A PAINFUL SIGHT.

Evening Star, Issue 5589, 5 February 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

A PAINFUL SIGHT.

Curzjla, the capita! of the island of that Dame, was (*ays the ' Times's' correßpondent) the point which we had retched when I closed my last letter on board the steamer Arciduchessa Carlotia, of the Dalmatian line of the Austrian Lloyd vessel?. I shall re member it for years to come as having been the icene where I witnessed the painful sight of a starving man taking focd after four days' abatinenoe from everything bat water and the very worst cigars. Moreover, it was interesting to me, as confirming my own experience of many years ago, when I was lost in the bush on the Hunter River, in New South Waleß ; for after sixty hours of fasting I grew bo sick and ravenous that when I did find my way to a distant shepherd's hut, and was presented with a damper—a kind of larga dough cake, something between unleavened bread and kamp tulicon—l was utterly unable to (at it; and thia I again ease at Cumla. The victim of tbia experiment was an unfortunate Austrian i fiber of an infantry regiment, on leave, and going home to see his friends, who apparently dwelt in tie above town, and led honest but humble lives as thoemakers, But to return to the officer. It appears these gentlemen have the prifil ge of travelling by the Austrian steamer at a greatly reduced price, and as no ticket of either class oarries food with it, it is entirely optional whether you eat or not. This arrangement presents possibilities for travelling which are most welcome to many a poor officer, who would otherwise be unable to go on leave; and I am told that the spectacle of my starving friend is erne of frequent occur-

rence in these steamers. He was a very tall man, about 6ft 2in, with extremely narrow shoulders, sloping off more on one Bide than the other—in fact, at night, when walking about with his 1 ng nooat on (it made one melt to Bee him in ut I suppose he was anxious to rjia : n aa much vital heat as possible), he looked in the pale moonlight like a bad sketch of the Matterhorn. His face was long and not badlooking, with deep, penßive eyes, which acquired an expression of intense weariness ana longing before the second day even was over. He began by walking about. This he kopt doing for twenty-four nours. Then he relapsed into a chair, and from that to lying about on the deck—which, as far as I know, he never left night or day in a state of semi collapse. Eirly in the morning he smoked a pressati, an Italian " weed " in its widest acceptation —an inexpensive article, sold at five to the \ enny, and composed cf tie rankest na'.ivegrown tobacco, mixed with dandelions, bulrushes, the leaves of Indian corn, or anything else which will burn in the form of a cigar. They are not wholesome, and do not smell nice; but nevertheless they support life in many an e ffioer on both sides of the Adriatic, who live by staving off hunger as long as possible by smoking these things. Tae effect they produoe is a kind of n«us«a, which has the advantage of making you disinclined to eat, and, when smoked insufficient quantities on board sh'p and aided by a diipo.hion -o be sea- iok, may really be oaunted on to keep you from foe cl for some time. I confess my interest in this young man bcoame qui'.e painful as I saw him struggling with bnngar and temptation, and observed how day by day he took in another hole in his sword-belt. Oace or twice I approached him, and was about to propose our landing together at the next port hoping to inveigle him into a restaurant, but he teamed to divine my thoughts, and, though done with a natural grace and courtesy, declined my advatioe?, turning with a sickly trail o. With w&ak and toitering legs, at best of times veiy shaky, this youth hurried off te a restaurant in a small side street, and here his mother pressed food on him. He actually oould not swallow it, and on a tecond attempt became so violently sick that I thought hiß whole frame must be shaken to piece b. I left him in the bosom of his family.