The Daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1845-1850, 1850-08-21
TOM BENsON's NOTES.
THE BROTHERS-BY J.B. sY,1E.

ton 10 yonr own foolish notions, and don 4
THINK ship palace, nor the sea a bed OF
down. grant that there is fascination in
the voice OF the ioanIy surge, as it comes roll
ing lnshore, and then recoils into the element
which 1t loves; grant that there is beauty
which bewilders and captvates the magma
ton OF youth in a proud and taut ship, with
her rnnning gear and rigging all a tanto, her
white wings spread from truck to lib and her
brightly painted hull, tearing through the wa.
ter; ah | know it, for have felt it, and the
very recollection Off ship in Sunday trim go.
ing large before the wind makes my heart
dance merrily as it did in days of yore but
yet, when my experience begins to foot up
the dotlings ofmy log, and reason squares the
columns of profit and loss, the wreck of COM
fort, peace, and home. love stand sore against
the sea. Ii is true we have the romance of the
winds piping loud, and the good ship flying
away, away like the eagle but when The
winds pipe loudly, let it be recollected that
poor Jack is piped to duty aloft and / tell you
have seen many fine young fellow piped to
his final account while striving TO furl the
| shrouds which the sury wind was tearing to
ribbons. We have blue jackets of good quail
ity and cut when we come ON shore, and gen.
orally few sinners in the locker; but we have
damp hammocks and mouldy rations at sea,
and less sleep than sour looks, and otter hard
knocks. / love the blue water and the clear
| cloudless sky the scream of the albatross is
not to me doleful omen, and the phosphor-
escent flashes Of the tropical waves are lamps
to light me back 10 the deck wherein unused
my young maritime affection; yet these are
not parts of one in thousand sailors ideality,
| tell you; he has little time generally to feed
his mind with abstractions-wor eat, and
Sleep are the three words which express the
routine of his life at sea: work mmoderately,
eat in shark fashion, that is, bolt your grub
without examining its quality, and sleep as
dogs do when your watch is out and you have
a pretty correct enumeration ofthe sailors life
on shipboard. Yet, alas this is the life for
which young, generous, and glowing hearts
pant, regardless of the interdictions of father.
ly affection and reason. They sigh for the salt
water and the agitated billow, unmindful Of
the salt tears which mothers shed for The loss
of those they love, and of the thorns which theil
disobedience and false ambition plant in theil
kindred's pillows.
The star ofmy strange and hayward desti
ny saw me, in the spring of 18-, lonely anC
friendless man in Liverpool, England, with on
ly few sixpences in my pocket, few Stops
Ill MY Olu S0d-Cn0Si, udIUIHOCh, u SUI -W0SleT
and restless desire to do something. | had
been laid up rather snugly all the winter in
Glasgow with rheumatics caught during a
months stay in Pomona, that is, one of the
Orkney Islands, upon which we were cast
away; and as the fruits of my sojourn on the
rocky Pomona were racking pains and SKATER
ed bull, /, after my arrival in Clutha's proud
city, required to be locked in its large hospi-
ta. into which, by the by, it is right difficult to
gain admission but from which it is no diff
cult thing to be discharged. lay upon my
little cast-iron crib and groaned through many
a long and weary day, and | sighed for my sea
legs and elbow room through many dull dim
watch of the night. | do not know of any ag-
ony that sailor can endure like that of being
moored to bed of pain and inaction, with a
full consciousness of what is taking place a.
round him, and little hopes of standing again
with his foot on shipboard. The dull cressets
that hung from the roof of the large ward in
which lay only served to render torture visi-
bic as they shed their dim, baleful blue light
over the faces of restless sufferers like myself.
There were two regular ranges OF couches run
alongside the walls, like ships alongside of
double wharf, and in each of them there was
look. out, who did not keep dog watch, | tell
you. Look around you al any hour OF night or
day, and you were sure 10 see eyes sparkling out
of red and striped flannel cowls, while pinch
ed thin white faces, twitching and screwing
in unidentified suffering, were ever before
YOU Sometimes gtoan or stihed exclama-
lion sometimes the harsh tones of the person
who received the title of nurse, as she impa-
tientIy administered to some patient; some
times the crow Of some healthy jocund roos
ter sometimes the dull, ominous sound of the
distant city bells; and sometimes the shuttle
OBJECT and the hustle of taking away the dead
from the society OF the scarcely living, would
awaken us up from our ftful broken slumbers
to the sickening realities Of life in hospital.
| shall never forget the dismal dreams that
rose before my troubled vision as lay upon
that hard and ungrateful bed. recolect Of
nothing palpable could not embody one sin
gle idea of all the images that fitted through
the chambers Of my brain, but still have a
deep, dead-lke impression of turgid, rolling
sens that moaned and Struggled with some SUI
perior power, and rising, and twisting, and
swelling, and shrinking, would gradually fall
away from beneath the ship Of which unac-
countably found myself commander, causing
her TO plunge thousand fathoms deep into
black and widering whirlpool. Comrades
whom lhad seen die in their hammocks, drop
fromthe yardsin storm,or cut down at my sid
L