Saved by a Jack-knife.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 August 1914, Page 8

Saved by a Jack-knife.

The following strange and exciting story is told regarding the steamer Yille de Havre.

Several years ago, on the afternoon before the tragedy, it appears a New York lawyer, Mr. Witthans,

and another passenger were loaning against the tallrail under the flagstaff at the stern. The second man called Mr. Witthans' attention to a life-buoy, so stiff and hard with coats of paint that, the passenger said, it could not be got free without a knife. Mr. Witthans attempted to move it, hut found it glued hard and fast. His friend took out his knife and began idly sticking it into the soft pine of the flagstaff, till the talk was interrupted by the dinnergong. r Early the next morning, while the passengers were still asleep the collision occurred, and in the panic that followed Mr. Witthans , did what he could to get the women and children into the lifeboats. From the first he regarded himself as doomed, for there were not nearly boats enough for the passengers, and it was evident that the ship would float only a few minutes. He retired to the stern of the ship, which was higher out of the water that moment than the bow, to wait until he. too, should go down, and stood leaning again on the taffrail. As he did so, in a flash he recoWiicLed the conversation of the afternoon before, and looked over the rail. There still hung the lifebuoy, stiff and immovable, and the instinct of self-preservation sprang to life once more. A knife to free the buoy, and he must be saved ; but he had none with him, and to find one was impossible with the ship liable to go down at an y second. At the same moment he caught sight of the flagstaff, and there, where his friend had evidently forgotten it the afternoon bt-iore, stuck the knife. With the haste of life and death, Mr. Witthans pulled it out, and began to saw away at the buoy. He freed it and threw himself off the deck into the sea just in time to get beyond the vortex that came as the great ship went down, sucking hundreds of victims with it. Mr. Witthans floated for some time, and was at last picked up by a small boat that was waiting about for chance survivors, and was taken back to Xew York to of one of the most awful catastrophies that ever happened at sea. Experiments with a specific of which the principal ingredient is liquefied gold have obtained successful results in the cure of skin diseases at the derniatological section of the Breslau University.

Earl Grey, in an interview in the "African World" on the prospects of Rhodesia, says he has arrived at the conclusion that the territory will undoubtedly rank in the early future as one of the foremost cattle countries of the world. According to the written statement of Dr. Morgenstern, of Hasten, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Berton Perten, a resident of that town. and three of her children, are endowed with two hearts each, beating normally on either side of their bodies.