Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 358, 19 March 1903, Page 2

Traveller.

BRAVING NIAGARA. RAPIDS. SKN 1883 Captain Matthew Webb, a «|> famous English swimmer, left bis •gSj home and crossed the ocean to battle with tbe powerful currents in the Niagara gorge. On July 24 u h, 1813, he entered a email boat, with Jack M'Cloy at the oars, and started down the river. When yet several hundred feet from the rapids, he leaped from the boat,- and, with nothing on.but a pair of red bathing drawers, into the foaming waters. Thousands were on the cliff-tops and bridges. As Webb passed under the suspension bridge he*swam with much graee and be anty. Bight into the crested waves he was hurled as the force of his

own strong strokes and the current sent | him forward. He was seen to pass a\ few of the swells, and then he *wai-Kicked tinder"■ by a mighty wave Four-days later his lifeless body was picked up seven miles down the river. • The fate that befell Webb, instead of discouraging others, inspired them with "emulation. Among those who aspired to make the trip was Carlisle D. Graham, a Philadelphia cooper. Many jokes were cracked at Graham's expense when in -1886 he announced that he would make a barrel in which he would go through the rapids.! In due time Graham, true to his word, appeared at Niagara with a barrel in which he could stand, so weighted that it would float nearly upright. Not only did he go through the Whirlpool Bapids, but he was swept through the entire gorge to Lewis ton, the trip occupying 35 minutes. Then he announced that on his next trip he would have his head out of the f op of the barrel in full view of the people. This venture left him very little hearing, for a bi* wave gave him a deafening slap on the side of the head. Graham made a third and a fourth trip that Summer, and then he piudeatly rested on his laurels. —«The Eoyal Magazine.' ENGLISHMAN AND TURK. An Englishman has just bad a very curious experience. He had lent a Turk some money, but the man waß unable to pay, and on his deathbed laid a particular charge on his wife and children to meet the debt. The eldest son was making arrangements accordinly, but also died, and he, too, begged his family to pay the money as soon as they could. One day the Englishman received a visit from a member of the family, who said that there were now four members of it left, and they were ready to pay, but one of the daughters refused to subscribe her share, declaring that the money was never really lent. The others, however, wished to settle tho matter, and if the Englishman would come to the house it would be arranged. 'But,* the Turk added, 'if you see there is any difficulty, j uet say that you leave it to be settled in the next world!' Accordingly, the Englishman went to the house'at the appointed time, and met the family, in the presence of a Mollah, the ladies being behind a screen. The Mollah began by asking if he had truly lent the money, bow much it was, and if he would take any less. One of the women behind kept saying it was all a fraud. The Englishman then declared that he had lent the money; that he had not asked tor it j that they had told him to eom'e and get it, and if they did not want to pay it he would leaTe the matter to be settled in the next world. There was doad silence for a few moments, and then the women called their brother, and each paid her share without a word. It seems the prospect of meeting the father in the other world without having carried out his wishes was too serious a thing to face.