The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-16
Great Salt Lake Holds No
Terors for This Veteran

Yes, sir" said the bartender. appa-
rently to no one in particular, three
days out there on the lake. and nothing
70 drink but water, and salt water at
| that- Their suffering must have been
awful. ! shouldn't wonder but what it
turned their hair gray"
| fshaW, what them fellers suffered
amt nothing to what I've gone
through out there on Salt lake." said
an old. gray-haired man standing at the
end of the bar. They run out of drink
ing water and went without because
| they didn't know what to do to get
some. just shows their iggerance.
Humth! The way used to do was to
take a mouthful of salt water and spit
out the salt and swallow the water, or
else you could strain the water through
your shirt if you wanted to. But these
landlubbers, pshaw, they don't know
nothing"
Il didn't know that you had ever had
any adventures out on the lake. cap
| TAIN" timidly ventured the reporter
won't you tell us some of your expo
| riences?"
II hate to tell of the hardships I've
been through on the lake, cause some
| times people don't believe 'em, but
thanks, don't care if l do. Well, here's
| luck.
"One time when 1 was bathing al
Saltair and was floating around on my
back and fell asleep. Pshaw, that was
nothing. l often did that. l guess
must have been up the night Sefore and
was pretty sleepy, for l didn't wake up
for good while. In fact. when I woke
up it was dark, and 1 had fioated way
out into the lake. / couldn't see the
lights at Saltair, and l knew / must
nave ffoated a long ways. 1t was
pretty dark / couldn't see land, and
knew | couldn't do thing till morn
ing, so l turned-I mean / went to sleep
again. OF course, il was cold, and it got
colder before morning, but | was used
TO hardships in those days. But just
to think of how cold it was then makes
me SILVER now. l generally take a
drop of something to warm me up
when l get TO feeling this way. Thanks,
l don't care if l do.
We'll, as / was saying, / went to
sleep, and when l woke up it was day
| light, and how hungry was and
| thirsty, too. The sun was shining right
in my eyes, and l shut 'em for a min
| ute, and just then seagull lit on me
thought L was dead, I reckon. Quick
as wink l grabbed him and pulled ii
| under water till l had drowned her, and
then l skinned it and cleaned him as
well as l could. BY that time I had
looked around, and there. right behind
| me, was a small rocky island, and as
there was nothing else very close, /
swan for it, with my seagull. l laid
the bird meat down on a rock while l
was looking around for some fresh
water, but | couldn't find any, so I took
mOuthful of salt water and spit out
| the salt and swallowed the water. There
wasn't any wood on the little island.
and l made up my mind that I would
| have to eat my meat raw. But You
know how hot the sun gets here some
times.
well. sir. by the time I got back to
where the bird was, blamed if the sun
hadn't cooked it almost done on one
| side SO I turned il over, and when il
was done l made a good meal. The
salt from the water had seasoned it so
| it wasn't bad. But say did get thirsty
there on that rock II makes my throat
dry to think of it now. Thanks, don't
care if | do. Here's luck. So l drank
some more salt water, first splitting out
| the salt same as l done before. Huh,
you never heard of anybody doing that
before? Mebbe you think it can't be
done? Well, say now, young Teller.
next time you go out to Saltair you just
try it. will you? l reckon that will con-
vince you. And you want TO know how
the sun could cook the seagull and not
cook me, too? When l got back here
| | asked professor to the university
! that perfessed to know almost every
thing, and he explained il this way: