The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-07-27

never be able to say cock-surely,
/ pointing to a body, this is death
| The fellow might be in faint or in a
fit, or a catalePtic; ais body in deaths
straight-jacket, and the mind within
all alive and wondering what the deuce
had gone wrong outside. / ordered
him to be carried to his bunk and to be
| treated as If he was to be brought to,
and if that failed then to be slowed
away out of sight of the men, but not
| to be stitched up for a bit. so that if
there was any spark OF life in him it
might have a chance. The fact is
wanted to make sure he was a dead
man before he was tossed overheard
very proper feeling in me, no doubt,
| though there was touch of mOrbidity
in it, too, for, to tell the truth, the one
quiet horror of my life in those days
was the thought of being buried alive,
/ and what l feared for myself l was not
the sort Of man to put upon another.
Well, after two days we were all
| agreed that he was dead, so gave or
! ders for him to be stitched up and
| brought to the gangway, and next
morning after breakfast we held the
| service. 1t was always my desire that
matters of this kind should be carried
out with proper sOlemnity. / consid-
/ cred it worked a wholesome influence
among the sailors, who were made to
| understand that a dead seaman on the
! ocean was not to be treated as a dead
/ pauper out of the wOrk-house; that
/ show of respect and regret, at all
| events, should go to his funeral, since
/ a sEi pn-ate is a shipmate the wide
world over. The body, stitched in its
hammock, with a sinker slowed away
in the clews, was placed upon grating
and covered with the ensign. Then the
grating was lifted by four men and
brought to the rail, one end of it rest
ing there, the other end supported by
two men, who stood ready to whip off
the ensign and let the body slide when
the time should come for so doing. All
hands gathered around, washed and
clean. 1t was a quiet morning, light
breeze Of wind blowing, the ship under
all plain sail, every thing silent aloft,
the deck heaving slightly to the small
beam sea- l came out of the cabin
with my prayer book in my hand and
started to read, the men barring their
heads, with the grinding here and
there of a jaw upon hunk of tobacco
standing high in the cheek bone, and
much wistful and inquisitive peering
at poor Jacks outline by eyes bleared
by the gales of wind into which they
had stared. I was proceeding, reading
with great emphasis and sOlemnity,
when there arose from under the en-
sign a short, mufled, grooming sort of
cry of For Gods sake, cut me adrift
mates. I'm suffOcating.' The prayer
book fell from my hand; the two fell
lows who were holding the grating let
go of it and bolted forward, whereup-
on, off rolled the body on to the
deck amongst the feet of the sailors,
who, letting fly a vOlley of curses in
their alarm, bolted In all directions,
slime of them even jumping into the
rigging. Had a bomb-shell exploded
among us the clearance effected could
not have been more complete.
1.-The mates had run away as well
as the seamen, and the cOwardice of
all hands quickly put temper enough
in me to rally my nerves, Quick
bawled, cut the poor wretch adrift, or
he'll be suffocated in good earnest,
and it viii be a worse murder done
than had we buried him. On this the
chief mate and some of the others came
to the body, shouldering one another,
and ripped open the hammock. Well,
dead or alive, it would have been bet
ter to have given the thing its
last toss than have witnessed such a
sight. You see, it was warmish wealth
er, and the body besides had been-but
I'll say no more on that, only that
such an apparition rising before the
stoutest army that ever took the field
would have sent it flying without wait
ing for the bugles to sound. But he'd
called out that he was suffocating, and
we looked to see him move, all hands
coming up in punches at a time, till
there we were all of heaving and
squirming middle, with this horror in
the midst of us, and the men squirting
Juice in all directions through sheer
: loathing. If that man bent dead,
said the bo'sun, my eyes amt mates,
| Did he wriggle at alp said 1, address
ing one of the fellows who held the
. grating, before you let go and ran
awayP' The man answered he hadn't
noticed any movement. He spoke,
anyway said the mate. Well, pickle
my eyes for onions if there was ever 8
rummier start than this, cried the car
! penter, STOPPING to look close at the
man, and then recoiling with heave
of his breast and long wipe of his
mouth down the length of his hairy
arm. ordered the body to be carried
: to a cabin and put the second mate
along with a seaman to watch it; Sut
their report to me was that If the fell
/ low was alive he gave no signs of it.
but that, on the contrary, he initiated
= death so incomparably as to obige
| them to beg me to allow some others
, to relieve them, as they did not fee
strong enough to go on. Ithen viewed
the body myself, and, no longer having
a doubt, gave orders that it should be
stitched up afresh and once again
brought to the gangway. 1t was now
= eight bells in the afternoon. OF course
it was right that this old Jack should
, be buried decently, and I resolved to
= 90 through with the funeral service,
p but let it be known that there was
no obligation upon the men to attend
, outside the few who were needed to dc
the work Nevertheless, all hands
} turned up as before. Well, started tC
read as had in the morning, but at the
very moment OF my pronouncing the
/, same words 1 was delivering when the
interruption happened there came q
81 81. inc =
, half-smothered grOan or grunt OF
L..An- L u Ar.nNr-rr q