Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-06-29
.TPe Strange Story
! Of John M, Smytbe,
( Compiled by John G. Rowe. From the Nara.
tive of John Smythe Baxter, Grandson
of the Hero of the Adventures
Herein Recorded.
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such an extent did immigrants pour
into Victoria that the arrivals in Mel
bourne are said to have numbered
over two thousand week. The crews
Of all the ships in Melbourne Harbor
ut the time of the news of the first
finds deserted to q man, and ship
masters and shipowners were at their
wits end to know how to get men to
work their vessels home again from
Australia.
1t was during the first excitement
of the rush to the gold-felds that the
sailing vessel, Chesapeake Bay, ar
rived in Melbourne from Liverpool.
Her crew were no better than those
of the other ships in port, and among
the first to desert and run away to the
"diggings" was the hero of this
authentic narrative, an able seaman,
named John Merrydew Smythe. This
man had at home in England wife
and daughter, the latter child Of
seven at the time. Smythe, along
with others, who, like himself, had
high hopes of making their fortunes
in very short space of time at tie
mines, succeeded in making his way
to Ballarat-the Ell Dorado of that
period.
BE did not stay long in the town it.
self, however, but started prospecting
with, at first, very indifferent success.
But after some mon tbs of dogged per-
severance and semi-starvation he at
length Struck it rich," as the saying
goes. In less than another half-year
he had got tidy sum of money out of
his claim, and was able to send $1,000
home to his wife. She started in bust
ness for herself in Liverpool as q
broker, and prospered from the very
commencement, so that she was soon
in very comfortable circumstances.
Her husband, however, instead of re-
turning home to England and enjoy
ing the fruits of his labors, continued
to work his claim until he had amassed
quite respectable fortune.
All was going well with him, when
he suddenly took to drink and
gambling. He sold his claim for
$500, and from that day forth haunted
the drinking saloons and gambling
dens, which were as plentiful in
Ballarat at that time as blackberries
in autumn. The town was full of the
scum and refuse of civilization-the
sweepings of the earth-attracte
thither by the universal greed for
gold; and such places dil-a roaring
trade, all day and all night as well,
Smythe, fuddled with liquor, would
stake handfuls of his hard earned gold
On the mere turning of card. Yet,
as his vile associates often swore, he
had "the devils own luck" He al
ways won, somehow, and never re-
turned home without being richer by
scores of pounds. Undoubtedly, he
would have frequently been robbed
as he left the gambling saloon, scarcely
able to walk through his deep pota-
tions, had he not had the staunchest
and truest of chums in his partner
steady-going, temperate Joe Mannion
who piloted him home safely every
evening, and as regularly emptied his
pockets OF most Of the money and
banked it for him.
After about two years of this wild,
reckless lie, Smythe saw the error of
his ways, and, bidding goodbye to
Ballarat and its evil associations, he
made arrangements with his bankers
to forward his money to England. Ho
then made his own way to Sydney
1S54), intending to return home.
To this end he booked a passage
aboard the vessel Western Star, and
sailed for England.
When only few weeks out the
ship encountered very heavy weather,
and finally ran ON reef off the Falk-
land Isles. The captain and six
teen of his crew were drowned,
but Smythe and three others
the carpenter, seaman and an
apprentice lad named James Roche
succeeded in battling their way
through the surf and making the shore.
Here they were met by savages, who,
however, received them very kindly,
and gave them food and drink.