The San Francisco call., 1897-11-14

! course. If the superstition of his class is
! strong within him he turns the nose of his
! boat hurriedly away from his terroriZing
discovery and the great lateen sail groans
and bends almost to the water as the tiny
craft scuds like thing affrighted away
into the night toward the wilderness Of
waves beyond the heads.
Much contact with the practical popu-
| lation of the water front has made many
of these foreign fsherfolk more worldly
wise. They have mostly learned now that
| the silent things which once were men
! have little power to harm them. They
have learned, too, of the reward-perhap ps
of the black dollars. Such a fisherman
secures the prize, heads the little craft
toward the CITY, and the watchman on the
wharves hears the strains of Latin love
song as he glides homeward. When the
Coroner's men find the pockets of the
waves victim turned inside out they ask
| There is an old truism which treats of
dead men tales.
It is a wee bark and sly bark that
enters tine San Francisco harbor usnpoken
by the reporters of the Merchants Ex-
change. Away out on the northmost
point of the peninsula is their watch
house, and every hour of the twenty-four
Danny O'Connell, Michael Fitzgerald or
James Black is scanning the narrow path
way between the heads.
When the sunlight is glistening on the
water and the eye Of the landsman turns,
,rllo oft bo rfo
surface, Fitzgerald gazes hour after hour
into the haze beyond the Heads for the
first sign of an approaching mast. Before
the unskilled observer has sighted the
ship Fitz gerald has determined its char
acter ard is preparing to put of to it in
his whitehall
II is important that the anxious owners
and shippers should have the earliest pos
sible news of the arrival of the craft, and
before it has weighed anchor the details
of it's voyage will be known on Change.
At night the vigil is different, but no
less faithful. The Golden Gate is then
but the bIackness between the revolving
red light on the south and steady white
light on the north. It'll a monotonous life
watching, watching, always watching a
strip OF DlaCK between IuaL reu l1gnt ana
that white light.
Sometimes the watcher in the night sees
dark figure emerge stealthily from the
gloomy surroundings of the seawall at
this point and glide hurriedly toward the
Powell-street wharf. If it is a man long
experience has taught the Exchange men
that even if his nerve does not forsake
him he will hesitate long before taking the
final leap. Most men dislike to do any
thing in hurry.
If the figure is that of woman who
glances apprehensively about her as she
speeds toward the water the watchman
knows there is no time to be lost. The
whitehall boat is swung into the water
and the little craft is urged to its utmost.
Perhaps it is in time TO forestall the at
tempt at suicide, if such was contem-
plated, and the black figure glides back
| again into the shadows. If the boat is toe
late-but it is never too late to at least
pull the half-drowned victim from the
water. For those who escape the vigilant
eye of the watchman there Is but one
probable fate-the ghoulish sesrchers o1
| the bay, the seekers for the Coroner's re-
ward and the black dollars.