The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1891-08-15
IN THE ENGINE ROOM.

g New York His partners only daughter
: was to be my wife when should return.
j was student in q Vienna hospital
fIwhen received cable from home that
the old house had failed. 1t proved to be
an honest failure and both families were
! Ibeggars.
\ l counted my pocketbook from cover to
cover. had just enough to leave free of
debt and get to Liverpool. How to crossf
: Well, swim II necessary.
In the Liverpool steamer Office was an
glold Harvard college mate. This embar-
raised me. He owed me grudge from the
football days at Berkeley Oval. An Eng
lishman seldom forgets.
Il Determined TO work my passage over, I
entered what | supposed was not the Office
where my old competitor was manager.
.Idid not see him, but he must have caught
sight OF me. l was surprised with the
n promptness with which was told to 20 on
board the c., and something would be
found for me to do.
j Two days out | was called to the can
! tain's own room, insulted with the charge.
at first politely put Of being a stowaway,
and finally stung to madness bitter enough
! to obey silently when the officer said, "If
you really don't want to steal your passage
go report to the engineer and shovel coal"
4 This did. My experience want to de-
scribe 1t is common enough to hundreds
OF poor scamps this very moment all over
the seas. But, God pity them, they have
not the tongue to tell, nor, perhaps, always
the senslbilities TO feel, what their life
really is. 5...e
4 Dizzy already with tho tossings of the
sea, staggered down those series of iron
stairways till / stood at last on the ships
lowest deck. Behind me were the vast
bunkers of coal that glistened from mill
lion eyes when the furnace doors were
Opened, and then faded out of sight Be-
fore me the huge pillows of flames rose,
not silent, but roaring monsters, so hungry
that the pygmies who fed them jumped to
their tasks till the sweat rolled from their
bare backs. The heat was to one descend
!. ing from the pure breath of the Atlantic
something fearful. 1 was dressed in my
ordislary attire, and even an oyercoat at
that, so precipitate had been my action.
J, The smell of baking lubricants and red hot
iron, the dead air, poisoned with coal gas
and bilge water odors, the dust, despite all
showering, but most of all the sudden
transition from white light to blacklist
darkness, momentarily proceeding, as this
and that furnace door was opened aud
shut, almost felled me to the floor
4 As | stumbled and caught my hold on
the stair rail again, the hardy fellows
shouted, give us your shilling and go
backp supposing that was curious pas
senger seeing the sights OF the ship.
\ The voices of derision reused me. was
no passenger | was an honest begpar like
the rest, and here was to be imprisoned
for week, watch on and Off
In frenzy | tore OFF my clothing till I
stood In my trousers and shoes like my
fellows. ! stated my hiring to the fellow
i'm charge of the watch, and he gave me my
shovel with a plying laugh.
I was put at the boiler nearest the stair.
The midships would have been less
drunken spot, but l leaped at the hardest
of the task.
vital breath. The corrugated flooring, pol
ished till it was glossy smooth in spots,
tangled my poor feet SO that repeatedly
fell. All, that sense of whirling, whirling,
Iwhirlingl How little the fair folk In the
cabins know of all this plutonian hole be-
meath their carpets.
Really, thought could describe some
what the lurid fantasia amid these scarlet
skinned, good natured demons, but | can
not. Vertigo struck me down In less than
a half hour. The next / knew was Boz
lug revived in the companionway, and the
sea air was so grateful The ships sur
geon asked me IL | felt able to go to work
again, and courteously recognized that |
was not laborer. was graceless enough
to growl out my spleen and reassert that
was no stowaway, which the good doctor
did not understand
| turned to the assistant engineer, who
stood by, and asked him to give me job
of which might be capable.
Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he
walked off with command to "try him at
oiing"
Ed b, the head oiler-dear. brave
heart-l often go down to the dock to SEQ
him when in port here. but the engine is
as dear to him as bride, or would long
ago have bettered his fortunes-he took
me in hand.
We walked along those mere bird cages
of stairways and platforms, labyrinth OF
passages in forest of steel arms, wheels,
shafting and steam piping. 70 lands
man, young physician now, that endless
maze Of mighty anatomy is at first simply
awful. 1t sobers one, this sullen, ceaseless
throb of the mpnster's heart, the deep
breathing of the fteam chests, the sigh OF
the creatures spirit as the pistons mako
one move and yet one more herculean
thrust turning the crank shaft
Each time, as the piston slowly starts, it
seems as If 1t must be the last, and infinite
fatigue prevail. But no, it goes on, night
and day, motion, motion, motion. Don't
let me tire you, reader, but / do wish l
could express to you something of the
Solemn ippTxSsion that began to seize upop