CRAZY CATTLEMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1916, Page 3

CRAZY CATTLEMEN.

CREW OF THE NICOSIA^. "MULHOLLAND'S CONTRACT." The Mowing is the text of Kipling's poem, '-'Mulholland's Contract," in ''The Seven Seas," which is referred to in the following terms in a recent cable message:—"The Nicosian carried a cargo of mules, and had a crew consisting of the captain, the mate, and half a dozen men, apart from 10 or 12 American cattlemen of the type described in Kipling's "Mulholland's Contract." Thev certainly were not of the breed to lightly take a cold-blooded attempt at murder sitting dowr,"

The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea An' the pens broke up on the lower deck and let the ■ creatures free— An' the lights went out on the lower deck, an' no one near but me.

I had been singin' to them to keep them quite there, For the lower deck is the dangerousest, rcquirin' constant care, An' give to me. a s the strongest man, though used to drink and swear.

I see my chance was certain of bein' horned or trod, For the Tower deck : was packed with steers, thickerin' peas in a pod. An' more pens broke a" every rollso I made a Contract with' God.

An' by the terms of the Contract, as I haVo read the same, If he got me to port alive I would exalt His Name, An' praise His Holy Majesty till further orders came.

He saved me from the cattle an' He saved me from the sea, For they found me 'tween two drowning ones where the roll had landed me—An' a four-inch crack on top of my head, as crazy as could be.

But that were done by a stanchion, and not by a bullock at all, An' I lay still for seven weeks, convalescing of the fall An' reading the shiny Scripture tests in the Seaman's Hospital.

An' I spoke to God of our Contract, an' He says to my prayer: "I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear. Si! you go back to the cattle boats an' preach My Gospel there.

"For human life is chancy at any kind of trade, But most of all, as well you know, when the steers are mad afraid; So you go back to the cattle boats an' preach 'cm as I've said.

"They must quit drinkin' and swearin', they musn't knife on a blow. They must quit gamblin' their wages, and you must preach it so; For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know."

T didn't want to do it, for I knew what T should get, An' I wanted to preach Religion, handsome an' out of the wet, But the Word of the Lord were lain on me, an' I done what I was set.

I have been smit air bruised, as warned would be the ease, An' turned by' cheek to Ihe smitsr exactly as Scripture says; But follow-in' that. I knocked him down an' led him up to Grace.

An' we have preachin' on Sundays whenever the sea is calm, An' I use no knife or pistol an' I never take no harm, For the Lord abideth back of me to guide my fighting arm.

An' I sign for four-poiiml-tcn a month, and save the money clear, An' I am in charge of the lower deck, an' never lose a steer; An' I believe in Almighty God, an' preach His Gospel here.

The skippers say I'm crazy, but I can prove 'em wrong, For I am in charge of the lower deck with nil that doth belong— Which they would not give to a luna- \ tic, and the competition so stronjjt_