The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 131, February, 1909

In Short

This issue of The Wide World Magazine brings together an eclectic, global anthology of true-life survival tales, travel dispatches, natural phenomena, and criminal schemes. From Western Australia to the Cumbrian fells, and from North American range wars to Algerian oases, its varied contributors detail the hazards of human ambition and the unpredictability of the natural world. Bound by the turn-of-the-century appetite for far-flung exploration and oddities, these accounts preserve a vivid snapshot of early twentieth-century adventure. Its lasting charm lies in its unadorned, firsthand voice, capturing human endurance, cultural friction, and bizarre coincidence without theatrical distortion.

The Story

The volume opens in the coastal waters off Breaksea Island, Western Australia, where stonecutters building a lighthouse watch a family of three whales swimming past. Within hours, a pack of thresher sharks ambushes the pod. The bull whale deserts his family immediately, leaving the cow to defend her calf in a horrific battle that turns the sea crimson until the sheer persistence of the sharks wears her down.

From the maritime wild, the magazine shifts to the quiet countryside of Surrey, England. A afternoon cyclist spots a military war balloon drifting overhead from Stamford Bridge toward Epsom. Eager to beat the military pursuit teams, he pedals hard through leafy lanes until the balloon lands in a harvested field. There, civilians and soldiers alike take tethered passenger rides, carefully stepping out one by one so the sudden loss of weight does not launch the balloon back into the sky.

In the North of England, curiosity takes a historical turn. The text explores cryptic monuments: shoes embedded in cobblestones in memory of John o’ Gaunt, rhyming milestones near Shakespeare’s home, and unlettered pillars in Wiltshire and Finedon that spark local folklore and mistaken histories of mail-coach robberies.

Danger resurfaces in the deep pits of a mine, where a worker lies pinned beneath tons of collapsed earth. Horrified, he watches a massive boulder hovering inches above his face while waiting in an iron skip, terrified that the automatic winding engine above will trigger and hurl him into the steel loading-boxes six hundred feet up.

The narrative moves across international borders. In the Swiss Alps, a traveler observes mountain goatherds whose lives remain untouched by modern progress. The local women carry heavy pack-baskets of supplies up steep inclines while the men sit smoking, fiercely resisting the new railway lines that threaten their traditions.

Nautical life brings dark encounters with crime. In Newcastle, Australia, a Swedish ship captain's son is "shanghaied" by a notorious crimp named Sullivan. Waking aboard a foreign vessel, the young officer brutally pummels his captor against the fife-rail before the captain steps in, locking the crimps away to face retribution from the angry crew.

Highland mountaineering turns tragic on Scawfell's Pinnacle in the Lake District. Four climbers complete a successful ascent, only to fall to their deaths shortly after lunch; the sole survivor dies after a agonizing, cold night spent waiting for rescuers in the dark crags.

In Central America, personal disputes turn lethal. A plantation worker wakes to an Indian intruder attempting to yank him out a window with a lasso tied to a runaway horse. When that fails, the attacker hurls a bundle of deadly coral snakes into the room, forcing the victim to spend the rest of the night balanced atop a bookcase.

In Laghouat, Algeria, French travelers attend a twenty-five-course feast hosted by an old chieftain, visiting his young and old wives in their marble-columned courtyards. In American cities, small-time hustlers and swindlers target unsuspecting marks in dusty pool-rooms, on city street corners with three-card monte tricks, and in fake horse-trading operations using smudged, counterfeit greenbacks.

The volume winds through pastoral Lapland, where indigenous carvers obsessively incise reindeer figures into bone, and finishes in the American West during the Johnson County War, where cattle barons build makeshift V-shaped wooden forts on wheels and attempt to launch homemade dynamite cannons against their rivals.

How It Unfolds

The sea fight — Stonecutters off Breaksea Island watch a mother whale fight off a pack of thresher sharks after her mate flees.

The chase — A Surrey cyclist pedals across miles of country lanes to catch a drifting war balloon and join a group taking tethered passenger flights.

The silent stone — Uninscribed monuments and mysterious markers across the English countryside spark local legends and historical errors.

The shaft trap — A injured miner lies trapped beneath fallen rock inside an iron skip, fearing the winding engine above will crush him alive.

The mountain path — Peasant women toil up steep Swiss paths carrying heavy loads on their backs while the men object to new railways.

The crimp's reward — A shanghaied Swedish officer thrashes his captor on the deck of a sailing ship before the captain locks the crimps away.

The fell tragedy — Four English rock-climbers fall from Scawfell's Pinnacle, leaving a single survivor to endure a fatal, freezing night on the crags.

The midnight vipers — An intruder attempts to drag a sleeping man out a window by a horse-rope, then hurls twenty lethal coral snakes into his bedroom.

The chieftain's court — European travelers attend a twenty-five-course Algerian banquet and visit the secluded, jewel-adorned wives of a tribal leader.

The city trap — Naïve travelers and betting enthusiasts fall prey to wire-tappers, three-card monte card-sharpers, and counterfeit horse-dealers in crowded urban rooms.

The bone carvers — Lapp carvers spend long hours incising realistic reindeer figures into bone fragments in a land untouched by modern music.

The siege engine — Wyoming cattle ranchers attempt to construct homemade dynamite cannons and rolling wooden forts to assault an enemy ranch.

The People

• The Swedish Officer — A young ship's officer and son of a sea captain who gets drugged and shanghaied in a port saloon; he retaliates against his captor with fury.
• Sullivan — A villainous crimp who trick-recruits men for hard-labour voyages; he ends up beaten and locked in a ship cabin on bread and water.
• Mr. Ridsdale — A noble English mountain climber who suffers catastrophic injuries in a fall off Scawfell; he selflessly urges his rescuers to care for his dead companions before attending to him.
• Mr. Webb — A veteran mountaineer who stumbles upon the scene of the Scawfell accident; he keeps a long night-time vigil beside his dying friend in the dark crags.
• The Swiss Goatherd — A bent, rheumatic old villager who smokes on mountain ledges while his wife gathers firewood; he deeply distrusts incoming railways because they kill his livestock.
• The Algerian Bach-Agha — A sixty-year-old tribal chieftain loyal to France who hosts elaborate twenty-five-course banquets and manages a household of young and old wives.
• Jack Flagett — A veteran of the American Civil War who attempts to build a homemade cannon out of nested iron pipes and wet sand, only to blow the weapon to pieces upon ignition.

In Its Own Voice

"The cow lashed her tail furiously, hurling up sheets of reddened water and occasionally crashing down with terrific force upon one of her voracious opponents."

A lighthouse contractor watches a desperate, fatal clash between a mother whale and a school of thresher sharks off the coast of Australia.

"There was nothing for it but to comply. So, whilst our clothes were burning, Puketawa and I stood before him naked and unashamed."

An English settler in New Zealand describes his complete submission to an old Maori priest performing a purificatory ritual to lift a traditional curse.

"I spent the remaining hours perched upon a bookcase, out of reach of harm."

A plantation worker reflects on his narrow escape after an enemy hurls a bundle of venomous coral snakes through his open bedroom window.

What It's Really About

The Wide World Magazine explores the volatile intersection of human vulnerability and the unforgiving physical world. Across its varied dispatches, the volume argues that whether one is navigating deep ocean waters, high mountain crags, or crowded city streets, survival requires constant vigilance and quick composure. It examines how local traditions—from Maori tapu to mountain customs in the Swiss Alps—resist modern encroachment, and how human greed manifests identically whether in a New York pool-room or on the Wyoming frontier. Underneath its pulse-pounding accounts lies a quiet fascination with the bizarre, unpredictable twists of chance that turn a simple Saturday afternoon bicycle ride or a casual stroll into a fight for life.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers looking for raw, primary-source storytelling will find this periodical a fascinating capsule of early 20th-century life. It captures an era when vast portions of the globe remained remote, mysterious, and fraught with physical danger. Reading it feels like sitting in an armchair beside seasoned travelers, miners, and seamen recounting their most extraordinary escapes over a hearth fire.

The prose is direct, muscular, and free of artificial sentiment. However, readers should be prepared for period attitudes that reflect the casual imperial biases of 1909. Portrayals of indigenous populations, non-Western cultures, and women often feature condescending observations typical of Edwardian travel writing. Furthermore, the prose frequently leans on dated slang and regional terms. Yet, despite these historical flaws, the sheer diversity of the narratives—from natural history studies of Asian fungi to high-stakes urban swindles—makes the volume an engaging, unvarnished portrait of human curiosity and resilience.