The Republican journal., 1896-09-17

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veered around to the other quarter, and all
the time the sea continued so smooth that
glass of pinks in water, left there by
feminine conceit, stood alone and uprightly
on top of the writing desk for twelve days,
when a slight disturbance of the sea sug-
gested the prudence of making fast that
gentle and valued memento. Evidently
the king of storm was off duty; mildness
rode the air and mercy stood at the helm
Of Nimbus
l once read of a man having charge of a
trading station in Greenland where ship
came only once year with supplies. BY
each annual visit he received from home a
years file of two leading daily papers
one morning edition and the other an
evening print. This methodical man did
nor to skim over years events at once
but placed them SO his servant could bring
to him every morning the paper of that
date, year back, and in the evening the
later edition was brought in. la that way
he interested and contented himself by
learning what his country and the world
We're doing without allowing himself to
dwell on the fact that his knowledge was
all a year out Of date Not q bad scheme,
situated as he was
And SO one going t. sea-and especially
trading to out the-way ports, where
mails are few and long-can only know
part OF what is going on by securing
back numbers of papers and reading them
over, methodically, when next at sea.
once sailed from New York with a GOOD
supply of back papers: had gone through
with them all but one when. in midocean,
reported a large steamer, steering west,
towing four barges. | could not believe
that the whole wide and open sea had
been given up to barge towing. | went
on deck and by watching discovered that
the larger craft was not towing the others
that each one was steaming itself. 1t was
something very odd: it looked as though
the larger one had Matched a family of
ducks and was learning the young ones to
swim. After breakfast took up my last
paper and read that, a month back, Eng
land was preparing to send number of
small torpedo boats to Bermuda under
their own steam; they to be conveyed by
ship of war.
Lately, in reading over the back Jour
mails, the issue OF April 3oth, in compara-
tive mood, offers the astounding assertion
| that the masts of a certain noble and lofty
ship are Just one foot short OF the height
of the Washington monument. l may be
| entirely mistaken but believe that monu-
ment t. be about 800 feet high-some late
cyclopedia will telI-no masts We're ever
half that height.3
We held well to tile north, passing Just
south OF the Azores, and then slanting
away to the southward. No head winds;
sometimes the wind was light, but every
day we We're farther onward and slipped
! through into the regular trades without
finding any ''calms of Cancer Twenty
days out we were past the Canaries and
making southwark 200 miles a day Sure
ly this was fine, and with such a start a
quick round voyage ought to be made. At
eight bells, in the evening, the second
mate reported that one of his watch was
sick. Sailors often have ga pain:'' in
some ways they are much like the rest of
man and womanknd: have strong i'm
aginations and enjoy being sick; fond of
sour medicines and have great faith in
the doctor. The more kinds of medicine
and the more attention given them the
sooner they will be well of any imaginary
ailment. They should never be told that
they are not i'll when they believe they
are. | told the second mate to request
the man to come aft He came and
brought with him a very high fever and
pulse pumping two good strokes in the
time that one should take. He was
Malay, speaking no English and only
vile Spanish, very hard to understand. L
was somewhat startled over his condition
and gave him such medicines as could do
no harm and might do good. The next
morning I found him sitting up in his
berth, counting his beads and fumblipg
crucifix: with his face we'll broken out
Here was a creature whose soul had evil
IDENTIFY been attended to, but the salvation
OF his life, through vaccination, had been
entirely neglected. And what did these
conditions probably mean for me, bound
to a French African port? Would they
quarantine us forever, or order us away to
Brest or Toulon to undergo national in
spection and long delay before ever being
allowed to land the cargo? At the best it
meant long season of quarantine and
great expense in Africa, and the best part
of visit there at this season is to make
the stay as brief as possible.
We moved the man to a spare berth in
a room by himself and doctored him for
small pOX Not one man forward bad