A HERO IN COMMON LIFE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2349, 17 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

A HERO IN COMMON LIFE.

Apropos of the wreck of the Ly-ee-uioon the writer of " Lightwares" in the Sydney Mail has the following interesting paragraph : Olaf Thorpe (Norwegian by your name), I desire to do you a little homage I You were one of the saved from the Ly-ee-moon wreck, and you were one of those who risked their lives to save others, y on got down to the edge of the surge of the surf—did you not ?—right on the edge of the edge of the slippery rook, and flung that brass lock with thelifelineattached whereby the lives of some amongst those wretches were saved I That was brave—courageous I Away from the miserable thought of self, from the cowering, and cringing which would have been the habit and necessity, of many men under suoh circumstances. The pulse of your strong' Northern blood beat the faster because of the havoc and the turmoil and'stir about you. You were, like your old ancestors thrashing a fieroer sea than Australia ever saw, perhaps, with the long oars of the dragon prowed boat. What should wa do without yoii, and suoh as you Olaf? How should we fare if *v«r we let the handling of our ships pnss into the hands of men of Eastern birth and Mongol blood; cheap thin men and therefore Heartless 1 We can. not do down here without the strength of the North. It needs the good old diking blood to fight a good man's fight with the fighting waves. How it. holds and lasts in the race, that grand old Viking blood. How exactly similar in spirit is the Olaf of to-day to the Olaf of tha old gaga, the Olaf of the poet Longfellow, who some men, speaking out of the depth of their

iguoranoe, will tall never sang a true man's sang. ' Then, with a smile of joy defiant On his bearded lip, ''' Scaled he, light and salf-reliant, • Erie's dragon ship. Ole&r his golden locks were flowing, , Bright his armor gleamed; • ■' Like St. Miohael overthrowing • • Lucifer, he seemed. We couldn't do withoujb .the Olafa, whatever, weanay do .with the Ah Foos and Ah Poos,: