Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-18
NO. 146..
most like sob. He had been struggling

most like sob. He had been struggling here for fifteen or twenty minutes. I had heard of the tridacena gigas, or mon- ster clam, of this coast, and instantly real l iZed the danger of his situation fsCourage old fellowl" I said. 'Iu stick by you. Here, hold this paddle and the hatch et.'
 then ducked down under water. and with my hands felt about his foot. The huge moliusk had what might be we'll termed a death-g grip on him. The creature's shell was several feet long, and of proportionate breadth, and the weight of the shell fsh must have been at least 300 pounds The creature attached to the coral rock by grisly byssus as thick as my arm. Raising myself, got breath, then seizing the paddle, thrust the shaft of it between the converging edges of the two valves of the shell, and using it as a lever, attempted to pry the shell apart But could not open it. Brown, too, ducking down, seized hold with his hands and pulled with all his strength, but exerting all our power, we could not release the monsters hold. Again and again I threw my whole weight on the shaft of the paddle and at length broke it. By this time the water was up to my shoulders when l stood up. Finally realizing that whatever did must be done in few min utes more, else the poor fellow would drown, snatched the hatchet from Browns hand, and, diving, tried to cut un-
 
 anchorage the rock With might and main cut and hacked-then rose an instant for breath-then down and at it again. But it seemed as though I could not cut through the tough muscle. Four times I dived and, with frantic heste cut at those tough byssi.
 'tIt stirs!'' at length Brown cried, brac-. ing his weight upon his free foot and lifting at it.
 Then with final blow the byssus was sev- cred, ,and the buoyancy of the water aiding us, we dragged the great mollusk-still fast to Browns ankle-back to higher ground on the reef Here the water WIS waist deep, however, and looked anxiously around for Mac, in the lakatoi. To my inexpressib1e joy, he was close at hand, and between us, we lifted Brown, with his now captured cap tor, into the canoe. Even then we could not, both of us together, pry the valves of the shell apart enough to release Browns foot, till with knife we had reached in and completely divided the tridacena-sawing asunder the hinge-Inuscles, at the base of the blvalve. It was truly a gigantic clam; ard poetic retribution upon it for this at tempt on the life of one of our party, we ate portion of it's flesh for our supper, but found it rather tough.
 Browns ankle was severely bruised and wrenched and he suffered for many & 1eI 1eol1rflrpp from the vice-like grip of the huge
 Defining a ssWaIk1ng DeIe&ate.D
 From the Philadelphia CallJ
 s'What is walking delegate pas"
 'fHe is man, my son, who is paid to go around to tell the men to strike"
 t'Don't the men know enough to strike without being toldg'
 "No, my child. They are too busy at work to discover that they are being op- pressed. The walking delegate, not being at work, has time to find out all these things"
 'sDoes he always walk, pa?" ''No, precious, he nevef does. He rides and the men pay for it. Now, run away, my son, and some other day I will give you another lesson in labor"