The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-04
Dare Devil Johnny" Filibus-
terer and Gun Runner, Is
to Retire.
HIS LIFE FILLED WITH
ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE
Seventy-Th Years of Age.
and Still Vigorous as a
Young Man.
BY RALPH JOHNSON.


NEW YORK. Sept. Sits never
again for Captain John o Brien, once
known as "Dave Devil johnny, -
flibusterer, gun runner and free lance
of the sea. There is romance and ad
venture enough crowded into the
seventy-thr years of the keen-eyed,
wisy little man who stepped ashore
from the Havana steamer TO fill a
whole library. He is barely five feet
three of bone and muscle. The little
man, who thought nothing of taking
the decrepit Fort Lee ferryboat John
i. BrlnkerhoT by sea to Havana, and
who turned the Horn without turning
hair in the frail AL Foster, known
of old TO the fishing banks on the way
to San Francisco few years ago,
looked hale and keen in spite of his
years.
The captain is here, he says simply
for rest and baseball. However it may
tax credulity, the fact is that this sea
dog, who has sported in his time with
cannon balls and sailed the sea with
all the fatalist' S disregard Of death
and danger, is something besides al
fight fan. He is n rooter of land va.
riety, and reckons Ty Cobb, Charlie
ball stars as his personal friends This i
seemed strange TO hear mt first. but
became less so when YOU learned that
the captain grew up-as far as he could
let himself grow before he took to the |
water, which WASH t far-ri2ht here in
the Eleventh ward SO the proba bihty
is that the present furlough will be
passed between the polo grounds and
Newark. where Mrs o Brien lives with
four boys and three daughters.
His Filibustcring Days
with the outbreak of the Cuban revo.
iution. 1t was at this calling that
he captured a reputation of which Cap.
tam Kidd himself might not have been
Many man, many a
gun and many round of ammunition
were landed on Cuban soil from the
deck OF an 'Brien blockade runner.
lhey say he never lost man or a gun
IN doing it, Not stopping with aid |,
gwen at a second remove, he got in :
and helped the insurgents in the field. ,
With the steamship City of Mexico he |.
made mock of the Spanish war vessels, ,
and put safely ashore cargo of arms
and ammunition. When risks of that
KIND weren Z to be had. he turned pilot
between Cuba and Florida, A lob c
there were few candidates for in those
days. He had n way of being success. /
full at anything he tried. I
Hayti called him next, because with c
The outbreak of the revolution danger \
lay IN her nelohborhood. One OF his d
services for the agents of the revolu S
'ion was the safe conduct TO the rebels a
of load of guns and explosives on the \
steamship South Portland He is said V
largely to have contributed to the Q
downfall and expatriation of Iegitime a
-egltime disposed Of. O 'Brien returned f
o New York. AS captain or pilot of o
vessels he had one thrilling h
experience after another OF the sun b
PRESTON of mutiny he made an art. A G.
nan who had toyed with revolutions
yasn Z to be scared by mutineers p
" hen on one occasion he found
cbooner in his charge stranded on the
hore OF Long Island and a rebellious ~
rev refusing TO fall to and pet her
I'll. he tried strnging a few Of them
p by their thumbs. They got back to
YORK then and the schooner got back bc
o port. m
Another time, while in command of
he bark Mohawk. the captain found ~
imself outside Sandy Hook in Tho "
interest winter weather with n crew so G,
ompletely benumbed by the cold that u
hey could not handle the ship Utter, j.
lg not a complaint himself the c.
lmlnntlve commander put Off in a -
nd brought it back. 'p' Jo j.,
An experience he had six miles off to
'ednandina.. Fla. made a greater call M
pom the spirit of the nervy little can. nc
AIN His vessel, the Steamship Fran. 20 20
onla, carrying a load of lumber, ma