Life — March 10, 1887 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“LTERE “LIFE’S" CANOE EXPEDITION TO PIKE'S PEAK. Recess the importance of Discovery as an element of Journalistic success, the Proprietors of Lire, at great expense, dispatchéd an Exploring Expedition to the Wild West, under the command of Captain Blizzard Blazier, the eminent discoverer. The discovery of America by Columbus and of New Orleans by Benjamin F, Butler were great achievements in their day, but were more the result of fortuitous circumstance than of scientific calculation. LiFe believes in the theory that it requires greater genius to sail in a canoe directly from our great metropolis to the topmost tip of Popocatepetl, than it does to drift around an ocean until one’s vessel runs against a continent, or flop about at the head of an army until the fabulous treasures of New Orleans dining-rooms loom up with dazzling brilliancy on the horizon. One is luck, the other is a matter of business. For this reason Captain Blazier was instructed to discover, if possible, some geographical object that people knew about, and Pike's Peak being of considerable general interest, owing to the amount of weather discovered by the Single Service officer who dwells in lonely state thereon, was chosen. It need hardly be said that the expedition was an enormous success, and that Captain Blazier now holds the championship belt for the light-weight Discoverer-ship, having made the discovery of the Peak in some years less time than it took the original Pike. As usual the Captain has prepared his reminiscences of the trip—not from any motives of self-glorification, but from a desire to add to the world’s sum of knowledge. The feat of crossing the continent in a canoe is a great one, not second to that of sailing over the Pacific on a bicycle, as we believe Mr. Stevens has recently done, and we feel that the following illustrated extracts from the Captain's graphic narrative are fully worthy of the space they occupy. CAPTAIN BLAZIER'S GREAT FEAT. **As the clock in the Admiral's canoe struck nine, the explorers glided + Even our gallant commander was somewhat disconcerted at the | cently over the small crag that was in the intervening space between idea of sailing up a cataract, but being a man of infinite resource, he | them and the signal service building, in which the peak is kept, and reached down into the cabin of his craft, and much to the surprise of | the gallant Captain, giving three knocks on the oaken portal, cried ** What ho, within there !* “"'No hoe within here,’ came the muffled response ; ‘we have no | garden on this bleak peak.’ “+ Well, come out of your concealment. You're discovered." “At last! It is as I feared,’ said the voice within, as the door was opened, and the retired Brigadier-General in chargé appeared before us, “You feared it, eh 1 said Blizzard Blazier, drawing himself upward to his full stature ; ‘and why did you fear it?’ “++ Saw it in the New York papers.’ “* Well, trot out your peak,’ rejoined the Commander, unfurling | the flag which he brought with him, ‘and if you have it, bring us a champagne supper for six.' “ Thus was the discovery made."— Vol. XL/., chap. 97. VER ED: AD:ISE: CoN the party, dragged forth a pair of telegraph pole slippers, donning which he ascended the frozen column of the Hippowatomie Geyser | with all the agility of one.accustomed to any orall climes."—Vol. /V., chap. 4. ° * . THE DISCOVERY. “<The sun was shining brightly on the snow-clad summit as the ex- pedition neared the objective point, The peak first hove in sight at six A. M., but as most of the party were asleep, the Captain postponed the discovery until after breakfast. THE DISCOVERY. comicbooks.com