A TRUE STORY

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 27, 30 September 1893, Page 10

A TRUE STORY

Several merchant travellers wore having an “ experience meeting,” the subject being their adventures on the road. Various were the stories, and finally a St. Louis man remarked • “ Well, boys, I had a little exper-

ience that beats them all. I was up Lake Michigan, coming to Chicago by steamer, when a whooping old storm came up and raised the dickens generally. We were close to shore, and the engines were doing whatthey could, when, all at once the boiler heads blew out and left us at the mercy of the winds and waves. The vessel began to plunge in towards the rocks, and everything was confusion. The captain was called, and when he got on deck and saw the danger we were in, he was the maddest man you ever saw, because the first officer hadn’t called him earlier. He tore around the deck, getting' hotter every minute and cursing everybody and everything, and the danger getting no better fast. Finally the captain reached a white heat, and every man on board felt that his time had came, when, by a miracle, we were saved.” “ A miracle ! What was it p” cried the crowd of eager listeners. “ It was a miracle, boys, a perfect miracle ! We just turned the hose on the fiery captain, and raised steam enough to set the engines going and carry the vessel out to sea safely away from the deadly rocks of the wave-washed shore.” “ Box me up and send me home,” groaned the man from Chicago, and nobody else spoke.