The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-04-15

he generally makes a good one, and finds thai
there is really more satisfaction in blowing the
turf than in blowing the waves. He is a little
awkward at first, but he soon ~sslearns the
ropes and can hoe his row with the best Of his
fellows. About a dozen years since, a young
sailor in New York State, Disguised with the
very smell of salt water, took a fancy of this
kind into his head, and hired himself out ON a
farm in his native county. He gave great salts
faction the first week, and at length, one pleas
ant afternoon, his employer so far trusted him as
to send him with a team, to haul a load Of pota-
toes from the field, about a mile and a half dis
tant. Jack started off in fine spirits, fourishing
his goad and shouting. " Haw, Bright! Gee,
Buck - in genuine rural style, as he disappeared
over the brow Of an intervening hill- But the
afternoon drew towards a close, and he did not
return. Sunset tinged the hill tops with her
golden hue. and twilight began to cast her shad-
ows over the plain, when the farmer, fearing that
some accident had happened, resolved to start in
search of the lost one. He found him-as it is
said-at a distance of about half a mile from the
house, busily engaged in beating mp against a
strong head breeSe-tacking the oxen from one
side of the road to the other, and grumbling not
a little because the wind would not haul a few
points and give him a "good slant With the
advice and assistance of the farmer, he arrived
safe at home, and babe farewell to sea tactics
from that time forth. At the present time he is
a furnishing farmer himself, with as charming a
wife and family about him as is to be found on
Long Island.
The sailor is, from his position and mode of
life, peculiarly subject TO temptation. His ac-
customed exile from society causes him to relish
with increased delight the pleasures that sur
round him when on shore, and yielding, very
naturally, to the seductions that beset his path.
he often plunges h~eadlong into the whirl of dis
%sipation. But his vices are generally faults of
the head rather than of the heart-the results of
thoughtlessness rather than of a deliberate inten-
ton to commit wrong. His heart is big enough
for the whole world to dwell in, and always
warm enough to prompt a generous welcome and
quick relief to a distressed shipmate or neighbor.
Mrs. Eliza Cook-one Of the best of modern
female poets-says:
'The dark blue jacket that enfolds the sailors manly breast,
Bears more of real honor than the star and ermine vest.
The 1.-THE of folly in his head may wake the Iandsman's mirth.
But Nature proudly owns him as her child Of sterling worth.'
S~eafaring men are proverhially short-lived.
We seldom see an old foremost hand. Some few,
indeed, linger around the wharves of cities, earn
ing in their declining days a bare substance in
the capacity of shipkeeper, or in some other po-
sition which does not require the active use of
his powers. Old sailors, however, are rare.
They seem to drop away mysteriously from the
world of men, before they are far advanced in
the sere and yellow leaf of age. They disappear
from the stage of action. nobody knows how, or
where, and even if missed they are quickly for
gotten. And perhaps after 90 life's ftful fever
their eternal sleep is as sound. their rest as sweet,
as those of many who make greater pretension to
and virtue.