The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-01-20

pTlue kOOk IN tDlS bTdnueui, vi ho uieS-
ton that began to swell and grow In me
for those people. I could not know how
the lordly steamboatman scorns that sort OF
presumrtion in mere landsman. par
ticuarly longed to acquire the least trifie
of notice from the big stormy mate, and
was on the alert for an opportunity to do
him service to that end. 1t came at last.
The riotous pow-wow of setting spar was
going on down on the forecastle, and
went down there and stood around in the
way-or mostly skipping out of it'll the
mate suddenly roared a general order for
somebody to bring him capstan bar. /
sprang 10 his side and said: "Tell me
where it is-I'll fetch 1t !"
If rag-picker had offered to do diplo-
matte service for the Emperor of Russia,
the monarch could not have been more as
tonished than the mate was. He even stop
ped swearing. He stood and stared down
at me- 1t took him ten seconds to scrape
his disjointed remains together again. Then
he said impressively "Well, il this don't
beat hell ~ and turned to his work with an
air of man who had been confronted with
problem too obstruse for solution.
l crept away, and courted solitude for the
rest of the day. did not go to dinner; l
stayed away from supper until everybody
| else had finished, l did not feel so much
| like member OF the boats family now as
before. However, my spirits returned, in in
stallments, as we pursued our way down the
river. l was sorry l hated the mate so,
because it was not in (young) human ma
ture not to admire him. He was huge and
muscular; he was bearded and whiskered
all over; he had a red woman and blue
woman tatoed on his right arm-one on each
side of blue anchor with red rope to it (;
and in the matter of profanity he was per-
fec. When he was getting out cargo at
landing, was always where l 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 ike a blast of lightning, and
sent long, reverberatng peal of profanity
laundering after it. l could not help con-
trasting the way in which the average lands
man woulp give an order with the mates
way of doing it. If the landsman should
wish the gang-plank moved a foot further
forward, he would probably say, "James,
or William, one of you push that plank for
ward, phase. But put the mate in his place,
and he would roar out, "Here, now, start
the gang-pank forard Lively, now !!
What're you about' Snatch it snatch it |!
Therei there! Aft again aft again Don't
you hear me2 Dash it to dash are you go
ing to sleep over it! ''Vast heaving. Vast
heaving. | tell you! Going to heave it
clear astern? Where are you going with
that barrel? forard with it fore make you
swallow it, you dash DASH dash-dashed
split between tired mud-turtle and a Grip.
pied hearse-horse!
wished could talk like that.
When the soreness Of my adventure with
the mate had somewhat worn off, / began
timidly to make up to the humblest official
connected with the boat-the nightwatch-
man. He snubbed my adventures at first,
but presently ventured to offer him new
chalk pipe, and that softened him. So ne
allowed me to sit with him by the big bell
on the hurricane-deck, and in time he
melted into conversation. He could not
well have helped it, hung with such hon.
age on his words, and so plainly showed
that l felt honored by his notice.
He told me the names of dim capes and
shadowy islands as we glided by them in
the solemnty Of the night, under the wink
ing stars, and by and by got to talking
about himself. He seemed over-sentimen-
tai for man whose salary was Sc a week,
or rather he might have seemed so to ar
older person than /. But / drank in his
words hungrily, and with faith that might
have moved mountains if it had been ap-
piled ju liciously. What was it to me that
he was soled and seedy, and fragrant with
gin? What was it to me that his grammar
was bad, his construction worse, and his
profanity so void of art that it was an ele
ment of weakness. rather than strength il
his conversation? He was a wronged man
and man who had seen trouble, and thai
was enough for me. AS he mellowed into
! his plaintive history, his tears dripped up
on the lantern in his lap, and cried, too
from sympathy. He said he was the sol
of an English nobleman-either an earl o.
an alderman, he could not remember which
but believed he was both; his father, tn,
nobleman, loved him, but his mother hatet
him from the cradle; and so while he wa
/, still little boy he was sent to" one of then
old, ancient colleges" he couldn't remem
Der which and by and by his father died
and his mother seized the property ant
"shook" him as he phrased it. After hi
mother shook him, members Of the nobility
: with whom he was acquainted used the
influence to get him the position of 'lob
lolly boy in ships" and from that poiR
my Waterman threw off all trammels o
date and locality, and branched out into
narrative that bristled all along with incred
' ible adventures; a narrative that was 81
reeking with bloodshed and so cramme
with hair-breadth escapes and the most en-
gaging and unconscious personal villainies
that / sat speechless, enjoying, shudder
ing, wondering, worshipping.
1t was sore blight to find out afterwar
that he was a low, vulgar, ignorant, senti
!, mental, half-witted humbug an untravelle
native of the wids of Illinois, who had ali
sorbed wildcat literature and appropriate
,, its marvels, until in time he had wove
odds and ends of the mess into yarn, an
, !, then gone on telling it to fledgings like M
until he had come to believe it himself
4 |