The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-10-10
DANA'S OLD SHlPMArE.
a Survivor of "Two Years Before the Mast
Still Alive in California

Still Alive in California.
At Santa Barbara, San Pedro San
Juan, Capistrano and San Diego one is
sure to have 1.-TWO Years Before the
Mast and its author brought to ones
attention, not only from the pleasure
derived in noting how the remarkably
accurate and comprehensive descrip-
tions of the features of those places.
though written in 1885, are just as cor
rect in 1890, but this American classic
Is constantly brought to the front bv
residents of the places named, who take
local pride in the renown achieved by
the book, and so indirectly by the place
of their habitation. This local self
sufficiency and jealousy of other points
has become characteristic feature of
Southern Californians. Possibly prompt-
ed by this desire for little bit of local
notoriety, writes correspondent of the
New York Tribune from Los Angeles. a
friend who resides at San Diego writes
me that he has discovered human relic
in the grizzled, gnarled, sailed person
OF one Jack" Stewart, who claims to
have been sh pmate of Dana's on the
voyage of the Alert from this coast
to Boston, and whose story is
fully substantiated. When Jack
sprang ashore with Dana at
Boston, he was 1.-the, active, able sea-
man; to-day he is, my correspondent
writes "a decrepit, palsied old man of
eighty odd years. He sailed out of Bos-
ton barber on the Alert on her next trip
RI tho Wocf Coocf nd ho a
his Saxon energy in the Latinized lang
uor OF Spanish-American existence at
Old San Diego. 1 saw Jack recently.
He lives in an old adobe in the shadow
OF the ruins of the old mission church:
the house has no windows, no conven-
fences; the floor wore out possibly half
century ago but no one has had anv
time in which to repair it. 1t was prob
ably dilapitated years ago when Jack,
just in the first stage of being Mexican
lied, took to his casa his dark-skinned,
half Indian and half Spanish bride, per-
haps pretty then, but now wrinkled,
black old woman. Jack has daughter.
good-looklng young woman, who had
enough ambition to get common school
educat on, but to her, no more than to
her father. are repaired floors, windows,
or any thing else that requires much
time to secure, necessities
"Jack, after brief stay in Boston,
had sailed back to California on the
Alert as her second mate. She came in
to San Diego Bay to load up with hides
again, and here Jack had some hot
words with the captain, and by some
means getting his liberty came ashore
and stayed. asked him if he had ever
read Mr.. Dana's book. Yes, he
had heard Dana had written a
book about his seafaring life,
and he had bought copy of it and he
had read it until he came to part
which told how in nasty blow there
was reefng which Dana did because the
rest hung back and soldiered, and he
did not care to read any more. In fact,
the old sea-dog broadly intimated that
Dana had painted himself in very glow
ing colors. He did not seem to think
much of Dana as sailor nor as a
chronicler. l asked the brown-eyed,
black-haired daughter if she had read
the book. No, she had not read it. She
had not much time in which to read.
Jack, found, cared little or nothing
for any thing in the outside world. He
had rarely been away from Old Town
since the day he went ashore from the
Alert. All through the wonders worked
since 1s49 he has siestaed away life in his
adobe casa with his semi-raced, semi
tropic helpmate. He cared nothing for
the reflected greatness 1 tried to throw
upon him so | came away leaving the
two relics of the past of California, Jack
Stewart and Old Town, both of which
Mr.. Dana would recognize at glance
to-day, though both have been rudely
handled by time"
l hope my friend is not deceived.
There is poetic fitness in the idea of
old San Diego and this shipmate of
Dana's going through all these years of
decay together.