Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-12-20
A Sailors Christmas in 1910.
How an Old Tar Came Near Being Cooked
For Dinner.

without rememberin the time | come near
to bein the turkey myself" said an aged
sailor to the group of seamen who sur
rounded him as he sat upon the end of an
old spar on South street, New York.
The ancient mariners name was Jack
Brown, and as he had followed the sea as
man and boy for over 30 years and had
cruised in every part Of the world the
group listened in respectful silence, well
knowing that when old Jack Brown start
OIL to spin a yarn 1t was sure to be well
worth hearing.
at was away back in 1910, and I was
little more than youngster then-only
about 18. had bunked aboard the Jolly
Rover; but, mates, she didn't prove to DO
what her name indicated. We left this
port for Melbourne, weathered Cape Horn
as safe from Davy Jones' locker as a
mountain a mile inland, and all was
smooth goin until we were weeks sail
into the south Pacific Then a storm
Struck us that sent us scuddin along I'M
der bare poles like Mother Careys chick
en- afore cyclone.
"l've run afore many n gale mates,
but that hurricane could give points to
any of 'em. Ono minute the Jolly Rover
would plunge out Of sight into a big wave,
and the next she would seem to be perched
The gale blew nearly all night without a
moments pause. All we could do was to
let her run. Suddenly she struck with
shock that made every timber creak. 1
was below, but l rushed on deck, expect
In the ship would go down An instant
later big wave came over the rail, washed
me overheard and swept me on and on.
kept my head above water part of the time
every moment expectin to be dashed agin
the rocks. To my joy, was washed up
on a sandy beach. Luckily 1 had strength
enough left TO get up and run inland few
feet before the next wave caught me.
Day was just breakin, and as 1 looked
around saw Captain Stout, Second Mate
Bill Fry and Jim English crawlin out of
a big wave and helped em up the beach.
" LookP yells Fry, shakin the water
from his eyes. There she goesl
AS we glanced in the direction of the
Jolly Rover she staggered like some gigan-
tic animal with mortal wound and sank
beneath the waves. We watched the beach
for an hour, but not another man came
ashore Every Jack Tar of 'em was
drowned Then we started inland to ex-
| plore the place. We didn't feel at all at
ease, mates, because Captain Stout figured
as how we must be on one Of the smallest
| of the Solomon islands, which we knew
was inhabited by the toughest lot of can
nibals and head hunters in the Pacific.
! eve realized that we were dead men If
we were captured, and we kept a sharp
| lookout for the cannibals while we were
/ takin in the lay of the land. We saw
many cocoanut and breadfruit trees, but
the island was apparently uninhabited. l
say apparently because about half an hour
after we landed dozen ugly, tattooed
savages Ieapeu upon US rom the ousnes
1 knocked one of 'em off his legs before
big warclub brought me to the grass, and
Stout, Fry and English had no better
luck. The savages were armed with clubs,
bows and arrows and bone pointed spears,
and their hair was thick and bushy and
was stuck full of sticks for hairpins.
ave were all bound hand and foot, and
then the savages carried us to village
near by, where we were thrown into hut
and guarded by two big black fellows
armed with clubs.
Mates, says English, did you notice
what was hangin up agin the hut next to
usf' We ali said NO Well says he,
1t was the flesh of human bein's, and, as
Captain Stout feared, these fellers with
clubs is cannibals.'
" If they are, our goose is cooked, and
and so are We the captain says with a
hollow sort OF laugh. BLAST my eyes,
he says, if tomorrow amt Christmas day
tool Perhaps these blacks are goin to
have us help 'em make their turkey din
ner a success We all shuddered, and Jack
Brown for one thought he had seen New
York for the last time. We lay in the hut
all day and the followiu night. The saw
ages fed us very we'll, and while we en-
lloyd the mess we couldn't help thinkin
that the black villains were givin it to US
to make us more fat and eatable. Next
mornin we heard great yellin and pound
In of tamtams, and Fry, who could look
through a crack in the hut, said that big
party of blacks had just returned from
somewhere in large war canoes and had
with 'em dozen native prisoners,
" 1T looks, says Fry, as if our captors
have been maxim war on another tribe that
lives in this village. The prisoners they
have with 'em evidently got away when
the village was attacked, but were chased
inland and captured
"Fry's guess proved correct, and we soon
found that our captors did not live on the
Island, but on another large one about five
miles away. Just after sunrise Christmas
day we were loaded into big, handsomely
carved war canoes along with the dozen
native prisoners and the savages padded
On the shore was a native village and
about 1000 dancin, yellin drum beatin
blacks of both sexes welcomed the return
OF the war canoes, loaded down as they
were with Christmas turkeys.
"Well, mates, the savages carried us up
the beach a short distance and dropped us
near an ugly idol 30 feet high. Several
hundred fires were built near by, and ther
most of the savages gathered in a circle
around the idol. Pretty soon dozen Of
the tallest blacks, all armed with long
sharp spears, danced around the idol to the
music of a hundred tamtams, and ther
they ranged the dozen native prisoners IL
line faoin the idol and speared the poo
blacks through and through.
II won't describe the horrible scene tina
followed, except to say that we lay thert
expectin every minute would be our las
and saw the cannibals cook and devoul
their victims
" They're sayin us for dessert, says tn,
captain.
"But they didn't save us long In
very few minutes the 10 big savages wer
leadin us toward the idol, and we wer
sayin goodby to one another. Dealt
seemed very near when suddenly we heard
e . boom of dozen cannon. An instant
later shells exploded right and left among
the cannibals, KILN scores of them. Tht
remainder took one look at the British
man-o' war, lyin in the channel half {
mile away, and then fled, panic stricken.
, "We sailors were soon tackin for tn,
beach with every sail DRAWN, you cal
bet, and when the warship's boats PICKED
us up Jack Brown for one was hearth!
thankin heaven he'd saved his wishboneP
pT