DR COOK'S PARENTAGE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 38, 26 October 1909, Page 2

DR COOK'S PARENTAGE.

IDENTIFICATION NECESSARY

Second in interest only to the feat of tho man whose announcement that he has discovered the North Pole is attracting so much attention are his career and early struggles, which sho* his grit and strength of purpose. Dr Cook's father was a Gorman, whose name, Koch, was Anglicised into the form of Cook. Like Cook himself, Cook's father was a physician practising in the interior of New York. He died when his son was six years old, aild left a widow and four children, also a 10-acrc farm. Life went, hard with the family, and eventually they moved to Brooklyn, where young Cook found employment in the market selling vegi tableg. Ho had always been an ambi tious and studious boy, with a fondness for geography, and after his day's work was over he went to n night school.

Anxious to bettor himself, In* decided to study medicine, and entered Columbia College, New York, With Hie little money he had been able to save bought a small milk business, the profits of which he calculated would 1# sufficient to see him through college He had to begin work at one o'clock i* the morning, and between that time and seven lie delivered his milk to ha customers. At nine o'clock lie reported at Columbia University and lvmainw at work until four, when lie had to make a long journey back to Brooklyn to read and sleep. Lack of sleep, r* marked.his brother, from whom these details were obtained, was made up oC Saturdays and Sundays, when tliert was no school, although' there was mil* to be delivered on those days ns as others. His milk business Wain® so prosperous that he took his brother i» with him as partner. For six years M kept up this incessant work, graduating in 1891 as a physician. It was *' that" time that Lieutenant Poary preparing for his Arctic trip and newed a surgeon for his expedition. " 0 turned to the Columbia graduating class for his selection. The choice Mj on young Cook, and he eagerly accept# the offer. This is how he came to be l Polar explorer.