stefansson-wrangel-09-28-034

134

we now know them.

I was in England September 1, 1923, when the tragic
news arrived. One of my first thoughts was that, while the truth
must not be suppressed, it was important that we prevent as far as
possible the ordinary distortions which the press is accustomed to
give to any events that happen in remote regions under conditions not
familiar to the average reader. I knew even before the details
came out that freezing or starvation were not likely to have played
an important part, but I knew equally that the press always wants to
assign any polar tragedy to the routine reasons of hunger and frost.
Their doing so now would go a long way towards making fruitless the
work for which our young men had died. I was thinking also of the feelings of the relatives, for it takes a little of the
sting out of any tragedy to feel know the sacrifice was not in vain,
and I was thinking also of the feelings of the relatives. As The
diaries and papers expedition records have eventually since clearly established, one death
was from illness and three were from accident. I conceived I anticipated that conclusion and thought it would
lessen the suffering sorrow of the realatives if they also knew it these facts from
the beginning, instead of being tortured by visions of slow starva-
tion. I saw, also too, that the Wrangell Island narrative would now
possess a commercial value much increased by the tragic outcome, and
from this I felt our company had no right to profit in any way. from this.
These were the motives in my mind when I sent the following cable to
my secretary:

"Will Elisabeth Marbury undertake sell Wrangell mag-
azine story any length desired written by Noice and
me from diaries proceeds divided between relatives
of dead, Macmillan’s having first option book. Con-
sult Noice's contract with newspapers. I can sell
story England and Australia. Notify Noice I will
get him good lecture job. Tell Affiliated* get in
touch Noice by cable, you keep Noice, Taylor, me posted.”

In this cable a part very important to me and to all
concerned was the portion that the sale should be handled by Miss
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The Affiliated Lyceum and Chautauqua Association who have ten offices in the large
cities of the United States, Canada, an Australia and New Zealand and are leading
lecture managers.