The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-07

pay a mess attendant for %scrubbing one
Of his uniforms and hanging IL out on
the scrub-and-wash line. The officer
who requests a man to do anything
like this stands by to have the man re-
fuse. 1t Is the mans privilege to refuse
outright to perform such a task for
money or otherwise. but il he accepts
the job he is well paid for 1t. In the
Spanish navy every man onward. from
the chief petty officers down TO the un-
rated landsmen, stand by for a trick as
Wallets for all the officers aft. They are
not asked to wash the officers linen;
they are not requested to blacken the
officers shoes or pipeclay their belts
they are commanded to do these things
and tasks more mental, more repugnant
to men of self-respect: and the slightest
indication of hesitancy on the part of a
bluejacket is visited by heavy punish
ment.
When a Spanish officer gets IL in for
a chief petty officer for any real or
fancied cause. he does not Immediately
undertake to secure the petty officers
fisrating. Instead, he begins systemat-
ically to humiliate the petty officer. He
calls him vile names in the hearing OF
the unrated b~luejackets and not infre-
quently kicks him.. He calls him aft
especially when the petty officer Is
showing a party of women visitors
~ ~ NV tAAAB oAha h@'h 1880
blacken his shoes. right in sight of all
hands and all the visitors on the main
deck. The writer was a visitor on
board a Spanish gunboat at Cadiz a
few years ago and saw a chief petty
officer-the ships signal quartermaster
treated in this manner by a Junior
Lieutenant. Finally. after the Spanish
officer who conceives a dislike for a
petty officer has abused and Inundated
the man for weeks or months at a
stretch, he cooks up a set of charges
against the wretch and has the man
court-martialed and reduced from his
rating To hat of an ordinary eaman
The Spanish bluejacket. standing at
attention during the progress of a drill,
may never know when ne is TO get the
fiat, or even the edge, of a sword across
his back, welded by an officer of
somewhat impuisive' disposition. as
Blanco might describe an officer who
would order the massacre of the in
mates Of a hospital maintained by Gu
bans. Spanish bluejackets nave been
known to be manned for life b" such
visitations of wrath on the part of Off
GERS. The regulation and approved
punishments prescribed for the cor
rection" Of offenders aboard ship I'm the
Spanish navy commonly render their
victims incapable of performing any
sort of labor, either ashore or afioat.
after they have been thoroughly
through the mill.
The stanchion punishment is en-
ployed for the most trivial offences in
the Spanish navy. The bluejacket who
breaks his liberty by a few hours
knows that he is in for the stanchion
lash when he returns aboard. The
Spanish sailors who deserted their
ships by the score in New York at the
time of the centenary refebration in
1883, were most of e liberty break
ers who, after having got a Whit of
freedom. could not muster up the nerve
TO return to their ships 10 get the
stanchion lash. The man who is 20
minutes late in returning from his leave
OF absence from a Spanish man-O'-war
gets as many Cat-o'-nire-tail blows on
his bare back, while his wrists are Sc
curely dashed to a stanChion, as the
officer of the deck cares to have in
nicted upon him. 1t all depends upon
the state of the liver Of the officer of
the deck. Now, in the old navies Of
} the world, when the cat-o-nine-tails
{ was "a recognized institutiOn-and as
for the American and British navies,
| that was more than 80 years ago-the
man formally sentenced by a court
. martial TO be whipped had at least the
consolation of knowing that he was TO
be whipped by a superior in rank. An
old-time bO'sun's mate was ordinarily
2 delegated To perform the whipping, and
petty officers were not whipped at all.
= Mo- so in the Spanish navy. From the
= chief petty oficers-who i'm our navy
= arr men of dignity, experience, and
. character, as they must be to gain and
hold the confidence and respect OF the
! rest of the enlisted men-down to the
Y newly shanghaied landsmen all hands
forward are whipped. and sorely
/ whipped. Nor is the task of whipping
o them delegated to superiors in rank
- I l. * m agrna1 fact thai the AnnrpntlCF
| boys in the Spanish navy are the rec
q oErized ships whippers. The spectacle
of an understood lad laying the lash on
/ the naked back of a chief petty officer
from whom the lad is supposed to de-
a rive his sea knowledge, is characters
/ tically Spanish and Abyssinian.
The rule O. thumb" is another com,
$ mon punishment in the Spanish navy
thu suspending Of offenders by the TIVE
% thumbs. so that their feet barely toucl
Y the ground, from overhead gratlngs
n The writer once attended a mass OF
e board a Spanish cruiser in Chlnes'
N waters. The mass was celebrated OF
tho berth deck forward. In full view
is Of all hands who attended the mas
Ie was the ships brig. on the berth deck
d up in the eyes of her. Eight men wer
le suspended by their thumbs from tn
grating covering the hatch leadin
from the to'gallant f~o'c'sle, and thel
Al gruans were mingled with the re
: sponses Of the men to the words of tn
chaplain.
n Another feature of the SPANS
ar navy's punitive system is the ~"solitar
y and fish" infection. This consists /
Of locking up a minor offender in an IN
a lighted and practically unventilate
"a compartment and in feeding him upo
al salt fish, and no water Whatsoever fo
70 a couple of days at a stretch. Me
i'm who suffer this ordeal have always
= be lifted out of their place of confint
ment when Ii is over, with their swo
len tongues hanging out of the
mouths from thirst. and men have bee
taken out of the glory hole dead aft'
undergoing this b~arharity. The woI