Connecticut western news., 1875-08-13
"Are they so particular as that?" l

asked. t..:
 Particular If you only knew all
 my annoyances you'd pity me. I've been
 working for the company for years, and
 the longer work for it the sioker get
 of it. I often think of quitting the sea
 and taking to herding cattle"
 "Oh, pshaw! !'' I laughed; "you'd
 soon wish yourself back. Your office is
 most luxurious, and your pay is un-
 doubtedly in proportion" sts ''
 "Don't mention it. It's all humbug. I've got nothing before me, but hard work and miserable pay, and no pros poets of advancement. ., The glorious days for pursers are over. In the good old times such an office as mine was equal to gold mine. Now it is worth
 less. My books have to be miracles of exactness. I have to pay for every lost or missing article, from an orange to an OK. Agents and spies surround me continually. Then the custom-house officers are leagued against me. They won't let me take the least thing ashore. Why, I'd rather be a fireman in the en- zine room than be watched and badger ed the way am. The chief steward, I'll venture to say, makes more in one vOY= age, by his little trading, than I do in whole year. Nobody noses around his operations, and he makes 9, good thing out of it; but there's nothing but drudgery and impecuniosity ahead for me-" E.; s,- g,t r..1IjFt B.. ';E'"s.4@' My friend was growing little excited, and l thought it prudent to leave him.
 The next day the chief steward hap pened in my room, and couldn't resist the temptation to tackle. To my aston ishment, his complaints were fully as bitter as those of his predecessors. s,,t 1" No, sir p he exclaimed "1'm the last man on the ship that's making dollar. Why, bless you, twenty years ago, when I was common waiter-then was the time for the chief stewards 1 Thea they bought all thenmeat, ifruits,1 2 vegetables, provisions, linen and bed ding for, the steamers, and they could charge double prices without being questioned. I recollect d case where a chief steward, in one voyage, charged seventeen quarters of beef to the ship that were never delivered. Just think of that. But the thing was overdone, and now the broth is spoiled entirely. I've been on this ship many years, but I think I'll give it up before long, and settle down in shanty in Frisco. 1a-
 l confess that l was by this time some what rbewildered. Everybody looked round. fat and contented everybody seemed to be in high clover; everybody thought that everybody else but himself was making money; and yet each one vigorously protested that he was being rapidly reduced to beggary. I deter mined to grapple with the problem, be- fore me with redoubled energy, I as- sailed the surgeon, the freight clerk, the second and third officers, the assist ant engineers, the quartermasters, the butcher, the cooks, and even Jack Tar himself. rf -.
 The result was the same in every in stance. I evoked nothing but .doleful . and despairing responses. In a fit of desperation I cornered a Chinaman. ..
 (: Here, '' l thought, "is an unlettered heathen. He will teach to his more. civ ilized brethren the virtues of patience and contentment. ..
 demanded his opinion on the subject of my Investigations. '"' r"a ,i~'s yi "Heap icee," he sighed, "but Chinaman no can catch heap dollar, Company no good. No hab heap dollar for poor Chinaman. White man catchee all.' Ii '.'.--' .'-55 -5' -.. v : When that same steamer was ready to put to sea again. my curiosity prompted me to step aboard 8 moment to see how many of it's late crew had, abandoned sea-faring ways in quest of pleasanter fortunes on shore. To my surprise I found every one of them (the Chinaman includedD at their old posts again, and, actually impatient to be out of port and once more blowing the bounding waters. Such is human nature. .,5. -,. ,,.-r.i, 7A