Middletown transcript., 1899-07-22


CircumstantiaI Story and Display
ed Souvenir of the Event.
"The speed attained by south Allan
tic sharks in their efforts to arrive at
desired points within the least possible
space of time, said No. 18, who used
to be in the navy and is now clerk in
the navy department, addressing the
last meeting of the Washington Liars
club. "has long been subject Of scien-
tific investigation. / don't know the
exact number Of knots they have been
found to make within the space of an
ordinary four hour watch, but IL
south Atlantic shark can't beat an alba
tross when it comes to speed I'll eat my
bag and hammock and ditty box.
s'Now, there are some sharks down in
the south Atlantic that don't like to
find themselves too near the equatorial
waters. and yet they want TO have plen-
ty of room to prowl They've got the
temperature of water that suits them
best figured out to nicely, and they
know that on the other side of the equa-
toria1 line there's inst as good water.
and water of the same degree of tenn
perature, as that in which they're fool
ing around when they get to thinking
on this subject.
'fWell, what do they do when they
get to worrying over the cramped space
in which they find themselves on one
side Of the line or the otherf Why.
they Just make dash across the line.
That's all They know that the equa-
torial line is trocha Of water that's
heap too hot for their constitutions and
that they can I stand monkeying around
in the water on that line too long, and
SO they just hop over it, Icketty cut, SO
fast that you can't see their fins for
dust.
81 remember once. when / was on
the old Ticonderoga. thing happened
that gave us line on the speed Of
sharks when they take it into their
heads to get speedy We got into the
port of Montevideo one morning at 10
O'Clock. It was on Monday, April IL.
Montevideo harbor is full CT sharks, and
the men forward got to fishing over the
side for them in order to get their spines
to make walking sticks of them, One
huge man eater was landed after great
difficulty with the combined strength of
the whole watch on deck, and he had to
be dubbed with Delaying pins and cap
stan bars for an hour before he gave up
and cashed in.
"Well, we cut him open. and. gentle
men, what do you suppose we found
inside of him3 Why. as fine gold
watch and chain as you ever saw in
your lifeI Not an ordinary minute and
second hand watch. but one Of those
watches that give the date. the day Of
the week, the phases Of the moon and
the whole thing. Well. sirs, you can
imagine our establishment when we
snapped the case of this watch open
and found that it had stopped at exact
ly 4 p. M, April II. the day before we
got into Montevideo.
tsThe skipper Of our ship reported
this fact to the townspeople of Monte
video when be went ashore. feeling con-
fident that some prominent citizen Of
that town had inadvertently permitted
himself to be made a meal Of by an
epicurean shark. He naturally conclud-
ed that the victim must have been
prominent citizen to pack such swell
timepiece around with him. Nobody
was missing out of the population Of
Montevideo, and the thing looked al
mighty mysterious.
"Well, we remained in the harbor of
Montevideo for six weeks making re-
pairs, and in that time the shark and
watch incident was practically forgot
ten. We were just upon the point Of
pulling out for northern waters when
the British ship Cardiff, from Pernam-
buco, Brazil, put into Montevideo. The
Cardiff's mate was in command, and
he had queer story to tell of how the
command had fallen to him. 1t seems
that on April II the skipper, returning
to the ship from Pernambuco In his
long boat, had slipped in stepping on
to the float leading to the ships gang
way and fallen into the water. Before
the boats crew had chance to pull
him back into the stern sheets there
was swish and the skipper was being
packed off in the jaws Of gigantic
ehark.
"You'll remember that this happened
on the afternoon Of April II. Well
there wouldn't have been anything re-
markable about this IL the mate in COM
mand of the Cardiff hadn't happened to
mention that the skipper had yalu-
able watch on his person when the
shark got him. Our commanding officer
heard about this. and he looked up the
mate and asked him what kind of a
watch it was. The mate exactly de-
scribed the watch that we had taken
out Of the sharks stomach In Monte
video on the morning of April 10. and
when our skipper showed 1t to him he
instantly identified 1t.
'tNow, all that anybody who doubts
this has got to do in order to find out
how many thousand miles Pernambuco
is from Montevideo Is to measure the
scale on the atlas of South America.
That shark only hit the high places IN
jumping from Pernambuco to Monte
video, and If there's any doubter Of this
narration here present, why, here's the
sharks spine," and No. 18 of the Liars
club held up 25 cent malacca stick /.
The quarterly medal was bestowed
10 -[r~arsuansTa w0&n -