The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-17
sAIL1Na-sHIP STEWARDS.

Characteristics of the Race-Their Oc-
 equations and Amusements-Rela-
 tions With Passengers.
 The steward is g. very great man, in the sailing world, I mean, and I fancy fhe maintains his prestige In the circles {he frequents ashore. On a sailing-ves- Bel his position Is unique and impor- tant and his self-esteem and carriage must be measured accordingly, though often his stature but little exceeds five fleet. Technically, he may have few superiors aboard, but his innermost consciousness recognizes none save the captain For him his veneration Is ab- solute. He lords it over the sailors, and as for the cook-give him your pity, for the steward will show him little, es- pecially if he is black and his superior lord of the galley but half so.
 The stewards day on a big merchant man begins about four o'clock In the morning. Cook already is stirring and serving coffee to the changing watches. What a gloomy picture it forms. A bleak morning somewhere down in the southern ocean after a hard night of gales; the ugly, iron-colored heaving sea outside blurred against uglier iron colored clouds-the forlornest waste that human eye can look upon-and the lonely dripping figures about the wet decks showing drawn. faces, white in the dirty gray light. The coming dawn ts only beginning to struggle out of the awful night, and the day promises so little worth the effort. No wonder that the glistening yellow coats group eager ly for the coffee before oilskins are cast off and boots turned out to dry around the galley fire, Then the steward goes #o the captains room with coffee. And Ahe work of preparing breakfast for both cabin and forecastle begins in the galley.
 Soon after seven the steward waits on the cabin table. He brings the food from the galley in a large basket, which ds deposited on the pantry floor; and ph! the narrow escapes that he has in crossing the main deck and lodging seas on bad mornings; and the disas- rers that have overtaken that basket on Ahe days when the sea recognized nc ceremony in entering even the sacred regions of the pantryl What fasci- mating little cubby 1t is when he is 8 good steward and everything in his do, main shines! Everything is so compact hnd secured In such orderly arrange. ment There are lockers beneath the shelves; cupboards and sheltered stow ang-places above, and cups in rows swinging from the ceiling. What hid ang-places that astute man contrives therein you discover if you make night raids for food after his busy day is over.
 After breakfast, the steward washes Hhe dishes, polishes the pantry again sweeps the cabin, puts that and the captains room in order, and cleans and fills the lamps. This is no insignificant Junction on a sailing-vessel. Also he is experimenting dinner preparations ano various other mysterious vacations for ward. When eight bells strikes he comes into the cabin and mounts 8 stool to wind the clock and put ths hands so many minutes forward ol back, according to instructions. Di rectly afterwards he is sighted crossing from the galley to the after house bearing soup tureen, with often a dos or two, or perhaps cats a pig or z monkey forming a capering, sniffing appreciative escort. Quick and aler he serves the dinner courses; alway! with the badge of his office, a. towel hanging over one arm. Take tha away, and I do not know where h. would be. Whether it is dirty or not i unimportant but he must feel it's pres ence.
 Dinner out of the way, this man o many calls is darting forward and af until two, when he appears on deck, o wherever the voyagers are sitting, wit tea Then he disappears for time and, let us hope, gets a nap. But
 hearty hot supper is on table at fivt and then follow more clearing an hustIing. At sunset the inside lamp are lighted, and he climbs the compar donway with pinnacle light unde each arm. By this time 1t is the do watch, and he has time for littl stchumming" with the second mate, O if his dignity permits, to join, or 8 least to watch, the singing, danctn and frolic going on among the me forward, though bread for morning yet to be mixed, At eight his labor