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Show A DANGEROUS PLIGHT. OfieOld Sailor's Exciting Adrentar With a I'olar Bear In the Cold Regions. There is an old soldier named Jake recently returned to San Francisco from an Arctic cruise, who has marlo nn this mind not to go on another whaling expedition ex-pedition no matter what happens. The reason is this: On one occasion during his late voyage Jake was on the watch in the lookout cradle at the masthead, and it was night that is, as much n.'ght as it ever gets up there in summer. sum-mer. Tho 6 tin had been down about an hour and would rise again about an hour later. It was beautiful sight as the ship lay there in the ice, and the air seemed scintillating with a phosphorescent glow that penetrated everywhere and made no shadows. On all sides the pack ice lay close to the vessel and reached for miles in every direction, broken occasionally occa-sionally by a large berg or the faint outlines out-lines of another ship. The silence was profound. It seemed to produce a roaring roar-ing sound like the waves of a distant ocean. Such surroundings will put a person in a semicomatose state, from which the slightest sound will awaken him with a start. Jake suddenly saw something white in the gloom climbing the mast His first impulse was to jump to the deck, but before he could act upon it the white object climbed through the lubber hole, and Jake then saw it was a polar bear. Jake realized that he was in d most dangerous position and began to think of means to escape. He called to the watch on deck below, but they couldn't hear. He tried to get out under un-der the canvas, but the beast grabbed him and pulled him back It began thumping him, and every time Jake attempted at-tempted to move awav it would crowL Suddenly his eyes lighted on a rope hanging to the deck just back of tho cradle. By this means he thought he could reach the deck. To swing himself free was but the work of an instant, but the bear made a jump and caught hold of his foot But a few vigorous kicks freed him, and then began a new terror. Perhaps the rope was not strong and would break, or he might mis9 the stay and swing against the mast and be dashed to death. The moment in the air seemed years filled with horror, and several times Jake wished he had taken his chances with the bear. To grab the Btay and hold on was the most difficult, and twice Jake's tans slipped and almost When he reached the deck, he looked tip and saw tho rope swing back to the cradle, where the bear grabbed it It tried to do as it had seen Jake do, but had no sooner swung clear than it slipped slip-ped and fell to the deck The crew had bearsteak for breakfast San Francisco Item. The advance agent of- a theatrical company which was to make a visit of three nights in Washington had summonses sum-monses in legal phraseology prepared and sealed with wax, notifying the receiver re-ceiver that he must appear at the box office and buy at least one ticket of admittance ad-mittance for the play. They were formally addressed and sent by messenger to the prominent people peo-ple of Washington. A number of foreigners for-eigners in the diplomatic corps received them, and not understanding the peculiar pecul-iar methods resorted to by the Americans Amer-icans hastened to the secretary of state to demand protection, protesting that they knew nothing of the matter mentioned men-tioned in the summons, and that it was a breach of national law to arrest an accredited ac-credited foreign represeutativa It required the combined efforts of Secretary Gresham and his several assistant as-sistant secretaries to explain the thing to the foreigners without hurting their feelings or wounding their dignity. Washington Letter. |