The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13

pointed to a thin tran of smoke on the sky line. It was q New Zealand liner headed straight for our raft In a coup. e of hours her doctor was giving us a Christmas dinner of slops and weak brandy and water
 An Albatross Christmas Dinner. This same man spent another Christmas Day off Cape Horn He sailed from Val paraiso in a British Windjammer" ex- pecting to reach his Scottish home in time to spend his first Christmas there for many years. But calms delayed her for weeks in the South Pacific Ocean. and when she got of Cape Horn she ran into tearing gale, which brought her mizzen topmast down on deck and ripped out all her sails. For days she drifted helpless ly, exposed to the full fury of the western gale
 The crew labored industriously at rig ging up spars and bending new sails. It was task of tremendous difficulty for giant combers rolled over the forecastle head continually. filling the vessel amid ships with green seas.
 Suddenly, in the midst of this toll, an apprentice boy piped out:
 T say, fellers, this Is Christmas Day. Have you all forgotten it?"
 They had. In the fury of the tempest, even the thought of Christmas. usually so religiously observed on British ships, had slipped their reckoning.
 "Belay your tongue" retorted the gruff old mate. There won't be any Christ mas dinner today except your usual whack of lops scouse."
 The skipper was experimenting the work from the poop rail, and heard the conversation.
 Cook" he bawled out. Lay aft here"
 The cook came out of his galley, and the captain asked what he could give them for a Christmas dinner.
 "Nothin' but split peas. sir, an salt horse an marmalade. There ain't no tur- keys In my store room, sir" he said, sar- castically.
 Let's catch one O them birds" sug- gested an old tar. pointing to several al- batrosses which were circiing about the wake of the ship. wen stretch a point this day. and be forgiven for it, I guess"
 After several attempts, an albatross was captured with big fshhook ba ted with salt pork, and dragged aboard tri- umphantly. Served up nice and brown, and swimming in gravy, it looked so much like a real turkey that it warm d up the mems hearts and made them think oi the Christmases they had spent at home. But when they tasted 1t the re. semblance ceased. It was fishy and tough: the meat was like knotted rope yarn and the gravy suggested tar. However if was a MI ASNAN0S eiA IiIG SalAlS, ana iL was enjoyed as keenly as the finest feast ashore that day.
 An American's Christmas Peril,
 An American traveller. who Is well- known commercially in the West Indi S. was mixed up in one of the pere ennial rev olutions of Hayti in his hot and foolish youth. Unhappily, he allied himself with the weaker side, and on Christmas Eve found himself one of a small band Of des- VaaFs dnfandFy1ae Nkn ~fn Hal Miragoane against a government army, which outnumbered them by more than a hundred to one.
 During the night the government sol- djers forced their way into the town Only about thirty of the defenders were left alive.
 Stand them up in a line and shoot them" commanded General Manigat the government leader.
 of them were wounded. half-starved and fever-stricken. So the government troops propped them up in chairs and shot them as they lolled there. Only the white man was spared. in order that his case might be inquired into.
 When he protested to General Manigat against the cruelty of shooting helpless captfves, that triumphant war. for merely blew cloud of cigarette smoke and re- marked calmly. "Cest la guerre"
 Late on Christmas Eve" said the American, they tried me by court-mar- tial When woke up on Christmas morn