The San Francisco call., 1897-03-07
task was merely one of elimination to get

, task was merely one OF elimination 10 get
| them into book OF reasonable size.
The seaman, Williams seems to have been
born with disposition to rove. He was but
child when his father moved to New York,
and the first thing the youngster did was to
disobey the in junction to stay close al home,
and he started out on trip to inspect the big
city and of course got losts Instead OF going
to the police for aid, he had terror OF them
and ran away whenever one came near him.
When he got little older he took a dislike to
his stepmother and fed to Maine TO try the
fascinatons of farm life.
He soon found there was no romance in that
and decided 10 go to sea. The overpowering
motive in his first resolve 10 leave the farm
was that young companion proposed that
J they run away, and Williams did not want to
| shirk anything that seemed to require nerve
| to do. The boys baked in their first effort to
get away. A kind uncle persuaded Williams
| to go back and consult his father before he
| went to sea. When he got home his N other
| in-law greeted him with the affectionate ex-
! clamation, "Well, what in the world did you
come back for % This manner OF welcoming
| him home made him still more determined to
! put to sea.
He first shipped on little schooner bound
| Tor Fernandina, Fla. In the captain OF this
boat he found man who would not keep
! youngster hungry for adventures long in de-
! prlvation. There was soon q great gale blow
! ing and the steward gave Williams the cheer
| ing news that if the wind did not moderate or
! shit the young sailors carcass would be roll
| ing in the surf before another morning
! dawned. The captain met the challenge of the
| breeze by hosting more sail, and made the
! little schooner leap more than half her length
| out of the water ever time she rose on sea.
He made her dance, and at every plunge she
would bury her bowsprit, "and the water in
! q
| Williams overheard the mate say TO the cap.
| tain, ''If you don't take some OF this sail off
| her she Will start a butt and go down like q
stone." The bold skipper gave this prompt
reply, "And if do take any of it off her she
| will wreck on Hatteras before 10 o'clock to-
night; she is hardly holding her own now
| No, sir; If she can't live through this breeze
! let her go to flying"
Such is the adventurous start of our young
hero on a seafaring career and this vigorous
swing TO his storytelling is well sustained
! throughout as with varied fortune he voy-
ages over many seas. He made up his mind
in the beginning to become captain. but
when he thought of all he would have to
learn it made him ";lred beforehand" Down
on the Florida coast the ships cook became
disabled and the captain made Williams cook.
When he objected, the captain assured him
that cook was officer on board ship, and
| II was an honor TO hold that position.
Williams went at it with Vigor, and was
soon grease and SCOT from head to foot; but
the meals were never ready on time nor fiji to
eat when they were ready. One day big
Swede came to the kitchen bringing a sample
biscuit, which he complained was more fiji for
deep sea lead that for human food. Our hero
was hot, tired, dirty, disguised. In language
more emphatic than polite ne requested the |
Swede to travel to Pluto's realm. "You tell |
me that, you dirty swab,' said the Swede, and !
he put his foot inside the galley door.
Williams knew that the cooks galley was
his castle and he grabbed the potato NJ asher
and made a lick intended 10 mash the in
vacers head but by lurch lucky or un-
lucky, OF the schooner, the missile failed of its
mark. few days alter the disagreement the
big Swede, who had in the interval made up
with Williams, came TO the galley door with his
tin plate, and as it was very cold morning
he asked that the cook have something hot
for him when he came from the wheel.
The cook told him all right, and when he
heard him coming for his breakfast he put
shovelful of fire in his pan and covered it with
tin pie-plate. When the hungry Swede en-
tered Williams set the hot plates his two
open palms. Then there was war again.
There is an interesting description of the
way in which the trained elephants in the
East pile lumber and bossed by big ele-
phant foreman, who carries a short chain to
PUBLISH luOsc III LIS gang VINO QlSODey the
rules. And there is good yarn of the East
ern seas about one Mike, an American sailor,
who was wrecked with lot OF Portuguese.
Far out at sea in an open boat he could hear
the starving aliens talking suspiciously in a
tongue unknown to him. and he fancied they
eyed him with an appetite for American meat
that grew ever keener and keener as the pass
| ing hours made the pangs OF hunger more i'm
perative.
Years afterward, it is related, Nike would
have nightmare dreams of this terrible Incl
dent in his life, and Williams gently hints a
suspicion that there was some horror con-
nected with the escape which Mike never
confessed. Could it be possible that the
time-honored custom of casting lots in such
emergencies resorted to and that Nike eat
one of the Portuguese who had been watch
ing him so hungrily?
These are brief samples of his rich expert
ences, but the telling OF amusing yarns is not
the sole excellence OF the book. There is a
splendid description of an encounter with
| icebergs in the Antarctic seas and q thrilling !
escape from being crushed between collfding
ice mountains that loomed up tall as the sky.