The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-09-02
A THRILLING STORY.

The San Francisco Examiner Mag
aZine exhibits a picture in which Mr..
q. X. Watson, a tourist from Chicago,
is represented in the act of crossing
on stills one of the molten lava flows
during the recent eruption on Mauna
Loa- Mr.. Watson describes his in
trepid daring in escaping from sudden
death. He had reached a spot nearing
the burning cone and, while contem-
plating the awful grandeur of the
roaring flood of lava in front of him.
did not notice that the playful cone
had elected another equally awful
stream of lava in his rear with the
sole and only purpose of cutting off
his retreat. Attempting t escape by
rushing down the mountain so as to
escape between the two streams, he
found that the sagacious streams had
cut off escape in that direction by
joining their currents below This
StrategicaI movement, executed accord
ing to the best known rules of mill
tary and volcanic strategy, left him
alone, isolated and surrounded, and
with it's usual impertinence Death
stared him in the face.
With brilliant ingenuity Mr.. Watson
says that he noticed growth of iron
wood trees in the vicinity, although
the ironwood has never been found in
that region, and is a newly imported
tree. Taking out his jack-knife, he
says that he cut down two saplings,
upon which, it seems, Providence had
kindly placed footrests, and out of
these he made pair of stills. Be
fore mounting them he fingered with
the love of an artist, and contempla-
ted the gorgeous spectacles of the erup-
ton, apparently, we should judge, in
different to the malicious Vaccinations
of the laWless cone, and the treSpaSS-
ing streams of fire. He then proceeded
to deal with the emergency. He esti-
mated that the stream of lava he was
about to cross was nearly eighty feet
wide, and one foot deep. Mounting his
stills, he commended his soul'' ac-
cording to the usual formula repeated
by intrepid adventures, and plunged
one of his wooden legs, by brevet, into
the burning and swollen torrent He
followed at once with the leg of the
other silt, and was quickly in the mid
die of the flood The ironwood did
not burn He probably found that 1t
was a cast-iron growth of the cold
short species which molten lava could
not melt. He asserts, however, that
some charcoal was thrown off from
his supports. He bravely stepped
through the blazing torrent. His eyes,
he declares, felt like balls of fire. As
he approached the further bank, his
wooden legs began to crumble. One
of them finally gave way, just as he
reached the bank, and, with a desper-
ate plunge, he reached the solid earth
and deliberately pronounced himself to
be saved.
1t is not difficult to account for this
thrilling story. 1t is known that sew
eral of the parties who ventured to
travel over the rough slopes of Maui
ma Loa in order to reach the burning
cones, carried large supplies of beer.
But some of the tourists, including, we
assume, Mr.. Watson, carried generous
supplies of 'swipes," an article which
has a strangely exhilarating effect. and
is equally deadly to the effusion Of
Truth When Mr.. Watson rested at a
very safe distance from the fiery cone,
the ''swipes' were consumed, Mr.. Wat
son slept and these thrilling adventures
began.
1t is a pity that his imagining did
not take different shape, and the Ex-
aminer was not furnished with story
liz which the adventurer, instead Of
crossing the molten lava on stills,
used the flow of lava as a waterway
and after launching himself upon the
descending stream, navigated the liquid
fire for twelve miles and landed in
safety where it had spent its force.
But the "swipes" were not equal to the
occasion.
The Baron Munchausen in retailing
anecdotes of his own adventures on
earth, to his listeners in Hades, must,
Dnhearing of Mr.. Watson's adventures,