The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-12-23
REVERSING
AN ADAGE
BY HARVEY DALTON
Copyright, 1910. by American Press
Association.


of Christianity. Perhaps what mean
will be palmer when have told my
story.
had been q clergyman Of the Sec
ond Presbyterian church In our town
for several years when began to be
dOubter. I first doubted the miracles
That's the way all skeptics begin. and
they think that If the miracles were
out of the way they could believe all
the rest II was hard to get up In the
pulpit every Sunday and preach what
I didn't believe myself. Finally | ap-
piled for a leave ON the usual clergy
mans ground--a bad throat-and went
on a sea voyage.
The ship | sailed In was tramp.
was told that they had had fine wealth
er for three months. Some of them
said they'd be glad to see Il hurricane.
they had got so tired of sunshine and
light breezes. But the day after l got
| aboard the weather changed. and. sure
| enough. the hurricane they wanted
broke on us furiOusly. We were three
days fighting seas set going by wind
| travelling at the rate of a hundred
miles an hour We had everything bat
tened down. but the waves pounded
out the glass over the cabins and so
much water poured into the hold that
| all hands--passpnger and ali-were
called upon to man the pumps.
During all this never did sailor
/ H. tn1 Mt nd m
casionaily they would gather In knots.
talking and shooting malignant glances
at me. | ddut know what II meant.
and before found ont the wind died
down. But II came up again, and we
went through three more days of much
the same kind OF weather. When this
second storm was over | was standing
on the deck one afternoon looking ut
n rainbow which seemed To me bow
of promise when number of sailors
headed by an old salt with rings In his
ears came up to me. and the old fellow
said:
"Parson. we've come TO the conclu-
sion that you're bringing these storms
on us, and we don't want no more OF
'em. We're goin' to pitch you over.
BOARD"
Seeing cupStan bar near me. seiz-
ed 1t TO use as u means OF defense,
| but man behind me was too quick
| for me, and was held In titanic
| grip. This gave the others chance.
They closed and over | went.
| The men continued to look over the
side of the vessel to see what became
of me. especially as that place was
alive with sharks. and | had scarcely
struck the surface when big fellow
gave slow flap Of his tail and float
ed toward me. im good swimmer
and had no difficulty In keeping on
the surface. Besides. had hung on to
the capstan bar, which was enough to
foat me anyway. The shark came
slowly up TO me, turned on its side
with a view to taking me In. opened
wide Its scissor jaws and
Here the turning point of my story
comes in. put one end Of the cap
stan bar on his lower jaw. and. Just
as the two started to get together,
wedgcd the other end in just back oi
his teeth on his upper jaw. And there
he was,
was floating about between thu
two rows Of teeth. hanging ON to th'
middle of the bar. Tnan when was
satisfied the shark could not bite
just floated out and up to the sur
face.
Nothing succeeds like success. Tb,
sailors who watched what had don,
threw lines down to me and hauled mi
up again on deck
The first thought that came into IN,
! head was the miracle had most doubt
ed--that OF the prophet Jonah. saw
II In a different light than ever before
Hadn't | just been through more re
markable occurrence? And how ha,
I escaped? BY the same way as
had been tossed overboard-force.
. made up my mind to stop doubling an,
] go to work saw that the sailors
after my experience with the shark
, We're afraid Of me, and | resolved t
= profit by their fear, proposed there
? after to preach the gospel peaceabl
| when | could forcibly when must.
{ every mnn Jack of you." l thunder
0 ed, come aft to prayers"
0 l led them to the after deck, not
0 man refusing TO follow. and gave ther
t half an hours service, | establishe
0 two services day, and at every sery
3 Ice read them the story Of tn
Q prophet Jonah. at the end asking ther
= II any one OF them dlsbelieved II. Th
first day one man said 1t was all III
r Knocked him down. He got up. an
}, | Knocked him down again, and b
= kept getting up and | knocking hiI
i down, I'LL ut last he said. 81 bellev
= you, parson, and | reckon you're th
man that lived three days in tn
whales belly Yourself"
Since then have believed that fore
n even in our calling is better than pc
o Euasion. At any rate. there are case
o where persuasion won't work. but fore
/" will And II there ia any place whel
d force will work better than persuasio
10 It's among a ships crew. | RENAME
l. aboard that ship seven months. and
found the only way to induce the me
IN hatiaya onythiuO axtro nr1ino ~ az.