FOOTNOTES:
[28] Excepting, perhaps, the long telegram from my old friend Capt. Peter Fitzurse, explaining that he was unavoidably detained correcting the proof of his forthcoming autobiography. See appendix for further light on Fitzurse's claim that the three fingers missing from his right hand actually were frozen off when he grasped the North Pole. W.E.T.
[29] Author of "The Queen of Sheba."
[30] Light on the Pole, by R. Whinney. $5.00 net, $4.50 in lots of six. Post. prep. Intr. by Prof. C. Towne, Nyack University.
In reference to a note on page 180, it seems desirable to reprint below (1) a paragraph which recently appeared in a New York newspaper over the signature of Don Marquis, and (2) a copy of the letter written by Dr. Traprock to Mr. Marquis clearing up the point in question. Ed.
A great deal of doubt is cast by his strange reticences upon the recent claim of Dr. Walter E. Traprock that he reached the North Pole. Did he, or did he not, find three fingers at the Pole which were frozen off of the hand of Capt. Peter Fitzurse when the Captain grasped the Pole, more than forty years ago, being the first man to lay his hand upon it? If he did not find these fingers, he did not reach the Pole. If he found them, and has said nothing about it, his object in concealing the fact can be nothing else than an unworthy jealousy. Who is this Traprock, anyhow? Capt. Fitzurse intimates that at the proper time he has startling revelations to make. It is significant that Traprock was first heard of a year or two after Dr. Cook ceased to figure in the public prints.