Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-25

like fried leather. swimming In grease. The
bluejackets had to leap away from the
table again when the stuff was set tefore
them. The Greek cooks looked hurt. What
was the stuff? Why. fried sharks fins.
said they. and feed that could hardly be
Sot ashore for love or money.
No. We guess not said the 4aad blue
jackets. and out of the ports the stuff was
SHE'D Shove the horse down this way.
Finally the mess cooks brought on some
turtle steak as their last card Now, tur-
tie steak may be all right in some parts OF
the world. although / myself never hank
cred for snake grub. but Magdalena bay
turtle steak is worse than stock yard.
The Greek cooks should have had enough
sense not to put it before the crew in the
state of mind the crew was th.n in. When
the stun was put before the men they re-
vOlted all together. and began to fire the
mess gear at the COOKS. 1t was the worst
riot l ever saw up for'ard on a man-o'-
war, and 1 don't suppose mess tables were
ever cleared off so quick as they were on
that occasion The smell of the stun the
cooks had put before the men had sickened
them so that they couldn't even touch the
junk. which was bad enough Itself. and SO
instead of a meal there was scrap that 1t
took the whole force Of marines on the ship
TO squelch. The men kicked the mess gear
all to pieces. broke the mess taoleS and
benches into kindling wood, and raised the
devil generally. all empty stomachs
About a quarter of the ships company
spent the rest Of the day in double irons
Skipper Had n Feast.
Meantime the skipper was having a
feast in the cabin all by himself. The skip
per had a Chinese cook who was a gem.
The cook had knack of foraging in
places where fresh rations were hard to
get that simply could not be explained. and
he had succeeded in laying pair of fine
looking. well-browned birds, small but
plump. before the captain on this Magda-
lena bay Thanksgiving day. The skipper
examined the birds with surprise when
the Chink placed them before him at din
ner.
What are they, and how and where
did you get them. Sam he asked his cook.
The cook grinned. as it is only a Chinese
cooks privilege to grin in the presence of
the commanding officer of a man-o'-war.
Got en- said Sam, and that was all
there was about it. The skipper ate 'em
both. and 1 guess he must ha' found them
gamey enough
Sam. where did you get those birds?'
the skipper asked the cook again, after
he had finished them and was picking his
teeth.
On ship said Sam.
=" Huh? On the ship? Where on the
''Out of cages said the cook in his
pidgin.
''Out of cages? What do you mean,
you
:. Roast parrot said Sam, and then the
skipper chased him out of the cabin at a
lope and became SO sick in less than ten
minutes that the surgeon had to take him
in hand and nurse him until we got to
San Francisco. What the two blueiackets
did TO the Chinaman when they found out
he was the man who had roasted their
pet parrots was caution.
First Meal Ashore.
What do you suppose about two-thirds
of the men of the crew ordered for their
first meal when they got ashore in San
like men who follow the sea, and you
wouldn't see it fail if you watched the
thing for hundred years. At the end of
a long cruise, when bluejackets may not
have had bite of fresh meat for months
theyh invariably get a big mess of ham
ana eggs on their first shore liberty. in
stead of steaks or chops or something like
that, as you'd naturally think.
l put IN a thanksgiving in Southampton
IND. wcdld UP IN a pretty sfzable row. 1t
was on the Old Tennessee, in 1873 The
men had too many good things on that
Gay. and felt their oats, and that was the
cause OF row that came near getting the
TWO countries mixed up. The British man.
o war the Royal George was in the har-
Dor and lying right alongside of U.S. and
she was manned by as tough crew of
lime 1uicers as l ever saw. The cutter
crew of the Eritisher had challenged our
crack cutter crew to race 'em on Thanks
giving day-although the day was of
course, no holiday for them-and our crew
simply beat them out of sight. This made
them ugly, and SO when about three-ul,ar-
tiers of our ships company went ashore
on Thanksgiving afternoon to take in the
town, almost the whole crew of the English
man-o'-war went ashore. too, with the
idea. l guess, of proving that if they could
not row a boat they could fight. Our men
began to load up at the groggeries as soon
as they got ashore, but they kept together,
for they knew that trouble was on is way.
When they struck the big Adelphia pub,
one of the largest and SWEETEST in South
ampton at that time, the bluejackets from
the Britisher were right their heels,
looking vicious. and only waiting for an
opening. 1t came when the chief boat
swains mate of our ship, who was pretty
well booZed up, started to shout Amer
lea That has got the same tune, you
know. as God Save the Queen All of the
American bluejackets joined in. AMI you
could have heard the singing mile away.
Jolly Row.
"'Gor blime me- SAID an English tar
when the singing ceased for a minute,
listen to TIL bloomin' Yanks a-twistin' a
Hinslish chune t suit their blawsted-"
THAT crack was enough and more than
enough. The man who made it went down,
and the fight was general in less time
than can tell of it. The Adelphi pub was
a wreck in no time. 1t was more than
mere fight between drunken sailors; it
was a riot. I got my own head smashed
before 1 could get out of the ruck and
make for the Tennessee 1t was not a
mere ten-minute scrap, but 1t lasted for
nearly two hours. The Southampton po-
lice were absolutely powerless. The sailors
of the two countries were divided on the
main issue, but they were a unit on one
point namely, to whack a polio eman when
ever they saw him. The conStabulary had
to retire in more or less disorder before the
riot was half over. In spite of the fact that
about all OF the 'longshoremen of South
ampton jumped in to help the British tars.
our men got the best of the pitched cob
blestone battle in the street If the num-
Der of broken heads on the other side be
taken into account. The troops from
Southampton barracks were finally called
out and they put end to the riot by
rounding the American bluejackets up in a
circular chain of sabers, and marching
the whole pack of them of to jail 1t re-
quired a good deal more than mere repre-
sentations' on the part of our skipper to
get our men out of that Jail, and they
lay there for a week before the American
minister in London could induce the Eng
lish government to turn them loose"
How statuesque your daughter is, Mr..
Scaddsw
'Statuesque? Why I have seen that