The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1874-12-02
THE BASKET OF FLOWERS,

wondered what peculiar taste could
have induced either the designers or
decorators 90 tho craft 70 have clapped
such a prepos;erous thing rs flower
basket on the stern OF that ship. Twas
seated on dock uear Hunters Point
watching the loading OF q petroleum
q vessel--a queer, oId-fashioned bark.
Had the owner or skipper any floral
proclivities? Perhaps some practical
hand in ship-yard-a master in the
art of hacking figure heads of dolphins
or cornucopias all out of solid oak
some one who might have been a
Thorswslden but for the want OF op-
portunity, had eliminated that flower
basket from his inner consciousness.
just as likely it might have been the
production, SO far as the poetical con-
ception of it went. of some captain
through whose composition there ran a
latent vein of romance. Who could
tell but that in years long gone by the
woman the captain had loved had been
associated with basket of flowers !?
So he might have gone straight to the
ship-yard, all aglow, inspired for the
moment, and in a CHEEKY voice said,
"Here, carpenter, cut me out basket
of flowers. Do it good. I amt par
ticular about the kind of flowers, SO
that there is plenty of them, and that
the basket is all right. Put two han
dies on the basket" And SO to work
fifty years ago went the carpenter, who
had followed the sea in his younger
days, and the artist, with adze and
gouge in hand, had possibly got into
a quandary over the job, for quite likely
he was more familiar with tangled sea-
weed than with the primmer garden
flowers. So in great mental travail he
must have solved the quest ton by
taking as q pattern his mothers old
fashioned sampler, on which in cross
stitch was depicted floral Offering,
and copied it all ont in wood and stuck
it on the stern of that vessel, and felt
satisfied with it, though sitter or
more impossible flower basket never
was made. Undoubtedly once it was
colored with hues as bright and varied
as a rainbow, and shown out re-
splendantly as the ships stern and was
reflected in summer seas, and was the
envy Of other shippers. But when I
saw it all its bloom was gone, for it
had been painted all over a glaring
yellow, and was as ugly as sin. Orna-
menting the stern of petroleum ship,
odorous with the most villainous of
smells, that poor old flower basket
seemed horribly out of place.
Captain, sir ?" made bold to say
to a man in the dock, who was giving
some instructions as to the moorings of
the vessel.
I /" just so, sir" was the reply of
fine, hearty looking man. :" Here, Mr..
Mathias"-this was to person evi-
IDENTIFY the mate-"have this hawser
eased. Take out the double hitch, and
don't jam the knot. It's too tight. It
would take as much as Ave minutes to
unreeve that knot; aiu't you got sabe
enough to know that when you are taking
on board this kind of dangerous stuff,
alongside of the factory as makes it,
the whole place is just as likely as not
to be on fire any minute2 Tell that
hand forard at the fall to watch the
capstan and them spiles here, and to
loosen the hawser with the tide. She
can't chafe much. It amt O bad plan
co have an ak, and q sharp one, always
ady, 80 that fellow can cut his