The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-05-05


of the island, and naturally especi-
ally in the life saving service. Will
liam was a good boy and deserved
reward, and William got it. 1t took
, the peculiar suitable, suggestive and
altogether satisfactory form of
full gracious Queen Victoria, re-
splendently set in a 10x6 gold frame,
with the gold leaf a foot deep.
What William said when he saw
his present is not recorded, but be-
ing OF simple and pious nature, he
probably submitted to the newt
able and placed 1.-The picture in his
sitting room, where it nearly filled
up one wall and did its best to give
an air of snowy London magnificence
1 to the quiet dignity of the room.
! With curious irony one of the
wrecked ships brought a most un-
! merited piece of i'll fortune upon
| Tristan the grains out of the hills
as fast as wreckage from a big mer-
chairman drifted ashore, clinging
close to every available board and
! spar was a hugh gray rat. AS soon as
his raft touched land he scurried
away into the sheltering underbrush
which in many parts of the island
SioWs Close uoWH 10 the water
edge.
! There, after he had dried his
/ dripping whiskers he set to work to
find boarding place, and the corn
| bins of the islanders proved most
/ handy. Mr.. Rats family waxed and
| increased, as it is prone to do, and
here there wasn't even the smallest
kitten to say nothing of trays or
| nOiCOn RI ctrSko terror in}n his gn1f1
| Finally matters got to such a pitch
that for many years the islanders
have been able to plant no corn at
all, though formerly they had sue
ceeded in growing enough to satisfy
their own wants, because the rats
! now dig the grains out of the hills
| as fast as they are planted. And so
| far no pied piper has appeared to rid
the people of the troublesome pest.
| Things haven't always been happy
even in Tristan da Cunha. The little
! isle has had it's real tragedy,
too. One bright, breezy afternoon
twenty years ago a merchant vessel
was sighted off shore, and accord
| ing to the usual custom, the men
rowed out in their skeleton wharf
| boats, canvass-covered, to trade po-
| tatoes and other fresh vegetables
! for the coveted flour.
| 1t seemed to be a large ship. and
as it was the first one sighted for
months, quite three boat loads of
men set forth, practically the entire
population of the island.
1t was just the old, old story that
every New England fishing hamlet
has learned to know SO we'll There
were fast-gathering, lowering clouds.
wrathful whirls of wind binding
/ storm-and the boats never came
/ back.
! When New England fishing schoon-
ers are lost it means only few fam
| lilies left desolate-here it was a
country. All of the fathers gone, all
the big, tall sons. and the mothers
and daughters and swfethearts left,
1t was like some captured city in
old days, where all the fighting men
were put to death, only here there
was no fault, not even that of fight
ing against ones brother men.
The all-giving ocean it's all-taking
| too-Tristan da Cunha had learned
that lesson They were broke; they
didn't forsake their island but never
again have they been the same
CHEEKY, happy community as before.
Still, the sea hasn't been unkind
always. Hardly year after the great
disaster little boy was cast upon
the island shores, the only survivor
! from the wreck of merchantmen.
According to their habit, the island
ers were very good to the little chap
One forlorn mother, whose boy had
gone down with so many others not
| long before, took the shipwrecked
youngster into her own home and
mothered him elightfully-perhaps
Ito ease her own pain as we'll as his.
/ Years went on and still he stayed
among the kindly islanders. Finally
he was young man, and, IikeMow-
gil in the Jungle book, must seek
his own people. He boarded ship and
went to England. There. just like
the wandering prince in fairy tales,
he met beautiful, rich lady and
married her
| Like wandering prince, too, he
4 told her Of his adventures and she
became tremendously interested in
the peope who had saved him. She
INSPIRED him with her own zeal, per-
haps, though he had, OF course. gem
uine affection for the islanders and
last year both husband and wife sail
ed to Tristan da Cunha, where the
young man will be teacher and
preacher and his wife Lady Bounti-
full.
The people really need such help
/ at the present time. For various
causes they are by no means as pros
| porous as they were once. For one
| thing, the whalers, always a source
OF income in the trade facilities they
of1ered. are SO lessened in number
that scarscely one year now touch
es at the island. The amount of live
stock raised is much less than for
merly. At one time 1000 head of
.cattle and sheep were annually ex-
ported to Cape Town Also, the
British government has given up
even nominal oversight of the island.
Formerly steamer came once
year from Cape Town, but the last
time 1t came 1t brought the startling
request that IL the islanders wanted
any more attention they must give up
their homes, for which no indemnity
| was to be paid, and allow themselves
TO be settled in some more access
lble place. Quite naturally the people
refused what would undoubtedly