The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-18
BOYS IN THE NAVY.
EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITIES THAT
ARE OPEN TO APPRENTICES.
Life That Makes Men of Them
Whether They Quit the service or
ship RS NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for
Rrounffou
From the washington star.

Promotion.
From the Washington Star.
Apprenticeship in the United States navy
is capable Of making either a man or
reprobate Of a boy. Just what manner OF
chap ne shall be when he attains his ma
jorlty in The service and is at liberty to
qult or ship as a fun-hedged blue jacket.
as he chooses. depends altogether on the
boy. He IS given every inducement TO be-
come good. salid man. whether for con-
unuatlon as a member OF a man-of-war's
ships company or for the earning of
livelihood ashore. The officers OF the Amer
lean navy give the apprentice boys consid-
erably the better Of Il over the blue jack
cts who ship as such in all that concerns
their interest and advancement, and the
boy who during the period that he wears
the apprentices figure-of-eight knot On
his mastering shirt goes wrong and be-
comes rowdy and a sea lawyer has only
his own innate cussedness to blame for It.
The whole tendency of tho apprentices
training aboard an American man-of-wsr
makes for the conversion of the lad into
a dignlfied, seh-controlled, able man. a
matchless seaman and a tip-top gunner,
to say nothing of the substantial equip
ment it furnishes him for lucrative en-
ployment ashore should be elect upon the
conclusion of his apprenticeship to settle
down on the beach.
For example. the writer often meets
upon the streets of Washington Young
fellow who has earned distinction not to
speak OF exceedingly substantial reward
IN the way Of money, as an expert electri-
cian of the first class Less than three
years ago this young man was wearing
the apprentices blue jacket uniform on
snip attached to the Pacific squadron.
He learned the bulk of his electricity in
the navy, which he entered as an orphan.
TOOK the seaman gunner's course at the
navy yard here, and exhibited such genius
mat the officers took him individually in
hand, furnished him with facilities for the
highest studies, and sought In every wav
10 push him along. He is born electri-
clan' ana ne could have had a gunner's
commission In the navy for the asking
he preferred "the beach," however ana
IL Is said that for over a year he has
Deen securing an average of one VALUABLE.
electrical patent a month The ITnitea
states navy employs to-day a number Of
'he young mems appliances for use In
connection with great guns
me last time the writer saw young Gun-
1er huhIwein of the flagship Olympia
.nat was such big floating factor in
Ss things loose in Manila harbor on
sunday last, the lad was working a black
SILK star on the crown Of his Apprentices
mastering cap, seated on a dltty box on the
receiving ship Independence at the Marc
island navy yard. Now he Is a gentle
man of the quarterback rates a salute
from all hands among the old hatfeet
that taught him how to be a sailor and a
manly man, and when the fun reports Of
.he Manila engagement are received 1t Is
SUE 70 wager that the Olympia's gun
her name will have a place-for the how
always looked as If he had it in him.
IL Is the old sailors, the men who have
spent about an equal number of years in
the merchant marine and in the United
states navy, who possess the greatest
power for good or evil in making or
breaking American naval apprentices The
officers aft hold the lads with strong
rein when they have them under immedi-
ate instruction, but the boys live forward
among the men, and they form their
Characters in the fo'cstle If the mater
ial as in them 1t is bound to come ont
In old-time naval sailors can tell at a
glance whether just shipped boy or a
boy fresh aboard a cruising man-of-var
from training ship, has the making"
Oh finished sailor and a good shipmate
M MS composition. II their careful in
spection of such n boy convinces them
that the law is worth their pains they
go to work" on him from the very out
set or his cruising career, season him with
all or the practical shlp-and-gun informa-
ton that they themselves have picked IN
after years of experience, and thus val
uapiy supplement the technical education
that the boys receives from the officers.
The sailors who thus take kindly inter
est In boy who looks promising do not
threat him with partiality, and he gets
swatted about just as much as the ap-
prentice who is a sluggard and don t
care-a-d-n," as the old timers say in
disgustedly speaking among themselves
of ambitionless lads in the apprentice uni
form. U
But the Interest they exhibit In drilling
sea lore into his mind, and their pains in
instructing him on every little valuable
detail as the occasion arises, plainly shows
that they have got him in their minds,
and observation proves that the boys who
are thus picked out by the old-timers up
forward as being worth these efforts are
the lads who get the warrant officers
blouses when their apprenticeship is over.
Ask any warrant officer I'm the United
States navy to-day about the trouble he
sword from the wearing of a figure-of-
eight knot, and he will begin to speak af-
fectionately of two or three grumpy, saw
age old bo'sun's mates or quartermasters
to whom he claims he owes most OF his
success. 1t is a matter of pride with the
od-timerS to thus boost lad up the
ladder
Look a-her. we blooming little swab."
the writer once heard an old man-of-war
armorer say to a bright but somewhat un-
ruly apprentice, don't you hand me none
o your jaw. Yen have plenty o. time to
put II on me and slam me into the brig
after I've made a gunner o. ye." The old
man-of-wars man did make a gunner Of
his protege in time. but up to the present.
although the two have since been ship
mates. the young gunner has never had a
hand in getting the old man into the brig
though he has helped to get him out a
few times.
Observation shows that the apprentices
who go into the buejacket uniform as
tough" and incorrigible boys become SEN
sible self-restrained and reliable seamen
by the time they attain their majority on
the other hand, the lads who exhibit traits
of goody-goodiness upon their entrance 10
the service become in nine cases out %