Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-30
The CAPTAINS GRIP.

An old California friend-John Wilson
let us call him for CONFERENCE.-THE beel
strolling about New York, refreshing hi
memory, visiting new points of interest
and generally stalking in" the sights. Ii
plotting him around the city l natural,
stumbled upon the Eden Musee and tool
him in to see the grisly groups and tab
leaux in the crypt. He was very much
interested in them and repeatedly ex-
pressed surprise and admiration 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 representation of Clusters last hight;
but | observed that he could hardly take
his eyes off group of figures in Oriental
costumes, and that for some minutes after
examining that group he continued grave
and absent-minded Presently, at lunch
con. / asked Jack what particular men,
ory that Oriental tableau had stimulates
/ put the question adyisedly, because I
knew that my friend had seen men and
cities and experienced many and strange
adventures, and all his stories were good,
while most of them were apt to be new So
/ deliberately angled for yarn, feeling
that it would harmonic better with a
cigar than fresh descent into the streets
Jack, on being questioned, fell once more
into his distracted mood, and after min
ute of silence said slowly:
81 was thinking of group once saw,
not composed of wax figures, yet as rigid
and motionless, in which an Oriental bore
conspicuous part"
After this beginning, of course, did
not let Jack go until he had told his
story, and what he said is now reproduced
here:
"After the close of the war / found it
impossible to settle down again to hum
drum work, but soon found that if was
in search of adventure it would be neces-
sary 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-making tendencies of
the nation seemed stimulated to the utter
most Speculation was booming; the war
spirit had put unheard-of audacity into all
kinds of commercial enterprises and, gen.
orally, the hour Of the capable had come.
] did not happen to be one of these. |
had little money-enough to live upon
comfortably-and l felt no inclination to
go grubbing for more. Action, excite
ment, picturesqueness, the unexpected,
were what desired, and | began looking
over the world for some situation contain
ing a promise.
''At last got tired of waiting and tried
to compromise with myself by a course of
drifting. l drifted to the Pacific coast,
then to the Sandwich Islands; from there
to Japan, and after stay of several
months in one of the most interesting
countries and among the most delightful
people | know, found my way to Canton.
This was some time after Horatio E.
Laws fiasco. You remember about that
No? Well, this Lay was a blue-blooded
English diplomatic fellow, who thought
he could do stroke of business for him
self by undertaking to organize 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 or
built lot of gunboats, fitted them out for
service and engaged Captain Sherrard
Osborne, a gallant naval officer, to COM
mand the squadron.
"But this was not what the Chinese
wanted Their idea was to man the YES
sells with their own people, and give them
native officers too. Of course, this would
have resulted in one of two ways: either
the pirates would have captured the gun
boats promptly, or the commanders of the
gunboats would have gone intopartnership
with the pirates. That, however, was no.
body's business but that of the Govern
ment whose subjects were cutting one
another's Threats. Lay was repudiated;
the contracts made by him were rejected,
and finally, Sir F. Bruce solved the diff
Guilty by taking Osborne's fiotilla of the
hands of the Chinese Government. Most
of the gunboats 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 Of
ficers, and even a 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 / heard that they
were looking about for some one to COM
mand her jumped at the opportunity and
fastened to offer my services. You know
/ was in the navy before the war, and
had passed good examination in steam,
s. felt myself competent to manage this
gunboat, which was only small craft cal
culated 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 drilling them into
something like working order / was ready
for sea.
"The Chinese authorities had considered
that it would be we'll to make the trial
trip pay expenses, if possible, by extending
the tests so as to ascertain what the gun
boat was good for in action. AT that time
the mouth of Pearl river was infested by
piratieal iunks which found shelter and
easy means of escape in the numerous
small islands and estuaries into which the
delta of that wide stream is divided. The
pirates usually confined their attention TO
the craft of their own eountrymen, but oc-
casionally, when the grist was very short
or the opportunity very tempting, they
would attack some small foreign merchant
man; and, in these cases, they made it a
rule to kill every soul on board, as the
simplest way of preventing those foreign
protests which were sure TO STIR the man.
darins up to serious crusade against
them.
"You, of course, understand that piracy
Ifk.~1a A.al kofrofnS
crime. The Monaghan view of the bust
ness is pretty much that which all the
and seventeenth centuries; only there is
less romance and more practicability about
the pigtails. Very respectable Chinese
business men interest themselves in piracy