The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-01-31

$1,000
been an officer in the San Francisco
Customs. A nod was the response.
Then the drummer's voice wanedlower,
and l caught but vagrom words, such
as ''dutiable articles" and a mysteri-
ous phrase which Imayhave overheard
enormously, but which sounded like
''twirling the elephants tail"
For several days, except at meal
gentleman; but once, when l was look
baggage room, | noticed him pottering
around in a curiously leisurely fashion
among the trunks. If l gave the nat
ter a thought at all, l have no doubt L
believed him, in his own deliberate SEN
tentious way. engaged in searching for
his baggage.
One evening in the smoking-room,
our friend, who, since his previous dis
couragement in that peculiarly frank
spoken Tabaks-Parlament, had been
very quiet and retiring, broke out
again into %eloquence. This time he
lifted up his voice to pronounce a glow
ing eulogium on the British nationality.
He avowed himself born a Welshman,
and, although expatriated in tender
years and admitted to American citi-
zenship as soon as he had attained the
statutory age, he was not the man, like
Stanley, to deny the land of his nativi-
ty. 1 own that I found a difficulty in
reconciling this claim to Welsh extrac-
ton with a statement he had made n
the course of his confidence to "Mad-
am" to the effect that he had been
'sborn and raised in Keokuk, Iowa."
but these little discrepancies. l was
duly sensible, may occur in antobio-
loquial observations without seriously
affecting the veracity eff the average
human animal. The eloquence of
the moist-eyed man, if diffuse,
was decidedly stimulating, and
stirred the enthusiasm of the
Britons and Australians. They a%rejoc-
und, friendly Icreatures in the smoking
room after the steward has answered
the bell a few times; and at the close of
a cheer for Queen Victoria, in which
the Americans joined with a 'tiger,"
an Australian jeweler, kindled into hos
pitality by his loyalty, called for cham
payne round. The champagne in
spired quite a spasm of international
rapproachmlent. Patriotic songs set n
~Britannia Rules the Wave"-most of
the Britons had been deadly sick for
the first two days-"Hail Columbia"
1.-THE Red White and Blue" 'The
Star Spangled Banner" The attempt
at "Yankee Doodle" was scarcely a
flowing triumph, since no n present
appeared to know auy words to that air
which complied with the requirements
of the strict propriety always main
tanned in the smoking-room of an ocean
steamer, as indeedi in every part of such
a vessel; and the impromptu concert
fifty concluded with s'God Save the
Queen" Presently the smoking-room
thinned. The American gentleman
with the moist eve remained, leaning
back in seeming slumber, the Austral-
ian jeweler was still on hand, fidgeting
about as if there were m
thing on his mind; I sat smok-
ing silently in my own dark
corner. Presently the jeweler awoke
the American with a touch on the
shoulder and sat down beside him. The
cautious Australian murmured some
words of which 1 caught false bot
tom"-.sare they very sharpg" The
American spoke out like a man.
.'Guess 1 know some of the boys-see
you right through, p~artner!" and then
followed hot toddy..
Two days after this episode, the unu-
sual spectacle was afforded of the moist
eyed man having afternoon tete-d-tete
with a lady in the most retired corner
of the great saloon. MADAM" and l
had both disseminated the quaint tale
we had been told at the beginning of
the voyage. anu the big blue-eyed mar
with the far-off expression so often on
his face was regarded with no little
kindly interest. Then it became pref
ty well known that he had been in the
Frisco customs employ, and that he
was a civil, pleasant-natured, scottish
sort of fellow generally. His entertain
er at the Jour o'clock tea rejection was
a gaunt, withered little grig of a Scoto-
New-Zealand woman, who called her.
self Mrs. Lorne, and protested to be a
widow, both of which ~pretensions were
considerably inaccurate. She had
"corralledn the moist-eyed mar on the
subject of her baggage, about which,
ever since she joined the ship at Auck-
land, she had been betraying nervous
ness among her intimates. At least l
gathered this had been her little game
from the frank, hearty remark the
moist-eyed man made as he stood up
from the tea-table. s'Don't you skear
worth a cent, madam, don't ye. Col
onel O'Driscol, the boss on the jetty,
is an old-time crony of mine. I'll
say one word to the Colonel and you're
through as slick as an eel" whereat
the bogus-widow Lorne blushed and
looked half pleased, half confused.
Apannr tho naccnnrrorS whn InfnnI
the tsTasmanian' at Auckland was a
droll little American from FIJI, a hard
bitten ~beachcomber style of old repro
bate, with a keen zest for liquor. The
old fellow protested lightness of purse
and arranged with the people of the
ship that he should occupy one of the
state-rooms in the 'ssecond cabin de-
partment, which vas quite empty, hav-
ing the run of the first-class saloon for
his rations. 'sFiii' had a good thing
of it with that six-berthed %state-room
all to himself; and he improved his OPP
%portunity by having all his baggage, of
which he had no inconsiderable guam
tity and some of which looked SUSPECT
ously unlike personal effects" slowed
in the state-room to keep him COM
pany. From his first day he went at
the drink, but ever in an advanced
state of cocktail, the queer gnarled old
stick maintained a curiously saturnine
demeanor. The American gentleman
with the moist eye drank with him in
dustriously, standing treat with quite a
reckless freehandedness and getting, to
all appearance, himself into a more
mixed temperament than Fiji ever
exhibited. But the American gentle
man had a marvellous faculty of swift
self-recuperation. l spoke to him once
or twice when he seemed very far gone;
he drew a long breath, shook himself,
looked at me out of those wonderful
blue eyes, whose limpidness no alcohol
seemed to affect, with the original
quaint c~ontemplative gaze, and replied
withdeliberate coherency. And, strang-
er still, no one had we parted than
he had yisiblV lapsed again into hic-