The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-12-31
THE WIFE OF A SAILOR.
Wearing "Expectant Expression" OF
COuntenance-LOng Separations.
New York Tiunas

/ wearing an "Expectant Expression" o.
COuntenance-Long Separations.
New York Timesl
"At the best, we sailors wives have a
hard time of it, went on the blue.
eyed little madame with a most becom-
ingly pathetic expression. ''If you
know many of US you will soon dis
cover that we all wear the same expect
ant expression. We never are, but
always to be blest, and the pursuit OF
this ignis fatuus of withheld bliss is
really the only thing which makes our
lives bearable at all. Take my case, for
instance married to the hapdsomest
man in the navy; last year | saw him
| twenty nine days out of the 365, and
this only twenty one. Why, my g.
year-old baby calls her father that
man, and resents his coming near me.
And yet l am looked upon as rather
fortunate because my husband has not
been to China or the Congo since we
have been married
! he reporter murmured something
about forewarned being forearmed.
''Cf course" responded uic " this
philosopher with Gulfy hair, that is the
sympathy we all get My sister. mar
ried to a humdrum Wall street man,
tells me the same thing wlen OCCASION
ally in desperation l utter my longing
you knew Just what TO expect, my
dear. when you married him, she will
say trtely, and so did, and if l were
back in my fathers house ] would leave
it as quickly to-day to follow the for
tunes of my gallant tar as did ten
years ago. Marry a landsmanw she
continued vehemently, mot |, indeed
you know how sailors feel in a storm
God help the poor devils ashore, they
say, and we sailors wives look with the
same compassionate pity upon such of
the sisterhood as marry out of the serv-
ice
''Yet I should think" hazarded the
reporter, that the husband rather took
the lions share of the change and eX-
element.
Occasionally, perhaps, when he is
ordered off on short cruises where it is
not wise for his wife to follow, and she
must languish at home alone, but he is
frequently at station for eighteen
months or two years at a time, and
then his wife establishes herself at the
same port, sees her husband daily, and,
surrounded by circle of navy women,
nomads like herself, enjoys with them
the happiness of family reunion and
the novelty of foreign life.
''But these experiences are the sweet
mingled with the bitter of long separa-
tions and weary waitings. l lunched
yesterday with a friend whose only
child, a little girl of years, has never
yet seen her father. He is expected
home in the spring, and will doubtless
have shore duty then for several years.
About so much sea service is exacted
from every officer. Sometimes he takes
it in large doses, with short intervals be-
tween, and, again, in alternate periods
of nearly equal length. Usually thirty
three months either on sea or shore
brings about change. Another friend
had a most trying experience during one
OF the periodical Chilian disturbances at
which our navy is apt to assist. Her
husband was down there and she un-
dertook to follow him. She lived in
Ohio, and, leaving her children there
with her mother. sailed from New York
for AspinWall. There or at Panama she
caught sort of tramp steamer plying
down the coast on its peculiar time, and,
after much delay and tedious stops,
reached the Chilian port where her hus-
bands vessel lay. Before she could bs
transferred, however, hostilities com
menced, and, although within hail. she
saw the distance slowly increase between
the two vessels. Her husband had
learned of her presence, and during the
bombardment which followed was con-
sumed with anxiety for her safely.
Actually she was obliged to retrace her
way to New York without a sight of her
husband, after having been within
sound of his voice.
What is that? Do l worry when my
husband is at sea lest some accident
might befall 'him9 Not at all 1t is
odd, too, for l can not say goodbye to
a friend sailing for Europe without
nervous misgivings. I think / uncon
sciously partake of MY husbands conf
dence. lie says he only feels safe when
the deck of a vessel is beneath his feet.
On railroad car he is as nervous as a
woman. Cnce since we have been mar
ried we went out to California together
by steamer. On the Pacific side we
encountered a terrific hurricane.
Everybody aboard was panic stricken
except the captain and my husband.
The latter vibrated between the deck
and the cabin where l was in state of
pitiable fright, and alternately urging
me to come up and see the grandeur of
the storm, and running back himself to
watch the vessel ride the gale He
never seemed excited, even; only ex-
hilarated "
'Tiresome business, that of the navy
No, l think not. At those engaged in
it do not complain. The charm of fire.
Gnent change is in it; at every port the
best circles of society welcome a naval
OF GERS; there is plenty of study and
routine work to occupy the time in long
cruises, and, to a man, the service loves
the sea and loves to be upon it. OF
course they often spend months of mo
notonous waiting at some uninteresting
station or drag out a miserable period
enduring dangerous and enervating
tropical heat, their cramped quarters
aboard ship accentuating their discom-
fort, but when they are not we'll placed
there is daily hope of change of or
ders, and when they are time flies pleas
antly and proftably. Officers do not
get rich in the service, but sick or well
their pay goes on, and when they are
old they are retired on enough to keep
them from poverty. Don't undertake
to pity us, - finished the cheerful young
madam emphatically. SIT is waste of
emotion. We do not want it.
Canada's Gospel Army"