Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1909-01-07

Human beings, like domestic AMI
mails, are kept up to a standard that
permits them to survive by the con-
slant selection of the capable and the
wedding out of the unfit. Let that
selection be for a time intermitted or
removed, and the individuals sink
back to the lower level from which
they had been raised. From philan-
thropic motives Captain Cook left IN
New Zealand a number of pigs, In
lending that they should serve the
needs of the indigenes or OF future
Immigrants. The indigenes USED
them-they use them to this day
but many of them ran wild, reverted
to their primitive type, and now FUR
oish the dangerous sport known IN
Europe as boar-hunting and in INDIA
as pig-sticking.
Horses and cattle in Australia have
escaped to "the BUSH" and in single
generation they have lost the hne
points scientifically bred In them, ana
resumed the old life of the species
In both countries domestic cats take
20 the forest and soon reacquire their
daring and predatory habits. Guilt
vated plants are blown into inhospl-
table places and forthwith lose their
graceful forms, their bright ccl'rs
and their luscious scents.
1t is not otherwise with human be-
,nes Wherever men have gone
among savages, some of them nave
sunk to or below the level of their
degraded associates. They assume
their manners, wear their costume
and carry their weapons, eat their
food. assimilate their sentiments ana
sneak their language Sometimes
they forget their mother tongue ana
lose all recollection of their past. In
A few years they roll down the steep
ascent their ancestors had taken
fifteen or twenty centuries to climb.
Old New Zealand was an omnium
gatherum of all the ruffianism or the
South Seas. At the annexation or the
islands in 1889 it was estimated that
there were $50 pakehas, or half-Wlld
men. scattered chiefly in the north
island. Some of them had gone In
land and were living as Maoris. Yet
none of these were properly WHO
men," Under veneer of barbarlsm
some at least of them were civilized
Englishmen at heart, who led sordld
or manned, but not savage, lives.
The Three Australian Convicts.
Very different from most OF these,
and truly wild men, were three AUS
tralian convicts. In 1888 a party OF
Tasmanian settlers who had shorty
before landed on the Victorian coast,
In the neighborhood Of what Is now
Melbourne, were startled by the ap-
proach of an aboriginal, as ne
seemed. He was a giant (slx 1ee'
five inches without his boots, as was
afterwards ascertained) not black
1t soon appeared, but Drowned by
exposure; with long matted hair and
a patriarchal sweep of beard. he
carried in his right hand two spears
and In his left a waddy and a boom
erang: and he was clothed in kan
paroo skins. He sat down among his
fellow-countrymen, for such they
were. They spoke to him and ques'
toned him, but no word of answer
could be got from him. He remained
in a kind of mental stupor, the brain
refusing to act. Not till after ter
DAYS did the long-closed cells OF
speech and memory begin to unlock
and yield their secrets. Even then
but little could be extracted from
him. Partly from himself but main
ly from his black "gir," a few con-
fused details were learned.
His name was William Buckley
Born al Macclesfeld in 1880, he was
drafted from the militia into the
Fourth Infantry Regiment. With il
he served on the Walcheren expedt'
ton and at Gibraltar. There he was
accused of mutiny and transported
to Botany Bay. From New Soutf
Wales in 1903 he was deported tt
Victoria, whittier a band of convict:
was sent under Judge-Advocate Col
Inns. Very strangely, a little boy
named Pascoe Faulkner, son OF
convict, was also with that party; he
is now honored as the founder OF
Victoria.
One of Three Lived.
Buckley, with two more conVicts
ESCAPED into the bush. Buckley!
physique enabled him to survive hard
Ships that killed the other two. Fol
a year he lived on shelifish in cave
ut Queenscliff, now known as Buck
ley's Cave; then he was tracked bI
blacks. The critical moment OF his
life had come; Buckley proved equa
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