Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-10-28

They MGsC 15s Sutleu---EscEtssu com
 batAnts "rell Down Ladder
 The regulation against fighting is per haps the deadest of all naval regula. tions. It is impossible of enforcement. If it were enforced to the letter, pretty nearly all hands among the men for ward wou1d be in the brig from one years end to the other Fighting is 1 practically q necessary evil among men who wear their country's uniform for a livelihood Officers of experience blink at it. They know the bad, con- taminating results of bitterness between 6 pair of blueiackets under tue forecas- l tie. They have learned that it is better 1 the thing should be fought out and done with than that dozens of men should be 1 drawn into quarrel chat fosters and grows unless the head of il Is broken l by q decisive battle between the two men l who have been snarling at each other. l People who have made ocean voyages often dwell upon the weariness which has overcome them at the sight of theiE l fellow voyagers' eountenanees toward the end of a passage This is feeling which is aggravated | thonsandfold amid the uncomfortable surroundings of Il war vessels foreeastle, the hundreds of occupants of which are obliged to be i constantly together for from one to three years Each man becomes thor. oughly aware of all his mates little characteristics, and after awhile, Wheth- CT these characteristics are good or bad, l they jar upon him, if only on account of their monotony. Thus friction is gen. erated, and it is fer this reason that tho crew of a man-of-war just returned te l the United States after q three years crqise in foreign waters is generally sneh a sour looking lot, eyen as concerns i the officers afr. who become quite as l sick of each other as do tue men for ward
 Hardly day passes that there Is not at least one scrap on board most men. of-war, with the promise Of heavier battle to follow. \ blnejacket seats himself on another's ditty box, and, on being roughly ordered by the boxs owner to vacate, he refuses and con. signs the owner to much less moist place than Davy Jones' locker. The men come together two or three blows are exchanged, and then, as by common consent, each man draws away, both feeling that the jimmy legs" ti. e, the master at arms) is not far distant and neither caring for trick i'll the "brig. :" Having thus become involved in the minor fistie argument of the deck. the two bluejackets are looked to by the entire ships company to bring their affair to q satisfactory conclusion. The mere exchange of growls between the two men doesn't go. Pipe down there, ye men-of war chaMs, and settle the thing right, is the general remark hurled at them by all hands when they meet i'll mere contests Of crss words and the sailor who is considered to be the aggrieyed man is watched carefully to see if he makes any preliminary moves toward arranging q regular fight. He almost always does.
 Nearly all the regular fights between bluejackets aboard ship arc pulled off down below in one of the frerooms or ill an empty bunker The empty bunker is preferred on account of its greater isolation. When fight is to como of between two bluejackets below, all hands know all about it, often inelud- ing the master at arms himself, Iut very few of the men, unless they arS intimates of the combatants, expect in- vitations to the fray There is not rottn in bunker for more than half dc2An friends of each man, and even with this
 
 With a second each and referee agreed upon by both, the men, stripped naked to tho waist, go at 1t. The fights arc not of tho rough and tumble order. The men fight according to regular prize ring rules, and their silipmates arc present to see that the rules arc complied with As many as 50 rounds are sometimes fought. Ordinarily one of the men goes under by the time the tenth round is called. If the men are unequally matched and one of them is getting palpably the worst of it, all hands i'll the bunker agree that tic thing should stop, and 1t does stop. If the contestants are about of a sort, the fight is carried on to tho end, until knockout blow Is planted by one of them or both are too weak to go on. At the conclusion of the fight the on. lockers quietly depart from the bunker and ascend to the deck by different en. zinc room ladders, so as not to attract tho attention of the officer of the deck
 Both men generally get pretty thor oughly mauled and bruised up in these bunker fights, and when the battle is over they jump into their uniforms and repair to tho sick bay to get themselves ps,ttil6,S ap with sz3iegs, court plaster etc. The surgeon knows Tt q glance what ails them, but for the sake of form he asks them what tile trouble is They have both fallen down a laGder Both at the same time? No, sir; they fell down different ladders s'That's cu. rious!" msumurs the surgeon with smile and q faraWay look in his eyes.