ADVENTURE WITH A BOOMERANG.

Dunstan Times, Issue 793, 29 June 1877, Page 4

ADVENTURE WITH A BOOMERANG.

Simple as the Australian boomerang apparently is, millions of small boys have tried in vain to imitate it. In fact, until very recently not a single civilised boy has ever possessed a boomerang that would do its duty. Crooked sticks of all sorts and sizes have been made and thrown at all possible objects, but in no case have they returned to the thrower, or shown in any other way the slightest resemblance to the true boomerang. Thus the small boy grows up with an unsatisfied longing for that curious and useful weapon, and the hopelessness ot ever attaining it has cast a gloom over the childhood of every man now living. It will hardly be credited, but nevertheless it is asserted to be time, that a Detroit small boy recently came accidentally into possession of a boomorang 'that was in all respects equal to the best boomerang Australia has yet produced. Why fortune was thus prodigal to this particular boy we are not told, but that it actually showered upon him the priceless treasure which all other small boys have longed for in vain, we are not permitted to doubt. He was not the architect of his own boomerang, and' his discovery of it was purely accidental. One Saturday morning he was sitting near the wood-pile, with a ’ tomato can in his . hand and a dog by his side, trying to devise some new ■ wav of putting the two together. Being interrupted by the appearance of the cook at the kitchen door, who threatened to report him to his father if he did not “lave the poor baste alone,” he carelessly picked up a crooked stick and threw it at the humane but presuming Bridget. Strange to say, it not only hit hex - , but it also returned and hit the deg. That it was a boomerang there was no room to doubt; and if that small boy had bech offei-ed at that xnoment the original Aladdin’s lamp, hewoxxldhave put it aside with contempt, and ■ clutched with delirious joy his unexpected boomerang. Tn the course of the next six hours no less than 31 leading citizens of Detroit were sud- ■ denly struck by unseen dubs, without being able to detect the assailant. ■Boys without number were hit 'in tender places, and, beyond the fact that two or three of them asserted that they were ssruck by sticks which came sailing around the corner, no explanation of these disasters could he found. : Had the unfortunate possessor of the boomerang been able to moderate his. transports all would have been well but, unfortunately, he could not resist the temptation to try Ir’s weapon on his Sunday-school teacher. Hitherto, the boomerang had implicitly obeyed the wishes of its .proprietor, hut on this occasion it attempted an independent course of action, which was followed by disastrous results. The small hoy was standing at the corner of the street when he saw his teacher approaching at a distance of a few hundred yards. He instantly threw liis boomerang straight at the unconscious teacher, feeling confident

that it would return to him after discharging its duty in time to enable him to escape. Curiously enough, the teacher was not hit, and the boomerang totally disappeared. For some minutes tho small boy stood, with bands in his pockets, 'utterly astonished at his failure, and wondering' what had be come of his weapon. He was not long left in doubt. In the course of about four minutes that boomerang came rushing up the side street, smote the small boy on the head, fracturing Iris skull, and then disappeared for ever in a direction a little north of east-north-east. Tho main facts of this story cannot be doubted without striking at the foundation of our 'faith, in the Detroit newspapers. It contains a beautiful moral ior the use of Sundayschool teachers, and is full of encouragement for reckless youth. Tho natural boomerang is, beyond doubt, excessively rare, and there is little hope that another could be found, thought every wood-pile in the country should be searched. Nevertheless, the wildest dream of boyhood has at length been realised, and the knowledge - bf this will sustain thousands of juvenile hearts in the darkest hours that follow interviews in the wood-shed with stern and muscular parents.—New York Times,