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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1904)
. .THE u OREGON- DAILY .JOURNAL!. PORTLAND, v SATURDAY, EYENINGL. FEBRUARY; U10OI. ; j B-o'u.R'al Vs Go d, .Stories. Ilj ; . gff:" AI though a Poor Fisherboy, . 5 Obliged to Work All Day; He - Studied at Night and Learn- 1 e'd the ; Secret ' of Ambergris iand its Great Worth V v l rIIE boj in Bayport called Herman Manson ? I . "Dutchy," partly because his name was Her : ' man and partly" because be wore trousers that once had been his Uncle Charley's Hnd were cut down by hii mother to fit him. They fitted iim so loosely that he seemed to be walking in bag. His poor mothef was not a tailor and couldn't bo tlamod for making over a pair of .trousers in that manner, and Herman 'did not mind what the bov called him very muchas W had' far more 'serious matters to attend to' all ?the time. The Hansons, nvere very poor; so poor that had not Uncle Charles, .who was a doctor,, helped them frequently, food would often have been scarce in the house while Herman was a small boy. Doctor Charles was as poor, almost, for his pa tients were simple fishing folk, boatmen and the like along sherd, who rarely, had more than enougb money to 'supply: their wants. Iu fact,' it as;a lather poverty-stricken little seashore .village m Svhich Herman lived. - ,;. "When he grew older and was able to card some tnoney by helping the boatmen and fishermen, timea Svere easier fof the family, and Uncle Charles wa toot called upon so -often. Herman's fcister, Alina; ,was a cripple, suffering from a dislocated hip bone $nd almost constantly in pain, so that his old moth er had all the housework to do. Herman was fre quently seen busy over a Vashtub or scrubbing the floor of the little cabin. This mado the village boys jeer in contempt. . The Hansons had once been rich, and lived here at Bayport only in the Bummer. Herman's father had1 built a curious cabin almost v fentircly of. parts of 'wrecked Bliips that had come ' ashore on. the beach at various timcs, It was an in teresting littlo hut and attracted the attention of every visitor to the village, having; gilded figure heads of .ships standing at its four corners, a boat awung-on davits under the window, an immense an , chor resting beside the door and 4 capstan beside the walk. The ' windows iere 'from the sterns .of, chips, lanterns hung in doors; even the floors were . of wood that had once been a ship's deck. " When Herman's father failed in business and then died he family lost all;their possessions and" 1 (were left with nothing but this littlo hut by Jthe sea, land into it they moved at once. Here Herman( and his sister grew up with the fcound of the billows in their ears frorri 'morning ' until night, learning all the lore of the sea, but littlo from books, f or their-motber-liad-na .money jQLpayi for schooling, and all that Herman knew of books he got from Uncle Charles, ' who lived down-the joaa. JLi It was 6trance that the boy became a lover of reading, although, perhaps, it was,, simply lbecauso, books were so hard to get. He was o fond of them" that the sight of one filled him with longing to open it and dive into it at once, and thus when a ver email boy he had read far more than lads twice his lege. ''The fact that he could not go to school, which .would have filled most boys with glee, made him ef ten sad and gloomy. As he saw the other children ' trudging along the sandy road toward the little atorm-beaten schoolhouse, with ( their books and lunch-boxes, he wondered why they walked so slow ly instead of running, as he would have done. That he knew far more than any of them about the mystery of the sea, and could name every Bhell.'' every seaweed, each fish, each bird, along tho whole tretch of white sand from Bayport to Beach-End . fras nothing to him. lie wished to study grammar, arithmetic history and geography, also." But he now had really no time to go to school," for upon his . shoulders was placed the whole burden of finding; ' ifood for his mother and sister.' ;,..,ri-K , 'Unci Charles was poor, as I have said; and, be tides? What little money he could procure went to buying materials for some important experiments that ha was making in the hope of discovering cures ' for diseases. All day long he busied himself in his . office at these experiments. -and Herman saw little of him except when he was hurrying on his bicycla to a patient. ," .. . Sometimes when the boy was far. out from chore he would see' Uncle Char lei crossing the, bay in a sail-boat : to visit some poor patient on the other shore and wave his hand to him, after which lie would attend to his work, so that ho rarely had ; a chance to talk to him. '," " ' This work of Herman's, I suppose, most boys would call great fun. One day it Would bo fishing or rraLbing, on another clamming or oystering out v On the sparkling sunlit waters, and again it would be duck or snipe or goose shooting, sometimes on the bay, sometimes out beyond the breaking rollers of the aea shore. Or he would search the beach for miles 'looking for things that had drifted ashore, - lot lihatJaiotheiifll burnad at home, and many a time on these quests ' ho camb upon a barrel or box that had formed part . ; of the cargo of some wrecked vessel, which he con iro.vwj home in triumph. : , He was happy, generally, for ho was always busy, lut at times a fearful feeling Of hopelessness took 1 hold of him as he thought that he would ntver be : anything bu(. a beach-comber or a fishermaru. Per-' haps lio miglt even become a life-saver, and patrol tho dreary, wintry beach and rescue people from tWpwm'k but as b.o knew xaanj; of tho life ffard! . HERMAN HAULS THE'AMBPRGRlSyiBOARD HIS FISHING BOAT. He Put the. WbnderfulMetakRiumi:tp.N,Use; , Cured ' His Sister and Astonished All the Doctors he ucithcr envied them their occupation nor their learning; and, above all, he wished to get an educa tion. , Perhaps had he been alone in the world he might have gone away and become a sailor, but there was ,his old mother and crippled sister look ing to him for protection and support, and, after all, he didn't want to become a sailor at all. , . Ono day Undo Cfcarles asked him to row him J across the bay. It was a mild spring morning, the water lay like a floor on the bay, and as Herman dipped his oars slowly Undo Charles, who had been up all night, almost -dozed as he sat back against a pile of fish-nets in the stern. Suddenly Hcrmansaid : . ' : - - "I've gottcr get an cdicaiion!" "How old are you i" asked his uncle,.. "Thirteen years old; that's old enough, ain't it?1 ' answered Herman, "i want to go to school 'foro it's too late," he added. . "It's never too late," replied the man. "We learn constantly all, through life, and going to school is only opening the door to education. Some verv v learned men scarcely went to school at all, for that , jnatter." ( ' , ' "How did they learn anything?" asked Herman, in great wonder, for he had never heard anything like that before. "They read, said Charles. "Head all the time, 'and remember what they read. That's the main thing. Some people read air their lives longhand remember nothing at all; it goes through their ,, heads like, water through a sieve. You can becomo , learned if you follow one simple rule." ; j ' . i "What is it?" asked the boy, eagerly..; ; "Try to remember, and when ybu have read any' thin repeat it to yourself afterward until you are' . sure you have it in your mind. , That is all." ' "Cau I learn 'rithmetic and geography, and ajl, that way r inquired Herman :" . "Certainly. They are not difficult studies. I'll leua you my Ola scnool books. -I'd have given them to you long ago had I thought about it. You can study while you are fishing, just as" well aa in school." ' , .'' "Can I?" aBked Herman, in surprise. "Surely. I used to work in a shop," continued the doctor, "when I was a boy, with a young man who was a chair-maker. He always had a book near him and: occasionally took a peep into it. I didn't know that he was studying, but later when he passed th; examination and, wag admitted Into the Naval, Academy at Annapolis I remembered it all. Now1 he is a commander of a big battleship. So you see lFhktloiieJ)Qy did can be done by another. In fact4 it will be much easier for1 you, for there ! nobody to reprove you for it, as there was in his case, for had our boss seen him he would have, considered that ho was loafing, although he is very proud now of his acquaintance" : "IU do it!" cried Herman. "In fact,! do read a lot. but it's mostly stories and such stuff." So now there began another existence for Her-" man JIanson. He was never without a book. Some times. l.vm cojifji ha w to aJbaoxbfii ia &a ' '' . ' "' ' :- : :,.:"' - . ... Vj, . ..... , ,, ... volumo that lie didn't notice that a fish was biting or that a duck was swimming right before his eyea among the decoys. These are wooden ducks, that he had carved himself ' during the odd momenta, which he anchored out from shore while he himBelf had his little boat among the' tall rushes of the bank. The wild 'ducks see 'them from afar and sweep Into them, thinking they are "comrades feed ing there, and as they are about to settle among them, bang! goes the gun, and down comes a duck or two! " ' ' ' He read everything he could buy or borrow", un til at last he was acquainted with every book in Bayport. -Of -course-he-soon was-far-ahead f-all-the scholars in tho village, and instead 'of being nicknamed "Dutchy," the boys called him "Herman the36okworm." The wonderful part of if isthat lie remembered everything he read, as his. uncle had advised, and he became a perfect gold mine of valuable information, ''even the postmaster coming, to him frequently to learn things. You could walk right up to Herman and ask him the most difficult questjon and be answered at once. , ' t i , i Tho 'Squire was astonished one day, when he was telling about seeing the first iron-clad ship ever ,uiit, by Herman informing him that the ancient Norsemen covered the sides of their vessels with , ir0B plates, and once Judge Endman was so shocked by the boy'i statement that "wolf teeth" in a horse'a jaw were perfectly natural and not injurious at HU, that he actually wrote to the Weekly Tribune's Horse Doctor column to get a decision, which was -as Herman had stated. A' - , ' After a while Bayport people began to point the boy out to visitors, and he was called the "Bayport Prodigy" behind his back. It was predicted that i0 would some day reflect great credit on bi birth- place, but I fear that it would have taken many years for this to occur had not a fortunate accident happened that made Herman wealthy in a twink- ymg. .7 Returning one hot day at noon with a few weak- fish in his boat, very much discouraged over his bad luck, he drove his boat up on the white sand with a push and jumped out to" find, two little chil-" dren; poking sticks intba -flabby-looking mass of; white waxen substance that lay half covered by tho water. ; It was , an unplcasing lump of . stuff, sug gesting something dead and decayed, and the chil dren's noses were wrinkled in disgust, as ; they walked away.' Herman went to it, 'and. his eyes opened in astonished glee.- Then he. saw another fragment of the same substance floating a few feet from shore. " - ' , Hastily he lifted the repellent looking mass into his boat, sprang in and hastily secured the floating lump, and with all speed he rowed off again to land in front of his own home. Here he carefully carried the two great lumps into the house and laid them on the dining room table. His mother shriek ed as she beheld them, 'dripping wet and repulsive, but Herman laughed joyfully and said "Our fortune is made, naother. I won't even have t gj) "1 uraial i j mi' re I ri-fcj-a. -"What do you meant" she inquired. "Just what I say." "Do you mean that that nasty stuff is worth anything!" she added. ; . "Yes. It's probably worth thousands of dollars." . "Oh, nonsense I" she cried, and then Aline said : "Mamma, if Herman says so it must be so," "Yes," repeated the boy, "that is ambergrU. It comes from the stomach of whales and is used in making perfumes. I guess it's worth about a thou sand dollars a pound." , ' . "Gra7nouITTJoetffi Bon. "Let's weigh it at once!" -Well,jrerman,jc9urreao bcrgris and exceedingly precious, even more valu able than usual, for none had been found for a long time and its price therefore was very high. . Whalers who are lucky enough to come upon this rare .substance consider that the voyage is well paid for already.- . , The funny part of it all was that a dozen people at least had seen the nasty-looking stuff lying on . the aandy beach and instead of grabbing it chose to be 'disgusted. This shows what a little knowl - edge is worth at times to its possessor. Old Peagram, who kept the tavern actually tried to establish a claim upon part of it because ho saw it first. On the whole, everybody was pleased that Her man got it, but when it was learned that he had sold the ambergris for sixty-eight thousand dollars ; Bayport went crazy, and everybody went to hunt- ing on tho beach every blessed morning in the hope . that another fortune would drift ashore;, i - V When Herman " got his money .her bought , tho home on the hill in which he had once lived, and then he went1 to, Uncle Charles and said: v - "How are your experiments gBtting on?" . .... ' ' ' "' '. "They have stopped for" lack of money," replied his uncle, rather glumly. "I had hoped to make an important discovery regarding the use of radium, if you know what thai is, but as I can't get radium, rtfop it "eosts a million dollars a pound, I have ceased "altogether."'-' v,... -'v.'v' "How many pounds do you need?" asked Her man, laughing? ;' ' . ."- ' ' , Unole Charles looked at him for an instant, and then he 'smiled, for his ill-temper was gone. "You kndw that -there" are only a few grains; in .tho' world," said ho. "It takes two tons of rock, or ore of pitchblende to make a few grains. All I need is a grain, perhaps." 1 ' "Could you get one or two grains?" , . "No, I couldn't, ,but a man who was wealthy might,." said "Uncle Charles. , "ft costa about two thousand dollars a grain." ' , "Then I'll go to Pariu," said Herman, "and, see what I can do," And that's what he did. ; When ho found lit, ani . Mrs. Curie, who get out all that rare metal, he in duced them to. sell him four grains for six thou Band dollars, ai they happened to need some money 1 just then, and he returned in great triumph. Undo 1 Clbtaa 3U to tiokUd that h had ia have th ihn. So When Others Passed Great -- Lumps Washed Ashore; He Picked Them Up and Sold : Them Until He Was .Won . -derfully Rich ' ; tie glass- tubes containing the shining stuff right out to play with. Herman gave him two grains. "Why, do you keep the other two f? asked his Uncle. . ' ' f ' ' - 'I want to -do -tome experimenting myself, " re i, plied the boy." "I wish to see if I can cure diseases by it," said . Uncle Charles, rather suspiciously, ' r v ' ' "I've got even abetter idea," replied Herman. "You just wait and see." '- ' ' ' Then with his two little grains of radium, that blazed away, day and night, like tiny glow-worms, giving out heat and light, yet never growing a bit ( less, like some magio lamp, Herman went to work. "hatever radium, shines upon becomes radiant also for a Ion? time, and shines like the magio etuff itself, lighting up all around it. Water, motals, bread,-wood, even glass becomes brilliantly-illumi-" natipg, and it was this wonderful fact that gave Herman his grand idea. - And this was the idea: . ' He intended to make a kind of pill or capsule of radiant stuff, which, when swallowed, would light up one's insides aa if he. had swallowed a lampl He tried various substances before he arrived at the conclusion that ordinary bread was the best, as it became most brilliant, was the easiest to swal low and did no harm at alL He swallowed one of his radiant pellets himself just as soon as they were completed, and in a few minutes found his whole body sending out bright rays as if he were a walking lighthouse. JRe could see all his ribs, his Btomach, lungs and other or gans as distinctly as if he were made of glass? J. Delighted with the splendid result of his ex periment, he rushed at once to his uncle, who fell out of his chair with astonishment at seeing him t. . , . , .... . - , ..... . a - j so beautifully transparent. . - . ,, 'i "Why! If it works you will be famous" and richer than Croesus!" cried Uncle Charles.' - ' " ' . '.'If it works!" exclaimed Herman. "Can't you sw us woiKingt ...... "There's always some doubt, you know," repliefl his uncle. "Wo will give one of the pellets to Aline and see if we can discover her trouble.". After Aline had taken a pill the 'doctor saw at once that her hip-bone was out of place, but so slightly that it was a very simple matter to- restore it to its socket, and after that Aline was no longer cripple.-' :'' . Then they tried another pellet on a little boy.who in couahin had drawn-a tack into his luuc3. and they saw it as plainly as if it were in one's hand. The doctor got it out in a jiffy. : - Kt it ..grew darkjthey returned home, and were amazed to see Herman s dog, Sandy, sitting by the door with all of his inside work quite visible, and in the centre of him, amid fragments of bone, leather, book-covers, worsted and other things' that dogs swallow, was shining a radiant pellet. He looked guilty and ashamed, and of course they saw that ho had stolen one of the pills. "It's fine stuff to study how our insides are made!" said Herman. "I guess I, too, will become a doctor. Won't have to cut people open any more !" It was a little unpleasant for Herman that night to find himself so bright and shining, and he re mained indoors, but they put out the lamp just to sea him blaze, for he had taken a very largo pellet. There was no keeping the secret,' however, for Randv. whom thflv bad forimttM'L'' ran. nnt nJ roamed around the village, scaring people, aa well as the other dogs, into spasms. Every cat he met turned a somersault, flew up in the air and scooted. .Twenty men, seeing what they thought was a spook dog, or else a demon, hurried home and signed the ' pledge never to drink another drop. ' ' 1 Obi they were the maddest men next day, when all the village was ringing with Herman's wonder -v'ful discovery..' .' , But that night Sandy had the, streets to himself, ', for the spectacle of an illuminated dog wandering ' abroad was too much for the good people, and they hid, behmd . locked and barred doors until the. fiery four-legged demon went home. . i. -Vi ; IU the morning there came to Herman many peo- pie who were afflicted with diseases; ' One had trou ble with his stomach, another with his heart, and s ; on through all the list, and each one wished to be f lighted up and examined at once. ' ' ' ' t ' Vlien Herman illuminated Mr. , Peagram, 'the hotel keeper, and showed that he had concealed in his ' appendix vermiformis a pearl which Tio had probably swallowed in an oyster, there was great excitement and everybody wanted to be examined i in tho hopO of finding other valuables, perhaps. . Herman's finding the ambergris , had attracted some attention ip the papers, but now- he became, famous indeed, and reporters from far and near flocked to him to find out all about the great dis covery. Soon he was Belling his illuminated pills to every doctor in the land, and making immense ' eums of money, 80 that at last he "became a million aire. , ' '. , - Thus we see that a boy who had no chance to go in BtKnnl manatrttA in lpnrn onnnirh all Kt )!ni..lf to become both rich and famous, and I am lost in wonder when I think what he would have become . had he had all the early opportunities of most boyal ' He is already Mayor of Bayport, and I should not be surprised to see him Governor of the State . Matsm da u,. SYALX 2IcD.QDGALL. , 4