New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-04-18
THE Old Maid CAPTAIN,
fine Little Romance Which the Steward
ess Told.

From N. Times.
81 have been going to sea these25
years" said the stewMdess of an
American coastWise steamer, one aft
ernoon recently, as she sat sewing in
The coy ladies' cabin of the vessel to
which she belonged, "and yet I was
never wrecked, nor has ship have
been on lost SO much as a spar while
= was aboard Yes, my life has been
very commonplace one. There has
been no romance in any way connect
ed with it; stop though, I did not
play very small part in romance
once. That happened fully 20 years
\ ago, and now it seems like dream; I
[sometimes wonder if it wasn't after
oil dream. 1t seems stranger to me
now than it did even then" The
worthy stewardess paused and far
away look in her eyes showed that
she was INDUCING inretrospection.
"When was young I went on sail
ing vessels instead of steamers" con-
6lnued the stewardess FsAbout 20
years ago-that was when I was
.Young-I visited some friends in the
country after a voyage, and then [
came to New York to find a ship. The
agent [ went to told me that could
go as steWardess on a ship bound to
Australia. THE skipper, said he, lis
good man, but he's a regular old
maid [ said that I didn't mind old
maids, and SO it was settled that I
was to go with the old maid captain
The next day went aboard and re-
ported to my new captain who was
called Harris. The captain was short
and rather slight built, with mild gray
eyes, but with q full, heavy black
beard. He seemed about 35 years
old. His hands were small and deli
cate, and his voice was high and lust
"a trifie shrill, and he walked up and
down the deck with a mincing sort Of
gait. Thinks /, Captain Harris, if
you wasn't skipper you'd have
made a first rate single woman 1
regularly despised him until the first
storm came on. Then he went on deck
and handled the ship in such a. way
that | could not but admit that he
was the best navigator I had ever
sailed under. Then [ began to think
better Of the old maid captain. new
er saw q captain so considerable of his
men, Ii one of them was the least bit
sick the captain would go into the
forecastle and attend to him as ten
derly as any nurse. And when the
weather was bad he would not allow
the mates to make the men do any
work that wasn't really necessary.
The mates used to make fun Of the
captain behind his back for being so
,considerate Of his men, but somehow
i thought it Was a good trait in him.
4 began to watch the captain closely
and Isoon made up my mind that
there was a mystery about that man.
Once on a pleasant evening came on
deck and saw the captain looking at
the red sunset with tears in his eyes,
At another time, when thought he
was on deck, / went into the after-cab-
IN for something. [ found him there.
What do you think he was doing?
Why, he was sewing and crying into
the bargain They are right in calling
you the old maid captain, thinks /.
''The mate, Mr.. Wood, was q tall,
fine looking down-easter about 35
years old. The captain seemed to
like him, but I thought how much he
,must envy his size and strength.
The captain, though, was much
the smarter man OF the Two. The
mate, somehow, seemed to take a
fancy to me-tor, as l said, was
young in those days. He was always
running into the cabin on some pre-
&ext to see me. But never encour-
aged him. You see was engaged to
he the mate OF another mate; and
that mate, poor fellow, was lost at
sea few years afterward. Although
the captain didn' seem to care much
about me, he didn't fancy the mates
taking a liking to me. That used to
puzzle me. One pleasant evening when
went on deck saw the captain, who
stood aft, looking admiringly at the
mate, who was sitting at the star
board gangway. When the captain
saw me come on deck he cave me a.
sort OF suspicious look, and when the
mate came up to me and began to
make himself agreeable, although as
said before / had not given him any
encouragement, glanced again at the
captain and there was an angry snap
in his eyes. He did not like to see
the mate and me together. That was
plain. But why should he object to
it so long as he didn't seem to care
for me himself / tried to hit on
some reason for this, but soon gave
the whole thing up as a mystery too
deep for me to attempt to solve.
One morning when we were in the
South Pacific some one cried out that