MAN OF MANY ADVENTURES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9423, 20 April 1909, Page 3

MAN OF MANY ADVENTURES.

Heir to a baronetcy, and an exofficer in the army, Joseph William Spearman finds himself starving in Loudon, after crowding years of adventure into his twenty-nine years of life.

He is the eldest son of Sir Joseph Layton Elmes Spearman, second Bart., of Oraigour, Gnllane, East Lothian. The title was created in 1840, the first baronet being Sir Alexander Young Spearman, at one tlrni Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, and afterwards Comptroller-General and Secretary to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt.

The present baronet is his grandson, and it is his great-gandson whose plight has been discovered. It may be added that his identity was vouched for by a barrister who has known him and his family all his life.

Sitting in his barely furnished room in one of the mean streets off the Old Kent Road, Mr Spearman told of the hard times that had befallen him. There was no need to tell of the privations he is suffering—that is all too plain. "I’ve been tramping all over London to try and find work, be said, “and I’d welcome any job. My wife and I are penniless and hungry. ’ ’ Mr Spearman was born August 22nd, 1879 and after education at Shrewsbury, served for a year in the 3rd Suffolk (Militia) Regiment as , sab-lieutenant. Then a roving spirit came over him, “I sailed for Canada on November 26b, 1898, in the Labrador,” he said, “with the idea of taking np ranching. My first taste of adventure soon came. 1 was crossing the continent on ihe Canadian Pacific railway, and we were going tbrongh the Rookies when the train jumped the metals and fell into a ditch to the right of the right of the track. We scrambled ont unhurt and saw how narrow had been onr escape, for had the;, train gone over to the left we should all have been dashed to pieces hundreds of feet below. There was no diningcar on the train, as we were to have a meal at a station some way ahead, and twenty of ns had to share out a tin of salmon and a few biscuits till relief arrived, twelve hours later It had a flask of whisky, and oould have sold it over and over, again for its weight in gold. “Eventually I reached Ashcroft, where Sir Wm. Curtis di appeared from Roger Pooook’s expedition. From there I went 200 miles by coach up the Cariboo mate to a place called Soda Creek, where aspring of water babbles up, all fizzing like soda water. Then 1 got into Ohilcoot oonntry and apprenticed myself to learn ranching. So I began nearly three years of a regular cowboy’s life, with plenty of nps and downs, and enongh fun breaking in horses and branding cattle to keep one lively. Of coarse I was very raw at first. My first load of hay slipped off my cart, and I had a busy time getting it back again. But, for excitement, give me branding cattle when a rope breaks and a steer tries to horn you for yonr trouble. That taught me some new ideas in sprinting and getting over six-foot fences. MANY MISFORTUNES.

“In 1901 I thought I’d try town life again, and made my way to New Westminster, British Oolumhia, where I took an office and started an agency for the Veterinary Science Association, the idea being to visit farms and sell books on horses and cattle. A local veterinary surgeon seeing the plate on my door and fearing opposition, tried to get me arrested for practising without a license or qualifications, aud I had to oonvinoejthe authorities that I was a mere harmless book-canvasser. “Books didn’t pay very well, and during the next two years I tried my hand at all sorts ot things. I helped in a tobacconist’s shop, worked in a salmon.cannery, and went on a farm as haymaker. “In 1903 I came home for a short holiday, and raising some money I retained to Vancouver and bought a small fruit farm. But luck was against me, some pest killed all my apple trees, and before long I was wandering about doing any odd jobs I could get. , / “In January, 1907, I came to South London, and with a little money I had left started a tobacconist’s shop in the Old Kent Road, and married the daughter of a butcher who lived nearby, This caused an estrangement from my father, and on July 13th, 1907, I again sailed westward, intending this time to take up poultry farming in Toronto. But land was too expensive, so I took a lodginghouse, which was mostly used by English people who wanted to stay with me for nothing, and bolted without paying as soon as they got work. “Down on my luck again, I did all sorts of odd jobs, digging foundations, making cbnor&te floorings, and the like. Then came my worst misfortune of all. Some coffee had frozen in a pot, and as I chipped it with a knife a splinter or icicle of coffee flew up and made a slight wound in my right hand. Blood poisoning set in, and here is my hand half crippled, so that 1 can do no heavy jobs, though I can manage to write and do clerical work—if only I could get it. At last my wife and 1 determined to retnrn, and lauded in Liverpool last September. We were penniless. A local relief society helped us tor n time, aud a fortnight ago we reached London. Now what we shall do, I cannot say, for we are at our last penny. ’ ’