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An Old Arctic Hero Receives a New Honor By ELMO SCOTT WATSON RECENTLY a new honor was paid to the nation's oldest living polar explorer by his fellow-adventurers into the Arctic and Antarctic wilder nesses, most of whom were still unborn when he made his first bid for fame more than half a century ago. He is Brig. Gen. David L. Brainard, U. S. A., retired, the last survivor of Gen. A. W. Greely's Lady Franklin Bay Arctic expedi tion of 1881-84. On his eight ieth birthday the American Polar society, of which he is the oldest active member, elect ed him its first honorary mem ber "in recognition of his con tribution to polar exploration" and presented him with a scroll in commemoration of his achievement. On this scroll was inscribed a map showing the route taken by Lieut. James B. Lockwood and Brainard, then a sergeant in the army, which enabled them on May 13, 1882, to reach the then farthest point north, latitude 83 degrees, 24 minutes and 30 seconds, on the north ern coast of Greenland. This surpassed the record which British explorers had held for 275 years and their record ?tood for 13 years when it was surpassed by Nansen in the Arctic sea in the Eastern hem isphere. ? ? ? General Brainard, who has the additional distinction of being one of the few living retired gen erals to have risen from the hum ble rank of "buck private," now lives quietly in Washington af ter 42 years' service in the army, the first ten of which he served In the ranks. He was born in Norway, N. Y., on December 21, 1856 and when he was nineteen years of age enlisted in the Sec ond United States cavalry. His first fighting experience was ?gainst the Indians on the Great Plains of the West and during an engagement with the Sioux on May 7, 1877 at Little Muddy creek in Montana he was serious ly wounded. This was the battle in which Gen. Nelson A. Miles narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Sioux chieftain. Lame Deer. Later in that year Brainard was serving under Miles when that famous Indian fighter corralled Chief Joseph and his fleeing Nez Perces in the Bear Paw mountains and forced their surrender. In 1878 he served in the campaign against the Bannock Indians and after eight years with the cavalry transferred to the signal corps. This change led to his assign ment as first sergeant in the polar expedition sent out by the United States army as the re sult of an international confer ence at Hamburg, Germany, in 1(79 and at Berne, Switzerland, in 1880. The United States joined with Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Denmark, and Austria in establishing a ring of widely separated outposts, all within^the Arctic Circle, to record a com plete series of meteorological and magnetic observations simul taneously. Departure of the "Proteus" In August, 1881, the expedition set up its base, Fort Conger, on Lady Franklin bay, 1,000 miles north of the Arctic Circle and HO miles north of the last Eski mo settlement. It was command ed by First Lieut. Adolphus W. Greely of the Fifth cavalry with Second Lieutenants Frederick F. Kislingbury of the Eleventh in fantry and James B. Lock wood of the Twenty-third infantry as seconds in command. These with Octave Pavy, assistant army surgeon, eight sergeant*, includ ing Brainard, two corporals and nine privates, and two dog-driv ?r?, Jena Edward and Frederik <?-??-?11 ? I . MPNHSSni RESCyE OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE GREELY EXPEDITION Thorley Christiansen, comprised the personnel of the party. On August 26 this litttle group of white men and two Eskimos stood on the shore of ice-locked Lady Franklin bay and watched a little steamer push its way cautiously through a "lead," a dark streak of open water which ran irregularly across the sur face of the frozen sea. The steam er was the "Proteus" which had been held in the ice there for six days while Captain Pike wait ed in vain for a chance to cleave a path through the ice so that he could start south towards civ ilization. The departure of the "Pro teus" marked the beginning of what has been aptly called "one of the supreme adventure sto ries of the world," a story of almost unbelievable human grit and endurance which forms one of the brightest pages in the annals of the Amlftican army. For two years this party was as much lost from con tact with their fellow men as if they had been on another planet, and when finally the third attempt to rescue Greely succeeded, of the original twen ty-five there were Just seven left alive and one of these died within twenty-four hours. The Hher eighteen had perished of starvation or accident after a series of adventures marked by incredible suffering and incred ible heroism. The official records of the Greely expedition were made public soon after Commander W S. Schley (Admiral Schley, of Spanish - American war fame) had brought its survivors back to the United States on the "The tis," but it was not until nearly half a century later that the heroic human side of the story became known. For more than forty-five years the diary of Ser geant Brainard, one of the seven survivors, lay unused in an old trunk. About ten years ago it was brought to light and pub lished by the Bobbs-Merrill com pany under the title of "The Out post of the Lost." At that time there were but two survivors of the expedition ? its commander, Greely, then a major-general, retired, and the man who had served as a ser geant under him, Brainard, a retired brigadier-general. So it was especially appropriate that his old commander, who once called Brainard "the most re turn the next year, if possible, to carry the expedition away. But if that were not possible another relief expedition would be sent for them in August, 1883. In case it should fail, Greely'a orders were to leave Fort Con ger not later than September 1, 1883 and "retreat southward by boat until the relieving vessel is met or Little island is reached," or until a sledge party from the Little island base was met. Relief Ship Fails. As a matter of fact the "Pro teus" failed to reach them in August', 1882. But, says Brain ard's book, "The first year had not passed disagreeably, and it is doubtful if anyone regretted the experience, future uncertain ty thrown into the bargain. The entire party had had the distinc tion of spending a winter farther north than any Arctic explorers had ever wintered, with the ex ception of an English outfit that had wintered on shipboard. More over tw? of their number had set a new Farthest North record in the centuries-old race to the pole. "That first winter there was weather in which Medford rum froze solid and the kerosene oil had to be thawed out before the lamps could be lighted. . . . At first there had been plenty to do, and the work was intelligently organized by the commanding of ficer and tackled with zeal by the men. . . . But in a few weeks cold and darkness put an end to practically all outside work ex cept the instrument tending near the station. The monotony of the Arctic night produces strange ef fects on white men. They become melancholy, sleepless and very irritable. . . . Every diversion twenty-five minds could think of was tried out and dropped. "Checkers are all the rage now," wrote Sergeant Brainard, the faithful diarist. "But nothing lasts like long, loud arguments." However, "the second winter was harder to bear than the ^flrst," and on June 17, 1883, Sergeant Brainard wrote that although "it is a few weeks too early for a relief ship, we can not keep our eyes from wander ing hopefully to the south." But again they were disappointed and they began their tragic re treat. On August 9, 1883, they set out In small boats through a "lead" which had finally formed in the THE LAST SURVIVORS OP THE GREELY EXPEDITION At the left i? Mi). Gen. A. W. Oreely, who died in 1935 it the age of ninety-one, and at the right ia Brig. Gen. D. L Brainard who ia still Bring in Waahington at the age of eighty. markable of a number of remark able men of that expedition" ahould write for Brainard's book a "salutation" to remind the two survivors of how "together with our comrades we faced for nine months the prospect of death day by d*y and were harassed by the sight of our associates perish ing of starvation or from vicissi tudes in the polar field." When the "Proteus" sailed away on August 26, 1881 it was agreed that the ship was to re ? - - ? ice after they had waited for it for several days. Their course was through Kennedy channel, which was filled with grinding floes of ice upon which Greely's force camped when there was no open water through which to push the boats. Whenever they could use the boats they hugged the coast of Grinnell Land through Kane sea. Early in September they were forced to abandon their boats and for thirty - four days they were adrift on floating ice. ' ? Finally they managed to reach Smith sound and landed south of Cape Sabine, north of and op posite Littleton island, which was two hundred and fifty miles away. It was near here that the first year relief ship had been forced to turn back and far south to Cape Sabine, the second year rescue ship had been crushed in the ice and all provisions lost. Their Terrible Suffering. The record of their stay at Cape Sabine is one long story of terrible suffering. Here for eight een months they lived on two months' rations. The simple rec ord of Sergeant Brainard's diary reveals the horrors of those days as can no extended description. On October 2 he writes: "I took an inventory of the commissary stores last evening and found only 35 days full ra tions of bread and meat re mained. These rations can be extended to 50 days, if we sub ject ourselves to a greatly re duced diet, but the suffering will be extreme in this low temper ature where a man requires from two to three times the normal diet. Also, we have some very hard labor ahead of us incident to the building of winter quar ters." March 4, 1884: "Lieut. Greely reduced the bread issue to eight ounces per man." Occasionally members of the party were able to shoot a fox to supplement their rations. But as the weary weeks passed the inadequate food, severe cold and the conditions under which they lived took their toll. One by one eighteen of the members of the party including Lieutenants Kis lingbury and Lockwood died. On the evening of June 22, 1884, Sergeant Brainard lay in the little fly tent which had blown down upon him and his six comrades. Beside them lay the dead body of another. But they were too weak to move it or even try to raise the pole of the tent. Sud denly a voice called out-*'Gree!y are you there?" Brainard raised himself in his sleeping bag. He knew that voice! It was the voice of Norman, first officer of the Proteus" in 1881. Its Norman!" he shouted in a weak voice. He crawled from beneath the tent and Norman thrust a hardtack in his hand. A moment later Lieutenant Colwell came running over the hill. Brainard was sitting on the ground gnawing at the hard tack, bat as he saw an officer approaching, the old habit of the regular army sergeant as serted itself. He tottered to his feet and attempted to salnte! But Colwell clasped his hand and they went together into the tent, there to rouse the dazed Greely and to tell him that the ship "Thetis" had ar rived with relief at last. ? ? ? In 1886, two years after his return from the Arctic, Brainard * Z" """missioned by President Cleveland as a second lieutenant in the Second cavalry in "recog nition of his distinguished and meritorious services" with the Greely expedition. He was suc cessively promoted to higher ranks and was commissioned a brigadier general in the National anny on October 2, 1917, made a brigadier general in the regular army on July 25. 1918 and re tired from service two days later. In 1885 the Royal Geographical society awarded him its Back ?n'for.his ^ctic work and in 1928 the American Geographical society presented its Charles P Daly gold medal to him. In 1929 the Explorers club of New York awarded Brainard its Explorer's Medal and in 1933 he was presented with the Purple Heart decoration by the secretary of war. The honor conferred upon him recently by the American Polar society comes as a climax tothe career of one of the most remarkable characters in all American history. ? Weelere Nmptptr Union. Keeping Up ? Science Service. ? WNU Service. Study Silversword to Solve Hawaii's Botanical Puzzle Rare, Beautiful Plant Interesta Scientists WASHINGTON. ? Silver swords, among the rarest and most beautiful of Hawaiian plants, constitute one of the world's prize puzzles in botany. Scientists of the Bernice Bishop Museum in Honolulu and of the Carnegie Institution of Wash ington, under the leadership of Dr. David D. Keck, have lately been making a new effort to get more definite facts about this spectacular plant's kinships and origin for it is believed that through such data new light may be shed on the still greater scientific riddle of Hawaii's unique forms of plant life, unlike anything else in the world. The silversword forms a ball-like cluster of narrow, sword-shaped leaves, white with a silvery coating of hairs. From this basal rosette there shoots up a three to six-foot flower stalk, thickly beset with blooms. The plant is a member of the huge botanical family known as the Compositae, which includes such familiar things as sunflowers, dandelions, artichokes, thistles, goldenrod, and lettuce. Not American Ancestry. It has hitherto been considered more nearly related to the tarweeds, found on the Pacific coasts on both Americas, but Dr. Keek's re searches now indicate that it is not, and that the silversword is more nearly related to the tree-like com posites of Hawaii, a very remark able group of plants whose nearest kindred are found far southwest wards across the Pacific, in Poly nesia and the Australia-New Zea land region. The elimination of an American ancestry of the silver swords, and their assignment to an origin in a diametrically op posite direction, is considered an important step in plant geography, Modern Baking Is Freed From Trial and Error Method LONDON. ? How to tell what kind of bread a variety of flour will make before starting to bake it is told in recent re searches by two British physi cal chemists, Drs. P. Halton, of the Research Association of British Flour Millers, and G. W. Scott Blair, of the physics de partment of Rothamstead ex perimental station. The "shortness" of a dough de termines many characteristics of a finished bread or cake. By deter mining this ease of tearing of the dough in a mechanical way it is hoped to bake even better prod ucts than those that "mother used to make," without depending on the highly trained judgment of an ex perienced baker. Scientists have attacked the prob lem by learning something about the fundamentals of baking. They have found that a short dough ? one that tears easily ? has long, heavy fibers. Novel Test Devised To determine shortness accurate ly, they use an instrument that tells Mow easily dough will flow through a nozzle when the pressure that pushes it is increased. Using this tester, they find that they can make the dough shorter by adding lard, iron chloride, or a phosphate, and less short by adding amino acids. Most peculiar of these acids is cys tine, which makes the dough fibers hang together by hooking the long, thin molecules in strands like a series of rope ladders. The tests are more sensitive than are those of the baker, and more accurate. Furthermore, they are resulting in changed flour charac teristics so that the finished prod uct can be rigorously controlled. Molasseg Has High Nutritional Value CALCUTTA. ? M olassei, cheap by-product of the sugar industry, has a higher nutrition al value for human beings than the pure crystalized sugar that is sought as the principal product, de clare Drs. J. C. Pal, N. M. Roy and B. C. Guha of the Calcutta Institute of Medical Research. They state that molasses has a notably high content of vitamin B, and C, and of calcium, phosphorus, and iron. 1 1 - "miinir ? I If. 1 nmffc mA I ii Breakfast the Event for Which People Are Most Often on Time Studies in Punctuality Made in a College BREAKFAST is an attraction to which the average per son is most often on time. To band and choir rehearsals he is late about half the time. Busi ness appointments are met punctually about three-fourths of the time. These are not guesses or esti mates. They are based on stop watch measures made secretly of the students at Ripon college by Dr. George J. Dudycha and the few members of the faculty, sworn to secrecy, whoqi he took into his con fidence. The stop was kept hidden. Notes were made in code. In gen eral, the peculiar behavior of a man who insisted on making notes at breakfast, at football games or en tertainments as well as at class was dismissed without comment and with little notice by the students. Not only do the different situa tions call for a more or less strict adherence to punctuality, but they also call for a greater or less amount of promptness or lateness, Dr. Dudycha found. Earliest of Entertainments The crowd gets together earliest at entertainments (where the best seats are at a premium?). They come moderately early to breakfast and vespers. They manage to get there just on time for an eight o' clock class or a business appoint ment. They are generally slightly late to extra-curricular activities. Nevertheless, despite all this va riation in punctuality for specific situations, a significant association was found between an individual's promptness, or lack of it, on the different occasions. There really is a general trait of punctuality or of tardiness, Dr. Dudycha concludes in his report to the Archives of Psy chology. The laggard may not be late on all occasions, he may show up early for breakfast quite often, but still in general it may be said that he is chronically tardy. The punctual student is likely to be more intelligent than the ten o' clock scholar. The less neurotic students and those who are more self-sufficient tend to be more punc tual. How Nerve Messages Are Transmitted by Electricity NEW YORK.? New light on how you think ? the electrical means by which messages are transmitted through the nerves of the body ? was presented to a meeting of the American Phys ical society here. Drs. Kenneth S. Cole and Howard J. Curtis of the department of phys iology of Columbia university's Col lege of Physicians and Surgeons de scribed the new experiments on this most-baffling of scientific problems. They said: "The exact mechanism by which a nerve transmits its message is not understood at the present time, but it has long been known that a nerve impulse is in part at least electrical in nature. Measuring Electrical Properties. "In order more fully to under stand the process of excitation it is necessary to measure the electrical properties of the nerve in the same way as it is necessary to measure the electrical properties of a wire before its current carding ability can be predicted. This paper re ports such measurements on rest ing nerves. It was found that the membrane surrounding the individ ual nerve fiber offers a high re sistance to the passage of an elec trical current, which means that the ionic carriers of electricity find difficulty in getting through this membrane. "On the other hand, its electric capacity, that is, its ability to store up electrical energy, is high. Thus an electrical current can pass into (or out from) a nerve fiber without causing it to lose any of its dis solved salts which are essential to the life of the cell. Work is now in progress to determine the change, if any, in these properties when the nerve is in a state of excitation." Soviet Geologists Find New Mineral PepoaitB MOSCOW. ? More than 800 geo logical parties have been in the field exploring Soviet Russia's mineral resources and crustal structure. Half of them mapped the layers of the earth, while 80 were engaged in exploration. Other parties surveyed deposits already discovered. Discovery of large deposits of high grade borates in the Lake Inider district is expected to free the Soviet Union from dependence in this respect upon foreign coun tries. New deposits of coal, lead and zinc ores, rare metal ores and bromine-containing salt were also reported. ,ji. - I aitii k Scraps Only the Beginning "Yes," said the self-made man "I was left without a mother and father at nine months, and ever since I've had to battle for my self." "How did you manage to sup port yourself at nine months?" asked a listener. "I crawled to a baby show and won the first prize. That was how I started." "I wish my wife would not livt beyond her means." "Why does she do it?" "Just to impress the Millers, who live beyond their means just to impress us." The Important One Daughter (scanning the pages) ? William means "good," I see. James means "beloved" (blush ing slightly). I wonder what George means? Father (tartly) ? I sincerely trust, my dear, that George means business. Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription la a tonic which ha* been helping women of all ages for nearly 70 years. Adv. A Time for Tour Say Say what you think when you can hit the bull's-eye with it. EMINENT DOCTORS WROTE THIS OPINION! cerpt from medical journal. The __ ALKALINE FACTOR in LUDEN'S MENTHOL COUGH DROPS 5^ HELPS BUILD UP YOUR ALKALINE RESERVE Endless : colds result from add condition of the body : : : they prescribe various alkalies"? er Man as Nature Nature is under law; man has to subject himself to law. Miss REE LEEF says: 'CAPUDINE relieves I HEADACHE I quicker because) it's liquid... Fatigue Forgotten On the day of victory no fatigue is felt. ? Arab Proverb. Dom't Sleep o? i Left Side, Crowd* Heart m NE8ME MAT CAUSE DWCOWOT. RIGHT SIDE KIT. H you toaa In bad and aant e*eeo a* rtsht akla, try Adlarlka. Juat OWE doea relieves atomach GAS ?".h?art ao you eleep "aou'ndly." Adlarlka acta on BOTH upper ami lower bowela and bringe out fowl matter you would naver believe was hi your ayatem. Thla old m attar may have poieoned you tor mofltha and aauaad OAS, aour atomach. haadaaha t Km. T~k, **?. ?Utile. M 1 MW dwta,, AMmika *T !"T "^"aae tartarla rol.? Mrs. Jaa. Filler: "Qaa on my eSoaa Mb Ma ao bad I could not eat or ?WvSvan my heart aaamad to MM. The ?rat doea of Adlerika broooht aa* " Now I eat aa I ' " " your "bowela "a* REAL olaa?ala? >M Adlerika ajad aee bow good yaw feel. Juat ONE doee rallevea OAS and ?onatipation. At all Leading Druggists. A FAMOUS DOCTOR AS a young man ft* late Dr. R. V. Five* practiced medicine in Pa. After moving to Buffalo, N. Y., he gave to the drug trade (nearly 70 yeai? ago) Dr. Plcrce'a Favor Ite Prescription. Women who suffer from "nerves," irritability and discom forts associated with functional disturbance* should try this tonic. It stimulates the ap petite and this in turn increases the intake of food, helping to upbuild the body. Buy now I Tab*. 50c, liquid $1.00 and $1.35. AFTER YOU EAT? After you finish a meal can you be sure of regular, aucceaaful elimination? Get | rid of waate material that causes gal, acidity, headaches. Take Milneaia Water* for quick, pleasant elimination. Each wafer equate 4 teaepoonfuU of milk of , magnesia. 20c, 35c St 60c at drug stores.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Jan. 14, 1937, edition 1
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