Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-01-25

microscopic eye. inspected each crack
and seam after the boys Iabors, In search
Of atomic particles Of dirt, and called
them back with all the dignity Of COM
mand. and small amount Of command
ing personality behind II, whenever he
deemed he had discovered any. When
this labor was finished ! was generally
40 exhausted as to have no appetite for
breakfast. But q sailors stomach is not
presumed to be at all sensitive under
any conditions And above all, q "boy"
"a boy belonging to q squad Of boys
who about once day were encouraged
and enthused to exertion and maritime
ambition by the assurance conveyed them
by one OF the mates that they weren't
"worth their salt" - what business
had boys stomach to put on
airs at sea2 Most landsmen, IL
calledup at 4 o'clock on a muggy morn
ing and worked like mules for q couple
Of hours on a digestive vacuum, would
probably at the breakfast hour feel more
the need Of food than the appetite 10 par
take OF II.
Though followed the sea nearly two
years, / um no sailor. The net result OF
my maritime experience is capacity for
tying bow line or square knot and a
positive knowledge and conviction con-
cerning which end Of the ship goes first.
! also know enough not TO throw hot
ashes to windward.
But on a yard could never do much
else but hold on. The foolhardy men
about me would lilo out fat on their
stomachs amid the darkness and storm,
and expose themselves to the risk OF
pitching headlong into the sea in the
most reckless manner while trying TO
'spill the wind" out Of t'gallant sail
lived up to the maritime maxim of tone
hand for yourself and the other for the
owners" kept both hands for myself,
and that kept me from going overheard.
What would the owners have cared had
I gone overheard? Nothing. Such an
occurrence twenty-five odd years ago
would, weeks afterward, have been re-
ported in the marine news this way,
Common sailor, very common sailor,
fell from t'gallant yard of Cape Horn
and lost"
The owner would have secretly re.
joiccd, as he bought his Christmas toys
for his children, that the t'gallant yard
had not gone with the sailor. No; on
yard in storm believed and lived up
to the maxim; "Hold fast to that which
is good" The yard was good. Yet was
ambitious when boy 6efore the mast
on the clipper which brought me to Cal.
ifornia. was quick 20 get into the rig.
ging when there was anything to do
aloft But once in the rigging was OF
little utility.
The first time l went up at night to
loose one Of tho royals, ! thought ]
should never stop climbing. The deck
soon vanished in the darkness of very
black tropical night, tho mastheads
were likewise lost In Cimmerian OBJ
scurity--whatever that is. At last ]
found the yard. wasn't quite sure
whether il was the right one or not.
didn't know exactly what TO do. Iknew
l had to unite something somewhere.
But where2 Meantime the savage Scotch
second mate was believing. as il then
seemed, mile below me. ! knew the
below was for me. | had to do some.
thing, and l commenced doing. / did
know, or rather guessed, enough TO cast
off the lee and weather gaskets, or lines
which bind the sail when furled to the
yard, and then made them up into a
most slovenly knot. But the bunt gas
ket thc line binding the middle aud
most bulky portion Of the saiD bothered
mo. couldn't unite it. Ipicked away
at 1t desperately, tore my nails and skin
ming my knuckles,s
The believing from below continued
as fercely as ever, which, though not
intelligible as TO words, was certainly
exhorting me, and me only, to vigilance.
Then the watch got tired waiting Tor me-
hoisting. They hoisted the yard to its
proper place and me with It. clung on
and went up higher. That. by the way,
always comes Of holding fast to that
which is good. Then mans head came
bobbing up out Of the darkness. II was
that of a good natured Nantucket boy,
whose name Of course wae Coffin. He
asked me the trouble. went into
a lengthy explanation about the
unmanageable knot. "Oh, the knott"
said he. "Cut itr' and he cut it. /
would never have cut it. In my then
and even present nautical ignorance !
should have expected the mast or yard
to have fallen from cutting anything
aloft. Only few days previous had
seen the captain on the quarter deck
jumping up and down in his tracks with
rage because a common seaman had, by
mistake, cut miz2en brace, and the sec
ond mate, as usual, had jumped up and
down on the seaman when he reached
the deck. feared TO set a similar jump
ing process in operation. Coming on
deck after my lengthy and blundering
sojourn loosing royal, expected To be
mauled to a pulp for my stupidity. But
both watch and bellowing mate had gone
below and heard no more of it,
A few days after my unsuccessful as
cension, the Wizard one morning shot
through bank Of fog and San Fran
CISCO lay before us.
PRENTICE MULFoRD.
New breeding Farm.