Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-08-22
GETTING NEWS At SEA.


How shlpload Of Passengers Learned Of
Lincoln's Death In 1865. ss
w hat was the news from homep
How was the great war progressing,
OF had 1t ended? Intensely interesting
to me We're these questions In India
! had heard Of the reelection OF Lin.
coin. At the Mauritius, where we put
IN TO mend the breakage by hurri-
cane, no news was had, or at least
none that reached my ears. The cap
tain was manifestly wild with eager
ness for intelligence. In his black
rubber coat and Southwestern he steadied
himself on the wet and heaving deck
with knee against the port rail and
hand grasping one Of the mizzen
shrouds. With the other hand he
held a trumpet. tT
Ship ahoy!' he yelled through the
brass.
a man on the quarterback of the
Catherine, high above us, likewise put
a trumpet to his mouth, and we could
see the muscular action of his face and
throat; but not a sound came to ls, for
we We're dead to ;windward. The bulls
OF Bashan couldn't have beloved sue
cessfully against the stiff breeze We
could communicate matters of no par
tlcular interest to him, but the cap
tain OF the Catherine, who was for US
mine of news, was powerless to give
. us any thing. Neither vessel had the
dag-signal system. z.....
Our captain bawled to him that we
We're with rice from Rangoon, Burmah,
to New York; that we were a long
time out and had heard nothing from
America for nearly five months, and
old news then; gave him our longi-
tude, asked him to report us at New
= York, and yelled and yelled for intel
llgence about the great civil conflict,
which the other captain with a trum-
pet threatened to split his windpipe in
the effort to give, but couldn't This
might not last long. Each craft was
keeping exactly to her course. The
Catherine was leaving us. Her master
was willing to tell what he knew, but
had no disposition to shorten sail for
the pleasure of our slow-going COM
pany. But an idea had seized that
other captain. He tossed away his
trumpet and we witnessed some quick
pantomime. Then in few moments
mariner, probably one of the mates,
got nimbly out over the rail, with his
feet on the vale and hand on the rail
top, and we saw that he had slung to
his waist a paint pot. It was
a hard job for him to hold on in
that fashion, SO heavy was the ships
motion, let alone doing any thing else,
but he was too much of grampus to
let that get the best of him, and slowly
crept forward, using brush and white
paint as he went, row of heads show
ing over the rails to watch his per-
formance while our whole crew looked
on with closest attention.
One by one great, uncouth white let
tiers appeared on the ships black side.
That sailor would never have made his
fortune as a. sign-painter. But the
letters were plain enough to be read
half 9 mile away. This was what
came into view: 1.-THE Wars Over.
Lincoln Killed. jeff Davis Ran Away
with the Money"
Our old man gave a hurrah for the
first sentence, a sort of groan at the
next. The Catherine was now nearly
ahead of US. As a parting favor the
man over the side painted the figures
to express the longitude according to
their reckoning. That ended the in
terview. A few hours after she was
out of sight and never saw the ship
again. american.