The morning call., 1891-01-25

nesses. In this respect the Orientas seem
10 nave the advantage of us and we would
do well to adopt their practice.
Tips.
The OcciGent is steadily permitting GER
tain Objectionable ways of the Orient to be-
come established here. Time was and not
so very long ago, wien the born Ameri-
can who WAS employed for stipulated wages
would scorn to accept fee for the perform
ance of his regular duties, and it would have
been an insult to him to offer it. The influx
Of foreigners and their influence upon the
American wage-worker have changed all
that, and the native born vies with the exotic
in his expectation of fees for legitimate ser
vices and In his ability to make things uu-
pleasant foE him who refuses to give them.
This is particularly observable in hotels,
restaurants, parlor and sleeping cars, on
steamboats, and in all places where the
traveller for business or pleasure finds his
way, and the evil is growing year by
yeHr. The Christmas season is becoming
time of dread and discomfort on account
OF Its financial eXacllouS, and in some of
our cities here are many who flee to the
country Just before the holidays and remain
away until their termination in order to
esca pc the annUyanceS that Christmas aud
New cars Inevitably bring. Employees
have come to look upon gifts of money as
their right, and no. as matter of option
with those who pay regularly for their SER
vices, and she worst of the business is that
they are rarely satisfied. Here again, the
customs of the Orient are finding n foothold.
In Egypt, Syria, Palestine aud other ORR
enlai places the recipient of your back
SheeSh, in return for his services as guide,
porter, waiter, or anything else, is rarely
satisfied with 1t, no matter now liberal You
may have been. He indicates his dissalis-
faction by thrusting the money back into
yonr hand again or dropping it at your feet
ana al the same time he eleyates his nose in
manner that would make Ny Dear Lady
Disdain turn pale with envy | have heard
OF several instances in the recent holiday
season where employees returned to tteir
employers the Christmas gifts lin money!
which they had received. In one case the
returned money was IncloSed in letter,
which said " SirS-I return your Christmas
present, as l do not consider it sufficient"
The employer quietly pGcketed the cash and
made no allusion to it then or afterward
and now the employed greatly regrets his
lmpudrnt action and IS seeking the least dis
agreeable method of humbling himself suffi-
Gently TO ask his benefaetor to forgive the
impndence and to give again what was so
perempt0rily declined. Here again the Dc
cIdent initiates the Orient. When the re-
ceIver OF backsheesh in the countries named
thrustS II INTO ones hand as described the
experienced traveller drops it into his pocket
and walks away. Then the party of the
second part comes after him and begs, en-
treats, supplicates and even sheds tears to
obtain the very gift he refused a moment
before. l have seen an Arab roll on the
ground IN agony Tor rage and cry like a child
under such circumstances, and he was not a
boy. either, but full-grown, able bodied
man.
The Sea.
Does any boy, oTman, think how much the
sea has lost in its poetry since the steam
engine took the place of sails for propulsion,
and the ironclad battle-ship superseded the
glorious Old three decker? This fact came
foreibly to my mind this week when | was
looking at an account of a battle between
the leets OF Chilli and Peru. in the last war
between those countries, and comparing it
with Trafalgar. Navarino, the attack Of Sir
Francis Drake on the Spanish Armada, or
the battles described in Marryats novels
Compare MarryaCs account of the battles of
the Texe q think it is in Peter Simple'),
where the Dutch lost fifteen ships, and were
sadly defeated by the English with any
naval fight of the last thirty years, and note
the difference IN opportunities for graphic
description. Ships or fleets approaching
each other under full sail, maneuvering for
the weather gauge, damage to sails or rig
ging. seeking a position to rake ones adj
versary fore and aft, and nearly everything
that gees to aid the pen of the narrator or
the tongue of the veteran at the nreside, all
are absent III the modern story of battle.
the Monitor and the Merrimac in Hampton
Roads in the late civil war; and that of the
Constitution and Java off the coast of Brazil
in the war of 1872, and also with other bat
ties in which the Constitution was engaged
and note the difference In the fight of the
ironcladS not man is visible on the deck of
either, and as for rigging to be shot away
and sails to be handled during the action
there are none at all. The battle consists
almost wholly of the discharge of cannon
r nd
there is little else to describe, while in the
meeting of the oid-timers there is
great deal to be told. The British
ship had the position to windward
and bore down upon her antagonist
they began at O'clock and fought for hall
an hour at short range, and the wheel of the
Constitution was shot away, but her Cap
tain, cambridge, managed his crippled ship
so that lie got IN rdking fire on the Java;
then the two vessels ran free with the wind
on their quarter, and at o'clock the Java
sought TO close in by running down on the
CONSTITUTIONS quarter. Her Jibboom pene-
trateu the mlzZen rigging OF the American
ship, and-but I'm not Intending TO give the
whole story, and only offer the above as a
sample to show how prosaIc steam and iron
have made us to-day. Even the old sailor
phrases must give way to new ones; The
mariner can no longer exclaim ''Shiver my
tmherSW as there are no tmbers t. be
>shivered. He may say ''Dent my plates !"
but this phrase has not the nautical ring.
The New War-Ships.
Speaking recently with an naval officer
about the new ships of war which carry the
American flag he told me that the new
cruiser. the Maine, could destroy a whole
fleet of the old time war vessels at her Ieis-
ure, while they could inflict hardly any dam
age upon her. The same remark has been
made in England about the modern war
ship, in comparison with the old-fashioned
wooden craft with which the brilliant reco rd
of the British Navy was made The old
Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar
where he met his DEATH was a four-deckpr.
carrying ninety-siX guns and pro-
porlonate number of men. The new SHIN
III the same name is an ironclad, with
not one-tenth that number of guns, and
as she lies at the side of the veteran whose
name she bears she resembles pigmy at
the side of giant. Yet the new Victory
would be more than match for the old. as
the tiger Is more than a match for the ele-
phant Every ball from the old Victory
would glance harmlessly from the armor of
The new one, while the shot of the latter
would crash through the sides of her vener-
bic antagonist, and the t0rpedoes which she
can launch would complete the work of de-
struction in very short time. Progress in
the ways of war is as rapid as i'll the ways
of peace. Ills like the stage-eonch of the
time of Trafalgar QS05) compared with the
express train on the railway of to-day.
An Intelligent Fox Terrier.
A friend told me Il few days ago an inter-
esting story of intelligence in a fox terrier
answering to the name of Flora. She be-