Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-06-03
NOT A DROP TO DRINK.
The Affecting and Almost Fatal Experience of
CastWay on Lake Michigan.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
When the old sailor looked through the
screnless door Of a south street saloon
and saw calm content expressed on the
faces of those within, who were emptying
bootleg glasses of beer, he said:
Nobody as has never been to sea knows
what it is to want a drink, and when a
sailor man sees another as is thirsty he
be sure to have feelin O. sympathy which
its onnateral for to take advantage of"
did anybody ever take advantage of
you in that way" said listener.
''They did. Twas a 5ailin on lumber
hooker outen Chicago, over to the east
shore. We made the trip over in two
days. One afternoon, as we was beatin'
agin a light wind across, an bein' long
way from port the mate he sees suthin'
as looks like a evergreen bush dead to
windward, CROWN outen the water 1t
was mighty Gurus, and Capt. Lamphere,
as was of a scientific turn, he saws the
saplin's been washed away by the June
freshet, and it's the sile into the roots of
it which floats it cen up, when we knowed
there never wasn't no sile in Michigan
but sand. The bush was a-driftin' afore
the breeze, an bimeby we sees it was a.
stickin' up into the bow of dugout, and
the captain he didn't say no more about
the sile onto it's roots.
'The next tack we fetched it fair on
the weather bow. Long afore we was any
where near to it the captain he sees a man
! lyin' on to the bottom of the dugout look
in as he was dead. We luffed up a bit to
oncet and bein' as Capt. Lamphere was
a pretty fair sailor for a fresh-water ga
loot, we lost Roadway with that ere dugout
under the lee forechains.
Hist him on deck careful says the
captain, and we picks him up very tender
like, and lays him in a tarpaulin. His
cheeks was that sunken that eff it hadn't
a-been for the color it was in his red nose
we'd never knowed he was alive. The cap
tain he feels his heart, and finds it a-beat-
in and says to him:
'Shipmate, can you hear me?
'The man he raises one of his lean
long fingers bit, and shakes his head
and moves his lips as if tryin' to say
suthin' and couldn't make it,
"'Try it again, shipmate. What is it?
said the captain, and he bends hisself
clusser down and puts his ear to the mans
mouth. The lips they moved again, and
the captain rose up.
"'Boys,' he says, the mans dyin' OF
thirst. He wants a drink. Bring out
that bottle of rye first, to warm him up
"It's one O. them blamed idjits from
salt water as thinks the lakes is branches
of the oceen, and not fit to drink said
the mate. He didn't have no regards fo1
salt water sailormen. All the same we
was desperately interested in the unfortu-
nate individual as was a driftin' around
without no navigator, and the cook he
| hri1 af IL
fine grog. The captain he tells the man
what to expect, and then pours swallow
into him. The man works his Jaws bit
and then up comes one O them lank hands
O hisn and clasps the bottle and hoists it
SO as to make 'er gurgle as the juice pour
ed down his neck. It was astonishin' He
done it to admiration. When he stopped
for breath there wasn't nary gurgle left
into that ere bottle, and that 'ere corpse
as was starvin' for drink was that bilin'
drunk as made US all sick with envy.
"The captain he lowed it would be the
death of the man, but after he'd tried to
dance like bloody heather, AM couldn't
because he was loaded too heavy, we laid
him into the the lee scuppers, got the
| jibs over to windward, paid the head off,
and staid on our course, full and by.'
"Well?" said a listener.
''Git we'll! OF course he did. He was
gittin well when we picked him up He
was bloomin' tramp as he had got drunk
in Pentwater, as is jest beyant Little Pint
Sauble, the port as we was headin' for,
and some lads as found him asleep behind
lumber pile dumped him into an Injun' s
| dugout, stuck up the bush, and showed
him into the stream, which was a boomin'
for freshet. It was jest waited out to
US and into glory without an effort of his
own