The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-04-24
4O MPSEOFNEWYORK CT -DRENHT PLAY

for years past. But she likes Broohiyn
and so there ~ a good-natureo us1s,
in the family. During All OF hls -,
senoe the master-at-arms mas tesa
sent his wife so a month OF nis -:
and his boys have become men anu $50
IN work themselves and two OF Ms
daughters have grown into young We
men got married and had children Dorn
10 them Stree he last saw them as eoes
In short dresses. The Orlent-lo'lhb H'.
ter-at-arms will probably return 10 tns
limited states In a few months ana nnlsn
his naval career on the Nortn A1ians~
station.
rettv officers In the American navaf SER
vice can AFFORD to maintain wives. ana
those who do get married for tho pleas
,ire they derive from the compromising
OF their wives for a couple OF months
at the CONCLUSION of their three-year
cruises nave to keep their noses pretty
close to the grind stone TO make enos
meet at home. In the cities contiguous
TO all American navy yards there are
attractive young women who have the
discernment 20 regard marriage with
a chief petty officer or hrst-rate petty
officer i'm the United States Navy as a
clever arrangement from pecuniary
polnt OF View. and many OF Uncle sans
minor naval officers are badly bitten ny
advcnturcsscs who marry them solely
FOR the purpose OF securing steady IN
come. The older men among the petty
Officers get the worst OF Il. as rule.
in this way. Like the old pensioners OK
the civil war whose very young widows
have lately been the subject OF coment
IN the newspapers and In Congress. inc
old-time petty officers are inveigled Into
matrimony by scheming young women
and when they go or on their cruises
they instruct their paymasters 10 for
ward threc-Quartcrs OF their monthly
money TO their wives. In very many
cases. when they return 10 the ports AZ
which they married these revenue-for-
only wives they find them missing.
Most Of them apply Immediately for
divorces. Strange as ~ may seem. there
are many chief and first rate petty ON
GERS IN the United States Navy to-day
who have been bitten more than once
I'm this way. and a few OF them are sum-
ciently fond 90 appear 10 be quite ready
TO be bitten q third time in the same
manner. There Is a pretty. but exceed
ngliy designing young woman. SIN un-
der thirty. now living In San Francisco,
who has married and been divorced from
three chief petty officers In the Amer
lean naval service already and " may
be that she Is not yet through. She has
Uncle Sans pay roll since her girlhood.
She took each one OF her naval husbands
at a different navy yard and the second
and third husbands went into the matri-
mOnia proposition "unbeknOwnst' as II
were the crafty young woman telling
neither Of them that she had been mar
ried before.
II Is not 70 wives alone that Ameri-
can naval sailors forward large portions
- 10. ffvH r,ut 90 A
good many OF the steady fellows OF the
younger sort send the bulk Of their Gov
eminent wages 10 their widowed moth
ers and they do this at the cost OF
good deal OF self denial. These men
don't make any sort OF pretence 10 goody-
goodness, and around the decks they
are just as much up 20 dcviltry as their
mates who blow all their monthly money
in. but they do not go ashore oftener
than every month or two. they keep
away from the beer line and they deny
themselves all manner OF little comforts
and xniclx-knacks such. as arc enjoyed
by the men who have only Themselves 10
look out for. There Is an engineers yeo-
man on one of the ships now with the
squadron at Key West who for the past
three years has been devoting so OF the $50
% month &C. the university education OF
/ his two younger brothers. The lads are
both AZ Yale and each Of them gets 30
a month from the brother in the navy.
In the summer they work as hotel walt
ors al New England summer resorts, DO
odd Jobs OF cierkng between lectures
during terms and generally hustle. An
old chief bo'sun's mate now on the Med
iterranean station. who has TO- put ms
mark instead OF his name 10 the pay
rolls because he don't know one letter
from another IS the father or oril-
liant young woman who was recently
graduated at the top OF n women's law
class I'm Chicago. Most OF the money
that the kindly old fellow has earned In
superlntending the washing down Of
decks I'm the gray OF the morning for
fifteen years past has been devoted to
the education OF this clever girl, whose
mother died in giving birth to her.
II never had no show mesclt when I
was a Young 'un 20 git me headpieco
all slowed proper" the old bosun's mato
used 10 say, IAN so there's nuthin fur
me L do but to fix il SOS that little ono
o. mine back in the states. inland, ii
be able 10 spin a yarn 10 any OF en-
when she gifts grOwed.
He had to engage the services OF tbs
shlp's writer's OF his various ships 10 In
dite his monthly letters 20 his daughter.
He would dstate these letters himself
and their form was Invariably the same.
"My dear Mary" the old man would
dictate. be a good girl for your old
pumb-skulI OF heavy weather pap
I'll see you in two years. seven months
and fourteen days"-as the case may be
for he always kept careful tab on the
running along OF his enlistment. None
Of the men. aft or forward. who OBJ
served a pretty young woman trip up the
gangway OF ship that returned 20 the
Brooklyn Navy Yard two years and
more ago from South Atlantic cruise
and saw her snuggle up in the knotty,
tattooed arms OF this old chief bo'sun 8
mate as soon as she recognized him stand
ing at the break OF the fo'c'sle, Will