The Penn's Grove record., 1884-01-05

The speaker was an Ola man, III sal
Tor clothes. whose weather beaten coun.
teuance, tobaeco-stained lips and gen
orally grizzled appearance made the
above query sound ridiculous. The re-
porter to whom he had addressed him.
self looked a moment to SEE if the old
man-O-warsnan was joking, but seeing
nothing but seriousness on his coun-
tenance, prepared himself to listen to
the venerable sailors yarn.
No; tell me about it," said the re-
porter eagerly.
"Well, it was a good many years
ago. when | first joined the service. Ye
see l went in in '32 as a boy, when they
fust began to take 'prentices in the
navy. ! was sent to Europe, or up the
Mediterranean, as we call it, for my
fust cruise. l was quite agOOd-lookin'
boy too-lOoked sOmethin' like a girl
with rosy checks, clear complexion and
no hair on my face. l had a fair edu-
cation. too; didn't used to talk like an
old natfoot-that's what we call sailors
but had read some and could use
pretty good grammar. I've forgot all
that now, though. Well, as | was
sayin'. l went on board a European
cruiser-the old sloop-of-war Adams
aud when we got up the Straits and
well fixed on the station the crew began
TO make up some ways to pass the time
pleasantly"
First a minstrel troupe was got up.
The boys took to it like fun. Some of
the crew could sing and dance. and
there was no trouble in getting the
orchestra, lots of fellows could play
fddles and other instruments. But we
had one man aboard who, as he said
himself, had q soul above SIGH non
sense He had a funny name-Imean
funny for an Irishman, for he had the
richest brogue l ever heard. He called
himself Armand De Lorenski and said
his mother was an Trishwoman and his
father an eXiled Polish count. This
man was a landsman, had never been
to sea before, and had been an actor.
He was a good one, too. He was crazy
to get up a dramatic troup and after
the boys got tired Of the minstrel show
they subscribed about a thousand dol
lors among 'em to start the theatre
business. The money was used to buy
a wardrobe, and we had plenty of in
telligent men in the ships company
that could spout Shakespeare. All we
were short of was people to play the
women parts, and l was picked out tC
be Ieadin' female Lorenski was
leadin' man, stage manager and genera
boss. lie wrote a play for us called
'Alphonso, King of Spain, or the Doom
of the Guilty. and with that and
couple of funny pieces-farces | thiHl
they call 'em-we opened. 1t was il
Spezzia, Italy, where we gave the per
Torrance. We had a stage rugged OF
the quarter deck, dressed the shiPfor
holiday, and lots of American tourist
from shore came off to see us perform
"Well, to Deiay g long story, we die
uObly. The boys were delIghT6d;I arc
the folks from shore were so pleased
that they asked us to play in the Thea
tire Royal in Spezzia. We agreed, anC
about five nights afterwaTd the tr6~2t
went ashore to repeat the program o
the ships performance. The bills pos
ted around the town called me Mis-:
Isabella Blank, the beautiful Amirical
artistic
"While | was getting dressed for tn
play a midshipman knocked at the doc
of my room. l let him III, and he tolt
me that a young italian naval office
belonging to one of the ships of tn
Italian fleet in the harbor had beer
struck with me and wanted to get
'knock-down' IA Introduction, y
know. l was told that the office
would stand supper and plenty of wine
and, of course that suited me.
"After the show. and it was a BIZ
success, ! met my Italian spooney. Ill
talked a little English, and l tried t.
keep up acting the woman, whicl
tickled my shipmates looking Oh Il
death.
ave went to get supper, and | car
ried off my part 50 well that the hal
dozen or so Italian officers present mad,
up to give a ball in my honor the mex
night. The officers of my Owl shil
went into the thing heart and soul, ant
you can bet l was prime for the affair
The night came, and 1 got dressed il
my founces and other girls thing
and went ashore to the shine. Abou
fifty ladies were there and dancing
flirting and all those things were goin!
on at a terrible rate. l wa escorted
by an officer from the ship, and whel
we went into the ballroom we were re
celved with honors. All the evening
danced and had a good time, but l be
lieve there was lots of remarks passeC
by the ladies about the very free anC
easy manners of the American girl.
got tired at last and wanted to leave
and so told my gallant that he mus
tell my tue sex. He took the Italian
gentlemen who had given the bail asid,
and told them the truth. Ididn't wal
to see what happened, but skipped GU
and met several shlpmates, put on m.
own clothes and went On a spree t,
celebrate my ball on my W account
Zone of the Italian ships sailed ava.
the next day, and l heard that the Ad
miral ordered her to sea on account o
some Of her officers making fools o
themselves the night before"
The old sailor paused for want o
breath when he had finished thus re
markable narrative, and seeing the lool
of incredulity on the face of the scribe
added
"You don't believe me, do you
Well, l wouldn't neither if l was you