Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12

[TTSBURG DISPATCH.
Ages spoke of -Geziret-el-Nesro, where no
male being ever landed, and they had other
traditions of isles inhabited by immortal
women, similar to that described by the
Fijians as lying to the northwest OF their
archipelago. Old Marco Palo brought to
Europe traditions of such islands, and there
is still legendary Woman's Island near
Japan. Columbus reported of Martinique
that women were its only inhabitants. Fonee
islands, on the contrary were forbidden to
women. Such was the holy isle Iona, where
monks alone dwelt The wives of servitors
and tradesmen resided in the neigh
boring Woman's Island. The same
was reported of another prlestly
! island, Lindisfarsee. Neither women
nor hogs were allowed on the Isle OF
! Shoals prior to 1874, and women are still
prohibited on the Island Of Fernando
Novouha, and on Navassa Island, the scene
of recent tragedy. It was quite the fash
ion to place the middle ages heroines upon
islands in the sea, and Astolpho makes
Alcina inhabit an insular paradise, and IN
another were the enchanted gardens OF
Armida. Ovid tells us of a maiden,
Peumele, who was turned into an island,
and there are other Greek legends to the
same effect.
Popular proverbs connect woman with the
sea, usually to her disadvantage. Old
Greek and Latin proverbs were: "Fire, Sea
and Woman-three evils" and Italian and
Russian savings repeat the same. In Sicily
they say: "God keep US from the sea, from
fire and from women"
Woman, fire, Mars, wind and sea,
Make five ills of great degree;
reads an old French proverb. A Danish
slander upon the sex is, "When woman
has no answer ready, the sea will want
water" "Trust not the discourse of the
great, the duration of calm at sea, the
lucidlty ofthe day, the speed of thy horse, or
the speech Of woman" says Turkish pro-
verb. Two very old English proverbs con-
meet women further with the ship: "a ship
and woman are ever repairing" and "a
ship and woman always want trimming.
These also furnish reasons for the sailors
calling his ship "she.'' There are many
other alleged reasons for this. The ship is
capricious and fitful, ''the rigging costs more
than the hull, and looks best when fully
rigged out. The ship possesses many parts
of the female attire-has a waist, collar,
stays, laces, bonnets, ties, riblands, earrings,
chains, jewels and scarfs, and is full of pins,
hooks and eyes. The ship is the sailors
sweetheart, but the impressionable mariner
often divides his affections between this and
other loves.
MARRIAGE AND THE SEA
are connected by several pithy sayings, and
ludicrous a1ecdote illustrates the same
union. An old Scotch saying is: "Mar-
riage wsd tame the sea, if match could be
made for her." "When you walk" says
the Russian proverb, "pray once; when you
go to sea, pray twice; when going to be mar
,ried, pray three times"
Two French women were walking BY the
sea, and one, astonished by the high and
furious waves, asked the other: SIS the sea
married?" "No." "Ah, if it were only
weddedl promise you its friskiness would
be soon tamedP' Spaniards say: TUESDAY,
don't marry, 90 to sea, or leave your wife,"
while Italians have a similar proverb:
Friday, don't marry, don't travel"
"Give woman luck and cast her into the
sea, is an old English saying, and some
such sentiment must have prompted the
German who threw his wife overheard to
Tighten the ship in storm, saying: "All
freight lightens." An old epigram refers
to this or a similar anecdote:
What TYNE a troublous tempest rose and tost
the trembling seas;
Each one threw in his heaviest stuff the loaded
boat to ease;
But Molzus Zone among the restecast in his
wife, and saide,
Naught heavier than skolding wife deme
there can be waied'
Women are not famous as navigators, An
old French saying emphasizes this:
If the sea was never rou1h
Every woman would be sailor
Women are accounted as unlucky at sea,
and sailors used to dread seeing them on
board. Fishermen in many places do not
allow them near their boats or tackle, and
count it bad omen to meet
one early in the morning. Although
woman seems physically incapacitated from
the sailors calling, there have been in the |
annals of the sea, many notable instances of |
female sailors. In a few rare cases women |
have disguised themselves in male attire, |
and have been efficient as seafarers, while |
accounts OF the bravery and good seaman
ship of the wife of some merchant captain,
who has been driven to take her husbands |
place, come to us occasionally. In the |
records of shipwrecks, women |
often shine conspicuously as examples of |
fortitude, endurance, and resignation. There
are certain duties best performed by women,
and the multiplication of ocean travel has |
led to the employment of
AN AMAzoNIAN FLEET
of stewardesses, most of whom seem to be as |
little affected by the motion of the vessel as |
their male associates. Upon the great |
lakes there are many women employed as /
cooks on board the coasting schooners. One |
of the best amateur yacht sailors of modern |
days was the now deceased Lady Brassey, |
who seemed to delight in the life at sea. |
Since yachting has become so fashionable, |
more women are to be found at sea. If we |
argue from the habits of women in the |
islands of the Pacific, or in Greenland |
waters, women may become as much habit
uated to the waves and as skillful in the
management of boats as men. The oomiks
or woman boats" of Arctic regions are
manned BY females alone. Gilbert's satire
''The Hot Cross Bun" may but foreshadow
what we will see in the future, when some
gallant captain shall be prosecuted by the
attentions of amatory female seawomen.
The Ignorance of women concerning nauti-
cal things has made them the target for wits
on many occasions ''Pshaw," said a
who saw the ocean for the
first time, "the ebb and the flow is, after all,
nothing but green water" Another ex-
claimed: "Ahl the big pondl but if it over
flows shall be completely overwhelmedP'
The isherman's egotism in naming the At
lantic "the herring pond" was euualled by
the Breton washerwoman who cried out at
sight of the sea: "You have there a big
washing pond, but it will take many wash
ing stones to surround it.
F. L. BAssErT.