Polar, The Twentieth Century Bear
Polar today receives tons of inquires as to what he has been up to since his Titanic adventure. Did he continue to travel? Or did he hibernate most of the last century in a toy chest?
Actually, Polar had gone on lots of adventures since his ill fated April 15th, 1912 crossing. He has enjoyed many continental excursions in the last 105 years and has made a lot of wonderful new friends along the way, of which he will happily tell you all about in his upcoming books.
Two years after the Titanic disaster, in June of 1914, Polar and his new traveling companion Sophie Darling traveled across America by rail road. Sophie, a neighbor of the Speddens, was given Polar to keep her company on her fist trip away from home, a transcontinental rail road journey from New York City to San Francisco on three legendary trains, The 20th Cent. Ltd, Rock Island Line & The Overland Limited.
Traveling with Polar and Sophie, is Sophie’s older cousin, Gilbert Darling and her Governess, Miss Strout. Polar & Sophie had terrific fun exploring the trains accommodations, seeing the magnificent country side from the train’s observation platform and meetingvarious celebrities of the day, such asthe opera diva, Madame Nellie Melba, the world’s first gramophone recording star & Buffalo Bill, the famed Wild West showman and nature conservationist.
In the excerpt below, from “Polar, The Twentieth Century Bear” we find Polar and Sophie on the first leg of their trip on the Twentieth Century Limited, the fastest and most luxuriously appointed train. In this scene, we find Sophie and Polar find them selves unexpectedly invited to join Madam Melba for a dinner party in the dinning car of train.
