The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-19
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ODD INCIDENTS OF FOREIGN
TRAVRL AND OBsEHVATION-XIL

There is a Pathetic side to Travel-A
/ Ceremony OF Leaving Port Bringing
the Mists to Landward Looking Eyes.
/ Brutal Celebrity of Spanish Military
aeart-sobs" From Eriu.
! Early Moving PROFESSIONS to the
/ English Factories.
CCopvrigFf.l
| LONDON, March 6.-There is always a
deeply pathetic side e. travel, free as ones
/ heart may be from signs and shadows.
! Many times as you have witnessed it, there
/ is a little drama always performed as the
| great ocean steamers leave the port Of New
York, which brings the mist to your land
ward looking eyes.
If you are first trpper" it will thrill
! you deeper still. You have perhaps
wondered what that bronzed-faced man in
citizens clothing was doing up there among
the bespangled officers upon the bridge. He
seems the quietest fellow on board. His
eyes are singing out the row of channel
buoys, or, with glass rapidly scanning the
lower Jersey shores and the cleaning lines
OF the Long Island sands, or again glanclng
! az thls point or that along the sea horizon.
| His is an anxious face. The lines in it I'M
consciously picture the human look that
| Tells OF something lost, or OF great danger
| that there may be. | have seen men like
! him stand where he is with that same look,
| and the perspiration dropping from their
! faces IN streams In the coolest of weather.
This man Is not the ships captain; but
| while be stands there, now and then giving
low-toned order, he is absolutely the com-
mander or the ship. he is New York
| pllot: detailed from the lower Wall street
pilot Office to take your ship to sea. In
ordinary cases his fee would be based upon
| the ships tonnage. With the larger ocean
steamships a Jumped price is made. He
must remain aboard until Sandy Hook is
| passed, and as much farther out as the
steamer captain desires
Ii It be pleasant weather when you are
| abreast of Sandy Hook you will notice a
rowooat, yawl-built, manned by two men,
| putting out from the lightship anchored be-
| tween your steamer and the hook. The
| llRhtshlp 10 simply a New York harbor
| pllotboat, by pilot regulations made t. do
| her turn" of ''months standn in this I'M
savory, though often exciting, berth. Her
| crew are pilots 'prentices getting their first
| lessons and experience at pilots duties and
hardshlps. The boat being rowed briskly
your steamer in the channel is called a
| pilots punt" and the TWO oarsmen are
| knottily-built prentice lads of Is or 20
| years OF age. At the same moment the
punt heads for the steamer, the latter's
engines slow down. The punt and the
steamer meet at the point of an exact right
anglo Lines are cast; the punt made fast
70 float alongside the ships port side; and
the rope ladder is lowered.
Meantime the pilot has resigned his post
! on the bridge. The chief officer immedi-
ately takss his plsce. Stepping 70 the chart
| room the pilot certifies in the log book that
the ship has duly cleared the port of New
York; the ships commander certities to the
pilots fee, which p1lotags is paid by the
New York agents Of the line; and in a mo
ment more the pilot Is dropped" into the
waiting punt. By the ships rail stands the
purser, or the mail steward. A thousand
addenda good-bys have been hastily
written, sealed and stamped, and hundreds
OF kilograms lndited, between the docks
and the hook. These, the last slender
thread between land and home and the un-
alterHble finRiity Of your voyage, are let
down by line TO the pilot, who takes them
as with inconsistencies tenderness In his
arms.
In another instant che ships engines are
! again Numbering. The piles's punt shoots
straight Tor the llRhtship. The officer on
| the bridge mods to the boatswRiu whose
shrill whistle ''strikeB the flags" The quar-
| termssters bring down the ships 6hree
fisgs--ths "blue Peter" or sailIng~day flag
| from the foremost, the owners or "housen
| flag from the mainmasr, and the ensign
from the gatf-as a dead-shot hunter will
bring some gay bird Of passage from its
flight quiverinRly to his feet A farewell
| cheer rings out over the port side after the
departing pilot. Your voyage is now ire
vocably begun.
''El desertarW FL desersar" were the
low-toneG CALCULATIONS | heard all about me
one April morning in 1886, in the cabin of
the ferryboat Edouard Fessar, as it left the
Regla side of the 2mile trip across Havana
bay to the city. The cabin was we'll filed,
and in moment there came fussing and
Tuning through the narrow passage to the
forward cabin a Spanish sergeant and
guard, having in charge a man of most
pitiabe appearance. l made room quickly
so that two seats we're vacant near me, in
which the guard and his prisoner sat. the
latter next me, while the sergeant, bearing
| paper with dangling seal, strobe forward
q bit, pompous with the importance of his
mission and charge.
These ferries carry the gsyest of crowds
between Havana aud the beautiful suburbs
70 the east, but the entrance of the party
hushed the laughter and the pleasant sallies
| Of men and women instantly. All present
| seemed painfully exerting themselves to
ignore tbs presence of the little group, but
every one from time Co time stole secret
| glances at the deserter, and, we'll for hui
manity, not hard fell upon him. Some
old priests near seemed to be moving their
lips as if in prayer for him, and behind
many fan l could see the face of some
beautiful sonora or senorita in tears.
knew well enough what it all meant,
having once been soldier. But | did not
| at once catch the full import Of the brutal
celebrity of Spanish military revenge.
Shortly the guard closed hippant recital
TO passenger near him, to the effect that
the man had deserted him from the forces
! at Moro castle some weeks before, after a
tremendous hogging for some slight in
| fraction of discipline, had got 50 far as the
Jarnco mountains, where be bstiisd pursuit
for some tine, but finally had been run
down 10y blood-hounds.
All, yes" he nirily concluded, "hs will
really not even need breakfast again. The
oonsejo de guerra (court-martiaD is already
awaiting his arriValw
The dsserter was but hoy. He had a
fair face, too, round almost boyish, even
through the haunted look that had made
him an old man in terror and desperate
effort during those few weeks il the chapar-
raj. His clothing was in rags. and his bare
FLESH, SCARED and bloody, showed through.
HIS teet were partly bound with rags and
bark and thongs of the ribbon tree He
was bare-headed, his hair tangled 6nd
kuotty, aud in one place a saber-cut was
still opeu and bleeding. But he sat there
with his hands clinched and his fac3 like
piece of marble begrimed with mud.
Through the windows of the ferry the