The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-09-29

deck. He walked few feet ahead of
the executive officer, and when he
reached the last paymaSter's store
room and pecred inside he fell back
into the arms Of the executive officer
utterly unconscious. The executive
officer called out for the surgeon, and
then looked into the storeroom to SEE
what had had such an effect upon the
Cool-headed Gridley. The repentant
Jack-o -the-dust was sitting on a box
of saltwater soap, dead, with his
throat cut from ear to ear. The thing
made So painful an impression upon
Gridley that he was under the weather
for some time, and yet he was one of
the nerviest men in Uncle Sans line
If fighting packets.
\ CADETS EXPERIENCE.
An engineer cadet, who is now an
assistant engineer on one of the cruis-
ers in Cuban waters, went ashore in
Honolulu to weigh coal for his ship
one morning about five years ago.
When he returned aboard for luncheon
all hands were at mess, except lOut-
ish. moon-faCcd landsman, a former
farm hand from interior California,
who had been the butt of his mates as
an innocent of the rawcst kind. This
landsman had bolted his dinner and
was leaning of the starbOard rail, look
ing no more stupid or inert that he
generally did. a big coal lighter was
mOOrcd alongside the ship, and the
cadet in order to get aboard ship had
to climb from the steam launch that
brought him off onto the lighter, and
then pun himself up on the fixed iron
gangWay ladder to the gangWay. There
was space of about two feet between
the coal lighter and the ship, Into
this space the cadet, missing his hold
when he attempted to clutch the lad
der, fell, feet foremost, with a splash
The crew of the steam launch heard
the splash but did not know what had
caused il. 1t was about 100 to | against
the cadets saving his life by his own
efforts, for when he came up his head
was due to bump against the bottom of
the lighter. and it is a hard proposition
even for a good swimmer to keep his
nerve under such circumstances. The
cadet didn't keep his nerve, and he
would surely have been goner had it
not been for the loutish landsman lean
ing over the starboard rail The lout-
ish landsman proved 10 be the right
man. He did not even kick off his gov
ernment straight brogans before he let
himself fall into the space between the
lighter and the ship at the exact point
where the cadet had gone down. The
crew of the steam launch saw this
| move and wondered what it meant.
They did not know the cadet was un-
derneath the lighter In about half a
minute the mOon-faced landsman came
from beneath the lighter and he had
| the cadet along with him. The cadet,
his nerve gone. was very wild, and
clutched the landsman tiercely. The
landsman freed his right arm from the
grasp of the struggling cadet and gave
him jolt on the point of the jaw with
his big right fist that the cadet de-
Clares ne feels yet, The blow put the
cadet out of the game altogether, but
it saved his life. He would have pulled
| his rescuer down with him had ne not
been knocked silly. and this was one of
| the times when an enlisted man struck
an officer without being punished for it.
| The landsman and the cadet were
| hauled into the steam launch by the
| crew, and the ships company proceed
ed Ia hunt up another butt for their
| humOr The moOn-faCed landsman
| wasn't made to serve in that capacity
| any longer