AUSTRALIAN STOCK WHIP

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2185, 14 September 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN STOCK WHIP

“The wonders of the whip” would, be an appropriate title for some, amazing feats of “whip cracking” by “Mr. Fred. Lindsay,” an Australian gentleman adventurer who (says the Newcastle Chronicle) appeared recently at the London Hippodrome. To see “Mr. Lindsay” wield a huge whip—the thong is over 24ft in’ length and the stock 18in —reminds one of a flash of lightning. The lash swishes through the air, harmlessly Aides off the ash of a cigar in an attendant’s mouth 25ft away, and if can lie used as a death-dealing instrument at the will of the wielder. It requires, of course, great precision of eye, judgment of distance, and groat physical strength. AVitli his whip at 25ft distant Mr. Lindsay can cut a cigarette in. half, held in the mouth of an attendant. He can extinguish a lighted candle in a similar range, and with a different crack cut a candle in half. The lash is quite harmless when he wishes to make it so. For instance, he flogs a man with terrific force without hurting hm. Then he can tie his whip in a knot round a man’s arm. This act if unskilfully performed would cut the arm off. As it is, the man docs not feel it. The whip wielded by Mr. Lindsay cuts an ordinary wine bottle in two. Perhaps his most effective display is when ho smashes the..whip,-with full force .upp. on .a lady’s hare aijm, and .she ,skips in the .coils, of. the whip with him. j After leaving school, Mr. Lindsay took two trips.with 1000 cattle into the interior, of .Australia, and when he was not lixursebreaking or kauga- ' roo . shooting amused himself by learning, to ban die’.the stock-whip. A ■world-wide he served as a. ■ corporal, in the Ist Victorian. Bush- J men’s Contingent through the Boer | war,, and.he was,.one of -nine men out of .75 .who started in pursuit of De AVet, and who lived to tell the tale. ! “Lindsay” is not his real name. It; is a "noin do theatre,” which con- j coals a name well-known in Austra- J lip, and in the outposts of the em- ; pire, for the “wliipcracker” is a man who lias made his pile. Ho has sufficient, as ho says, to servo him “till > his number goes up,” but just now , lie is interested in 500 square miles ' of country in Central Africa.