The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-08


black but flaming eyes, and huge
mustache which he had so pulled out
without spiking that it stood athWart
like a capstan bar under his nose HIS
companion was a pale young woman Oh
four or five and twenty, not ill-iooklng,
though l never met a woman's lace
that pleased me south of 80 degrees.
l supposed them husband ana vile.
eve met with some dirty weather In
the channel which cleared off our decks
of The people. There was much heaYlng
and yah-hoing below, and small com
fort and nothing to eat If 1T was not
fetched, and scarcely dogs food at
that: but in those days the emigrant,
whether bound to America or to Aus
traIia, was the most ill-used, cheated,
starved and betrayed poor devil that
ever stood or tried to stand upon two
legs The convict was handsomely USED
in comparison. The honest laborers,
fragrant with hay seed, the red cheek
ed young woman, still sweet with the
scent of the udder, the respectable,
gray-haired but broken father call him
an unfortunate solicitor, with a wife
and four small children; these people
the like of them-in scores were
tumbled into a floating pit lighted by
a lamp which filled the place with
stencil of burning fat; they We're fed
on beef the boys could have chiseled
boiled has served in the tropics to keep
a ship clear of sharks, battened down
in foul weather till one after another
would sWoon with the atmosphere of
their own creation, with nothing to re-
member but rags and famine at home,
and with nothing to look forward to
but four or five stormy months of
squalor and bread-worms.
I'VE struggled down channel against
q nd Of xrrir,d oil
till we changed the weather into high
hot sun, and the green ridges of the
bay into a long heaVe of summer swell
wrinkled by a light breeze out of the
northeast. Everything fore and aft had
shaken down into its place by this
time. It was a morning in October. l
went on deck after breakfast and
though this was not my first command
by several l was brought to a stand
with a sudden sense of the weight of
my trust when, after stepping out of
the cOmpaniOn-Way, sent a look for
ward and around
THE poop was full; every cuddy pas
senger was on deck. The awning was
spread; ladies reclined in easy chairs
in the shadow. 1 went forward as far
as the rail at the break of the poop
and found the decks from the cabin
front under me to the fOrecastle head
Uttered with groups of the steerage
and 'tWeen-deck people. That old ship
you just saw towing by made a noble
show as she sat upright on the blue
brine, clothed to her royalmaSt-h heads.
The water alongside was white with
the light Of the overhanging studding
sails. The canvas breathed like the
breasts OF a woman as they sank in
and filled with the light breeze, and
from under the bows on either hand
lines of light like wires of gold stole
aft, meeting in a furrow under the
counter for the full splendor of the
sun to dazzle in till the beautiful ship
looked as she rolled slowly forwards
as though she toWed sheet of flame
astern of her. There was nothing in
sight; our three spires rose solitary into
the splendor amid the silence Of that
wide space of flashing sea
I stood at the head of the starboard
poop ladder, where / could command
view of the emigrants. The mate,
fine seaman, named Lever paced the
deck near me, o. the look out. I called
TO him, and asked some questions
about the people-ma'tters of difficulty
in connection with the food and the
allowance of water. He told me that
the squirting Irishman was danger
Gus ruff1an, and had threatened on the
preceding evening, whilst arguing with
a man on religion, to put his knife into
him. 1 said, Tell the bo'sun to keep l-aj
eye upon the dog. If he repeats that
threat aboard this ship I'll have him
in irons away down in the forepeak for
the rest of the voyage 1 then asked
about other of the people, and said,
Who's that young girl standing beside
the after scuttle-butt there looking this
way?"
II don't know her name sir; I'll en-
Quire'
She's always alone, I observe. She
has queer eyes and a strange, stealthy
way of looking. Whenever I've seen
her she's been as she is now, in a. sort
Of half-hiding, half-skulking posture,
always looking aft, as though she
time on the cuddy front She's a for
eigner.'
"-Ay, by the looks of her. answered
the mate.
Something aft holds her eye
Il leaned over the rail, and looking
down on the quarter deck, saw seated
right under me on camp stools in their
accustomed place the two Ital-
ians whom L had guessed were
man and wife. The italian
was reading aloud to the wo-
man. A number of people were coming
and going in this part of the deck.
When l again glanced forward, the
girl of the odd and Stealthy stare had
disappeared and where she had been
stood the Irishman of the diabolical
squirt.
''At noon the same day, just before
our sextants made it eight bells, Mr..
Lever said to me:
"a The name of that staring girl you
were talking about this morning is
Carlotta Goldoni.'
THE thing had clean gone out of my
head, and 1 hardly understood him.
Then recollecting. 1 smiled. and said,
oh, yes, a sort of opera bill name and
with that careless dismissal Of the mat
ter 1 went on ogling the sun.
1.-The weather remained quiet
thIuughout the day. The sea at sun
down went spreading away into blue
mist with the mirage of q. ship upside
down in the southeast that filled the
liT>VNof our bulwark with gazers. ] had
seen plenty of land mirages in my time
amazing upheavals OF airy coast within
swimming distance, though God knows
how far off the real thing was, but
never a ship upside down, high up in
the air before. She was clothed to her
trucks as we were, and rocked like a
delicate exquisite wrought toy. or mod
Ell in the red ether of the sunset.
sent the third mate on to the main
royal yard to see if the substance of
that lovely phantasm was in sight from
that elevation He reported that moth
ing was to be seen. The wonder and
and motions of it. The sky was as a
looking-glass. and every heave and roll
OF the hidden ship was counterfeited
nv tbe SHINING cbodouy no