HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Advocate, 1906-3-22, Page 3LAST OF THUGS IN INDIA
AITMNI W110 REDUCED MURDER TO A
FINE ART.
Deadieus Devotees That Divided Spoils
of Their Crime. 'With
Temples.
R was a Nippy inspiration that led to
the adoption of the word "thug" as 0
thynonyin for a ferocious criminal. Its
-very sound is suggestive of silent and
sudden murder. It echoes the thug ter I
the slung -shot. This, of course, is a
mere coincidence; the word is not Engel
lish, in spite of its sound. It is Hindle-
stanee, and came to this country by way
• of England. There it has no newspaper
currency, but retains its 'historical mean-
ing, a caste of Indian. stranglers,
In becoming popular the terra has
;suffered some egradation, Or the thugs
of India were no vulgar sluggers ant
murderers, says the Los Angeles Times.
'They were religious devotees and artists
In crime. De Quindby would have given
them a high rank among the predation-
iers of "Murder Coneidered as a Fine
Art."
• The Thugs, indeed, were under vows
to Kull Devi, the black browed consort
of Siva the Destroyer. She is that terri-
ble personage who appearsin the Hin-
e:Its Pantheon as es fierce btit beautiful
woman, riding on a tiger, or as a hid-
cous, blood stained idol, garlanded with
*tele. Banded together as mete bro-
thers, the Thugs hunted men tooffer
them to he deity of destruction, and be-
cause she required a bloodless sacrifice
they killed their victim e by •saffocation.
The Thugs, not being cannibals, could
not live by mere murder. So Ahey robbed
their' victims and 'divided the spoils be-
tween themselves and
THE TEMPLES OF KALI.
AS a religious body they were protected
tier the Brahmins and by pious but im-
pecunious Rajahs, who.. licensed and
taxed them. It was an easy way for a
ruler to increase his revenue and the vic-
tims were travelling merchants who
w,ould not be missed.
During the many centuries of war and
,anarchy in India Thuggee flourished
mightily . Under .Aurungzebe, to4 whom
as a Moslem Kali- was an abhorred idol,
it suffered a check.. Hindu fanaticism
supported it. The Nawab of Surat had
captured a band of Thugs and was about
to release them for a ransom offered by
certain Banians, who hoped to acquire
"religious merit" by the act. The Em-
peror ordered the Thugs to be strung up
by the left hands in the jungle and left
there to die. The Banians, prototypes
of the sentimentalists who present no-
torioue modern criminals with boquets,
banqueted the stranglers before the ex-
ecution. •
• . • .
•
• These terrors of the ..Indian highway
aronow.extinct; like the' sabre toothed
e e tiger. About sixty years ego many hun-
dreds were executedand the remainder
transported' oe put, to work' at tent
• making and other peaceful trades, eh
strict ediefinement. .
It was thewriter's privilega a few
years back to visit one of the last Of
these world famous stranglers. He had
been captured young, and sentenced to
imprisonment for life in a central Indian
tail.
In a cool corridor that overlooked the
sunlit garden 4 venerable aid man was
weaving the pattern of a Persian carpet.
Tall and erect, awith snowy moustache
and high caste features, he might have
passed in uniform for a British colonel
' bronzed by years of ser t ice. 'He showed
not a single one of the criterions of the
type criminal,- as described by Lome
• broso.
NedhOo, so he'wee catled, had been so
long a prisoner ,litut he was rather. eared
for as a .curiositya •
• A. MUSEUM. SPECIMEN,
than treated as a criminal.' He had be.
Mee aneekpert in weaving, and. when
the teems were idle was by no means un-
willing to 'talk of his aperitinces as
Thug„ • 110 had been borne in the taste,
•, and .devoted earty Lo the see -Vice of Kali.
His fatheplect hiiii to a• secret place in
the •jungle and. there initiated him, by
the wiera rite of the corps and the dag-
ger, into the freemasonry oh the brother,.
hood. lie learned their signs, how '1,c)
, interpret the amen of the 'oh/lathe patter.:
of 'the "ramawsi"-the secret language
of the craft. Being a precocious youth.
as he said, be wes selected to play the
part of "talker," or confidence man. He
was ostensibly a traveller on the Delhi
road, where th.e Indian Midland Rail-
way now runs, for his brother, who
dealt in silks and cotton goods in 0
Beano 'city. Of his exploits as talker
for the band ofjulsi Ram, a notorious.
Thug executed long ago for his crimes,
be told this tale ;
"Tulsi Ram was the right arm of Kali,
and I was the eight arm of Tulsi Ram.
- It was I who decoyed Nasur Khan, the
rich jeweller, with coaking words, as
men take carp from a pond by tickling
their sides.
"Nasur was journeying to Delhi evilh
gems from Mysore and a caravan laden
• with silks in bakes and rich brocades.
came before him as a poor trader, beg-
ging for permission to join his train for
• the sake of protection against thieves.'
• A - twinkle in the old man's eye be
-
frayed les relish of the irony of the situ-
ation. -
"Nasal' was as hard as the stones he
dealt in," he continued, "and the price
demanded,, for his protection was
high. • Then I told him that the Rajah of
Muleva had news of the opproacli of his
demean, and Nnsur's heart, became es
water, her he feared the horsemen of
Mulevit and the toll 'they take. And. 1,
suppling my tongue with the Oil o! per-
suasion, harped on his fears and drew
him on to take a. safer way -where 'Jewel
and his band were waiting and where
our brethreh of the pickaxe had dug
long trenches
• IN THE JUNGLE, GRASS.
"Nestles heart was glad within WM
when he rode aside from Mulwa, end
when he met Talst Ram Merry was his
greeting. Quiet merchants alto they
seemedg-my brothers -and Naeur's Men
chatted with them, as travelleVe Will, of
the price of grain. And as they con.
verged together they made a jest about
thc Thuge, ,Sei -my brethren gathered
• ' roue deNv,ette Khan' atiLla liana twe to
traveller', arkt,•when all Wege listening
epee: tatetitited te a eteradet UMW T'se
- .
I
an owl heeted twiee from the jungle,
That ware the signal." ON THE HIGH ZAMBEM/
The old man illustealed with wrist and
knuckle the eat of tightening the runlet,
os hendkerebtef, round' the neck of the
told how the travellers were
heeled while warin in the graves dud
had been warmed fur them. For him-
self it was his destiny to be a Thug.
"It is our cuetom," he said. "The hot'
ter's son takes te the potter's wheel; the
coppersmith's to the tinkling hammer.'
Strangely (=ugh tho veteran became
himself a sacriOce le the goddess of his
vows. roe Kali DOI Is also the patron-
ess of that scourge of India, cholera
morbus, and next hot weather the old
Thug passed away during an epidemic,
Kali had stretched out one of her hun-
dred hands and called her devotee away.
From this confession it seeme that
winning the confidence of their victims
was the mainstay of the Thug business.
Theirs was not the bold, overt "Your
money or your life" attack of the ban-
dit, but the crafty approach of the
criminal 'tactician. They reckoned on
Laking then' than, oft his guard, as the
"coney catcher" did in sixteenth century
London,as the bunco man does to -day
in Western America. 'Confidence opera-
tions are as old as graft itself.
The work of suppressing Thuggee. was
done by Col. Sleeman, one of 'thosemar-
tyrs to ,exite and official duty that the
Indian civil service needs and trains.
In the district; where he replaced black-
mail and brigandage by law and order,
the town of Sleemanabad-Sleetnan's
city -stands for his monument. The
long task of rounding up the Thug bands
was made easier by disaffection within
their ranks. The powerful religious
band was broken when unbelieving
Moslems . were admitted as members at
the robber caste, ana rose to be leaders.
Then Kali worship became a mere pre-
text for robbery and murder, and Thug -
gee fell before the repressiee meithares
of -
,
A STRONG EXECUTIVE.
One is not surprised to hear of Euro-
pean criminals adopting methods more
or less like those of the Thugs. lf a
robber can trust his pal, two heads and
two pairs of hands are better than one.
A skillful grasp on the throat by one
mart stifles the cry for help and safe-
guards the operations of his partner.
But as no idea of religious duty would
avail in court, they mush stop short of
strangulation or risk a charge of mur-
der.
The garrotters who infested London
in the '60s choked, but did not kill the
late returning citizens. When chloro-
form came into use in surgery, the
underworld of oriole, or at any rale its
master minds at once appreciated its
value, It was painless, it was safe -for
them; the victini would aweke in a stele
of mental confusion -he could give the
police no clew. The drug became popu-
lar with the scientific criminals who
operated on English railroad linesewhere
the closed compartments secure privacy.
Sometimes .a subject died under chloro-
form. by misadventuee, but _diet might
'Rafe happened at tee hands of a young.
medical practitioner. •
Itt Paris, however, the tricks of Indian
Thuggee have been closely followed,.
Look over the • files of the. Parisian pa-
pers of recent years, you will find ac-
counts of men found dead in lonely
places with leather -cords around their
necks and empty pockets. They- had re-
sisted the attacks of strangler thieves.
rn otherecases wealthy men, returning.
late from the opera on foot, fell victims
to the handkerchief trick,' In this case
the "foulard" of heavy Lyons silk took
the place of the cotton "rumal" of the
i nu g.
A robber dressed like a workman or
petit bourgeois would 'approach a belated
clubman and offer him for sale a ring,
ostensibly picked up from the pavement.
If Monsieur did not take. alarm the rob-
ber's partner, who had crept behind his
victim, 'snared his mouth and throat in a
noose. Then with a Mack jinaitsu turn
the --ag heaved him off the ground on
to his own back,
LIKE A SACK OF L.A..?
and" his partner stepped am and rifled
Monsieur's pockets. The latter was then
dropped on the pavement with, force
enough.th stun him and the thugs made
their escape.
The: French.% :gendarmerie trace: thes
clever -and bloodless operdfirin t� the
teaching of a professor who lectured in
Me criminal quarter of Paris some sixty
yeers since. Aleput that lime the Thugs
of India were being bro.ught to trial, and
the revelations that. followed excited
great interest in Europe. It is very like-
ly that the professor borrowed his line
of treatment front these published cases.
But old Nadhoo of the jail would have
said that the spirit of an executed Thug
had incarnated itself in the Frenchman
in order to propagate the mystery of
Thuggee in the virgin Soil of France.
The Thugs of India, it was said, began
as devoteeS, but ended as brigands.
Some form of brigandnge, indeed, seems
endemic in Asiatic counteies that are not
ruled by the strong.hand. Burmah is a
case in point, and $o are the Philippines.
The Thugs of Burma' were called
deceits. During the first years of the
British occupation the troops were ac-
tively employed itt small detachments in
hunting .down the "claims" -and laying
their chiefs by theheets. It was a rough
school for subalterns. The nature of LI le
warfare is well illustrated in leipling's
"The Taking of Lungtungpen," a. tale of
the harrying of a &bolt stronghold by
Mulvaney's detachment. But slacoll•y s
now extinct in Duenuth and the country
is policed by native constabulary.
•TACTFUL QUAKER.
Some time ago them lived a gentle-
men oh indolenthabits whospent hie
time visiting among his friends. After
wearing out his welcome in his own
neighborhood he thought he Would vis-
it an old Quaker friend SOnie twenty
miles distant.
One his arrival he was cordially re.
catered by the Quaker, who, thinking the
s-isitor had taken 'much pains to come
so far to see' lam, freeted him with
0. great (101 of Attention and politenese
for several &Lys, ' •
A.5 the visitor Showed no signs af lenee
Mg the Quaker beceme emeaity, bra
Yore it with patience milli the eighth
RIVER FULL OF CROCODILES AND
HIPPOPOTAMI,
1
Meetinos With Big Beasts Cause Fright
to Boatmen -Beautiful Birds
• to Be Seen.
The Ilidh Zambesi is full of crocodiles;
in some of Lite back =tees they literally
swarm, says a teoent Cape Town letter.
They vary in size feorn 1,11e little things
itho three lizards to monsters over twelve
feet in length. Even where the banks
are of clay and nearly perpendiculae
they seem to have little difficulty in land-
ing, and by constant walking to and fro
score the bank Into ledges and terraces.
They also scratch out or work out, by
other means hollows in the clay, which
they constantly occupy when sunning
themselves or sleeping.
Sometimes they go to sleep floating en
the surface, just, as our pike vill do on
a summer day, and then, like the pike,.
they remain unconscious of. your pre-
sence until 4 sudden movement wakes
them up, when .they disappear with a
prodigious disturbance. But this is not
often; ordinarily they are very wide
awake and vanish silently, sinking with
scarcely a circle Made.. But the shallows
and sand banks are their favorite re-
sort,' and there they. are always watch-
ful.
Often you On see them far ahead,
tails to the water, heads up the flat sand
hank, looking like beached canoes, and
sometimes they lie across one another
like stumps of drifted trees. But -long
before the canoes come up they lake
warning from the paddles, and, turning
on the fulcrum of their Wile, glide into
the water. .
More than once when having luncheon
by the water's edge I have suddenly be-
come aware of the cruel head and the
lustreless glazed eyes looking up at me
from below. It really "gave nte quite a
turn." I instinctively jumped back; fon
the croacidile is credited, and probably
on good grounds, with the practice of
knocking itsprey into the water with e
sudden sweep of its heavy tail. As many
as sixty eggs are laid by a crocodile m
its nest in the sand bank. Beside me .15
I write is an.egg from di. nest containing
that number. It is rather larger than a
goose's egg, but elliptical in shape, with
O white and very brittle .sltell. We are
told (but the statement requires confirm-
ation) that when the little.crocodiles be-
gin to squeak in the shell the mother
digs up the eggs and as the young es-
cape leads them down to the water,
GETS ROYAL HONORS. .
, "Shangwee (chief) calls out my steers-
man as a dugout approaches coming up
the stream; whereupon the paddlers stop
their peddling, and shualting down in
the :boat clap their hands, their usual
form of salutation to an official or a
chief; and, presently; catching eight of
their ivory armlets, they, hold their 'ernes
aloft .and return "Shangwer The arm-
lets "(ribbed round the centre', the dis-
einctive sign of rcyali.y) had been kindly
'given me by Lida, son of Lewapika King
ef Matrose. They acted indeed as a tat-
isenan that day: When we came to a
waterside kraal, where the Bethke picka-
ninnies ran in and out of holes in the
grass screens like rabbits, milk was
instantly brought and Kaffir beer, and
the women were set to scrape a bit of
ground for me to sit on, but no undue
delay allowed -and this through the
royal armlets.
lairds walked' the sand banks -black,
white, open billed and marabou storks;
sacred and glossy plovers, birds that
waded in the shallows, the quaint hada-
dah and quainter hammertop and all
the family of the herons. For, besides
the Goliath, there were the great white
herons, the purple and the squacco her-
ons as well as the beautiful little gret.
in the shallows alga we Saw the elegant
jacana, whose toes are so long that it
can want the water over the thinnest
water reeds; stilts, also, and advocates.
graceful pied birds whose tong slender
bills carve upwerd. About -the reeds
were .many small bitterns,: who, tight'
ened up their feathers arid gazed into the
sky with straight; thin. necks tiff they
oohed likestalks or bite of sticks.
And eyery now and then there fleshed,
across the water e flaming 'streak, the
crimson bee. eater; Egyptian and spur
winged' geese and African pocharcls
swam inthe water or fed along the wo.
ter mark, While the large pied king-
fisher hung poised above the river or
dropped like an arrow on the. fish. Per-
haps the least expected bird .was a sen-
gull-Sthe grey headed gull -of which
tnany were seen throughout -the day.
Terns were numerous, especially the
whiskered tern, eaSiIy distinguished on
the wing by its smokY color. But of alt
the birds seen none was odder than th.e
scissor bide These .birds are river terns,
and, like other terns, lay their eggs on
the sand banks. They are bolored grey,
black and white. But the strange point
about them is this, lhat their orange
• scarlet hills have 'the upper mandible o
great, deal eshorter •than the loweror
maxilla. The beak is also flattened from
side to side, and what the birds feed on
is not properly known as yet.
THE ,UGLY HIPPOS.
•
The hippos are causing us ebMe con-
cern. Every now and then one hears
a noise lila: the steam blowing off ha a
reihvey station; and there is a hippo
looking angrily at our boat. The head
of the beast usuallylies needy flat on the
Mae, now end then indulge in a. little
light Play, they are fairly quiet; but now,
like many Other animals, they are sae, -
age in defeace, of their newly born off-
shOrtd- They do not Week human be-
ings. • When once they have tumbled
YOU into the water they 'trouble there -
selves no further, nor have they any
Oecasion te do sop -the crocodile sees to
the rest8 is the boat that irritates
them. Doubtless they conceive it to no
some river monster invading their
dominions,
• For their better safety the paddlers of
the thigouts keep as close as possible 10
the .banks, but sometimes, ferced out by
shallows, eley are obliged to cross the
windings from point to point. With a
river about as ,wide as the 'Thames at
London Bridge this takes a little time,
and once our crossing was attended by
an amusing though alarming Incident.
I was immereect in my diary when I
was startled by the shock of a sudden
noise, 'which I can only compare to a.
slice out of the roar of a cataract,
Them, close to its, was a hippo. He
looked at us for a moment, and then.
opened his mouth 'rer its very widest ex
tent, as Mr. Rowland Ward's beasts do
itt Piceaullly. I was staring into a red
' cavern, The beast was so close that it
dashed through my mind that 1 could
easily throw in a bun. Perhaps be was
waiting for one, or else was only mak-
ing faces to exercise his facial Muscles.
cIferhtocintirnspillycceneldeetidnt to frighten us he
I could not eee how the .five boys be-
hind rne fared,. but the tall steersman
• gave theedugout such a lurch with his
paddle that he nearly toppled out of the
boat, which' was narrow in the bows,
swayed violently from side to side and
then fell backward, Into the bottom of
the' »oat. You May be Sure we watched
the, hippo very anxiously as he dived,
and thankfully saw him -he was 140
close -turn below the water and disap-
pear.
CIIINESE GEOGRAPHY.
They Are Learned Only in the Knowledge
That Was.
Much has been said about the wisdom
of the East, and the Chinese are con-
ceded to have been a wise nation before
the United States existed. Nevertheless,
a traveller from the United States was
surprised at a cenversation that' took
place between some local officials of a
small village in China. They had ap-
1 peared to greet the traveller and arrange
'Tor further progress. One of -the officials
asked him if he had travelled far and if
he had come by land or sea. To tell
him, who considered one hundred miles
'a iong-jeurney, that ten thousand miles
was the dike -ace travelled was to brand
one's self as as genes exaggerator and
his answer was met:eyelet peals of laugh-
ter.
„. The official's next question- was as to
whether America was north or south of
China -to which one of his eompanione,
•as though ashamed of the ignorance of
his friend, pointed out to him. that Amer-
ica was in the Western and China in the
,Eastern hemisphere. The first official
then seemed to remembeet that the United
-States was.. between France and Ger-
many. It was the 'traveller'sturn to
laugh. The first offleial Was :acre mach
• ashamed of his friend and repeated em-
phatically the sarne information about
thedhernispheres, but as he volunteered
nothing further that probably com-
promised his entire knowledge on the
subject.
This ignorance, however, from a Chi-
nese point of view, must not be con-
founded with being unethicated. They
were highly educated, having spent in
study the amount of nine that a college
boy of America would serve to get a
Ph.11 degree at a university. But ethe
Chinese had stopped with the learnieg
of the filth century before Christ, rather
than the twentieth century after.
'
eSALE OF IVORY IN LONDON. .
About once a month great iyory sales
are held at the London Docks, and at
these tons of ivory are laid out before
the manufacturer's gaze, and large sums,
change hands. l'he material isimport-
ed in greet quantities nom Africa, the
tusks of the Afrierin elephant being most
prized.. Owing , to eheir. superior density
and evhiteriess. Ivory, suet): as that "uded
for the manufacture elf Willard balls,
may' coentnand .rt price of X1.10 to £150
a hundredweight,se that the value of
mammoth: tusks may be approximated.
India, Burma.; Cochin -China, Ceylon, and
the Malay Archipelago .export small
quantities to this country, though the
bulk of ivory produced in these countries
finds a native market. So subtle are the
qualities of ivery that sometimes even
the moot experienced buyers are deceived
as to its proper value. Good ivory is
judged by its solidity and freedom from
flaws, its elasticity, toughness and white, -
ries&
MINIATURE GERMAN LINE.
Germany goesesses a miniature rail-
way to which no parallel is found in
Any country. Its peculiarity is that its
trains have no drivers. It is used -for
carrying salt from the salt mines at
Stassittrt. The trains consist of Bari y
tracks, each carrying half a ton of salt.
The engines are eleterip, at a horse -pow-
er each. As it approaches a station, of
which there are live along the .line, the
train autornaticelly rings a bell and the
rent, and then descends before the en-
gine has gained epeed,
statioti attendant turns a switch to re-
ceive it. He is able to stop it at any
mornent. To elate again, he stands
on ihe locometive, switches on the CM,
water, only the noStrils and eyes above Took.
it. A good way off at first, by constant
diving he reduces the distance, and at
last, when perhaps some fifty yards
away, he raises his head and shoulders,
and Jenks like h frightful mnsk in some
infernal Dentonc. I I owever kind
hippo may bp feeling he always looks
irate. Ile seems to be reckoning to n
nicety the distance for his final rush.
He dives and goti go through the sus-
pense of the thterval-,-will he or Will he
not attack? To your relief he rises a
littic further Off; his better nature has
prevailed,
I -!ow long can a hippo remein under
water? It is difficult to judge unlese you
dey, whert he sold to heed-- have him m a quiet pool. 1 have limed
"My friend, I am afraid thee will 'levee him One, two, three minutes-4We min -
come nein."
"Oh yes, I shalt," eoid the visitor- "f
have enjoyed my visit very much' .4mi
enetainlY -come again'
"Btage. said the Netter, Nr.tfloo. Will
Mae -amt. at hetet be eart remnin below
as long 'aeat
re. Finny, end often MeN-
plicably'..diettitiatare altogether%
• • Theri.,':'.• 7- tie t lwa ya d e ger from
1050 glean Lt, Wilt. S. urifl ton
11eVe.r leaVeo.hOW can thee conic nettle" !heaths at the, yeti's, although Individuate
•
OLD SPANISH LAWSUIT.
Spain has a lawsuit still unsettled that
has been in the courts 39 years, or since
1517. The case which concerns a pen -
sem, began between ,the Marquis de
Viana and the Count Torres de Cabrere,
and the aectunutated earn in dispute
would have reached fabulous millioas
had not four centeries of eharneys, bet --
testers, and court officials taken consi-
devote meaeuree of appropriation to
prevent the amount becoming unwieldy.
SISP,VICE IN THE DARK.
, • , . ,
A series. of 41sena] &Imlay Men sel-
vicee for worinag people" is announe.ed
in a Norwell, England, parieh. The
whole service will be eondacted itt the
dark, "so that the pcorpse end shebbh
est may hot feel ,out t i beeallse et
Weir .elothae.`t
FOUR DAYS ON A RAFT
THRILLING STORY OP THE SEA -
110YjS TERRIBLE ORDEAL.
Castaway Stood on ar Frail Malt tot
Four pays 'and
Nights.
The White Star liner Majestic, which
arrived at Queenstown recently, from -
New York, brought particulars of the
foundering of the Albuth, and the ros-
ette, by the British steamer Largo Bay,
of one of her crew, after sufteripg tele
tible privations ,ttend eller being ort it
rail without feria for ninety-six hours.
On Dec. tr) last the Largo Bay was
going on her voyage from the Mediter-
ranean ports toward Brooklyn, United
States, when the second ollicer, Tom
Davidson, !hem the bridge saw a speck
flashing in the sunlight three or four
miles to the northward. Through the
glass it looked like a bit of wreckage,
with a big crawfish moving upon It
The Largo Bay bore down upon the oLe
ject. Cuptain David McGregor turned
his binocullars in the direction, and saw
a boy holding, as high as he could, a
pair of oilskin breeches upon a sttct.
'it was the most pitiable sight' 1 ever
beheld," said Captain McGregor. "When,
the boy saw we were going to stand by
to sage him, he fell down upon lis
knees in the water over the raft, clasped
Ms hands, bowed his head, and prayed.
A hilt was manned and the boy Laken
oft the raft, which wee only eight square
teet in area, and upon which he was
under water for some inches. The
castaway had stood upon his frail craft,
without sleep, fresh water, or food, for
'Tour days and nights. In half an hour
from the time we had sighted thin he
was saved. He was so -exhausted that
he could barely whisper that his name
was Carl Bakstrom, front near Bergen,
Norway, and
HIS AGE EIGHTEEN YEAR -S.
The boy's hands were swollen to severs
al times their urethral size, and bleach-
ed. He wore two full suits of clothing,
O suit of oilskins, and a pair of sea
boots, but had no cap. He could not
speak a word of English.
"When we got him aboard," said Mr.
Kennedy, the chief officer, who had tale -
en the boat to the raft. "we put him in
a bunk forward, where several of his
cbuntrymen could address him in his
own toilette He kept canine tot' water;
but the captain would not allow_ him lo
balm 0. The first thing I gave him was
a bit of fried sole, which had been pro-
cured fresh the day before. Then I gave
him a cup of fresh tea, and I bathed hiri
iti hot water. His feet began to swell.
He was delirious. I took hirn in hand
when he had fish enough. At 11 o'clock
he suffered a chill, and doubled up With
erntage; then I gave tum a spoonful cf
arandy. 'dente flist thing that Captain
McGregor, theenagh the interpreter,' ask -
tea hint, as soon aehhe could talk, was
evhether there were aleph more survivors
oi;arpetidle. wIrlewskhoforokthhiswillileairsaci.snaPahdhalreedgehees-d-
that he was the only survivor of the
Norwegian steamer Albula, of Bergen,
which hatl sailed front Trapani, Sicily,
ou Dec. 11 for Kopervik, Norway."
Bakstrom told the following gory of
Itis escape; •
• "On the night of the day that the At-
talla left Trapani, a northeast gale
broke out. The cargo of salt shifted,
and the vessel took a bad list to port,
and would not right herself. The crew
numbered only nineteen, being short of
the fun complement, while the Mafia
Was some -
• THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD. •
The position began to look serious. The
sea boomed clean over the steamer,
sweeping everything by the hoard. Gap-
tain Peter Flamer said that all muse take
the boats for 'the Albula would never
right herself. An attempt was made to
launch a boat, but it was smashed
against the ship's sidd. Under the weiglit
or the last sea the vessel suddenly be-
gan to turn turtle. 'May God have
meecy. Every man for himself,' shouted
Captain Flamer.
"I found myself going down, :down,
choking with -sea water, and 11 thought
that I Wes. never coming up. As soon
as I ded- so' I could see nothing but hith
of wredkage rising and falling on the
swelling waves. I espied a raft not .far
way, swam for 0, andpulled mYself
upon it. The cementer, on -the captain's
orders, had built a rude wheelhouse on
the bridge to shelter the quartermaster
from the tropical sun. It was only a
rough effete, made of inch -and -a -quarter
boards and scantlings. If it had been
a permanent part a the 'steamer it
would not have detached itself wit -en the
ship went down. I saw the second mate
near. me, and I succeeded in hauling
him from the sea upon the raft, which
turned out to ba the top of the wheel-
house. The raft would not well- hold
both Of us. The water washed over it,
and neither of as could sit down.
"The second akar bad been hit by
the ehip as she sank. He was already
nearly overcome with exhatistion. He
couldneither sit nor stand. I had to
support him standing or lash him with
his oilskins in a sitting position in the
water.
LEADING. NIAIIKETS
BREADSTUFF'S,
Toronto, Mara 20. -No. 2 Ontario
white wheat $0.1e1 on the local, call board
to -day at lea, outside, Other quotations
Witeat-Ontario-No. 2 red, 76c asked,
rdgie hid, outside; mixed, 70c asked, 75'e
bid; goose, 74c asiced.
Yr twat -Meldttobe-No. 1 northern,
86%,,C bid, en route North Bay, 80c asked
on track Point Edward, May shipment.
13arley-50e asked outside for No. 2,
47c bid foe No. 3 CAM at 78 per cent,
paints C.P.R.
Oats -No. 2 white 34c bid, 343o asked.
MeV freights to New York, 56SS`c asked
in store, Toronto, $6c bid on track To-
ronto, No. a mixed, 35c bid, Toronto.
• Corn -4l% e asked, Toronto, 400 hid to
arrive Toronto, 493rec asked to arrive
l'oron 10.
Buckwheat -Offered at 50c outside.
COUNTRY PRODUCE.
flu t ter -Quo ta Lions are unchanged ;
Crealnery ... . . ...... 250 to 260
do solids .. 23e to 24e
Dairy lb rolls, good to choice18c to 19c
do large rolls 17c to 1.8a
do medium ........... . . .. 16c to 17o
Cheese -Quotations are unchanged at
14c for large and 14jec for twins.
Eggs -16c for new laid and 13e hes
storage.
Poultre-Choice dry plucked :--Fat
chickens, 11c to 12c, thin 7c to 80; fat
hens, 80 to 9c, thin 6c to 70; ducks, 12 Co '
13c, thin Cie to 7c; geese, 100 to 11c; tur-
keys, 14c to 15c for choice small lots.
Potatoes -Ontario, 65c to 75c per bag
on Ira& here, 75c to 85c out of store;
eastern, 700 to 800 on track, and 800 to
90c out of store.
Baled Hay -$8 per ton for No. 1 tim-
othy on track here, and $5.50 to $6 for
No. 2.
I3aled Straw -85.50 to $6 per ton for
car lots on track here.
MONTREAL MARKETS.
Montreal, March 20. --Grain-There.
was little inquiry either for Manitoba
wheat or American corn by cable this
morning. „
Oats -No. 2, 390 to 39eec; No. 3, 38a
to 38%c; No. 4, 37c to 37c.
Peas -79c f.o.b. per bushel.
--.
Barley --Manitoba, No. 3(49c to ago:
No. 4, 48c to 48eec; Ontario, 46e f.o.b..
78 per cent. points. .
Corn -American mixed, 51Sec; Ni, 2
yellow, 52c ex -track.
Flour -Manitoba spring wheat patents_-"
$4.50 to $4.60; strong bakers', $4 to $4.101
waiter wheat patents, $4.25 to $4.50e
straight rollers, $4 to $4.10; do, in bags,
$1.75 to $1.85e extras, $L65 to $1.75.
Millfeed-Manitoba bran in bags, $19;
sheets, $20 per ton; Ontario bran in
bulk, $14.50 to $15; shorts; $20; milled
mouille, $21 to $24; straight grain
mouttle, $25 to $27 per ton.
IRolled Oats -Per bag, $1.90 to $1.95;
cornmeal, $1.30 to $1.40 per bag:
• Hay -No. 1, 38 to $8.50; No. 2, $7 to
-,,Cheese Quotations are (elven at 13c
3to7nr5:03:c1:(5,rocgio,ei.er: mixed, '56 .to. 30:50, and
203ec to 21Sec for under-graache.sc::iice:_lnel
• Bu t ter -22C ' 1.67 2treXP-J°r '
of single packages of Amoy stock are
paid at as high as 23c.
Eggs -Fresh, selling at 16c to 16Xe.
limed ancrfall Stock at 11c to 13c.
Beans -Choice primes, $.1.60 to
per bushel; hand-picked, $1.80.
Peas -Boiling, in carload lots, 95c ta
$1.05 per bushel.
Potatoes -Per bag of 80 ibs., 60c ta 700.
• Honey -While clover, in comb, 13c to
14c per M section; extract, 80 to (lc;
buckwheat, 6Xc to 7c.
Provisions -Heavy Canadian short cut
pork,„$21; light short out, $20; American,
short cut, $20; American cut clear fat
back, $19 to $20; compound lard, 6Xe
to 7X0; Canadian pure lard, 11%c hi
12c, kettle rendered, 12eec to 13c; tains,
12c to lac, aceording to size; bacone
14Xce fresh killed abattoir dressed hogs,
$10; country dressed, $8.75 to $9.25;
alive, $7.50 for selects.
NEW YORK WHEAT MARICET.
New York, March 20. -Spot firm; No.
2. red, 84c elevator; No, 2 red, 135Xe
f.o.b. afloat; No. 1 northern Duluth, 86X0
f.o.b. afloat.
----
CATTLE MARKET.
HE LASTED NO ,TIME. •
On that night, he'died. and 1 pushed his
body off the ratt, which madethe plat-
form more buoyant, but still ihe boards
were mesh, and I had le stand day af-
ter day and night after night In the wa-
ter, With nothing to drink, with nothing
to eat, end with no sleep.
"On the day before you came by an
Italian stem -lee 'passed elose. I waved
my oilskin Mid tried to shout, but 1
could not do so, My throat and mouth
were parehed and swollen. Another
'ethernet, passed tee fee away to see me,
When et saw •you I determined' to try
dace mere to he saved, Ima if 1 failed
this time to fall off the raft and be
through with it, I prayed and yhen f
daw you tewn out of your e course I.
thought I should go triad with loge Thi
.1Virld had beenoff shore, the ea( had
drifted about twenty Miles to the sonaid
Ward of the pleat: where the Attalla
went down, And 'she had Sank befiere
We had gone sixty, miles trent Trapani."i
The position of 'the resette evae ttomer
forty-eight miles wed 61 the little' world
nt moratitoo, off the doast of Sicily. Th• e
Largo Ray touehed at Cribeallar long
ettough to land the greteful Noitwegian
• Mee who Weald be Sent to his herne.near
1.3etterett htt the: -Neredegthe cot), -Lott-
i* Standard. • '
Toronto, March 20. -Higher prices the%
Tor 'some months were recorded for cat -
nein one or two instances at the Wes-
tern Market to -day. The approach of
spring. the scarcity of good cattle, the
presence of a few lots of exc,ellently
stall -fed animals were- mainly the cause
of this high tone.
Exporters of good quality were limi-
-Led. A few short -keep feeders were sold
at high figures in consequence, one load
1,260 Ms, at 34,65. For fairly good ani-
mals $4.90 and $5 was obtainable.
A few heifers, choice stall -fed, weigh-
ing over 1,200 lbs., were sold at $5 to
$5.50 per cwt. '
Good butchers' were in demand at
strong pricers. For good, ordinary hei-
fers $4.75 could be got. Cows, mediunt
steers and other elasses solerfradity.
The general quotations were: -Choice
butchers', $4,25 to $4.75; fair to good
butchers', $4 to $4.25; best COWS, $3.2%
to *3.75; common cows, $3 to $3.25 per
cwt.
The supply of sheep with moderate
and the tnarhet was steady. Quotations:
were: -Export ewes, 34.75 to $5.25; ex-
port buels, $3.50 to $4.50; grain -fed
lambs. $6.75 to $7.25; mixed lambs,
$5.50 to $6.50; eelves; $3.50 to $6.50 per
cwt.
TEAM DASHED INTO TTIAIN,
A Sensational Spectacle at Galt-Neltber
• Horse wtts hilIecL
Galt, Ont., March 14.-='-A thrilling eel.
sode was witnessed on it crOwded thor-
oughfare here at the noon hour to -day.
A team of large horses, owned by Jas.
King, of Dumfries, ran front Gardiner's
saevmill, with log trucks etteehed, and
tinned down Main Street. The Grand
Trunk Railway noon train lead just left
the depot and was making good time oil
the Guelph run. The engine lied only
eleamel - the street Creasing, when the
tenni crashed into the train. Both horses;
were iurlcd bock With terrible Invite,
and 101, mixed up hi harnees and wagon
evlieels, One horse had Re jaW shatter-
ed, While the ether escaped Willi an
tritury to -the flank, Two pedestrian%
theme withitt breadth Of being
g