The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-05-07
A CANNIBAL KING.

Jim threw another log on the campfire,
and the blazing circle Of light grew to Its
old Dimensions We could see the stars
lodging back and forth behind the tops Of
the pines, and the lone coyote which had
monopoly Of noises down the gulch was
INDUCING us with q temporary rest. The
patriarch occupied the sent Of honor, a
camp stool, and the rest of us were ranged
on o tree trunk.
The patriarch looked at me. "I'll do
you the favor" he said, "of film my
pipe with your tobakky. Speakin Of sea
yarns, that story Of Jim's about the Ice
bergs that hunted in pairs, keepin keen
lookout to squeeze ship caught without
q breeze, while the polar bears sat by and
laughed, was tol'bly good, and the one
you told about the thing that could stand
on Its head on the floor Of the ocean and
flap the face of heaven with its tail was
purity fair-yes, purity fair. But they were
Just yarns plain yarns neatly unraveled.
And that makes me think of what old
Absalom Briggs used to say, Always tell
the truth, my lad, If you're master smart
hand at it.
"Absalom had distant relative-he
lived in Nantucket. and his bother was
anchored in Jamaiky-who brought and
sold everything, from queer shells to queer
money. His brother was smart man,
nigh as smart as Absalom himself, and no
might have lived to be great one If they
had given him plenty Of rope. AS 1t was,
he was leetle too high strung to make
success of life. It's queer how the furri-
ners acquire all Of our improvements, even
the art Of lynchin.
"Absalom was master and sole propri-
etor of the good old tradin brig Keep Mum.
They were two Of kind, Absalom and the
brig. Absalom wore suit Of homespun
that hung on him like sail wrapped
around windmill, and the brig was all
right if she was only as black as she was
painted for she needed sprucin up badly.
But they were both hard to beat in their
deceptive lines, reckon. The Keep Mum
was one Of the best of her kind that ever
faded out of sight of revenue cutter, and
Absalom was entitled to patent right on
lots of the tricks of his trade. He was a
quiet kind of man, though he had good
command Of language, resultin from hard
study Of circus posters when he was lad,
and the Keep Mum sailed SO Silly that the
wind couldn't whistle through her riggin
even.
"Now, Absalom was temperance man
from principle and interest, though he
wasn't particularly religious, and worship.
ed nothin, so far as / know, except saw
ms banks. Never taste the intoxicatin
cup, young man., he used to say. You
might miss a chance to make dollar.
But Just the same, after bis brother camo
aboard at the end of my first trip to King
ston, bringin with him mysterious air
kind of strongly Standardization loaded
the Keep Mum with the rum. And such
rum! In barrels, with rusted hoops and
cobwebs clingin round EN-, they hoisted
| 1t on board. The pirates that hid 1t cen.
fury before stored nothin weak, and every
year added to its strength, Our second
| mate, who was man of much liquid ex-
perleDse ashore as well as at sea, took q
cargo of one cup. 1t was just three days
before he could navigate, and-would you
believe it2-for two weeks after that when
| ever he dreamed of that rum at night he'd
wake up In the mornin tipsy.
"Absalom was man who glanced over
newspapers from curiosity and read trade
journals for profit So knew somethin
extremely uncommon WIS up when he
spent whole forenoon porin over q news
paper, with his elbows on the table and
his fingers clutched in his hair, and when
heard him ohuckle l was interested. Abb
SALON. Biggs never wasted o chuokle.
heard him say as he went out of the cabin,
| yb1,n iT,t IN nj
the head.
"Of course picked up the paper 1t
told the story Of an awful tribe of canny-
balls who resided on the west coast of AZ
riky. 1t seemed they were tribe of reg lar
bunko steerers, for all the missionaries who
went there were invariably taken in Then
the queen of England sent down gun
boat, and the captain of the gunboat sent
man with q white flag and a proclama-
ton in violent language to these canny-
balls But there was some misunderstand-
in about the matter, for the cannybals eat
both the gallant tar and the proclamation.
1t hurt the captains feelin very much, go
he landed most of his force and went after
the heather. Alas, he didn't know 'em.
tisremember all of the affectin lines the
I poet larryate wrote about 'em, but the cen
terpiece of the work run somethin like this;
| "They were an awful hungry lot
| And havin nothn much to do
| Invaygled the tars-the sun was hot
Into nice seclooded spot,
Then ate that gallant crew.
"Her majesty missed a reception on ao'
count Of that, and the foreign secretary
missed two first class races, Then cruis'
or went down there on business. But the
captain, not bein on his Job, was shortly
on the rocks, and when the men swan
ashore tho heather met 'em with hearty
reception. And 1t was awful annoyin aft
er that to the people on the English boats
that went sailin by to see them sayidges
a-sittin on the rocks and suDnin them
selves, dressed in British naval uniforms
and sarcastic smiles. And the foreign Soc
rotary had taken to his bed. so the paper
said.
1--WE sail for London tomorrow, said
Absalom Biggs, who was standin in the
doorway with his hands in his pockets.
All the information you ever got out Of
Absalom about his business was yolun-
tered, so saved my breath by askin no
questions. We sailed with fair weather
and good breeze. All the way over Alb.
SALON. didn't do anything but walk tho
deck with his hands in his pockets and a
commercial expression on his face. Did
toll you that we didn't unload that rump
"Wo reached London, and Absalom put
on his best store suit to go up to see the
foreign secretary. He put one leg of his
trousers outside his boot and one inside,
sfor don't know snys he how the for