The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1875-01-01

IN this grandeur, or the aHect1on thai
} began to swell and grow in me for those
people. could not know how the lordly
steamboatman seorns that sort of pre-
sumption in mere landsman. [ par.
ticularly longed to acquire the least
trifie of notice from the big, stormy
mate, and was on the alert for an op
portunity to do him service to that
end. It came at last. The Tiotous
pow-wow of setting a spar was going on
down on the forecastle, and I went down
there and stood around in the way--ol
mostly skipping out of it-till the mate
suddenly roared q general order for
somebody to bring him eapstan bar.
I sprang to his side and said, "Tell me
where it is I'll fetch it T.
If rag picker had offered to do a
diplomatic service for the emperor OF
Russia, the monarch could not have
been moro astounded than the mate
was. He even stopped swearing. He
stood and stared down at me. It took
him ten seconds to scrape his disjoipted
remains together again. Then he said
impressively "Well, if this don't
beat hell I" and turned to his work with
the air of man who had been con-
fronted with problem too abstruse for
solution.
| crept away and courted solitude for
the rest of the day. I cid not go to
dinner stayed away from supper un-
til every body else had finished. die
not feel SO much like q member of the
boats family now as before. However,
nv spirits returned in installments as
we pursued our way down tie river. I
was sorry hated the mate so, because
it was not in (young) human nature not
to admire him. He was huge and mus
oular; his face was bearded and whis-
kered all over he had red woman and
a blue woman tattooed on his right arm
one OH each side of blue anchor
with red rope to it; ana in the matter
of profanity he was perfect. When he
was getting out cargo at landing, /
was always where I could see and hear.
He felt all the sublimity of his great
position, and made the world feel it,
| too. When he gave even the simplest
order, he discharged it like blast of
| lightning, and sent long, reverberat,
ing peal of profanity laundering after
it. l could not help contrasting the
way in which the average landsman
would give an order with the mates
way of doing it. II the landsman
should wish the gang plank moved foot
further forward, he would probably say:
James, or William, one of you push
that plank forward, please; ;" but put
the mate in his place, and he would
roar out: Here, now, start that gang
plank for'ard Lively, now! What're
you abouti 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, I tell you
Going to heaYe it clear astern? Where
re you going with that barrel For'ard
with it fore make you swallow it, you
daz h. dash-dash- dashed split between
tired mud-turtle and crippled hearse.
horse p
I wished I could talk like that.
When the soreness of my adventure
with the mate had somewhat worn off,
I began timidly to make up to the
humblest official connected with the
boat--the night watchman He snub-
bed my advances at first, but I pres
entity ventnied to offer him a new chalk
pipe, and that softened him. So he al
lowed me to sit with him by the big
bell on the hurricane deck, and in time
he melted into conversation. He could
not well ave helped it, / hung with
such homage on his words and SO plain
ly showed that I felt honored by his
notice. He told me the names of dim
capes and shadowy islands as we glided
by them in the solemnity of the night,
under the winking stars, and by and by
got to talking about himself. He seem
ed over-sentimental for man whose
salary was six dollars week-or rataer
he might have seemed so to an older
person than I. But 7 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, bis construc-
tion worse, and his profanity SO void of
art that it was an element of weakness
rather than strength in his converse
tion? He was wronged man, man
who had seen trouble, and that was
enough for me. AS he me1lowed into
his plaintive history his tears dripped
upon the lantern in his lap, and | cried
too from sympathy. He said he was
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, loved
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
father died, and his mother seized the
property and "shook" him, SIS he parshed
It. After his mother shook him,
members Of the nobility with whom be-
was acquainted used their influence 20
get him the position of ''loblolly-hoy IN
q ship J" and from that point my watch
man threw off all trammels of date and
locality, and branched out into nagra-
tive that bristled all along with 1ncredl-
BILE adventures narrative that was SO
reeking with bloodshed and SO crammed
with hair. breadth escapes, and the most
engaging and unconscious personal VII
lainies, that sat speechless, enjoying,
shuddering. wondering, Worshlplng.
It was q sore blight to find out after
ward that he was low, vulgar, ignor-
ant. sentimental, half-witted humbug,
a untrayeled native Of the wilds Of
illinois. who had absorbed wiI-dcat liter
ature md appropriated its nnarvels, uE-
III 81 time he had weyen odds and ends
of the mess into this yarn, and then
gone on telling IL to dedgelings like
me. until be had come to believe it
himself. lfarb ItDaias, In atlantic.
AT the botanic garden, Oxford, the
Mariean dasvliri0n areotrichum recent