The Russellville Democrat., 1877-05-24

recently III Slcn lrOuDle, ana they Doln bashful like, neither of them liked for to do tbis. It were then thought proper that they should be put face to face on chist, and the slack of their trousers bein' nailed fast to the cbist lid, they should there and then fight it out, and the best man take the widder.
 This would have been done only for an old chap what we had aboard which sided agin' it. He was dreadful old, end the barnacles were a-growin' down his back, and, of course, bein' so long a-seafarin', he knowed heap. He said: "See here," says he, "bein's you two has always been friends, what's the use fighting? and besides" |" says he, cit stands to reason that if its settled in this way both of you'll be we'll ham, mered. Now, the question are, will the widder like well hammered man as well as she'll like a man as ain't hammered and is all ataunts and ship. shape-like, and my opinion are," says he, "that with euchre deck the thing can be settled better every way, three games to be played and the best two to take the Wilder Johnson"
 This here meetin' approval, that very same day in the last dog-watch, Joe Carroll won her in two straight games. And that weren't all; list afore they begun for to play, Jack, who had been savin' feller all his life, says: "Pve got matter of $500 or so in the savin's bank and Joe ain't got nene. Now, if he wins the widder, it stands to reason he'll want it, and so I purpose for to put that in, the winnin' man to take the pile,". which it were Joe as done it in two straight games, and were spliced to the widdel a week arter we got in by Parson
 Hodge. in the Mariners church ir
 Oliver street.
 You see, sir, don't suppose as how
 the widder cared for to be split et
 agin so soon, but what were she to do
 Here she were like cat in strange
 garret, in this big city, where sh'
 didn't know, and as you know "neces
 sity oft compels what decency forbids 1;
 anyway, spliced they were for full
 due, and Jack Adams ships in th
 Black Ball ship Columbus and goes oi
 to sea.
 It strikes me I went into the Mar
 mion along with Captain Edwards, bu
 I don't jist remember, and it don
 matter pins worth to this yarn. bu l know it were year or so afore Jacl
 came athwart my hawse agin, an, , then l stumbled over him one day il , South street, ne'r Dover. He tellet me that he'd quit goin' to sea and wa
 workin' along shore for Bill Dorian the rigger; cause, he said, his ol, woman havin' lost two husbands agoir to sea, were bound for to hold fas
 to him, and keep him ashore; ant ) then he ups and tells me tha comin' home off Liverpool voyag he found the widder Johnson were widder Carroll as we'll, Joe havir shipped in a bark bound to Rio, an,
 come 'home missin', bein' cast ava jist to the no'th'ard of cape St. Roque ! five of the crew bein' drownded in tn surf, one of 'em bein' Joe; an it jis
 come natral and were Jacks plail duty for to splice the widder, whicl he done.
 l heerd the rest of this yarn, sir
 from Bill Johnson, him as was knocke, off the foretopssil yard that night whel ) our watch was tryin' to furl tha double-reefed topsail aboard of tn ) Carolus Magnus, which weren' drownded, but come down easy lik onto the top of sea, and nigh han'
 of some wrecked stuff, which he hun, , fast to, and were picked up the mex day by a English whaler bound to tn ) Pacific, which were nigh onto fv years of a voyage afore ever Bill pu his feet on English soil agin, landin' il London and gittin paid off, and ship pin into London packet for Ney
 York.
 Gittin' here, he falls to inquirir about his wife, and at last come athwart shipmate as tells him of he marvin Joe, and of him gittin
 drownded, and then of her marvin
 Jack Adams, and so he gifts under way
 at once for the place where she lived arrivin' there along about six o'clocl of evenin' just as Jack were comin home from his work, and if you'd be lieve me sir-I told you first of thi were tough one-who should com,
 up the steps of that house at that very , identical time but Joe Carroll, whicl , hadn't drowned at all, but had com, nigh hand onto it, and had been tool care of by Brazilian chap, for a spell
 till he got strong enough. and hat
 then managed to fetch up at Pernam'
 buco, where he were took down by tho
 fever, and went to hospital for z
 many months, gettin' out at last and
 shippin' in brig for Baltimore, iron
 which place he had last come, and SC
 here were the three of them all there
 to once, which made the Widdel Johnson say, as l said she said in the
 first part of this: "Too much of q
 good thing are dreadful"
 We'll, sir, Bill told me they went in and talked it over friendly like, and of course they said she weren't to
 blame for what she had done, and