The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-30

strongly making up his mind; the ses-
sion was no short one. And this first
was followed by others in which he
F, showed the same keen Zest to learn
every fact attainalble concerning the
island realm that lay In the great ocean
on whose verge he was.
/ He chose the South Sea. It was a
generous choice; he chose it all. He
selected no particular region of ocean
in a sweep that is the very broadest
to be found on the earth, except where
the great southern ocean sweeps I'M
broken about the Antarctic pole and
frets the ice. He picked out no one
island of the thousands, reef-gdrt and
palm-crowned in those warm waters.
He took them all in one vision OF
health and made his plans to go to
the South Sea wherever the winds
would carry him. He is not the only
one on whom the spell Of the South
Sea has thus wrought, even the beach
conlbers bear witness to its magic,
and here and there some have come
out of the South Sea and long to go
back.
Secured the Yacht "Casco.''
In the harbor of San Francisco was
the schooner yacht Casco, owned by
Dr. Merritt of Oakland. In England
and here in New York many men had
not only men who knew him by word
of mouth, but men who had never
met him outside of their libraries.
But this yacht-owner held certain very
definite views on the general subject
of literature. He looked upon Bar
riers Burned Away" as the highest
mark in fiction, and he was oppressed
books must be making a pretty poor
living of it. Furthermore, he had
never heard of Stevenson and had
never seen one of his books. He was
one Of the men whom you would like
to drop into the middle of the New
Arabian Nights" and watch him try
to make sense out of what he was
Of his kind to drive shrewd bargain
when he was asked to give a charter
party of the Casco. The hire must be
all paid into bank beforehand; there
must be no loop-hole for bottomry in
foreign ports; all cost Of repairs must
rest on Stevenson, and DR.. Merritt's
own sailing master must go as cap
tain in order to see that all went well.
Even with all these restrictions, the
charter was accomplished and the
Stevenson party began to put the
Casco in readiness for voyaging to
nowhere in particular. The yacht was
a roomy two-masted schooner, cabin
aft, galley and lockers amidships and
forecastle forward, all under a flush
deck She had been in the South Seas
once before and had proved herself
not only a weatherly boat, but quite
comfortable in a sea.
Receiving Stevenson ON Board.
I was present at the ceremony when
she went into commission. She was
lying in Oakland creek at her usual
berth and the stores were being rat
tied aboard. I had brought down a
bunch of much marked charts and
/ several volumes of note books of ~ex-
periences in the South Seas for the
use of the voyagers. The cabin was
scene of disorder, mattresses were
heaped where it was not reasonable
to suppose any one could sleep in a
sea way. The places where mattresses
should have been were filled with a
mixed assortment of clothing and
cabin stores. To any but a seaman
| it would have seemed hopeless task
to attempt to restore order The cabin
hatch was darkened and Stevenson
came down the companion assisted by
his step-son, Lloyd Osborne Steven
son managed to find an uneasy seat
on a barrel of cabin flour and began
to yield up personal property from
capacious pockets. From one source
he drew a lot of matches, another
was emptied of library of cigarette
papers in little orange books, and
from other receptacles came package
after package of tobacco. The combi-
nation of tmodicum of the tobacco