THE PRIVATEER OF THE PRAIRIES. Surprising Experiences of John Young Nelson. Resume of the Work. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, June 21.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 402, 14 September 1889, Page 3

THE PRIVATEER OF THE PRAIRIES. Surprising Experiences of John Young Nelson. Resume of the Work. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, June 21.

The most remarkable book published this week,- or. indeed for some time, is a volume of reminiscences of sport and adventure by John Young. _!Nel^6h,\ who boa&ts having lived foi* fifty years orr the prairies of, the Far West. During that time Nelson played ■ many, parts 'and enjoyed many strange experiences. He has ( bee,n a Mormon, a professional gambler* a guide, a 'trapper, 'a" cabin boy, ancl an initiated Sioux. His morality (as he frankly admits) won't'bear close inspection, but his adventures are delightful and in many cases unique. ' • , ■ This modern picaroon, "this privateer of the prairie, was born, says a " Daily News " correspondent, in 1526 at Charleston, in "Virginia. He was born with a little of the poet, in him, with a great deal of the gipsy, and with all the native delight in danger which may come, from Norse blood. F.or Nelson i 3 " Njal's son ;" our' hero' bears the sYme family name as Sharphedin ' in the Saga, and as the, great English sailor who 11 never saw fear.'* In reading his memoirs, which' Ho reluctantly narrated to Mr Hanington O'Reilly,'Mr Nelson- constantly reminds us of his probable ancestors'. He has the Scandinavian love of roa"ming, on the endless sea of the prairie^' he has" the 'delight in danger and in war ; he has the cool, contemptuous humour of the indomitable Ndrbh. His book is really the Saga of the plains ; a page in the history of the conquest of the West. JVJr Nelson Bad a stormy youfh. His father had-- bidden him' "never fight a nigger ;" but *"if N Ke fought, he must never be defeated. ,. At the age of six he engaged a young negro, was being beaten, and was' at the same time corrected by his.-parent.. So he nearly cut the negrd to pieces with a' bit of old iron, and was all the more diligently whacked by his parent. His early record was one of mischief and discipline. He ran away, was caught, tethered fco his falhor's saddle, and beaten all along the homeward route. So .he ran off again, became a cabin boy, and then a waiter on board a steamer. Then, at the j ago of fourteen, he was a farm ser- | vant, and, like Ainyas Leigh, knocked a ] schoolmaster down with' a slate for bullying a girl. This exploit caused a new flight ; he joined a band of explorers on the plains, became a great rider and hunter, but was always haunted by love of a more lonely, and uncivilised existence. The voice of the empty prairies called to him, the spirit of wandering possessed him, and he fled into the solitudes. Finding a camp of Indians (Sioux) he walked into a tent, and sat down, like a Homeric suppliant, by the hearth. Budge he would not, and the Indians were obliged to adopt him, as they did John Tanner some fifty years before. His account of Indian life is charming. , The tribes Avere, innocent happy children, 'he say?, before' the white man brought them poisonous whisky and | gunpowder. ' They were Communists in one sense, for their ambitibn and point of honour were to be poor, not rich. At the gieat Sun Feast men gave all their goods away, and on other occasions present giving was theiule. They liverl well on buffalo and other game ; they weregonerousr'honourable, but very free and easy 'with the Seventh Commandment. In brief; theirs was' Scandinavian morality of the hecuic age, the ethics of Odin. Nelson's account of an Indian wooing is both comic and touching. The brave, wrapped in his blanket, waits by the waterside till the fair comes to fill her pitcher at sunset. Then he throws his blanket over her head an'd*his, and in this privacy he proposes. Tins' f is repeated ten nights, and then the maiden says "Yes." The lover next sends horses to the lady's parents, and if these are accepted the affair is settled. When she reaches her new wigwam the bride is "like a small wild bird caught and held in the hand." She maintains an extraordinary reseivc for about a month, and then omerges from her shyness and is full of fun. But the idyll always ended badly, and (as in John Tanner's case) all of Mr Nelson's brides, except his present wedded wife, eloped with members ot their own race. But Nelson behaved with the calm of the Persians in Herodotus, who de-clai-ed that " to run away with women was the part of wicked men, and to be indifferent on the matter was the conduct of wise ones." , Among Nelson's adventures the mo&t curious was his encounter with "Brigham Young and the early Mormons, whom he led across the plains*, much suffering from their long sermons. With them, he caught the first view of the Great Salt Lak.e, a romantic moment, for what they took to be' a cloud was "the summit of a perpendicular mass of rock, rising from a gigantic lake that lay befoie us." In later days, Mr Nelson allowed himself to be , baptised into the Mormon Church, with as careless a heart as ,any convert of, Thangbrand or Olaf the Saint. He .despised the Mormons, laughed, at their faith, and loathed their bloodthirsty " destroying angels," but he was one of those equable theologians who would turn Turk or Jew for a temporal paradise. He never made a fortune, though .he once kept a rlr.inkir.a and gambling, hell styled "The Robber's Roost.'' " The bank always won ;" • "but, when he had sold the concern,, he went back and gambled away all his gains at the • very partial roulette table where he had made them. In shoit, except for a generous heart, a plucky spirit,, and a love of the Red M,an and the wild wood, Mr Nelson's moral character is devoid of prejudice, and his theology is. not remarkable for scruple. His wives have been the chief thorns in his side, and, one &quaw, in an hour of family aflliction, gave away every article of property that she possessed. Like a heroine of Miss Rossetii's she also " gave up beauty in her .tender youth," cutting ,hereelf to ribbons with, a knife.,. It,, is the Indian way of \vearing mourning., v Nelson/sranecdotes of Border ."Bei-sarks," ruffians msid' with ,the lust of blood, are almost too dreadful to .quote, and his artist has been ,jtpo conscientious in, illustrating horrors.', But, the, book has all, the air of truth, and illustrates most strikingly the revival' of Scan-, dinavian barbarism in the English character ,when the wild element gets a fair chance. The stories of .Yankee corruption. and cruel theft from the Indians are even .more dis- . creditable „tp, .human nature "than the shootings aiid slayings.,

Tnirbest soil for a garden is a rich soil. I have more faith hi manure as an) element of success iii gardening than" in any other clean culture exc'epted. Successions 'of many of our vegetables'— beans, peas, 'radilish, lettuce, — shouldbe planted m 6»der to 'secure* fu.l benefit from v ili'em during thoseason. Weeds grow fasfcer'and "in greater variety in .the garden' than in the corn field, a'nd'hence need closer attention. Each' pest rhust be fought according to its 1 habits, and to know tho Habits' oi f insects it '.is'n6'edful <! for vi hdrticultunst; l s tec" study entpmology tQ some extent