The record-union., 1898-02-21
That Manned Sailor.
(San Francisco Post Feb Il

tSan francisco Post, Feb. 19th)
The Call and the .Examiner' both
had "a MANNED sailor" They had
complete proprietary interest in him.
NO yellow journal is without a manned
sailor to account for sea disasters; and
so this MANNED sailor, the exclusive
property of chrome yellowism was on
the forward deck of the Maine.
The magazines of all ships are under
the forward decks and the men sleep
over them. 1t is a choice location for
magazines, just under the sleeping ac-
commodations of the men. But this
manned sailor" who was exclusive"
to the Herald" and exclusive to the
Examiner and exclusive to the
Call" was exclusively sitting on the
forward part of the vessel when he saw
black monster moving from the shore
toward the Maine. In his capacity of
lookout, it did not occur to him that the
moving object meant anything He
saw it come from the shore. but it did
not occur to him that it had any mis-
chievous design until later just why it
occurred to him at all is not yet ex-
planned. The fact that it was smoking
brought no suggestion to the mind of
this exclusively manned" sailor.
Everything smokes in Havana.
Later it occurred TO this lookout on
the forward deck that the object NOV
ing from the shore toward the Maine
and smoking might mean mischief. The
lookout left his post Of duty and
sauntered somewhere amidships to find
an officer to whom he might commune
r<atte. n ~, T
clusively MANNED sailor, MANNED ex-
clusively for this occasion, had COM
mundcated the information that smok-
ing object was approaching the Maine
the explosion took place. The manned
sailor was carried to a hospital. He was
kindly treated, and out of gratitude for
this kindness he told the story of the
moving object, of it's habit of smoking,
and Of the suspicion which entered into
his mind that any object moving in the
harbor Of Havana at night and smoking
was to be regarded exclusively as sus-
picious. The MANNED sailor told his
story exclusively to the surgeons of the
hospital, to the nurses, and to his COM
panions in distress They communi-
Gated it exclusively to the public and it
reached small portion of the San
Francisco public through exclusive
publication in the Cali and Exam
ner"
But, alas for the fortunes of flap
Doodle, the exclusive sailor, exclusively
manned, who told his story exclusively
to the nurses and surgeons of the hos
pital, out of gratitude for kindness,
who saw exclusively dark object NOV
ing from the shore, saw 1T exclusively
smoking, proves to have been a specific
lie.
In whole or in any part, there never
was an exclusive sailor on the forward
deck of the Maine exclusively MANNED
for the uses of the Call or the Eek
smoking and moving in the water in
the harbor Of Havana; there was no
exclusive gratitude in the mind of an
exclusively MANNED sailor, which i'm
PEELED him to communicate the dark and
mysterious secret of his existence ex-
clusively to all the surgeons and all
the nurses of hospital in Havana; and
in support of this view we reproduce
with, we hope, the Examiners" con-
sent, the following paragraph as it APP
pears in this mornings Examiner"
las regards the story that one of the
crew of the Maine saw a small object
emitting smoke approaching the war
ship just before the explosion, the corr
interviewed the man in the hospital
who is said to have circulated the story
and he has absolutely denied it,