The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-06
4AN~CLD~SA1lLOR,Ss YARNS

~..,.,-rAN4 CLD~SA1LOR,S YARNS ....,.,
s'You see, SIR said the old sailor, as
he set his empty beer mug down upon
the table, Gin them ere packet-ship times
the captains and mates Of them ships
thought no small-beer of themselves, and
just believed they were the equals of any
body on the face of the arth. They was
all men as had riz from low beginnin' S,
havin' all of 'em sarved long afore the
mast, and then up through the
various grades of third-mate, second
usually stuck for ten or fifteen years, and
when they did git to be captain arter all
this long service, Lord love you, sir, it
took two sailors for to make breeches for
EN-, and man might have left pocket
book on to the sidewalk afore EN- with
perfect impunity, they never wouldn't
have seen it, their noses were always in
the air and they never looked Gown. l
knowed one Of 'em as used for to pay his
barber 800 every time he were in New
York for to fix him up. I've seen him in
hard gale Of wind on a ships quarter
deck, with an old sou wester and a pea
jacket On to him, handlin' his ship in
a sea way :jist as if she'd been a baby,
and, to my: eye, he lookee a heap better
then he did struiin' up and down
Broadway, rugged up within an inch Of
his life and tryin' for to make people
believe he were some great gentleman and
no sailorman at all. Why anybody as
looked at him with his underpinnin'
stretched wide apart like pair Of shear
legs, rollin' about from one side of the
sidewalk to the other, would a knoved at
once that he were a impostor. I've
knowed mates AFTER workin' like horses
all the day long in Liverpool River, when
the time come for to dock the ship,
they'd so below and rig themselves up
like parsons; clappin' white futtock
band around their necks; mountin a
white weskit, and showing their fists into
white beckets for to hide the tar and tan
onto them. Some of EN- would even so
SO far as to try and knock off swearin'
while they was dockin', and to talk per-
lite and sweet to the men, but l never
knowd ary one that succeeded entirely in
this.
The great idee were, both with cap
tains and mates, to try and make folks
think they was gentlemen and never done
20 work. and that going to sea was the
most delightfallest thing in the world,
and that all you had for to do were to
take yourself out Of a tandbox once in a
while and sit and let the wind blow you
along.
This ere sort Of doing might DO very
we'll for the. Williamson square gals, who
used for to come down onto the pierhead
in great numbers when ship were dock
in, a lookin' out for their sweethearts,
but it didn't pull no wool over sailor.
man $ eyes when they seed the sails nee
y u2bcnded and the runnin' gear stopped
up and down the riggin', the foot ropes
stopped up onto the yards, the mast.
heads and yard chafes pointed, leadin'
trucks blackened, paint work all scrubbed
clean, bright work polished, decks white
as a 1hoAnd TOOTH, jib-boom' ,rigged in:
and ;;ead.gear snugly stopped up, to''gal-
Ian and royal yards squared to the most
distractin' nicely, topsail yards mast
headed to an exact level and bracel up
to the same angle, lower yards cock. bill
ed to a exact line fore and aft; all these
things showed that there were sailor
man mate Of that there craft, and it
weren't no use of his tryin' to disguise
hisself in long toggery.
Ithink the proudest chap as ever went
mate of them ships we're Dick Hewitt, or
''Richard Hewitt, Esq., as he used to
call hisself. 1t were well he never got
for to be captain, cause he would have
busted. He never couldn't have stood it
no how; he would a swelied up and a ex-
ploded. He died in hospital, tumblin :
down in a; cellar in Broadway and a
breabin' his leg. And the doctor told
him two things he d be to do for to git
we'll. and them we're, have his leg cut off
and knock off drinkin' beer. And Dick
said his leg shouldn't come off. for he
never be seen wearin' timber leg, and
he'd see the doctor afore he d stop
drinkin' beer III which think he were
right, except about the leg, for I've
know'd sailormen with timber leg iron
fastened, as could git about and aloft as
well as the best, though they was annoy
in as lookouts walkin' over head in
your watch below. But I know d chap
once by the name Of Dave Wilkinson as
were white oak ard iron from his star.
board thigh down, and if Dave could git
his back agin anythin', why he could
NOV down whole ranks Of men with that
there leg. You see, sir, you'd find it
d'f3icult for to kick up as high as man $
head. on account Of your knee:joint, but
Dave weren't troubled with no knee
joint on the starboard side, and when he
raised mp that leg it jist come nicely
leval with mans head and were awful
weapon. il, !
And that's why l think Dick were
wrong about the timber leg. But in re-