PEARY’S PERSONALITY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 16, 20 October 1909, Page 7

PEARY’S PERSONALITY.

Man of Unquestioned Integrity. Commander Peary’s fame as an explorer is world-wide, but little is known of his personal attributes. Lieutenant Shackleton, the hero of the Antarctic, is one of the few-men in England who have been intimately associated with Commander Peary. “Peary is a splendid type of man,” said Mr. Shackleton this week. “He stayed with me at my house in Scotland after his last expedition, and I had, of course, an excellent opoprtunity of judging his character. He is a charming man, quiet and unassuming, and his heart was always in the work of Polar exploration. Of a tall and commanding figure—he is about 6ft. in height—he gives one the impression of being absolutely selfreliant and hard of physique —just the sort of man who would accomplish anything which he had set himself to do. He is fifty-three years old, but docs not look his age. His hair and moustache are light brown, his eyes undimmed, and he walks as erect and as steadily as a man thirty years his junior, ami this in spite of the fact that he lost eight of his toes in one expedition. Peary is a man of unquestioned integrity, and every word of his maybe relied upon.” In 1893 Peary took his wife with him on a two years’ expedition and while he was within the Arctic Circle his daughter Marie, “the Snowball Baby,” was born. Twenty-four hours after her birth the Arctic day gave place to the Arctic night, and the “Snowball Baby” lived the first six months of her life by lamplight.