Evening star., 1898-05-14
NO SEA FIGHTING FOR HIM.

Saw n She'll Explode and Knows How
| 1t is to Be Near.
! From the st. Louis Republic.
| Thomas Meegan, an inmate of the City
| Hospital, has never been in the navy of any
| country, doesn't know an Eccles-load Cat
| ling from a Springfield rifle, and has never
been away from this country, yet he knows
! what it is to have a shell from one of the
rifed suns of the white squadron explode
near him, and knows as we'll how it feels to
| be under fire. ..
Meegan formerly lived near Beverly Will
lows, n little town nsar Newburyport, Mass
He was a fisherman then, and during the
| summer earned his living by trolling for
blCefish and catching rock cod In winter
he kept store, where he sold every thing,
from fish hooks to moving machines.
When Meegan was fishing for rock cod he
lay in close to the shore, never getting
more than half mile away. Perch fishing
took him further and when bluefish was
the game he sometimes went nearly out of
sight of land. Or. the afternoon when he
was shelled he was after horse mackerel
and had ventured out some fifteen miles
from the coast. He tells the story himself:
1T was about o'clock in the afternoon,
and we-that is, me and my partner-were
doing pretty well. We had about ten lines
over the stern, and, sailing close-hauIed.
were making good time. In fact, We had all
We could do to get the fish over the side
and get the lines back in the water again
before another line took us away
Along an hour before we had seen the
warsbips sailing around in circle and
saw tug anchoring something which
Coked like a raft painted white about a
mile from US. We thought nothing of it,
and when our course took US near it we
steered closer to get a look at it and see
what the blamed thing was.
I'VE got within fifty yards of it, I sup
pose, and were bearing down for it, when
we heard a strange sound in the air. 1t
was like a siran whistle and from little
shrek like toy engine it grew until it was
like the screech OF scagull, only thou
sand times louder and more shrill think
that the sound came to us all at once for
know was just looking up when there was
sound as If lightning had struck the boat,
low rumble, and then everything was
Blood red and my eyes seemed full of fire.
When / came to-and 1t was only a sec
ond later-the sea was, boiling like the tide
torrents which sweep through Shirley Gut,
and all about us were dead fish and strings
of deep sea grass. For perhaps a quarter
of mile the sea was churnsd into foam,
ard the waves were jumping as if they had
been whipped into a fury by a tempest
"A moment later there was another
screach like the one we had heard before,
hut 1t went nearly a quarter of a mile to
the south of US. When we saw the eXplo-
sion we knaw the battle ships We're having
target prac tice and we stood about and got
out of range as quickly as we could.
of course we found out afterward the
white squadron had anchored the raft and
then sailed off in straight line for twelve
miles and than fired back, just for the pur-
pose of testing their range finder. OF course
the shell which came nearest us was many
yards away, but it gave me the greatest re-
srect possible for modern guns. 1 don't
mind going out when the sea is running
high and death seems almost certain: 1
don't mind running the lifeboat out on the
sand and showing it into the surf of there's
a human life to save: 1 think l could stand
up before the enemy and take my medi-
cine as well as the next man. but when it
comes to getting within the range of one
of those guns whose shells shatter and
burst and tear, excuse ne. I'll do my fight
ing on land, If you please"