The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-09-08
A STORY. OF w ATSON.
AN OCCASION WHEN THE OLD SEA
DOG WANTED TO SWEAR.

to Fnner, the Bos'n's Mate, and Then
Let Events Take Their Course.
John Crittenden Watson does not be-
long to the list of "cussing officers, !"
yet as a man .o'-war skipper he never
had man of his ships company aft fol
swearing. He was singularly indulgeht
of the hard swearers forward.
"Eard language helps a man along
occasionally" he has been known to
say to one of his deck officers upon over
hearing a stream Of maledictions from
the lips of some old fiat foot working at
a stubborn job forward, land it is bet
ter for the men to work off their wrath
over fouled anchor chains in cuss words
than to take it out of each others
hide"
Aboard one of the ships under Wat
SON. command there was an old bos'n's
mate named Fuller, who had the call
throughout the whole navy as the cham
pion profaue man of the governments
line of packets. Fuller never raised his
voice when he swore. He would simply
stand back and quietly regard the imam
innate object of his wrath-a bent be-
laying pin perhaps Or slack ridge rope
and then he would open up in an Or
binary conversational tone. But the ut
terances he gave vent to were sulphur
GUS 1t always took Fuller good five
minutes to work off what he considered
the necessary number of remarks on
such occasions, and it always seemed,
when he was through, that he had quite
exhausted the whole vocabulary Of pro
family. But this was mistake. The
very next time anything went wrong
with a bit of Fuller's gear he would
start in on a new line that would con-
tain absolutely not single repetition
of any of his previous performances. 1t
was always source OF wonder to Full
1er's shipmates, even the old timers,
where he picked up the new ones, all
of which were of startling originality
and force.
These shipmates related only one in
stance in which he found himself at a
loss for words. He was with landing
party from his ship, marcl:;"S CT the
outskirts of Chemulpo, Korea. re stub
bed his toe on a loose boz. DER II tire
road and fell on his face ! '~>t.
He picked himself up az. !.
road. He opened his l.1lsth
thing, but he had l. -.
dumb with wrath. Ty;c u t'r =,
he attempted to begin, bus !; !, NO
IL IL cI t,a !.
out pistol and deliberately fired it into
thu 81 i've times Eo lad to express his
feelings Ill some way.
! When Fuller was serving aboard
WatsCu's ship he was i'll gcCd shape,
and his frequent quiet ou-b uTatS kept
the forward part of the ship keyed up
with wonder as to what was coming
next. One morning at big gun drill
Captain Watson himself was superin-
tending the exercise. One of the wooden
cartridges became damned in the breech
of the inch rife to which be was de-
voting most of his attention. He
wouldn't permit any of the gunner's'
mates around him to attempt to loosen
the cartridge, but essayed the job him
self. He tugged at the damned cartridge
and broke his finger nails over it, and
still it wouldn't come out. It was
pretty hot morning on deck, and the
perspiratioli began to roll off his face in
streams, but be persisted in trying to
loosen the stuck cartridge. He looked
as if he would like to say heap We're
he a swearing man, but he wasn't a
swearing man. When he had been
working for five minutes over the jam
med cartridge with no success, he look
ed pretty helpless and miserable. He
gave one final tug, but the stuck car
fridge remained in the guns breech.
The skipper gathered himself together,
mopped his forehead and looked at the
gun.
"Confound it ALL he broke ont,
"where Fuller? Send me Fuller, some
body
Fuller was On hand directly. He
wasn't gunner's mate, and he had
nothing to do with the guns, but Wat
son wanted Fuller to tackle the jammed
cartridge all the same.
Fuller, said Watson, "try and get
that dummy out Of that gum"
Fuller locked at the stuck cartridge,
and Watson retreated to the starboard
side Of the quarter deck. Fuller made
two Or three claws at the wooden car
fridge, but it wouldn't come out. A
gunner's mate could have got it out in
aAiGy, bat Fuller wasn't in that line
OF the service. He tugged away, but it
was no so. Watson stood regarding the
horizon on the starboard side of the
quarter deck. Fuller spat on his hands
and made one more try. The dummy
didn't move a tenth of an inch. Then
Fuller mopped his forehead with his
neckerchief, clapped his cap On the back
of his head and opened up. twas great
work, this performance of Fqller's, and
no mistake. He eclipsed all of his for
mer efforts. He stood with his hands on
his sides, looking at the gun breech and
saying things at it that no Morgan or
Kidd or Teach or other heaven defying
pirate could ever have equaled. The
men stood around, just looking at Full
Ter in open mouthed amazement. They
couldn't make out where be got them
all. They were all in English, but the
combinations were weird The perora-
ton was Trightful, although delivered