The Portland daily press., 1890-07-04
THE CAPTAINS GRIP.
New York Ledger.l


sights. In plotting him round the city
naturally stumbled upon the Eden Mu-
see, and took him in to see the grisly
groups and tableaux in the crypt He
was very much interested in them and
repeatedly expressed surprise and admi-
ration at the skill of the workmanship
and the artistic and realistic effects of
the grouping and attitudes. Having
worn the blue during the civil war he
was especially attracted by the repre-
sentation of Clusters last fight; but OBJ
served that he could hardly take his eyes
off group of figures in oriental cos
tunes, and that for some minutes after
examining that group he continued
grave and absent minded. Presently, at
luncheon, asked Jack what particular
memory that oriental tableau had slim
ulated, l put the question advisedly,
because / knew that my friend had seen
men and cities and experienced many
and strange adventures, and all his sto-
ries were good, while most Of them were
apt to be new. So deliberately angled
for a yarn, feeling that it would har-
monte better with cigar than fresh
descent into the streets. Jack, ON being
questioned, fell once more into his alb
stracted mood, and, after q minute of
silence, said slowly:
Il was thinking Of group once saw,
not composed of wax figures, yet as rigid
and motionless, in which an Oriental
bore a conspicuous part"
After this beginning, of course, did
not let Jack go until he had told his
story and what he said is now repro
duced here:
"After the close of the wan found
it impossible to settle down again to
hundrum work, but l soon found that
| if | was in search of adventure it would
be necessary to try some other country
than my own. The United States was
at that time bound to make up for lost
| time. All the business and money max
| ing tendencies of the nation seemed
| stimulated to the uttermost Specula-
ton was booming; the war spirit had
| put unheard of audacity into all kinds
of commercial enterprises, and, gener-
ally, the hour of the capable had come.
| | did not happen to be Of these. | had
little money, enough to live upon
comfortably, and l felt no inclination to
| go a-grubbing for more. Action, excite
| ment, picturesqueness- tho unexpected
were what l desire3l, and l began look
ing over the world for some situation
containiGfg promise
I AT last I got tired of waiting and
tried to compromise with myself by a
| Of 6r-iff I 1..if 10 IL d.,
cific coast; then to the Sandwich Islands;
from there to Japan, and after stay of
several months in one of the most in
teresting countries and among the most
delightful people l know l found my
way to Canton. This was some time
after Horatio g. Lays fiasco. You re-
member about that? No? Well, this
Lay was a blue blooded English diplo-
matte fellow, who thought he could do a
stroke of business for himself by under
taking to organize a feet for the Chinese
| government wherewith to put down
| piracy, at that time very troublesome,
especially in and about Kwangtung.
Lay obtained some sort of authority,
went to England, bought OF built lot
of gunboats, fitted them out for service
and engaged Capt Sherard Osborne, a
| gallant naval officer, to command the
| squadron.
| But this was not what the Chinese
wanted. Their idea was to man the
vessels with their own people, and give
| them native officers, too. OF course,
this wonld have resulted in one of two
ways; either the pirates would have cap
tured the gunboats promptly, or the
commanders of the gunboats would have
| gone into partnership with the pirates.
That, however, was nobodys business
but that of the government, whose sub
| jects were cutting one anothers threats.
Lay was repudiated; the contracts made
by him were rejected. and, finally, Sir F.
Bruce solved the difficulty by taking
| Osborne's flotilla off the hands of the
| Chinese government. Most of the gun
boats were sent back to England, but
one at least remained, and the under
standing was that the government
would buy her if she proved up to her
| guarantees.
| ''Now, to test such boat, it was
clearly useless. to send her to sea with
Chinese officers; and even Chinese
crew could hardly do her justice in the
engine room and stoke hole. So it was
determined to make trial trip with a
scratch crew of white men; and when I
heard that they were looking about for
somebody to command her jumped at
the opportunity, and fastened to offer
my services You know l was in the
navy before the war, and had passed a
| good examination in steam, go felt my
self competent to manage this gunboat.
| which was only small craft, calculated
for shallow waters, and carrying a crew
Of one hundred men. Well, had
friends, and got the command; and
after the usual trouble in scraping a
ships company together, and then drill
ing them into something like working
order, was ready for sea.
"The Chinese authorities had consid-
cred that it would be as well to make the
trial trip pay expenses, if possible, by ex-
tending the tests SO as to ascertain what
| the gunboat was good for in action. At
| that time the mouth of Pearl river was
| infested by piratical junks, which found
shelter and easy means of escape in the
numerous small islands and estuaries into
| which the delta of that stream is divided.
| The pirates usually confined their atten-
tons to the craft Of their own country
men, but occasionally when the grist was
very short or the opportunity very tempt
| ing, they would attack some small foreign
| merchantmen; and, in these cases, they
made it a rule to kill every soul on board,
as the simplest way of preventing those
awkward foreign protests which were
sure to stir the mandarins up to a serious
crusade against them.
"You, of course, understand that pi-
racy in China is not regarded as helm
GUS crime. The Monaghan view of the
business is pretty much that which all
the western nations held in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth centuries; only there is
less romance and more practicability
about the pigtails. Very respectable
| chinese business men interest themselves
IN piracy along the Kwangtung coast,
just as staid old English merchants used
| TO interest themselves in smuggling a
hundred years ago, and nobody thinks
the worse OF a man for having been a
pirate, provided he has been lucky at
it. AS to the taking of life, there is
so much superfuous humanity in China,
and life there is so little worth living for
the majority, that public opinion is quite
Indifferent on the subject
"While had been drumming up my
crew in Canton had fallen in with an
American skipper who had for some time