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Show fO SC.Q1T, U'ATSON (, 1926, Western Newspaper Union.) "Hard-Belled" Captain Augur CAPT. JOHN AUGUR was a "hard-boiled" "hard-boiled" pirate. There was no-doubt no-doubt of that in the minds of any of the good folk who flocked to see his execution in the town of Providence In the Bahama islands. They had 6een other freebooters ascend the gal-low's gal-low's steps, and there make confession of repentance for their sins. But not 60 with Captain Augur. He died as he had lived, "a wicked and perverse person," and his last words were words of defiance. Captain Augur's early history is shrouded in mystery. But he flourished flour-ished some time in the early Eighteenth Eight-eenth century, for in 1T1S we find him accepting a royal pardon for his misdeeds mis-deeds and impressing Gov. Woodes Rogers of the Bahamas so favorably that the governor placed him In command com-mand of a sloop with a commission to trade amoag the islands. He might have proved worthy of the trust had not temptation fallen In his way. One morning he sighted two sloops whose cargo promised rich booty, and the captain forgot all his good intentions inten-tions to go straight. A shot across their bows stopped the merchantmen, and when a little later they proceeded on their way they were lighter by some 500 pounds sterling- In money and goods. Then Captain Augur set sail for Hispaniola, there to join the other "brethren of the coast." But a sudden hurricane drove his ship back to the Bahamas and wrecked it on a little wooded island. In the meantime the governor had learned how- his trust had been betrayed and sent out an armed sloop to hunt for the pirate band. Having discovered them on the island, the captain of the sloop by fair promises lured eleven of the marooned pirates to come aboard. Then he took them back to Providence where Governor Rogers with fine irony convened a court of lately converted pirates to try them. The result was a foregone conclusion. conclu-sion. The judicial pirates were only too anxious to demonstrate their re-establishment re-establishment in the ranks of the respectable. re-spectable. So they quickly sentenced the eleven to be hanged. On the gal-low's gal-low's platform the condemned men reproached their turn-coat brethren for allowing their old comrades to be hanged and urged them to come to their rescue. Their only reply was that "it was their business to turn their minds to another world and sincerely sin-cerely repent their wickedness In this." Such cant irritated Captain Augur, the hard-boiled. "Yes," he roared, "I do repent heartily. I repent I have not done more mischief and that we did not cut the throats of them that took us, and I am extremely sorry that you all aren't hanged as well as we." The rope cut short such sinful philosophy. From Pugilism to Piracy TJUGILISM was not so lucrative a profession in the old days as it is In these modern times. Which may account for the fact that its followers occasionally forsook the squared circle cir-cle for a wider circle of activity on the high seas. Perhaps the most famous fa-mous of these was William Fly, of whom we first hear as the boatswain on the good ship Elizabeth sailing from Bristol, England, In 1726. There was a mutiny, headed by the boatswain, and the crew tossed the captain overboard and killed till of the officers except the surgeon. Then they unanimously elected Fly captain and set out in search of ships to plunder Their first prize was the John and Hannah taken off the coast of North Carolina, followed soon afterwards by the capture of the John and Betty. Then Captain Fly headed his piratical pirati-cal craft into northern waters and also Into disaster. Off the Newfoundland banks they overhauled a whaler, but by the strategy of the whaler's captain cap-tain the pirate leader and most of his men were made prisoners. They were carried In chains to Massachusetts, and on July 4, 172G, tried In Boston. Justice was swift in these days, and on July 10 Fly and his men were executed. ex-ecuted. Justice was also severe from the point of view of the pirates, at least for in addition to being hanged they were forced to lislen to long harangues on the error of their ways j by preachers famous for their "hanging "hang-ing sermons" for condemned pirates. Oue of the most noted of these was Rev. Cotton Mather, among whose sermons has been preserved me preached in 1704 called "A Brief D.s course Occasioned by a Tragb'sii Spectacle Spec-tacle of a Number of Miserables Lnder Sentence of Death for Piracy." I Captain Fly, however, seems to have been a particularly hardened sinner (or he refused to go to church Just before the hanging. Moreover, he conducted con-ducted himself with great bravado on the way to the gallows. He jumped briskly into the cart holding a bouquet of flowers, bedeeked with ribbons a decorative seheme mii'-h In favor among the pugilists of bis day and took his last ride (lies, smiling and bowing as though lie were a hero and his a triiitnpi a! prores-ion. They fdl the story of another ex-prize ex-prize liL'hter-pirale. Dennis MrCarthy. hanged at New Providence, Bahama, in 1 71 S. He also a I reared on the gal- I lous adorned with g:iy-eolored rib- J fions. "My friends have often in jest declared that I would die iri my shoes," ' he proclaimed "See. I make thetn liars.'' Saying which he kicked off h!j ' ihoes and ded without them. |