Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-06-11
VOL. II.-NO. 81.

less for you to plead fatigue, drowsi-
ness or even a sudden headache, as an
excuse for not obeying, or even to re-
mark that you'll be up directly |
should not care to be in your sea-boots
if you did.
"But by the time you are drenched
with the driving rain and flying spray,
have plunged frantically into the lee
scuppers and been requested with more
emphasis than courtesy to get aloft on
the topsail yard, you will forget your
drowsiness. For it will be all you can
do to cling to the yard with your ell
bows while your feet are balanced on
the slippery, swaying foot-rope and
your numbed fingers clutching at the
Stating canvas which seems trying to
knock you from your perch.
But | hear you say quite scorn-
fully, it isn't GtsUays stornlng on the
ocean, And | have no doubt but that
you picture yourself, arrayed like
'Pinafore sailor, leaning idly against
the rail as the ship glides smoothly on
waIu D0rvIO thu sto,.dJ t-I- a~--:-.. A.
over some sparkling tropical sea; which
| confess is a charming picture, my
dear nephew, the drawback being that
it is as unlike the reality as ten-cent
'chromo' is unlike Photographic neg
ative. n0
"In certain latitudes there are sum-
mer seas and skies for days at time.
Were it not so, my dear boy, the un-
pleasant and endless jobs of tarring and
greasing, and splicing and mending,
and scrubbing and painting, and scrap
ing and oiling, which are always going
on on shipboard but never finished,
would have to be done in bad weather
instead of fine. For the good Captain
and his kind-hearted officers not only
mean that you shall have no time to
'mope' or be homesick in, but they
bear in mind the beautiful suggestion
of DIR. Watts, that
"'Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
So that you will find every moment
spent on deck is filled and running over
into the next one with tasks OF every
conceivable kind tasks which are in
variably connected with clinging tar
and odorous grease-tasks which will
take you from the keelson to the royal
truck a dozen times in day.
True. should the Sabbath prove ex-
ceptionally fine, you may have time to
read chapter in your Bible, though
such rare occasions are generally occu-.
pied by sailors in the necessary duties
of patching and mending.
So, my dear johnny, in summing the
matter up, l have to tell you frankly
that going to sea before the mast does
not give the boy the chance to crafty the
love for fun and adventure of which he
fondly dreams. True, being dismasted
in typhoon or wrecked on lee shore
may SAVIOR of adventure, but even these
exciting episodes have some very un-
pleasant features--so unpleasant, in
fact, that it not unfrequently happens
to the participant in them thathe never
returns home to relate such adventures.
"And finally, as to rising in the naval
or merchant service, that, my dear
nephew, depends. If you have an iron
constitution, gutta-percha joints, and
perfectly tempered steel springs all
over your body; if you have quick
mind to take in both the practice and
theroy of seamanship; if you have "A
never-tiring energy, which can cause
such body and such mind to be in the
perpetual motion, and if you have
enough of the yeast of ambition about
you to keep the whole in a sort of un-
ceasing ferment-why then. in the
course of time, you may rise in either
branch of the service. But you
will never rise above hard work, ex-
posure, anxiety and responsibility,
even if you are elevated to the quarter
J deck. In conclusion, my dear Johnny,
my own impression is that, generally
speaking, you will find the best part o
/ sea-going to consist in staying at home
: and reading truthful accounts Of the
sailing experiences of others. "--Fra"h
II. Converse, in Christian Union.