Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-10-20

the whole journey, and use 1t as bal
last before consuming it? l cannot
say that I think very highly of the no.
tion myself. 1t seems to me that the
ship would be continually rising i'm
perceptibly out of the water, squeezed
up like on orange pip between ones
finger and thumb. But, then, 1 know
nothing whatever about such matters;
so possibly my opinion is not entitled
to much respect. Anyhow, the sug-
gestion commended itself to Mr.. Har-
rison, and, between them, they de-
termined to adopt it.
""There is one thing" said Will
Jams. eve shall not be able to put
all the coal into the coal cellars" "
"Coal cellars" was not the expression
which George actually used. He said
sbunkers. Bat such O word as that
would convey nothing to people who
had been carefully brought up, and I
should not think of employing it my
self.
"We shall have to put some of it in
to the hold" continued Williams. I
am sorry to say you can only have lit
tie slices of this conversation at time.
1t requires SO much comment and ex-
plantation.
The hold is that part of the ship in
which the cargo is put. It did not
seem to me to have been quite the
proper place for Goals. only hope
that George was careful to have the
hold washed before the next cargo
went in. It may have been fruit, you
know, or ladies' hats. However, I
have no wish to find fault. No doubt
George Williams knew his own busi-
ness.
The Crocodile made O successful
journey to Naples, and the cargo was
landed there. AS Mr.. Harrison had
foreseen, the Neapolitans had nothing
which they wanted to send back, and
SO George Williams began the return
Journey with his ship in ballast. Ac-
cording to his instructions he called
at Cartagena, a Spanish port, in the
hope of finding stray cargo there.
As soon as he arrived he went to the
custom house and explained that, as
he had not brought any merchandise
with him, there could not be any duty
for him to pay. think that this
| showed great politeness and good
feeling on Georges part, but / am
sorry to say, the custom house Off
cials did not meet him in anything
like friendly spirit. They were not
content TO accept his word, but asked
! Anm L in to produce his esspers. For
tunately, George happened to have
these with him, and SO he very kindly
allowed the chief custom house Off
Ger to look at them. A ships papers
give number of statistics as to cargo,
destination and SO forth, calculated
to satisfy even the most inquisitive
mind. In the case of tho Crocodile
the papers contained nothing that
George Williams did not know by
heart. So, after all, they might have
taken his word. AS it was, however,
the chief custom house officer ex-
amined the papers with al eye keen
to detect the slightest irregularity.
| Among the first things to attract his
attention were those unlucky Goals.
The quantity carried was evidently
far more than tho cleverest captain
could have squeezed in the ships coal
cellars.
"Oho!" he exclaimed, in excellent
Spanish.
Many writer's in recounting q con-
| versation of this sort, would endeavor
to heighten the description by putting
in number of Spanish words, and
assuming that their unfortunate read
ers understood the meaning of them.
In my opinion this is bad art. I never
assume that my readers understand
ANYTHING. 1t is safer not to do so.
Therefore, although the custom house
officer spoke in Spanish because he
knew no other language, and George
Williams got as near to it as he could,
I shall not give the conversation as it
was spoken, but carefully translate
every word.
| ssOho!' said the custom house
officer. "What is this?"
"Coals," said George.
'sYou have large cellars"
eyes," said George.
| ssBut not large enough for all this
coal."
| ssNo," said George.
"Where, then, have you put it,"
"In the hold, = said George.
| I'm the hold! Ahal Then 1t IS