A Sportive Toper.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1735, 6 September 1875, Page 2

A Sportive Toper.

The strollers on the wharf yesterday afternoon were entertained in an unusual manner by a seaman who exhibited in his demeanour pretty conclusive evidence that if no breach of the Licensing Act had been committed, he must have provided himself well over night with mountain dew. He was standing at the end of the wharf when his bat blew off and fell into the water. Notwithstanding the remonstrances oil his friends, the misguided " salt" persisted in sliding down a pile to the fender beJJ

t tween the Caberfeidh and the wharf T wildly grasping to clutch it, he precipitat*? % himself head-foremost into the harbo ' The spectators were now serious?' ? alarmed, much more so than the snbie^ of their fears, who disported kimJ* 1 with the utmost nonchalance, striking onf^' boldly away from the wharf, rolling o tt *:■*., his back to float and calling out " I'm, dead » and otherwise manifesting a keen enjoyment' of his uncomfortable position. A boat occupied by four gentlemen out for a pulf came up with the intention of rescuing the man from his unsafe bay, I when they pulled up near him he began tn apostrophise their eyes in language much more forcible than polite, and when he ultimately consented to be pulled on board he promised the occupants of the boat that he would wet their fine clothes for them a promise wbich he faithfully carried out We have pot been able to learn the names of ! ' the occupants of the boat, but they deserve, great credit for their forbearance in persisting in their efforts to rescue the man, whose fool-hardiness would most likely have re. s ulted in his death.