 2P. finally got back to our Oreenland UNCLE In the pentathlon in Stockholm ramp and here we saw for the first Thorpe finished fitat in the running time in fourteen months other human broad jump, first in the 200-metew, faces except our own. Here with run, first in the 1500-meters run, their people I left my two Eskimo j first and third in the javelin event. companions, splendid, faithful, helpful In the decathlon, whieh consisted of manly fellows they had been! They the 100-meters dash, running broad had gone with me to the Pole and jump, shotput, running high jump, hark, had suffered all of the tortures 400-meters run, 110-meters hurdles, I had suffered, had endured all the discus throwing, pole vaulting, javelin hardships uncomplainingly, not for throwing and 1500-meters run, Thorpe money, not for honor—for they can had a percentage o f 8412.955, against not appreciate either—but simply be 7724.493 by Wieslander o f 8weden, cause they wished to he useful to one whom they choose to call a friend. his nearest opponent. They deserve just as much credit as Thorpe first was heard of several I do for the result of the expedition, years ago as a football player with the Carlisle team. Later he special and I want you to remember them, to remember their names: Ah-we-lah ized ia weight throwing, jumping and and K-tuk-i shook. running. He also became noted as a “ Now we wore hack to our Green lacrosse and baseball player and tn land camp; we were half starved, a! the latter branch o f sport several most unable to walk. Wo naturally of the major league teams tried to looked around for something to eat, procure his services. Only last year especially from our own school. But, Pittsburg and Washington endeavored sad to say, during our absence some to secure him, bnt the Indian re one else came along and took that fused to sign a contract, declaring enmp, took everything we had in the that he wished to remain an amateur. north world. This brings ue to the AfteT the Olympic games in Swe first chapter of what is known as the den last year King Gustave sent for Polar Controversy. Thorpe to congratulate him on his “ Two months after I had reached prowess. A t first the Indian timidly the Pole, two big ships started north declined to meet the monarch, bnt for the Pole. They went north with later, when several o f tie American the usual press bombast. At about committeemen insisted that he do so, the same time my companion. Ru Thorpe went to the palaes. There the dolph Franke, who had been left in | king took the Indian by the hand Oreenland to guard my supplies, was and smilingly said: “ Yon are the eick. He was in desperate shape; he ! greatest athlete in the world.” ,