Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-06-05
NOT A DROP TO DRINK.

OOlOnS tnat tney WOuO DOycOtt the
dealer.
NOT A DROP TO DRINK.
The Affecting and Almost Fatal Expert
ence Of u Castway on Lake Michigan.
New York Sun.
When the old sailor looked through
the screenless door OF South street ga
loon 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 drink, and
when sailor man sees another as is
thirsty he be sure to have feelin' o
sympathy which is onnateral for to take
advantage Of"
ibid anybody ever take advantage Of
you in that way?" said listener.
They did. was sailin' "n lum-
ber- hooker outen Chicago, over to the
east shore. We made the trip over in
two days. One afternoon, as We wa
beatin' agin light wind across, and
bein' long way from port, the mate
he sees suthin' as looks like evergreen
bush dead to windward, CROWN 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 knowed there never
wasn't no sile in Michigan but sand.
The bush was a-driftin' afore the breeze,
and bimeby we sees it was a-stickin' up
into the bow of dusout, and the cap
tain he didn't say no more about the
sile onto its roots.
1.-The next tack we fetched it fair on
the weather bow. Long afore we was
anywheres near to it the captain he sees
man lyin'on to the bottom of the dug
out, lookin' as he was dead. We luffed
up bit to onct, and bein as Capt.
Lanphere was pretty fair sailor for a
fresh-water galoot, we lost Roadway with
that ere dugout under the lee forechains.
"Hist him en- deck careful says the
captain, and we picks him up very ten
der like, and lays him in a tarpaulin.
His cheeks was that su1ken that ef it
hadn't been for the color as was in bis
nose we'd never know'd he was alive.
The captain he feels of his heart, and
finds it beatin' and says to him:
'Shipmate, can you hear me?'
"1'he 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 then moved
again, and the captain rose up.
"'Bovs,' he says, the mans dyin'
of thirst. He wants 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 ocean, and not fit to drink said
the mate. He didn't have no regard for
salt water sailormen. All the same we
was all desperately interested in the un-
fortunate individual as was a dIiftin'
around without no navigator, and the
cook he brings out quart bottle of re-
markedly fine grog. The captain he
tells the men what to expect, and then
pours swallow into him. The man
works his jaws bit, and then up cones
one O. them lank hands O. hisin and
clasps the bottle and hists it so as to
make'er gurgle as the justice poured
down his neck 1t was astonishin.' He
done it to admiration. When he stop.
ped for breath there wasn't nary gurgle
left into that ere bottle, and that ere
corpse as was a starvin' for drink was
that bill;n' 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 heathin, and
couldn't because he was loaded too heavy,
we laid him into the lee scuppers, got
the jibs over to windward, paid the head
off, and stood on our course, full and
by"
"Well?' said the listener
s'Git we'll! In course he did. He was
a gittin' well when we picked him up
He was a bloomin' tramp as had got
drunk in Pantwater, as is just beyant
Little Pint Sauble, the port as was head
in 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 it was boomin' for freshet. He
was Just waited out to us and into glory
without effort of his own"