Morning journal and courier., 1884-10-10
ssTvo Years Before the Mast.''

wv Clark Russell in the Contemporary Revlew-l
 Dana was the first man to look at the sea life as a real thing, and to make the world know it as a real thing. America should be proud of that triumphant book, ''Two Years
 Before the Mast" We are great maritime people: the oceans of the world are our realm, and every pillow that rolls from north to south, from east to west, carries British interest along it's liquid path. Is it not won derful that we should have waited for Yan- kee student to show us how to write book
 that should be true to the sailor, true to the ship he sails in, true to the deep he naVl- gates? For my part, l heartily begrudge
 Boston her famous ''yarner," and for the honor of this country could wish that his
 grand sea picture had the union jack hang ing over it instead of the eagle that 1t per ched for all time upon his frame The dif- ference between ''Two Years Before the
 Mast'' and most of the nautical novels which
 have been written on this side of the Allan tic is the difference between the marlue drama as we are accustomed to witness 1t III London and provincial theaters, and the call ing it caricatures. Dana's book IS solid fact from beginning to end-not one ]ot
 more so because it forms 6 collection ot h1s experiences when at sea, than because ot the superb sailor-like spirit, the exquisite accura- cy and the great-hearted sympathy that every pape is full of 'FI vowed,'' he says, after describing the logging on board the Pilgrim
 ''I vowed that if God should ever give me the means would do something to redress the grievances and relieve the sufferlngs ot that class of beings with whom my lot had so long been cast" He could not have gone to work more effectually than by writing FtTwo Years Before the Mast" It was time
 that somebody showed tue public down into the merchant ships forecastle, pointed to the 1 hunks in which the sailors sleep, the drip ping earrings, the evil-smelling slush lamp, | the water splashing through the scuttle, the l poor clothes of the heavily worked men, the 1 infamous food and vile water on which they l subsisted It was time, say. No lands | man could guess the truth, and these who | had suffered, who could speak of the hor- TOTS of scurvy from darkness and damp ana 1 fare such as a hog might disdail, were lg- norant and unable to put their story before l the world. But then comes Dana, fine | genius, full of spirit He ships a forenlast | hand in a little brig bound round Cape Horn 1 to tho western American coast, and he l spends three years of his life among sailors, l working with them, suffering with them, | taking their few pure pleasures with them. | We are used to his book now, and since his | time plenty of interest has been taken in the l merchant service; but I sometimes think | that an extraordinary amazement must have 1 been excited among those OI tue pupI1C M1Ao l cared for sea yarns when 'ETwo Years Before the Mast" was first published. By what l magic could Dana absorb the attention of his
 readers by plain unvarnished narrative of forecastle life in little brig. But that was not quite it. How did it happen, dare say | people wanted to know, that these poo1 | sailors who so deeply interested them III | Dana's work were utterly unlike the 1 mariners that they had been accustomed tc
 read about since the days of Smollett
 Where was the Saturday, night larking
 where the cans of grog? the 'wives ano
 sweethearts s'' the dancing on the main deck
 the gay uniforms, the handsome mldd1es, the sea battles, the lovely heroines, and all th' 1 rest of the well-known stuff Instead of thl | they found brutal, coarse -mouthed skipper 1 a couple of mates neither handsome nor sentl
 mental, and forward an odd collection O
 rude and rough figures in Scotch caps ano old shirts. There was no heroine, there wa
 no fighting, there was nothing more spirited in the way of diversion than a fandango a
 Santa Barbara; but there was the best ot al
 things in this world-truth. Because ot I ! the book went straight home to the heart l and inasmuch as that it is as true Tn th'
 main of life on board ship to-day as 1t wa'
 when written 45 years ago, there can De nc ] excuse for anyone desiring to write for o l against the sailor not to very fairly under | stand the nature and duties of Mercantile I Jacks life while "Two Years Before th' l Mast'' remains in print