The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-13
GUN-CAPTAIN OF THE OREGON.
THE STORY OF A TYPICAL AMERI-
CAN BOY AND MAN.

Read, Nor Mr1te NoFu al seven
teen Years of Age. Yet lie Fought
His Way Through the World
Against Henvy Odds and To-day Is
a vital Force in the L. =. Navy.
He is one of the men behind the guns,
typicaIly American. Nature gave him a
bent He himself is alone responsible that
natures design has not been frustrated.
Born in decent poverty down in the mid
die South about forty years ago. he had
scarcely the poor lads usual half chance
10 develop. While he was sdll in arms,
his father went into the Confederate army.
After riding and rading with John Nor
gan's merry men. he came back to set up
a market garden, just outside the county
town. The son he had left nameless he
christened Beauregard. 1t was something
of a mouthful, so a nickname was inevi-
table. Beauregard became Bud. and
among his old neighbors remains so to this
day.
He was not model boy, any more than
he was a terror. He worked when he had
to, houted lessons and played with all his
might whenever play was possible. He
was wild over two things-guns and ma
chinery He began to shoot before he
was quite as tall as a shotgun.
Close by there was distnlery. run part
Iy by steam Bud hung about it, fasci-
mated by cranks and rods and pistons, and
the glitter of brass and steel. BY much
watching, he came to comprehend the
mystery of steam. The next thing was
10 apply his knowledge. Sundays, when
he could not go rabbit hunting, he set
about making an engine of his own.
IT was a thing of shreds and patches,
curiously contrived from scraps of tir
and sheet-iron, bits of old gun barrels
and brass and lead The lead was for
the cylinder, which he cast himself
and fitted with a piston. The triumph
of all, though, was the boiler. For it
he made a tight wooden box, of inch
stuff, which he fitted with pines for
feed and steam. The bottom he covered
with tin, bending 1t over at the edges
and letting it run some little way up the
sides. Next thing was to set the boiler
In a brick-bat furnace. build fire and
get up steam. OF course, 1t was in the
nature of an experiment. Brothers and
sisters, who had watched, jeering impair
TALLY, said over and over il would never
go-no fire he could make would even heat
water through that thick plank, let alone
make it boil. Bud, however, persevered.
He will hardly ever be more triumphantly
happy than he was when the safety valve
r. had rugged above his cylinder blew a
weak, sizzling, triumphant blast
BUD Kept his engine several years tinker
Ing it, and touching il up, as knowledge
increased, until it would run continuously
fun hour. He was very happy boy
his work was not hard and besides the
hunting and his engine, there was the
river close at hand He learned to swim.
10 dive, TO handle oars, in fact tn h.
rearly as much at home in the water on
lahd But at II, a lusty f1axen lad he
still did not know a letter in the hook
he had not chosen to learn himself. ana
hoDony had cared to take the trouble to
make him.
lie began to be painfully conscious Of
his Ignorance, but school was our Of the
question He had not time from WORT,
even II he had not been TOO abasbed |
by the thought of beginning lower than
his S-year-old brother. One rainy dav
II happened he was called on to talye
tne little lad to school. The teacher knew
MN Weh-she was young, gentle, wo-
man nelghbor, not very much older than
nlinseH. Something in his face moved her
20 ask If he would not like to learn 10
read. he said he would, but-his silence
told her the resi-. The upshot of IL uas
mat she offered to teach him out Of scboo,
nours, as matter of neighborly Kindness
she did teach him to spell and read. I'm
Ie..ered as ne was he was already sin
gularly quick and accurate at figures
Pretty soon he was his own man froa -
parental control. OF course. he gravitated
10 steam engine. His was a great wheel
country. He found work with the owners
OF steam separator, which went from
place TO place, threshing crops. The from
oie was 1t did not last. Threshing ex-
Nends over less than two months. But in
course of them, once If no more, Bud had
. chance to show his quality
His engine was a portable upright ono
harmless II things went right yet with de-
6tructive personalities If they went wrong
Much depended on the fireman. Rud,s
fireman was a darky, blacker than dark
ness itself, and as trusty as he was blacl,
30 long as he was there everything moved
as If on glass. One day he fell sick His
substitute had more ambition than discre-
ton Threshing Is a strenuous time
There Is always great rivalry betwixt the
threshing crew proper and the wagon.
which haul the wheat. The threshers aim
TO show that they can thresh grain faster
than the wagons can possibly bring it,
When the table is bare the engine whistles
q keen thin blast that without much
stretch of the Imagination does say
wheat! Whee-ee-eat! Whee-ee-eeatl'
The new fireman wanted to
make 1t sound that call. He crowd
ed in wood and coal until the furnace
fairly roared. He was so intent on the fire
in fact he overlooked the water. The
boiler ran down right beside the furnace.
somehow valve choked-perhaps through
sudden and unequal expansion. Suddenly
Bud flung up his hand and shouted a
warning that sent the whole threshing
crowd scurrying to a safe distance An
explosion was imminent Bud opened fur
mace doors and loosened gauges, but that
did no good He saw there was but one
thing TO be done-to crawl underneath the
engine and knock a plug out of the bot
tom of the over-strained boiler. He did it
without hesitation, though he knew he
was risking his eyesight and maybe his
lie. Elat on the earth and worked for a