Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-24
[ HOTEL CORRIDORS

Henry Ricord passed through Washing
ton yesterday on his way to his home in
-Tuscumbia, Ala. Mr.. Ricord has just re-
turned from visit to the orient, and when
seen at the Riggs House last night did not
see any ground for doubt that Japan and
China would go to war over the Corean
question. ION our way from Japan" said
Mr.. Ricord, I'VE met a large number of
japanese transports bearing troops to Co.
rea, as well as several gunboats. The fact
Is that Japan Is very anxious for a war
with China, in my opinion. Anything that
VIII serve to divert the attention of the
people from the lively political conflict that
is progressing with such bitterness in the
empire would be welcomed. The two great
parties in Japan are the conservatives and
the progressionists. The conservatives don't
like the new constitution and they want to
abolish the treaty under which foreigners
in open ports are subject to the jurisdiction
OF the consuls of their respective countries
alone instead of the Japanese courts. The
effect OF such action would be - hurry
every foreigner doing business in Japan
out OF the country, except the missionaries.
The progressionists are championing the re-
tentfon of existing treaties, and the spats
between, the leaders Of the two parties in
the national legislature of Japan are as
exciting as the differences up there I'm the
white marble building on the hill. The
Japanese appear to be pretty confident of
being able to whip China If II comes to a
real fight. because they feel that Russia
and France would take a hand, and that
the eventual outcome of the difficulty would
be the partition Of Corea's territory be-
tween Japan and Russia"
The work Of a car tracer for one of the
big railroad companies is an interesting
avocation." said George Cartwright of In
dianapoiis at Wormleys this morning II,
held the position for some time with the
Chicago. Burlington and Quincy road, and
the last car 1 found for the company was
on a siding Of the Mexican Central railroad,
900 miles from the place il ought to have
been. 1t seems to be preposterous at first
glance. to think that such a thing as a rail-
read car could get lost, but right this
mute in the United States / venture to
say there are 800 or 400 strayed or stolen
freight cars that the tracers are doing their
level best to locate and recover. They get
lost as easy as rolling off a log. For in
stance, a shipper along the line of the G.
u. and O. will send carload of freight to
some point in the south, Memphis, for in
stance. When the car is unloaded the road
upon whose tracks 1t may be at the time may
need car at once, AMI have none of its
own at hand. 1t is customary for the big
roads to use each others cars in such
emergencies. SO the e. b. and q. car is
| taken, and Off II goes. perhaps into another
system. In this way ii gets mixed up. The
company using ii neglects or forgets to
notify the company owning IL of the tenn
porary use Ii has been put to. and when IL
is finally missed the car tracer goes out
after it, When a freight train is wreck ed
and the cars composing ii destroyed by
fire, as Is so frequently the case, the car
tracer has work ahead of him also, as some
car belonging to his system is liable to be
in the destroyed train. Recently car tracers
from all over the country have been gather
Ing In Chicago and at other points where
the trains have been burned. trying to find
out about their particular cars. and 1 have
been mighty glad that I'm no longer in
| the business"
THE recent ruling of the Navy Depart
ment that sailors shall receive their pay
every month is a very fair and just propo-
| sition on its face but think it will play
the dickens with discipline aboard Ship"
| said well-known naval officer at the
| Ebbitt this morning. with money in his
| pocket and some place to spend it dead in
| sight Jack is a pretty nervous and restless
| individual, and / believe the new order Of
| things will Increase the percentage of de-
sertions from the navy to very high
| figure. The average sailor man is a queer
combination, and his chief pleasure, as 4
| rule. " found in dalliance with drink While
drunkenness In the navy is not as prevalent
now as II was some years ago, still there
are few teetotalers among the men. OF
| course there are very rigid rules which
prevent the Introduction of liquor among
enlisted men on board ship, but they still
manage to get II in variety of ways.
remember once when down in the West
Indies 1 was acting as officer of the deck
and a boat load of half-tipsy Jacks came
aboard. My attention was called to the
rather rotund appearance of a sailor whose
nickname was Skinny Jack The man
was attenuated to such an extent that it
gave one a pain to look at him, and yet on
this day, while his face retained its
hatchet-like sharpness his body appeared
to be almost dropsical in its rotundity.
made up my mind to find out what it
meant, so / ordered all the returning sailors
to stand aside and be searched. Every.
n others son of those men had a long skin,
such as sausage Is stuffed in, half filed
with rum and wound around his body
beneath his shirt. Skinny Jack in
trying to carry out his desire to bring more
than his share of the contraband liquor
aboard, had allowed his ambition TO DER
leap itself, and he was wound two or three
layers deep with skin bags full of rum.
You never saw such utterly miserable
set of men In your life as those fellows
were when the Quartermaster took the
skins to the side and cut holes in them and
after allowing the fiery liquor to run over
board, threw the skins after it, That very
night, though, Skinny Jack became up
Il ariousy drunk, and we were all at a loss
TO find out where he got the liquor. 1t was
discovered that the shillalah-looking stick
that Jack had been in the habit of car
rying on his excursions ashore was hollow
from its stem to its stern, and that he had
brought it back filled with liquor, so. in
spite of the confiscation of the skins of
rum, Jack had managed to bring enough
aboard to get drunk on anyhow.
Il was once on another boat away out at
sea when we began to notice drunkenness
quarters was made and not a sign of liquor
discovered Still he al