The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-20
DEWEY is A POPULAR OFFICER
Beloved BY His Men, Who Appreciate and Would Die For
Him.

Dewey has always been a kindly Off
Ger to the men forward AS a com
handing officer he seems to have been
intolerant only as a liar. For the lib
erty breakers, fc'sle scrappers, over
night DRINKS and other petty offenders
aboard the ships under his command
he has always had an exceedingly I'M
observing eye and he has been noted
Tor some difficulty he has had with his
hearing apparatus when such offenders
nave been reported to him in the
course of duty.
Give him a show. He'll be good now,
L guess, is a remark Dewey used often
10 make when as a ship commander he
had to receive the necessary reports of
deck officers about the little breaks
made by men forward. But he was a
terror in his handling of a liar. A
biuejacket who would stand at the
mast before him and try to give him a
cock-and-bun story instead of coming
right out and owning up to his delin-
quency, was in for trouble, and a whole
heap of it. AS a commander he liked
and demanded candor. No other game
went with him.
Dewey is a man with big, piercing
eyes" said a messenger in the navy de-
partment, who made a cruise with the
master of Manila. Hes what I'd call
a little fellow as to height, but he sure
~ looked bigger'n a Dutch frigate when
he stood on his side of the mast and
you were up in front of him. But he
was a tender-hearted man on the cruise
when he and I were ShipmateS. He'd
try not to see or hear things that he
didn't want to see or hear. None of US
knew llinl-up forward, / mean-aS
commander Some of us had been
h h; J,
deck officer, and had never got the
worst of it at his hands. But we
weren't sure how he'd stack up as
skipper. We weren't long in finding
out We had to sailoriZe all right, but
there wasn't much brigging with
Dewey. He didn't like to see man
IN double irons on his tours of inspec-
ton. We hadn't been to sea with him
very long before we got next to how he
despised a liar. One of the petty officers
went ashore at Gibraltar, got mixed up
with the soldiers in the canteenS up on
the hill and came off to the ship para
lived. He went before Dewey at the
mast next morning. He gave Dewey
the 'two-beers- and-Sunstruck yarn
"'YOURE LYING. MY MAN,
said Dewey. You were very drunk I
myself heard you aft in my cabin L
will not have my men lie TO me- l don't
expect to find total abstinence in
nan-o'-war crew. But do expect them
to tell me the truth. and 1 am going to
have them tell me the truth Had you
told me candidly that you took drop
too much on your liberty, you'd have
been forward by this time, for you, at
least, returned to the ship. For lying
you get ten days in irons. Let me have
the truth hereafter. 1 am told you are
a good seaman. A good seaman has
no business lying
After that there were few men
aboard who didn't throw them
selves on the mercy of the
court when they waltzed up to the
stick before Dewey, and none of US
ever lost anything by it He'd have to
punish us in accordance with regula-
tions. but he had a great way OF order
ing the release of men he had to SEN
tence to the brig before their sentences
were half worked out.
Dewey was the best liberty granting
slxipper ! was ever shipmate with. He
hated to keep quarantined men aboard
when the good conduct men were flock
ing OF to the beach. One fine Christ
mas day in Genoa harbor all the men
entitled to shore liberty lined up at 10
o'clock in the morning to answer mus
ter before taking the running boats
for the shore. There were about 4O or
us myself among the number, who
were quarantined aboard for having
raised Cain ashore in Nice few weeks
before. Our quarantine was for three
months. and it wasn't half run out on
this Christmas day. Dewey stood at
the break of the poop. with his hands
on his hips, watching the liberty party
line up. Us fellows that couldn't go
were standing around the gangWay,
smoking our pipes and looking pretty
down in the mouth, L guess. The big
liberty party-there were couple of
hundred men in the batch-f1naly got
away, and the ship was practically de-
serted except for us quarantlned Eel
lows. Dewey watched us for while /
out of the tail of his eye. We were
leaning over the side, watching the re- !
ceding running boats with the big I'D !
erty party. Dewey went on the poop /
and walked up and down, chewing his
nustache, and every once in while ,
shooting a look at us men up forward. /
Finally he walked down the poop lad !
der and straight forward to where we |
were grouped.
g You boys hop into your mastering 1
clothes and go on off to the beach. III 1
let you have a couple of the running |
boats when they return. Come back /
with the other men when you get !
ready.
DON'T RAISE ANY MORE TROUBLE
ashore than you can help
There wasn't q man in the gang OF
us that didn't want TO hug little Dewey
for that. and you can gamble that we
gave him a cheer ship that rang
around the harbor of Genoa. We all
got marked in the log as clean and
sober too. when we got back to the
ship. for we weren't going to do any
cutting UP on Dewey after the way
led treated US
Flying Squadron Schley has always
been a popular officer among the men
forward on ships under his command.
One of the ex-biuejackets now IN WASH
ington tells story of Schley that
shows him to be something of hu-
morist. A number of years ago Schley
was in command of one of the old navy
ships that was fitting out at the
BROOKLYN navy yard for a foreign
cruise. Now, the naval officers OF the
ward room carry lot OF good beer
along with them when they start out on
a cruise. They are not heavy users of
their meals. The beer is taken aboard
In bottles packed in straw in immense
hogsheads A few days before Schley's
ship was to sail for a foreign station.
q big party of Brooklyn Sunday school
teachers visited the ship in body.
The party was composed equally of
men and women. The crew were en-
gagged in slowing and breaking out
stores. On the main deck stood one of
the big hogsheads packed full of beer
bottles that had been emptied. The
hogshead filled with empty bottles was
about to be hoisted. AS the bottles ;
stuck out of the packing straw there
was no way Of telling whether they ;
we're filled or empty. The Sunday {
school teachers figured it that the bot
Ties were loaded, and they looked upon ]
J, Of diG1nnrnNol