Another chap proposed that a central soup station be installed where the other man would have set up his sawmill, and that a series of hose lines be run thence over the ice so that the outlying parties struggling over the ice to the Pole could be warmed and invigorated with hot soup from the central station.
Perhaps the gem of the whole collection was furnished by an inventor who desired me to play the part of the "human cannon-ball." He would not disclose the details of his invention, apparently lest I should steal it, but it amounted to this: If I could get the machine up there, and could get it pointed in exactly the right direction, and could hold on long enough, it would shoot me to the Pole without fail.

This was surely a man of one idea.

He was so intent on getting me shot to the Pole that he seemed to be utterly careless of what happened to me in the process of landing there or of how I should get back.
Many friends of the expedition who could not send cash sent useful articles of equipment, for the comfort or amusement of the men.

Among such articles were a billiard table, various games, and innumerable books.

A member of the expedition having said to a newspaper man, a short time before the _Roosevelt_ sailed, that we had not much reading matter, the ship was deluged with books, magazines, and newspapers, which came literally in wagon loads.