The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-17

end, and he retires early, always pre- pared, however, for an instantaneous turning out at any alarm
 | Nevertheless, I have often thought that the stewards is the most enviable position on the ship. There are no | long, lonely hours for him. His days
 must fly by, and meantime a goodly | sum is piling up to his account. He en- l Joys the sort of importance that ap-
 peals to natures like his; much power l In lesser directions, and little responsi- l bility, while the comfort of even his su- periors depends largely on his good will. | Moreover. his position admits of the various companionships on shipboard | believe that his is the only one that [ touches at some point every other life | in the ship. If he is intelligent he may l act in a certain sense as clerk, as well 1 as serving-man, to the captain, and may manage that interesting Saturday l feature of ship life known as 'slops," ! the sailors shopping time. If there are
 ladies aboard, he is the only man be- sides the mates who holds converse with them, and sometimes he is very l bright and companionable. He knows l all the events and gossip forward
 which is the only place where any form 1 of society exists on merchant ship and, if he will, he can retail many a i bit of local color when other interests | are scarce.
 There are stewards to whom one be- l comes very much attached during the isolation of long voyages, on account of l their gentle, faithful manners and close l Identification of themselves with the | interests of their superiors. Tn port | their dark eyes glow with pleasure at l the sight of gay dresses on the ladies l whom they have been accustomed to l see only in the careless garb of sea life. l And silent as they are, their quick ears | are wonderfully eager for the after | comment. They lose little of what is | said at table, and I used to like to fan l cy what all the bits so gathered meant | to them. To their unread understand
 ings the life of a more fortunate class ! can be pictured only in the colors that ] represent the lives of fairies and prin-
 cesses to child, They regard it so | entirely as world removed from ? their own; and the pathetic part of it is z their veherating acceptance of it as the proper thing, and their pleasure in l glimpses of it through the humble 1 means of their service in it.
 l The favorite steward on a first-clas ss l American trader is an Oriental If a l good Chinaman can be secured he is the best. But it is difficult to get a good | man of. any sort in these sad days of
 decadent shipping. Japanese are
 sorupulously neat, but tiresomely lack ing in any notion of variety or original | ity in food. An English steward on an
 American ship generally is an abomina-
 tion, being, as a rule, slack and dirty and insufferable, because of his own | high opinion of himself. Moreover. he | is seldom 8 good cook. They do not of
 ten live so we'll on English ships as on American, and high grade of cooking | is not so much in demand. A good
 American darky is a treasure, and ire quently he takes his wife as stewardess,
 and when both are good there is com fort indeed. Yacht-owners have dis
 covered this, and the dusky pair are
 not seen on the Yankee clipper" as frequently as in the old palmy days I New York Evening Post.