The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-12-25

/ crept away and courted solitude for
the rest of the day. Ibid not go to din
ner; stayed away from supper until
every body else had finished. l did not
feel so much like a member of the boats
family now as before. However my
spirits returned, in installments, as We
pursued our way down the river. / was
sorry / hated the mate so, because it
was not in (young) human nature not to
admire him. He was huge and muscu-
lar, his face was bearded and whiskered
all over; he had red woman and blue
woman tattooed on his right arm-one
on each side of blue anchor with a
red rope to it; and in the matter of pre-
family he was perfect. When he was
getting our cargo at a landing, was al
ways where | could see and hear. He
felt all the sublimity of his great posi-
ton, and make the world TO feel il, too.
When I've gave even the simplest order,
he discharged it like blast of lightning,
and sent a long, reverberating peal of
DEOAdllAlN lHuHuti1slS d1tSA IL SOhAO
not help contrasting the way in which
the average landsman would give an or
der, with the mates way Of doing it. If
the landsman should wish the gang
plank moved a foot farther forward, he
wotsid probably say: "James or VIII
liam, one of you push that plank for
ward, please" but put the mate in his
place, and he would roar out: Here,
now, start that gang plank for'ard! Live
ly now! What're you about! Snatch it!
snatch it! There! there! Aft again! aft
again! Don't you hear me? Dash it TO
dash! are you going to sleep over it!
VaSt heaving. Vast heaving, l tell
you! Going to heave it clear astern?
Where're you going with that barrel!
it, you dash -dash-dash- dashed split be-
tween a tired mud-turtle and a crippled
hearse-horse?"
] wished l could talk like that.
When the soreness of my adventure
with the mate had somewhat worn off, /
began timidly to make up to the hum
blest official connected with the boat, the
night watchman. He snubbed my ad-
vances at first, but presently ventured
to offer him new chalk pipe, and that
softened him. So he allowed me to sit
with him by the big bell on the hurri-
cane deck, and in time he melted into
conversation. He could not we'll have
helped it, l hung with such homage on
his words and so plainly showed that l
felt honored by his notice. He told me
the names of dim capes and shadowy is
lands as we glided by them in the solem-
nifty of the night, under the winking
stars ard by and by got to talking about
himself. He seemed over-sentimental
for a man whose salary was six dollars
a week-or rather he might have seem
ed so to an older person than I. But l
drank in his words hungrily, and with
faith that might have moved mountains
if it had been applied judiciously.
What was it to me that he was soiled
and seedy and fragrant with gin? What
was it to me that his grammar was bad,
his construction worse, and his profani-
ty so void of art that it was an element
of weakness instead of strength in his
conversation? He was wronged man,
man who had seen trouble, and that
was enough for me. As he melIowed
| int Il hSrfr,-1- Ia foa Arir1
ped upon the lantern in his lap, and I
cried too, from sympathy. He said he
asw the son of an English nobleman--
either an earl or an alderman, he could
not remember which, but believed he
was both; his father, the nobleman, low
ed him, but his mother hated him from
the cradle; and SO while he was still a
little boy he was sent to zone of them
old, ancient colleges"-he couldn't re-
member which; and by and by his faith
er died and his mother seized the prop
erty and "shook" him, as he phrased it.
After his mother shook him, members
of the nobility with whom he was ac-
quainted used their influence to get him
the position of ''lob-lolly boy in a ship;"
and from that point my watchman threw
off all trammels of date and locality
and branched out into a narrative that
bristled all along with incredible ad-
ventures; narrative that was no reek-
ing with bloodshed and so crammed
with ha;r-breath escapes and the most
engaging and unconscious personal vii
lainies, that sat speechless, enjoying
shuddering, wondering, worshiping.
1t was a sore blighs to find out after
wards that he was low, vulgar, igno-
rant, sentimental, half-witted humbug
an untraveled native of the wilds o.
Illinois, who had absorbed wildcat lit.
erature and appropriated its marvels
until in time he had woven odds and
ends of the mess into this yarn, and ther
gone on telling it to iedgelIngs like me
until he had come to believe it himself