SULLIVAN REPUBLICAN.
W. M. CHENEY, Publisher.
VOL. VII.
, OUR FLAG.
At the recent sinking of the war ships at
Apia the Captain of one of them ordered the
flag unfurled. The men on board another of
the doomed vessels greeted it with a cheer,
which was resjwnded to with their last breath
by the loyal Captain and his men.
Across the peach-blow sky of spring
The storm-dark clouds are looming;
With sullen voice the breakers ring,
The thunder loudly booming.
The huddled war ships ride apace,
Each at her anchor straining;
Black, black, is all of heaven's face;
It lightens 'twixt tho raining.
Like crumpled rose leaves tho mist edge
The hidden reef enwreathing,
But cruel as hell the jagged ledge
Beneath those waters seething.
! On, on they come, the poor dumb things,
The storm winds fiercely driving;
! At her dread work each breaker sings,
For conquest madly striving.
"If wo must die" —the loader's voieo
Outswelled the roar of thunder—
I "It is our own and solemn choice
J To die our dear flag under.
j
*'For us to-day the battle field
Za «*hero tho seas are lying.
MV claim a right we cannot yield,
To glory in our dying."
He ceased; upon the topmost mast
Tho Stars and Stripes were floating. _
The sight is like a trumpet blast,
And other ships quick noting.
Up to the sky *»»<v~ipunds a cheer
That starts mcs flying.
Bnrk comes t ft er, loud and clear,
» From galh though dying.
! A moment'* i A\ the tyaves in brine
Baptize t' l/lglow lying,
And from i .ißtireakers comes no sign
Of living or of dying.
O flag, dear flag, once more thy name,
As always in thy story,
Has set a thousand hearts aflame
( For thee and for thy glory.
[ —Annie B. King, in Harper's Bazar.
I A FATEFUL VOYAGE.
In the year 1868 I signed papers with
Captain Delano, of the brig Josephine,
for a voyage from Sidney to Auckland
.find return. She was an English craft,
and was loaded with a general cargo,and
had made many voyages across the New
Zealand Sea. The crew consisted of
Captain, mate, cook and four men before
the mast, and every one but the cook was
white aud spoke English. I was then
eighteen years old and just out of my
apprenticeship. I should have had u
second mate's berth, but the Josephine
carried no such officer. The Captain
stood his own watch, and there were oc
casions wheu the mate had togo aloft
with the men. Captain Delano was a
good sailor and a good-hearted man, and
there was nothing in the grub or the dis
cipline to find fault with. We left Sid
ney one morning with a fair wind for the
fifteen-hundred-mile voyage, and had any
one predicted the queer adyenturcs and
the tragedies which were to befall us he
would have been looked on as a lunatic.
A portion of the story I am going to
tell you appeared iu some of the Austra
lian papers twenty years ago, but only a
portion, and that full of errors. It was
only a month ago that I was asked to
send my affidavit to certain facts to a
lawyer at Melbourne, and so the whole
series of adventures is fresh iu my mem
ory.
For the first three days out we had fair
winds and a smooth sea, and the brig
made fine progress. At midnight on the
third night the wind shifted, blew up a
squall which lasted half an hour, and then
died away as flat as you please. We were
left rolling on the waves for an hour or
two, but when daylight came the surface
of the sea was without a ripple, while
there was not the slightest breath of air
moving above. The sun came up like a
ball of fire, and the greenest hand aboard
knew that we were in for a calm. It was
terrible hot by mid-forenoon, and our
humane Captain ordered all hands to
knock off and make themselves as com
fortable as possible. By noon the brig
was like an oven. The decks were so hot
that even the cook with his tough feet
dared not walk them unshod. Down in
the fo'castle in was stifling, but as it was
worse on deck we had to stand it.
It was about noon when the cook, who
had gone to the side to throw over some
slops, called out to us to come and see
the largest shark which human eyes ever
beheld. I crawled up from the fo'castle,
always curious to see one of the monsters
close at hand, but expecting that the cook
had greatly exaggerated, and when I
looked over the rail I was astonished.
There lay a shovel-nosed shark of such
dimensions that I dared not credit my
own eyesight. He lay parallel and not
over ten feet away, and when, after a
few minutes, Captain and all hands had
roused up to look at-the fellow, we got
his exact length by a tape line along the
deck. He was thirty-two aud one-half
feet long, with jaws capable of cutting a
bullock in two at one snap. The only
sign of life ho gave was a slight move
ment of the eye now and then. Ho lay
with his great dorsal fin baking in the
hot sun, and so near that we could see
every little detail. All agreed that he
was the largest shark any one had ever
seen, although all of us had sailed in the
warm seaa, and some of the men had
turned away when the cook climbed upon
the rail and said he would stop a little
for a game with the big fellow. He
meant by that that he would have a talk
with him. I have met numbers of ship's
cooks who claimed to have "made up'
with sharks and were not afraid of being
hurt by them. The cook sat just oppo
site the shark's middle, and he had be
gun a sort of chant, when I passed for
ward intending to find a missile, and
heave it over and scare the monster away.
I had just found an old bit of iron and
got back to the rail when there was a
splash and a yell. The cook was in the
water through some careless move .of his.
I had my eye on the shark, and his move
ments were like lightning. With one
flirt of his tail he slewed himself around,
his great jaws opened, and I was looking
right down upon him as he took the cook
in clear to the middle and bit him in two
so slick ami clean that the upper part of
the body rolled away from the shark's
nose and remained on the surface directly
below me. After half u minute it began
slowly to sink, but was not yet out of
sight when I saw the shark seize it. As
he grabbed it he rushed away and we
saw him no moro.
The tragedy upset us in more ways than
one. Here we were, left wtthout a cook
at the beginning of the voyage, and there
was something in his taking oil which
aroused the superstition of the hands for
ward. I think the Captaiu felt it as much
us we did, but of course he concealed it
as much as possible. All that day we lay
roasting and motionless, and as the sun
went down and a light breeze sprang up
ever}* man uttered a heartfelt "Thank
Heaven 1" We crowed too soon, however.
Tho breeze did not push us over five miles
before it tired out, and we were left as
before, the sky full of stars and the sea
like a mirror. I was in the mate's watch
and came on duty at midnight. Indeed,
wo were all on duty- for that matter, as
there was nothing whatever to do and we
were sleeping on deck. I was aroused,
however, to take the lookout, and I took
my seat on the heel of the bowsprit as a
matter of form. As we were not moving,
uo other sailing craft could move, and the
few steamers crossing on our line could
see our lights and avoid us. Something
happened, however, before I had been on
duty an hour. The Josephine was rising
and falling on the glassy swells, and
swinging her head to every point of the
compass by turns, and I was scanning the
sea and the heavens in the most perfunc
tory way, when an object suddenly came
into view. It was a black spot against
the darkness, and ufter rising to my feet
and watching it for a few minutes I made
out, as I thought, the dismasted hull of a
small vessel. It was coming down to
ward us, and when sure of this I hailed
the mate. He came forward with the
glass, and after a long look he said:
"Well, that beats my time. It is the
hull of a dismasted schooner, and stands
up high and dry. There's a lot of raffle
around her bows, and I believe a whale is
tangled up in it and towing the wreck!"
He sent me to call the Captain, and in
a few minutes all hands had caught the
excitement. The wreck stopped for a
while on our starboard bow, and not over
a quarter of a mile away. Then it crossed
our bows and came down on our port
side to the quarter, where it lay so close
that every man could see what it was.
It was then, at the suggestion of the
Captain, that we iafced our voices in a
shout to see if anybody was aboard the
strange craft. We were answered almost
immediately by the barking of a dog, and
the Captain said:
"There are men there, and they may
be starving and suffering. Well, lower
a boat and pull out to her."
"Heavens! sir, but you wouldn't think
of it!" whispered the mate. "She'sbeing
towed by who knows what? See! There
she moves again! Aud just listen to
that howling!"
It was true that the hulk was moving.
She moved across our stem at slow speed
and ranged up on the other quarter, and
the dog ceased his barking aud sent forth
such mournful howls that every man was
upset.
"What do you make out under her
bows?" asked the Captain of the mate as
he handed him the glai>s after a long
look. • -
LAPOKTE, PA., FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1889.
"Why, sir, there's the bowsprit, the
foretopmast, and a big tangle of ropes, 1 '
was the reply. "It looks to me as if nil
the foremast raffle had somehow slewed
around under her bows, and I'm certain
that a whale is tangled up therein. I
can see flecks of foam as he churns away,
and you can hear a ripple along our side
from the sea he kicks up."'
The dog barked and howled by turns,
but we got no other answer to our re
peated shouts.
"Men," said the Captain, as the wreck
began moving slowly away, "it's our
plain duty to board that hulk. I could
never forgive myself if I left any oue to
die of starvation. I won't order any one
togo, but I'll call for volunteers."
Not a sailor responded for a minute.
I waited to give the men a chance, and
as they hesitated I volunteered. Two
others then came forward, and their ac
tion shamed the mate into saying:
"Very well, sir. I'll take Jones and
Harris and pull off and investigate."
Why he left me out I do not know,
but I was quietly ignored, and the two
middle-aged men whose names I have
given had the oars as the boat moved
away. The Captain called after the mate
to be sure to board the hulk, and if he
found her in good condition to cut the
raffle loose and report. The wreck had
been moving away from us pretty steadily
for ten minutes, and as the yawl left us I
could hardly make her out. The mate
was to show a light when he boarded
her, and for the next half hour we were
straining our eyes to catch it. Then we
figured that he had missed the hulk and
was pulling back to us, and although we
had out our regular lights, which could
have been seen for two or three miles, we
scut up several skyrockets and burned a
flare as further guides. But the hours
wore on and brought no tidings, and
daylight came we swept the sea in vain
for sight of either hulk or boat.
A breeze came with the suu, and we
began a search which lasted all the day
without result. The loss of three mcr
reduced us to sad straits. There were
only two working hands, and as a measure
of safety we had to get the big sails reefed
against what might come. The breeze
was light, and as we were under shortened
sail we did not cover any great distance
during the day, not over thirty miles.
This satisfied us, however, that a calamity
had occurred. The wreck could not
have been over half a mile from us when
the yawl pulled away. I would not take
over ten minutes to pull to her. What
could have happened to the boat? If not
able to board, she should have re
turned. In boarding she should have
displayed a light, as ordered, and then
returned to report the state of the wreck.
The last ever seen of the three men was
when they pulled away from us. Not a
word has been heard from them to this
day, nor will it ever be known how they
perished.
Night brought a calm again, and I was
so fagged out with the heavy work of the
day that I went to sleep almost before I
had finished the cold bite I got from the
pantry. We understood from the Captain
that he should cruise about for a day or
two more in hopes of falling in with the
boat, but it was easy to see that he was
badly upset, and in the afternoon I
smelled liquor about him very strong.
When he told us togo into the pantry
and forage for something to cat his voice
was thick and his legs very weak. My
mate was to stand watch the regular time
and then awaken me. Sometime in the
night I was aroused by something and
sat up and looked about me. The
calm continued, and everything was
quiet, and so I lay down and slept again.
It was daylight when I awoke again, and
after a wash I got some biscuit and meat
from the pantry and looked around for
my mate. Not finding him after a hunt
of ten minutes I knocked at the open
cabin door. Receiving no response, I
finally ventured in, and five minutes later
I realized that I was entirely alone aboard
the Josephine. Neither Captain norsailor
could be found, nor was there the slight
est clue to tell me how or why they had
disappeared. I did not give up until I
had searched every possible place where
they could have hidden away, aud then I
I sat down and let superstition and terror
take such hold of me for half a day that
I liked to have gone crazy. It was only
by calling up all my will power that I
could prevent myself from leapiug over
the rail. After several hours, however,
this feeling wore off, and I could view
the situation with common seuso. I was
alone, but it was a flat calm, and I turned
into the cabin and slept for six hours be
-1 fore I opened my eyes. Then it was to
I find that evening had come, and that the
brig had been boarded by a boat from
one of the mail steamers plying between
the big island and New Zealand. My
explanations astonishetl and astounded
the men, and after I had been taken off i
to the steamer, and given all the details j
to the Captain, he took the brig in tow j
and continued his course for Sidney.
There the story was told and retold, j
but with very little satisfaction to any
one. A craft was sent out in search of ,
the lost yawl and the hulk, but neitliei
could be found. The general idea at
Sidney was that the Captain and sailor
both got drunk that night, and somehow
got overboard, but no one could even
guess the calamity which befell the
j awl.— New York Sun.
A Profitable Hand-Shak.'ng.
It was some years since, in the Ozark
region of Missouri, where I was riding a
circuit,that I saw a minister enjoy a most ,
substantial hand-shnking. Shaking |
hands was his peculiarity. lie believed
in the potency of a cordial grasp to win
men to the church. And though success
ful in winning souls, he was very unfor
tunate in the matter of getting dollars.
In fact, poverty continually stared him in
the face. He owned a little farm and
mortgaged it as long as it would yield a
dollar. The mortgages were falling due,
but there was no prospect of paying them, j
But it did not bother him a bit. He
shook hands more heartier than ever. "I
have unbounded faith in hand-shaking to
bring everything out right," he often said,
until his penchant came to be the talk of
the town. At last came the day when
the mortgages must be foreclosed that
would deprive him of the little home that
sheltered his family. On the eve of that
day a knock at the door of his house,
which was a little way from town, called
him. When lie opened the door a whole
crowd rushed in and, without saying a
word, commeuced shaking hands. He
felt something cold in the hand of the
first, man, and when the hand was with
drawn it ?tuck to his own. "That is the
substantial shako I ever experi
enced," he said, as he held up a $5 gold
piece. Hut the next man stepped up and
a silver dollar was left in the preacher's
palm. No one would say a word in ex
planation, but pressed in on him as fast
as he could stick the metal and bills into
his pockets. The house was not large
enough for the visitors, each one of whom
deposited from $1 to $lO in the out
stretched hand. Each left the moment
hbi little errand was accomplished, and
n<*. a word could be had in explanation,
except the last one, who, as he turned to
go, remarked: "We wanted to play a
'little joke on you, and we have." The
several "jokes" netted just $7Bl. His
home was saved and a neat balance was
left besides. The minister maintained
that he had contracted a habit that night
that for a year afterward when he shook
a hand prompted him to look into his
own palm, half expecting to see a piece of
metal there.— St. Louis Olobe-Democrat.
The Bucking Horse.
Most persons who have witnessed the
vicious and acrobatic antics of the "buck
ing bronco" in Buffalo Bill's and other
wild Western shows have supposed that
the animals were merely acting a part to
which they had been trained, like the
trick-mule of the circus. The fact is
that these traits are in the nature of the
beast; and what the horses do on exhi
bition is as nothing to the diabolical con
tortions which they go through when
endeavoring to unseat a cowboy rider on
their native prairies. The broncos of the
Southwest, like the cross-bred Indian and
cayusc ponies of Montana, are not usually
broken until they are four or five years
old, and then their training is of the
rudest aud most impromptu character.
Individual animals, like individual men,
exhibit tempers and idiosyncrasies of their
own; but even the best-tempered cow
ponies will sometimes buck on a frosty
morning. Such "mavericks" are turned
over to hands who make a specialty ot
conquering horses that arc determined
not to be ridden; for a great many thor
ough cowboys who are good horsemen in
the sense of being able to get the be#l
work out of their string of steeds in a
round-up do not pretend to be able to sil
a hard-pitching or vicious animal. Th<
horse-tamer, with his wonderful lariat,
brings the rebellious horse to the ground bj
a noose around one of the fore feet; then
he mounts, and pursues his dare-devil,
anti-bucking tactics until the shaggy ponj
is dazed and cowed into meek submission.
Frank Lextie'a.
One pound of coal equals iu value
feet of uatural gas. ■ - .
Terms—sl.2s in Advance; $1.50 after Three Months.
CURIOUS FACTS.
Wir.dmills arc of great antiquity.
The first paper mill in this country was
started in 1790 near Philadelphia.
It is estimated that only one death in
10,000,000 occurs from a railroad acci
dent.
The Chinese, before the invention of
paper, wrote with an iron tool upon thin
boards or bamboo.
It will be 317 years next November
since stern old John Knox, the founder
of Prcsbyterianisin, died.
Parchment was used for the purpose of
writing on as early as 250 B. C., by Eu
menes, King of Pcrgamus.
The first paper mill in England was
erected in the reign of Henry VII., by
John Tate, the younger, at Hertford.
The first bottlc3 were made of the skin
of animals—mostly goats. Of this kind
were the bottles spoken of In the Scrip
ture.
More than 1000 empty patent medicine
bottles were found in the house of a rich
bachelor who died at Ivnoxville, Penn.,
lately.
It is reported from Pennsylvania that
black bears are more numerous in that
State than they have been before for many
years.
A boy was killed the other day in San
Francisco, near the Palace Hotel, nndthe
body permitted to lie for hours on the
sidewalk.
Skin bottles arc still used in Southern
Europe for the transport of wine, and by
different tribes of Africa and Asia for car
rying water.
For 600 years Rome existed without
physicians. Within 600 years after its
first physician the Roman Empire had
ceased to exist.
It proves that it was a sun glass in the
hands of a seven-year-old boy which
caused tlve recent destructive fire at More
land, near Chicago.
A gentleman, in painting tho wreck ol
a garden boat on the Rhine, showed a
lot of carrots floating down the stream,
forgetting that carrots never float.
A Georgia colored man is very fond of
alligators as a food product. He captures
the saurians, and after duly preparing
i them cures them as he does his hams. In
1 his smokehouse at present five or six ol
these reptiles arc hung up undergoing the
smoking process.
In Llandforr, a small village in Wales,
the village preacher makes shoes for a
, living. His annual stipend from the
church is S4O a year. It is not an un
common thing to meet in different parte
of the interior of Wales clergymen who
have learned a trade to eke out their in
come.
Cossacks, in time of war, from eighteen
to fifty, are bound to serve on horse
back. They provide their armor at their
own expense, and are armed with a lancc
twelve feet long, a carbine, pistols and a
J saber. Their horses are small, but swift
! and wiry. They are divided into polks
] (regiments), subdivided into hundreds,
i fifties and tens. They number about two
■ million. Their language is Russian, and
' they adhere to the Greek creed.
Our har Alaskan Citizens.
A writer familiar with the uncivilized
Esquimaux of far Northern Alaska says
that they arc the most abject beings he
ever saw. They neither wash nor comb
their hair, and they wear dirty, filthy
garments year in and year out. Esqui
j inau means "raw flesh eater;" their diet
is chiefly fish and game, kept until itais
j iu a state of putrefaction, when Jo them
it is most delicious. Raw blubber of the
whale is a great delicacy. Their man
ner of eating is dog-like. Fixing their
teeth in a piece elf blubber, with a dull
knife they saw off tho-portion which the
' mouth will not admit. The men hunt
aili fish, while all-other work is done by
the women. The old-time custom of
tattooing the face, arms and breast is still
practised. The women wear ivory studs
in the lower lip, in which is inserted
their sewing-needle for convenience
when not in use. The men also have
these apertures with hone or ivory studs
| in their ears, in which rings are inserted,
I This same fashion pifirflts- largely in
southeastern Alaska. "Out of tho
fashion, out of the world," is as true of
them im of us. There is much caste
i among them, and it would be
! find a more conservative and conven
} tional people.— Sitka Alui/Jcan.
According to the Mtth/vliat flecortJer,
there are 421,784 members of the Wesle
! yan body in Great Britain, the Jast year
j showing an increase of 5000. „-
NO. 38.
FUN.
A man buried in thought is usually able
to resurrect himself.
It is the undertakers who never fail to
carry out what they undertako. — Waif.
The man who stutters conveys his
thoughts by limited express.— Merchant
Traveler.
There is a considerable difference be
tween a key on the seaboard and a C on
the key-board.
Indian meal—Anything the Indian can
get to eat without working for it.—Mer
chant Traveler.
An observer has noticed that the neces
sity for having separate exchanges for oil
and stocks arises from the fact that oil
and water do not mix.— Harper's Bazar.
Small Boy to Englishman—"Say,
mister, you've dropped something."
Englishman—"Ave I? What?" Small
Boy—"Your h's."— Burlington Free
Press.
"Benzine Bill" is the suggestive sou
briquet of a Kansas man who proposes to
do missionary work in Oklahoma. Ho
ought to make a bright and shining
light.— Detroit Free Press.
It is estimated that the human heart
does 5,000,000 pounds of work each day.
The man who made the discovery was
probably on the sunny-side of his wed
ding day.— Statesman.
Our old friend Calino has just received
a telegram from Russia. "What a grand
invention the telegraph is! And how ex
peditious! To think that it is 2700 kile
metres from here to St. Petersburg, and
the gum on tho envelope is still damp!"
—Lyons Bepuhlican.
Battle With a Boa Constrictor.
One of the most perilous battles be
tween u woman and a large boa con
strictor occurred at Grand View re
cently, says the Kansas City Traveler.
About 7 o'clock, as Mrs. H. N. Strait,the
handsome and accomplished young wife
of 11. N. Strait, of the Wyandotte
Plumbing Company, descended into tho
cellar of their residence on Sixteenth
street, Grand View, she was startled by a
loud hiss and two fiery red eyes looking
at her. Returning with a lamp, the lady
discovered a large snake coiled around a
piece of wood. Taking a coal shovel in
her hand, Mrs. Strait prepared to do
battle with the monster. The first blow
seemed to infuriate the reptile, and, with
a loud hiss, it sprang at the now
thoroughly alarmed but brave woman.
A blow from the shovel knocked tho
thrust aside, and with the rapidity of
'lightning the snake again prepared to
strike. Five consecutive times did the
huge monster retreat, and then plungo
through the dimly lighted air at the
woman who was so nobly defending her
self. At last a well-directed stroke
knocked the reptile to the floor and seemed
to stun it for a moment. The glistening
eyes had become two fascinating balls of
flame, and the great fangs worked with
awful velocity. Following up the blow,
Mrs. Strait succeeded in killing the boa,
and with fast-failing strength she reached 1
the floor above, where help soon reached
her.
Mr. Strait is in Wyoming Territory,
where he is' largely interested in a newly
discovered mica mine, and was
alone with the servants. A party of neigh
bors were summoned' and the snake
carried into the woodshed. It proved to
be ff*boa constrictor and measured eleven
feet and'eight inches from tho head to the
tip tail. It is supposed to have
escaped from some menagerie.
Gold Plating the Human Body.
There is a St. Louis gentleman engaged
in the silver and gold electroplating busi
ness, who has for five years been engaged
in a private laboratory upon a scries of
remarkable experiments, the object of
which is to supplant the present art of
embalming the dead by silver or gold
plating the human body. The electro
plating process would, of course, present
a hermetic surface, and the body if pre
pared as now for embalming and then put
through a silver or gold bath would keep
I forever. An electroplated seven
years ago, when recently opened was
found to be as fresh as the day when it
was laid. The experimenter had pro
gressed a long way when he succeeded in
plating a chunk of cheese, and later on he
succeeded in preparing successfully the
human leg. His experiments are con
duced with great secrecy. It is probable
that a really beautiful way of preserving
the bodies of the dead has been dis
covered. The advantages of silver-plated
ancestors mounted on pedestals as statuary
are at once apparent.— Utar-Siyings.