The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1911-02-09
REVERSING
AN ADACE
By HARVEY DALTON
Copyright, 1910. by American Press
Association.
, HARVEY DALTON

F0rce IS the OASIS OF everything
Force keeps US moving-indeed, alive
And, strange to say, force is the basis
of Christianity. Perhaps what l mean
will be palmer when I have told nv
story.
had been clergyman of the Sec.
ond Presbyterian church In our town
for several years when l began to be
dOubter | 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 It was hard to get up In the
pulpit every Sunday and preach what
| didn't believe myself Finally | an.
piled for leave on the usual clergy
mans ground-a bad throat-and went
on sea voyage
The ship / sailed in was a tramp.
was told that they had had fine wealth
er for three months. Some of them
said they'd be glad to see hurricane
they had got so tired Of sunshine and
light breezes. But the day after l cot
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 hundred
miles an hour We had everything bat
tened down, but the waves pounded
out the glass over the cabins and 50
much water poured into the hold that
all hands-passenger and all-were
called upon to man the pumps.
During all this never did a sailor
pass me but he scowled at me, and oc-
casionally they would gather in knots
talking and shooting malignant glances
at me. l didn't know what 1t meant
and before found out the wind died
down. But it came up again, and we
went through three more days of much
the same kind of weather. When this
second storm was over l was standing
on the deck one afternoon looking at
rainbow which seemed to me bow
of promise when a 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 capstan bar near me, seiz-
ed 1t to use as means Of defense,
but a man behind me was too quick
for me, and l was held in a 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 a big fellow
gave slow flap of his tail and float
ed toward me. I'm a good swimmer
and had no difficulty in keeping on
the surface. Besides, had hung on to
the capstan bar. which was enough to
float me anyway. The shark came
slowly up to me, turned on its side
with view to taking me in. opened
wide its scissor jaws and
Here the turning point Of my story
comes in. l put one end Of the cap
stan bar on his lower jaw. and, just
as the two started to get together.
wedged the other end in just back Of
his teeth on his upper jaw And there
he was.
/ was floating about between the
two rows Of teeth, hanging ON to the
middle of the bar. Then when l was
satisfied the shark could not bite
just flOated out and up to the sur
face.
Nothing succeeds like success. The
sailors who watched what l had done
threw lines down to me and hauled me
up again on deck.
The first thought that came into my
head was the miracle had most doubt
ed-that of the prophet Jonah. l saw
1t in different light than ever before.
Hadn't l just been through more re-
markable occurrence? And how had
l escaped? By the same way as |
had been tossed overboard-force. /
made up my mind to stop doubling and
go to work. l saw that the sailors,
after my experience with the shark,
were afraid Of me, and I resolved to
profit by their fear. l proposed there
after to preach the gospel peaceably
when I could, forcibly when 1 must.
Every man Jack Of you," thunder
ed. come aft to prayers"
l led them to the after deck, not
man refusing to follow, and gave them
half an hours service established
two services day, and at every serv-
Ice | read them the story Of the
prophet Jonah, at the end asking them
II any one of them disbelieved it. The
frst day one man said it was all lie.
| knocked him down. He got up, and
l Knocked him down again, and be
Kept getting up and I knocking him
down, till at last he said, 81 believe
you, pars0n, and reckon you're the
man that lived three days in the
whales belly yourself"