Boys’ Column.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2032, 18 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Boys’ Column.

Poor Pick. It was a sultry summer afternoon. Nothing could bo hoard in the fields but the song of birds and the “click-click” of the mowing machine. The perspiration rolled down the foreheads and cheeks of the men. They held no conversation with each other. Probably they thought it cooler to ho quiet. Nothing broke the stillness of the air, excepting the birds and tbe mowing machine. “ Click-click” steadily went the latter. Suddenly the piteous howl of a dog was heard ; the machine stopped ; the driver jumped off the seat and the other men ran to the spot. Poor Dick I Those big, sharp teeth had cut him down almost as completely as they cut the hay. There he lay, his legs all and the front ones nearly severed. He moaned and looked up at the men as if asking them for help. One of them caught hold of him, but ho howled and snapped at him. “ We might as well put him out of his pain,” said one. “I’ll go to the house and get the gun.” He started off on a run and soon disappeared. The men remained in the same place. The horses at the machine stood quietly. The poor dog no more took notice of the presence of the men, who spoke in low tones, seeming to sympathize with him. Soon tho man who had gone to the house returned with a gun. lla reached clown and stroked Dick ? perhaps tenderly then he moved off a short distance. A man went to tho horses heads, to hold them, and the one with tho gun took aim —he pulled tho trigger. Dick gave his last howl and after a short struggle was out of pain. They picked him up and laid him under a tree, covering him with hay. That evening they buried him there. Two little girls planted flowers on his grave, and it took them a long time to get used to tho loss of their playmate Dick.

A merchant Navigator’s Voyages.

“ Voyages of a Merchant Navigator ” is the title of an interesting little book, which has just been published by Harper it Bros. The author is H. W. S. Cleveland, and the man whose adventures ho relates was the late Richard J. Cleveland, a resident of Salem, Mass., who, during the last ten years of the last century, and up to the year 1820, was actively engaged in the merchant service, owning and sailing vessels on his own account, it is an interesting fact that this Richard ■). Cleveland was of the same blood as the present President of the United .States, the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, of Norwich, Conn., the great grandfather of the latter, being the brother of .Stephen Cleveland, the father of the man wlio.se life story is told in this book.

Richard ,1. Cleveland, being bom in 1778, was a young man at the time that the wars of the French Revolution commenced, and the succeeding period of twenty years, when all Europe was at war, with one brief interval, was the harvest of the American shipowner. The United States being the only neutral nation possessed of much shipping became the carrier fur all Europe, and great fortunes were made by the bold adventurers who had money and ships and were prepared to take their chances freely. One of these was Richard J. Cleveland, who appears to have been a man singularly bold in conception and able in execution, and not too scrupulous in the means ho adopted to attain his ends. Wherever there was money to bo made there ho would go, and if it became necessary for him to change his nationality temporarily, he did not hesitate to do so, becoming a Frenchman, a Dane, or an Englishman as occasion served.

His first trip of importance was taken in 170!), from Havre to the Isle of France, in a little cutter of about fifty tons, which ho had loaded up with goods such as he thought would sell at his destination. He also carried despatches from the French Government. He, however, never completed this voyage, for putting in at the Cape of Good Hope the British officials there smelt a rat, and detained him. They thought it highly improbable that so small a vessel should start on so long a voyage merely for the purposes of trade ; so they would not allow him to proceed, but bought out his vessel and cargo at a rate which gave him a handsome profit. We next find him at Canton, undertaking a voyage to the northwest coast of America to buy furs, and in this trip he met with many adventures ; but the voyage was successful, and yielded him a large sum. He is found next on a voyage from Isle of France to Denmark, and when this was completed he started for Chili and Peru, where ho thought he saw a chance of groat profits. This trip also ended prosperously, although it was attended by many difficulties, and he reached his home in Salem after several years’ absence, the possessor of a fortune of £ 17,000, with which he proposed to retire and spend the rest of his days in comfort. Like Robinson Crusoe, however, ho was impelled to go to sea again, and his next essay was most disastrous. After this ho gained and lost two or three fortunes, but wo must reserve ttie remainder of his adventures for the readers, who will not fail to peruse this most interesting book, which is far more thrilling than many a work of fiction. Richard d, Cleveland died in 1800, a-md 87, after such a life of adventure as has fallen to the lot of few men to pass through.