, 1891-01-09
4 LETTER THAT CAME
IT CAST A GLOOM OVER = NAVY
OFFICERS WHOLE LIFE

At the Time He Was Aboard a NIan-o'-
war-The pilot Letter" That DID the
Nuschier-It Was n Wen written Let
ter. but 1t Misoarried.
The officers of the mess were sitting
around the wardroOm table. 1t was just
after dinner. They were telling stories
Of shipwreck and disaster. Each one. it
appeared. had had a more terrifying ex-
p~erieuce than the one who spoke imme-
diately before him. All had spu their
yarns but one. He smoked refectively
in silence for a few minutes. Then he
said:
We'll, gentlemen, you have all had
many unpleasant, ome frightful, expert
ences. The story / am about to relate to
you, however, will prove, as you will all
admit when you hear it, far more terri
BILE than any yet told. The events hap
pened a number Of years ago, but they
have cast a gloom over my whole life"
The officer stopped and pulled. upon
his cigar in silence for a while. The 9TH
ers settled int attitudes Of attention
The officer went on:
Some here are young in the service.
aAAAAA a. - A1AAAEAAAbtA nAAEAA 1 10 AlG
i~nvariable custom for a man-o'-war to
take a pilot aboard upon leaving port.
At this time I was on the Pacific station.
Our home port was San Francisco. so l..
hired a house there and settled my wife
in it. At that period the pilot letter
was al institution among the officers Of
tine ship. After we weighed anchor and
began steaming down the bay all hands
would hurry to their rooms and write
farewell letters TO their wives, sHeet-
hearts and mothers.
II LETTER.
These letters were taken ashore by the
pilot when he left us outside. Ono day
we were ordered TO the South Racifc for
a long cruise. | bid farewell to my
weeping wife, who was sure she would
never see me again, and promised her
most faithfully l would send her a long
pilot letter. That was at night, and we
expected TO weigh anchor the next morn
ing. Ispent the night aboard. and got
up early. | had some time on my hands.
That letter was u burden on my mind,
so ! concluded to write it then and get 1t
GU of the way. | did so. 1 wrote at
length, for my heart was full. To be
sure, we did not expect to weigh anchor
for several hours, but rs | wanted to be
realistic. 1 { described how wo did ii, and
then proceeded to describe our passage
out through the Golden Gate. 1 had
gone out many times before, and knew
the whole scene perfectly. depicted it
in graphic colors.
Il told of the beauties of the city.
growing smaller and smaller and finally
disappearing; Of the harbor ~fortifoa-
tons as they doomed up by turns and
by turns faded away, of the glo-
rious effect Of the late afternoon sun
upon the receding Californian shores; Of
my feelings as | reflected that | might
never see those lessening shores or my
dear wife again. II WAS an affecting
letter, and you win pardon the vanity
n well written one. II bore upon il the
stamp of sincerity. Finally | told her
that the pilot was now about to leave us
alone upon the bottomless deep. and that
| must close. | ended with something
ineoherent, and signed my nam hur-
riedly. Then l directed and stamped it
and dropped It into the ships letter box
for thep pilot to take ashore when he left
us in the evening.
HOW II LETTER MIsCARRIED.
We'll, the pilot came aboard about o
o'clock, and we began to weigh anchor.
OF course everything was confusion
there. About IL o'clock 1t was suddenly
discovered hat there was trouble with
the steering gear which had been over
looked was detailed to direct the
repairing. About noon | reported to the
captain that the difficulty of getting ut
the trouble was such hat we would not
be able TO start before night. 1t appeared
afterward that the captain Immediately
sent the pilot off. deciding not to start
before morning. About shutdown | re-
ported everything as ship shape, and
that we were ready for nm early start.
The captain was pleased, and readily
granted the request made by half a
dozen of us TO go ashore overnight. We
were rowed ashore, n jolly crowd, and
as ! hurried home | pictured to myself
my wife's glad surprise,
But | cannot describe to you the ex-
tent of my wife's surprise when she saw
me. It surprised me, and her curious
bearing for the next two hours. some
times merry-almost TO the point of hys-
terra. and then apparently depressed and
even sad-puzzled me very much After
supper she settled down in a calm mood.
which, however. seemed only a covering
fer suppressed feelings of some sort |
stretched myself at ease on the lounge.
and she seated herself beside me. Pres
entity, without warning, she began to
read to me aloud. AT the end of the
first sentence | bounced up as if ! had
been slapped in the face.
AT the end of the second sentence |
reached out for the paper she vas read
ing. But she made a gesture of com
mand, and actually compelled me to sit
still and listen to every word of that
wrotched pilot letter which | had writ
tan her that morning. Yes, notwith-
standing our decision to remain at
anchor overnight, that wretched pilot
had actually brought my letter ashore at
noon and mailedit I, have wished many
times since that | had choked him the
next morning New York Sun.