The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-24
OUR SAILORS ARE ANGRY
SCORES AGAINST sPANIARDs THAT
REMAIN To BE SETTLED.
Men~Of-War's Men Who Have Been HI
Blood and Made 10 Pay for 1t.

4
| Spanard, said an old chief petty officer
of the United States navy now on leave of
| absence here. They're queer lot of people.
| I've always believed that they just natural
ly can't help hating the people of this coun-
| try. 1 know that they've been hating the
naval uniform of Uncle Sam ever since I've
| been in the United States navy, and that's
not much short of thirty years
| Il don't refer to the Spaniards of Spain
| alone, but to Spaniards everywhere, and
| especially in South and Central America.
American man-o wars men have SUBJ
mitted to a good deal from these South and
| Central American Spaniards that has never
got into print. put in eight years on both
of the South and Central American coasts,
and 1 know what I'm talking about.
| "a Spanard won't fight fair. 1 was in
Montevideo in Sc. There were two men
| o'-war. Frenchman and German,
chored alongside of us. / went ashore to
| look around with about twenty of our men,
most of them petty officers and well-be
| haved men, couple of days after we
| dropped our mudhook in that squally har-
| bor We found about hundred of the
French and German bluejackets on the
beach, ahead of US. They were treated
with great consideration, but we got the
| cold eye everywhere. A Spaniards avarce,
I've noticed, will generally beat out all his
| other feelings. but if wasn't so on this oc-
| casion. We went to five restaurants be-
| fore we struck one that would serve us.
| We kept together, because we saw the ugl-
| ness of the people soon as we hit the
| beach When we finally made a restaurant
where it looked as if we were to be served
we judged so. because the greasy pro-
prietor didn't announce to us that he didn't
have thing in the house-we sat down and
gave our orders There were thirty or forty
of the French and German bluejackets in
the restaurant at the time, but they didn't
mlngle any and we had nothing to do with
| any of them, but attended to our own bust
| ness. When we had eaten and drunk and
went up to settle the SpanIard who ran the
| nave about tapped all of our monthly
money had we paid it. We kicked, of
| course. The proprietor said we'd have to
| handed over to the police. I was the oldest
man in our party. and 1 was pretty hot.
! went over to one of the French petty Of
| ficers sitting at a table and he let me
! glance over his bill. The items on his bill
Then | told the proprietor in the pigeon
| Spanish that / knew that I'd see him hanged
before any man wearing the uniform
| wore would submit to that sort of imposi-
ton. | paid each mans reckoning, taking
| four-hfthS off of every bill, and we walked
out. The proprietor rushed to the door,
| them were posing out on the street, but they
| made no move toward us. seeing that we
were pretty strong in numbers.
OTHER IMPOSITIONS.
"A couple of days later another batch of
men from my ship went on the beach
| They hadn't enough caution to remain to-
| gether, and three of them happened to pass
by the restaurant where the proprietor had
| tried to put it on us. The proprietor saw
them, and he made his yell for the police
| again. Six of the gendarmes made for our
men with clubs and small swords. The
| three blue Jackets hadn't done anything out
OF the way, and they couldn't understand
what they We're being tackled for So they
gave the six gendarmes plenty of fight
| Ihey We're, overpowered, of a course, and
scandalousiy beaten and cut up: They were
| beaten and shamefuI1y abused even after
| they We're secured in cells. Each of them
had to pay the equivalent of $25 in our
money the next day to get loose They
| We're charged with swindling an nnkeeper
drunkenness, fighting and resisting peace
| square himself when he returns to his ship
| beaten up. Our skipper listened to their
stories, but he took it for granted that the
men had been drunk and disorderly, and he
| punished them by putting their names on
the bad conduct list. Those three men are
| all in the navy yet, and you can gamble
| they'll enjoy getting a crack at Spain If
| the chance comes.
While serving on another ship cruising
| on the west coast, in 88 a party of thirty
! OF us decided to run up from the coast and
! nave look at the Lima Cathedral There
wasn't what you could call an out-and-out
| drinking man in the gang. Most of were
| Roman Catholics, too, so we knew how to
conduct ourselves in church of the faith
| we were Dorm In. We spread many a good
American dollar around among the slews
| of beggarS that are everywhere in Lima
before we reached the cathedral The guide
| VINO onered to show us around the cathe-
| dral was a young dude of a Spaniard and
he collected his fee in advance, knowing
| probably, that he'd find some way to trip
US before he got through with US. / after
| ward found out that this guide chap was
one of the leaders of a pure-Spanish organ
ization in Lima. Well, he showed us
| around the cathedral, and when we reached
| the main door on our way out, there being
draught, most of us put on our caps just
| a second before stepping out into the air.
! You ought to have heard the howl that
miserable little devil made He ran into the
| Americanos, had desecrated the cathedral
/ and the first thing knew we were sur
rounded by horde of those spindly little
coppers they have down there. Some of
! our men were for fighting through the cor
don; but | knew that that would only have
made the thing worse. / asked the sergeant
| of gendarmes who came UP what the mat
| ter was. He said that the guide had stated
| that we had made faces at the stations of
! the cross and executed Jig steps right next
| to the altar rail of the cathedral. / told
| the sergeant and the rest of his little peach
blow cops that they'd better stand back
the gang to the Office of the what s-his-
| name-the alcalde. | knew where the office
| was, for I'd been in Lima several times
| before The mayor. or boss, was a straight
case of Spaniard. 1T cost every man in our
party 30 pesos to get away from his Office
| without blOodshed. If we hadn't paid lIp
! we'd have had to fight all the troops in
| Lima.
These are only samples of the game
| American man-of-war'S men have been run
| ming up against down in South America
| since the days Of the old Tuscarora They
| get worse and more of 1T in Spain.
AN INCIDENT IN FERROT
THE chief gunner's mate of my ship-this
was in 1S79-went ashore one day alone i'm
| Ferrol, Spain. He was big bruiser, but
| very quiet inoffensive, nondrinkng man,
named Nelson Nelson got calash and
started to drive himself around the town.
| He knew how to handle horse The horse
| that the liveryman hitched to his caIash
| had been in the stable long time and was
as scary and nervous as just-thrown
! cayuse Nelson started out of the stable
| and up the main street with a good hold
| on the reins couple of blocks from the
| sight of the rather unusual thing of a blue
! jacket driving a horse, and he picked up
! a stick and belted the horse beside the head
! with all his might The horse gave a
! couple of jumps just to stretch himself and
! away he went. He ran with the barrel
| touching the ground for two miles. Nelson
! standing up in the calash and giving an
| exhibition Of driving skill that opened the
| eyes of some of the ships men who were
| ashore and saw the thing Nelson finally
| got the bit out of the horses teeth when
! the runaway had hauled the trap away out