Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-03-19
A MODERN CRUsoE.
Romantic Yarn That should Probably be
Told tn the Marines.

story:
A few days ago a man about sixty
years Of age, with the appearance Of an
old farmer, aud very taciturn, register
ed at the Sinclair House, under the
name of Ezra w. Forman, Nomora,
Pleiades group, Pacific Ocean. Con-
versation shows him to be n very intel
ligent man. He tells wonderful tale
He says in substance that in the year
1S47 the ship Ocmulgee of Wareham
was homeward bound with full load.
tryworks overheard, and trmhs and
kegs of oil slowed in every top. After
leaving Lahaina, S. l., October Z, with
$50 barrels of sperm. $3.50 barrels of
whale oil, and Al, 900 pounds bone, she
was never heard from. Forman was
boat-steerer. He claims he is the sole
survivor, and states that the ship was
wrecked on Nomora, an island in the
Pleiades group, and gives the following
romantic story of the wreck:
THE Ocmulgee went ashore on No
mora in December. 1847, and all hands
were drowned excepting myself, Mar
tin, the cook, and an Hawaiian sailor
named Waihee. All the oil casks were
stove, and the ship gradually hove over
the reef, until finally the survivors
could walk around her at low water.
Through the Hawaiian l was en-
abled to talk to the chief on the island.
l explained the uses that might be made
of the various articles, and assisted by
natives got everything out of the ship,
including the bone, and then broke up
the ship, saving planks, nails, anchors,
chains and whaling gear.
1--WE were given houses, lands and
wives. accepted our position and deter
mined to make the best of it, and except
that we were exiles from home and
friends, were content and happy. Taught
the natives many of the ruder arts. and
they prospered greatly. But the natives
feared to lose US, and when ship came
in sight hurried US away into the inter-
ior until the foreign vessels had passed
on.
"Later my two companions died and
was left alone. Surrounded by my
children and grandchildren, was final
ly acknowledged to be their ruler, and
my word was their law. | told them 1
must go to my friends, but had to
swear by their gods that l would return.
Finally a sandal-wood trader touched
there, embarked in her, was landed in
Sidney, and made my way here after
much trouble and time"
Such is Forman' s story. Now comes
another remarkable tale. He says the
whalebone is in prime condition, and
from the time of its wreck to the pres
ent day native has always been on
guard over it, and that regularly once
a week it's position has been shifted to
save it from rats and mold. Forman
says that his two companions left a
number of children who are now big
and healthy, and that he has twenty
nine sons and daughters and sixty-nine
grandchildren. Some Philadelphia
merchants have taken stock in For
man s story, have advanced him $4,000
worth of goods, chartered a steamer
and she will soon leave New York for
the Pleiades, to carry out this modern
Alexander Selkirk and bring back the
bone, estimated to be worth now from
$3.50, 900, to S175,000.
The story is romantic one and the
appearance of Forman carries truth
with it; but Nantucket gentleman, to
whom the tale has been submitted, who
is conversant with whaling matters,
doubts it from first to last, and advises
the merchants, responsible ones, by the
way, to examine Forman and his story
very carefully before accepting its truth.
The gentleman who has advised on the
matter says there never was ship
Ocmulgee of Wareham in the whaling
business that was lost. The only
whaler of that name was owned in
Holmes Hole, and sailed repeatedly
from that port from 1874 until, in 1865,
she was burned by the Confederate
cruiser Alabama. There are also other
Sarah Bernhardt never had the fur of
her sealskin jacket rubbed the wrong
way so numerically as at the criticla
hands of Ivan TurgueneAf. In that
famous Russian novelist's correspond
ence, recently published at St. Peters
burg, there was found the following:
'tWhenever think of Sarah Bernhardt
am reminded involuntarily of the
toad. Why did God give to both these
creatures an adorable and poetical
voicep' In another lecture he calls her
an "ugly mouther and posturer, - "a
cold grimacer-pourrie de chic-whom
nature has provided with an adorable
voice while refusing her all other gifts
by some incomprehensible caprice. "
In Sweden young girls place under
three separate cups ring, coin and a
piece of black ribbon. If the ring is
first accidentally exposed she will be
rried within the year; if the money,
f,l, will get rich husband; if the rib
ion, she will die an old maid. It is a
favorite amusement among the young
girls in Russia to conceal their finger
rings in small heaps of corn on the
floor. A hen is brought in, which at
once begins to peck at the tiny heaps
of grain. The owner of the first ring
exposed to view will, according to pop
ular belief, be married before her COM
panions in the experiment.
The camel has twice the carrying
power of an OK. With an ordinary
load of 400 pounds he can travel twelve
to fourteen days without water, going
fourteen miles day. They are fit to
work at five years old, but their
strength begins to decline at twenty
five, although they live usually until
forty. They are often fattened at thir-
ty for the butcher, the flesh tasting like
beef. The Tartars have herds of these
animals, often 1000 belonging to one
family. The Timbuctoo breed is re-