A LIFE OF THRILLS

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17976, 22 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

A LIFE OF THRILLS

WORLD’S CHAMPION “HOBO” TELLS STORY OF A REMARKABLY ADVENTUROUS LIFE. QUELLED CANNIBALS WITH HIS TERRIFIC VOICE.

England’s champion “hobo” was lately camping-out. in a London garden at Holland Park by permission of friends. ‘On and off for the last 14 years he has slept under pavements, in wharves, in Indian jungles, on or under goods trains in all countries, in the bath-tubs of de luxe hotels, and in tube stations, so that with him a civilised 'bed has to be an acquired taste. This strange man is a member of the distinguished Muspratt family. He is a son of the Rev F. J. Muspratt, a former Cambridge Blue, and resident in Jersey. His parents hoped that their Eric .would follow Muspratt. theologian's like his father, uncle in Bristol, and his brother, and, indeed, the champion ‘hobo” has ihe deep voice and benevolent manner associated with the church. That voice, enforced by an athletic, six-foot figure ancl a boxer’s fists, has, it is claimed, quelled cannibals in the Pacific Islands, and temporarily tamed the man-eating aborigines of wildest Australia, around the gulf of Carpentaria, with whom Mr Muspratt lived voluntarily and alone. His voice even put fear into some hyenas and jackals that surprised Mr Muspratt in the dead of night in a jungle of India, when, unarmed save for a lighted cigarette, he laughed and screamed so demonia- . pally that the animals slunk away in shame. “I began my adventures when I left my studies to sign on as a sailor with a tramp ship going from. Jersey lo Boston. I deserted, cf course, and with £2 in my pockets became a dull salesman of denial supplies in New York City,” said 'Mr Muspratt to a

: ] correspondent. “That sort of job ■ [would make a hobo of any strong man. !j I jumped trains right across the . United Slates. Later I journeyed , 120 miles in a canoe, without paddles, ' down the Sacramento River, travelling i with three other hobos. ! “I worked as a longshoreman in . San Francisco and slop under pavo- : ments, until I took a ship for Australia. “As I have been a passenger ■ with- ' out a ticket 11 times around the coast j of Australia I can modestly claim to_ j have beaten every main line in that | •country. An experienced hobo pre- . j fers passenger trains (under the seat of a first-class carriage) to a luggage van. “On one of my trips I lived for four months with the aborigines. 1 used sometimes to experience fear. I could head my cannibal hosts chattering, singing, dancing, and beating their weird instruments. The women are argumentative like the men, and they would talk back to their husbands until 1 heard the heavy thud of a club. “We used to sworn and fish together, and enjoyed life really well until 1 went down with malaria and blackwater fever. The boys waited for me to die, when they knew they t could stop working, but in spite of their ‘nursing’ and their hopes 1 pulled through. “I have been imprisoned many times for travelling without papers of identification and without the price .or the ticket. The most uncomfortable prison 1 have known was in Serbia, where we had one meal a day of thin, mean soup.”