AN ADVENTUROUS LAD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2757, 15 March 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN ADVENTUROUS LAD.

Aij?r.KD-GOSMXO, who appeared '.fiefore Mr Alderman F. Phillips, at the Mansion-house; > Police-court, 'London (says the Daily Telegraph), gives indisputable proof that the spirit of adventure is .not „.yet„ extinctin, the rising, generationHis father aud mother emigrated" to Canada some months ago, taking their offspring with them. But now that the redskins have become uoromaotic, and the amusement of scalping is ...gone .out of fashion, the Far West had no attractions for Alfred compared with " Home, Sweet Home " ; fori although only fourteen, he was; eantimontal enaugh to •reject the cynical philosopher's doctrine that "a man's fatherland ii uot where he is born, but where he Is fed." Leaving the parental homestead, he tramped aloDg t? Ontario, secured for himself a passage in the hold of a trading, ship as a stowaway, and was put ashore at Bristol with little on his back arid nothing in his pockets. Undaunted,.-he, got acquainted with..a cattle-drover, who passed him under .his ticket to London. Here he had an aiiht, but was even more igßorant of her dwell--ing-place than David Copperfield was of his Aunt Betsy's at Folkestone. However, be managed to find her, and she toolt him in. But the wandering spirit had taken, possession of him, and like Ulysses, he started on fresh discoveries, until at last he found himaelf stranded on a doorstep in St. Paul's churchyard, and, overcome with sleep, fell into the hands of a kindly policeman. The alderman thought Alfred's roving habits would make hin an admirable sailor, and as; the urchin had no objection he was sent off to a training-ship at Plymouth. If he sticks to -his duty he may in course of time be able to oross the Atlantic once more, not as a stowaway, but as a full-blo\vn «»«.