Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1875 — Two Sword-Fish Stories. [ARTICLE]

Two Sword-Fish Stories.

On Saturday afternoon, about the time the frigate Repulse was getting underway, a large fish was seen by the natives of Waikiki, rapidly approaching the bay. As he neared the reef he cleared it with one leap of fully 200 feet, and skimmed over the shallow water inside until he landed high and dry on the sand beach, directly in front of’Mr. J. W. Pfluger’s seaside cottage. Here he was seized by a native, who, however, was unable to hold him, and the hhge fish floundered about till he finally got into the water. A crowd of natives corraled him, and the water near shore being to.» shallow to allow him to use his fins to any advantage they soon killed him with an ax. It proved to be a species of the sword-fish, measuring eight feet in length, while his sword'measures thirty-six inches. The latter may be seen in our office. He appears to have been frightened by the Repulse, and shot like an arrow through the water and over the reef with such an extraordinary speed that he could not stop until out of his native element and high on the land. Those who witnessed it say that it was a most exciting scene.

These sword-fishes are very powerful. We remember Capt. Stone telling of an incident which occurred while he was running the brig Josephine between this port and Jarvis Island, about 1858. The brig was an extraordinary sailer, and while going at her full speed, ten miles an hour, she was struck directly under the stern-counters with such a shock as to jar the whole vessel and to awaken the Captain out of a sound sleep, who supposed the brig had struck a whale or a reef. Immediately the pumps were started, but there was no -water in, the hold. On returning to port the brig was hove out to find the cause of the shock, when, near the sternpost, imbedded in the thick plank, the blade of a sword-fish was found, fully twenty inches in length. To have hit the brig under the counter the fish must have been going in the same direction as the vessel; and one may imagine the speed with which it moved to have plunged its sword twenty inches through the planking. It must have been going at the rate of twenty or twenty-five miles an hour, and evidently intended to hit the brig, supposing it to have been a whale. From this one can get a faint idea of the fights which take place among the monsters of the deep.—Honolulu Gasette. A. case in Lincoln, Ont., illustrates the liability of courts and juries to cfuel mistake. A few months since Matjiias Konkle was found guiity of an assault upon a female child ten years of age. He was convicted and sentenced to be. hanged, but the sentence was afterward commuted to imprisonment for life. It now appears that there was a conspiracy to' get rid of Konkle, in which his stepmother was the principal mover, her motive being to obtain possession of property. She took into her confidence the grandmother of the little girl and a servant-maid. These together arranged the plot against Konkle, the child being brutally maltreated to furnish evidence against an innocent man. At the trial Mrs. Konkle “posted” all the witnesses for the Government She with her fellow’-conspirators have been arrested, and the convict will be brought from prison to testify against them. The little girl has turned Queen’s evidence, and her statements, which are very clear, leave no, doubt of a malignant plot to put a trouble-’ 'pome heir out of the way. «- What we want now Is to exchange photographs with the boy who put a porous plaster in his school-teacher’s boot. — Danbury Nws.