Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-11-10
A STORY OF WATSON.
AN OCCASION WHEN THE OLD SEA
DOG WANTED TO SWEAR.

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 for
swearing. He was singularly indulgent
of the hard swearers forward
Hard language helps man along
occasionally, he has been known to
say to one of his deck officers upon over
hearing stream of maledictions from
the lips of some old fiat foot working at
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
sons command there was an old bos'n's
mate named Fuller, who had the call
throughout the whole navy as the cham
pion profane 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 a 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 a mistake. The
very next time anything went wrong
with q bit of Fuller's gear he would
start in on new line that would con-
tain absolutely not single repetition
of any of his previous performances. 1t
was always source of wonder to Full
ler'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, marching on the
outskirts of Chemulpo, Korea. He stub
bed his toe on loose bowlder in the
road and fell on his face in the dust
He picked himself up and looked at the
road He opened his mouth to say some
thing, but he had no words. He was
dumb with wrath. Two or three times
he attempted to begin, but it was no
90. He was stuck for once, so he pulled
out pistol and deliberately fired it into
the air five times. He had to express his
feelings in some way.
When Fuller was serving aboard
Watson's ship he was in good shape,
and his frequent quiet outbursts 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 jammed in the breech
of the inch rife to which he was de-
voting most of his attention. be
wouldn't permit any Of the gunner s
mates around him to attempt to loosen
the cartridge, but cssayed the job him
self. He tugged at the jammed cartridge
and Broke his finger nails over it, and
still it wouldn't come out. 1t was
pretty hot morning on deck, and the
perspiration began to roll off his face in
streams, but he persisted in trying to
loosen the stuck cartridge. He looked
as if he would like to say heap were
he 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 out,
"where's Fuller? Send me Fuller, some
body"
Fuller was on hand directly. He
wasn't a 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 gun.
Fuller looked 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 1t out in
jiffy, but Fuller wasn't in that line
of the service. He tugged away, but it
was no 60. 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 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 Fuller'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 he got them
all. They were all in English, but the
combinations were weird. The perora-
ton was frightful, although delivered
in the mildest tone imaginable.
When Fuller finished, he mopped his
forehead with his neckerchief again and
walked over to his commanding officer,
who was looking over the starboard
rail, apparently thinking deeply. Fuller
saluted.
Its stuck proper, SIR" said Fuller
81 can't get it adrift. "
"Well," said Watson, Il didn't
think you could, Fuller, but l needed
you. Thanks. You did very well. Go
forward New York Sun.