The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-07-08
NOT A DROP TO DRINK.
The Affecting and Almost Fatal Experience
of a Castaway on Lake Michigan.

When the old sailor looked through
the screenless doors Cf a South street
saloon and saw calm content expressed
on the faces of those within, who were
emptying bootleg glasses of beer, he
said to New York San reporter:
Nobody as has never been to sea
knows what it is to want drink, and
when sailor man sees another as is
thirsty he be sure to have a feelin' o
sympathy which it's onnateral for to
take advantage of. ;"
"Did anybody ever take advantage of
you in that way?" said listener.
They did. l was sailin' on a
lumber hooker outen Chicago over to
the east shore. We made the trip
over in two days. One AFTERNOON, as
we was beatin' agin light wind
across, and bein' a long way from port,
the mate he sees suthin' as looks like a
evergreen bush dead to windward,
growin' outen the water. 1t was mighty
Gurus, and Capt. Lanphere, as was of
scientific turn, he says the saplin's been
washed away by the june freshet, and
| it's the sile onto the roots of it which
| floats it cen up, when he knowcd there
never wasn't no sile in Michigan but
sand The bush was Il driftin' afore
| the breeze, and bimeby we sees it was
stickin' up into the bow of dugout,
and the captain he didn't say no more
about the sile onto its roots.
| THE next tack we fetched it fair on
the weather bow. Long afore we was
anyways near to it the captain he sees
a man lyin' onto the bottom of the dug
out, lookin' as if he was dead. We
luffed up a bit to oncet, and bein' as
Capt. Lanphere was pretty fair sailor
| for fresh-water galoot, we lost head
way with that ere dugout under the lee
| forechains.
".Hist him on deck careful says the
captain, and we picks him up very ten
der like and lays him in Il tarpaulin.
His cheeks was that sunken that ef it
hadn't been for the color as was in
his nose we'd never knowed he was
alive. The captain he feels of his heart
and finds it beatin' and then says to
him:
| .Shipmate, can you hear meP
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 his
self clusser down and puts his ear to the
mans mouth. The lips they moved
agin, and the captain rose up.
| Boys he says, the mans a dyin'
| of thirst. He wants drink. Bring
out that bottle of rye first to warm him
up
Its one o. them blamed idjits from
salt water as thinks the lakes is branches
of the ocean and not fit 10 drink. said
the mate He didn't have no regards
for saltwater sailor-men. All the same
we was all desperitly interested in the
unfortunit individual as was driftin'
around without no navigator, and the
cook he brings out quart bottle of re.
markable fine grog. The captain he
tells the man what to expect, and then
pours a swallow into him. The man
works his laws bit and then up comes
one O. them lank hands O. hisin and
clasps the bottle and hsts it so as to
make 'er gurgle as the juice poured
down his neck. 1t was astonishin'
He done it to admiration. When hi
stopped for breath there weren't nary
gurgle left into that ere bottle, anC
that ere corpse as was a starvin' fol
drink was that bilin' drunk as made u!
all sick with envy.
.FThe captain he lowed it would b.
the death of the man, but after he trieC
to dance like bloody heathin anC
couldn't, because he was loaded too
heavy; we laid him into the lee soup
pers. got the jibs over to windward
paid the head off, and stood on ou
course. full and by"
'Wellr' said the listener.
Git well? In course he did. HI
was bloomin' tramp as had got drunl
in Pentwater, as is jest beyant Littl
Pint Sauble, the port as we was headin
for, and some lads as found him asleel
behind lumber pile dumped him int
an 1njun's dugout, stuck up the busl
and showed him into the stream, whicl
it was boomin' from freshet. He wa
jest waited out to us and into glor,
without a effort of his own"