The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-09

Open Letter to q Gallant Yankee Sailor
by . Profoundly Grateful Reader.


commanding thex Electric Age: De"r
Captain - Ibs undersiened wishes to
particularly thank you for the untnixed
pleasure had from reading your book "On
Many Seas, the Life and Exploits OF q
YanKee Sailor" just published by the
Macmillan Company. Should IL ever be
possi ple..for the undersigned to stretch his
legs under the s$ospitaDle board In the
cabin OF your fine four-master In accor-
dance With your invitation. he proposes to
take advantage Of the opportunity, for
you must be a royal sailor man 10 look ct
and to listen to and perhaps you might
feel disposed TO spin some of the yarns
you have omitted from your book which
would certainly contribute to the interest
such a meeting would have for your guest.
Every American boy. at an early or late
period Of his boyhooJ, yearas either to
ride n horse or to 60 to sea. Irrespective,
it is believed of whether the hoy is born
on farm, as you were, or Is brouGht up
in q coast town, ne majority of American
boys prefer to GO to sea. Some OF them
do 20 and are sorry for 1t all their lives
and are sorry for that sll their lives. Like
any Other pursuit, going to sea Is not
wholly an unmixed blessing or curse
as a profession, as you have found. On
the whole, IL fellow has reel taste for
it'it is just ss well that he should embark
in IL, so to sreak. But inasmuch as ones
real tastes srs not always accurately de-
veloped until IL Is too late to abandon a
profession once entered upon, and as ex-
Ierience Will Ii may develop upiitness
may also compel adherence to the pro-
fession thus experimental with. IL would
De o wholesome tning for every American
boy who thinks going to sea Is hue
thing to read your book before waking
up his immature mind and deciding to
try 1t. The boy would be undeceived,
quite likely, as we'll as entertained In the
reading.
Putting aside, however, the matter of
this kind of utility. it NAV be said that
anv man who has any inclination for salt
water, particularly IL he has been ssilor
or has caquetted with the blue waves
ever so little, to say nothing of having
achieved a real fondness for the water. will
find the greatest enjoyment from reading
your hook. y on have presented picture "
the sailor's lie as 1t has never been drawn
be fore. On the face OF 1t, it Is true pic
ture from forcnstle to quarter deck and in
about every sort of service, the coaster,
the picket, the wbalsr. the deep sea voy-
ager OF every kind aud the navy. Per-
haps the conditions today are improved
over what they were when you served the
apprer ticeship that gave you the material
for this breezy story but though modified
they are, in essential particulars. much
tie same and the sailors life is probs bly,
little more or little less picturesque or
hard than 1t ever has been. Without ap-
parently aiming for effect, your style Is
most readsbls and you are plainly as
capital story teller between the covers
of book rs you are at the mess table. w.
Clark Russell and Mr.. Stockton could
read you with profit and dou btless will not
neglect so to do. Not few whole books
OF romance could be written ON the basis
of the unvarnished tales which you
have given us. The sririi of the
sailor who has lived the life,
is in your book and the pedsntry
OF the average teller OF sen tales is wholly
a b ent from it, You neither boast nor
spologizs for any OF your experiences but
the reader of the book Is sbl, to size you
up as a thoroughbred Yankee sailor who
knows the rores, who is as tough as the
business end of Delaying pin, who 10
big hearted with no b'god nonsenss
about you but possessed Of o saving
sentiment within you that, while il Goes
not seek TO exalt whst 10 essentially hard
and rough. discovers In tine life OF the
toug hest specimen before the mast, or the
most depraved beach comter, the spark
of numsnity that makes US all much OF a
kind wherever our lines may re cast and
enables us to distinguish the man 90 ! or
the brutehoo as easily as In other walks
Of society and perhaps more easily, since
there is sparseness Of artifice In the kind
OF lie you DEF let. II takrs the surface
of the man, does the sailors life. ! am
sure you are familiar with the axiom that
you "never really know man until
you have been shipmates with him."
Wonderfully interesting are the expert
ences You relate, immensely attractive
from one point OF view snd another are
the characters you portray. Pages OF de-
scription could not present the picture Of
the ex-boatswsin sitting on the Judicial
bench down In the windward Islands,
with moro OF humor than the few lines
you write Of your experienc, with his
honor. while the gallant old sea dog
Captsin Hurlburt, the spirited TomDon-
nelly, Mr.. oliver, Smith the first mate
Of the schooner bradley" "OId Ned"
the barnacle Of the" Ianjore, and q score
of OF hers good, had and Indifferent fol-
lowers OF this sea will remain long In
memory although their characters have
been drawn quite unoste3iatiously ano
chiefly out OF their own mouth rather
than yours.
do not understand that you insist that