The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-09-15
THE CAPTAINS PLEDGE.


and the wine began to circulate freely, some OF
the older captains commenced spinning yarns
about their own adventures at sea. Among the
number was Captain Sutter, as fine man and
oood a sailor as ever trod deck. 1t was OBJ
Served that he drank nothing but water; and
when it became his turn to entertain the COM
pany with,a story he began as follows
"Well, shipmates, to show you why l don't
and can't drink with you, so that you won't
take my refusal as mark of coldness or dlsre-
spect, will give you chapter from the story
of my early sailor life. 1t Is an important
chapter, too; for on the incident am about to
relate, the whole of my subsequent manhood
was built.
sI was very young when 1 first went to sea,
and at the age of fourteen considered myself
quite sailor. When I was eighteen / was
shipped on board an East Indiaman for long
yovage. There were six of us on board of about
the same age, and we had about the same du-
ties to perform The ship-the old Lady Dun
lop-was large one, and our crew was large
in proportion, there were ffty-two told. We
"boys,n as we were called, messed together, and
in all other respects, were separate from the
rest.of the crew, just as much as the officers
were Our captain was a noble-hearted, hon
orable man, kind and generous, but very strict.
'.Now we boys learned, in the course OF our
travels, to drink our grog as well as any sailors
When we could get on shore we would lnvarla-
bly, indulge in our cups, and not unfrequently
would we come off in state anything but So
ber. said swe,' but there was one of our num-
ber who could not be induced to touch drop
of ANYTHING Intoxicating. His name was John
White.
t.Now Jack not only refrained from drinking
himself, but he used sometimes to ask us to let
the stuff alone He gave that job up, however,
for We made such sport of him that he was glad
to let US alone. But our captain had sharp
ewes, and it; was not long before he began to
show Jack favors which he did not show us.
He woulL often take him on shore with him to
spend the night, and such things as that, while
we we're kept on board the ship. That wasn't
all. He learned faster than we did; he was a
better sailor, and learned more of navigation.
'It got so at length that Jack was called to
take the decksometimes, when the officers were
busy; and he used to work out the reckoning
at noon as regularly as did the captain. Yet
Jack was in our mess, and he was constant
eyesore. We saw that he was reaching rapidly
ahead of us in every useful particular, and yet
we wouldn't open our eyes, We were envious
of his good fortune, as we called it, and used
to seize every opportunity to tease him. But
he never got angry in return. he sometimes
would laugh at us, and at others he would
so fee!ingly: :chide us, that we would remain 81
lent for q while.
cat length the idea entered our heads that
Jack should drink with us. We talked the
matter over in the mess, while Jack was absent,
and we mutually pledged each other that we
would make him drink at the first opportunity:
After this determination was taken, we treated
Jack more kindly, and he was happier than he
had been for some time. We were on our
homeward bound passage, by the way OF Brazil,
and our. ship stopped at Rio Janeiro, where we
were to remain week or so. One pleasant
morning we six youngsters received permission
to 90 on shore and spend the whole day and
accordingly we rugged up in our best tags, and
were carried to the landing.
teNow was our chance; and we put our heads
together to see how it should be done. Jacks
very first desire as soon as we got on shore, was
to 90 UP and examine the various things of in
terest in the CITY, He wanted to visit the
churches and such like places and to please
him we agreed with him, if he would go and
take dinner with us.
"He agreed to this at once, and we thought
We had him sure. We planned that after din
ner was eaten, we would have some light, sweet
wine brought ON, and that we would contrlye to
get rum enough into what he drank to upset
him; for nothing on earth would please US
more than to get Jack drunk, and carry him on
hoard in that condition. Then we fancied the
captain's fayoriteism would be at an end, and
that he would no longer look upon our rival
with more preference than upon ourselves.
aDinner-time came at length. 1t was cap
ital dinner, and we came to it with sharpened
appetites. But when the wine was brought in,
Jack not only refused to taste it, but declined
to- remain in our company. We cried out
against him as a mean, stingy fellow, who
thought himself too good to associate with us,
and accused him at last, of trying to step over
our heads on the ship, and all the unpleasant
things we could think of to make the poor tel-
low unhappy. At first he seemed to be in
clined to leave us and return to the ship alone;
but suddenly, in quiet tone, he said,-
'Shipmates, listen to me a moment Since
to tell you something which l never meant to
reveal. My story is short. From my earliest
childhood l never knew what it was to have q
happy home My father was drunkard!-
Once he had been a good man and good hus-
band. bat rum ruined all his manhood, and
made.a brute of him. I can remember how
cold and cherries the winter used to be. We
had no fre-no food-no clothes--no joy-no
nothing-nothing but misery. Oh! how my
mother prayed to God for her husband; and l,
who could but just prattle, learned to pray too.
"Whea I grew older had to go out and beg
for bread. All cold and shivering, waded
through tho deep snow, with my clothes in tat
tiers and my freezing feet almost bare. And
saw other children Of my ownage dressed warm
and comfortable, and knew they were happy,
for they laughed end sang as they bounded
along toward school. Those boys had sober
fathers. knew that their fathers were no bet
ter than mine had been once; for my mother
had told me how noble my father could be if
rum, were not in his way.
sTime passed on and l was eight years old,
and those eight years had been years Of such
sorrow and suffering as pray God may never
again experience. At length, one cold morn
ing, in the dead of winter, my father was not
at home. He had not been at home through
the NIGHT NV mother sent me to the tavern