The San Francisco call., 1896-06-28

delphia, on which he first sailed into San
Francisco harbor in 1894, Sharkey was
''master of arms" That means a sort of
policeman. Among other things it is the
duty of the master of arms to see that no
man leaves the ship without leave and
that no whisky is smuggled aboard in
capteens or oilcans. This is a responsible
position, and, while Sharkev says he was
not hard on tie boys, the official record of
his department show that he did his whole
duty.
Men aboard a man-of-war love no other
tune so well as q martial one. The waltz
thrills, but the time, the tone and spirit of
battle and the march enthuse. The true
soldier does not shun battle in any form.
Accordingly it is related of Admiral
Beardslee that when ne heard of Sharkey's
first battle with Allen, he said: They
are in the navy to fight. If they want to
fight let them" This increased the sailor
lads admiration for his admiral.
When Sharkey spoke of Quartermaster
Hermann, now at Santa Cruz with the
Philadelphia, he did so with smile. He
says Hermann is a friend of his, and is
good sport as well as good soldier. From
Sharkey it was learned, though he was
unable to furnish any of the particulars,
that Hermann has o patent on a gun for
which he was offered $4,000, patent on
bicycle for which he was offered $4,000,
an invention on punching-bags and their
platforms, which is good thing, and that
Hermann is not only, in the language of
Mark Twain, an 'ingenious cuss," but a
man who has the $4,000 to back Sharkey
that he said he had and would put up.
The future coming. champion" be-
sides cutting ice off the rigging of the
ship George Howes in latitude "a south, in
which latitude they found themselves be-
CAUSE the captain had not been able to see
the sun for week, had his hands, feet,
nose and ears frozen in the work. He
took a course of treatm ent for frozen flesh
from the ships medicine chest when he
got north into warmer air.
Sharkey was never licked at school. He
conquered all corners, ana by so doing ex-
cited not only the envy but the designing
strategy of his schoolmates and of the
other boys of the village. Once or twice
the boy who is to go up against the cham
pion of the world in the next six months
was decoyed into a field, he says, and set
upon by four or five boys whom he had
licked singly. Sharkey said: "They did
not JOB me bit. licked them all. Pretty
sooa they gave up trying to lick me.''
Sharkey was in shipwreck off Sydney
Heads, Australia, in 1887 Then he went
into the Australian gold mines in their
exciting time. He did not make his for
tune there and again took to the sea. He
was wrecked again off st. Johns, New
Brunswick, and was four days adrift on a
lumber-laden Dutch ship bound from
Quebec for London. They lad to throw
the deck lumber overheard to save them
selves and the ships stores were soaked
with the briny.
Once, when coming across the Atlantic,
Sharkey was pitched from a boat in the
davits to the deck and, plunging head
long against steam windlass, broke his
jaw. No fist has ever done the same.
Having ieasted on yellow-back litera.
ture Sharkey started out in the East Indies
to hunt Indians. When asked for the par
ticulars of the expedition Sharkey laughed,
looked foolish and declined to relate them,
from which it is inferred that the sailor
lad is more successful IN making sparring
matches for $4,000 a side than he is in
scalping Indians in foreign parts Under a
torrid sun. His trainer, Danny Needham,
could not be prevailed upon to relate the
story either. Sharkey gave him the other