Middletown transcript., 1888-09-06

with that, bat the captain came at M
again, and this time I gave him all b
wanted. Not man raised hand o.
voice, and I gave the brute such 9
drubbing that he did not get out Of
the cabin for five days. Then it was
to signal an English man of war. We
were boarded by an officer. I was
| given in charge as mutineer, and
four months later was put on trial in
Liverpool. Ihad only received a full
acquittai at the hands of the jury, but
was complimented on all sides, and
captain and mate were both suspended
from duty for term. The affair
raised a great talk, as may be suppos-
ed, and it was a seed which could have
been well planted. A few sailors did
profit by it to assert their manhood for
time, but after a little things went
backward and became worse than ever.
Today, despite the romance of poets
and novelists, the average salt water
sailor is cringing coward. The law
| gives him every right, but he dares not
stand up to single one. He has less
personal independence than a state
prison convict.
My second voyage, which had to be
made under another name, as all cap
tains had been warned against me, was
from Liverpool to San Francisco in
the bark Enchantress. - Just why
captain and mates let me alone never
knew, for others who did their duty as
well were grossly abused but I was
not even threatened during the voyage.
Before we had been week out the
mate broke mans nose with belay-
ing pin. Next day he cut open
mans scalp in terrible manner. On
the third day the captain knocked two
men down, breaking several teeth for
one of them. The second mate, a day
or TWO later, kicked a sailor in the
side and broke two of his ribs. When
we arrived at San Francisco I took thir-
teen of the men, all of whom suffered
personal violence and three Of whom
had to go to the hospital, and went
before the English consul. He sent
for the captain and mates, heard their
statements, and then dismissed us,
with the threat of sending us to prison
if we made any further ado. I went
to the United States authorities, Sc
cured the arrest of the officers, and
the captain was fined $400, the first
mate $3.50 and the second $3.50. And
yet, on the return voyage-which was
new crew-every man was beaten
like dog, and the ship went into
Liverpool with half the crew unable to
pull rope.
I made third voyage before the
mast before taking a berth as first
mate. This was on the brig "Good
INTENT" bound from Plymouth to the
Canary Islands. We left port one
man short, simply to save money for
the owners. Our bread was full of
weevil and worms, and, the pork so
tainted that an open barrel of it would
scent the whole brig. We had not |
the boats required by law, and we had
no medicines aboard-not even dose
of salts. Within week the first two
officers got so intoxicated that they |
could not take an observation at noon, |
and for three days our position was un-
known to them. The captain while |
drunk, upset lamp and set the cabin |
on fire, and his chief officer, while in |
the same condition, fell overheard and |
narrowly escaped drowning. We for
feited our insurance no less than three
times, and for the last 300 miles of our
voyage we ran by sights, which took
myself and worked out. There wasn't
q day without it's brutal treatment Of
the men, two of whom were fired upon |
by the captain, and yet when we final
ly made port not sailor could I get to
join me in legal statement. The
brig, cargo and all our lives were in
constant menace, every right was de.
MED to us, and men were never more
brutally used !; and yet the captain and
mates were permitted to escape with
out even complaint. New York
Sun.
The Workingman and the Tariff.
What the Workingmen of this coun-
try want is plenty of work at higher
prices. Neither can be obtained un-
less we can manufacture cheaply for
wider markets. You cannot manu-.
facture cheap unless the raw material
Is cheap, and We must undersell our
competitors in order to get markets
al over the world. Americans desire
40 Chinese wall thrown around them.
The country cannot get rich by it's
people exchanging products with each