FIERCE FIREMEN FIGHT.

NZ Truth, Issue 59, 4 August 1906, Page 7

FIERCE FIREMEN FIGHT.

Torrible Tussle at Sea.

The great love that the foreign element that man mostly all our ships possess for their comrade is well known to all who go down to the sea m ships, but as the German and Scandinavian are more docile, 1 used to scant fare, and can pull and haul as well as they can speak m pigeon English, our ship captains . SEEM TO PREFER THEM, especially when the skipper and mates are low-paid foreigners themselves. Details are to hand of a desperate fight which took: place, recently,^ -the new Ham-burg-American liner. i toria, the largest vessel afloat, just after the vessel left Hamburg on a recent trip. The affray resulted m one English sailor losing his life, while nine other English and foreign 6eamen had to be taken to hospital seriously wounded. ' " The Kaigerin-Aiiguste- Victoria, a ship of 45,000 tons displacement, and carrying A GREW OP 650, had various nationalities among the seamen and stoker:}. An eye-witness who was on one of the upper decks shortly after midnight says he heard loud quarrelling, shrieks, and cries for help proceeding from the well-deck forward. There he saw about a hundred of the crew engaged m A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER. Many of the men had knives out, while others had armed themselves with iron bars • and other implements, with which they were attacking each other. So far as could be judged by the men's remarks, it was a faction fight between the foreign element and { ; he Englishmen on the ship. The fight continued desperately, and men were dropping about the deck badly stabbed or knocked unconscious by the heavy weapons used. He states* that two of the Englishmen were picked up and THROWN OVERBOARD by their opponents, who were superior m numbers, andthat one of them was drowned, the other beiufcj rescued. The conflict con- . tinued for about 20 minutes; when the officers were eventually able to secure the ringleaders, and bring the meleevto an endCharity covers a multitude of sins. Yes. But some wag has twisted the bid wheeze to fit a big copper; who distributes ttio blankets "arnqpg the; blacks : up Queensland way, to "O'Flarre^y covers,. a multitude of gins I" • ''#.■■• ( "• '. A beer.bnmmer bumped a solid feminine snag m a suburban pub last week. Seeing only a woman behind the bar, he I strode boldly' m and demanded a pint, i then started on the counter lunch. When she mentioned the subject of the tray bit the bummer gave a grin and started to make for the door. Then a cyclone struck i him. Grabbing a 'decanter from the bar, with one spring the Goddess of Beer I headed him off, and confronted him- like a fighting she devil just loosened from Gehenna. In ten seconds the bummer wa9 screaming for mercy, while she tore into him with her tongue, and swore to have the tray bit or his life.; Finally he had to leave his coat as a pledge until he cadged the thrum, then he sent a pal along to get it back for him. "Blime !" he cried, "I wouldm't go back an' face that old tart if; you offered me a brewery Vi A drunk, when he is pri the jag, has no time for the returning good for evil creed. The 'son of a South Coast farmer, who 'held' a '"snug Government billet, got on to; a terrific scoot m- Sydney recently, | and sorudbody telegraphed to the old man: \ to gome and rescue him,, as he was going i to the, dogs. When the old man arrived m the sinful^ city he lugged his drunken offspring from a low-down pub, and after giving ; him ft warm bath, a new slo-p- --; made suit, and much good advice, took. i .him to a Coffee Palace to keep him under ! observation for a few days. That night ! as . the old man slept the reprobate son I crept into his bedroom, "ratted" the old [ man's pockets, and lit out for another ! glorious orgie. He was just getting out |of a cab, with a painted faced lady, a | couple of night's afterwards, whon the ! irate old farmer fell upon him like the j seven plagues of Egypt, and some of the i crowd just got the old man m time to ! prevent murder. The young hopeful's dad then pulled the strings and got him. the sack, and now the gilded youth is at home on the farm, teat pulling beneath the stern, relentless eye of the old man. * • * Things are not always what they seem. A girl with a pair of soulful dark eyes and a violin case gripped m her neatlygloved fist came rup+Hng down Kingstreet the other day. She had a far away, dreamy expression stamped upon her classic features, as if the grand chords of a Mozart niulody were still resounding within her soul. Suddenly a tragedy happened. The high heel of her neat little shoe kissed on to a banana skin, there was a scream and a slide, 1 then the violin case dew open, as the girl came down on the hard, unsympathetic footpath, and , a passing Pott's Point pug dog seized a string of pork sausages that wriggled from the case, and fled across the tramline. Then the tumbled vision gathered herself and her scattered property to-\ gether, and went back with a brokenhearted expression for another supply of the myatery.. ' J