The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-06
AN OLD SAILORS. YARNS

the table, Sin 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
mate and so on to mate, and here they
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 IMMUNITY, they never wouldn't
have seen it, their noses were always in
tue air and they never looked Gown. l
knowed one Of 'em as used for to pay his
barber 500 every time he we're in New
York for to fix him up. I've seen him in
hard gale Of wind on ships quarter
deck. with an old sou wester and pea
jacket On to him, handlin' his ship in
sea way jist as if She Deen baby,
and, to my eye, he lookee a heap better
then he did u struiin' up and down
Broadway, rugged up within an inch of
his life and tryin' for to make people
believe he we're some great gentleman and
no sa'lorman at all. Why anybody as
looked at him with his underpinnin
stretched wide apart like a pair Of shear
legs. rollin' about from one side of the
sidewalk to the other, would knoved at
once that he were a impostor. I've
knowed mates arter workin' like horses
all the day long in Liverpool River, when
the time come for to dock the ship,
they'd go 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 hem. Some of EN- would even 80
SO far as to try and knock off swearin'
while they was a dockin', and to talk per-
lite and sweet to the men, but never
knowd airy one that succeeded cntirely in
this.
The great idec were, both with CAP
tains and mates, to try and make folks
think they was gentleme and never done
70 work: and that going to sea was the
most delightfullest thing in the world,
ard that all you had for to do were to
tdht J UtIScll UII VI u EtlIuUoA 'ICC ia u
while and sit and let the wind blow you
along.
This ere sort Of doing might 10 very
well for the Williamson square gals, who
used for to come down onto the pierhead
III great numbers when a ship were dock
in, a lookin' out for their sweetheartS,
1u! it didn't pull no wool over a sailor
man s eyes when they seed the sails nee
y u2bcndel 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 b!ackened, paint work all scrubbed
clean, bright work polished, decks white
as a hounds tooth, jib-boom rugged in
and :.ead.gear snugly stopped up, to- gal
Ian and royal yards squared to the most
distractln' nicely, topsail yards mast
headed TO an exact level and bracel up
to the same angle, lower yards cock-bill-
ed to exact line fore and aft; all these
things showed that there were sailor
man mate Of that there craft, and it
weren no use of his tryin to disguise
hisself in long toggery.
Think the proudest chap as ever went
mate Of them ships were Dick Hewitt, or
''Richar1 Hewitt, ESQ., as he used to
call hisself. 1t We're 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 swclied up and ex-
ploded. lie died in hospital, tumblin'
down in a cellar in Broadway and a
breabin' his leg. And the doctor tod
him two things he'd be to do for to git
we'll. and item we're, have his leg cut off
and knock off drinkin beer. And Dick
SAID his leg shouldn t come off. for he'd
never he seen wearin timber leg. and
he d see the doctor afore ed stop
drinkin' beer; III which l think he We're
right. except about the leg, for I've
know'd saiormen with timber ieg iron
fastened, as could git about and aloit as
well as the best, though they was annoy
your watch below. But l know d chap
once by the name of Dave Wilkinson as
We're 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
difficult for to kick up as high as a man S
head. on account Of your knee,joint, but
Dave weren't troubled with no knee
joint on the starboard side, and when he
raised up that leg it jist come nicely
leval with mars head and were awful
weapon.
And that's why l think Dick we're
wrong about the timber leg. But in re-
CARDS to the beer he were rig ht, of course,
for no man never ought for to leave his
beer, and that's where these doctors
make great mistake, a stoppin' mans
eroc, which he is accustomed to. and