A MISCHEVOUS MIDDY'S JOKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 82, 14 June 1881, Page 4

A MISCHEVOUS MIDDY'S JOKE.

Some^ev^aysaco we p^bißhea a' paraMaphßl^rring^63^l|»^%m>'wn A at ttie, " S^JEliuoX Ljg|<i ? ''; 4>e &ll6wing fc from the Fratieisco* Chronicle, explains the mystery:' — Dr Ford Clark^ja*y.o#ng r sea-going^ ■*•' Burgeon and'alfen&iiiatic'.Bawht, arw rived in San^Wnciwp-a Bhpr.^.^im,e since as the surgeon of j tlija, ship John o' Gaunt. The. ship was from Calcutta! / The voyage was long, aud as it Was so monotonous as not to furnish t&the active, intellect of: the ■ young Burgeonall the phenomena .that 1 "the savatit* oedldy«ravei one. t>ff the midshipman determined' ;to iwprovisa some phtoontenai for* him, At Brfit he contemplated a sea-surpenf; but asr sea serpents are becoming^vety com?: mon, and are a good dealiof trouble; he finally determined on electric light occ4sichally.;feeen : -by • umißually tough shell 'bHdS^afeft ; in the riggiilg of ships at' sea'; 'and ' ! which* fe 'known as St. ElinVs fire. H« 'got the mate's bull's" eye lantern, and' -on a very dar^ iiigh tHeclinibed aloffe^ Uf itj and" madbMt rT fast""td fhe' masMi'ead.' Decending he rushed into the cabirf and announced to the doctor a re markably well develoved case of St Elmo's light. The doctor bounded on deck, examined theiightf, made a bketch of" it, ami finally 'the midshipman boldly volunteered to go up and interview it. .He went up^ blew ; the light out, ano: jy decentlihgv V told- tW doctor he had touched the'ffiffh* 1 with* his finger, whereupon be Tristan fly received a trein'endotis electric shock, and St. Klmo's li^ht disappeared. Di Clark found the depraved young man's pulse at 102,' so her jmt the midship-' man's arm in a sling, put; a whisky sling into the. midshipman, and both slings into the sick bay, and thereafter-, during the rest of the ciuise, and as a premium innocently paid to a case of very, atrocious wickedness, he prescribed Jo the young hero who Had blown St. Elmo's flight out of/the mate's .b.ull's-eje w lantern, daily rations of to* bacoo and grp{jj» . Upon the arrival in port of the John 6' Gaunt, pr Clark wrote a very abstruse" aq^Qpvt of the matter, which w"a ! s published in an evening contemporary," and. .he also forwarded to th^LouAon Graphic a much more detailed account of the phenomenon,: together with water-; color sketches of it which he had. made. The doctor having subse- : quently sailed from this iporfc as the, surgeon of the Zealandia, Thomas V Pow!es,- : comrriander - off the John o' Gaunt, to whose knowledge 'the perpetration of the joke' ; had come/ also in a communication, to (ho even-, ing con tern ptirrfry,' 'gives the- whdle. business away,' not to rinse & guffaw at the expense of a young gentleman whose acquirements as a phyeioianr and as a sofentist' aro admittedb> both.the bodies, but that the joke that the tedium of along voyage, and the excellence of its own inception and exectitibn'mSdeipardbnable; may not serve a false beacon for O'her scientists. !