Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-10-01

Tristan D. ACunhd's Isle.

Story of . Shipwrecker Sailor.


i happened to pick up a copy Of the
\ Philadelphia Ledger the other day,
and the first article l noticed in it was
one under the caption o. Tristan ID
Acunha, and after reading it through |
/ sat for while in brown study. |
had heard of this island before. This
article proved to be one that had
been copied from the London Times,
and the Times had taken it from a
! port.
1t carried me back more than so
years to the time when as a schoolboy
I would put in hours studying the
maps hunting for islands. 1t was then
| first met with this one; then went
to the book out of which | got all my
| information to get some about this.
| but got very little about it. The island
seemed to be but little known then,
and it is not much better known to-
| day. Tristan lies in the South At
lantic, about half way between Cape Of
! Good Hope and the coast of South
America; it is in latitude SO degrees
:
as | can remember now 1t resembles
| Pitcairn island, which | afterward
/ found out all about in more ways than
| one. Bith belong to England, and both
are really republics. They are of about
| the same size and the inhabitants of
each are white; but here all resem-
biance ends. While the Pitcairn
: iCl Cd
Tristan have no education whatever.
had wanted to go and see this
! island, but never got a chance to do 1t.
All my exploration of islands happened
to- be on the other side of the globe
| But | heard all about it years alter /
had first found it on the map. man
who had been, as he called it, ma
Tooned on it, told me about Tristan.
/ He had been left on it in much the
! same way as was Selkirk on his island.
though neither of them was really
marooned. | had known this man
| many years before he was marooned.
He and | were born and raised in the
/ same ward, and were playmates when
we were boys. His name was
Charles wells.
| When he was 13 years old and was
8 we formed the partnership of Wells
q Co., one summer, and took con
tract gathering paving stone. Charley
named the company. while l furnished
the capital, a fiatbottomed scow that
built for just this purpose 1t meas
ured Is feet over all, was four feet
beam and had a depth of one foot. We
would take the scow out into the ALLIE
gheny river, when the water was low
enough to work; then, getting out.
one of us on each side would hold on
to the sides while we found the
cobble stones with our feet, then
loaded them on the scow, and bring
ing them ashore, piled them out where
a team could get at them to haul them
away. Our piles were at the foot of
Craig street, and we kept them marked
/ Wells & Co" so that the contractor
would know whom to credit his load
to, then pay us on Saturday They had
just begun to pave the streets in our
city for the first time then, and some
of the first stone that was ever put
down on the streets of Allegheny were
furnished by Wells & Co. We kept at
work finding them from the middle of
May up to the LIST of October: then the
cold weather stopped us. and the firm
of Wells & Co. was dissolved. The
Junior partner taking Charley's way
OF placing u.s. quit gathering stone,
then Charley kept it up the next sum
mer, but l went west to eight In
dams"
We cleared on an average 81 a day
each while we were at this. which was
doing very well for boys: most of them
when they are the age we then were
cannot do as well now. Once in a
while high river would stop us for q
day or two. When it did, we put IN
cur time catching drift with a skiff
that | owned. We caught some that
paid us even better that the stone did
paid us even better than the stone
did; it was part of board raft; two
platforms that had broken loose up
the river somewhere. Charley and
caught it, then, towing it in, tied it up
to our landing to hold 1t for salvage,
and the owner afterward paid us SIS TO
release it. He was an up river lumber
man, and at first, when he found that
only boys had his raft he was not
going to pay us anything, he said |
had been expecting this to happen, and
was on hand with my shotgun, holding
the raft, and telling Charley to go and
bring the ward constable, kept on
holding it. The man changed his mind
then. and. calling Charley back, pail
me the SIS, at the same time telling
me that we town boys were too
blamed smart for him." if this had
happened up at home "a would just
take my raft and pay nothing" Eyes.
sir, told him. I'VE are smart enouth
to risk our lives saving your property,
then let you cheat us out of our pay.
The law gives ME 500 for your raft,