WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 44, 14 August 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). GIRL'S SENSATIONAL HONEYMOON REMAUKARLE TRIP OF SEA CAPTAIN AND HIS WIFE. There recently arrived in New York a four-masted clipper, the .Tuteopolis, engaged in the China trade, and the logbook provides a sea story as thrilling as ever was conceived in the realm of fiction.

Throughout this naval diary desperate encouners with bloodthirsty Chinese pirates, mutinies of coolies, struggles with man-eating sharks, tussles with

typhoons and tempests, and,in fact, all the accessories of the regulation sea story, are sprinkled in in liberal measure. In addition to this, there .is a touch of romance which is unsurpassed in Action, for the cruise incidentally represented the captain's honeymoon trip, and his bride, the only woman on board, played an important role in all the stirring incidents of the voyage. Captain Downs is 29 years old, the youngest skipper in the service, the bravest and the luckiest.

The captain's bride had never been to sea before. But she was a dead shot with a rifle. Her skill in that respect was afterwards put to the test on several occasions.

Besides the skipper and his bride, there were Chief Officer Harold .1. Symonds, a giant Australian, and a crew of 34 picked men. But it was not until the Juteopolis reached the tropics that both skill and bravery were put to their first severe test. There the vessel ran into a typhoon. Staunch as she was. the vessel was tossed like an eggshell in the angry waves. The rain came down in sheets. The wind swept everything on deck overboard.

At Hongkong the vessel was refitted and proceeded up the Chu-Kuang river to Whampoa to discharge cargo at Canton.

Tales of the activity of river pirates had readied .Tuteopolis, and all hands were prepared for an attack at any time.

"Sampans advancing on the port bow!" yelled the night watch, shortly after all hands had turned in. It had been arranged by the captain that in the event of an attack certain members of the crew should handle lines of hose, others should use belaying pins and capstan bars, while still others should bring their revolvers into play if the occasion demanded. The captain was armed with a revolver, while his bride relied upon her Winchester.

With the first sound of the alarm all lianas' stood by !i. repel boarders. Barely were they at their stations when swarms of ferocious-looking Celestials swarmed over the sides, detaining access to the vessel by means of long bamboo poles) which they hooked over the rails and climbed up. "Let them have it!" cried the captain. Bang!. went the revolvers and Mrs. Downs' rifle. Swish! Swish! sang the hose. Crash! Crash! sounded the belaying pins as they descended on yellow heads. Scores of the invaders fell over the sides of the ship with the first volley. Their place juras soon filled by others, however, while those who had gained the decks engaged in hand-fco-hand conflict with the crew, who were greatly outnumbered by the invaders. The pirate's wielded long, dangerous knives, and many of the sailors received terrible wounds, At one time it looked as if the' Celestials would triumph, as in greatly augmented numbers they made for the bridge, whence, the captain and his wife hid been keeping up a steady fire.

"Turn tjie hose on them," yelled Downs, and in a moment a stream from three lines of hose was directed at them, which swept many of them overboard, and the rest were glad to make their escape. As it was, the river was filled with bobbing Chinamen. Some of them whocould'swim made for their sampans, but many sank to the bottom. A few 4&ys later, while officers and crew were enjoying a river bath, the cry, "A shark! Look out for the shark!" was raised by some of the sailors, who had remained on board.

Everyone piade for the ship and gained it in safety except one sailor, who was not a veijy strong swimmer, and who was, moreover,, nearly scared to death at the appearance of an enormous whitebellied shark, .which was making directly for him with wide-opened jaws. Mrs. Downs, was swinging in a hammock on the bridge, while her husband was reading to her. At the sound of the eominption she leapt to her feet, seized her Winchester, and, while the onlookers held their breath, aimed at the monster just as he was within 20 feet of the terified sailor.

"Bravo!" the sailors cried, as a stream of blood was seen pouring from the shark's left eye, but the cry was stilled when it became apparent that the shark was very far from suocumbing. In fact, the sting of the bullet only seemed to increase its eagerness to seize the sailor, and it forged ahead. "Bang! bang!" went the rifle, and the shark rolled over—dead!

A boat was lowered and the frightened sailor rescued. The body of the shark was then hauled aboard and photographed as a trophy of the voyage. At Hongkong the .Tuteopolis was to take on a cargo of Chinese curios, matting and jute for the homeward voyage. The process of stowing the cargo was a long one, as it was hard to secure sufficient coolie labor. When the vessel was half-loaded a hundred or more coolies who were working oh her became disgruntled at their treatment by the crew, and a terrific conflict ensued. Once again pistols, rifles hose and belaying pins were called into service, and again they triumphed.

Mrs. Downs stuck by the side of her husband throughout the struggle, although he repeatedly ordered to to go below. Eventually the coolies were overcome, but after that it was even hardbr than before to get sufficient labor to load the vessel.

The homeward trip was not as eventful as the outward one, although storms were frequently encountered in the Indian Ocean and while the vessel was rounding the Cape.

A SAD CASE

The Ly Melton Times recently investigated the case of a young woman who arrived at Wellington from Sydney and was refused permission to land, being sent back to Australia. She was married in C'hristchurch some years ago, and subsequently removed with her husband to Sydney. She fell ill and went into a hospital, and her husband deserted her, taking with him their little girl, and leaving with his wife a ten-months-old fcaby, who died while the unfortunata woman was ill. She had transferred all her property to her husband, and was left penniless, and as she is suffering from locomotor ataxia she is unable to work for a living. A relative in Christchurch with whom she had hoped to make her home was unable to give a bond for her maintenance, and the Customs authorities refused to permit the woman to land, sending her back to Sydney. Since her return to that city the Sun has enquired into her circumstances, and his written the history of another scene in the sad tragedy of her life. On her arrival in Sydney the Customs Department declined to allow her to go ashore on the grounds that she was not a native of New South Wales, and a< she was in bad health she was likely to become a charge on the State. The shipping company which had given her a passage, appeared to be doomed to carry her indefinitely between Sydney and Wellington, but after a whole week of wrangling the Customs officers gave way, and the poor woman, penniless and wretchedly ill, was permitted to land. Still she was in a sad plight. There was no person to whom she could appeal for help, and no home to which she could go for shelter. The property which she had made over to her husband would have kept her in comfort throughout her life, hut he had squandered it, and she was living with this lady, and was feeling strong and hoping to undertake some light work, but her prospects of earning even a meagre living were extremely poor.

ROYAL MARRIAGE FUTURE EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA. Rome, August 1. The nuptials of the Princess Zita, the thirteenth of the twenty children of Duke Robert of Raima, and the Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, the second in succession to the Austrian throne, have been arranged for the last week in October in the chapel of the Imperial Palace in Vienna. On her return from Rome, where she receives the papal blessing, the princess will make her obeisance to the Emperor at Luitz. from where it has been found, owing to his state of health, impossible to remove him. Afterwards the princess will be presented at a great court ball at Schoenbruun, at which neither the Emperor nor the morganatic wife of the heir presumptive will be present. It is interesting to note that the future Empress has been long intimate with the Kaiser's only daughter, whom rumor has often betrothed to the Austrian heir. Her mother is the Infanta Maria of Portugal, the youngest and handsomest of the six sisters of the illfated house of Braganza, overshadowed by so many tragedies. The match was undoubtedly made by tke Archduchess Maria Theresa, the mother of the Austrian heir presumptive, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

The Emperor's precarious condition of health gives a special interest to the match.