Evening star., 1898-07-16
WERE GOOD TAKERS

Il was 'shipmates' with Fighting Bob
Evans when he was a commander said
the old sailor, who Is now messenger in
the Navy Department, "and he was pretty
nearly the right sort then, as he is low,
and always has been. for the matter of
that He had pretty moving line Of talk
1 don't mean soft and pathetic, but just
Hfting-when he had hard nut up before
him at the stick, and he knew English when
ne was commander Just as we'll as he
Goes now that he's a four-striper He
wasn't what I'd call cussing skipper, but
nee let out once in a while and say some
original ones that stuck, too, throughout
the entire service. He knew how to appre-
clate a good command of sinewy Anglo
Saxon talk on the part of other folks. too.
ana the way he handled old Bumboat Kate
showed it.
"Bumboat Kate lived in Vallejo, across
from the Mare Island navy yard, and she
got rich bringing her small gear off to the
sh1ps lying at the yard docks. She was an
eXtor1onate charger, but the bluejackets
$1,000 Tor her heavy prices for the sake of
olarneytng her and listening to her humor-
Gus talk She could get 1t In for a blue
Jacket that she didn't like and make him
feel like a beach-comber with her tongue
When she got ready, and no naval sailor
VINO mad one encounter of this sort with
Bumooat Kate hankered for another ex-
perience,
My ship, with Fighting Bob as the
commander-this was a good many years
aso-was lying alongside the Mare Island
navy yard dock. and Kate was bumboatng
her A lot OF the quarantined men-feliows
deprived of liberty and kept aboard for
Hlsconduct-were getting rum somehow or
anotner' and turning up at quarters and
drills In pretty wabbly state There was
no accounting for the way they got their
liquor The steam cutter was oyerhauled
every time she came Off to the ship. and all
hands were searched when they returned
from liberty, but no smuggled liquor was
found, and the mystery grew pretty deep
Then it began to be suspected that Bum
boat Kate was the rum smuggler and a
secret investigation was started. The off,
GERS in charge Of the investigation fastened
the liquor smuggling on to Kate beyond a
doubt, and Commander Bob sent forward
for her one morning and told her, when she
appeared in the cabin, that she was not to
pc permitted to bumboat the ship any
longer, and was not, in fact, to be hence
forth allowed to come aboard the ship at
all.
This old woman became enraged over
this, and, letting caution slide, she boldly
told Evans that she had smuggled the
nquor, and she produced from beneath her
shawl dirty bag, filled with gold, which
she said she had made in selling the smrg-
sled rum to the quarantined blueJackets.
Then she began to let out on Com
mander Bob He sat in an easy chair in his
cabin, tW.ddling his thumbs and taking it
iii oiie Started the Skipper OH as q MILDLY
ana punctured his whole career. She bonn
barded him for every year OF his life with
her terrific line of Ioasts, and he sat smil-
1nsly through it all. She shook her wither-
ed old fists in his face, and she called him
every old thing in English and Milesian
that she could think of. Conlnand Evans
took out his penknife and began to trim his
Rails, and still the old harridan went on
There was grin of eminent satisfaction on
the shippers countenance-so the ma rine
orderly at the cabin door told us after
wards-and he didn't try to work in a
word. The old woman finally, after fifteen
minutes of steady roasting became hoarse
and wound up with blithering @peroration
Then she started for the cabin door to
leave.
'Oh. say Kate said Evans, rising from
his comfortable chair, you re net done al
ready, l hope, are your Why, I thought
you were slayer. You ought to be able
to keep it going longer than this. Oh. say
there, Kate"
But the old woman, turning around at
the cabin door to shake her fist at him.
bobbed out got her wares together and
pulled away from the ship.
When she had gone, Evans stroled out
OF ms cabin with a reflective grin on his
face.
She surely burnt you up, slr?" said the
marine orderly, who, an old timer, was
privileged.
We'll, she's got direct way of speak
Ing, II that's what you mean,' replied
Evans.