Twenty-Five True Tales Of Adventure. (London: George Newnes, Limited, 1908) (182 pages).
Here's a scan of an anonymously edited collection of twenty-five of the most amazing (and preposterous) "true" tales of adventure from early issues of The Wide World Magazine.
Within the pages of this book, manly Victorian and Edwardian Englishmen (with the stiffest of upper lips) survive falls of three thousand feet, escape from capsized ships (shades of "The Poseidon Adventure"!), and do battle with some of the earth's deadliest and most monstrous creatures (man-eating lions and tigers, wolves, devil fish and devil sharks, octopuses, sting-rays, eagles, ferocious buzzards, polar bears, yaks, wild horses, elephants, and poisonous snakes).
The book was issued in 1908 by George Newnes, Limited (who also published The Wide World Magazine) and includes ads for various other Newnes publications, including their boy's magazine, "The Captain." There's even an ad in the back of the book for "Fry's Pure Concentrated Cocoa."
I used Adobe Acrobat to create a navigation pane for the .pdf and bookmarked the articles for ease of access. With the touch of your mouse pointer, you can instantly go to any article in the book.
CONTENTS:
A Fight With A Sting-Ray, by Charles H. Marlett • 1
A Fall Of Three Thousand Feet, by Professor Charles Wolcott • 8
That Night On The Nyanga, by David Woodhouse • 19
Attacked By Eagles In The Alps, by M. Antoine Neyssel • 24
Entombed In A Capsized Ship, by Frank S. N. Dunsby • 32
In Quest Of A Treasure-Cave, by Douglas Blackburn • 39
Dragged By A Wild Horse, by Marshall Loggin • 64
The Diver And The Devil Fish, by Victor Pitt-Kethley • 60
A Battle With Polar Bears, by Arthur P. Silver • 64
The Winged Death, by Viscount de Soissons • 71
Adrift On A Raft, by H. A. Hamilton • 76
How John Nestall Escaped The Elephant, by S. Eardley-Wilmot • 89
Captain Howell's Exploit, by Basil Tozer • 95
A Bedroom Battle With A Python, by Claude Manning • 102
Held By An Octopus, by Herbert Perkins • 107
A Splendid Feat, by Captain Cecil Dyce • 113
Out Of The Lion's Jaws, by Ernest Brockman • 118 ("The most appalling true narrative on record.")
A Fight With A Conger, by C. Reynolds • 128
A Pedestrian's Predicament, by Charles Lavell • 134
A Fight with Wolves On The Altar, by Louis H. Eisenmann • 138
Walked Off By A Tiger, by A. Turton • 146
The "Devil-Shark", by Colonel Julius G. Tucker • 151
The Hunter's Tale, by J. Mayne Baltimore • 162
A Fight With A Yak, by W. C Jameson Reid • 168
The Saving Spring: The Story of A Prairie Fire, by Ralph Stock • 177