Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1886 — The Shirk Did Not Return. [ARTICLE]

The Shirk Did Not Return.

“The reason why big strikes in pearls do not create a boom, as a gold discovery would,” said an old hand at the business, “is because most everybody knows the clanger of it, and if you don’t superintend it yourself yon are at the mercy of a pack of the biggest thieves that ever lived. The principal dangers are sharks, rays, and drowning. The sharks are the worst, and some grounds have old man-eaters that hang about them for years; at least the men think so. I remember one season we got on the grounds early. I was owner of an outfit comprising ten men. but when we got ready not a man would go over. I didn’t blame them, as they pointed out the fin of a b g man-eater that was swimming about. I wouldn’t have gone over myself for all the pearls on the farm. The shark had a notch on his top fin, wheie some one had put a bullet through, and one man said it had eaten his brother, another that his cousin was killed the year before by the same brute, and you would liave thought that every man in the place had lost a relative of some kind, so I concluded it would be a charity to put the old murderer on the retired list. I had a harpoon with, me that had barbs that fitted into the iron so that it would go in easily, and then when a slight pull was made they would set back. This I rigged to a pole and fastened to a line about 100 feet long, having it fastened to a keg. Heaving the, toggery into the boat, I got one of the 1 men to pull me near the shark, that was swimming around and around, and as it came by the boat I put the spear into its back as well as I knew how. We didn’t bother about hauling in, but just threw over the rope and keg and let him go, and that’s the last we ever see of the old man-eater. I reckon he ain’t stopped yet, as we kept hearing of the keg up along the coast for several weeks,”—A Pearl Fisher's Yarn, in San Francisco Call. Young and middle-aged men suffering from nervous debility, premature old age, lose of memory, aud kindred symptoms, should send 10 cents in stamps for lirgo illustrated treatise suggesting sure means of cure? World’s Dispensary Med cal Association Buffalo. NY. Peach leaves pounded to a pulp, and applied to a bruise or wound from a rusty nail or a simple cut, will give immediate relief. Like hot weather, the smiles of a lovely woman will at all times wilt a man’s collar.