A STORY ABOUT FLOGGING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2354, 10 May 1892, Page 4

A STORY ABOUT FLOGGING.

Whkn I was . about forty years of age I took command of the ship 'Petersham.' V.'e ivtre bound to Liverpool, and nothing unusual happened until the eighth day, when we ran toul of a small iceberg. It was early in the morning, before sunrise, and not above six or eight feet of ice was above ns, it having nearly all been melted in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. I did not think we had sustained much injury, for the shock was light; but I was very air, ry, snd gave the look-out a severe , .Punishment, without stopping to inquire ' whether he could have seen the berg in, time tu ■ ■'■tape it. JVly cabin boy was named Jack Withers He was fourteen years of age, and this was hi si first voyage. I had taken him from his widowed mother, and promised her that 1 would see him well treated—that is, if he behaved himself. Me was a bright, quick, intelligent lad, but 1 soon made myself believe he had an jiw.'u! disposition. I fancied that he was the most stubborn piece of humanity I had oi-er corr e across. I made up my mind thr>v he had never been properly governed, ;)ii(! had resolved to break him in. I told hir> I'd curb his temper before I'd done wi'ti }■'•'!; in ivpiv he told me I might kill "fir-; '■;' : li.\''.-i : n.r.d 1 flossed him with the (~- ;' ■. :.:.;;e btl he could hardly stand. I ;■■.-■■:■■] b',:-' if be had had enough, and he t..i.; i !•. I . . : ,.,ht !•",; him more if I wished to. , 'vlx a jtrong ir.clination to throw the l'-c-y overboard, but at that moment he staggered back against the mast from absolute weakness, and I left him. \\ hen f reasoned calmly to myself about the boy's disposition I was forced to acknou that he was one of the smartest ar,d most intelligent and faithful lads I had ever seen When I asked him to do anything he would be off like a rocket; but when he wns roughly ordered about, then came the disposition with which I found fault. fe. Ore day, when it was very near noon, I spoke to him, telling him to bring up my quadrant. He was looking over the quarterrail, and I knew he did not hear me; but the next time I spoke I spoke sharply, and intirr.aled that if he didn't move I would help birn. •• I didn't hear you," he said, in an independent tone. " No words," said I. ■" I suppose I can speak," he retorted, rnovirg slowly towards the companion way. His looks, words, and the slow, careless manner in which he moved, fired me in a moment. I grasped him by the collar. " Speak to me again like that, and I'll flog you within an ace of your life," said I. •'You can flog away," he answered, as firm as a rock. And I did flog him. I caught up the end of a rope and beat him till my arm fairly ached ; but he never winced. " How's that ?" said I '• There's a little more life in me yet : you'd better flog it out," was the reply. And I beat him again. I beat him till he sank from my hand to the floor. I sent one of the men for my quadrant . but when it came, and I had adjusted it for observation, I found that the sun had ' already passed the meridian, and that I was 100 .'ate This added fuel to the fire of my madness, and, seizing the lad by the collar, I led him to the main hatchway and had ihe hatch taken off. I thrust him down, and swore 1 would keep him there till his stubbornness was broken. The hatch was then put on, and I went below into the cabin. I suffered a great deal that afternoon—not from any compunctions of conscience for ■what I had done, but with my own temper and bitterness It made me mad to think I could net conquer that boy —that I could not break down his cool, tantalising opposition. • " But I will do it !" I said to myself; " I -will starve him into it, or he shall die under the operation I" About nine o'clock I went to the hatchway and called to him, but he returned no answer; so I closed the hatch and went away. An hour afterwards I went again. Still no answer I might have thought that the flogging had taken away his senses, had not some of the men assured me that they Jhad heard him talking io himself a short time before. I did not trouble him again until next morning. After breakfast I went to the hatchway, and called to him once more. I heard nothing from him, nor could I see him. I had not seen him since I put him down there. I called out several times, but lie would make no reply ; yet the same men told rce they had heard him that very morning. He seemed to be calling on them for help ; but he would not answer me. .-1 xneant to break him into it. .1, ,• t: " He'll beg before he'll starve," I thought, ' and so determined to let him stay there. I he had crawled forward to the forecastle bulkhead, in order to make the sailors hear him. Some of the men asked leave to go down and look for him, but I refused, and threatened to punish the first man that dared to g<o down At noon I went again, and as he did not answer me this time, I resolved that he should come to the hatchway and ask for me ere I went any rrjore The day passed away, and when evening came I began to be startled He had been in the hold thirtysix hours, and forty hours without food or drink ! He must be 100 weak to cry out now. Jt was hard for me to give up, but if he died there from actual starvation it might go harder with me still So at length I made up m y mind to go and see him- It was not <suite sundown when I had the hatch taken off, and I jumped down among the boxes alone. ' A little way forward I saw a space where Jack might easily have gone down, and to this- point I crawled on my hands and knees. I called out there, but could get no answer A short distance further was a wide space, which I had entirely forgotten, but which T £ow remember had been left open on accouni of a break in the flooring of the hold, which would let anything that might have been stored there rest directly on the thin planking of the ship. To this place I made my way, and looked down. I heard the splashing of water, and thought I could detect a sound iik© the incoming of a tiny jet or stream. At first J could see nothing, but as soon as I became used to the dim light I could distinguish the faint outlines of the boy at some distance below me. He seemed to be sitting on the broken floor, with his feet stretched out against a cask. I called out to him, and thought he looked up. < , "Jack, are you there?" And he answered me in a faint, weary tone: " Yes; help me. .For mercy's sake help me! Bring men and bring a lantern ; the ship has sprung a leak !" I hesitated, incredulous, and he added in a more eager tone: " Make haste! I will try and hold it til) you come back." I waited to hear no more, but hurried on deck at once, and soon returned with a ianlern and three men. I leaped down beside the boy, and could scarcely believe my own ser.ses. Three of the timbers were wormeaten to the very heart, and one of the outer planks had been broken, and would burst in any moment the boy might leave it, whose feet wsre braced against the plank

before him. Half-a-dozen little jets of water were streaming in about him, and he was wet to the skin. I saw the plank must burst the moment the strain was removed from it, so I made the men brace themselves against it before I lifted him up. Other men were called down, with planks, etc., and after much difficulty we finally succeeded in stopping the leak and averting the danger. The plank which had been stove in was six feet long by eight inches wide, and would have let in a stream of water of that capacity. It would have been beyond our reach long before we could have discovered it, and would have sunk the ship in a very short time. I knew it must be where the iceberg struck us. Jack Withers was carried to the cabin in my arms, and there he managed to tell his story. Soon after I put him in the hold he crawled forward, and when he became used to the dim glimmer that came through the deadlights, he looked around 'for a snug place in which to lie, for his limb;- were very sore. He went to sleep, and when he awoke he thought he heard a faint sound, like water streaming through a small hole. He went to the open p, .r.c in the cargo, and looked down, and was ; tire that he saw a small jet of water springing up through the ship's bottom. He kviped down, and in a few moments found . rt the timbers had given wholly away, and that the stream was increasing in size. He place' 1 *"s hand on the plank, and found it broken, a, d discovered that the pressure of the water without was forcing it inward. He had presence of n\ : "d enough to see that if it gained an inch nu..e must all go, and the ship be lost, and perhaps all hands perish. And he saw, too, that if he could keep the broken plank in its place he might stop the incoming flood. So he sat himself upon it, and braced his feet against the cask, and then called for help. But he was too far away, so low down, with such a mass of cargo about him, Lhat his voice scarcely reached other ears than his own. Some of the men heard him, but thought he was talking to himself. And there he sat, with his feet braced, for four-and-twenty dreary hour?, with the water spurting all over him, and drenching him to the skin. He had several times thought of going to the hatchway and calling for help ; but he knew that the broken plank would be forcedin if he left it, for hecould feel it heave beneath him. His limbs were racked with pain, but he would not give up. I asked him if he would not have given up if I had not come as I did. He answered fhat'he would not have done it while there was life in him. He said he thought not of himself—he was ready to die—but he would cave the rest if he could. And he had saved us, surely—saved us from a watery grave ! The boy lay sick almost unto death ; but I nursed him with my own hands —nursed him all through his delirium , and when his reason returned and he could sit up and talk, I humbly asked his pardon for all the wrong I had done him. He threw his arms around my neck, and told me if I would be good to him he would never give cause of offence. He added, as he sat up again, " I am not a coward —I could not be a dog !" I never forgot those words ; and from that hour I never struck a blow on board my ship. I make my men feel that they are men, that I so regard them, and that I wish to make them as comfortable and happy as possible ; and I have not failed to gain their respect and" confidence. During nine.years I have sailed in three different ships with the same crew. Not a man could be hired to leave me, save for an officer's berth. And Jack Withers remained with me thirteen years. He was my cabinboy ; one of my foremosthands ; my second mate ; and the last time he sailed with me he refused the command of a new bark. A "TALE"~FOIi THE MARINES. , A popular young actor end a friend were once out driving, and put up at a riverside public-house. The ostler was away at the time, and an old boating-man, in a condition of extreme doubt and perplexity, took the horse in hand. The travellers assisted him to remove harness, and fastened for him what he called "the painter," the adjustment more commonly known as the halter. <le then towed the steed into the stable, a.id after pondering deeply for a time, bf;;aii to bed him down with a boat-hook. After that he got a mop to do the horse with, and,.the operation being performed v. Uh indifferent success, the quasi-groom next desired information as to the method of " unshipping the rudder, for fear it sh- i:!d get broke." He wanted to take the animal's tail off I EXPLAINING HIS MOVEMENTS. During the War of the Rebellion, an officer riding through the woods of North Alabama was attracted by a tall, lank countryman, who ..seemed to be using his best endeavours to reach the top of a large hickory tree. Scarcely had he' gained the. summit, when, rapidly descendiug, he started up another tree a few yards further oft. This strange proceeding was continued a dozen times, the countryman climbing and descending one tree after another, for nearly a quarter of a mile. The officer at length overtaking him, inquired the causa of his eccentric performance. "Wal, stranger," he answered, "I was Jyin' A s teep under yon hickory, when a confounded squirrel dropped a shell-bark into my eye, I'm goin' fo \ '-ry him till he leaves the settlement, if I die in the attempt." THE WASHERWOMAN'S SONG, Wring out the old, wring out the new, Wring out the black, wring out the grey, Wring out the white, wring out the blue--Aad thus I wring my life away. An occupation strange is mine ; At least it seems to people droll That while I'm working at the lin§ I'm going too from pole to pole. Where'er I go I strive to please, Fjrom morn to night I rub and rub ; I'm something like Diogenes—--1 almost live within a. tub. To acrobats who vault and spring In circuses I take a shine : They make their living in the wring, And by the wringer I make mine. My calling's humble, I'll agree, But I am n 0 cheap calico, As som.e folks are who sneer at me ; I'm something that will wash, you know. I. smile in calm, I strive in storm, With life's stern difficulties cope, My duties cheerfully perform, My motto: " While there's life there'? soap." Wring out the old, wring out the new, Wring out the black, wring out the grey, Wring out the white, wring out the blue— And thus 1 wring my life away. The number of authorised gas under--1 takings in the United Kingdom is 578, of which 173, or nearly 30 per cent., belong to the local authorities. The official census returns of the Transvaal place the population of the entire country at 119,128 souls, consisting of 66,498 men and 52,6.30 women. Mr. J. L. Toole has been busy collecting material for a book on his Australasian experiences. He proposes to call it ''The Great Britain of the South,"